See You Guys Next Week!

Maham Y Daddy O

So this week was pretty normal as well. We worked hard put some fechas for my last Saturday. A little girl named Estephani.  She's super cute.  Her brother is a returned missionary, but her parents aren't members so we are gonna baptize her. Also another 18 year old girl will be baptized for the 14th my last P-Day. But that one is like maybe or maybe not. It's not a sure thing... We'll see how it goes. 

So last week I went to get my haircut and this guy that is cutting our hair asks me if we believe in miracles.  I said of course!! And he said I am a miracle... and then he showed us this video of him getting struck by lightning and his recovery... he said he got to the hosptial dead and they shocked him back to life. They said that if he recovered, he would never walk again. But now he is perfectly fine and he even plays soccer. I was like "that's awesome you must have alot of faith"... So anyways we gave him a pamphlet about the restoration and told him to read it and pray and stuff.... So we went back and had an aweome lesson with him. He asked us for a Book of Mormon and said he had been looking for the truth and that he thought he had  found it... He showed up to church on sunday with his wife and we are gonna put a fecha (date) with him today to get baptized on the 19th.... It was a pretty cool experience.

I love you guys talk to you next week,

Elder Tagg​

I Don't Regret Anything

July 31st

Mahm y Daddy O, 

This weeek was good.. Really tranquilo. We were able to baptize that family it was a really nice baptism, even though they don't count as my converts I feel like I helped and taught them a lot. In these past 3 months, I personally haven't baptized.  But I have helped a lot of people. The other day there was a mini EFY for all the youth of the stake and I saw one of the jovenes (youth) there that we left a fecha (lesson) with in my other area... it was pretty kool. ​​ 

I'm really happy for the work I have done these past two years... I dont regret anything. It was the best decision I could have made.  To tell you guys the truth, I cry and laugh and hate this feeling at the end of the mission. After making this all of your life and then having to give it up for another life... It sucks.

But I love you guys

Elder Tagg

Filled to the Freaking Top

July 24

Mahm y Daddy O

This week was pretty normal compared to last week. I did some divisions again, we saw some cool stuff, and some milagros (miracles) as well. I spoke in church twice on Sunday in both sacrament mettings. But imma do bullet points 'cause it's easier.

I went on divisions Thursday to a place called Samayac we went to visit this place that's super far away where the missionaries haven't been like ever before. We contacted a lady, and she sent her son to talk to us. This was wierd because her son was deaf and dumb so it was kinda hard talking to him.  At the end, his Mom came out and I don't know what happend but the deaf guy ended up taking us to a waterfall and a cave where the locals do witchcraft.  It was an adventure... Pretty kool.

So we cover two wards. So every Sunday we take the sacrament twice. It's pretty kool, but yesturday I had to give talks in both meetings.  It wsa pretty cool I talked about the obra missional (missionary work) in one and agency in the other one.  They went really well, I didn't really prepare anything, I just said what I knew.  Each talk ended up being like 10 minutes, and I wasn't even nervous It was awesome.

So this last week we had 4 batism dates and they all fell through because none of them went to church. I was soo maad.. But then we had a miricale happen. The zone leaders had a whole family from our area go to their ward so they passed on the reference to us and the family seems pretty positive. So that's kool.

That's pretty much all that happened this week. It was pretty good.

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg

July 17

Mahm y Daddy O

So this week was filled to the freaking top with crazy experiences. We're talking life or death, getting lost in the middle of nowhere, getting sick, finding people to baptize, etc. So you guys probably already know imma do bullets points.

+ OK first of all I did divisions with an area in my district called Samayac its a pretty cool pueblo (little city) but when we got there to the it was raining which is nothing out of the normal.  So we where walking down the road and we were probably like 10 feet away from a telephone post when it gets freaking STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, it was freaking so close you could smell it and all my hair was freaking stood up.

+ We where still on divisions and we went to this town really far away that hadn't had missionaries for like 9 months cause it is pretty dangerous but the members had been teaching a family out there and everything so we went. The family is soo freaking awesome They were actually teaching  2 families and they both accepted baptismal dates for the 29 of this month.  It was a miracle that area hasn't baptized in soo long. But we will see what happens.

