LETTERS galore from Elder Tab!

Oh what a day..... It didn't exactly start out that great but i am going to bed one HAPPY mom! After getting my Monday morning "Hi" from Tab, i waited patiently for his letter. After an hour and a half I gave up. I called Tim - he got his letter. Not fair AND not like Tab. It made for a really blah day! Then about 4:30 pm his name popped up in my email. It showed that he had sent it about 9:59 am. Can't figure that one out. Oh well, it doesn't matter. I got my letter!  I was plenty happy but then we checked the mailbox and BAM......a 10 page letter. TEN! complete with pictures and video. That is HAPPINESS right there. Take a deep breath before you begin. It's ALOT of reading, but it's oh so good. 

Hey dad!

I've got a lot to write and little time to do it so I hope that I can remember to git everything in. 

That's really neat that you had that spiritual witness in your talk. We had a lesson where I was able to testify of Christ as our Savior (at Christmas time we get to do that a lot) and I just felt fabulous afterwards. Unfortunately she cut me off but it didn't matter because I knew what I had said and felt was right. It sounds like you had a similar experience. I'm sure the talk you gave was great too. Sara Avila and other friends always told me that they loved when you spoke in their ward.

I hope you get some rest this Holiday as well - you work too hard! But I know that it pays off for you and that's why you do it. I think just in the last week we have seen the fruits of our labors in our work - we had been attempting to become more "consecrated" missionaries after a zone conference we had three weeks ago, and in that week it seemed that nothing went right. You could probably tell in my last letter that our week was pretty uneventful. And I got a ticket :( for an illegal u-turn. The other elders need our car and we are forced to walk our area for now, so we were frustrated and confused. But we worked just as hard this week and on Tuesday we set up 5 baptismal dates, 3 of them with former investigators for this Sunday, the 16th! I'm really excited to work with them and help them prepare for that date. We are seeing them 3 times a week now. The other two are for the 30th of December and in our follow up with her last night she said that they received an answer to their prayer that baptism was the right thing for them to do.

I failed to mention that all of this was done in a week where we really only had about 3 days to teach, so we are satisfied with what we've done. On Monday, we helped the senior couples organize our storage for the mission and that ended up taking till 7pm, so we only got one lesson in. On Tuesday and Wednesday we got to teach. Then Thursday we went to the temple in Manhattan (I'll tell you more about that) and that used up the whole day. Then Friday and Saturday we did service for a woman in Newark who's home was destroyed in the storm. That was basically our week! Yesterday we had an amazing time at church and we had a huge turnout for investigators, branch members and strangers, too. There was an area seventy who came and spoke to us as well. It seemed like everything went well! We got to see our investigator Neketa, who I mentioned earlier about her baptism on the 30th. It was a great day. So while our numbers weren't impressive, I can say that our hard work was effective and we are satisfied with the success that we have had. 

So about Thursday's temple trip... It was kinda crazy. We first went to Union City chapel, which I have heard is the most expensive chapel in the United States. It had an underground parking garage and an elevator and all. Crazy stuff. And then we took a bus to New York through Lincoln Tunnel and we saw a football stadium on top of a really nice high school. We arrived in New York and it was a neat experience to see Times Square and Rockefeller Center but there is no way that I would ever live in New York. I could vacation there for a week just to check it out and see all the tall buildings but the lifestyle there is so strange. The people are strange too. It's just a constant barrage of blinking advertisements, street vendors in your face, and riots/strikes. In general, there are too many people there. One thing that was cool though was the fact that we saw several MASSIVE mormon.org advertisements that talked about Christmas, etc. And I'm sure that they work well to attract attention. But the most interesting part about Manhattan was the stark contrast between the lights and commotion in the streets, and the quiet and peace that abides in the temple. I am glad that I got to experience that and I believe seeing that contrast really opened my eyes and gave me a renewed outlook on my life. Unfortunately, on our walk back to the bus stop I had a hard time retaining that peaceful spirit that you get each time you visit the temple. 

