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 

Still happy!

Lots of work, a new companion, pictures, a bit of randomness (Tab's specialty) and they all equal to a still happy kid! 


Hi Mom! 

Yerp I'm on already cause we just have an activity today so I came to the church early to get things done before the activity. We have between 10am and 6pm to shop, email, and then do whatever we want. So I think they're having an easter egg hunt or something like that with the missionaries in our zone, probably about 20 of us.

Question! can you look up Matilda McClain on Familysearch for me? There is a member here named Tom Keough and his great-great-grandma (or something like that) is named Matilda McClain and he is really interested in finding out if we are related. Ok that is almost impossible for you to help me with that little information so I will send you the identification number things. In the meantime, if you know any Matilda McClain's that are in our ancestry, let me know! 

Hey send me a photo of your arT! I wanna see how good it is and then show it off. 

My finger will be fine. it will just be a tiny bit crooked!

Hey check out the Because of Him video on mormon.org! it's really hipster and good.

iPads soon like one month prolly.

It seems like all the weeks that you are wasted by the weekend I am too! I was super tired come Saturday. We got a lot of walking and work done and then we contacted a lot of people. 

Facebook comes once the iPads come, but they'll prolly monitor it. 

My comp is great! here are some photos.....

I got your box :) hopefully you got my letter. Lately i feel like the things I have been mailing haven't been getting delivered so that's not good. 

Oh and if you would, send me some more of that GAP cologne or something good smelling. I ran out and I don't know where around here to buy some good stuff. TJ Maxx has nothing good haha.

Love you!

Tab

Hey Dad! 

Haha - I have listened to Elder Bednar's talk about 3 times in the last 24 hours. It's pretty great. I loved the insight he gave on the scripture from Matthew 11. I had never thought about covenants being the way we yoke ourselves with Christ. It makes sense! The part of his talk that you highlighted reminds me of a talk - I believe it was also Elder Bednar - that he gave in a BYU devotional that I went to with you. I remember learning about the enabling power of the Atonement, but anything in detail slips my mind. Maybe I am just making up the whole thing? No matter. I also enjoyed listening to "What Manner of Men?" one more time.

This week was pretty good. We taught a lot of lessons again and we contacted lots of people. I think it was somewhere around 80 or 90. One of them was a man that works at Taco Bell named Brian. He approached Elder Marchant and asked him a question about something silly but they ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and the Church. He's not in our area but the sisters have already taught him twice and he came to church yesterday and now he has a baptismal date. He already knows that the Book of Mormon is true and everything. And he isn't some crazy guy. He's pretty cool. He has three daughters from a previous marriage and he is currently engaged! We have found a couple good people through contacting.

Sadly, Marcela dropped us this week. She strongly disagrees with the Churches standpoint on gay marriage so she said she doesn't want to join the Church or have us visit anymore :( Coming from a 14 year old girl I found that quite silly, but I am glad that came up before she had been baptized. So it is what it is. Hopefully God has someone better in mind for us to teach that we will find soon! Kelly (not sure if I have mentioned her yet) came to church and she also has a baptismal date for May 18. She was pretty happy about that. She is from Chile, just FYI. We also invited a crazy Austrian lady named Karin to come to church and to our surprise she showed up, so that was good. There was a huge turnout for yesterday's Easter program (usually there are around 100 people at sacrament meeting at yesterday there was almost 200) so they had to bless water a second time after running out. Elder Marchant and I sung in the choir. It was a good day for investigators to come to church!

Well I hope you do alright with all the demands from this coming week. And I hope your back feels better. Is it related to the accident you were in several years ago? Go out there and do some missionary work!

Love you too

Tab

Love this face!

More randomness......

Gotta have a seagull!

New companion

I noticed Tab was on the computer and sent him a little message. He responded by saying......

oh Hey! 

you sneaky mom.............

Hi again Mom! 

This week was great! I have a great companion. He's like Elder Thompson who I love. Both are great. We didn't have any dinner dates during conference... SOMEONE planned a nice little mission-wide fast so we didn't get invited to the chinese restaurant with the ward. It was good though - the fast was good for us. It prepped me real nice for the Saturday session of conference. I loved conference!

The hand is good. I got my cast off like two weeks ago! I go to therapy twice a week and they have helped me get back to 60% mobility or so. It will keep getting better as the swelling goes down. I attached two photos. Did you get my letter? 