*Still on division we were in the park about to get on a bus and this guy literally just drops dead in front of us. Weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. They say he had diabetes but I think witchcraft defiantly had something to do with that mysterious death.

+ We ended divisions in that area and started divisions with another area where Elder Gallagher is. We were eating in Wendy's and a car in the parking lot caught on fire... pretty weird.  Then we were in the mission car because the President lent it to Elder Gallagher because his area is really big. We went out to the beach to put some baptismal dates down and on the way back, it started to rain super hard. So we were driving on these back roads in a really sketchy area and we got to this huge puddle, probably like 3 feet deep. Then the freaking car just shut off apparently the motor got wet but we were like 3 hours away from our house and it was like 6 pm... and Gallagher had left the phone in the church so we couldn't call anyone. By the pure grace of God we hitch hiked a ride to a members house and they towed the car to a mechanic, but it couldn't be fixed that day so we had to hitch hike a ride all the way back to our house... 

* It was a pretty eventful week but on top of all that we found like 3 people in our area that can get baptized before I leave so that should be fun.

¨Jesus Lives

Elder Tagg

Love Yous Guys/ Dengue Scare

June 26 2017

Mahm Y Daddy O

This weeek was pretty Good. Imma do bullet points 

[ So this week on Tuesday, I went to get a blood test. Everything came out negative but non- the-less I passed that night vomiting. The next day I was feeling a lot better. Now everything is back to as normal as it can be in Guatemala, which means I still have diarrhea. Haha!

: Ummm we worked really hard this week. We hare having troubles as a District bringing people to church. So we made a plan to work with the members more and have them help us. This is the plan- we have made invitaions for family home evenings. We give them to certain families and they invite all their neighbors and friends.  We go and share a message and then later we visit everybody that attended seperatly with the members. We have done it once and its was really effective we had 7 new investigators just from one that we have done. we passed around a calender and all the members signed up. IT'S gonnaa BeTOtally WICKed.

: other than That not much happened we went to a really far area to do some baptismal interveiws we got to eat a good amount of pizza and we have been going to the gym it's prettty good.

Love yous guys 

Elder Tagg

June 19 2017

Mahm Y Daddy O 

Bueno, so this one is going to be short cause I'm pretty sure I have dengue fever...

This week was good we did good work, I love you guys, I did get the package! Thanks Mahm, you're the best!

Elder Tagg 

PS Photos are of Elder Gallagher & me skating, and a witch lady

May Update

May 15

Mahm Y Daddy O 

I love you guys 

Elder Tagg

May 22

MAHM Y DADDY O

This week was pretty good Immma doo bullet points

:.Va.... didn't get baptized this week cause his wife got sick and actually lost her baby. Like in the womb and stuff.... So that sucks but he's getting baptized this week.

:I bought a bunch of trumpoos for yous guys 

:I put a bird on my shoulder 

:I have changes! I'm going to Mazate. It's an area called San Antonio. Haha it'll be cool.  I guess I did my job with Elder M. 

: We had 9 investigators in church yesterday 

May 29

Mahm y Daddy o

So this week was good apart from the fact that you guys didn't write me but you know, it's whatever. I mean I'm the missionary, so I have an excuse to not write sometimes. You guys have no excuses. You guys have more than one computer and wifi in your house, and even if you're not home you have phones with access to the Internet...no excuses.

But yea I'm in my new area. It's pretty cool my comp is Elder Russell from Indiana he's pretty cool. We get along well. He lives on a farm and has horses and everything. 

My new area is cool.  It's a ward with like 1000 registered members but only 100 active. SO there is work to be done. We share the area  with Sister missionaries, so that kinda sucks... Nah its alright the sisters are kool. One really good thing is that I'm really close to a Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Little Cesars, McDonald's and much, much morel. One bad thing is that this part of the mission is really well known for parasites and that sort of thing.

love you guys 

Elder Tagg

June 5

Mahm Y Daddy O 

Bueno Pues this week has been pretty good... Bullet Points

-We went to lake Atitlan for p-day. Well we went to a place were you could see lake Atitlan from a far because it's not really in the mission,

} We had this really positive family that was going to go to church but then at the last second they canceled on us and we went to church alone. 