Anyway, after our trip we went to a place called Casanova Brazilian Barbeque in the Ironbound, and it was fabulous. It is more or less the same thing as Tucanos or Rodizio Grill. We ate a ton of food and shared many funny experiences from the mission. It was a great day. 

I know there isn't much to this letter but as you can tell we had a good week. I will be writing letters today and I might get time to throw some of our other experiences in the letter I send home. I hope so. I'll be sending pictures too because it goes without saying that I took many while we were in New York. Let me know if you can think of any souvenirs you want from Newark! We'll be shopping on Broad Street today so I'll look for something. Next week we planned to visit the Graffiti Wall in North Newark which is a 3 mile long tunnel that is lined with tags from years back. I'm looking forward to that too! We haven't gone to any famous pizza places yet, but we've been talking about going to more brazilian restaurants in the Ironbound because I've heard that's where the best food in New Jersey is. So I'll let you know how that goes, and we'll be looking out for pizza too.

I hope your finals week goes well. It's probably an extremely stressful time for you right now but it will soon be over and you will be able to celebrate the holidays! I really like this time of year. I hope it snows here soon because I get jealous whenever you say you have been getting snow in Provo. All we're getting is rain and fog! I look forward to hearing back from you soon and I hope that you have a great week. 

Much love,

Tab


Hey Mom!

So I already sent a decently sized letter to dad that included a lot of the things you were asking me about and so I won't take time to write them again. But we had a really great week! We didn't have a lot of time to teach and somehow we still pulled of a week's worth work. Say that three times fast. Yes, we did go to the temple and I met Stephen Suprise, who is the older brother of my friend Michael. Super odd, but really cool. We had a lot to talk about and we walked to the temple with them. They didn't come in with us because they were on their way out but it was neat nonetheless. 

Sorry I have to be quick because I want to send some pictures to my camera from the other elders' cameras. But I'll answer your questions and then finish up!

1. Just got the Christmas cd by Jars of Clay that is really good. I like it a lot.
2. Yerp, we got your box.
3. New place we went to eat - Casanova Brazilian Grill, in the Ironbound. Super good and really similar to Tucanos just not as nice. Other than that, not really. Altas Horas in Newark and Five Guys! 
4. Elder Estipona was happy that he got mail from you and said thanks for the gift cards. As for stuff to send them, maybe just stuff for our apartment would be good. We need a knife sharpener and if dad is willing to give it away, the Magnum hunting knife in his drawer. Hopefully you can find it. If it's not in their it's in one of the pockets of my blue Clive backpack. But we have picked up wittling (sp.?) in our spare time. Just a dumb hobby but really fun. 
5. No I don't have a thermal top, and I could use just one, maybe two. I'll probably send back the black thermals you sent because I don't think I'll ever use them. But thank you for thinking of that for me!

So funny that you already knew I got a ticket. Yeah it was a bummer and I paid it last week. So that is taken care of I think. I don't think I have to go to court for it though so that's nice. I'm hoping it doesn't make your insurance go up! that would be rotten.

I'm in Alma too now... Alma 14. I'm trucking along at a pretty good pace. I am back on track to finish by the end of the year so that's good. But you're right, the reading is interesting! I really love the Book of Mormon. I just read the epic story of Alma and Amulek confounding Zeezrom. It's cool stuff.

You keep telling me that you have lots of surprises and you haven't told me any! I hope to hear some of them soon because you're making me nervous. My guess is that one of them is that Regan is engaged now. Hopefully. I can't think of anything else. Maybe you finished landscaping! Haha kidding.

So I would say to anyone who got called to New Jersey and were surprised: NEW JERSEY IS THE MOST FOREIGN MISSION IN THE WORLD! I'm quite sure of that. There are more foreigners here than there are street cones on I-15. But do not be dismayed, you'll absolutely love it once you get here! There's nothing like it and the people are one of a kind. They're from everywhere. I love it!

