I don't want time to pass by quickly!

Well, after reading this letter I think it's safe to say Tab is keeping very busy! I love his praise for his companion. He sounds great, but he wants an extension?!?!?! I guess he's happy and Jersey Strong!

Hi Mom!

Another Monday... did you enjoy your week?

I did. We stayed really busy with stake and missionary meetings in the north. We did a lot of driving. That is the only problem with thesouth. New Jersey isn't even that big of a state! It just takes 3x as long to go the same distance in Utah. My companion and I set some good goals and we saw lots of success. We had 22 lessons, which is the first time since he has been here (at least 6 months) that that hashappened. So that was good! I ate at Smashburger again and then I had a beef brisket sandwich at Costco. It wasn't bad. I would probably eat it again. Our team up Ryan Stojka takes us out to eat every time we go with him so we've been getting lots of free yummy food. :) I had Five Guys too after our meeting in Morristown. We also had a meeting with the stake president in East Brunswick to address the problems in the units in the zone. Face to face with a Jersey stake president talking to him about the problems with the leaders in his units is really scary! It must be very humbling for him.

I sent a big letter to dad and so I'll copy it in here for you. Hopefully it answers your questions!

"Thank you for giving me an update on your trip to Alaska. I enjoyed hearing that you were able to fly around in a Cessna. Elder Traasdahl's brother in Norway was required to take a small plane like that to get to transfer conference when he was serving in Svalbard. Supposedly, the missionaries there are required to carry around shotguns to protect them from bears and other wild animals. I'm not sure if that is true, but it sounds cool.

So I'll update you a little bit on the work. We stay really busy. I am surprised at how much time we have to work in our area. We had 22 lessons in our area last week, which is something hard to do even as a regular missionary without leadership responsibilities. We lost a lot of time on Thursday and all day Friday due to stake and mission leader meetings. It takes us a little over two hours to drive up to Morristown with regular traffic. That's the one problem with this zone: it is huge and it is way down south... "down to the river to [work]!" But other than that I love the zone. We have great missionaries who are strong enough to stay busy and be obedient without the nearby presence of leaders. We only get to see other missionaries (besides the ones in our ward) once a week at district meetings. I pray for them a lot - this whole zone seems to struggle with finding and baptizing. However, my area has been fairly fruitful in the last few transfers. Since I have gotten here, things have slowed down a little bit. But I try not to let that happen!

We have a couple investigators who have baptismal dates - Natalie (June 21st) and Jackee (June 22). Natalie is very promising. She is only 14 years old, but she is very mature for her age. She has already been taught everything over the phone by sisters in Salt Lake, so all
we do is just follow up to make sure she understands everything. She has come to church on her own for several weeks. The only hold back is getting permission from her parents. I haven't met them yet, but she says they aren't interested in learning more about the church. We'll see what they have to say about her joining it! She is Vietnamese, by the way. Jackee is hispanic and she is 24 years old. She actually just broke up with her boyfriend she was living with so now she can get baptized without having to get married! She is like most investigators - super willing in lessons, but she doesn't do too well at keeping commitments. Other than that, we have taught a lot of people once or twice and then not been able to see them again. New Jersey special! People seem to just disappear...

My companion is a champ. I love him. He is what President Jeppson calls "the consumate missionary". I have a lot to learn from him. And him from me, hopefully.

Thanks again for writing! I look forward to going to Alaska with you again. Enjoy your trip with Colby! Get some yummy Vietnamese (#23 Dry - was that the dish?) for me. We've seen a couple places around here so I'll go check them out."

Haha, no I don't want time to pass by quickly! I thought about asking for an extension but I highly highly doubt they would give it to me. :) Reese will get back in time to go to the winter semester so we'll all go back at the same time :) I just have to find an apartment! Elder Traasdahl is coming too!

I'm doing great. I love you all!

Love, Tab

Tom's River and a fantastic companion!

Transferred......to Tom's River! Now he's even more south and further away from the mission home, but from the sound of this letter I think he's quite okay with it. This should be an interesting area for him. Tom's River is an ocean township and has been filmed in lots of movies, including Jersey Shore. He is in a town called Lakewood. It's home to about 55,000 Orthodox Jews who go there to attend the Yeshiva (school where they study the Torah).  And he got a dream companion!  I know he's happy.

Hi Mom!

No, I don't need new pants :) ​ * Hahaha.......this made me laugh!

Well, the good news is my new companion is Elder Comish from Las Vegas. Oh he is so great! I have always wanted to be his companion, so here it is! I am in Tom's River, more south than I was in Long Branch. We have a pretty big area but it is a good area with lots of work to do. The ward is somewhat of a small/old ward. Lots of either really young families with one or two kids under 4 years old or old people. It reminds me somewhat of Grandma's ward in Georgia. So they've been working on that.