¨Right before sacrament meeting started, a 87 year old black men that my comp & I had invited walked in. We didn't think he was gonna show up  because he doesn't even live in the mission limits but he traveled like two hours to get to church and he said he was going to come every Sunday.  It was freaking awesome! 

) This last week we were walking in our area and some random people called us over to their house. As it turns out, they are less active members. They hadn't been going to church because their Dad was sick. So we went in the home to give him a blessing. He was so sick he couldn't even close his mouth by himself. We gave him a blessing. While I was giving the blessing I just felt like I should give him a blessing of comfort. I didn't bless him to be cured... I don't know that was just what I felt.  We went back a couple times to pray for him and tell his family to go back to church. They said they were going to go and everything, but this Sunday they didn't show up. Turns out their Dad had died that day in the morning... I am glad we found them before he died to be able to give him a blessing. The missionaries had over a year of not going to that house, but a week before the Dad died, we found him... Pretty cool I guess. 

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg

June 12

Mahm y Daddy O 

This week has been good.  I love Jesus... Bullet Points

- This week got soaking wet it literally rained every day for almost the whole day. As we speak, it is raining. Tomorrow it's gonna rain. Yesterday It rained.  But it's okay cause when we get to people's houses they always are like "AYYYY Nooo elderes estan tan mojados se van a enfermar"  "You are wet and you're going to get sick!".. and then I'm like "Nah hermana somos sapos hahah" "nah sister we are frogs". It usually gets them laughing and them they give us hot chocolate. 

- We were contacting and we found this one pregnant lady walking out of her house so we where like "hey can we share a message with you?' and she was like uuuhhhhh... sure. so we walk into their house and she had some visitors. A pastor from some crazy church. The kind of church that likes to clap there hands and scream and all that apostasy... So we sat down and started talking with him and while that happened the pregnant lady gave us all coffee and we where like DANNNGGIT and we said "we don't drink coffee" and the pastor was like "why the heck not? The bible says that all herbs made by God aren't harmful for our bodies..." and he was like "I eat and drink what ever the heck I want." Then I asked him if he drank beer and he said  "Ayyy No because that's bad for you."  And I was like, "but it's made out of wheat... and then I said we believe that coffee like wheat has a different purpose for us and its not for drinking..." he was silent for a little bit and then he changed the subject haha, gottt hiimmm on that one haha.

-That 87 year old black dude came to church again and is gonna get baptized in two weeks after he comes one more time. He's freaking awesome.

- We went roller bladin' this week for p-day. It was awesome but on my last loop around the rink, I fell and ate dirt but that's okay it tasted pretty good compared to tamales haha.

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg

Some Dope Waterfalls

MAHM Y DADDYO

This week has been really good. My comp is doing suprisinlgy well and we baptized this Saturday so that was awesome. A joven (youth) named L he's 15 (furture missionary).  So that was cool and today for P-day my comp and I went to some really dope waterfalls which is why we are writing so late, and also why I don't have a lot of time. But to answer some of your questions:

- I'm really doing swell

- The hardest part of the mission is changing Mission Presidents 

- Sometimes I do feel like that missionary.  It's a mix of unfocused, baggy, sad, happy, anxious, and just plain weird. It's like changing your whole life, then right when you get used to your new life, everything changes back.

- The investigatprs are progressing & doing good 

- We eat pizza like once a week 

- I have never had parasites or anything like that. Not that I know of anyways but I have had some pretty narly diarrhea. 