I'm happy to hear you're doing well at home. That's always comforting. I love you all! Yeah, skype soon :)

I was thinking of two more things I forgot to include in my letter home for Christmas presents. I'll send them with my next letter and my memory card. One of the things was an Amano Chocolate bar. I loved the stuff from Clark by the way - super duper funny. I'll be writing him today! And hopefully you too. 

I love you all and hope to hear back soon. Do work at home! Merry Christmas.

Love,

Tab



* I'll post his 10 page letter tomorrow. It will take me a while to type THAT one!

Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Sunday

While serving his mission in New York City, my brother was helping to clean out one of the homes severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy when he came upon an old safe buried among the garbage. The owner of the home was quite the hoarder and did

n't realize the safe was there. The owner just told the missionaries to toss it in the garbage but their curiosity got the best of them and they managed to pry the safe open. The safe was empty except for a few envelopes full of more than $25,000 apparently stored there for almost 40 years. The home owner offered the cash to the

missionaries but they declined saying they were happy just to do the service. What an example!

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23173872&nid=1016

988

It's December!

I love waking up to Monday mornings, checking my email and seeing a "Hi!" from Elder McLain. It's the best! Today was especially good because I got several emails from Tab and then more from my friend Cheryl whose son (Elder Morrill) sent a picture of the two of them. It's always a bonus to get pictures! In a nutshell....Tab is still doing just fine (actually he sounds great)! See for yourself -

Hi again Mom!

This week went by quickly. It seems like I don't have much to talk about because it was only a day or two ago that I last wrote emails. But this week was a blast!

We got to see more of our referrals and begin teaching some of them. One in particular that I enjoyed visiting with is Nikida. She is probably close to 40 years old and she has 3 kids with her husband. And then he has one kid, named Unique, who he had before they were married. So a total of 6 of them. We visited twice last week and got to meet Nikida and her 8 year old daughter Imani. Her husband and other kids are there too but don't usually stay in and listen for some reason. But Imani is quite smart for her age and somehow knows a lot about religion. She's super funny too. So we taught Nikida the first discussion and a lesson about the Book of Mormon and she accepted everything we taught and kept the commitments we gave her. I hope that we can see her more in the coming weeks because she is probably the most promising new investigator we've had. She already wants us to come over for Christmas dinner and she invited gave us a yummy pecan pie that she made from Thanksgiving. She's extremely nice to us. We have planned to extend a baptismal date to her in tomorrow's visit and I hope that it works out. 

We met some crazy new people on the street and had some success with door to door contacting, actually. We have a zone challenge to have a Book of Mormon in hand where ever we go and it has worked out that we have given away over ten Books in a week. And we are the driving elders so I'm sure that the walking elders gave out plenty more. 

So really the only thing my mind is thinking of right now is the service that we did on Saturday and Sunday. It was so awesome. As I've said many times before I love service. On Saturday we went to Bay Shore, Long Island which was like 2 hours away and helped a man remove his deck that got destroyed in the hurricane. He had basically covered his whole yard besides the front in wood and so when the waves hit it ripped everything up and made a huge mess. It took forever because the deck was massive and taking it apart screw by screw is difficult. But we went with our branch and since we are all friends it was really fun. Our stake high counselor took us - his name is Brother Nagano - and it turns out that we had several things in common. He lives in New Jersey but since he is super wealthy he has homes all over the place. He has one in Provo just above the temple in the Oak Hills 5th ward. He also has 2 kids attending BYU and one more that will be there next year. But I got to know him quite well and he is a really cool guy. Very humble as well. That was fun getting to talk to him for the whole two hour drive. Plus, we went directly through Jersey City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx on our way there so it was interesting to see all of those areas. I think we took the long route just so we could see those areas. Oh and we went through the Holland Tunnel. 
But even better than Saturday was yesterday. We didn't have enough rides to go to New York again with our branch so us four elders went to Union Beach again. We picked up supplies from the chapel in Eatontown and headed to a house that was really close to the shore. We took pictures of homes along the shoreline and I'll send them to you - wild stuff. But our job at the house was just to destroy it more or less. It had heavy flood damage and so the walls needed to come down and everything inside needed to be broken down and hauled out. We had so much fun. Since the walls were so soft and wet we filmed ourselves running clean through the walls. We were busting doors down in one hit too. We came up with a story line and then filmed all of the destruction on the camera. It was hilarious. I didn't get any on my camera but I'll see if I can get them on to my memory card and send them home. American Red Cross came by and asked if we wanted a hot meal, and of course we said yes, so they gave us some locally made fresh microwave meals that were super good and then some MRE meals (look it up). We haven't tried them yet but they seem pretty intense. And then they gave us a ton of Toblerone chocolate and M&Ms and chips. It was a miracle. They were so nice to us. So we finished up and the Disaster Recovery Team came and cleaned all the garbage up with this huge truck and we headed home. Then we got fed last night by our Jamaican members. It was a great weekend. I've probably never laughed so much in my life.

