Totally Crackalakin

Yo Mohm

So dis week was like totaly crackalakin!

Anyways. so yes I did read your whole email. As to question about if the Kirbys can come down with you when you come to get me, yes. The answer is yes. It will never be no. I have no clue if there is a rule against them coming. But fer real I don't think there should be a problem with them coming down if you guys are already coming. As for your question about when, that is a little more complicated. So the thing is that I am not planning on extending a whole transfer, just a few weeks... it all depends on when R gets sealed. 

So In my head this is how it's all going to happen... my last transfer happens, I will be put in a trio or hang around with the secretaries for a few weeks, then I go to the temple with President or whatever companion I'm with at the time and I meet up with R for his sealing. Then you guys meet me in the celestial room with R. then President vai me desobrigar (releases me?) and we can do some visits and stuff and then we go to the airport and then you guys take me home. 

So the soonest that this could possibly happen would be the 13th of July because that would be one year after R's baptism. So if I were you guys I would just put that as the date of travel if it ends up being another week or so that would just be you guys's time to do some touring. But we won't know until we start getting close to that time. 

But yeah I have a meeting with President tomorrow so I will be sure to talk to him about all this jazz.

Love

Elder Tagg

PS (when I caught him online I asked him to tell me about his week, this was his response..) Oh yeah sorry Mom.

So this week has been great we worked hard (well at least I did...) and we got work done. and I got an amazing jacket from a member! It's from the world cup of 2010! And its authentic! Team brazil used them in all their entrances!

Your Firstborn in the Wilderness

Dear Mom

So this week was rather normal. I renewed my covenants, walked a lot, ate rice and beans. Stuff like that. This area really has a lot of untapped potential.

So I think it's time I explained my area a little bit better... So my area has the shape like unto a giant hourglass - which makes it RETARDED to navigate. Many precious hours are lost walking from one side to another. On one side is this gianormagous favela called Esperança - witch is so big its actually several favelas put in one. There's plenty of hills and gangs and drugs so that's dandy. We have a lot of investigators that do not progress there. The other side of our area has a ton of buildings and suburban areas, and the capela. we are trying to get out of Esperança and into this area. It's a tough transition and our success has been slow, but once it opens up right it'll be gravy.

But that's were we are at right now. Pretty dang exciting.

Love vocês! (you guys)

Élder Tagg

Artwork by a convert.  He hasn't given it to Elder Tagg yet

Free Masons

Queridissima mom,

So yeah I did talk to My Mission President about all that jazz (side note: us coming to pick him up at the end of his mission). He said that you guys would be able to come and get me here. We will work out the details later but for now I would start working on the visa stuff if I was you.

Oh and yeah I freaking baptized M! (someone who befriended me on Facebook) He's my future missionary!

But anyways this week was good. We were thrown in to a bunch of tight situations this week. One drunk guy stopped us on the road today and started saying all this random stuff. He started trying to tell us that we were worthless blah blah blah so  we stood there and listed to him make a fool of himself for a good 10 minutes, it was a good laugh.

Drunk people are crazy.

We had a moment of pride on Sunday when we got to church, there was a small group of Sumos and the Bishop standing in the doorway discussing the situation of one of the inactives in the ward named E. they were saying things like "we need to send the Elders to his house"  "We need him active in the ward again." Then I showed up with him and his equaly inactive wife, right in front of the Bishop and Sumos. (oh by the way Sumo means High Preist.) and the Ward Mission Leader. BOOYAH!  They were all like "hmm yes... the Elders are working very well..." "Yes I see them doing contacts in the favela" "Fine work ma' boys!" 

So yeah I had to really struggle to not let that one go to my head. 

But anyways today I'm going to have lunch with this guy in our ward who SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER smart he knows SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER deep doctrine and has already taught me a ton. He's a free mason, but he's inactive in the Free Masons. On the mission I have developed an increasingly large interest in free masonry. Did you know Joseph Smith was a mason? so was Brigham Young!

Maybe one day I will be one ... who knows?  You have to be invited.

Elder Tagg

Elder Tagg's Face

Today on Facebook a young artist named Matheus befriended me and sent me this portrait of my missionary son.  I am overwhelmed!  So wonderful to see that face.  So choice for this young man to share his talent with me.  Anyone can snap a photo.  This means so much more.  THANK YOU!!

Elder Tagg portrait by Matheus Misquita

Family Letters back and forth

Dear Nathan,

I hope you are having a great time on your mission.  I have been having a lot of fun lately.  
We went to the beach and I got a T shirt and some toys. Audrey and I are planning to 
have our own rooms when Evan leaves for college.  I can't wait!  I will have the bigger room.  

Summer is almost over.  We are going on another vacation in 2 weeks.  We will go to Utah.  
We are going to see a play called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.  
I can't wait.  It's gonna be a lot of fun. 

So what have you been up to?  I miss you.  

Love E

PS we just had a party to celebrate Evan getting his eagle.  My favorite part was the food.  We had bacon!  

Hey!

Wow you guys are going on a lot of vacations! Luckies! 

I like bacon too. (But im getting too fat for bacon)

Love ya

Elder Tagg

Helloooooooo Nathan TROY Tagg the 2nd

What is UP?  Do you like your new companion?  I said that last time but you 
didn't answer so I'm asking again.  

My favorite game on Mom's iPod is Plants vs Zombies. It's pretty dang exciting.  
Basically you plant the plants and the zombies are trying to eat the plants and 
take over the board.  You are trying to prevent that.  

I like pizza.  We got new grill with a pizza stone and it makes pretty dang good
pizza.  Drew wants us to make ribs.  What kind of food are you eating in Brazil

Love ya miss ya 

A

PS write me back again.  I loved that

Hey!

Yeah I know that game! I used to play it too. I actually beat it!  It is a lot of fun.
Here in brazil I eat a lot of rice and beans and avocados and mangos and bananas.
(Did you know that there are like 8 different kinds of bananas? I thought they were all
just bananas).  The milk here is gross. So I always buy this stuff called toddy, or nescau,
which is chocolate powder to put in milk. 

Pizza here is waaaay different. I also like coxinhas, bolinhas de queijo.
(translation: drumsticks, cheese balls) stuff like that.

And my comp is awesome!

Love you!

Elder Tagg

Dear Nathan

Hi brother.  How's things?  I played Millionaire's Hoedown for the court of honor.  
I pretty much knocked it out of the park.  How are you doing on your mission?

How is your area?  Stuff like that.

I miss you.

Love, D

Hey D,

Things is good.

If you aren't better than me at the violin by the time that I get back, you better be ready
fer a spankin! I am doing good on mission.

My area has a lot of hills.

The other day I was looking through the hymn book in portuguese and there is a song
in there called "santo! santo! santo!" (see if you can translate that) (means Holy Holy Holy)
It remindered me of you.

Te love!

Elder Tagg!

Hi Nathan 

How is my missionary son doing this week?  I hope you are getting along okay and working 
hard to make those miracles happen.  Sorry to hear about your companion having difficulty.  
I think it's a real compliment when a mission president gives you a struggling companion.  
He has placed you in a position to help.  I know you can do it- hang in there Elder.  It sounds 
like you are coming up with ways to make missionary work less hard for him.  Use your creative 
mind for good.  Be obedient and all will turn out for the best.  Obedience+ Faith= Power.  
A little something I picked up at a wedding ceremony once by a Mr Ralph Bradley.  
(it was actually my wedding).  

SO things here have been crazy busy with Evan's court of honor on Saturday morning.  
We had the gym all decorated and set up the night before with tables chairs and a few centerpieces 
but as I left I just thought it could be better with more interesting decorations. I couldn't really 
purchase anything fancy at that point and I was tearing the house apart all day looking for those 
blasted stuffed eagle toys I bought for your court of honor with no luck.  So I had a stroke of genius 
and decided to make camping be my theme.  I brought a boat load of stuff like sleeping bags, 
air mattress, lanterns, hiking boots, mess kits, MREs, rain poncho, compass, on and on.  I pretty 
much went crazy with camping decor.  It turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself.  Drew played 
so well on his violin.  The slide show was awesome (but too long).  The food was bagels from 
Einstiens.  It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun.

We had a non member neighbor there with some sweet missionary contact in line for the food.  
Brother L swooped in on her pretty good too.  So that was nice.

My brother Eric started chemotherapy this week.  It turned out that his deeper tissue samples 
all came up positive for osteosarcoma.  Not good.  They offered to give him just comfort care but 
he's not ready to give up without a fight.  They are turning over every stone to look for treatment 
options.  He blogged about having faith the size of a mustard seed.  

We all fasted for Eric today- it was a pleasure.  Fasting for me is so much easier when I have 
a good cause.  

Well I hope you are not too bummed about this news.  All will be well.  I believe this.  

I love Nathan.  He's awesome.  Keep up the good work. The church is true.  I know it with 
all my heart.  I bore my testimony today.  The spirit was strong.  Fight the good fight and win Elder.

Love you the most

Mom

Hi Mahm!

So my comp is staying! And he's doing a lot better! I have to encourage him every day. One thing Sister Broadbent said to me was that sometimes your goals are different with some companions... like sometimes your goal isn't to get your companion up at 6:30 but to get him up in the first place. That really hit me, she told me a few stories about her daughters who served. It made me understand a lot about how to love my companion. 

But anyways I baptized this dude! (ok I know it wasnt me who baptized him I had almost nothing to do with it.  It was the Lord who did all the work. I am just a tool in the hands of the Lord. The glory is not mine but that of Christ I know I know I know. I just said it was me who baptized him to avoid having to explain all this, but then I felt bad so I ended up just typing this all out anyways and it was a huge waste of time)

The Lord did all the work

Dear Elder Tagg,

I hope you had a great week.  This week has been tough on several fronts.  We found out that uncle Eric's tumor is back.  It has gone behind his eye and into his brain.  It is inoperable and he's already had the maximum amount of radiation.  Things to do not look good.  He is going to start chemotherapy yet again to try to fight the tumor.  

Mom has been especially sad and teary.  We held a special fast for him today.  I feel that our Father in Heaven knows us personally and hears our prayers.  They are not always answered as we would like to have them answered but they are heard and will be answered by a kind an loving Father in Heaven for our eternal welfare.  

Evan's eagle court of honor was held on Saturday morning.  There was a good turn out.  We had Einstein bagels and Panera pastries.  I presented him with the eagle award just as I had done for you.  Do you remember the Eagle Neckerchief I presented you?  Well since you left it, we decided to make it a tradition that father would hand it down to son.  I presented it to Evan and will present it to Drew too hopefully.  Mom made a fantastic slide show for Evan and I really felt the spirit watching it.  He leaves in 9 days for Utah State.  I don't think he really knows what he's getting himself into but I hope he figures it out quick.  I will really miss him.  

Drew and I went home teaching today.  He gave the lesson.  He taught about reaping what we sow.  There was a great story by Elder Uchdorf about a seed seller who received a call from a customer that the seeds were not growing properly (this is only part of the story).  The customer was upset because the seeds were growing zucchini instead of pumpkins.  The clerk checked in the records and found that the customer had been sold zucchini seeds and not pumpkin seeds.  The customer replied something like "yes but I planted them in the pumpkin patch".  You can't grow pumpkins from zucchini seeds no matter how you cut it.  What a great lesson.  We reap what we sow.  

Continue to sow seeds of hard work, faith, obedience, and testimony Nathan.  Let your mind be single to the work.  

I love you dearly.  I pray for you every day.

Love,

Daddy-O

Hey Dad, its your son

Sadly I am running out of time because I took some time to write the rest of the fam today. But I am truly upset to hear about Eric. But I konw it will be alright. He's a fighter.

Love

Elder Tagg