My Family Means the World to Me!

           I love you so much! My family means the world to me! Mom, you mean the world to me. This is strange, and I am not joking, but I AM NOT IN NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND. Yes. This is what happened. It was Wednesday night and transfer meetings were on Thursday - the next day. I was packed all ready to go, around 10:30 pm. As I was going to bed around 11:00, we got a phone call from someone. Elder Campbell and I both ignored it, and didn’t bother to check who it was. No more than 20 seconds later the phone went off again. Frustrated, I got up to see who in the world was calling us at 11:00 at night. I picked up the phone -and of course it was President Packard!  President Packard told me I was getting transferred, not to Newport, Rhode Island, but to Revere, Massachusetts. I was confused. President Packard explained that a couple of elders in the Revere area couldn’t drive for various reasons, so they needed another elder there who could drive, and they had to do an emergency transfer because of the situation. President Packard told me I was the one who needed to be there and I would be finishing the training of my new companion, Elder Wright. Time wise, we are the youngest companionship in the mission. I have been out only 6 weeks more than Elder Wright. The senior missionaries told me later that they were there when President Packard found out about the situation and he knew instantly who needed to go to Revere. No questions asked. So, I KNOW I am supposed to be in Revere, and I LOVE IT. Revere is most excellent.

My new companion, Elder Wright, is the man with the plan! Elder Wright is LITERALLY the Da Vinci of calculus. He is from Gilbert, Arizona. He is part of the new 18 year-old wave. He is 6 feet 3 inches tall, a dynamic state champion volleyball player, and very talented in all realms of life – and he is an absolutely phenomenal missionary. We are excited to work together. The work here in Revere is THRIVING. We are teaching many people who have a desire to join the church. The Revere Ward is phenomenal. About 40% of the ward is made up of young couples who are attending dental school at Tufts College. They are always coming and going, but the families are most excellent. We have 10 missionaries in our district. And we live with another companionship. They are Spanish speaking elders -- Elder Pitcher and Elder Compos. Elder Compos is from Peru and is high- lar- i- ous. He sounds like Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.

The time always flies when I’m writing these e-mails.  One story, real quick -- because I have other e-mails to write. This week we were teaching a referral. Half way through the lesson he got a call that his elderly mother had fallen down and hurt herself and was bleeding. They live 15 minutes away from each other, so he asked if we would come over and help him out. So we arrived at his mother Holly’s house, and she was up and no longer bleeding – and she was really happy we had come. We talked for 5 minutes in her living room and she asked us if we could say a pray of thanks for her being safe. I then offered to give her a priesthood blessing instead. After our brief explanation about what that was, she was enthused to have one. We laid our hands on her head and the words of God came to me, telling Holly that she would recover faster than she thought. After we closed in the name of Jesus Christ, she slowly turned back to me with a surprised face. She looked me directly in the eyes and said, “As soon as you closed that special prayer, my neck and head instantly stopped hurting. I loved that prayer, thank you.” Then we invited Holly to church. She came yesterday and had read the first 20 pages of the Book of Mormon. We are teaching her later this week. God truly does prepare people to hear his Son’s message. I love this Gospel. It is true. I know it is true. This is the church of Jesus Christ. Until next time --

Elder Tait

2 years. Make it count.

My new address:

12 Lowell Street

Revere, MA  02151