Well that was my week. I know most of the focus was on the service but the missionary work was a blast too. Each day is something new which I really appreciate. It keeps us on our toes. My Book of Mormon studies have been pretty awesome lately too. I'm learning a lot of things that I had never understood in the Book of Mormon before. So obviously my testimony is growing and I can testify more powerfully and simply to those we teach. Good stuff. 

I didn't read a letter from you yet but there's a new one in my inbox that I am about to go read. I hope it's good! I sent my letter today and it has my camera memory card in it. That has good stuff too. I hope all is well at home and that you have a good week!

Love you all, 
Tab


My favorite part........getting chocolate and thinking it was a miracle! 

                                    Elder Brandon Morrill and Elder Tab McLain

When Tab was in the MTC I would send him packages from the BYU post office. On one Friday afternoon I was in a rush to make it there on time and ran into another mom who was doing the same thing. She asked where my son was going and I told her. She said her son was going to the SAME mission! What are the odds?! Thus began a beautiful friendship! We told our sons about each other and they met. They were able to sit together on the plane flying to New Jersey. They probably won't get to serve together as he is spanish speaking and Tab is english. However, they do get to meet up at the mission home for conferences. This is one of those occasions.  His mom, Cheryl, and I now correspond weekly and share our sons adventures. Lucky us!

Superman Missionaries!

Sister Jeppson posted pictures of all the Superman missionaries that have been making a difference after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey. It really is amazing to see and hear what has been going on. As I was looking through the pictures I was tickled pink to see Elder McLain standing with a group of other missionaries with a huge smile on his face. It made me proud.......in a good way!  Thought I'd share it.  

http://jeppsonsinjersey.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving Down!

Ahhhh.......it's Monday! I wake up to an email saying "Hey Mom, I'll be writing my letter hopefully after you hop on the computer." THAT sure does bring a smile to my face! Today was a great day because I got not one but several emails from him - a couple of small ones but I won't complain. Especially since one of them was a long one saying he had a great Thanksgiving. So here goes......


So yes, Thanksgiving was great. We had two and a half dinner appointments and I got stuffed. And we've been fed by members for the last few days because many of them still have leftovers.  We ate with a Haitian family who had a feast with lots of their native foods and then we went to a Jamaican members home and had their type of food. And I loved it. The most common thing we've had is Legum (sp.?) and it is rice with pureed beans and then chicken, pork, and beef with an okra-like vegetable and onions and some sort of gravy. It sounds simple but I love it so much. I could eat it every day. And lastly we had desert at the home of the only white family in our branch. And that was great too. We played in our annual turkey bowl football game and that was a blast, except that nobody could run since we're all sore from the service and p-day activities we've been doing. So Thanksgiving was great. 

