A Transfer!

Sorry Mom! I only have a few minutes to spare! I want to quickly talk about how special Frank's baptism was. Mother I could strongly feel the presence of the Holy Ghost. Frank has changed so much. It was one of the best baptisms ever. That 76 year-old man has changed! It was the simplest, yet most powerful baptismal service I have been to. He has really touched my life. You can tell the man will do anything to get back to his wife and daughter. After he was baptized, Bishop Romano gave some closing comments that touched Frank’s heart. He was laughing; he was crying - the whole nine yards. He makes me laugh. That funny man. We will always be the “bestest” of friends with Frank. The influence of the Holy Ghost can’t be taken for granted. When we recognize the Holy Ghost it gives us the motivation and diligent desire to come closer to Christ. 

I am being transferred! I leave tomorrow for Cambridge where I’ll be in the Longfellow 1st Ward. I’m really bummed to be leaving Elder Calvert.  It’s tough – but these things happen.  We will always be bros.  I know we will stay in frequent contact.

Also, I will be sending a large amount of boxes home of things from my mission. Some of it may appear to be garbage to you, BUT PLEASE DO NOT THROW ANY OF IT AWAY! Thank you mom! Sorry I won't be able to send an e-mail to everyone! I love you Mom!

Special Occasions and the Celtics!

This week we had a bunch of special occasions. We were able to go to the temple twice this week which was amazing. The first time we went with the youth to do baptisms for the dead. The second time we went to go through the temple with the Conklins. They were baptized a year ago and went through the temple for the first time on Saturday. They were also sealed on Saturday. It was the first time I have ever been to a sealing and wow, it was incredible. What an amazing opportunity we have to be sealed with our families for time and all eternity. Afterwards, Brother Conklin said that it was the best day of his life. So exciting!!! The Conklins are so awesome. They are such a great example to me.

We had some other cool things going on this week. On Thursday, we went down to the Celtics Practice Facility! YEAH! TOO COOL. Life dream come true. There are some sister missionaries in our mission who are in charge of what is called the Portable Visitor's Center. They go around the mission to special events and have a bunch of displays set up with iPads that show videos on different subjects of the gospel. So, they asked if they could interview Elder Calvert (who plays basketball for BYU) and take some film of him playing ball. Brother Ainge hooked us up and let us do it in the Celtics facility! It was pretty sweet! They asked Elder Calvert about his life with basketball and also about the Word of Wisdom and how it has been a blessing in his life. It was pretty darn fun. They said they are using it for one of the displays. I helped the Sisters with the filming and will also edit the video. We also got some film of us shooting around together. It was a cool opportunity and I’m glad I was able to help! 

Elder Calvert and I had a really good week as far as the work goes as well. We had a lot of things going on outside of our normal proselyting this week, but we still managed to have some good experiences. I think the most exciting thing is the change in Frank Tower. He has allowed the gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ to transform him. I am a witness of what the gospel can do when people fully immerse themselves in it. It changes lives and changes hearts. I am so grateful for the gospel and for the Savior. Each of us has an opportunity to change because of Him. 

A Real Hoot

This week has been a real hoot. I'll begin with the marshmallow war.

Elder Calvert and I were at Bishop Romano's house with his family having dinner. We had a great lesson about the teamwork of Alma and Amulek in The Book of Mormon. Afterwards the Romanos were having the young men come over for mutual and to have a marshmallow war using small PVC pipes with mini-marshmallows for shooting. They handed Elder Calvert and me some pipe guns and we decided we could get some wiggles out for 10 minutes. So, it was our last round playing with the Young Men before we had to go to a lesson. Elder Calvert and I were on opposing teams. Elder Calvert was too busy taking out the rag tag team of deacons and wasn't looking when I came up behind him - just as he turned and saw he was about to get pelted by marshmallows. From point blank 

I missed and he got overly excited because he knew he had a chance to finish me off. He was trying to get more ammo into his PVC gun, when I instinctively knocked his pipe out of his hands - trying to come in hot. He started back-pedaling and tripped over a log, but I made it look like I had tackled the kid. As soon as I knew Elder Calvert wasn’t hurt, I quickly loaded some mallows and finished him off. The YM and their leaders suggested that Elder Calvert and I needed to do a companionship inventory. Oh well. What can you do. 

So moving on. This week was Zone Meeting and we wanted to blow the socks off our Zone. We really needed to help them learn to listen and teach. We called in the top gun in our ward - Brother Stokes. He worked for the CIA for 6 years. Brother Stokes is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to human behavior and working with people. We thought it would be great to get walkie-talkies to fit the theme. We also made the Zone CIA ID cards for the full experience. I tell you what - those walkie-talkies are something. Everyone needs to get a pair of those. When Elder Calvert is in the kitchen getting a bowl of cereal and I'm in the other room studying, I just walkie him to bring me some and problem solved. No need for yelling. It’s great. 

