Shortest letters ever.........but we STILL love him!

Shortest letters we've ever gotten. He must have been excited to go fishin'!

hey mom gotta go! love you lots

i'm going fishing :)

tell Isaac not to buy a tomtom GPS, only Garmin. Garmin.

love you!

Tab

baptism maybe next week if the ward is okay with it :/

Hey Dad!

love you man.

TAb

We STILL love him!  On the bright side, we got a bunch of great pictures!

24 lessons this week!

Hi Dad!

This week was neat. We stay super busy, so we'd have to try hard to teach less than 15 lessons. Or so it seems. We spent a lot of time helping people move this week and we were still able to teach 24 lessons. That is more lessons than I have taught in a week for over a year! I think. I enjoyed this week but I still feel like I could improve at using my time as productively as possible. I think we are teaching a lot of good people, but we could be doing better. I can foresee only a few of the people we teach actually progressing towards the temple and lifetime activity in the church. That is something I am thinking about a lot.

I have so many things I want to do this transfer and I know I won't have time to do them all. I want to write letters to Clark and Reese and I want to have time to prepare for my departing things and I still want to be fully engaged in the work in my area and I want to do many other little things before I leave. That frustrates me but I don't worry about it too much. Any advice?

Kickball tournament last week turned out to be a softball tournament that was poorly organized. We played one game and lost and never played again. I hate wasting p-days, but it happens sometimes. It did last week -_- 

Elder Traasdahl and I went and got chinese food on our way home so that was a nice ending to a mediocre day. We did meet a really cool kid named Samir back in our area and we taught him for the first time. He should be someone I will mention again.

Thank you for talking to Igor! I did what I could to help him, but he likes to adventure so it doesn't surprise me that he's off to California. I'll stay in touch with him.

Have a great week and tell Regan congrats on her graduation! Why are your robes so strange! those sleeves are pretty wild...they're cool and beautiful. but they are also strange. Gryffindor!

Love,

Tab

Hey ma!

1. yes I will mail stuff home. i will use ups. 

2. my bag is the perfect size for a missionary. BTW, I (i.e. you) hipstered this mission by introducing timbuk2 bags. a bunch of people liked my bag and I told them where to go to get one... now many people have them. #sohipster.  the one Isaac got isn't outrageously large. Elder Packham actually has one. But I prefer the size you got me - the smallest one they have. It's personal preference.

3. I like the spread collar. Tell Isaac... spread collar is the way to go. I would go 50/50 with the number of long sleeve and short sleeve shirts.

4. my camera is okay. I wouldn't recommend it, though. I have seen couple of nifty sony or nicer canon cameras and they tell you not to buy a nice camera but he'll end up wanting it. I wish my photos were higher quality. But cheap canons aren't all that nice from what I can tell. Just have dad research a good cheap camera! that's his hobby.

5. don't buy a trench coat and he probably will never need bulky boots. Don't go to missionary clothing supply stores or mr. mac - their stuff is uber cheap. Like dad told me - pay a little extra to get something nice. It will last longer and end up being worth the extra money. As for suits, I have seen some pretty nice fitting suits at burlington coat factory that are on sale. Buy ties at burlington or thrift stores... wool ties are the way to go. Ugly ties baptize any way! : )

so hopefully dad forwards the email I sent to him. I talked about the week. I'll try to send you my photos tomorrow because I forgot my cord today. but it was a neat week!

thanks for the emails! and love!

:)

tab

Avenel, a new companion, and he's back with Traasdahl!

The last transfer and I don't think it could have gotten any better than this. He's back near the area he loves, he has another companion from the Phillipines, and Elder Traasdahl is in his zone.....even better, his same district! He sounds excited and happy. The people are "prepared" and he is ready. Can't think of anything else he needs to finish JERSEY STRONG! 

Hi Mom! 

We have like no time to email today because there is an all mission kickball tourney today and it's somewhat far from our house. However, I will tell you a little bit about what's going on in my new area. I may not answer all of your questions because I briefly skimmed over your email so I apologize!

So I am in Avenel, on Avenel Street. It is like a nice hood. I already like it a lot. About half of the people in our area are black. Parts of our area have only hispanics. We live in a very spanish part of New Jersey. Lots of Dominicans. They are my favorite spanish speaking people so that's good. They make yummy food. My companion is Elder DeJesus and he is from the Philippines. His family now lives in Utah in Eagle Mountain. He was trained by Elder Thompson so he is a lot like him. We get along really well. I think I told you that I was being transferred because my future companion was struggling a little with the work and needed my help. Well, he's not really struggling. He had a tough companion last transfer. This week we got out there and worked and he did just fine. He does stress a little, but not to the point that he is hindered by it. He is very intelligent and so we have nice discussions all the time.

My area is great. And guess what? Elder Traasdahl is in my zone, in my district even. We are having a good time. A really good time! Our new zone leader is one of the Korean missionaries from South Korea. His name is Jooyool Kang. He is a champ. We have a pretty neat zone. So I'm happy!

