Dad Turns 49

Hey Mom and Dad!

Happy birthday Daddio!!!! almost 50 huh? You're really getting to be a biggy one.  I heard that Mom got you a scooter.  Make sure you wear a helmet and be safe ok?

Thanks for the extra bag Mom it'll be useful I think.  I do remember that story from Doctor Seuss.  That was one of my favorites along with the Sneetches one.  I'm a star bellied sneetch.  And by that I mean I got a star tattoo.  I'm Kiiiiiiiding.  

I wrote you guys a letter and sent it two days ago I think.  Sorry it didn't come in time for your birthday Dad.  Thanks for the second round of letters you guys sent me.  I'll probably send another one probably.  Haha

It's the year of Laudbod! (Audrey's nick name)  How are you doing Audrey? Make sure as school starts that you keep busy and get involved in things like violin, school clubs, CROSS COUNTRY.  Don't just sit around like a lazy Flubba.  (by the way is she still alive?)  If ya do those things and be a nicey nice it'll be the year of Laudbod.  (Flubba is Abby the Dog's nick name)

Eliza Liza bo Biza banana fanna fo Fiza me mo miza, Eliza.  Notice how I said me mo miza which is correct instead of me mo ma miza.  How are you doing Eliza?  middle school is gonna be grrreat.  Be sure to tell me all your teachers and I'll see if I recognize them.  Same thing goes for you Eliza, don't be a lazy Flubba get involved in school do cross country and you can make it the year of Brynbo (dont tell Laudbod I said that).  Guduuuuuuuu. (An inside joke from the movie Lion) 

Anyway I think that's all for this week.  Thanks for reading.  I love you guys.

Here are some pics

Happy Anziano Tagg

(Here is Elder Tagg's letter to his college buddies)

Hey guys!

It's been great as usual here in Provo.  

I really love it here.  I'm honestly kinda sad that I'm already halfway through my time here, but at the same time I am so excited to get out in the field.  I've been finding out lately that missionary work is really hard.  Whomstd've thought it right?  I mean it has always been hard but this week in particular we have been kinda slowly switching from simply speaking awkward Italian at the people we teach, to actually having a conversation and trying to connect with them.  Connecting with people is hard in English let alone Italian.  I think I'm getting better at it though.  The other day I felt the Spirit so strongly in an Italian lesson for one of the first times.  It was amazing.  

There's been some drama in the district lately.  Can't go into details but.... Yeah it's been a grand old time.  

I've tried not to get involved in the whole situation because it drives away the Spirit so fast.  If anything this experience has taught me that as missionaries we can't really afford to have hatred in our hearts because it makes it so hard to have the Spirit with us.  

Anyways I think that's all for now.  I'll write you guy's again next week.  Ciao!

Cinnamon Bear Situation

Hey Maham e Dadio/Padrel 

(Drew's Mom here) Drew Calls me Maham in his letters.  It's a hand-me-down nick name from his Eldest brother Nathan who would sometimes use that spelling when whining at me in his mission letters.  Like Mahaaam Staaap!  Also when I write it'll be in blue : )

*Maham! Stop forming the Mother's Gadianton robbers behind my back!  I know you can't be as good of a Smother with me being far away but secret combinations are bad!  Haha.  (I'm gonna say haha at the end of every paragraph) 

Here is the paragraph from my letter that Drew is referring to...

"I made friends with H's Mom from your MTC district on Facebook.  So that's good.  Also one other Mom who's name escapes me at this time.  We're forming our own Mom's District behind your backs!  I'm thinking secret combination hand shakes, youtube videos on how to make care packages, breaking into your son's email account to spy on them while they're away for 2 yrs.  It's a bad-girls district"

First of all Dad, it's obviously spelled Padrel what else could it be?  And mine is obviously Derail.  Second of all I'm a little confused, did Evan choke on two pieces of meat?!!! or just one?  I hope he doesn't do it again while you guys are on the road.  Haha.

Drew's brother Evan started calling everyone D-rail, A-rail, etc  a while ago. It's another Tagg nick name and I believe Drew and Troy are having a spelling dispute.  Also Drew knows how it bothers me when letters from missionaries have ton's of misplaced 'ha has' so he's teasing me here. 

That's awesome that Audrey had her patriarchal blessing.  Did she like it?  I wrote you guys a handwritten letter but I haven't sent it yet, I can't remember if I have some envelopes or if I need to buy them.  In the letter I did kinda a big paragraph about Audrey.  I felt like I needed to say some things to her including asking her to seriously consider and pray about going on a mission.  I've felt so many blessings in my life already because of this mission and I would love for her to have the same experience.  She would be such a great missionary.  I don't know I've just felt impressed this week to say that to her.  Haha.