-I will pray for Drewbsy 

Right now I don't have fotos of the baptism or of the other waterfalls, but I'll try to send them next week 

love you guys

Elder Tagg

PHOTOS

Dead Cat on Doorstep

Maham y Daddy O

So first things first. Someone in my new area ran over a cat in the street! Then they put it in a box and threw it at our house. We came home that night to a dead cat on our door step. So we did what every normal Gautemalteco would do, we put it in a garbage bag and threw it in the lot behind our house. 

So this week was pretty good. I got to my new area San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta! It's pretty dope we have some good investigators, and the members are really cool. I also got my new comp his name is Elder Me... he is from Honduras. He has 3 months in the mission. He's pretty cool. He's really animated to work, so I think we are going to work well together. One of the best things about my new area is that there is hot water!!! That and it's not hot as heck. Everything said and done, I'M HaPpY in this area.

So this week in Guatemala it was Semana Santa its like Easters but all week long. All the once-a-year Catholic people get together and put on a show... They make carpets in the street out of sawdust, and they a carry a statue of Jesus around in the street walking over all the carpets they made just the night before. Then they also have people dressed up as Romans that follow around the people who carry Jesus and in the end they fake crucify a Jesus. It's pretty sad that the focus so much on Jesus' death when He is actually still alive. 

This week we ate pizza from a pot cause we have no plates. But you know... It' whateves.  

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg  

Pretty Normal Week

MAHAM Y DADDY O 

This week has been good, we got a lot of work done, we got to know some new people, and everything has just been generally good. It's really refreshing to be in a new area with new faces. 

So we have right now two fechas for this Saturday, and a possibility of baptizing two other people! Pretty dope, Malacatan is a blessed zone. There are always people just ready to get baptized. So the two dates we have right now are two jovenes (youth) one of them is 15 and the other is 16. They are pretty dope. I pretty much just came to put the date with these guys they were already ready.  The other two are just posibilities becaue one has to get married and the other needs permission from his Mom, but we are working on it. But don't even worry, we got it in the bag!! 

But yea it's been a pretty normal week. We played basketball today for P-day and then we ate at Dominos pizza...... Pretty good stufff.

I love you guys. Have fun out there!

BUT HEY, HAPPY FREAKIN ANNIVERSARY!! LOVE YOU GUYS!! Boston looks pretty cool.

Elder Tagg

Hacky Sack Challenge

Maham y Daddy O,

Hah! The light just came back on. There was a little storm and the power went out, so I'll try to make this fast before it goes back out. Ok so this week was good we did some good work. I went to Guatemala City, and my companion got some weird infection on his leg. So we had to stay in for a good part of Friday and Saturday. 

So I went to Guate with this kid from Peru that was going to sign his visa. It was good! Everything cheque. We slept in a really nice house owned by the church right next to the temple... It had hot water... Dope. So we went to the doctors, and he took some like red ear wax out of my ear looked at my ear and everything. He said that everything was fine, it's not infected and it's stable until I get to the states. He basically just said it was a check up to make sure everything was fine. Basically there are two risks. One that water gets in my ear and and it gets infected, and two that the skin from my ear canal grows into the inner part of my ear. But niether of those things have happened so we are good. 

We worked pretty well this week considering that we didn't have much time in our area... We had a really spiritual lesson with an Hermana about the law of chastity which is wierd because usually it's one of the most awkward lessons to teach. But we just put it out there, explained the doctrine and how it can bless her life if she lives the law. She understood well and she is going to talk to her boyfriend about what their next step should be as a couple witht the new knowledge she has. 

So that happen, and my companion got a wierd infection in his leg. I'll send a picture but it looks like a caterpillar or some time of bug like burrowed his way into his leg (!). He can get like a quater of a Q'tip into his leg. But yea for that President gave him permission to rest for two days... so I got a lot of studying done. I really like Alma 32 especially verses 40 and 41 

40 Y por lo mismo, si no cultiváis la palabra, mirando hacia adelante con el ojo de la fe a su fruto, nunca podréis recoger el fruto del árbol de la vida.

41 Pero si cultiváis la palabra, sí, y nutrís el árbol mientras empiece a crecer, mediante vuestra fe, con gran diligencia y con paciencia, mirando hacia adelante a su fruto, echará raíz; y he aquí, será un árbol que brotará para vida sempiterna. 

