April 25, 2011 Egg Hunt

E ai Gente!?!

Well happy Easter to you all! I hope you all stuffed yourselves silly with chocolate bunnies! Here the tradition is giant chocolate eggs. Also during the holy week most people only eat fish so we ate so much fish last week that I almost couldn´t look at one on Easter.

We had an unofficial egg hunt against the elders of Ranieri this week aka trying to get people to buy us chocolate eggs. We didn´t get a single one the whole week! How many did the other elders get? 6! I had given up hope to receive one but Easter Sunday my companion and I both received eggs (see photo). Maybe now that the holiday is over people will buy us some because they are cheaper.

Man we fought for baptisms this week. Maria José and Alice were both marked for baptism Sunday night but neither worked out. Alice disappeared and when we finally got a hold of her it was too late to mark an interview and she didn´t go to church. Maria José was a little more complicated. She has had a really difficult life and loves the difference that has occurred in her life. Our District Leader showed up for the interview and almost ruined everything (a story too long to tell) and in the end she didn´t pass and has to be interviewed by Pres. Jackson. Maria will be baptized on the 7th and we´re not sure if Alice is still firm.

I was so freakin sick this week. It was ridiculous! I was coughing and sneezing and I couldn´t sleep. The weather is a little crazy right now because we´re moving into winter so that didn´t help at all. I finally got medicine on Friday and now I´m a lot better. I still have the sniffles but I´m not coughing nearly as bad.

Let´s see what else happened? We received a greeny american in our zone! His name is Elder Crandall from Washington state. It´s so funny to see how lost the new missionaries are and to think that I was like that 8 months ago.

This next week is going to be way busy. We have Zone Leader Council, Leadership Training and a special meeting with.... drum roll please... Elder Hallstrom from the Presidency of the Seventy. Should be exciting. I´ll have a lot to talk about next week.

Anyway I love you all!

Elder MacLane Taggart
--

April 18, 2011 Castelinho

Hey World,


To start, I realize that my email last week was a little weird. However, it was the truth. Don´t worry, I not self hating or anything, I just had a pretty reflective week last week. I kind of thought stuff back home wasn´t going to change on my mission but boy was I wrong. Jackson moved to Colorado, Kenzie moved out (again), Maggie and Ryan are trying to start and family, and mom and dad are heading off to Paris for the week. Yep things change! haha but that´s part of life I suppose and I guess that is kind of what I was trying to say last week.


Anyway, I´m super happy right now. My area is great! Last week my comp and I had to talk some stuff out but now we are super strong. This week was the transfer but we´re staying together one more so I´m excited.


Last Monday we had a great time with some of the elders in our zone. We went to a restaurant called Habib´s. It´s like McDonald´s but they make middle eastern food. I bought their version of a big mac (they use velveta cheese sauce instead of thousand island). It was so fun. This transfer I made some really good friend here in Guarapiranga, like Elder Hickenlooper, who just got transferred. It was nice to spend the day with the awesome elders of our zone.


Tuesday we had district meeting and I then we went into an exchange with Jardin Angela. I stayed with Elder M. Melo in Aracati. It was great. He corrected my Portuguese every few minutes and then got embarrassed. I still need to learn so it was good.


Wednesday I did and exchange with Elder Amauri in our area again. It was good. He is the oldest missionary here in Sao Paulo Interlagos. He is 27 and pretty bald. We got out to work earlier than we thought we would so we went to Castelinho for a little bit. Castelinho is an abandoned mansion on the lake. It is so cool. There are tons of stories about it. One guy told us that it was a drug lord´s home and the police killed everyone that lived there and that their spirits haunt the place now. Others say it was just an old rich guy that died and no one took care of it anymore. The point is it´s creepy and full of brasilian graffiti (see photos).


Friday I went on exchange with Elder Beron in Chacara Santana. He is one of the first Argentinos to serve in Brasil. Brasil and Argentina are huge rivals so people always say funny stuff to him. I did my first baptismal interviews during the exchange. It was awesome! It´s a lot of pressure to think that you´re the one who decides if these people will be baptized or not but it really is a spiritual experience that I enjoyed and hope to do a lot more.


Saturday some of our investigators got married! Sergio and Cristina! They have been way busy the last few weeks so we haven´t been able to talk to them a lot but they invited us to the reception and it was so fun. Cristina looked so beautiful and Sergio introduced us to everyone and gave us a lot of attention. Now we just need to get them to accept a baptismal date.