My roomates are great, theres my comp. Anziano Fry, then theres the other companionship Anziani Brown and Humble.  In the other room there's Anziani Buckner, Mosteller, Bawden, and Weight.  They're a reaallly cool group of guys and really fun to hangout with.  I'm giving you this information in confidence Mom so don't use it to do secret combinations with all the other Moms.  Haha (An appropriate ha ha here!)

Ok so there must be something wrong with the cinnamon bears you sent because I was eating more of them and I bit into one and I felt another hard metal thing!!!  I don't even know how to explain this one so I'll just attach a picture of it.  Haha.

Lo vi volgio bene TANTO!!!  Io so che Dio e i nostri Padre Celeste e che lui anche vi ama. Io so che la chiesa e la verita e sono molto molto grato che posso servire il signore e i popoli di Italia.  Questa missione ha cambiato la mia vita.  Lo sono contento a essere qui. Haha.

I love you SO MUCH!!! I know that God is our Heavenly Father and that He also loves you.  I know the Church is true and I am very grateful that I can serve the Lord and the people of Italy.  This mission has changed my life.  I"m happy to be here.  Ha ha 

Here are some pictures

1. The thing I found in my cinnamon bear this weeks

2. Me being photographed without consent

3. Anziani weight’s weird pinky

A letter to Drew's friends below.  He's a fantastic letter writer!! 

Hey everyone! 

Week three has been awesome here in Provo.  It's a little dry but I'll just have to get used to that again.  I actually really like it here!  I love looking out at the mountains all the time, I love feeling the Spirit all the time, and I especially love how they keep me soooooo busy.  Sorry I just learned that in Italy they don't use sarcasm so I'm just trying to get it all out now.  

I'm loving my district.  There are some really cool guys and we have lots of fun. We all have these little zippy things that can attatch our keys and our ID cards to our belt loops and the other day we made a chain of people by putting our ID cards in the back pocket of the person in front of us.  So we did that and then walked all the way back to the residence in the rain.  Elder Maguet actually joined in so it was just a bunch of Italian missionaries and a couple Malagasy Missionaries connected by short strings wobbling through campus. It was a good time.  At one point someone tried to walk in between us and ended up breaking the string connection.  There were casualties.  But it was not in vain.

We are all learning the language amazingly fast.  I know the gift of tongues is real and it's blessed me so much.  Heveanly Father really does love his Missionaries.

Sometimes I do get a little homesick but it goes away when I pray or read the scriptures or listen to hymns.  I know that the Lord wants me here and that's all that matters.  

Ciao!

Elder Tagg

Week 1.5

Dear Mom and Dad,

Good day to you Sir and Madam. 

It’s officially been an entire week here at the MTC and it’s been pretty awesome.  Classes are going really well.  We have some amazing teachers and we are learning Italian soooo fast.  It’s actually a miracle how much we’ve learned.  In just a little over a week we are praying, testifying, teaching lessons, and leaving commitments.  Granted it’s only role playing but that still counts for something.  I can really feel the Spirit during lessons because Italian is such a beautiful language, but also because I know that I’m doing the right thing.  It’s been a little bit hard adjusting to such a busy schedule but I’m getting the hang of it now.  

The MTC is great.  It keeps me busy and the food is alright but not great.  My awesome teachers are teaching us Italian so much faster than I could have imagined.  Il dono delle lingue (the gift of tongues) I guess.  One thing I don't like about the teaching style is that It seems to be a lot of memorization of long phrases. Rather than actually learning the meaning of the words and the grammar and stuffs like that, I find myself simply memorizing words that I don't know the meaning of and spewing them out.  I would rather try to figure out what I want to say and say it rather than rehearsing memorized sentences in a lesson situation.  It feel less personal reciting phrases.  But it's ok, I'm still learning a ton and loving it.

This week really has been awesome! I finally feel like I've settled into the missionary life-style and its really helping me with Italian and with the Gospel.  Reading the Book of Mormon everyday from paper REALLY blesses my life.  I'm taking it slow and trying to really pay attention to each verse.  If I like a verse I'll highlight it, write down the reference and write what it's about in a little book of scripture references that I'm building up to be my scriptural arsenal.  It's already made such a difference in my ability to use the scripture in a discussion, and also just the way I feel each day.  I really love reading it.