So just to confirm my address is:

177 Avenel Street Apt. #2D

Avenel, NJ 07001 

America

We had a neat week. There are many "prepared" people here who will get baptized soon. The ward is neat too, but not as big as I anticipated. Scotch Plains is the headquarters of the stake. However, the members have caught the wave and many of them are fully engaged in missionary work. In particular, the members of the ward council are great missionaries. I love to see that. I am excited about this ward! They will see great growth in the near future.

Well that's about all I've got for now. I forgot my camera but there are a few pictures I will send you from my new area. We had some Thai food last week at Mie Thai and it was pretty yum. Not as good as Bangkok but that's okay - it's New Jersey. Anyway I have to jet!

Love you much!

Tab

p.s. Yeee go Indie, get them wildlife!

* Tim got a letter too (a little more personal) but much of it was a duplicate of mine. 

Bless the sweet mothers who send pictures home!

Another sweet mom sent this to me today. Bless her for knowing how much this would mean to me!

Transferred......for the LAST time!

Today is a BIG day for Tab. He is officially starting his LAST transfer! I can't believe how quickly time has gone. It has really seemed to fly by. He thought he would stay in the same area to finish up, but no. I have been told the new mission president is "shaking things up." So, he has officially been transferred to Avenel, NJ. It's an area just south of the Oranges - not exactly his old stomping grounds, but close (I got this from Sister Gilcrest who works in the mission office. She called to get information regarding Tab's flight home). I guess we'll see what he thinks about it next week.


Hi Mom,

Yes, I'm being transferred tomorrow! I don't know where yet. Maybe back to the hood! I hope.

Apparently the missionary department suggests that all missionaries end their mission in at least one or two transfers outside of leadership as an RPM (regular proselyting missionary). But he told me that my new companion is a district leader is a bit stressed and that he could use my help. Perhaps they think I am good at handling stress, so I would make a good mentor. But I am terrible at being a mentor. So that may be why I am going - so I can learn to do that a little bit better. Anyway, he said that it would probably be the most important thing I do on my mission so I am doing what I can to prepare. I don't really have any idea who it is. I'm sure he's great! But being a zone leader was fun while it lasted! 

Hey can you send me a white 2xl tall tee? thanks! Oh, and we made the tacos last night and ate them for breakfast this morning. Yum. Thanks again!

I'll try to send you some pictures today.

Love you!

Tab

P.S. where did you and dad live in san francisco? 

Hi Dad!

You've been busy! Lots of naps... sounds like me when I was working at IMFT. What is Jeremiah up to? I look forward to seeing him again. 

Yes I got to play golf. Actually, I kept the same ball the whole round. I guess that goes to show how bad I was playing... I shot in the 50s without any penalty strokes! It wasn't too frustrating though. My mission experience has helped me to be more patient in many ways, including golf. But the wicked slice sure was ugly. 

Our week was alright. Again, the weekdays were tough to find people to teach. Our contacting numbers were pretty low as well. We stayed busy but it wasn't always the most productive work. However, our weekend turned out very nice. We helped a member move all day on Saturday, then made some chicken Masala and planned and went to bed. I slept really hard that night and I was quite sore yesterday. We were fortunate to have six lessons yesterday after church. The last two Sundays have been money days for us. We also got to play soccer this week with our Mexican friends. Igor wasn't at church so I was really worried because it was supposed to be his confirmation that day. Turns out he was invited to the YSA Branch in East Brunswick and so he attended there. He was also confirmed there, as we later found out. That was a relief. He emailed me and said that he wants to attend BYU but he needs two ecclesiastical endorsements by the 9th in order for him to be able to attend the fall semester. I guess he received some admission extension. I hope he gets them in time. Hopefully he will sign up for the winter semester. That would be really good for him. 

We picked up a lot of new investigators this week and I hope that many of them will pan out to be progressing investigators soon. I am being transferred (surprise!!) so I won't be around to see that happen. One of our hopefuls, the Miller family, should be coming to church here in the next few weeks. We really put a lot of effort into our planning for them. We pray for them a lot too. It is a golden family. We brought the perfect team-up with us yesterday to go teach them. Though we weren't able to have a lesson because they were going out the door, we were able to invite them to come to church and they said yes! We had our team-up invite them. It is really easy for me to picture their family in the church and all dressed in white at baptism. They are a special family. I really hope that they will be baptized before the end of the year. They would make a valuable addition to the church and the ward needs them. 

So, that's about it from me. I am not sure where I am being transferred to but I was released as a zone leader. President Taggart told me a little bit about my new companion and why I was being transferred but he didn't tell me who it is. Hopefully it's back in the hood!!

Love you,

Tab

Tab and a starfish

Tab said...... "look in the back at Elder Packham at me"  ;)

Tab said......."my favorite guy. ​i'm coming back for him​!"

priceless!