We've been meeting lots of great people here!

Best part of my week......Letters from my boy. Still doing well and going strong!

Hi Mom! 

Oooh, I gotta try that surgery when I get home. Just straight cut off my nose so I don't have to deal with it! Hope it goes well for you. 

Question - When did we live in San Francisco? what years. I am wondering if you got hit by the earthquake. 

So I wrote another long letter to Dad. That should let you know how my week went. 

Love you!

​Hi Dad!

I had no idea that Dean Larsen was the Dean Larsen that was a general authority. I just figured he was a really good guy. I hear the name Jack Welch all the time on my mission, especially from long-time members who enjoy church history. ​I would be nervous to teach a lesson in front of them as well. This morning I read President Monson's talk called "True Shepherds" and it briefly mentions a story told by President Hinckley of when he was meeting in his home with Spencer Kimball and Thomas Monson (the Missionary Executive Committee then) and his home teacher stopped by, unanticipated. His home teacher nervously shared a quick message and then left. Your experience reminded me of that. 

So, I have humbled myself a little bit from last week to this week. Our meetings were much better yesterday. Sadly, instead of having five of our investigators come like last week, we had none. That would happen! I'm not mad, but I was a little bit disheartened. Nevertheless, I enjoyed sacrament meeting a lot. I love reading the scriptures, so I did that for much of the meeting. I enjoyed the speaker selection this Sunday. By the way, Happy Fathers Day! I wish I would have been able to tell that to you yesterday. You've been a great example for me. It helps to be a missionary - while preparing for lessons I try to think of my personal experiences with gospel topics and so I reflect on lessons learned and childhood memories often. In my patriarchal blessing I am encouraged to do so regularly. I still need to be better at writing in my journal. That just isn't something I enjoy doing, so naturally it doesn't get done. I prefer to read or just sit and think. 

We've been meeting lots of great people here and I am excited to see how things turn out within the next couple of weeks. A lot of the very "prepared" people we have met have slowly fallen away or dropped us entirely and that is sad to see. That happens a lot in this area. We teach a lot of investigators one or two or even three times and then we never see them again. Igor is one example. We haven't heard a word from him since last Sunday when he came to church. :( Yesterday, we were super fortunate and we met with an investigator we had only taught once before named Jeni. It was kind of a miracle that we were even able to visit her but the lesson we had was even better. She has grown up in a Jewish home for her entire life and so the Gospel was something completely foreign to her. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she soaked it up like a sponge. She is really humble and I think that is why. She realizes she needs the Gospel probably better than anyone I have ever taught on my mission. So I'll let you know how that goes. I know we'll for sure be able to see her again. ;) 

The Stake President came to our meetings yesterday and so I assume that he will be calling a new bishop fairly soon, perhaps within the next two weeks. It's like the Church's version of scouting!

Anyway, thanks for the letter. The Pereira's story is a neat one! I tell it sometimes. 

Love you,

Tab

So, I've said this before. I love letters between Tab and his dad and I occassionally share them because of their message. Here is another one of those times. I loved the story Tim shared.  Here goes.........

Hey Tab.

I hope you had a great week. My week went quite well — no complaints. I kept busy, met a few deadlines, resolved some stressful issues, got caught up on some things.  Now I just need to do the same this week.  I taught priesthood today in the 14th Ward HP group on Honoring the Priesthood Keys Restored by Joseph Smith.  Brother Dean Larsen (formerly senior president of the Quorum of the Seventy) told an awesome story. He told about a time when area presidents (who were also in the Quorum of the Seventy) were starting to be called — area presidencies were a a new way of handling the growth of the church.  He told about a training meeting he was helping to lead with Elder Packer. At the time, the area presidents has been set apart in their callings and had realized that they had not been given keys. They asked Elder Packer the question, "How can we preside as area presidents without keys?" Elder Packer turned to Elder Larsen and said, "Dean, what's the answer?" Elder Larson read to them scriptures from Section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants (verses 22-34) and taught them that they do not have keys, but that they have apostolic authority to act in place of the apostles when they are directed by the apostles to do so. They cannot initiate the work of an apostle or make the decisions of an apostle, but they can carry out the work of an apostle under the direction of an apostle. Anyway, it was a really cool complement to the lesson and added tremendously to what I was trying to teach. I shouldn't get stressed out to teach this group with Dean Larsen, Richard Anderson, Jack Welch, and others, but I do. They are all so nice and supportive.

Before I forget, Oneill said to tell you that the Miners send their love and that they appreciate the friendship that you've given to their family.