Man Clark writes to you more than he writes to me! That goon!

I do know Hadley. She was in my seminary class. That is really sad. Lot's of weird stuff has happened since I left!

You always say "don't worry".... I don't ever worry! Haha ain't nobody got time for that. 

Yeah Elder Thompson's got like 1 transfer left. Elder Marchant is like Elder Thompson. His first name is Braydon. 

I don't know what to write about! 

Love you,

Tab

Hi Dad! 

You are right - most of the weeks go by quickly but generally the length of the day, from my perspective, depends on how hard I work. Sometimes the weather changes things a little bit too. I would say that this week most of the days were pretty short! My new companion is Elder Marchant. He is from Warren, Utah. He is pretty funny. He reminds me quite a lot of Elder Thompson. I get along with him really well and he works hard and I am sure that we will get along very well. I am happy to be his companion. He knows how to contact people, too. 

I was able to watch all of conference. I really enjoyed the talks in the priesthood session. I liked Elder Oaks' and Elder Hallstrom's and Elder Uchtdorf's talks. All of Saturday was great. I was less engaged during the Sunday sessions of conference and so I didn't get as much from those talks. But I will be going back and reading them like you. What was your favorite?

Elder VanWagoner was transferred to East Orange driving! My old area. So I am happy for him and I am sure he is even happier. I talked to him about it after he left. He is going to say hi to all my friends there :)

Sandy Hook is just right up the road from our area! Will you be tutoring him over the internet? Yeah see if you can get us a referral :) maybe he'll take us out to lunch?

I had a difficult time coming up with goals for my consecration contract but I figured it out. I'm not trying to say that I am a perfect missionary, but I really didn't know what to put on the "things to be more obedient" section. I put a few, like having effective studies, keeping lessons to 45 min and writing in my journal more often. And contacting 10 people a day, which we have been doing. Elder Marchant gets down to the nitty gritty and just does it so that has motivated me to talk to more people. He's great. We'll find some good people. 

Well! I can't think of much else to talk about. I like the quote you shared with me -- that was a good talk. So I'll keep at it... I don't want a desolate house!

Love you,

Tab

Cast off.....

Healing nicely!

Staying in Long Branch!

It was great to hear from Tab today! Transfers are this week and he will be staying but will get a new companion. He seems happy and healthy. Love when I get to chat with him! 


Hi Mom! 

You're on. I am on as well! I got the letter on Monday that you sent. I was sad to hear about Andrew Ungerman. 

My week was good! We worked hard and taught lots of people. We got rained on us a bunch and my coat bled blue, staining one of my new shirts :( But it washed out for the most part. I still have 4 more, haha. We had some good people come to church too, including Marcela. She was really nervous it would be awkward but she showed up. We introduced her to the kids her age and then left her alone for the last two hours and it turns out she loved it! So that's good. Something I have improved a lot on my mission is not worrying about things beyond my control or things that I don't have to worry about. Like investigators at church - let the members do the fellowship. That makes sacrament meeting more enjoyable, like it should be.

Yes, I know Britton (hope I spelled that right). Her dad is in the bishopric of the Princeton 2nd Ward. You never mentioned the name of the second girl... but I don't remember anyone by the name of Daniels of the top of my brain. I'm not worried - I don't take bad photos on my mission so it's not possible that you could have showed a bad one. ;) I'm just kidding.

My finger is pretty good. It doesn't really hurt at all, but I can't get full rotation out of it like I used to. It is slowly improving. I can bend it about 90 degrees at the joint where the break was. The occupational therapy is nice and I enjoy it. I have gone twice so far and I have one more appointment next week. The swelling should go down in about 6 months or so.

For transfers, I am staying in Long Branch and Elder VanWagoner is heading out. I have no idea where he will go and I have no idea who will be my new companion! Elder Traasdahl is zone leader in my old zone :( he got transferred in when I got transferred out! I was sad about that. I would have LOVED for him to be my zone leader. It would have been hilarious, especially because his companion is a lot like him. Elder Vargas is in Perth Amboy - and he has been there forever - but he will be transferred this Tuesday. Yes, I miss them. But I talk to them all the time. Being in zone 11 (in a walking area, not to mention) is rough because it is like being isolated from the whole mission. 

