Semana 3

Well another week has gone by!   

So today is my birthday... I had some sort of Jelly covered cake.... My favorite part were the pecans on the bottom :) Well thank you for all the birthday wishes and the responses to those who chose to take up the challenge of 20 RAK this week for 20 years!   

Feeling special today. I woke up to a line of notes from my room to our study area from my great comp. Hna Castillo. She is always so thoughtful! She often puts a sticky note in my agenda during the week. I’ve been blessed with a great comp. 

I got to see Hna Afu (my comp from the MTC) this week. We were on divisionals. She wrote me a note because I was telling her how I was feeling. I cried, like a baby. We both pray each day that one day in our missions if it be the will of the Father, that we will be brought back together again as companions. Luckily we have zone conferences ever 4 weeks, so I will get to see her again in 2 weeks!!   

There is one family that we are just starting to see. They have 4 kids. Really precious and are constantly smiling. My comp and I were in their area yesterday. The kids were at a park and yelled over to us to say hi! So we went to their house after where they ran over and came and sat down. They love when we sing the church hymns, so we sung a song. Afterwards 3 of the girls ran in and came out with 2 bracelets. One for me, and one for my companion. So cute. I wanted to cry. (seems to be the norm now) We have some high hopes for this family.   

Unfortunately 5 of our investigators we committed to coming to church didn’t come... I’m blaming it on the big soccer thing going on in Brazil. But we had an outstanding amount of people at church.. 70! My comp said in her time here, that has never happened. I’m guessing we normally have about 25.   

Con mucho amor,  

your fav missionary ;) xoxoxoxo <3<3<3<3

Semana 2!

Pues, buenas tardes mi marvillosa familia!

I've made it through week 2, and not quite sure what to say about it!

Okay, for starters, I might come home looking like Josh... after his mission. I've lost 4 pounds.. however it's actually where I like to be anyways so I'm not too concerned about that. Plus it has been over the past 2 weeks. Although I hardly have an appetite here with the sun and all. I long for veggies!!! Not getting enough of em! (sometimes I don't get any in a day) :((( My favorite foods too!!!

My companion thinks I'm super healthy.. haha she offers me these nugget chocolate things, and I never take one. So I finally told her I hadn't had sugar for 10 months before coming to the field. I still try to avoid it the best I can. At meals the members always have some sort of sugar drink. Usually I just drink my water, or if the members don't eat with us Hna Castillo and I will trade cups and she will drink mine too haaha. Also she thinks that I work out hard since I do burpees every morning haha. She usually just stretches, or we run (but only for like 10 mins) I would love to run longer. Every time we run I think

about running a triathalon or some sort of race when I get back.. but I don´t think 10 mins of running at a slow pace is going to prepare me for that. Just something I crave because I don´t get enough of it..like the veggies!

We live right beside a members home which is also a Panaderilla (place that sells breads and sweet breads) And so they always let us have some for free. But I’d rather not talk too much about what I eat. To be honest my stomach aches everyday, for a period of time, then it goes away... then it comes back. Mer.. I can live with it most the time though.

We had 4 less active members come to church yesterday which was super great, then another came for the remainder of RS. One of the highlights of my week for sure is seeing less actives progress. We also received 13 new investigators this week.. We were trying for 7! One of them was last night, his name is Armando. He has definitely been prepared by the Lord! When I bore my testimony to him last night, the Spirit was so there! I know this because well 1. I felt it, and 2 My companion reaffirmed to me that she felt it an hour after we left his home. I’m curious to see how the Lord plays a role in his life!

We were in a lesson last week where I didn't know what this lady was saying (nothing too out of the ordinary) I offered the concluding prayer and felt I should pray for that her family will be blessed with health.. Turns out she was telling a story about how her grandson (Who we were also teaching) when he was born had many health issues and stuff and anyways. Let the Spirit guide right?!

There are lots of people here who don’t know how to read! Or aren’t very good at it. I even read a little slower with one of the less active members we visited this week (I read after her and she was struggling with it).

Anyways. That’s about all I have for this week. Thanks for all the prayers and love :)

Con mucho amor,

Hna Tagg xoxoxoxo <3<3<3<3

Ps. My b-day it next week and I turn 20.. and I was hoping being all missionary like.. that this week you could all do 20 Random Acts of Kindness! And to pray to find someone that will listen to the missionary discussions before my birthday on Monday. If you need motivation or an idea of how to bring of the church, here is what I've got:

1. I'm serving a mission, so you could bring up that you have a sister or friend serving a mission for the church.. well what do I do on a mission??... there is a lee way right there...

2. Ask what someone did over the weekend or how it went... they will usually ask you the same.. then.. well I went to church, do you know about the church of JC......

There you have it! It is actually pretty easy. You have nothing to lose, and ALL for someone else to gain!

Semana Uno!

Well hello my wonderful family and friends!!

Just wanted to say... the struggle is real!!! Ha

I am now in Sayula as I previously mentioned, and it going fantastic! We had a baptism on Saturday for one of the Elders investigators, and that was pretty cool. Hermana Castillo and I were asked to bare our testimonies with 5 minutes to prepare before standing up. Totally a last minute thing. One of our investigators came to it, so that is why we were asked. I talked about enduring to the end. It is one the principles I am trying to study right now. I had studied it that morning, so the whole subject was fresh in my mind. Everyone after came up and told me that I speak really good Spanish and that I did great. Super nice people here.

I'm missing Hermana Afu lots. She was so great. I was able to see her again once at our zone conference last week, we both left each other trying to hold back our tears. She will always have a special place in my heart! But hey, I've got new companion!

Hermana Castillo is really great, super patient and helpful. She is pretty easy to understand when it is just her and I talking. She can usually help me find the Spanish word I need to use too since she has to spend time learning English while I learn Spanish. It's kind of a win win situation how we can figure each other out.. like I said most often than not.

It is hard to figure out what people are saying when it isn't Hermana Castillo talking. That is probably the hardest part. Not sure why that is exactly. I'm definitely improving pretty quick though. I'm sad that we only have 30 minutes for language study instead of an hour. I really want to just read the Spanish BOM for a week straight (Like in the other side of heaven movie.) so that I can speak better, like the promised blessing from Pres. Hinckley. By the time you finish reading the BOM in another language, you'll be fluent. But I don't have any time for that!! 

So my living quarters are great. We have to walk out of our back door to get to the bathroom outside which also has the shower in it. It is roofed with a tin roof, and the door is a shower curtain! We also fill up a bucket of water to flush the toilet. Outside is the washing station where can wash our clothes hehe. I love it! We can also take our stuff to a washing place just a few minute walk away... I forget what they are called in english, oh a laundry mat?! Honestly though, Id rather just wash all my stuff by hand, it's a good time. I really don't mind the way we are living at all here. I quite enjoy it! I'll try and take pictures this week to send next week. 

First night there was this huge lizard or gecko? Not sure which, in the back by the washing stuff in the corner. That was not cool!!! Hermana Castillo told me we can usually just step on them and they die.. but that was a little too big. And I never want to step on one of those! Too gross. I already have to step on all the cockroaches running around in the back there (Nasty) and I step on the family of baby aunts everyday in the kitchen. I finally swept them out this morning.

My 1st vision experience: So here we are teaching lesson one to one of our investigators. Hermana Castillo looks over to me  so that I recite the first vision. I finish saying the first verse, and then BAM! Our investigator interrupts me and starts saying how she read that part in the pamphlet. I didn't know what to say! Should I keep going? What in the world is this lady saying? Haha it was fine. Anyways, she accepted a baptismal date, so that is good.

Hugging a grown man it not okay!! This didn't happen, but it almost did! So when people greet each other or say goodbye they always do the whole cheek tap thing with the whole kiss thing. So I was going around after church saying goodbye, and the last person was a man, and I shake his hand and go in for it, but pulled back once I realized what was going on.. Everyone burst out laughing.. I was so motted!! (Motted means so embarressed but in a way that you can still laugh about it haha. Hermana Afu taught me that, she would say it all the time!! So I had to say it. :p) My companion kept laughing all the way down to the end of the street! Good times.

Well, hope I didn't waste too much of your time here :p

Love you all, and hope all is well back home. Thank you for your prayers and support. I couldn't do all this without it! 

Con mucho amor!

Su favorita misionera! <3<3<3<3 xoxoxoxo

Hermana Tagg

Here I am!

Alrighty!!

Well it has been real... real fun! The MTC was fantastic, but I'm glad to be here in Mexico. I have a terrific companion. She says I speak well. And I actually understand most of what she says. Her name is Hermana Castillo. She is from Mexico, and the most beautiful person I have met!

So I ended up not getting to Mexico until Yesterday. There was a complication with our flight on Monday. Our first flight out to Dallas was delayed which meant we were going to miss our connecting flight to Mexico. So after taking the train from Provo to SLC and with all of our luggage. (A bit of a pain) We found ourselves headed back to the MTC. After saying goodbye to everyone, there we were again. I was fine with it though, I felt like I needed an extra day to let it all soak in, and feel ready to go anyways. And I have so much time riding there and back to attempt to read the BOM in Spanish.

We had to wake up at 2am on Tuesday to be at the travel office at 2:30am. I was the only one of us Sisters to set an alarm clock.. and I accidently set it to 2pm.. Luckily my body just woke up at 2:17, and I didn't need much time to get ready. I was ready to go, before 2:30, and was waiting on the other sisters to finish up their makeup and yah.. Estuvo bien. :D But funny story, we had cleared customs and whatever you go through when you get into another country, and we all Heard an alarm go off.. yah that was mine.

We immediately went to Pres. Wagner's house had dinner?or lunch? not sure which, it was about 3 or 4 before we ate, haha. He is super nice and I had a great interview with him.

We stayed at the mission home last night. This included me, my new comp, Hermana Afu and her comp. I was so happy to still be with Hermana Afu for another night. I'm so bummed that I have to leave her. She is honestly an angel. She has been such a great example to me of every quality I could ever wish to have. I stopped talking a little bit last night because I feared I would ball me eyes out thinking about leaving her. But it's all good, I'm doing great!

 The reason we stayed at the mission home is because there wasn't a bus going to where our mission is. Yes, Hermana Afu and I are part of the same mission!!! Thank goodness. I will be able to see her maybe a little more often.

We are in Sayula, Mexico. It reminds me a little bit of Solala in Guatemala, the structure of the town that is, but the roads probably have an extra meter tacted onto them.

Well, there you have it. I'm here, and praying every second of the day!

Love you all lots! Con mucho amor,

su favorita misionera xoxoxoxo

Hermana Tagg

Nikki was lucky enough to be able to run into her friend Melissa at the Provo temple a few weeks ago. She was so happy! Here are a few pictures they took.

Dos Dias!

Phew!

My dear family, the time has come. I received my travel plans for Monday. Guadalajara, here I come!

So with my last week and all, I had a dream that Thomas S Monson was going to show up to our devotional this past Tuesday.. he didn't. But it was still incredible! Unfortunately I forgot my notebook again for today, and I'm up here on Main Campus so, not sure what to say about that.

Anyways this past Sunday was fast Sunday, and some of the Sisters here had said that they were fasting to speak Spanish the whole day... they did until after dinner. I was so impressed by this. So on Monday night I mentioned to Hermana Afu that I wanted to do the same thing on Tuesday. And the best part is WE DID IT! Except we stopped after dinner, just like the other Sisters did. I think we would have been able to go the whole rest of the day, but one of the Hermanas in our district went with the others sisters in our zone to choir that night so we were with her companion, and she struggles quite a bit with the language. We were pretty proud of ourselves. (not is a bad way)

I was glad to have had her with us because she opened up a bit more with me, and I was able to do the same. And being the DSTL I was pleased with this.

On Wednesday Hermana Afu asked Hermano Dolbin if he would talk to us about what he had learned about the atonement since we had overheard him talking about it the day before, un poco. He was a floater teacher before he finally got a district, meaning he just went to different classes to help and such. He seemed to come to ours most often. He took us aside after he was done teaching his district and asked us if we had any specific questions. One of the questions we had talked about as a district was how does Christ "succor" us? (Alma 7:11-12) We were invited to seek that out ourselves. So we talked to Hermano Dolbin about it.

He asked us all the right questions that led us to be guided by the Spirit, without him just telling us. (Make sense?) It was so great how much I learned from him in that moment. My personal study the next day was really cool too just thinking about what I had learned, and that night my mind was flooded with questions (well in contrast to the 0 questions I usually have! So like 3 haha) The Elders that he teaches thinks that he is going to be an apostle, and many have secret man crushes on him haha.

Thursday was our last day with our afternoon teacher. He almost cried :) He loves us! AWE! With everyone who helped us we picked up the "Living Christ" proclamation thing and all signed the back of it like a card then laminated them. For our 2 main teachers that teach us in the afternoon (Hermano Pence) and our evening teacher (Hermano Brown) we got them these things but also a Mexico shirt from the MTC where we all signed our names, missions, and dates of our mission, our district (123A) as well as their name on the side, and on the other side something funny like "cafe" meaning brown in Spanish so we often call him Hermano cafe. And for Hermano Pense we put "WOW" in big letters, then above "como" cause he always says "como wow" and it is so funny! (meaning like wow!) You all probably could have figured those out, but yah..

So I can half roll my tongue/R's now... I'm working on it. One of the floater teachers kind of taught me this week. I feel funny walking around trying to practice it, especially since I always say desorrollar (develop) when I try to do it. Meh I'm feeling optimistic about it though.

So on Monday sometime I think in the morning I may have the opportunity to give you a call at home!! Please be home so I don't miss you! I would love to talk a little bit. I tried to buy a phone card, but again my debit card wouldn't work, but my comp said I could probably use her phone card cause it has a bunch of minutes on it, however just to connect the call it used 130 minutes on the card, so please answer the first time!!

Tomorrow my district is singing the EFY medley at church tomorrow in our little branch. Lucky me, I get to play the piano for it! So that is exciting :)

Today, my comp and I are speaking all Spanish again today. :) It's a good time. We really think it helps! Today I'm even carrying my dictionary around with me so I can learn certain words that I've been trying to say. But I'm just about out of time here. But I had the opportunity to write down my testimony this week in class, and it was just a really great experience to have done that. I find that I have all my thoughts jumbled together all the time, so taking the time to actually write it down sometimes helps to organize my thoughts. I invite you all to write down your testimonies this week. I promise that as you do so, you will be able to feel the Spirit, as you do so sincerely, and that you will feel good about it too. I think it will be cool to look on my testimony after my mission and to see where I end up.

2Nephi 9:39 (last 5 words) "Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal"=SMILE see it???? :)D

Con muco amor,
Su favorita misionera! <3<3<3<3 xoxoxoxo