New Province, Huge City, Driving a Truck and more Ottawa Adventures...

Hello from Ottawa! The first few days here have been awesome! Ottawa is a super cool city! Thursday was a crazy day, we had to wake up super early so I could be to the airport by 6am, I flew from Moncton to Ottawa and my flight was early so I ended up just hanging out in the airport by myself for like an hour it was really weird. A couple elders came and picked me up and took me to the bus stop where I met up with my new companion Elder Tran. He gave me the keys and we took off to make sure everyone made it to their new areas and there were no problems. Everything went smoothly. That night we had a lesson in downtown Ottawa we ended up being late for the lesson because there was no parking anywhere, but eventually we were able to squeeze into a spot. We drive a truck and trying to drive and park in the city without hitting anything is definitely the scariest thing I've done on my mission haha. Friday and Saturday were full of lots of finding because we're not teaching very many people yet. On Sunday I spoke in church and got to meet some of the members, the ward is a pretty good size here with lots of cool members. We met with a guy named Steve after church on Sunday. That man talks like the most stereotypical Canadian ever. I heard "Eh" more times in that lesson than I have my entire mission. Haha he's a funny guy. That night our stake had a social and watched the Christmas devotional. Almost our entire zone was there for it! In New Brunswick we were an hour and a half drive just to get to the next area. This zone/ stake is so much closer together! The devotional was awesome and the whole night was great! Overall everything is going well here! We live in Gatineau, Quebec so it's weird to have everything in French but hopefully I'll be able to learn a few words. Have a great week! Love you!

Love, 

Elder Tait

Transfers! Knocking at my own door, light the world!!

Hey everyone! It's transfer week and I found out I'm getting transferred to Ottawa, Ontario! It's sad to leave Moncton, but I'm excited for a new adventure! Things are still going well in Moncton. Last week we had exchanges with the Miramichi elders and I got to go with Elder D'eon one of my last companions! We had a crazy day making sure everything was good for our zone's interviews with President Low. It was a great exchange! The rest of the week was mostly us visiting everyone around here and me saying goodbye. 
Last week we came home one night, we got up to the door and I mindlessly stopped and knocked and waited for someone to open it. I guess I'm a seasoned missionary now haha. Have a great week and go light the world! 

Love you! 

Elder Tait

Miles & Miles, Adventures on a “Spiritual High” for some...

Another crazy week! Lots of fun things going on! We took a road trip to Miramichi, had exchanges, slept over for a couple nights, and then drove to Caribou Maine for a district council. We gave a training about Beginning With the End in Mind. It went pretty well! On our exchange in Miramichi I went with Elder D'Eon to a native reservation. There's a bunch of black magic going there, but we were able to stay safe haha! We spent a ton of time in the car and got back to our area in time for more exchanges, this time in Moncton. The elder I was with and I had a grand old time running around in the rain and talking to people. We got soaked, but found a super cool dude standing in the rain. The next day we showed up to his apartment and he welcomed us in. We got in and there were 15 bros in there passing a few joints around. There was a thick cloud of smoke. We took the opportunity to teach about the Book of Mormon before we had to bounce. They loved us and wanted us to come back, but it wasn't the most spiritual environment. I'll write more next week!

Love you!

Elder Tait

Cold Toes warm hearts...



Hey everyone - I forgot to send my email last week, so you get two for the price of one this week. First off, the week of November 6...