Last week you lamented a little that the Spirit was not a strong in your ward as you would hope and that your investigators were not being uplifted by the members like they could be. I've been there. In the last area of my mission, the bishop actually pulled me and my companion aside and told us that the investigators and converts we were bringing into the church were not any good and would not add to the ward and would just go inactive. This was the least successful time of my mission — we worked super hard, but had pretty minimal success.

I'm attaching a couple of pictures. The first one is of the Restinga Branch in July 1982. Restinga was considered a bit of a slum. To combat the poverty in the area, the government had built a large amount of housing projects. Most people were quite poor. Only one member had a car. We met in a school building and the branch was mainly composed of women and children. The branch president was "on loan" from a ward in the city. My companion and I were the counselors in the branch presidency. Ivan, the little black guy on the front row was one of two active priesthood holders in the branch. There were some great women in this branch (the two grandmas on the front row — one left, one center). I am certain that they will be exalted some day. Our meetings in this branch were a bit crazy — rarely did a Sunday go by that we weren't called upon to speak or teach lessons because those that were assigned didn't show up.

The second picture is of Ulisses Pereira and his wife Maria in front of the Manaus Brazil Temple, which was dedicated in 2012. Ulisses is the temple president and Maria is the temple matron. Ulisses and Maria were baptized into the Restinga Branch in August of 1982 as a young couple with two children. Ulisses was set apart as the EQ president after a couple of months and became the branch president within the first year of his membership. I'm sure he must have wondered what he had gotten himself in to. He and Maria have gone on to do many important things for the church and Brazil. My point is that you should not worry too much about the conditions in your ward. Work to help the ward improve. Do your part and the Lord will take care of the rest! He will bless your investigators.

Have a great week Tab!  You are doing great things!

Love, Dad

This week was great and not so great!

Hi!

Hope everyone had a great time on their trips! 

Dad and Colby - 

Man, sounds like you had a good time. I am jealous of Colby - trying
to get around by himself in two big cities. I would love to do that.
It's fun using public transportation even as a missionary. A few times
in Trenton we took the bus to get to church in Princeton. Making the
transfers between bus zones was difficult there, but in Newark, public
transportation runs smoothly everywhere. Newark is probably like a
small version of SF with much fewer tourist attractions. And it's more
dangerous, I would imagine. I'll show you around one day :)

This week was great and not so great! On our part, we had a lot of
success in finding and teaching. We fell short of our goal of 20
lessons, however we had five of our investigators at sacrament meeting
and had a lot of member present lessons. We have more people on
baptismal date too. One of the highlights from this week is a lesson
we had on Friday with a new investigator named Igor. He is Ukrainian
and his family members are Jewish. He speaks something like five
languages fluently (Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish, and two others besides
English) and he is only 20 years old. He is a Christian. He is
planning to go to BYU so he showed up to church during our zone
meeting and asked us about getting an ecclesiastical endorsement. He
also said that he was interested in joining the Church. So, we sat
down with him and talked about his religious background and it turns
out he knows way too much about the scriptures so we had a hard time
teaching the Restoration simply. It wasn't a mess, partly because we
were in a trio with one of the assistants, but I wish that I had been
more prepared for that. It worked out alright. He came to church on
Sunday and he said he would "absolutely" be baptized. I look forward
to going to school with him! I think right now he has a desire to be
baptized in order to join the crowd when he goes to BYU. But I am
certain that desire will change with time, especially while he's at
school. He's awesome. We had good lessons with Jackee and Jose this
week, and they also came to church, but left after sacrament meeting.
More on that later. Natalie came to church and enjoyed it as usual.
All three of them have a baptismal date of June 22nd. We're praying
for them! Igor should be on date soon, too. One of the recent converts
in the ward, Denise, brought her son who we just started teaching. He
is 10 years old. He will be baptized and join the church very soon as
well. The only reason he hasn't already is because of a custody battle
that Denise is still going through. She recently married a member in
Texas and will be moving there in August assuming she wins her case.
She is one of "the elect" if I have ever met one. So Ryan will either
be baptized here and move quickly thereafter or join the church in
Texas.

We've been contacting a lot and teaching new people, but it is
difficult for us to see them more than once or twice. I'm not sure
why. That is kinda how New Jersey rolls from what I've seen. But just
making 10 contacts a day helps us feel accomplished and it helps us
reach our goals. We see blessings in other areas of the work as a
result. Our teaching pool recycles a lot quicker through people who
are or aren't interested. Finding motivation to get our there and talk
to people is hard for me on some days. Other days I am all for it. It
helps to have a companion who can pick up the slack on the days that
I'm not feeling it. I try to do the same for him. We work well
together.

Thanks for all the snacks! We enjoyed them, especially mint oreos haha.

Love you too! Hope you all enjoyed your trips. :)

Love, Tab!

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."