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!"

Old....

New....

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

What Has NOT Happened This Week?

I mean, what has not happened this week!

First off, I just found out Hillary took a quick visit to Boston this weekend! How crazy is that! My oldest sister was 20 miles away from me! She met Elder Warner and Elder Stones in the Brookline Ward. It’s odd to think that was possible! I love you Hillary! You continue to make things happen in the concrete jungle of NYC -where dreams are made!

Second, I am glad to hear my family survived Ragnar! Miracles are happening left and right! The Tait/Dunn/McClure/Pugh families are so fit they make Rocky Balboa look like a couch potato.

Also, to continue - I don't know if I mentioned Elder Calvert in my last weekly e-mail - but Elder Calvert is the man! We have been working hard, having fun, and experiencing so many spiritual moments. Just two weeks with this guy and I already feel like he is my brother. He is wicked good at basketball. He's been teaching me the ropes of how to hoop like Stockton and Malone. He's from Parker, Colorado, about 20 minutes outside of Denver. (I actually think Sister Hoer is serving there right now). Went to BYU one year before coming out on his mission, and has served with Elder Laurent. Great things have been going down! Let me fill you in on a few of them!

We all know that finding investigators through members is more beneficial and effective than street contacting or tracting, etc. We have noticed since we’ve put a larger emphasis on working through the members that we have lost focus on opening our mouths. Finding people through members as well as street contacting are both important. Elder Calvert and I realized we needed to crank up the intensity there. When we have an extra 20 minutes we realize we need to hit the streets and open our mouths. This message is too important to let anyone go by without hearing it! 

So, Elder Calvert and I decided we could hit the streets of Salem on foot to save miles on our vehicle. We were only 1 mile away from the less-active member we wanted to contact. We left our place at 7:30 PM. It should have taken only 10 minutes to get there, right? INCORRECT! We talked to legions of people on our way, so we got there at 8:30 PM! We got contact information for 13 potential investigators and we ran into two less-active members who we have been trying to get in touch with forever! 

"It's great to meet you sir! Have you ever heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?"

"Uh yeah...I am actually a member of the Church."

"That is grea.....wait, what?"

That was our reaction both times. When we were on this little contacting adventure of ours we contacted a wonderful young adult, named Belinda. We were having a great discussion on the basic principles of the Church when we noticed from the corners of our eyes, a girl in her early 20's pull over to the side of the street and walk up to us. She told us she had met a friend over summer break a year ago at a leadership camp, who is on a mission now in Japan. Her friend e-mailed her and asked her to stop and talk to the missionaries when she saw them next. She saw us talking to Belinda, pulled a U-turn, parked her car, and came up and asked us if she could meet up with us. Elder Calvert and I were waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out of the bushes with cameras. When we didn't see our homeboy Ashton anywhere we knew it was legit. What a tender mercy and another spiritual experience that was brought by opening our mouths and being obedient (saving on car miles), and being enthusiastic! Also it goes to show how large the work of salvation is! It has inspired me to invite more people to do the same back home in Henderson!  Also, I was able to use a little Haitian Creole to pick up a family of 5 as new investigators. Credit to Elder Anofils!

Then the next night, here we are at 8:55. The dinner we‘d had earlier that day was doing a number on Elder Calvert’s and my digestive systems. We had a perfect reason to go home, but for some reason we mustered the strength to go out and try one more less-active member’s door. We are walking when we see an African-American on the other side of the street. We shouted out across the street asking him how he was doing. His name was Erastus. He's 18, and he is from Libya. He was on his way to practice some soccer. After we explained what we did and whom we were representing, he was so stoked to meet with us! He loves missionary work! We went over to his house the next day and met his family and taught about the restoration. It was remarkable. In the lesson Erastus asked if we thought people somehow came over to America from the Tower of Babel. Again we were waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out from behind the couch - when we didn't see him we knew this was legit! The Lord is truly preparing his people. Elder Calvert and I have been enjoying just hitting the streets everyday and inviting everybody. We already have our business model: "Calvert & Tait & Associates...Enjoy your stay." 