I got pretty sick this week too so I´ve been running on empty. I feel like I´m getting a little better everyday so I should be back to normal soon. Irmá Eurotides (arrow-ti-gees) made me an herbal remedy of ground up garlic, lime juice, and honey that makes you want to throw up but does the trick.


Anyway, that´s the week for you! I love this work and I love all of you! Fica Cique!


Elder Taggart

April 11, 2011 Boring Week

Well everyone, this week I really have nothing to say. Nothing really interesting happened, I´m just working my butt off as usual in the service of the Lord. I´ll try to make next week a little more exciting for you all.

Since I´m not really writing a ton today I´d just like to tell everyone that I kind of had a revelation this week. I really have changed so much in these short 10 months on the mission and I realized that I don´t really like who I was before the mission. If I did anything that made any of you feel bad I´m sorry; I´ll have to make it up to you in 14 months. As corny as this sounds, I think I truly am becoming a man.

I know that this Gospel is true. I see the miracles of it everyday. I see and apply the atonement on a daily basis and I´m so grateful for it. Don´t take it for granted. Love the blessings that God pours out upon you. Love the challenges too. If there is something wrong in your life, change today. What you do today could define your eternity.

I love you all and hope to hear from you.

Elder MacLane Taggart

April 4, 2011 I Need Some Sleep

Dear World,

Hey everyone, how are you doing? I´m doing great! This week was the fastest week on the mission so far, seriously I can´t believe it´s already time to email again. It was a good week for sure so let´s go!

On Tuesday we didn´t go to district meeting because we had zone leader council (sp?) in Ferreira. It was so cool! We had like a big round table and we talked about the trends and difficulties in the mission. Sister Jackson made us all cinnamon rolls too! yum!

Wednesday we found a big family of single women that is really receptive. We´ve already marked the mom for the 23rd and every time we go there we get a few more referrals and new investigators. It´s great to find families like that but it´s hard to teach them because everyone is going in and out the whole lesson and some people haven´t received certain messages. We just need to focus on the mom so hat she can lead the rest of the family.

We went back to Ferreira on Thursday to do an exchange with the Assistants. I worked with Elder E. Silva in their area. Half of their area is really rich and the other half is favela. It was pretty fun and at the end of the night we ordered the mission famous pizza Kadaloras! It was so good. In our mission everyone orders pizza with chocolate filled crust, sounds weird with a savory pizza but it´s like having dessert with every piece! Right before we went to bed Elder E. Silva told me he yells in his sleep and he actually did. I did not sleep at all.

Friday we had another exchange with the Elders of Riviera Paulista. I stayed with Elder Lima and it was really fun with him and we talked a lot about teaching techniques and how to get better. I think I helped him a bit. I didn´t sleep there either because the bed was messed up. Their shower is broken so I took a freezing cold shower!

Saturday was the first day of conference! Conference eats up our whole day here because it starts and 1 and the last session ends at 7 at night. It was so great. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet, no doubt! We had a few investigators their too. The priesthood session is too late for us to watch so we had to get up early on Sunday to watch the early morning rebroadcast. We all slept in Raneiri because they live closest to the chapel and it was way fun but I lost the Uno tournament so I had to sleep on the floor. Their neighbors were playing music all night too so I didn´t sleep for the third night in a row.

During the Sunday sessions I couldn´t even pay attention because I was so tired. I think I actually fell asleep a few times. Good thing I can read the talks in the next Liahona. I finally got to sleep in my own bed last night and it was good.

Today is my companions birthday! Parabens para Elder D. Silva. I made blueberry muffins and he really loved them and now we´re going to have a movie day with a few other elders. Of course it will be church films but a little media stimulation is always good.

I love you all and hope all is well. Please send me a letter every once in a while to tell me about life. Again love you all! The Gospel is true!

Elder MacLane Taggart

March 28, 2011 Let There Be Light!

Hey Everyone!

Well another freakin fast week flew by. Man, it´s hard to keep my head on straight.

The week started with district meeting. Elder Amauri da Silva asked me to give the training so I compared investigators to portraits each one is unique and in order to help them you have to get to know them and paint the picture. It was basically about how to ask edifying questions to provide for their needs. I created fake investigators with key information that the elders had to discover through the asking the right kind of questions. It went really well.