I feel Like I understand the scriptures better in Spanish but the verse talks about  looking foward with faith, and letting the seed of our faith grow and eventually seeing the fruits. I like to compare that to goals and looking forward and cool stuff like that. It's good motivation for me. Also apart from studying I've been practicing my hacky sacking. I'm getting pretty good. My record is 16 in a row, you guys should practice too and we will see who can do more. Hahah and whoever does the most gets money. Esta bueno pues (it's good then). Hey when is bro Dyer gonna come down again?

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg

His companion's infected leg

Look for the Lord's Hand in my Life

Maham y Daddy-O 

I don't know what it is, but some weeks I really just don't feel like writing. This week is one of those weeks, but I will do my best. We did some good work this week. We didn't baptize anyone but the work goes on. We are working with a lot of good people. Last week we had 7 in church, but this week we had nobody. Evan though we had a bunch of people commited to go to church, they just didn't come. I don't know why. This week is General Conference so we gonna make sure to kill it and bring as many people as we can.

Other than that it was just the normal missionary life. I think somethimes it's hard for me to see the miracles or sometimes even the blessings because there are so many of them. Something I'm going to do better this week is look for the Lord's hand in my life. I know it's always been there and always will be, but I'm going to try and recognize it more this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have given a lot of thought and prayer to the subject of what I'm going to do after the mission, and I think the best option for me Is to be in Utah working at first and taking like one or two classes on the side. What have you guys been thinking?  I think that that way I'll be able to ease myslef back in and I won't have to be so finacially handicapped. I will eventually, maybe after a year or a semester of working, go back to studying full time. And I want to get my surgerory done as soon as possible when I get home. As much as I know you guys want to come get me I think it would be better if you didn't. That's just how I feel.

I think that maybe Uncle Dave could help me get a job. Isn't his job to like get people jobs? 

What ever happened to Spencer V? I never heard back from him when I wrote him like 15 months ago. 

Anyways I love you guys 

Elder Tagg 

PS: I couldn't send pictures this week.  My bad. Next week tal vez (maybe)

Pretty Kool

MAHM Y Daddy O 

This week was pretty good. We worked hard and were able to see the fruits of our labors. This week we had 7 investigators in church. It was amazing, a true miracle! We were able to have really spiritual lessons with an old investigator that we had before. He couldn't get baptized because he wasn't married to his partner. Also, his partner didn't want to even listen to us at all. However, this time, when we went again, she listened to us. We made cry when we were talking about how she needs to fight for her family and do everything to support her "husband" and her daughter. She cried, but it was like a good spiritual cry not like a 'I'm a horrible person' cry.  It was good. Then they both went to church. 

So that stuff happened. We are probably going to baptize like 2 people this weekend. Two little kids, but it's gonna be kool either way. The work in Guatemala is dope. THIS IS THE PROMISED LAND!! 

We went and played pool today for P-day we also played soccer It was pretty kool. But yea pretty much just that happened this week. Just so you know I only killed the lizard because it was eating the baby chickens of our neighbor and other bad stuff like that. and then my English is like that because English is not my mission language my Spanish is concecrated but my English is normal still. IDK 

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg 

Pretty Dope

Mahm y Daddy O

Sooo, this week was pretty dope. We had a nice conference with Elder Rasband. I got to shake his hand, we did lots of divisions with the district, and we put some fechas (dates for baptism)  for the 25th of this month. We gonna baptize like 3 people on the 25th.  It's gonna be awesome.  Also I completed 18 months yesterday! Dope. 

So Elder Rasband came and he talked a lot about how Thomas S Monson loves us, and that he was thankful for us, and that we can be the light for lots of people if we are worthy diligent and obedient, we also learned about the expiación (atonement) 'twas pretty cool to hear the voice and teachings of an apostle. 

Fom there we had a miracle in our area. A lady and two kids that have a bunch of attendance in church all accepted fechas (dates for baptism) and we gonna baptize this weekend. Hermana Shelly and two kids that they call the peludos (furry) because they have a bunch of hair. 