We are having too much fun! We found out we are moving apartments from Salem to Peabody. It will be more central to the area and save us some miles! Plus the place we are moving to has a basketball court and you better believe Calvert & Tait & Associates will be hitting that place up every morning! We'll be moving there in a month. Exciting things are happening left and right. When there are moments in the day we feel overwhelmed or exhausted I just remember whose work this is and then unexplainable energy comes from nowhere. I know that Jesus Christ is preparing his people. All will have a chance to hear the Gospel. This message is so important we cannot deny anyone hearing it. Do not miss any opportunity to share the gospel. Hope everyone has a great week! Love you Family!

Elder Tait

Like Brothers

Mother!

Elder Calvert is the man. I have been having a great experience since we started serving with each other. Just feeling that trust that we’ve got one anothers backs - like brothers. It has been great. We both just want to work and to have fun as well. It has been such a relief and a blessing. No worries or concerns at all. Pushing through one day at a time. Doing my best and forgetting the rest. Glad to hear about Lily's birthday, spiritual temple sealings, Aaron's farewell talk, and Ragnar. You guys are going to do great. There was a group of ladies in the Relief Society that did it here and loved it. The World Cup is a blast. Too exciting - keep on letting me know how my boys are doing. 

Thank you Mother for reading Preach My Gospel. I agree with what you said. Christlike attributes can't be developed without faith in Christ. The Lord has given us many gifts and talents. These talents and gifts can be expounded on as we nourish our Christlike attributes. This has made a world of a difference for me. When exercising Christlike attributes my day always goes better. I love how you picked out diligence to work on. That is one I need to work on as well, especially everyday as a missionary. I really cannot express to you how much this means. I wrote a letter to Dad, and this is my Preach My Gospel thought this week:

What I learned form Preach My Gospel this week is from page 2 on what our purpose as missionaries is:

"As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You will feel, as Lehi did, the "great...importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth." (2 Nephi 2:8)

How important it is to convert ourselves in believing in the atonement of Christ before helping others. Just imagine how much more powerful our message is when we actually mean it, instead of just saying it. I have found the best lessons I have learned from the mission are ones that come from my heart instead of my mind. 

Mother, I hope you have a great week! Continue to share the gospel. I would love nothing more than to hear from Annie and Lily weekly. If you could please encourage them in this that would be great. How are you doing Mom? I hope everything is great at home. Please let me know how Dad and the family are doing.

With love,
Elder Tait

Sarah Gusky Kemer's baptism

Elder Calvert is the man!

Happy Mother's Day!

upright view, yet chopped...

and there is ALL of Elder Tait!

When We Teach, We Learn Just As Much

Man, I can't believe Annie will be turning 17 this week!  When she was 7 and upset with us she would chase Hillary and me with a baseball bat! She has grown and matured so much since then – it makes me proud to be her brother!

I’m extremely excited about doing the Visitor Center editing! Can't wait. I need to pray for help in magnifying my talents for the building up of the Kingdom. I can't tell you how much I love President Packard. I can't wait for you to meet him. I am excited to do this video. I am only able to do these things because of you and Dad! You guys invested so much time, money, and lack of sleep to allow me to grow. I can't imagine the stress I put you through during those late nights of video editing. (Especially Dad.)
.
We have been trying to help fellowship a less-active woman who was baptized nearly a year and a half ago. She's losing her testimony slowly, and we were speaking to her at her door (couldn't go in because of the chaperone rule), and the discussion became a little heated. She was calling the church members ignorant if they thought this was really the only true church. We asked her if she thought we were ignorant. Then we asked her about what Jesus Christ told Joseph Smith in the First Vision. She answered, "Join none of the churches because none of them were true." We then asked if she thought Jesus Christ was ignorant. She told us she wanted to stop talking about it and it was time for us to go. Before we left we wanted to leave with a prayer. We will often ask less-active members to pray, then all of us simultaneously bow our heads and we don't say a word until they pray. This has always worked, but this woman did not appreciate it. She started to swear at us, saying things that were nowhere close to being Christ-like. Regardless, we could have been more Christ-like. We all learned something that day. 

