Transfers

MAHM Y DADDY O, 

How's it going in Olney? I hope you guys are doing well. Sometimes I get really focused or really baggy and don't feel like writing because it will just make me get un-focused or make me feel more baggy. Hahah it's a little confusing, like maybe one or two P-days out of the month, I feel like that and don't really want to write... Sorry. 

These last two weeks have been amazing though and I'm really sad to leave El Rodeo. All the people that I have met and friends that I have made... It's like leaving home all over again every time I leave an area. It sucks some major dog poop. I have learned a lot here and will never forget the people. I told all the people I said goodbye to that I was going to come back with a bunch of other white people to visit. Soooo we have to come back one day or else I'll be a liar. These transfers are really wierd though because my comp has more time than I do in the area, but it's what God wants I guess.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the will of God, or what He wants me to do. I read the strory of when Nephi and his brothers went back to get the plates of brass. First what they did was ask Laban for the plates, which is what any normal person would do when they need something. Then when that didn't work they offered Laban all their riches to trade for the plates, which was a great idea which could have worked out fine. But when those two options failed they where like "God? What the heck why did you send us do get the plates if freaking Laban is a freaking punk who will never give them to us?" That is where God gave Nephi the answer, and finally he got the plates. Sometimes we have goals or things we want to do in life and we need God's help but we do it they way WE want to do it and don't listen to God and sometimes we even murmur because He hasn't given us what we want. But what we really need to do first is listen and follow what is His will, and then we will be successful. That's something I have learned here that we have to follow God's will not our own, and only then will we have success.

Last week we baptized 3 people and this next week we have three people with a baptismal date. MIRACLES. One of the ones that was baptized last week was an 83 year old man named Julio. We contacted him in the street on Saturday, he went to church on Sunday, and he was baptized two weeks later. Yesterday he was given the Aaronic priesthood. When he was baptized his body left water, and he laughed and said !Que Sabroso! (yummy) Hahah I love him. Then one of our old investigators that we stopped teaching called us out of nowhere and said he wants to be baptized this next Saturday. hahaha MIRACLES. 

I love You guys I'll let you know where my new area is next week. 

Elder Tagg

Happy Birthday Evan!

That is a typical Evan face!

I'll Tell You a Secret

Maham y Daddy O 

Hey guys! How's it going?  This week has been pretty busy but also amazing.  It was full of blessings, miracles, and a butt load of crap about the Gospel.  It has made me reflect on pretty much everything about me. What I have done when my life up to this moment, what I'm doing right now, and what I want to do with the rest of my life. 

It's a little difficult to think about the things I have done, and maybe I'm not completely sure what I am going to do in the future, but I sure as heck know what I am doing now. And I want to share a little secret with you.. I love It!! I know why I am here, what I am doing, and who I am doing it for. I may not have been perfect before, but now at least I know what I have to do to be happy, something I didn't know before.

But besides that, we baptized Ta... on Saturday. She is so awesome! The Sunday after being baptized, she paid her fast offering even though she is super poor. She is 18 years old and she has a one and a half year-old daughter named Ro... who is sooo freaking adorable... I love the people from Guatemala! I don't even know why, I just love them. We also spent the better part of two days this week preparing all the paper work for two families to be able to get married and afterwords baptized this Friday. So amazing....these people! One of the husbands of the families we are going to marry is named Ju... He is 83 years old and we contacted him in the street one day. And right there during the contact we told him we had a baptismal service ready for him and we challenged him with a baptismal date and he accepted.  Now he is going to get married and will be baptized this Friday.  He is an amazing example of faith, I love him. 

Also the members here in the Rodeo are amazing.  They always give us food, and help us out. I love it here, It has been a really awesome area.

I think you guys should get an Acura RDX. Jjust my thoughts, but I don't really know. Flubba looks glorious on that tree stump and the girls look good in the dresses. That's crazy that Drew has a broken ankle. Did he get a cast? If you want to loose weight for the wedding Maham, you should come to Guatemala and walk all day!  I wieghed myself the other day and I weigh 146 pounds.  That's like 20 pounds less then when I came hahaha. But if you can't come, just know your perfect the way you are. 

Love you guys (pictures next week)

Elder Tagg

I Love the Scriptures!!!

MAHam y Daddy O 

Hey guys this week was a week of miracles!!! We had a really good week, with 12 invesitgators in church woooohhhhhh with one family!!!! But we did everything possible to make it happen, worked super hard every day, even thouigh it rained super hard pretty much every day. We gave everything we had and the Lord blessed us abundantly. 

Some of the miracles that happened:

-An investigator named Mario intorduced us to his family and they all came to church.