Unfortunately we didn't get to do service in Union Beach this weekend. I mentioned last week that we had completed all of the Church's work orders and so we had nothing to do because there were just too many volunteers. Obviously, there are thousands and thousands who still need help but we're advised to stay organized by completing work orders rather than just walking around looking for people to help. Since there aren't enough work orders right now, they're just having us stay home this weekend until they can create more. It's crazy how much volunteer service there is right now. And not just from Mormon Helping Hands - which makes me happy to see that.

I didn't get to be a part of the Called to Serve group but I can imagine being there would have been pretty special. Every time we sing that song (MTC, fearbuster, wherever) it brings a special spirit and I always get the chills. 

1. My companion and I are still together. Some missionaries got new companions but for the most part it was a pretty small transfer conference. There were several members who were invited by President to come up and share their testimonies of their conversions and it was really neat. The ones who shared were all recent converts working on serving missions, which is always amazing to think of the widespread effect one or two missionaries can have. It spreads like wildfire.
2. Yeah - no new companion.
3. Still thinking of stuff for Christmas. Maybe chocolate. And a good Christmas CD(s). It can be by anyone as long as it doesn't have inappropriate lyrics. 
4. I have a box of stuff I am planning to send back and I haven't had time to go to the post office yet. My letter is included in that. But I may be able to today since it's p-day.
5. Nah, thanks though. I don't need a throw blanket.
6. Yes I did bring cologne so I'm good for now.

I am currently in Jacob (I know I am way behind) so my goal is to read 10 pages a day and that will get me pretty close to finishing before the end of the year. It's tough because I want to study the scriptures I read but that takes too long so I am forced to just read through it. I just read Jacob 5 and I was sad because I didn't have the time to study it out and that chapter is loaded with interesting things. But props to you for making it this far! You're way ahead of me.

John and Jazmine... unfortunately we haven't seen them since last Monday. They have been really busy and cancelling appointments because they are moving out and John works all the time. We have an appointment tonight though, hopefully that pulls through! I'll let you know how that goes and that will be when they get their CTR rings! Thanks for that. Larry is a champ as always. He got confirmed two sundays ago and we weren't there to hear it but we heard it was awesome. He also was told by our Branch President that he would soon be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood! So great. And the girl with the 10 referrals, we've only been able to see one of the referrals because this last week we had very little time to teach, which was frustrating. Between our Christmas Devotional practices and transfer conference and shopping on Wednesday and service projects, we got in I think like 10 total lessons for the week, and 5 of those were with members or recent converts. Anyway, this coming week looks a little more promising which is good. Oh and in my letter I wrote about Philip and Bill - two of the crazier people I've ever met and we're trying to figure out if Philip is accountable enough to be baptized because he is sorta demanding us to baptize him. It's hilarious. I'll let you know what happens with that.

I heard about the two sister missionaries getting calls to Morristown - I already know one of them! So that will be cool when they come in. I'm sure that there will be a whole lot more too. I'll be the senior companion for the whole apartment come next transfer if I stay in East Orange (which I probably will). And I'll probably be training in the next few months so that will be exciting. 

I talked to Reese a little over email just barely and it sounds like things are going pretty well for him. He's probably so excited to go to Germany. And Clark sent me a letter that made me laugh really hard so that was awesome. He has my address so I think he can just send them straight from the MTC. 

I hope everything's well for you too! I love you all. Hope everyone got to say hi at Thanksgiving and glad you had a lovely time. I did too! I don't think I need anything, just more time! Haha 

Love, 
Tab


Tab's friend Anne Collins came by this morning while I was emailing Tab. I sent him a hello from her and he was able to reply back. I'm sure he loves messages from others besides me - especially friends. I'm grateful for his good friends! Oh, and he wrote his dad too so I must share that.

Hey Dad!

I'm out of time but wanted to let you know I read your letter and I appreciate it! Sounds like you had a funny time. I'm glad to hear that your recipe for ribs is best. I wish I could eat some right now. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and love to everyone. I hope you have a great week.

Love, 

Tab

Hurricane Sandy Cleanup Efforts

Click here for an update on the Helping Hands cleanup efforts in New York.

Pictures from Tab