It's been a crazy week! We started last week with exchanges on Wednesday and Thursday.  I got to be in a trio for the exchange with Elder Furrows and Elder Hogue. We had a great day together and had some sweet experiences! We stopped by a lady we used to teach named Antoinette and set up a lesson for the next day. We went back the next day and had our lesson and it went really well! She was super grateful that we were there and is very humble and receptive to the gospel. I'm excited to continue teaching her! On Friday we drove out to PEI and visited their district council. It was great to see the elders there and learn from their insights. On our way back we stopped in at the best ice cream place in PEI and they gave us free ice cream! It also snowed for the first time this season on Friday. Saturday we had a ton of lessons planned and they all fell through, but we were able to have some cool unplanned lessons. On Sunday we had church and a couple of our friends came! Rémi the father of the huge Swahili/ French family came. Elder Taylor translated the meetings and he really liked it! On Monday we got up at 4am and went to the airport. We flew to Montreal and spent the day doing exchanges with the APs. We got to do some metro contacting on the huge underground metro system in Montréal. It was such a fun time to be riding around and talking to people. I felt like I was about to get on a roller-coaster every time the metro rolled up. Yesterday we had our MLC meeting and had a General authority Elder Bassett visiting. I learned a lot from his training it was super good! After the meeting nobody could give us a ride to the airport so we had to find our own way by taking the Metro and then hopping on a bus, but we made it! We sat at the airport for awhile and once again our flight got delayed. This time it was too cold to board the plane so we had to wait. We ended up getting home around midnightand that was it for this Montréal adventure! I hope you all have a great week! 

Love you! 

November 13-19

Hey everyone! This week was great! We had zone conference in Moncton. Elder Bassett came to that and taught some great things about teaching and sacrifice. Everyone came away from the zone conference motivated and ready to go. After the zone conference we started exchanges with the Rimouski Elders. I was with Elder Gutierrez from Mexico. It was super fun to work with him and get to know him! Growing up in Mexico is much different than growing up in Utah haha! We taught one lesson on a guy's porch that night. Our toes were frozen, but our hearts were warm! The rest of the exchange was awesome except for when Elder Gutierrez used our entire block of cheese for tacos haha. Saturday we had a bunch of lessons fall through. The one that happened went well though! The rest of the week was us teaching as many people as we could while we had some time in our area. Today we are having a district p day in Miramichi, so we've still got lots going on! Good times in the Maritimes! Have a great week! 

Love you! 

Elder Tait

Traveling, meeting the new zine, busy week...

Hey Everyone! It was a fun week with lots of traveling! Wednesday we had our district council in Miramichi so we had a nice little road trip for that. It was fun to meet the new members of the district. Later, we came home, packed and ate some dinner and then went to the airport and flew to Montreal. The next day on Halloween we had MLC where we had some really good discussions and set a vision for our zone this transfer. After the meeting we stopped and got some amazing burritos before heading to the airport. Our flight got delayed and we didn't end up getting home until 1am, so waking up the next morning was a struggle. We were able to fight through it though and had a great day. We were able to have some good visits and get some planning done. That night we were out on the coast in a place called Shediac and as we were driving home we passed the biggest lobster I've ever seen so we stopped and got some pictures.

... 

Time is short today and I didn't get to finish this, but I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Tait 

Pic of the week...

Saying goodbye to Elder Bonny

Missing Car Keys & other exciting Adventures...

Hey everyone! It was transfer week and it was definitely one to remember! I got my new companion, Elder Taylor, from Twin Falls Idaho. He's a really charitable missionary and I'm excited to work with him this transfer! I got to take all the elders around to the bus and airport and get them all sent off. We got everyone back to our apartment and sent them off. One companionship stayed behind and asked us if we had their keys. We told them no and then they and us started to get worried. We looked around everywhere in the apartment and the parking lot and couldn't find them.  Eventually we found out the Elder from that area who got transferred to Montreal accidentally took the car keys with him. We made some calls and the spare key got shipped to us for the next morning. Thursday night we did our best to have all 4 of us doing good work, but it was kind of interesting, because I was the only one who knew the area, so no matter what we did there was one companionship that had no idea about anything in the area. The Miramichi elders ended up sleeping over with us that night and then the next morning the package with the spare key showed up. We were excited we could get the elders sent off. We opened the box and gave them their key, they hit the lock button to see if it worked and we heard the horn, so we were relieved. It sounded oddly close so we went to the window and tried again. That's went the realization came that it was the wrong key. They had sent us the spare key for the Moncton car instead of the Miramichi car haha! Many phone calls later we came up with a plan to have the Miramichi elders take our car to Halifax, pick up their key and drive back. Meanwhile, Elder Taylor and I fixed up some old bikes and rode around on them for the day. Respect to all the missionaries who only have bikes! Eventually the Miramichi elders got their key and got back to their area so that was really good. On Sunday we had a class from a local Baptist University come visit church. After sacrament meeting we had a Q and A with them and it went super well! Yesterday one of the students texted us and told us she wants to learn more! We've been super busy getting everything going for this transfer and it's going to be a very busy one! We're working with a bunch of amazing people and I'm excited to keep helping them! I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love, 