After district meeting I did an exchange with Elder L. Smith in Chácara Santana. It went really well and we had some incredible experiences. We meet a man named Joáo who was watching us in the street. When we made the contact he invited us into his home and he was way open. He also talked a lot about the Masons because practically everyone is a mason here. He said I radiate a light that he had never seen before so that made me feel good. At night we were waiting for a the bus and a woman with a beer can walked up to us and said, "Hey elders!" We got talking and found out she was taught by the missionaries in another city but could never be baptized because of her boyfriend. We marked an appointment and she said she wanted to join the church. Elder Smith told her to stop drinking and she could so she threw her full can of beer into the street. It was awesome!

Wednesday we had interviews with Pres. Jackson. He talked about not whitewashing our difficulties after they pass. Things are hard sometimes and we can´t pretend like they weren´t after they´re over because then we don´t learn anything. I´m getting to know Pres. Jackson so much better now and I appreciate him even more than I did. I´ll be really sad when he heads back to Utah in July.

We also meet a really rude man. We received a referral from a girl in our ward who is dating a non member so we headed over there and his dad answered. He freaked out and said he would not let his son talk to us and that our church is a cult that enslaves people. We said, "Unfortunately, we believe differently than you." and he said, "Unfortunately for you!" I wanted to punch him in the face for the rest of the day.

Friday I did an exchange with Elder Hickenlooper in Raneiri. I freakin love Elder Hickenlooper! It was so fun. They are having some difficulties with one of their investigators Sergio who is determined to be baptized. His wife, however, kicked him out of their house when he told her we would be baptized last week. So it was marked for Saturday morning and we were all there ready, waiting and he never showed up. Later he called them and remarked for Sunday morning and again he didn´t show up.

Saturday morning we had a service project cleaning out the overgrown garden of a family in the ward, and I thought gardening was hard in the states! We basically had to dig out the whole garden with hoes and hands. I got way sunburned. The family gave us a mountain of ice cream after so I almost got sick from all the creamy goodness.

Nelçi and Gabriella´s baptisms were marked for Saturday night. It was so crazy in the chapel. Their was a youth dance and a relief society party going on at the same time and you know what happened? The power went out! We all just sat there for an hour waiting for the power company to come. They fixed it but then the power went out again after ten minutes. The bishop was yelling at us, "Elders! Use your authority to bring the lights back." In the end we had to remark everything for Sunday morning before church. Everything went well in the end and Nelçi and Gabriella are the newest members of Ala Aracatí!

Sunday night we had dinner with Gildevan and Karla. They are a great couple that we are teaching that need to get married. They made us dinner and we watched 'Together Forever'. After dinner we marked a day to sign up for the wedding and Gildevan asked Karla to officially marry him... in English! It was awesome!

Anyway, that´s my week. I hope you all enjoyed it! Love you all!

Elder Taggart

March 21, 2011 It's Time for Tea

Dear Everyone,

Hello again from the city of São Paulo! This week flew by and was really interesting. São Paulo is going through a cold wave right now. It´s staying around 60 degrees everyday which is really odd for this time of year because it is still summer down here. It´s been raining a lot also and I haven´t had to use sunscreen because there hasn´t been blue sky in over a week. The chilly weather is prompting everyone to make us tea and I gotta say that I have really developed a liking for the herbal pick me up. They add a ton of sugar so it´s always sweet and there are a million different flavors. Today I had rose tea! It was bright pink and so good!

Anyway we started the week off with district meeting on Tuesday and after the meeting we did an exchange with the Elders of area Horizonte Azul (Blue Horizon). Elder Amauri da Silva is one of the district leaders that I follow up with as part of my zone leader responsibilities. I went to their area while Elder D. Silva stayed in Aracatí with Elder Mota. It was a great exchange. We didn´t have lunch so Elder Amauri made lunch but in the middle of cooking our propane ran out so we had to carry the empty tank to the nearest trade station and carry the full tank back to their house before we could finish cooking. We visited their baptisimal candidates and the visits were kind of crazy. We taught a woman about the word of wisdom and she said that if God himself appeared and told her to stop drinking coffee she wouldn´t! Sometimes you just want to yell at people (and some elders do), but that´s not the way I like to work.