- Mario, the same investigator, visited all of his nieghboors with us, and from them another 2 people went to church.

- The Rama Rodeo had 113 people in church!  The most they have ever had. 

So that happened and I started to read the Book of Mormon again and I found this scripture that I liked in 1 Ne 16:29   Y también se escribía sobre ellas una escritura nueva que era fácil de leer, la que nos daba entendimiento respecto a las vías del Señor; y se escribía y cambiaba de cuando en cuando, según la fe y diligencia que nosotros le dábamos. Y así vemos que por pequeños medios el Señor puede realizar grandes cosas. And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was easy to read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave.  And thus we see that by small means the Lord can do great things.  

I learned a lot about how God blesses us. Amo las escrituras!!!  I love the scriptures!!!

Elder Tagg

Ear Update

Maham y Daddy O 

Hey guys hows it going over there? It's pretty good here. It was a kind of weird week though because we got to go to the capital, Guatemala City! It was pretty cool. We left on Wednesday, stayed the night there and came back late Thursday night. It was quite an adventure. I ate in McDonald's for like the 2nd time ever on my mission. It was soo good I cried. Hahah!  It was like an actual hamburger, AMAZING. We also found a Hard Rock Cafe but we didn't go in. I was really impressed by the capital actually.  It's so different than the Guatemala I know.  There are like actually street and buildings that aren't made entirely of cinder block. I saw the Doctor and he said that the hole in my eardrum is really big. I basically don't have an eardrum. But there is nothing they can do here it has to wait until I get back. He also said that it was stable and there is no infection or anything. I just have to keep water out. I also can't change altitudes. So it looks like I won't be going back to San Marcos or San Pedro any time soon.

This week we had some cool experiences. We had 4 investigators in church and we challenged L's little brother with a baptismal date and he accepted and is going to be baptized this Saturday. But L still hasn't come to church, which is kind of frustrating. But we aren't going to give up on him. 

Also this week we found some cool new investigators. One is super Evangelical dude. And he asked us a question that I couldn't respond to. It was about the adulterous women they brought before Jesus to be stoned.  His question was why didn't they bring the man before Jesus too because they had both committed adultery. I was like uuuuuhhhhh I don't know, but is that going to help you with your salvation? And he was like well not really but I want to know. So we told him we would study it but I haven't found an answer yet. Another question he asked was when we shared John 3:5 that says basically if you aren't born of water and of the spirit you can't enter the Kingdom of God and he was like "but what about the thieves that were crucified with Jesus, he wasn't baptized, he just believed in Jesus' words and Jesus promised him that they would see each other in paradise. We where like uuuhhh. hahah this guy had some good questions. All in a good days work hahahah. 

But I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week. If you have an answer for any of the questions that would be cool.

Elder Tagg

Kids celebrating Guatemala Independence Day with some street "music"

Rainy Season

MAHAM Y DADDY O 

Happpy Birthday Dadddddddd! Mwoooo 50 years old!  You're a big boy now!  

How's it going guys? This week has been pretty good. Not really much happened.  We taught some good lessons, found some cool people, and had a sweel time. I can't believe how fast the time goes by though. I feel like it was yesterday that I left the CCM. But that acctually happened a year ago. HAHA! Crazy! 11 more months! But anyways... 

Right now we are in the rainy season and almost every day at four o' clock it rains like crazy. Everything gets wet. Also the 15th of September is coming up here soon which is the independence day here in Guatemala. Everybody puts up flags and the school kids put on a program where they do a parade/band thing. It's alright but the they don't really know that their music doesn't sound like music.

Oh and L (our investigator)  is 18 yrs old. He didn't go to church again, but I'm not going to give up on him.

Anyways I love and miss you guys. Tell Nathan I love him and not to be a bum. Tell Drew i love him and that he should leave for his mission before going to a year of college.  Tell Audrey I love her  and not to have a boyfriend. Tell Bryn I love her and that she is perfect the way she is. Maham, I love you you're the best Maham ever. Daddy O, I love you you're the best Daddy O ever.

Love you guys 

Elder Tagg

Miracles Do Happen

Maham y Daddy-O,
 Hey guys what's up?  Everything over here is going pretty good.  I'm pretty good, but lately I have been thinking a lot about home. I don't know why, maybe it's because I am going 'down the hill' now. If the mission was like a mountain, and the year mark is the peak, I have now reached the peak and I'm going down the mountain. Everybody knows going down the mountain is a lot faster than going up. So yea, maybe that is why I have been a little baggy (homesick). I have a goal though, to only be a little baggy when I'm in the house in bed.  So far it's working out pretty well.  I also have another goal to read every book in the mission library before I end the mission. I'm reading Jesus the Christ right now. It's really interesting, but sometimes hard to read.  I struggle finding motivation and everything like that.  

