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!

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

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

United in the Work

Mom,
I'm doing great down here! Yeah sorry I will try to write more. Elder Witham and I are really starting to hone our teaching skills. Missionary work is so enjoyable when both companions are united in the work.

Last P-day when I was getting ready for bed, I thought I saw something black scurry across the floor under our suitcases.  Then the next day when we got home we heard chewing sounds coming from Vila Paulina's room. (thats the other area in our apartment). Then when the Vila Paulina Elders got home we found out that there was a rat in their dresser so we start doing erythang we could to get the sucker to come out so we could kill it! Then Elder Tavares goes and gets his deodorant spray and a lighter and starts spraying flames into the freaking dresser! Then he stops and we were all just standing there when the freaking rat comes running out of the dresser trying to make a break for it,  Man that sucker was FAST! We all start flippin' out. I realized that I was the only one wearing shoes... so I stepped on it.... yeah it was really gross.

Pictures!

the victim!

4 posing Elders

I Am So Happy

Mom,

Holy crud you like to write! I feel like that lady from the first Despicable Me, (I love reading...) 

Thanks for the advice about focusing on my mission. I will be sure to continue doing what I'm doing :)

But anyways, me and Elder Witham are doing great. We walk a lot and teach a lot. We have too many people we are teaching to talk about all of them. But I'm doing well, I'm healthy, the members feed us a ton and I am so happy.... and I speak Portuguese.

Love Elder Tagg

The following was an excerpt from his awesome companion's email who is so upbeat in his letters.  So thankful this guy is Nathan's companion...

"Our Bishop is on fire, really young and brand new and has a ton of awesome Ideas for missionary work. he has already given assignments in the ward for almost all of our investigators and we are now starting to do a missionary themed activity every 15 days! That is unheard of, that is what every missionary dreams of having. I hope that I can make the best of this great blessing.

So pretty much the whole week we hadnt been able to see our super amazing investigator cleiton, which is really bad because we are supposed to keep in daily contact with our people with baptism dates. But because he works a ton and we had a bunch of meeting this week we didnt get to. anyway we go to his house on saturday and to be honest i was a little worried because we hadnt talked to him in so long. But I said a prayer in my heart as we were walking in that we could both teach by the spirit and the member that was with us could say the right things. ANd of course that prayer was answered, as always, incredibly spiritual lesson where we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Raimundo, the member was PERFECT for him. so the craziest part of that visit was when I asked him if he had read and prayed about the book of Mormon. He told me that he had been praying to know if this is the right path for him and that one day he was at work (works in a hospital) and he was at the desk when a random girl walks up to him and gives him a note that read "God loves you, and will always give you what you need when you need it" (that wasnt a very good translation but it more or less said that) HELLO!!! answer to prayers are real! He showed me the note and he said that when he read that note he felt the spirit very strong. So did I. I have no idea who that girl was and neither does he, but I know that she was acting as an instrument in Gods hands. It was so crazy that that happened on that day because that morning I had studdied about the book of mormon and recommitted myself to rely on the promise that moroni gives " And by the power of the Holy Ghost, you may know the truth of all things" If you felt the spirit while reading that, that is the Heavenly Father testifying to you that these things are true. I know God doesnt lie and he always will inspire to do good. I know that His Sons Church is good.

SO to end off that story, I will tell you something more that I learned. SO we go there on sunday with the stake president to visit him, Turns out that he doesnt live in our are....ahhhhhh!!! we cant teach him anymore and we might not see his baptism. He lives at the very edge of our area and one side of the street is our area and the other is a different ward. I was very down at first that I wouldnt get to see him baptized but I recieved comfort through the Spirit that this work was never about me, it was all about helping Cleiton. The other elders are great and I am so grateful that he has found the true church and that he will one day be able to return home to his father in heaven. 

We also had a lot of our other people at church that need to get married. WE have a marriage and baptism date for one of them for the 20th of febuary. really awsome family named gilliarme and nice. Love them and they have such a funny kid named samuel that is about the same age that oliver was when I left. They are really excited to be baptized as well."

We also got  this letter and these photos from Nathan's mission president

January 13, 2014

Dear families of missionaries,

We are sending a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year note to you, along with some photos of the Christmas Conferences we had the week before Christmas.