I find it crazy that the doctors didn't reset Rorie's arm properly! How does that happen? I guess if they don't charge you extra and it doesn't end up being affected in a noticeable way it wouldn't bug me too bad. And yes I got your package! thank you :)

I like the pictures you send. Nice smile Rorie! that Cubby's looks yummy! is it a sandwich shop? man how new is it? or was it just a hidden guy that's been there for a while? Ahhh man, Gen X closed?! where am I gonna get my white shirts now...? I think they have a location in Salt Lake somewhere.

hey question - how much is a gallon of milk at Days? at the creamery?  Milk here is 1 for 4.50 I HATE NEW JERSEY PRICES!

I am still here till 1:30! eh nothing in mind that i want for Easter, but things to mention for the next time you send treats........

peanut m&ms over peanut butter. I have way too many cashew clusters!

Here's some pictures for you.

Love you too :)

Tab

Hi Dad! 

I did have a good week. I went to OT (occupational therapy, as I came to find out) twice. Two days in a row, actually. The exercises aren't all that unique and so most of them are things I can do at home. The good thing about therapy is that I have nothing to do but the exercises. But at home I get distracted. And there is someone at therapy who can answer all my questions. 10 contacts a day this week was a failure - I averaged about 6 or so. We knocked about 100 doors it seemed. Including on the rainy Saturday. One thing I realized is that I ought to be well prepared for when someone asks to learn about the Book of Mormon right on the doorstep. It happened a few times and I was so unprepared! So maybe that has something to do with it? We did hit 20 lessons, though! Two weeks in a row is pretty good for us. 

According to my memory, about 1 in 7 with a baptismal date ends up getting baptized. I could be way off with that, because some investigators go on and off of a date. Marcela has a very good chance of getting baptized. Rosa does too, but things keep popping up that prevent her from coming to church and they aren't excuses. She has a rough family situation - she is taking care of her daughter's premature child. But she really wants to be baptized.

Yes for transfers I am staying and Elder VanWagoner is going. I have no idea who my new companion will be but he better be good!

I don't have much else to mention... we had a good week and we worked hard and saw some blessings. I presume that many more blessings will come this week. I learned some new things in the scriptures and through prayer that helped give me some motivation. Mostly just to remember who I am and who I represent, regardless of where I serve. 

Thank you for the quote! I love it. I saved it :) 

Love you,

Tab

Here's the quote that Tim sent Tab that he like so much. It's worth posting.........

My brief thought this week comes from Wilford Woodruff: “Now, if you have the Holy Ghost with you – and everyone ought to have – I can say unto you that there is no greater gift, there is no greater blessing, there is no greater testimony given to any man on earth.  You may have the administration of angels, you may see many miracles; you may see many wonders in the earth; but I claim that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon men."

That's a great blessing.

Fellow missionaries

Tab would find some Will Ferrell graffiti!

A little Banksy too.........

going ape

I can move my pinky!

Hi!

Thanks Dad!

I appreciate your letter. I didn't write much to President Jeppson today and so I don't have much to copy and paste for you. But, we had a pretty good week. We had 20 lessons this week, and it has been a while since we have gotten that many. We had some awesome team-ups, too. A Vietnamese brother, Phu Nguyen (Foo Win) came out with us on Tuesday and then had us over for dinner on Thursday. It was fantastic. Sadly, he didn't cook Vietnamese food. One of these days he said he would. He knows what I like ;) Then we had some of the YSA young men come out with us later in the week. Marcela and Rosa have baptismal dates now! Team ups served our area well last week. 

And to get back to you about what pre-missionaries should work on... I have noticed that the most successful missionaries (and the ones who train a lot and become assistants) are farm boys. They know how to work hard. So tell them to know how to work hard! Go tell them to dig some holes or something...... 6 feet wide and 6 feet deep. 

As for a homecoming report, I am not sure! I think that my mission is full of miracles and spiritual experiences, but I don't take the time to sit down and think about them and how much of a blessing it is to be on a mission. I read a talk by Elder Eyring about writing in a journal and got the impression to do better at that. I have only made it through about half of one journal in my 18 months in NJ...

Anyway I need to write to mom. I skipped her last week so she deserves it!

Love you,

Tab 

p.s.

Hahaha I have learned how to work much harder on my mission. I hope it is not necessary for me to go to a farm. We'll see! I think persistence/diligence is the attribute I seek for the most. I just hope I can retain the things I have acquired on my mission. It seems that some of the returned missionaries in the wards I have served in are not much more pious than non-returned missionaries. There are a few who stand out, and I would like to be like that. 

