May 28, 2012 A Week in Caucaia

Hey Everyone, Well this week was way fun. I got to spend the week in an area called Caucaia do Alto. It´s in the middle of nowhere. Lots of green, few people, and lots of walking. But it was way fun. My comp for the week was Elder Woodward. We found a few great people and I feel like I was able to help Elder Woodward alot. At the end of the week I came back to the office for Ivaneide´s baptism! It was awesome and the ward got way excited to see and eternal investigator get baptized. Well it´s the last week! I am going work til I die. Our baptisms for this week fell through but everything will workout for the best. I love you all and am excited to see people when I get home here in 8 days! Elder MacLane Taggart

May 21, 2012 Not Much to Say

Dear Family, Well, I don´t really have much to say. This week was way busy because we had zone leader council and new missionary training. We gave trainings about the Doctrine of Christ. We also had 3 baptisms!!! Rafael and Railson are brothers that were referrals from a young man in the ward. They are so good! They are already going to chruch in sunday clothes and are participating in everything. Leticia was going through some problems before the baptism. She wasn´t deciding on her course of action but one day we showed up and she said, "I´ve been waiting for God to fix all my problems before the baptism but I just realized that baptism is the solution to all my problems." So she got baptized. :) So that´s about it. We´re just running around like crazy people. Elder MacLane Taggart

May 14, 2012 Busy Week

Dear World, Well this week was so busy. We had zone conferencies everyday and we were running in our area because we have a bunch of people we are preparing for baptism. Luis Fernando was baptized! It was so awesome! I already talked to the fam yesterday so this is all I´m going to write today! Bye! Elder Taggart

May 7, 2012 Fireside Starring . . . Elder Taggart

Hey World! Wow! This week was amazing! I have never worked so hard and seen so many results! This week we ran all over the mission visiting all the zones and giving trainings. It was so fun! We are working so hard and God is blessing us so much! Even though we have very little time in our own area we have a ton of investigators that are progressing! This week are working to get two of our investigators baptized. Luis Fernando is super firm and excited. Leticia is the daughter of a recent convert that after a powerful family home evening finally decided to be baptized. Best story of the week! As we were getting ready to go to Church in the morning President Pinho called. "Hey Elders, I have a fireside tonight and I can´t go. You guys are going to have to do it for me." What!?! Yeah so basically Elder Hickenlooper and I became the featured speakers of a stake fireside with 2 hours to prepare. It actually turned out really good. And the best was that my recent convert from my first area was there and I totally cried when I saw her. It was amazing. Anyway, this week is going to be super busy also because we have zone conferences everyday. Let´s do it! Elder Taggart

April 30, 2012 Running to the Finish Line

Oi Família, Amigos, e Outros! Wow, I don´t think I have ever run around and worked so hard in my whole mission! This week was crazy! Like I said I was in the mission office on monday. My companion is Elder Hickenlooper! He is one of my best friends on the mission so I am so happy to be with him for my last transfer. He´s from Kaysville but will be living in Farminington after the mission. We also have another companionship that works with us Elder Archirots and Elder A Soares. They are both really cool. I think Elder Archirots is the most "interesting" missionary I have ever met, in every meaing of the word. Tuesday we did the big transfer meeting and in the afternoon we had to train the greenies. It was so fun to see all the new guys arriving. They speak portuguese so much better than I did when I got on the mission. Anyway we basically just told them about the mission culture and I became the 'mean' assistant when I told them that they needed to be obedient and if they didn´t want to they would be sent home. Well... what can ya do right? haha District meeting was wednesday and we talked about how to help incomplete families. Thursday we had to spend the day preparing the District Leader training on Friday. It went so well! I love giving trainings! We did some really cool practices too. Basically we have very little time to work in our own area so when we can we have to go a little crazy. The old assisentes basically burned out their teaching group so this week we went after a ton of new people and things are going really well. We have a bunch of young men that we are working with. We should have a few baptisms on the 12th and we have a good group for the rest of the month. I´m determined to go down baptizing! Anyway this week I learned alot about the worth of souls in the sight of God, especially mine. Basically we should not worry about what the world thinks about us. We should just be worried about what God thinks of us. When Christ visited the Americas the first thing Heavenly Father expressed was how pleased he was with Jesus. I got thinking if God would be that pleased with me. You will find a lot more happiness if you filter your life through that thought. That´s what I decided this week. Love you all, Elder Taggart

April 23, 2012 Finally Paying Off!

Hey World! Wow, I realize that my email last week was a bit dismal. This week made everything better. Our weeks of hard work finally started paying off! Now the trasfer ended. I realize that these last five weeks have definitely been a learning experience. It´s unfortunate that the area had to suffer so that God could teach me a lesson. Anyway I learned a lot about patience and diligence. The ray of sunshine of the transfer was Alaor´s family. I showed up in the area for their baptism and I was able to accompany them as they became fully active members of the church. It was a pleasure. This last week was great! On Tuesday we did an exposition in the city square and met a lot of really awesome people and throughout the week we visited and taught. We finally managed to form a good teaching group. One of the most interesting families we met was Toko and his wife and kids. They live in a tiny little town way far away from our city. We managed to get a ride from a member. It was raining and the car almost got stuck in the mud but in the end we got there. The lesson was great and in the end they accepted a baptismal date! We also had an amazing visit with some ex-investigators. Tiago and Ana Paula were going to be baptized but because of word of wisdom related problems they couldn´t and ended up slowly disappearing. We went back and had an amazing lesson about how their faith can grow into miracles. At the end of the lesson they all accepted a new baptismal date. Anyway everything turned around this week and... I was transferred. :P Right now I am writing you from the mission office. I was called as Assistent and will finish my last six weeks here back in the city. They told me last night at 11pm and after 3 hours of sleep I was already on the bus to São Paulo. We´ve already had a meeting with Pres. Pinho. I am so excited! Well, O Fim Se Aproxima! Elder MacLane Taggart

April 16, 2012 Working for Miracles

Well folks,


One more week has come and gone. This area is definitely a challenge. Unfortunately Sandra was just playing with us with the whole finally deciding to get baptized situation. She told Elder Brito in her interview that she isn´t ready to be baptized and that there is nothing we can to to help her. We visited her after and asked if she wanted our help to get baptized or not and she said no. So that´s how that ended.


We have been working with the zone a bit, trying to help them understand their purpose a little better and help more people get baptized. The training was pretty interesting. We taught them about the Doctrine of Christ and how our investigators need to understand that before anything else. Some understood and others flat out rebelled against us and basically told us they wouldn´t do what we taught them. When one of the District Leaders got up and said they needed to follow their leaders one of the Sisters said that her only leader was Jesus Christ. Long story short, President interviewed her on Sunday and she will be going home tomorrow.


So yeah, that´s what we´re working with here in the Interior. We are working so hard to get our investigators and our missionaries to understand how important it is that we not be robots that spit out 'The Restoration' at people. The Doctrine of Christ is the key to everything we do as missionaries. People need to understand that in order to be cleansed from sin they need to be baptized and that we are there to baptize them. Without this understanding nothing else that we have to teach them makes sense. It´s also the fastest way to know if someone is elect or not. "Do you want our help to be baptized with the authority of God? No? Alright then, bye." It´s so simple! We are battling our hardest here in the area to find the people that are going to say yes to this invitation cause when we find them we know they want what we have to offer.


Well that´s my piece for the week,
Elder MacLane Taggart