Today as a zone we played kickball, football and ninja. T'was dope and then we all went to the new subway they put in. Pretty awesome, but it's pretty expensive.  It's like 45 quetzales for a combo. 

But yea bendiciones (blessings) for all

Elder Tagg

PS Oh I also thought Mahm would like this picture of a burning children's park. Ha ha ​

Elder Tagg in the WAY back with his head poking up

No More Bagginess

FEB 13 2017

Mahm y Daddy-O 

Hey how's it going? Everything here is pretty good. I got like 3 packages this week and it was Nathan and Audrey's birthdays. So that's pretty cool. I got the package with the sling shot, I got the package witht the lemon bars, and I got the package that Nathan and Joceyln sent.  So t'was pretty merry in the Elder Tagg house this week. 

Also we baptized Al...  and his wife. That was so freaking stressful, because both of them work really long hours, they live really far away, and they had to get married first before the baptism could happen. So we went to get them for their baptism at like 5:00, but we went a little early so that elder GH could do the interviews. So we did that and everything was good, but then we waited like 3 freaking hours for the lawyer to show up. In the end he copuldn't even come because of an accident. So our Bishop had to marry them like last second. a little sketchy... but all completely legal.  And then we baptized them. But after they had waited for about 4 hours. I felt pretty bad, but they did it and it was awesome. The only thing is that the wife didn't get confirmed this Sunday because her uncle died and she couldn't come. But we gonna get her confirmed next week of sho! Don't worry about it. 

But anyways we went mini-golfing this P-day t'was pretty freaking awesome! The place we went was probably like the nicest place I've ever stepped foot into here in Guatemala because it had grass! Like actual grass... pretty koool. 

Tell Audrey I love her and that she's a big one now .

love yous guys 

Elder Tagg

FEB 6 2017

Maham y Daddy O, 

How's evertyhing going?  ....Everything here is pretty awesome.  We're doing pretty good. This week was definitely a lot better than last week!!  No more Bagginess... and I haven't had diarrhea in a little bit, so that's a blessing. 

    We got some good work done... we are teaching this family. They already have attended   church and everything and they want to be baptized they just need to get married, so we are in the process of doing alll the things so that can happen and hopefully they get married and baptized this week. They are pretty cool. The Dad's name is Al... and the Mom's name is Fa... Pretty much all of their extended family are members of the church. Even their kids are members. I don't really know why the missionaries before didn't baptize them. It's kinda weird cause they baptized all the kids, just not the parents. But whatever. More baptisms for us haha. Please pray for them so that they can get baptized this week. 

This week we had a multi-zone conference and like two days before it Hermana Goodman called me and asked me if I could share a message. But I misunderstood her and thought I only had to do like a practice with her. I imagined it like inviting some one to church. But the day of the conference came and I found out I had to share a message with everybody not just like a practice but like a full message. Ha! I was a little nervous because It was in front of everybody and I hadn't prepeared anything. But I gave a good lesson on how to help our investigators keep commitments. It was actually really good haha! I started out with example I called out Elder Gayheart and had him try to sell me a pen, but he couldn't ask if I wanted to buy it. It was pretty funny. He couldn't get me to buy it, Then I related that to our investigators. If we never invite them to do stuff they probably will never even think about doing It. It's really important to just invite and be direct. Not like dancing aorund the question, just direct, then promise blessings. So that was pretty Koo.

This one's for you Dad: Pretty much all I know about the Gospel is in Spanish. Meekness translates to mansedumbre. It's an attribute of Christ that brings the spirit. In Galatians 5:22 it talks about the fruit of the spirit and how meekness is a fruit of the spirit. Also Moroni 8: 26 is a good scripture about being meek. That's pretty much all I know about that topic. Good luck on your talk. 

That's pretty much it. OHH and elder Rasband Is coming to talk to us on the 18 its gonna be dope! The first apostle I'll ever meet in person HAHA.

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg