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