We undid the exchange but went right into another with the Elders of Riviera Paulista. Elder D. Silva went with Elder Nunes to their area and I stayed with Elder Lima. It´s Elder Lima´s second transfer but he is already an awesome missionary. I almost got lost a few times in Aracatí but we managed to make a few good visits.

President Jackson had last minute zone trainings so we headed to Ferreira (mission headquarters) to undo the exchange and have the meeting. We had no idea what it was going to be but it basically turned into a movie day. We watched 'The District 2' again and then discussed what we learned from the film. It was great.

Friday and Saturday was our time to really buckle down and work in the area. We have an incredible woman marked for baptism this week. Her name is Neuçi and her daughter is Gabriella. She is elect, elect, elect! The first time we visited her she asked us to pray with her to get a job and the next day she was called to be a cleaning woman. The downside was that it was way difficult to find her at home because of her new job. We finally got a chance to visiter her Saturday night to teach her the word of wisdom and she was already living it! She doesn´t work on Sundays so she´ll be able to go to church every week. We miraculously made a contact with her sister Alice in the street and Neuçi had already invited her to church!

Sunday was pretty good. We had 9 people in the chapel! It was so close to our goal of 10! But what can you do? People have their agency to do what is right and go to church or to stay in bed and get some extra sleep. Honestly, both options sound great. haha! But seriously, GO TO CHURCH! In the afternoon we visited Neuçi, Gabriella, and Alice and they made us a cake and, of course, tea. This week we´re going to have to visit Neuçi really early in the morning before she goes to work to finish up all the lessons before baptism. At night, Pres. Jackson gave a fireside at one of the wards in our zone so we got most of the missionaries together to sing 'Faith In Every Footstep' for the closing hymn. Sis. Jackson played the piano and Pres. Jackson´s sister who´s visiting the mission played the violin. It turned out really good.

Today is P-day and this morning we got together with some of the Elders in our zone and played Uno for a few hours. They have a ton of crazy brasilian rules which make things a lot more interesting. For example, the person that loses has to drink a liter of water and you have to keep playing until someone throws up. Luckily we didn´t have time to go that long and I was pretty close to breaking. And now I´m here in the Lan House writing to all of you.

I hope this week brings lots of blessings and opportunities to learn and grow for you all. I know that God answers prayers and that no effort is vain. Please keep the prayers coming (and also a few letters).

Elder MacLane Taggart

March 14, 2011 Gotta Get in the Zone

Hey World!

Well, it has begun. I´m a zone leader and it is so busy but really good.

Last Tuesday was the transfer meeting so my new area... Aracatí! It´s way cool! It´s an island in the middle of a resevoir. My new companion is Elder D. Silva. He is incredible! He only has one transfer more than I do but I feel like a kid next to him. He knows how to teach, how to lead, how to everything. I´m definitely going to learn a ton from him. But we´re pretty much just two newbies pretending to be zone leaders here in zona guarapiranga.

My first day in the area we were walking down the street and pretty much everyone on the street knew us and stopped to talk to us. It was cool.

We have some pretty good investigators. Our baptismal goals are Nelçi, Gabriella, and Maxuel. Nelçi is a really new investigator but she already accepted to be baptized this month and is way open. Her daughter is Gabriella and they are really struggling right now because Nelçi lost her job. But the first time we taught her we prayed that she would find a job and the next day she received a call to work as a house cleaner so that´s a miracle. Maxuel is the son of a member family. He is a little rebellious so we´re going to do a fast with his family so that he will feel the desire to be baptized.

We have meetings all the time. I had to go to the mission office for a district leader training to learn about baptismal interviews and such. It was good. Later in the week we had a meeting with the bishops in the new chapel that just finished. They are doing an open house so we had to go see what the plan was for the missionaries. That night we didn´t get home til almost 11pm! This week we have a few more meetings planned and a division with the assistants.

My first Sunday in the ward was ward conference. The ward is brand new (only has about 6 months) so it was the first conference. It´s an interesting ward but it seems like the members are a little more excited about missionary work.

Today we organized a zone activity because we are wanting to strengthen zone unity. We played soccer and volleyball then had a Churrasco, it was great! I´m way excited to work here and getting more into the leadership mode. It´s going to be an interesting transfer I think.

I love you all!

Elder MacLane Taggart