Yes I am emailing from a library. Lakewood wow! It's charming.

My new address:

130 Corbin Court
Lakewood, NJ 08701

​Yeah I wrote so much to dad that I don't have much to talk about

anymore without repeating myself.

My companion is Joseph, maybe Joey Comish, from Las Vegas. He's fantastic! Probably top 3 companions.

Zone 12. Nobody I knew before is in my zone besides my companion and
Elder Makai (east orange buddy)

Yes we're still near the ocean and reall far south but it's good.
There is more or less everything we need down here. smashburger, five
guys, mcdonalds, wendys, everything. Except Del Taco! they even have
an Arby's that we ate at. Twas real good. We have a car so we can go
almost anywhere. Money is the only reason we don't eat out a lot! It's
pretty expensive here.

Well I'm really gonna enjoy myself here. It's south but I don't mind.
We've got some great people to see. And my companion knows what he's
doing. I really like him. And we have a super nice apartment. It's
like a vaction home. So that's good.

Sorry I am short this week! But I'll have more for you (mom) next week.

Love you!

Tab

Hi Dad!

I'm glad you had a good trip, but it's a bummer that you didn't get to enjoy much free time. And about your trip to Alaska - I am very jealous. We'll have to go together when I get back, assuming you enjoy the trip. I am sure you will. Elder Marchant was a big-time fisherman and he LOVED going to Alaska to go fishing. I don't remember what he caught there, but I know he is a big on trout fishing. He told me they are easy to catch.

I'm happy to hear that things are working out well for the family, too. I think Mom needed some time off from her classes. I'm going to guess that means longer e-mails and more mail for me. We'll see. And it is good that Colby is working a lot.  

​

I'm working a lot in my new area, Tom's River. My companion is a champ. His name is Elder Comish. He is from Las Vegas, Nevada. His birth mother is Cambodian so he has an asian look in him. He's a very obedient missionary and he is easy to get along with. He was trained by the famous 6'9" loveable Elder Bell (Elder 7 foot full of love). I had a role play with him on his first day in New Jersey and ever since then I have wanted to be his companion. He knows what he is doing. He went to a semester of school at BYU so we have that in common. However, he is a year younger than me in school. So he is Reese's age. He's been in Tom's River for three transfers and has really turned around the work in this ward. It seems that the further south in our mission you go, the slower the work gets. But that is not so much the case for Tom's River elders. They've been doing work.

Still, the ward is quite small. Only about 100 people attend on average, and most of them are old folks. I told mom that this ward reminds me of Grandma Rozier's ward in Georgia. There aren't much youth. Everyone is very friendly, though. I met with the Bishop.  I've been praying that I'll be able to work effectively with him. In my opinion, it appears that he hasn't caught "the wave" of the work of salvation. From what I was told, he is going to be moving to Utah soon. However, most major functions are taken care of. The ward council still needs to put together a ward mission plan for this year.

I've been having pretty good studies lately from Doctrine and Covenants and the New Testament. I like Romans through John's epistles. I started reading the New Testament again about a week ago. This will be my third time through it.

Well I don't have much in the way for stories this week. We saw a few of the investigators and members in this area this week, but not all. The most progressing of them all is Natalie Nyugen (or Nguyen, not sure) who is a young Vietnamese girl. The missionaries have not met her parents yet but Natalie comes to church every week and is planning to be baptized at the end of this month. She is incredible. Her parents are not interested in the church but they are okay with her meeting with us. Hopefully we can get some Pho or pork and prawn noodle bowls someday.

That's about all from me. Keep working hard and try not to over-encumber yourself! We're going to be giving a training on Tuesday on managing stress and that will be one of the main points to talk about, not planning to do more than you can. Anyway-

Love you too,

Tab

Time to say goodbye to Long Branch!

Letters from Tab were short this week. I guess he is busy. He was told he will be transferred tomorrow so his time in Long Branch is done. I guess we'll see where he head's to next - this will probably be his last area as he only has 3 transfers left. I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes. 

Hi Mom!

I'm being transferred. I have a slim chance of my next companion being a haitian so it'll be good. I'm certain to get a good companion don't worry ;) I always do.

Sak pase! he'll make me some sauce pois and legume!

You asked for more pictures of me......there's one rule and one rule only in my world:

no selfies!

love you too!

Tab

Elders McLain and Marchant

You can tell it's spring.....his blond hair is back!

McLain and Marchant

Long Branch, NJ

Trust more in the Holy Spirit and It's gifts to become perfected in Christ.

Another letter from this AWESOME kid! Still doing great, still loves his companion, still sees the good in things, and STILL blesses our family everyday! AND........we get to talk to him on Sunday!!!

Hi Mom! 

Yes I got your package and I was surprised to see no pants or scripture case in it! You had a fair amount of extra space from the flat rate box so I wasn't sure why you didn't include them. But no worries - I am not in a rush. You just have to pay extra shipping! But thank you for that. 