So this week we baptized R... it was awesome. He bore his testimony after he was baptized. It's always awesome to see your convert share what he has come to know. So that makes me happy. But I'm also kind of sad because L... didn't go to church this Sunday so we have to postpone his baptism. Sometimes it's really hard because people don't want to give up their time for the Lord. But I know that he will be baptized and will be a missionary some day. ITS ALL ABOUT THAT FE (faith).  You gotta have fe or else milagros (miracles) won't come to pass. 

So this week we had a multi-zone conference with half the mission and with a general authority from the first Quorum of the Seventy Elder Alonso. It was really cool. We learned a lot about the atonement.  He told us that if we taught the atonement well and with the Spirit that our investigators would tell us to baptize them.  So my companion and I  put it to the test.   I really tried to put the atonement into practice in my life and in my teachings this week and we were sharing a lesson with a part member family of less actives.  We shared a message about the atonement and how God has prepared a way for us to return to Him and that by do the things He has sent us here to do, we are able to put this plan into practice.  The Spirit was so strong.  After our lesson the Father of the family who isn't a member came out of the other room where he had been listening and thanked us for helping his family. He said he understood our lesson perfectly and that he was going to go to church with us one Sunday.  So when that happened we were totally shocked because that Dude never wanted to talk to us before, and now he was telling us that he would go do church when we didn't even invite him.  I know that the promise Elder Alonso gave to us that day came true and that miracles do happen.  

Brillando!

Love you guys

Elder Tagg

PS some old photos that I'm finally putting up.  Evan's camera hasn't been working so these will have to do for now... 

A recent baptism right after he transferred from the mountains back to the coast

Another recent baptism.  His pants are looking pretty large on him (!)  

Testimony

Maham y Daddy-O

How's it going guys? Everything here is pretty good. It sounds like a lot of fun stuff is happening over there right now. But I'm glad I am here. Yesterday there was no power for a long time so that's why I didn't write and I am now allowed to write you guys today.

Just a couple of things about my new area. It's pretty cool. We have an investigator named Rafael he is going to be baptized this Saturday. He is 37 years old and is really excited to be baptized. Today we taught him about patriarchical blessings. He is really excited to get his and to recieve the Priesthood. He is awesome. On Saturday we helped him move. We took almost all day to do it, but in the end everything worked itself out. We are also working with an 18 year old kid and his 14 yr old brother, Lester and Marvin.  They are really sweet and want to serve missions. Every time we go they accept everything and share their thoughts on how they can see the difference between other churches and our church. We found Lester one day while contacting. Ever since I met him I have felt like in the premortal life I promised him I would find and teach him the Gospel. I don't know why but I love him as if he were my Brother. 

Lately my companion and I have started to read and study more diligently, and I feel like it's really helping me to feel the spirit. But today we had a lesson where the spirit wasn't there. It went really bad. I didn't feel good afterwords and neither did my companion. I hated not having the spirit. I felt super uncomfortable. 

se que esta iglesia es verdadera se que el señor me ama. yo se que es lo que tengo que hacer para que el espíritu este conmigo, cuando no tengo el espíritu no me siento bien y no puedo predicar su evangelio como El quiere que lo haga. se que jose smith fue un profeta llamado por dios y que por medio de el la iglesia verdadera está aquí en la tierra hoy un día. se que yo estoy aquí para traer almas al señor yo he visto el cambio que uno tiene cuando conozca este evangelio y por eso sigo aquí porque amo a esta obra y se que solo por medio del señor podemos tener la felicidad eterna. yo se que Jesucristo vive y que por medio de su expiación nosotros podemos ser perdonados de todos nuestros pecados. amo al señor amo a mi Padre Celestial y amo a los personas de a aquí de Guatemala. 

en el nombre de Jesucristo amen 

(I know the church is true and the Lord loves me.  I know what I need to do to have the spirit with me.  When I don't have the spirit with me I don't feel good and I can't teach the Gospel like He wants me to.  I know Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God and through him the true church was restored and is on the earth today.  I know I am here to bring souls to God.  I have seen the change one makes when they come to know the true church and that's why I continue to be here because I love this work and I know that only through he Lord can we have eternal happiness.  I know Jesus Christ lives and through His atonement we can be forgiven of our sins.  I love the Lord and Heavenly Father and the people here in Guatemala.  In Jesus' name Amen).

Love you guys, 

Elder Tagg