We had missionary training, a scriptural Christmas program with amazing musical talent, a delicious lunch and other yummy treats, and a service project.  It was a joy to be with these delightful missionaries.  We always marvel at their great abilities, their many talents, their willingness and diligence in this work, and the goodness of their lives.

We love this sacred season when we remember the birth of our Savior.  Our hearts are filled with gratitude to be able to serve together with your sons and daughters, sharing our testimonies of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His gospel to the earth. 

We hope you have had a special Christmas and that you will have a wonderful new year.  We pray constantly for our missionaries and for you, their families.

With love and gratitude,

President and Sister Tanner

He's not in this one 

Where's Waldo? Can you see him?

Searching for the Elect

Wow Mom!  You are a super stalker dawg.

My new companion is doing great. Today is his birthday. We are working really hard and we are really seeing success.  We would be baptizing like crazy right now but ALL of our investigators (we have 19) need to get married. All of them. So they will just have to wait until February I guess. Oh well my friends.

I got to see Elder Blake. He's like my best friend. I saw him at transfers. You know what I think would be funny is if when Elder Kennedy or Elder Palmer get down here if I get to be their trainer. That would be way radical.

My Portuguese fluent now. I dream in Portuguese, I think in Portuguese, I even sneeze in Portuguese!  

tchau tchau atê logo, (bye bye, later)

Elder Tagg

*so I (Nathan's Mom) caught Elder Tagg online and asked for more details for perhaps a missionary story....I also asked what he'd like for his birthday. I got this response from him*

Mahm!!!! I don have time to tell you a missionary story! I have to pay for time here so sorry if my letters are getting shorter... but Ize gotz no moneys.

I'm not done writing people and I will definitely get to Dad.

and I want purple ties, and a new set of socks. Preferably not wool, like the ones that I have now. They are way too hot.

luh Elder Tagg

 Nathan's companion writes great letters!  Here are Elder Witham's words:

"This week was full of these experiences, realizing just how much prayers have been answered. There is a new rule in the mission that investigators have to go to church 3 times before they can be baptized. We have a ton of investigators that have been coming to church and have testimonies and are so ready for baptism, but they need to get married. all of our most solid investigators need to get married. (litterally we have 6 couples that are living together and that need to get married) Here in Brazil it is a really stupid unorganized process that you have to go through to get married and it takes anywhere from 15 days to 3 months. So none of our solid investigators could get baptized this month. But we really want a baptism for January and in order for that to happen the person would have to come to church the next 3 Sundays which are the last 3 Sundays of the month. So if we were going to find a baptism for this month we had to find the prepared person last week. We worked so hard to find this person that the Lord had prepared for us the whole week. I was praying so hard that we could find someone. We worked so hard, talking to everyone, visiting every potential and all of the formal investigators that we could and inviting everyone to be baptized on the 26 of January and litterally no one was accepting or they had other problems that made it so they couldn't be baptized in three weeks. We needed to find an elect. So finally, Saturday comes and we go and visit this guy named Cleiton that we had met last week and we taught him the restoration and after explaining the promise that he could know these things are true for himself, we invited him to be baptized on the 26th and he accepted!!! And he came to church yesterday!!! Obviouslly I dont know how it will go from here, but the point is, that God answered our prayers, as He always will so long as we trust in him enough to keep going in faith. Cleiton is a really awesome guy that really is ready for this in his life. He is humble and loves the Lord. Please keep him in your prayers so that he can be baptized and enter into the kindom of God and one day return home.

Nathan's "Awesome" companion Elder Witham

Searching for the elect

New Companion!

Hi Mom,

This week has been great!  I got a new companion named Elder Witham.  He is way cool.  We are working way hard now and we are seeing miracles happen every day.  Elder Witham is from Provo and he has 17 brothers and sisters.  (He's one of 18).  Nine are adopted.  He doesn't know your family or any of that jazz, but his family owns a Mexican restaurant called Los Hermanos.  Maybe you've been there before?  Whatever.  He is very organized and he has an irrational fear of cotton.  He's awesome.
Bye,
Love Elder Tagg

This photo is not Elder Witham but another old friend of Nathan's from the MTC named Elder Blake.  

I swiped this photo (and heard about the reunion) on Elder B's blog.

Elder Blake and Elder Tagg.  I heard there was tackling at this reunion!