Death by Chihuahua

Hey MAHAM and DADDY-O

This week has been great but sadly there was no drunk investigator in sacrement meeting.  Probably because we didn't tell him what time to be there. The investigators are coming along great we baptized Hermana Is... this last Saturday and have another baptism lined up for this next Saturday.  We have two new families that agreed to second visits. We also have two investigators who we hope to commit to a date for baptism this week.  Their names are Walter and Albert. We have lots of others too but those are the progressing ones. The langauge is getting easier to understand and I am starting to talk with more natural flow.  The food here is okay I guess.  Every meal we have flower tortillas which I don't like much because they don't have flavor. But their are tons of people here that all they do everyday is make tortillas. It's called tortillando which means something like tortillaing. We do have a member that we pay to wash our clothes but for some reason she doesn't wash socks. So I have to wash my own socks  but it's not too bad.  This week I learned that I really like the mission life.  It's calidad. (quality).

This week President Ruiz came to our zone and called us all to repentance because like half of our zone were not doing companion study.  He did this thing where all the junior compainons left the room he called up the senor companion asked them what they studied during companion study. Then he called in the junior comp to see if it was the same. Elder Go... and I both said the plan of salvation because that is what we studied, but a lot of the zone didn't study anything. We also had personal interviews with the President.  He only talked with me for two minutes, but he said that was a good thing because that means I'm not doing anything wrong. (or Elder T can't communicate yet in Spanish). The president also new me by name so that made me feel good. So that's what I learned this week. 

Also this week we had a primary programish thing. Imagine thirty kids with equal or more engery to the wildest kids trying to do a primary program.  That's what it was like... Not good. 

Also this week I had some wierd experience with my dreams and I dont know how I feel about it. So like on Wednesday I prayed and asked God if I could see in my dreams who my future wife is going to be. So I went to bed and and waited for my dreams to come. That night I dreamt about dogs. I was in Guatemala in the streets and out of nowhere a bunch of chihuahuas attacked and ate me and it was horrible! But then (this is where it gets weird) Thursday night I dreamt that you guys where in Guatemala picking me up and we were in the streets of one of my areas and we run into the _____ family they where there picking _____ up from her mission. it was really weird. I don't know what that means. I think it means either that I'm going to die by chihuahua here in the streets or marry ______ ______ when I get home.... I don't know why but my dreams are really weird ever since I left.

Anyways I love the pictures you sent thank you!! that's awesome that Drew got to fly a plane. Oh there is an elder here named Elder Lovett who is going home in two weeks and is going to BYUI for Spring semester. I told him to look for a ginger named Nathan Tagg tell Nathan to look for him.  He is one of my zone leaders now.

Love all you Guys and Miss you 

Elder Tagg

Elder Tagg has grown horns... or some horns are attached to that tree...

I Love The Mission

Daddy-O

This week was awesome. Nothing really special happened, but it was a good none the less. I'm progressing well I think... not sure. I can understand a lot of what people say, but I always get caught up on the words and conjugations when I'm speaking. Everyday I wake up at 6:30 and I go to the bathroom, eat something, go to the bathroom again, shower, then bathroom again, get dressed, start studying, then go to the bathroom again. Then after we finish studying at 11 we go out and work .Then we have lunch at 2 usually with a member then we work some more and have dinner then go back home and plan and go to bed. Some times during the day we go to district meetings or zone meetings. My days are pretty calidad (quality). I always end up with wet clothes cause it's either deathly hot, or monsoon raining. But if the people here can do it I can.

Love and miss you 

Elder Tagg

Maham and Daddy-O

This week has been really fast. This week was awesome nothing really special happened but it was a good none the less.  I think I'm becoming more spiritually in tune not sure.. The teaching part is really cool. I share my testimony and share some scriptures that I know really well, but for the most part we just listen. My Spanish is coming along well. I told Dad more about that in the email I sent him. 

This week we got lots of new investigators.. one of them is named Albert. He is really cool. He is 19 years old and wants to be baptized and change his life, but he has some problems he needs to work out.  Another investigator's name is Walter. He is really cool. Our first lesson with him went really bad, but he read and prayed and our secound lesson was amazing. I think we are going to baptize both of them. We also foumd this really drunk guy who couldn't talk he was so drunk.  So naturally we decided to talk to him.  We told him that God loved him and he needed to stop drinking. He started crying and trying to talk but we couldn't understand him so I looked to Elder Go... to see what we should do and he told me to invite him to be baptized for practice.  So I invited him and he accepted!!! Then we told him we were angels and that he needed to go to the Mormon church on Sunday. So we will see what happens there. It was a really funny awesome expirience.

Also this week our zone had a 'Mega Splash' we all got together and baptized like 5 people it was way cool. Also this week I have been having these dreams where I'm home doing normal things with the fam and then I realize OH crap! I'm supposed to be on a mission, and I feel sad because I realize I came home early and I really want to go back on my mission. Then I wake up and I'm on my mission and I feel happy. This has happened at least three times. It's really wierd. 

Maham my companion does not have a lot of support. His mom died when he was 17 and his Dad isn't a member, so do what you will. Also he says beef jerky would be nice. Also I can't figure out how to cahnge playlists on my ipod but you can send USB cards with music on them and I can play those. Also I realized that I don't have any pictures of you guys. If you could send some that would be awesome. 

One more last thing. I love you guys and miss you, but I also love the mission. 

Elder Tagg

First Baptism!!

Maham & Daddy-O,  

This week was crazy! First off, sorry I couldn't write yesterday. I was in Guatemala City signing my visa. It was an all day trip because from my area to Reu is a 3 hour bus ride and from Reu to Guatemala city was 4 hours. So yesterday I had 14 hours in a bus. 

I am now 19 years old, but I still feel like I'm 15. My birthday was great we only had one baptism though. His name is Di... and I got to baptize him!!! It was way awesome but hard too because we had some difficulties. So originally his baptism was supposed to be at 3 pm but the baptismal font wouldn't fill with water so we had to hire some guys to pump in other water.  We ended up waiting two hours for those guys so Dilan was baptized at 5 pm instead of three. I was so nervous to baptize him because his full name is Ja.. Di... Es... Va... and the words of the prayer are hard for me to pronounce: Hbiendo sido comisionado por Jesucristo yo te bautizo en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espiritu Santo Amen. Also, the first time I dunked him, his hand didn't go all the way under so I had to redo everything. But in the end it was way cool. Also, for my birthday we had cake at a member's house, and that night I got to give my companion a blessing because he is sick with gripe which is like a common cold. 

We only had one baptism this week but we have another lined up for two Saturdays from now. Her name is Isidra she is an old lady but way spiritual. 

I think that I am getting sick because I have a bunch of diarrhea. I have pooped 4 times today before lunch. I'll have to call the nurse or something. I don't know what elder Ga...'s house looks like, but I think I have a pretty nice house compared to the other Elders. I'm glad you guys are having fun without me. I was worried that once I left the party would too.  But I guess not hahaha.

We are working hard. Please pray for us that we can find a familia de pro (or family of gold) and baptize them. That would be awesome!!! I think that I am learning the language way fast. I feel like I can understand people way better than I can talk though.

It's true that the people here are really poor, but what I love about the Champins is that they make do. It's like they get what they get and don't get upset.

Love you guys so much and miss you

Elder Tagg

PS BTW I got the fist package with the cookies. Thanks SOO much.

Elder Tagg's first baptism on 10-10-15

Elder Tagg and Di..

Elder Tagg Di... and Elder Go...

Evan says this hole reminds him of the movie Totoro

His apartment

I'm Not Going To Steal Their Children

Dear Mahm and Daddy-O

This week has been crazy, but I got here and I am doing good.

So my companion's name Is Elder Go... he is a Latino from Nicaragua and he speaks pretty good English so that is a blessing. His dream is to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir someday. He is really cool he has four months left. And I only have 22 months left.

My zone is Malacatan and my area is San Isidro. It's really cool but there is a lot of poverty here. Like a lot of people live in huts or unfinished concrete homes. The richest people here would be the poorest in America.  It's crazy though, even with all this poverty, people still have TVs and smartphones. Being here really makes me feel lucky for what I have.

This week we worked like crazy inviting everyone to come to conference which was all in Spanish so I couldn't really understand, but it's ok. The first day I was here we were out tracting with a member named Eddie and he said he new a short cut home. So we followed him through a field down a mountain through a river and back up a mountain.  It was crazy.  We have 3 people lined up for baptism on my birthday! One is a 12 year old boy named Dillan the other is an old man named Rodolfo and the other is a woman named Melody.

The food here is bascally some kind of meat, tortillas, beans and plantains. We basically live off of members. It rains here everday and my umbrella got stolen. But the people here are amazingly friendly and kind. Especially the members. They all laugh at my Spanish and how white I am, but they are awesome. Elder Go... told me that a lot of the people here think that I am going to steal their children because I am white, but I'm not going to steal thier children...

Thats sad about Eric, I will pray for him and his family. I will also try to send pictures.

Love ya and Miss ya

Elder Tagg

PS my new food is fried plantains, they are like fried sour bananas.  My camera died so I'll try to send pictures next week.

Elder Ga... and Elder Tagg on the bus to the mission home (me thinks)

This photo surfaced online.  It's from the LA airport where he happened upon 40 other missionaries also on their way to Guatemala.  It's from about 6-7 weeks ago before they buzzed his hair.  

Photos!

(Something funny being said here for sure)

Evan on the left.  So glad to see him eating an apple!

His group of missionaries coming from the CCM (aka MTC)

Thumbs up from his buddy Elder Gallagher

His Mission Presidente and his wife (and another Elder I do not know).