Elder Tait

Pics of the week...

Saying goodbye...

Road Tripping & Happy Thanksgiving...

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week! It was a fun one here. We were out of our area for 3 days road tripping across New Brunswick! Last week we had a district pday in Miramichi where we did a hike, then we stayed in Miramichi and did exchanges with the elders there. Our exchanges continued all day on Wednesday after we had district council. I was with Elder Morrell and he took me to Tait street! Pretty cool! We had a grand old time talking with all 3 people that live on the street haha. Later that night I conducted a baptismal interview for a person being taught in Miramichi. It was a cool experience. I could feel the spirit really strongly. It was a fun exchange with the elders there. It's always fun to hang out with the other missionaries! 

On Thursday we got up and drove to Caribou, Maine for a district council. We gave a training there and spent the rest of the day driving back to Moncton and finally got home at 9:00pm. We drove 600 kilometers today haha, good times! We spent a bunch of time on Friday planning, because it's the first time in a month we've had a chance to sit down and do weekly planning so we had a ton of stuff to go over. That night we had a couple lessons with people we are teaching. One of them was completely in French, so that was a little confusing. I feel like I understand what's happening and what is being said in the lessons, but a lot of times I'm way off when I talk about it with Elder Bonny afterwards. Slowly getting better though! Saturday was super cool. We were finally able to get in contact with Jessica and Gustavo. They are the couple that we prayed for and then they just showed up at church awhile back. Things were going well and then they moved across the city and got super busy with work, so we hadn't been able to talk with them in over a month. We'd been praying that we would have another chance with them and then on Saturday they texted us back and we got to go visit them! 

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving! We helped the Remi family move. They are the Swahili speaking family we are teaching English to. Their basement had flooded so they'd been living in 3 rooms with 12 people in their family. They were able to find a new house that we helped move some things into and they were so excited. It was so awesome to see how happy they were. I love that family! They are so cool! We got to have a good thanksgiving dinner with our ward mission leader and then ended the night with a guy we are teaching named Pierre. All in French... I need to go do some language study haha! Have a great week everyone! Love you! Au revoir ! 

Love, 

Elder Tait 

District Pday - last week

Sorry this is so late - I didn't ever send this out oops!! Here's Elder Tait's email from last week...

Hey everyone! We had a district p day today so I don't have much time to write. It was a great week! General conference was definitely a highlight! So good! One of my favorite quotes was from Elder Johnson "if we do not understand who we are, it is difficult to understand who we can become" we all have such great potential, but in order to work towards it we have understand who we are as children of God. Find your potential and then go work for it! Have a great week! Love you!

Moving with no moving truck, and a few other adventures...

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! It was a fun week! We had exchanges this week and I did an exchange with Elder Hatch, my first trainer! It was cool to be back together again just like the good old days. He's a super funny guy! He and his companion brought a ton of tiny pictures of Alex Boye and hid them all over our apartment. Haha, it was pretty funny to be doing something and then we just find a random picture of Alex Boye wherever we are in our apartment. On Friday we got to go to PEI and give a training to their district. It was super fun to see all of them and we got some amazing ice cream on our way off the island! That night we had our church sports night and then watched the Book of Mormon videos. They are so good! Go check them out if you haven't already! On Sunday we visited the other unit we cover. It's a small branch in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The pianist for the branch wasn't there, so I was chosen to fill in. Haha, good times! The piano had auto play though, so it all worked out. The Lord provides. That afternoon we got back to Moncton and found out how church went. It wasn't the best and there was a problem with one person we are teaching and the member who was supposed to give him a ride not taking them. We were pretty salty about it and then all of our lessons for that night fell through. The opposition was having a hay day and we had seen enough. We prayed for some help and set a goal to go find 4 people that night. We went out that night and found the 4 people! It was another testimony builder to me that if you align yourself with God and work hard with a good attitude you can't fail!
Yesterday we helped a guy move. We got there and heard the bad news "I thought I'd save a couple bucks by not renting a truck since it's just down the street." So, we helped this guy move his entire house (bed, dressers and all) - from his 2nd story apartment to his other 2nd story apartment down the street! Haha good times! Lots of sore muscles after that! Things are going great here! Have a great week!
Love you!

Elder Tait

Zone Conference, traveling, teaching and blessings. Another great and busy week...

Hey everyone! We've been crazy busy, so it was a super quick week! We're teaching a lot of people right now in our area and we also had zone conference this week, so we had to get travel plans and everyone settled in for that. The day before zone conference one of the missionaries had to go to the hospital for an emergency appendix surgery, so that was a curveball in our travel plans for them. The surgery was successful and all is well now, haha. That was a crazy call though!
Everyone in the zone came to Moncton Thursday night for interviews with President Low. We took a couple elders out with us and worked with them for the night. Me and the elder I was with did a family history booth downtown and then went to a Bible study. The Bible study fell through so we went and visited a lady we are teaching. While we were walking there we met Eric. He's so cool! He's from Rowanda and was super excited to meet us and to hear about The Book of Mormon. He ended up coming to church with us on Sunday! Thursday night we had 6 other elders stay with us at our apartment, which was super fun!

Friday we had a great zone conference, we talked a lot about planning and having a vision and learned a lot of great things! After the conference we took the Lows to the airport and then had a sports night at the church and also watched the new Book of Mormon videos!

On Saturday we had 5 lessons fall through, so we spent most of the day on our backup plans. We had lots of great laughs all day, mostly because we were so tired, so everything was hilarious to us. That night I was writing in my journal and when I finished I had written about the same day twice in a row haha!

Sunday was good. We had 4 people we are teaching come to church. That was really exciting! Later we had a really good lesson with Eric. He is so prepared for the gospel!

Yesterday we drove a couple hours to Fredericton, visited a district council there and then came back. We had a great tender mercy. One of the sisters gave us some chick fil a sauce, so we stopped at KFC on the way back and used the sauce. It was so good! We got back for the evening and had another good lesson with Eric. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he wasn't sure about some things, but we were able to read some good scriptures and he really liked them. Then we visited Rémi and Angelina and their family. We are trying to teach them English. They were watching some Swahili to English videos on YouTube and then Rémi handed me the remote and pointed to the TV "English video" so I put on an English video. I put on the primary song "A Child's Prayer" with the lyrics and Rémi sang along with it! haha it was a great time!

Everything is going great here! We keep finding lots of cool people and are teaching and traveling a lot! Lots of fun! Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Tait

You Might Be Doing it Wrong...

Hey Everyone! This week has been good for us out here in good old Moncton! This week we got to have exchanges in our area with the Miramichi elders. I was with Elder Calheiros from France. We had a great time working together and had lots of laughs because of the little language barrier. We were able to have a good lesson with one of the people we were teaching, she was really distraught and confused and was really struggling with prayer. We taught about prayer and it went really well. We were able to answer her questions and resolve her concerns with the scriptures! Overall it was a great exchange and it was awesome to work with and learn from Elder Calheiros. After exchanges ended Elder Bonny and I went to another lesson we had. We knew that us and the guy had some differing opinions and we were holding each other accountable to teach with love and not argue with him. It was an interesting lesson. The guy has read the entire Book of Mormon, but refuses to pray about it to ask God if it's true. We talked to him about how we can find truth and testified of the answers that come to sincere prayers, but he still refuses to pray about it. It was sad and kind of frustrating, but Elder Bonny and I were both able to feel the spirit while testifying to him so hopefully someday he will remember something from that lesson and pray about it. We also got to do some service this week which was pretty fun. We helped out with a food drive where we would go door to door collecting food, Elder Bonny and I were right in our element going from house to house haha! We also got to help out with a member who had 40 trees fall down in his yard after the storm that came through last week. It's always super fun to be able to serve and help out other people!
Our mission has been focusing a lot on planning lately and how we should be doing it. It's been crazy to learn that our planning sessions haven't been like they should be. As we've applied what we've learned planning has been much better for me. I'm not a fan of the mornings anyway, but I really didn't like doing daily planning every morning. Now I'm still pretty tired in the morning, but planning is so much better because we are doing it right. That's something that I've seen a few times on my mission. When I think I don't like something, most of the time it's because I'm doing it wrong. If you aren't enjoying something in your life, then try to see what you can do differently because most of the time you aren't doing it completely right. I'm thankful for all the great experiences and the learning I get to do as a missionary! Have a great week everyone! Love you!

Love, Elder Tait

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Re: Starting a New Transfer, Feelin' Like a Missionary Mom, Great Things Happening...

> On Sep 5, 2019, at 3:59 PM, Sheri Tait <sheri@7taits.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! This week has been really great!
>
> On Wednesday night we had a few Elders sleep over and Thursday morning Elder Bonny and I got to wake up at 4:30 to take the first Elder to the airport. After we got him sent off we went back home and rested until the next Elder needed to leave, we took him to the airport and sent him off. It was sad to see them go, I felt like a missionary mom sending my sons off haha! We continued sending and receiving missionaries throughout the day so we were back and forth between Little Ceasars and the bus station. Eventually we got everyone sent off safely and were able to have a lesson with a lady we recently started teaching. She has many questions so the lesson had a wide variety of principles, but we tried to keep it simple and it worked out well. Later we got to have dinner with our Bishop and got to correlate with him and then had a lesson with a new couple later that night!
>
> Friday was a whole lot of planning for us and getting everything figured out for this transfer. That night we tried to stop by this couple we are teaching. We had been out of contact for a few days and unable to reach them. The buzzer for their apartment doesn't work and we haven't been able to reach them over the phone, so we had no way to contact them. We had been praying to get in contact with them all day. We showed up to their apartment and we talked to this guy outside who was very uninterested, but as he was walking away he offered to let us in the building. That was a big surprise, because people here never let us into apartment buildings. We were able to go in and knock on the apartment of the people we are teaching. They let us in and we were able to sit down and talk with them for awhile and get back in contact!
>
> We did a big service on Saturday to fix the deck of a sister in the ward. It was a lot of fun, except for when we got attacked by hornets - haha good times! Later, we had a lesson with Barbara one of the ladies we are teaching. She told us her experience about how she was having a horrible day and was about to slip back into her old habits after years of being clean, and she decided to pick up the Book of Mormon and started to read. She said after that she was able to feel good for the first time that day and she received the strength to resist temptation. So cool! Later that night we also had a lesson with Remi and Angelina, a family we are teaching. Next time we go we have someone skyping in that speaks Swahili so it will be a lot easier for them to understand!
>
> Sunday was good! We had church, did some finding, had a lesson and sorted through 30 boxes of pass along cards that just got delivered to us for the zone. That took awhile, but it's good to have it done!
>
> Yesterday we had our calls with all the district leaders and then our call with President Low. We were also able to go help clean the yard of a family that just cut down a giant tree. We were there for a couple hours and only made a small dent, but we plan to go back later this week to finish off the tree. Later we had a lesson with a guy we are teaching named Joel, he has a really good understanding of the Bible and believes the same things as we do just from reading the Bible. He is excited to read the Book of Mormon to answer some other questions he has. We finished the night by stopping at Dairy Queen for some blizzards!
>
> Another great week! This transfer is a couple weeks longer than normal so we should be able to get a long of good work done! Have a great week and don't forget to pray!
>
> Love,
>
> Elder Tait
>

Happy 20th Elder Tait!!

Missed this one from August 8th - Zone Conference, Exchanges and driving

Hey everyone! This week was really good! We had exchanges with the Rimouski, Quebec elders which was a lot of fun! I was with Elder Croft who's been out for about 6 months but has never served in English, so it was a big adjustment for him. It's weird being the more experienced missionary on exchanges these days! Lots of fun though! We met some really cool people while we were together and ended up having a really good surprise lesson! That night on the way home we picked up frostys and gave Elder Bonny his first ever frosty! This week we also had zone conference! Everyone in the zone came to Moncton and we had interviews with pres Low and a great zone conference! Elder Bonny and I gave a training about faith and it went well! We had a lot of good things going on last week, we started teaching 10 people which is super crazy and really exciting for us! Yesterday we traveled out to Charlottetown, PEI to go train at their district council it's always really fun to get to see other missionaries. The training and driving took up most of our day, but now we are in our area for the rest of the week so we should be able to have some good lessons with all of our friends and continue helping them grow closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

It's super crazy that this week will officially be 1 year as a missionary for me! Mission time is wack it's flown by! I've learned and grown so much in the last year it's insane, but awesome! Missions are hard work but such a great opportunity! I'm so thankful to be a part of God's work and to try and be an instrument in his hands! Have a great week everyone! Love you! 

Love,

Elder Tait

Zone conference 

Zone conference and the Ann of Green Gables hat

Another busy week

I did a lot of missionary work this week. It was fun ! I am looking forward to doing more missionary work this week. Love you all! 🙏🔴⚪

Love Elder Tait

Elder Tait's mom here...

We talked to Elder Tait for a few minutes this week and he is doing really well. 
It's transfer week and they had Elders coming from all directions to stay with them and then had to make a few trips to the airport and drive others to their new areas. 
It was fun to hear him talk about the many memories over the past year and the many ways he has grown. He has some great goals as he moves into the second half of his mission. I was a little emotional as I listened to him and felt of his love for missionary work. 
He received news from President Low, the one of the people he and his companion taught in his first area (Cornerbrook) was getting baptized this week.  
Also, they are blessed to have a large teaching pool right now and have seen miracles as they pray for very specific things. I'm sure he will tell you more about all these things, but this week didn't have a lot of time, so just wanted to send a quick update of what we heard from him. 

Sent from my iPhone

Teaching the Preacher, Crossing the Border, another crazy & busy week...

Hey everyone! Things are still going really well here in Moncton! We are teaching a lot of people right now, so we are super busy and having lots of fun! At one of the lessons we went to this week, the guy we were teaching brought his preacher friend to set us straight with the Bible, but his friend ended up being nice and had some sincere questions so we are going to be teaching him now too! This week we also had exchanges which are always great! On exchanges Elder Wai and I went finding in downtown Moncton. There are some very interesting people in downtown Moncton haha. It was a fun time. We each got a big hug from this lady who was super out of it! Good times! We also got to travel to Maine for district council again. It was awesome, except for getting stopped at the border because it was Elder Bonny's first time crossing the border, but eventually we made it! More good things on the way this week! Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Tait

Planes, busses, taking care of business...

Hi everyone! Hope you are all doing well! This week we had transfers and it was pretty crazy with the merged mission now! All kinds of flight and buses we had to help people get to it was a lot of fun!

On transfer day I took Elder Kennedy to the airport and then waited at the airport with a couple other missionaries for our companions to get in. Most of the missionaries coming to New Brunswick missed their flights, but Elder Bonny made it. Us and Elder Schluchter and Sister Bromley just hung out around the airport for a few hours waiting for the other missionaries to get here. Most of the day was correlating everything so everyone in the zone made it safely to their areas with their new companions. We finally picked up the last missionary at 10:00pm on thursday night. He had to take a 10 hour bus ride to get to us.

