Monday, February 24, 2014

Lean in Handshake, aka:Sobriety Test

Hi Mom,
So yeah, Dad was not really impressed with those silly photos, and I can't really say I blame him... Sometimes me and Elder X can be a little immature when we are together... and that was the first time we had seen each other in a while.  So yeah. But it's ok, we are working on our weaknesses.

So good news, I've got a person on date for baptism this week and another for the next. We also have a lot of other good investigators as well who will start progressing too.

But really, I just need to tell you one cool story.  So last night Elder T (btw he is 2 meters tall and he is legit.  He plays college bball) and I went to a ward activity where we had investigators who came! On the way home we were passing along our numbers to the zone leaders.  Then suddenly a guy stopped us on the road and told us that he saw "light" in us and that he wanted to change his ways and join our church. This guy was saying everything that missionaries love to hear.  It was so crazy that Elder T and I thought he was joking! So we taught him real fast.  Then we prayed with him, and when I shook his hand before parting I leaned in to see if he smelled like alcohol and he was totaly sober.  The spirit was telling me that this guy was for real. When we were walking away, I turned to Elder T and told him that he should probably call the zone leaders back and tell them that our numbers just changed.

I went to the park with Elder B today.  Thats why im emailing so late. but it was tons of fun. I love Elder B to death. 
A more impressive silly photo


SHOUT OUT TO JESSIE!!!! 

Love Elder Tagg

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Bringing Somebody to Christ

Wow it was Audrey's birthday! and Valentines day!

So I just got transfered to Planalto! the RICHEST area in the mission! It was super strange coming from 'Babalon' Eldorado.

But that's not the best part because ELDER BLAKE IS IN MY DISTRICT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my comp is a district leader named Elder Taylor.

So Planalto is cool there are a lot of predios (a taller multi-story building--sky scraper like). I don't have as many investigators as I used to and it is WAY bigger. We walk a lot. 

I had photos of me and Elder Taylor (my new comp), but the computers are not loading them so grr. Next week though.

Right after I emailed last week, Elder Witham and I went to go visit Beth (the smoker). When we told her I was leaving she just got super sad. After like 20 minutes of talking I shared like a two sentence message and I just told her not to let anything stop her from making it home to her Heavenly Father and then she started BAWLING HER FREAKING EYES OUT. Then when Elder Witham and I were walking down the road away from her house, I STARTED CRYING. I have never cried like that before. Elder Witham told me that I had made an impact on this area and that I wouldn't be forgoten. I learned right then and there that numbers and baptizms are not the way you measure your success, but it is the impact you make on people's lives. It's about the progress. I only baptized one person in my last area, but I learned that I had done all I was there to do. I think the reason I had never cried like that was because I had never felt the joy of bringing somebody unto Christ before.


Well that's all,

tchau!

The TAGG

found this gem on Elder Blake's Blog!
These guys are silly!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Transfer of Miracles!

Hi Mom,

Trasfers!!!

So guess who's going district leader?!?!  That's right Elder Wi! ...aaaand I'm leaving to go who knows where. I'm staying a jr companion.

But anyways this has been one of the most insane transfers ever.  The Diadema Zone is splitting and half of the pairs of Elders are not changing.  In addition to being a DL Elder Wi is going to be companions with a zone leader! Most zone leaders are companions with other zone leaders.  It's crazy weird! Elder T is also leaving and another  zone leader will be taking his place. So really just super weird stuff is going on. Oh, and our zone leader elder Wo is going AP!  It's way sweet. Honestly though, I wouldn't mind staying jr companion for my whole mission. I think I'll train next transfer though. Oh, and Elder J. So is in Serraria and he is going to have 2 jr companions! That will be interesting.

This week we had some of the most insane miracles. We had so many lessons fall through, so we were at a loss for a long time. Then one day we had a lesson fall through and we were all like, "who was that one girl we talked to like three weeks ago?" So we both start looking through our planners and we can't find this lady in either of our planners and then all of a sudden we hear a "Oi Élderes!" and we look up and its HER! But yeah so that kind of thing happened like three times that day we were freeeeaaaking out.

So I have no clue where I'm going... but I will go. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing.... but I will do. I feel like Nephi right now. This next transfer we were going to have so many baptisms start flowing in, but it looks like I'll be missing out on that... I don't know who my next companion is, but I hope he likes to work hard! Because if not, he's about to get smashed! 

I've really learned a lot this last transfer. I learned that success is not measured by numbers, I learned that true missionary work is more than just obedience and hard work, its so much more than that. 

This next transfer will be a transfer of miracles! 

Love Elder Tagg

Monday, February 3, 2014

Falling Asleep in EQ

Hi Mom,
To answer your questions; 
I love the food, my favorite is açai, and my least favorite is I don't know.
Yes I am staying in shape. I walk like 30 Kilometers a day up a mountain.
No, I don't still have those stupid pants.  They are in Washington right now... somewhere...
We have a lot of Investigators. M and L, G and N, R, B, F, K, R, T, Se, & Sa.  We also do a lot of less active work. 

Ma.. and Lu.. are a couple who are living together unmarried. They are the hardest people to work with ever. We baptized their daughter D, and they keep saying that they want to be baptized as well.  But they keep coming up with excuses to not get married and to keep drinking coffee.

Gu.. and Ni.. are another unmarried couple. They are getting married on the 20th, baptized on the 21st, and confirmed on the 22nd. They have no problems they already stopped drinking coffee and alcohol and come to church every week.   

Be.. Is an elect person.  There is the fact that she can't stop smoking, and needs to get divorced from her ex-husband and then re-married to the person she is living with. Lots of trouble. But she is on date for Easters. We just helped her cut her down to 20 cigs a day, so we'll see how that goes. We also finally got to talk to her "husband" and we got him on board to help her with her goals. He's going to stop smoking with her. 

Ro... is a nice lady. But she needs to get divorced and then re marry as well. Her husband is not the nicest person. She is thinking about just leaving him. She really just needs to know that this is the path that she must take. She has a crazy chihuahua! 

Yeah, that's all I'll tell you about today.

This week has been awesome. We saw a bunch of drug deals go down. And guns. And street fights. Carnival is about to start so people are already a little crazy.

Yesterday during Elders quorum meeting the Catholic Church down the road decided set off like 5,000 fireworks and it seriously went on for more than 10 minutes. We couldn't hear each other. It's okay as I have a problem with falling asleep in Elders quorum. 

We teach this inactive family of Chileans. they speak Portuguese mixed with Spanish. 'Tis not hard to understand. Seriously, learning Portuguese was way harder than learning Spanish. People who speak Spanish are so easy to understand. Brazilians have the most difficult accents ever. They don't even hardly understand each other.

Love 
Elder Tagg

PS I have no photos

*Below is an exchange between my husband and Nathan.  They have a new deal... a mission story for a mission story*

Dear Elder Tagg,

Hello my great son!  I hope this email finds you happy and healthy in the service of The Lord.  
Your last letter reminded me of my very first day in the mission field.  My trainer had only 2 months left on his mission when we were put together.  We were assigned to Pasadena, TX and were both brand new to the area. 
We were dropped off at the apartment and found it to be a bit of a dive.  As we were checking things out, we looked in the pantry and found a giant rat sitting atop the canned goods.  This thing was HUGE! As soon as it saw us, it jumped down and scampered across the floor and into a hole in the corner of the room.  We were both totally freaked out.  It was the size of an alley cat!  My companion decided that he was going to kill it and so started carrying his Crocodile-Dundee sized knife around with him everywhere.  We set out traps and called the landlord but we never caught it.  I think we saw it 2 or 3 more times total.  I guess it just decided to leave us alone.

l hate rats.  Disease-ridden varmints!

Alright Daddy-O. I will tell you a mission story.

One time in Everett me and Elder R(my trainer) were walking down the street and there was this homeless guy messing around with some socks in a rock garden thing. (By the way we were not allowed to baptize homeless people anymore since some missionaries abused that privilege. Probably about 30 percent of the homeless people in our mission are inactive members). So we stopped to talk to him. We asked him what he was doing and he was just all like (with his sad homeless voice) "Well, would you believe, that SOME of these rocks have letters on them!!! and I think if I can find all the letters, and if I can decode the message, it can help me find my wife and KIDS!!!!!" Then he started talking about aliens.  Poor guy.

Love you Dad 

Elder Tagg