When we teach, we learn just as much. It’s easy to forget that we are asking those we teach to make difficult commitments to follow Christ and his commandments. They are completely changing their lives to accommodate what the Lord wants. It’s the basic principle of faith that helps those who are learning to live the gospel, and it has helped me to learn as well. At times the commandments of the Lord can be difficult to obey, but obedience can become easier as we start to understand the bigger picture of our lives’ purpose. 

We can all struggle with finding the faith to follow Christ's commandments, mostly because of a lack of understanding and the false notion that happiness will come from not obeying the will of the Lord. I hope we can be true and faithful to the bigger picture. Enduring at times can be difficult. We need to ask ourselves what we may be struggling to have faith in, then take it to the Lord in prayer, asking him what we can do to strengthen our faith in that area. I promise you our prayers will be answered through the tender mercies of the Lord.

On another note, I encourage you to watch this new Mormon message. It brought peace to me. I would try to write what President Uchtdorf says but I’ll let him do the talking.  I hope I can be an example like the big brother in the video. We rise to the occasion and grow when we don’t take offense and admit we are in the wrong. It is an act of humility. Frustrations will come, but the blessings are rewarding for those who are meek and humble. Jesus Christ was accused of doing horrible things, yet when he was on the cross he asked his Father in Heaven to forgive his accusers. Wow. It gives me goose bumps whenever I think about it. Let us all strive to be like Christ. 

Have a fresh week! Catch you on the rebound!
Elder Tait

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3267475157001&cid=HPWE030514340&im=true

Current District

This young man raced in the Pinewood Derby with one of Elder Tait's cars
from his own Derby Days!

"Do You Guys Get Paid For This?"

When we meet random people who are not familiar with us we get asked an endless list of questions from the sincere to the ignorant or just out of curiosity. For example, here are some questions we were asked this week: 

“Do you guys get paid for doing this?”
“How much does the Church pay you to do this?”
We often respond with something along the line of, “We actually save money and pay our way to come out here.” This answer can often lead to uplifting conversations. This week we had an open 20 minutes to do contacts, so we set off on the snowy sidewalks of Foxboro. As we approached the first door, we were greeted with a friendly smile, but an odd look. After introducing ourselves and talking for a few minutes, she asked the question: “Do you guys get paid for doing this?” Instead of responding with the typical answer, out of nowhere came to me a new way to respond to this question. It was without a doubt inspired of the Lord. I answered back, “You see ma'am we are out here serving for a prophet, but we don't get a profit!”  She looked and nodded her head in complete confusion, then asked for us to explain that again. It's remarkable how the Holy Ghost will give you the exact words to say in the exact moment you need them. At that moment I knew that Heavenly Father was aware of us and will grant us the words to say to His children who need to hear them. We fulfill our purpose when we speak as representatives of Jesus Christ. The philosophies and doctrines of men will always be confounded as we speak the words prompted by the Holy Ghost. 

All is great in Foxboro! Just found out the Lord has granted me another 6 weeks here! I’m extremely excited to be here to see some of Heavenly Father's children progress and come closer to Him. Elder Boren is trying to teach us how to rope things. I still haven't figured it out, or caught a squirrel, but I’ll get it. Our teaching pool increases remarkably when Elder Boren brings his lasso for street contacting. They never get away from us!

Truthfully yours,
Elder J.L. Tait

    With fellow missionary and high school friend, Elder Laurent

The Foxboro Zone   

With first companion, Elder Campbell

 

With companions Elder Roberts & Boren, & Elder Laurent in background.