My district is 22D and we are awesome. I’ve made some really good friends already and it’s only been a short time.  We ball up pretty much everyday here at the MTC so I’m gonna be pretty good at basketball in a few weeks.  Il mio collega (my companion) is pretty cool.  He’s a little shy but im getting to know him better and he’s awesome.  I do think he’s a little homesick and I don’t really know what I can do to help him with that.  I hope it’ll get better for him.  Hopefully after a while on the mission he’ll get used to it a little more and it won’t be that bad.

So much has happened and I can’t think of it all.  Honestly it feels like we’ve been here for a month not a week.  The other night I was munching on some cinnamon bears and I bit into one and hit something hard.  I looked down and I literally found a PENNY in there!  My roommates and I died laughing for like ten minutes.  I’m still bamboozled about it.  I could have choked on that penny and died!!  I guess I can sue the company and become a billionaire now so that’s nice.  

Please tell Evan that I miss him too, I miss my best friend too, and I'm super proud of me too. That's really scary that he almost died choking on Chick Fill A!  its kinda odd also because I almost choked on that cinnamon bear penny the same week that he choked on his chicken.

Anyway tell the girls that I love them and miss them.  Tell Eliza to not be afraid of her first day of MIDDLE school (bet you thought I'd say preschool haha, pranked ya).  Tell Audrey to stay cool but not too cool for school, and tell her to do cross country.  

Thank you Mom so much for the packages.  The cinnamon bears were great asside from that one with the penny but other than that everything was amazing.  I feel like I didn't express enough gratitude to you for everything you did for my mission and everything you did throughout my whole life so thank you and I love you.  You too Dad.  Thanks for putting clothes over my head and a roof on my back.  I miss our talks about sciencey stuff where I pretended to not know stuff just so that you could explain them too me.  I love and miss you guys lots!  

It’s been a very eventful week full of spiritual as well as near death experiences.  I love it here.  Until next week, Ciao!

Here’s some pictures for ya

1. The anziani in my district holding our flag

2. Us at the Provo temple

3. At a devotional

4. study time

5. See 1

First Letter from the MTC (Mission Training Center)

Hey mom and Dad! 

As I'm sure you know this is my third day here.  It has been absolutely crazy.  My flight was pretty good except I couldn't fall asleep so I was exhausted the rest of the day.  It was nice to see Grandpa, he took us to this place called Saigon Cafe.  It's kinda funny actually because there was this huge oriental fan on the wall as decoration. Nathan and I kept saying "I'm a huge fan of this food" and point to the fan (just like Mom's joke).  I had a headache that entire day so it was a little hard.  

At times I do feel a little overwhelmed and a little stressed about things like organization, schedules, language, and study habits.  It's ok though I just have to get into the fast pace of the MTC.  Stress can be a good thing.  Getting out of the comfort zone is how I am going to grow.  

Italian is surprisingly coming along pretty well.  My four years of high school Spanish have prepared me a lot better than I thought they would.  However, I wasn't expecting the teacher to speak only in Italian for the whole curriculum.  It makes communicating hard especially when we are talking about spiritual things.  I guess it's a good thing though because it might be the best way to learn fast.  

I'm finding out that my knowledge of the Gospel is very small but I'm trying my best to change that.  Studying non-stop every day can be exhausting but it definitely brings many blessings.  

I feel the Spirit a lot while I am here.  Most of the time it is just before I go to bed while studying the scriptures and writing in my journal.  I also feel the Spirit when others testify of the gospel and invite others to come unto Christ.  I just wish that I could turn the Spirit on like a switch as some of these people do.  I don't really know if that will come as easy to me as it does to them. Let alone the fact that I will someday have to do it in Italian. One of the major topics that has been coming up in discussion and in my own thoughts is to simply open my mouth and let the Lord fill it.  To be honest that scares me.  I have always been one to plan ahead and know what I am going to say before I say it.  I do want the gift of letting the Spirit guide what I say and I hope that I can get better at it.  

There's an Anziano (Elder)  in my district, his name is Anziano Humble.  He's a pretty cool guy.  We have the two best last names in the district.   

I read your letters that you sneaked in my suitcase like sneaky little sneaky sneaks.  They were really good and I really enjoyed them so thank you.  Also thank you so much Mom for doing pretty much everything in preparation for my mission.  I could not have done any of it on my own.  Thank you guys for being such amazing parents.  I love you so much.  I'll email you again next week! Ciao! 

Elder Tagg

P.S. I'm sorry that I forgot to take pictures.  I've just been so busy.  I'll try to send some next time.

Saying Goodbye to 14 yr old Abby Dog

Checking in at BWI

At the last turn before our goodbye

Peeking around the corner  (while in line)

The line wasn't long enough for us!

Final wave goodbye

He was so happy and excited!