You scared me with the photo of the Del Taco. I read the email too quickly and thought you said that they were going to take out the Del Taco and build something in its place. I would have flipped. It appears that they renovated the outside of that Del Taco because it doesn't have the same appearance that it did when I was home. Anyway, Rita's is good. I am hoping they'll put in a fried chicken place somewhere that isn't called KFC. 

Nice Colby! He got his first job. Better than I did at 16. Hopefully he gets a lot of hours. Most of my friends that worked at movie theaters didn't stay long for one reason or another but I think for Mitchell it was because he didn't work enough hours. He liked eating popcorn all day long when he did work, though. 

Good for Rorie too! That's a first in the family - it always seemed to me that student body leadership runs in families... Yep I echo what you say. Be nice to everyone and don't be fake about it! Don't worry too much about impressing others. Treat everyone the same and be their friend!

Send me a photo of the numbers and bulletin board when you finish - I would like to see how well you do! From what I have seen you've decorated a lot more since I've left. .....what about the yard though? It better look good! haha. 

Yes Sunday is Mother's Day and I will be calling you - don't worry. I am not sure yet if I will use Skype. Some people offered to have us over and to use their computers so I can if I want to. I think I prefer calling though! We'll see. I'll send a text on Saturday or Sunday letting you know before I make the call. 

I don't have photos today cause I sent all of them on whatever day that was. I"ll think about taking more of me. : )

Elder Thompson still has one more transfer. 

Well, I think I will get transferred this next week. I don't really have much of an idea, but if I did get transferred I would have 3 transfers in my last area. That seems more reasonable. I like my companion alot though and I would be more than happy to stay. This transfer went by so fast!

I am good on ties. I have a bunch of slim fit ones that I bought out here. I have too many ties. So I'll wait till I get home. They do look nice! I need to get slimmer fitting suit pants when I get home, haha. I slimmed them by hand but I can only make them look so good. : /

I am excited to come do some landscape work! I'll take out that telephone pole by hand!

I think that's about it!

i love you!

Tab

Hey Dad,

Man, those are some good quotes! I love Parley P Pratt. He got a little bit "out there" sometimes, but so did a lot of the saints around his time. I glanced at one of his books called "Key to the Science of Theology". It was pretty neat. Anyway, thank you for sending those. I like the second quote because I feel that it applies very well to my situation... I guess it applies to all the saints. But, I ought to trust more in the Holy Spirit and It's gifts to become perfected in Christ. 

I think I will be transferred this coming week. Reason is because I spent 3 transfers in my Maplewood and it just seems more reasonable to do the same in my final areas. I am certain that Elder Marchant knows how to run this area. He may not be able to get around all that well just yet, but he knows how to work hard. It's about time for him to pick up a leadership calling of some sort. He would make a good trainer because he is diligent. He needs to work on his teaching skills (listening, teaching people and not lessons) but otherwise he is well set. He's awesome!

Enjoy all your trips! 

Love you,

Tab 

Tims quotes:

Parley P. Pratt

“The gift of the Holy Ghost...quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands, and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates, and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form, and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.” 

George Q. Cannon

"If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. . . . No man ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts, and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth."

 

I am an uncle now!

Hey mom! 

Hey guess who forgot their camera today!

this guy.

And I don't really have to much to write about either... I wrote dad a little bit about how the week went but it wasn't much. Nothing really too special happened this week. We met a goofy guy named Johan from Germany, and he said he would rather join a black or puertorican gang than the Mormon church because at least he wouldn't get messed with if he was in the gang. Ah man he was so funny I wish you could have met him. We also picked up a few new people to teach (Jeane, Itzel, and we are teaching Marcela again) so that's good. It's starting to warm up. 

Ruby.....hey I like her name! I am glad to see that she is is doing well! She's really cute. She looks exactly like Caitlin. I am an uncle now! This reminds me of the day I turned 18... I don't feel any different. 

Hey guess what! I found out that there is an Arby's near here! About five miles away. So we'll be going there one of these days. 

That's about all I've got. Sorry my emails have been really lame lately but I think it's because the work I am doing is pretty normal to me so I can't think of much that's exciting that I should write about! I'm getting old that's all. 

Hey I am happy that you passed your classes with A's! Well done. 

I have something for you to throw in my package! If you haven't sent it yet. If you have, just wait till you send a next package. But could you send my black RVCA pants? They are the only black pants I have if I remember right. They are not corduroys. If you can't find them, no worries. I have too many pants already. That and my old scripture case. The one with the white paint mark on it. I need something to put my regular sized scriptures in. I don't mind that it is messed up, and I don't need a new one. 

eh.... I think I am good. If you can manage to send a JDawg, a SLAB of White pizza and a cafe rio burrito and some chicken soft tacos from Del, then I'll take that ;)

Alright I will write back if you have any Q's for me.