You Can Never Underestimate How Much it Might Snow

I apologize that I have not been more diligent in writing these weekly e-mails. To begin with, things have been going great. There is no way to describe the pure joy of serving while wearing the name of the Savior on your lapel, and being His representative - proclaiming to every nation, kindred, and tongue that Jesus is the Christ.

I can’t express how thankful I am to be here and to be serving in the Foxboro Ward. How grateful I am that our loving Heavenly Father knows where we need to labor and serve, and I know without a doubt that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere other than where the Lord wants me to be.

Currently here in Foxboro I am in a companionship of three, or a tri-companionship. I was sad to part ways with Elder Anofils and break up the cookies n' cream dream team, but I love my two new companions. 

Elder Boren is from Vernal, Utah. Elder Boren lives up to the Vernal life, and is a state champion in rodeo. He actually has a full-ride rodeo scholarship on hold for after his mission. He knows how to hook ‘em longhorns. YEE-HAW. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a rodeo! Also, to add to that, he is a state champion in wrestling. Wrestling bulls gives you an advantage when you’re wrestling in high school! He is currently assisting me in my dream to catch and lasso a squirrel. So far we’ve had no success, but we haven’t given up.  

Then we have the man, the myth, the legend himself, Elder Roberts, from out west in Colorado. Elder Roberts is new to the mission but he already teaches and preaches as if he is leading the Saints west to Zion. He graduated from high school with his associate’s degree! He ain't no flash in the pan! (My “country talk” is escalating!) He’s just a loving, caring guy, who's willing to do what the Lord wants. His example has helped increase my desire to not waste a minute of my time here.

We are all having a great time, and we are seeing remarkable blessings as the Lord continues to direct and guide us as instruments in His hands. 

I have come to the realization these past few months that you can never underestimate how much it might snow. Elder Boren and Elder Roberts are both from places where they learned how to drive in snow, but for some reason the mission decided to assign the kid from Las Vegas as the one to drive on the stone cold, icy roads of Foxboro. At least it's better than a Haitian and Vegas kid together. 

Speaking of Haitians, as soon as Elder Anofils was transferred, a Haitian couple began attending Sacrament Meeting. Bad timing - but what can you do? Mwen ka kontinye pale nan creole avek moun!  My Creole is still alive and well – my pronunciation is absolutely horrendous - but I’ll take what I can get. 

The lessons we learn through the examples of others continue to penetrate and pierce our hearts with an overwhelming feeling of joy and peace and knowledge that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that he stands at the head of it. Whether you are a church member or not, I encourage you to continue to seek to know the truth.  I leave you with a solemn testimony that if you ask you will receive an answer that will allow you to tap into an everlasting source of happiness that is possible through the Atonement of Christ. All is possible through the Atonement of Christ. 

I hope everyone has a great week. Stay fresh, stay warm, stay safe, but most of all, stay faithful.

EJLT.

One Year!

OH, so much snow.  

Elders Boren, Tait, and Roberts

Christmas Videos and Temples, , Mission Conference, and... Oh, Deer.

We did indeed have our mission conference this last week, on the 18th. Every zone showed their video. Our video turned out great! DYNO-MITE. We had a Christmas musical fireside. President Packard sang a solo! He's the man. I love President Packard! I feel his love. We ate and just enjoyed each other’s company. They brought out everyone’s gifts. I was so blessed to receive your loving gift. I couldn't thank Heavenly Father enough for my loving family. It was perfect. Prior to that we went to the Boston Temple for an Endowment Session. I want to get married in that temple!

I apologize mother for slacking! I wrote this e-mail forever ago and forgot to send it! 

This past week we had a spiritually nourishing Zone Conference. Due to our limited amount of driving miles, a member was able to take us to the Zone Conference. Again, Zone Conference was remarkable and gave great hope to all of us about the basic principles of faith and repentance, but it was taught and presented to us in a whole new light. After this inspiring experience we were on our way home, sharing insights about what we’d learned with each other. It was around 5:30 pm, so it was dark. We were traveling on a 45 MPH road where there is only a single lane going both ways. It was rush hour and all the cars were traveling at the suggested speed (if not exceeding the speed limit). As we were talking, out of no- where, in within one second, we saw a deer's face in the car’s headlights -  heard a large bang - and watched the deer spiral out of sight. The deer had not stopped the momentum of the car, and we continued down the road. There was an awkward silence in the car as we digested what in the world had just happened. Almost immediately we pulled over (about 50 yards from the accident) and ran back to the scene.

When we got there a woman had stopped in the middle of this busy road, causing a long line of traffic. She had her emergency lights on and was dragging the deer to the other side of the road. This nice woman informed us that she was an animal lover and she was in tears due to the unfortunate situation that had just occurred. The deer was still barely alive, but it didn’t look good. We thought the woman would then get back in her car to allow traffic to continue, but she made the decision to stay with the deer. As she was on the phone with the police, the deer started having panic attacks, so Elder Anofils grabbed its legs while our member friend was on top of the deer taming it like a bucking bronco.

Then out of the blue, a young man in his 20's showed up to the scene. He was dressed in his lumberjack overalls, plaid shirt, bass pro shop hat, and gave the impression that he knew a thing or two about hunting! He approached us and his first comment was to ask if the deer was dead yet. As you can imagine this did not set well with our animal lover friend. She was on the phone with Animal Control by this time, but you could tell by the ferocious look in her eyes she was not happy. 

We were thinking as we stood there that what had happened was no coincidence and this would be a good opportunity to share the gospel. We know in the Pearl of Great Price it says that things were created spiritually before they were temporally. In this moment of silence we felt nothing could be more comforting than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we began to speak to our animal lover friend, she started panicking because she’d just realized her parked car was holding up nearly 200 cars. She told us, and also specifically informed our lumberjack friend not to lay a finger on that deer, then she hopped back into her car to go park somewhere else. 

So then we tried to share something with our lumberjack friend, but he was more interested in dragging the deer to his truck, telling us about the great jerky it would make. Right before he threw the deer in the back, Animal Control appeared and told him he could keep the deer, they just had to tag it first.  Oh, well.  At least we tried!

                         
I

Thank you, Mom!

Elder Anofils' bike accident was a great learning experience for both of us. I just can't wait for you to meet Elder Anofils! I hope he and I will hang out after the mission. The ice cream was fine! Thank you for doing that Mom! You're the best. He looked at me when we got the ice cream and said, "Your culture is so weird! Who send ice cream in the mail! That's just unheard of! Have you heard of this?" Thank you for doing that mom, and getting those two other things. Very simple and I know they will mean a lot to him. He's the best, I consider him my brother. He also told me he has adopted me into the "brotherhood". I hope we will be together for another transfer so you guys will be able to meet him via Skype.

Mom, I am doing great! This week has been another amazing opportunity to grow and learn. The challenging times aren't my most favorite or easy to understand, but this work is so rewarding. I still have a lot to learn and grow and to gain. Thank you Mom! I can't thank you enough for all that you do! Thank you for being my best friend. I can't wait to give you a hug and a huge immature slobbery kiss. 
  
Stetson's fellow elder. (Killed in an accident in Mexico, Tampico Mission). I did not hear about this. Wow. How tragic is that. Incredible. That must be extremely difficult. I will be careful Mom! I always wear a helmet and make sure we are on the right side of the road. I am so blessed to have the family’s prayers of comfort and protection. 

The girls didn't need Disneyland! Our family is too spoiled.
Lily did write me a letter but half of it was filled with smiley faces :) so I didn't hear much about her talk! How did she do? I am sure she executed it perfectly.

I love you Mom! There is never a day I don't think about you!
The ever elusive,
The incomprehensible,
Elder J. L. Tait

Leaving the hospital with Elder Anofils!

Elder Anofils!

Halloween!

District

Elders

Eating Together

Borderland State Park

P-Day 

Ames Manson, Easton MA

Elder Tait!