Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone! I have been overdue in sending a letter about what in the world I am doing here - so here are the highlights of this week.

First off - serving with Elder Halling and Elder Vecchi is the best. There is no other way I would want to end my mission than with these two Elders. We have been having a real hoot. Good. Clean. Wholesome. Fun. The Calvert, Tait & Associates way. Also, being able to serve around 2 dedicated Sister Missionaries, Sister Zickella and Hermana De Leon, has been another big blessing.

For Christmas Eve we went to the mission home for dinner. We re-enacted the nativity and did a white elephant gift exchange! We were the 3 wise men. I don't know if it was wise to make us the wise men but you know what, we enjoyed it regardless. The nativity part was a blast. We were all in ridiculous clothing, and there was even a camel costume there. The fishbowl missionaries took home the best gifts from the white elephant. We snagged up squishy sand, a make your own snow packet, and a tranquility fountain. 

Christmas was fantastic! In the morning all of the senior couples got together and made the younger missionaries breakfast. Had a great Skype with the family! I love you guys so much and I am excited to see you, but I have bittersweet emotions about leaving. Alas, this time comes for everyone! Only thing I can do is focus until the end, and remember who I am serving when I put my name badge on every day. Regardless, it was great to speak with my family and I was thrilled to be able to share a spiritual message with you at the end and also for you to be able to Skype a little bit with Daniel. It’s a long story, but due to a unique position I’m in, I have been blessed with the opportunity to end my mission in Scotland where I’ll baptize one of the finest men I’ve met, Daniel Coleman. That man has real character. 

After the video call we went to a member's house for dinner! It was really nice of them to have us over. By the time we were finished eating we were  ready to hit our beds. I had a good night’s sleep. I enjoy sleep.

Saturday we did service in the temple, helping out in the laundry. I love being in the Boston Temple. Being there, even if it’s just doing the laundry, brings me so much peace. That day had been set aside for all of the recent converts in the mission to go do baptisms for the dead. The goal was to have over 100 recent converts there with their own family names. There were over 100 there, but only 95 had family names! So everyone is scrambling to make another trip before January. Really exciting though. Since there were so many people there the laundry was hectic. They kept running out of jumpsuits and towels. But we came in and took care of it. 

This has been a great week and I am excited for what every day this next week has in store for us! 

Elder Tait

With Elders Halling and Vecchi at the Boston Temple

 

       With Mission President, President Packard

My Mission Has....

The Sisters' letter?

Mom, you know sometimes it’s hard to sit down and write a letter, so I just told the Sisters to send me what they wrote and I can send it to you and you can take whatever you want from it and put it on my group e-mail/blog. Thank you mom. I love you.

Sister’s letter:

Sometimes miracles are barely noticeable, and really can only be appreciated in the after math. These kind of miracles happen to me everyday.

But sometimes, miracles are ... really noticeable. Like the miracle that happened in this mission during the month of November. Let me fill you in ...

So, background knowledge: The 5 states that make up our mission are all on the "Top Ten Least Religious States" list. Also, New England has the lowest number of Mormons per capita in the country. But the members who are here are so strong and faithful, and when President and Sister Packard got to the mission, about 20 - 30 people were baptized every month.

Now, we are not a numbers oriented mission. Never once the entire 18 months that I have been here has anyone ever told me my numbers were too low, or for that matter, ever praised me for high numbers. We just care about working hard and giving our all and relying on the Lord. But since the Packards have come, baptisms have pretty much doubled, with between 40 - 45 baptisms a month, our all time high being 49.

But, the Lord's work is hastening, and President felt like we weren't reaching our full potential. So this month, after a series of events including an apostolic blessing from Elder Holland, a visit from Elder Lawrence, and some serious spirit and drive going on in the missionaries, we set the goal for 70 baptisms in our mission in the month of November. I don't know how to describe what's been happening here the past month ... it's like every one is on fire. Everyday we would hear stories about miracles happening somewhere, in addition to seeing it ourselves.  People all over the mission who had been meeting with the missionaries but were too scared to commit suddenly had a change of heart. People were literally committing to be baptized and then 2 hours later the baptism would happen. Every single prayer that each missionary has offered this month included a plea for the Lord to bless and watch over these people preparing for baptism. Each of us sacrificed something specific for this month in an effort to show the Lord we were serious about this.

And guess what? Yesterday we found out the total number of people who were baptized this month. 

100. 100 people.

From Elder Tait:

"Elder Halling is the best! He wants to be here and he has helped me with my Creole!  I am also in a trio with Elder Vecchi!  There was a missionary who didn’t come out of the MTC so President made us a trio and it is the best!"

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