Love,

Tab

Hey Dad!

interesting thought! I really liked it. ...You didn't copy it from somewhere did you? I am just kidding. I acquired a dictionary and it has been a helpful resource whenever I read anything by Elder Talmage. Sometimes I will use it when I am reading the scriptures. The definition of the word "beset" really surprised me. If you haven't already looked it up, you ought to. "Ignominious" was another word I had to look up.

The work in Long Branch is going alright. I am a little bit discouraged by the lack of less-active work he have available to do. There are only four or five less active members that I have met and only about three that I have taught and only one has come to church. It is difficult to contact them. We have some good investigators but finding has been slow. I would like to cycle through investigators more quickly than we do. We usually see each investigator once a week and so the progression is slow. We picked up three new investigators last week so that was good! I am enjoying my companion a lot and we work pretty hard together. We get between 40 and 90 street contacts a week. The other thing we need to work on in our area is getting semi-active members to full activity and not dependant on us. That is something I have struggled with my whole mission. How do I do that, especially with limited help from the ward? How do we get our ward council to listen to us? How do we motivate them to do their part? How do we work together effectively with the ward council when our ward mission leader is only relaying information from coordination meetings? Those are most of the things I thought about last week. I haven't put those questions into my prayers yet. I will :) For the most part, things are going alright. I do feel (slightly) that given how hard we've been trying, we should be seeing more success. I think this area has been the least rewarding area I have served in as far as baptisms go. And I realize baptisms aren't everything but that is a good indicator that investigators are progressing. 

You should learn how to assemble a wheel and when I get home you can teach me. I would also love to learn how to flyfish. So if you get the time you can brush up on that, haha. I know you're going to be extra busy especially with the new grandchild. I am glad everything went well!! I am excited to meet her. 

Well I don't really have much else to mention. If you can think of something to ask, I'll be here!

Love you,

Tab

it's a no caps day!

I love how he signed his letter today! 

hi mom! 

today is no caps day because i don't have time to capitalize letters. or use paragraphs. today elder perry is coming to visit our mission and so our email time was cut short so we can get things done before we leave. but i am still excited. i am fine cutting my email time to hear some elder perry, you know what i mean. 

well last week was kinda lame cause we had a mazillion appointments set up and most of them fell away. so, we had opportunities to teach a lot of new people and none of them really worked out. however, we met this new haitian guy named oxtave and he is sweet. he doesn't speak much english so we are teaching him at another haitian members home so she can translate for him. it's gonna be good. we also had stake conference this weekend and the saturday night meeting was great. it was not a very formal meeting - there were roleplays by the missionaries, videos, and a fair amount of laughing done - and I liked the way it turned out. ever since the "hastening the work of salvation" project came into play, things have changed a lot. the missionaries participate a lot more in stake meetings than they used to, at least here in nj. what are your stake conference meetings like?  i saw a lot of old companions at stake conference and i saw a lot of my friends from trenton! including jos and courage and marchelle. they are all doing really well. jos has had a lot of opposition from her dad (he is a catholic) so she hasn't been able to come to church as much but she still comes whenever she can. haha - she's been kicked out of her house twice already for it. but i think things are getting better for her. so that's good. i saw a lot of families from the princeton 2nd ward too. most of them were surprised that i could still remember their name. help colby out with remembering peoples' names because it has made a pretty big impact on my mission. no joke. when we meet people on the street and then see them again in a week or a month and i call them by name, they know that we think and care about them and more often than not we end up talking and teaching them. and the same goes with members... when we see them outside of church and i remember their name, they trust us and invite us over more often. i am serious! so anyway........

cool art! i hope your classes are going pretty well. which is your hardest class you are taking right now? 

most of my roommates come back within a transfer or the next. so the next 9 weeks. clark comes home 6 weeks after me I think and reese 12 weeks after that. 

nate looks like he is putting on some serious muscle that's awesome. i can't gain any mass (fat or muscle) if i try. so i don't try anymore. 

so sorry! i forgot my camera so i won't be able to send pictures today but i probably will be able to tomorrow, or sometime this week. i have some good ones. i got a fantastic letter from ellie snow this week. she is in the young women's group. i will probably write back but in case it isn't for a while you make sure you give her a big thank you. it was a sweet letter. and say hi to all my ward buddies for me. it looks like you have had a few move-ins in the last little while. and they changed our missionaries from elders to sisters... :( no good. just kidding haha. 

 

well take care now grandma mclain. i love you all! let me know if i can do anything for you. i am still looking for a souvenir shop around these parts. i haven't found one. occasionally i find stuff on the ground like spoons and glass bottles and lighters. and that's about it. until next week.

love,

uncle tab