Hi Mom! 

Well stink!  I thought your birthday already passed this week - what day is it? I thought it was the 19th for some reason... 

What happened to Andrew Ungerman? I know last week you told me he was missing and this week you said he had a funeral. If you know and would like to share, I would like to know.

So this week was pretty good. I think I got the dino paper this week. Maybe that was last week. The periods have been passing quickly. Thanks for the photos! I like when you send them!

I have a letter partially written for you and for the Rasbands. I got my splint off and so it is much easier for me to write. I can move my pinky just enough to grasp a golf club. But I was told I should get back to 80/90 percent flexibility with rehab. I haven't gone in yet... wednesday I will be going. 

Ahhhhh SLAB! ooh they do numbers now! did they expand? 

Nice Colby! haha tell him to keep it up. Work hard!

<3 Love you,

Tab

Wanna see pictures of my stitches?

Here are Tab's emails from this week. It was a bit hodge podge but I'll take what I can get. He seems to be doing fine. He better be glad I love him so much or else I would be mad that he just leaves me hanging.......

Hi mom! 

Wanna see pictures of my stitches? I bet you don't. I'll send you a picture anyway! It is doing fine! it doesn't move that much because I have a splint on it still and I haven't moved it in so long. But, physical therapy starts on Thursday. That should help a lot. Everything is going good.

Well, I sent Regan an email! I just said hi though. Since I still have a splint on it is still difficult for me to type. So it will be another shorty email week. Sorry! I may just write a letter home cause my companion is wanting to go. 

Oh nevermind - he went with someone else. He wanted to pick up a package at the UPS store. But I have time now for a moment!

Yeh! I was going to answer your Q's though - the thing in the x-rays is a pen and some little metal thing I assume. He just used those to keep my finger in place. I'll write back some more later today. just gimme a minute....

Love,

Tab

Hi Dad,

this is an excerpt from my letter to President Jeppson (it's easier than writing something different...):

"It was a better week than last! I would guess that is because of the contacting. I had a cool experience with my district leader, Elder Beus, on Tuesday. While on exchange, we contacted a lot of people and it helped that it was a really warm day. Lots of people were outside. We talked to a man who was at the bus stop but he wasn't interested so we gave him a card and left. About an hour later, after walking out of an appointment, a woman across the street waved us down and told us, "start teaching me." We taught the lesson right there on the sidewalk. After we got to know her a little bit and taught her the about the Book of Mormon I asked her why she called us over. She told us that she had seen us earlier talking to the man at the bus stop and so she became curious. She wanted to know who we were and what we were doing! I am thankful we were lead to see her again. She even asked to come to church yesterday. Sadly, she doesn't live in our area :( , but the Neptune sisters are now teaching her. That was our contacting miracle for the week. 

Even in the short time that we have been doing it, I feel that contacting has given my whole mission more direction and promise. It has given me motivation that I needed.

Now, to overcome the initial fear of making the first contact of the day. The more people I contact, the better the day goes. I think it would be a good idea to set a goal to make a contact within 15 minutes of leaving the apartment. I enjoy working with Elder VanWagoner. He is an obedient missionary. 

When I was companions with Elder Priest (what a guy) we both contributed at leading out in basically every phase of missionary work. For example, it was much easier for me to contact when he was doing it and it was easier for him to contact when I was doing it. We talked about how it was a strength of our companionship. I had a similar experience with Elder Thompson. They are fantastic missionaries. (end)

Quoting myself like a boss. 

Thanks for the message. I liked that last little part by President Coolidge. Enduring to the end is what I need to do! It is what you need to do too, ha. As for what you should teach Colby, my first thought was to get him to read the Book of Mormon and/or read it with him. I have some other things on the brain but I will give it more thought and bring it up next week. Getting a testimony of the Book of Mormon was something I wish I would have done earlier. Also, tell him to pay attention in seminary. With the little attention I paid to my teachers, I learned more through seminary than anything else. 

A new president at BYU! To be honest, President Samuelson's voice always drove me crazy at the devotionals, and I didn't know him at all. 

Other than that, I don't have much to write about! Have a great week.

Love you,

Tab

This is it!

It's straight again!

These are all the scriptures we have between E Vanwagoner and myself.