Elder Cathcart and Elder Treseder are the Spanish Elders in the Revere ward. They live in an apartment that had a room full of junk that was there before they lived there. The landlord did an apartment check and was not happy with the room full of junk and said they needed to clear it out in a day. So Elder Cathcart and Treseder gave us a ring and asked if we could help them out. Being professionals at moving junk (that is not ours) out of apartments - we happily accepted. We got there after Zone Meeting and changed into some service clothes. I placed my suit at the top of the stairwell. We spent about an hour stuffing trash into bags and throwing them down the stairwell. Elder Treseder and Calvert were a trash taxi service - going back and forth to the dumpster as Elder Cathcart and I kept stuffing trash. When we were done and I went to put my suit back on. I put my shirt on. The tie on. The suit coat on. Then I looked for my pants. I couldn’t find my pants. I asked the other Elders where my suit pants were. Elder Calvert and Treseder looked at each other and realized they might have made a mistake. When we were throwing trash down, my pants fell with the trash and they thought they were trash. I guess Elder Treseder looked at the pants and said:

"Wow these are nice pants, 36x36. Hey, Elder Calvert would these fit you?"
"Probably not, that's probably Tait's size. You think he’d want them?"
"Who knows. We should just chuck them."

Elder Cathcart gave me a pair of his 34x32 slacks. Those things looked like capris on me. We jetted over to the donation dumpster where my pants were. The dumpster was designed so you couldn’t take anything out without a key. So we had to lift up Elder Treseder all together and lower him into the dumpster so he could retrieve my pants. So there were 3 missionaries in the middle of a Home Depot parking lot, throwing another missionary into a dumpster to get some pants. Boy, we sure had an audience. Good news is we were able to retrieve the pants. It took some time and fishing by Treseder - but we did it.

It was a great week all around. Besides the irrelevant stories the week turned out well. We've had some great teaching opportunities. The message we offer as representatives of Jesus Christ can only add to people’s lives. Still, I can understand the hesitancy some may have to speak with us. We met this girl, Charliya, who has a strong love of the Savior, but feels she is missing so much in life. We gave her a message about The Restoration and she was excited about it. She agreed to pray to know if the Church was true. We showed up the next day and she said she’d prayed and felt the path she was already on was right. It is difficult to be in that position - to help someone realize that Heavenly Father has more to offer them - in only 2 minutes - can be challenging. But, the spirit took over as we addressed her concerns and thoughts. She talked about wanting to speak to her pastor about it. We answered that if she wanted to find out about the Baptist church, where should she go? To a Baptist Church. If she wanted to find out about the Jewish faith, who should she talk to? A practicing Jew. So, if she wanted to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it would be best to talk to missionaries for the Church. The light-bulb clicked on with her and she realized that it was up to her to listen and hear our message, and then ask Heavenly Father if it is of God or man. Everyone have a great week. Hope all is well at home!

Love,

Elder Tait!

Lynnfield Zone

Something Else!

This week has been something else! Elder Calvert and I have been all over the place. Fortunately, we are no longer a maid service, with all the apartments finally being cleaned. We have just been blessed abundantly with people to share this Gospel with. The Savior is really strengthening our own testimonies as we invite others to gain one for themselves. Some updates on some people! Especially Bridget!

Bridget's baptism went flawlessly! It was a blessing for me to be an instrument in the Lord's hand in baptizing her. Elder Calvert felt the same way as he was able to confirm her. She had 13 non-member friends at her baptism. It was great. She already has her temple recommend and will be ready to do baptisms for the dead August 13th. It'll be great. She is going to help so many other people come unto the true church of Christ. She inspires me to be bolder in sharing the Gospel.

Frank Tower is the man! 76 years old and has a sharp attitude and a witty mind. He's always trying "to pick a fight". I think I might have said this before but his classic lines are – as he throws his left fist up -- "This one will put you in the hospital.” Then he throws up his right fist and says, "This one will put you in the grave." We don't know how much he understands but we do know he has been changed through prayer and scripture study. He's already in the book of Enos! He’s received an answer every time he’s had a question. Frank has a very childlike attitude. He want's to talk to you, Dad and Mom! I'm giving him our home phone. That will be one interesting phone call.

Teaching Caroline Trainor the Gospel has by far been one of my most enjoyable experiences. She is awesome. She read Alma 30 this past week and wrote down some notes! We're excited to see what she’s got. We are practicing the principles that President Christensen taught in his “Power of the Everyday Missionary” book. We've seen great success with this. As well as it has pushed Elder Calvert and me to study our scriptures more. She has some questions that we know the answers to, but we don't know where to find them in the scriptures. 

We have been blessed with teaching the Bulaya Family! Korlu (the wife) is from Libya and Paul (the husband) is from Zambia in Africa. Paul wanted a Bible and we were able to meet up with them and began teaching them. They have two of the most adorable children. Naomi is 4 and PJ is 2. PJ belongs on a Pampers commercial. That kid is too darn cute. You can't tell me he's not adorable when he wears a onesie that says "Captain Adorable." You just can't beat that!

Got to split! Elder Calvert and I are going to Cambridge to dip the ball with some missionaries and ward members! This week has been a constant reminder for me to enjoy the precious time I have to minister unto others. It's important we take moments to reflect on how important this message is and why we need to believe it in order to teach it to others. 

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Tait.