Other than that it was a weekend full of planning! We had to get everything planned for the transfer and that took a lot of time. We got to do some finding a went to a cultural festival. We felt really good about going, but it wasn't very good while we were there, until as we were leaving we offered to take a picture for this family and then started talking to them. We taught them and set up a return appointment in a couple weeks! That was a good reminder that when you feel prompted to go somewhere, there is a reason even if it takes a while to see it! We also had a lesson where we were planning to read 2 Nephi 32 with the lady, but when we pulled up in front of her house we decided to change the whole lesson to reading in 3 Nephi 11 and talking about going to church. Then lesson went amazing and the change was perfect!

It was a fun week and we are off to a good start this transfer! My new companion Elder Bonny is super cool (besides the fact that he warms up his milk to eat cereal. must be a European thing haha) I was a little worried about how we would talk to each other since english is his third language, but his english is really good! He's a great missionary and we get along well! Have a great week everyone! Love you!

Elder Tait

Transfers - busy week

Hey everyone! Not much time to write, but this week was great! We had a couple exchanges this week which was fun! Elder Kennedy and I were able to start teaching 7 new people and saw lots of miracles! Therese came to church for the 2nd time and really loved it! She's already started doing come follow me! Transfers are here again and elder Kennedy is leaving to trois revoirs, Quebec. It's sad he's leaving, but next transfer will still be great! We are now officially merged with the Montreal mission and my new companion has been serving there. He's from Geneva Switzerland! I'm really excited for this transfer, next week we'll fly over to Montreal for a leadership meeting which will be sick! Tonight we've got a few companionships sleeping over at our place and then I'll spend tomorrow helping all the missionaries in the zone get to their new areas. Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Tait

miracles & Blessings, Listen to the Spirit

This week was awesome! We traveled all around the zone for exchanges and trainings and it was a lot of fun! We had a really good lesson with Barbara on Tuesday night and then Wednesday we started the road trip! We did a big lap around New Brunswick, with a couple stops in Maine and also made it out to PEI! 

Wednesday- We drove 3 hours, had district council and then started exchanges with the Edmunston elders. Edmunston is mostly a French area so I knew I was in for an interesting time haha. We drove another 3 hours, had a dinner appointment with a really funny old french couple and then to finish, drove the rest of the night back to the Edmunston apartment.

Thursday- Elder Pierson and I went and did service at this soup kitchen. We were serving the food and everyone there spoke French except for me haha. It was an adventure! Later in the day I got to cross the border for the first time on my mission. It felt good to be back in the promised land! We went to Fort Kent, Maine for the rest of the night and met with a few people and had a 4th of July bbq! 

Friday- We got up and drove a couple hours to Houlton, Maine where we went to their district council. We gave a training about faith and it went really well. I also got to see 3 of my old companions who are in that district, so it was a really fun time! Then we drove all the way back home just in time for a lesson before we had to be in for the night. 

Saturday- Today we had a church open house. It wasn't the turn out we were hoping for at all, but we still had some great things from it. Therèsé is a lady that we met awhile back, she wasn't interested in our message, but accepted a card for the open house. She decided to show up and loved it! As soon as we stepped into the chapel she identified the spirit and was asking lots of great questions. She also got to meet a bunch of members so it was really good! There was also a big car show going on where a whole bunch of cool old school cars were parading down the main street in town. We saw some pretty cool looking old cars! We had some extra time, so we were calling people that we had numbers for and accidentally messed up one of the numbers, but the lady who answered was interested and we are going to meet up this week!

Sunday- Therèsé came to church and seemed to really enjoy it! We spent the rest of the afternoon planning and catching up on everything that we missed being out of our area for 3 days. That night we went and did a bunch of following up with people and enjoyed the nice warm weather.

Monday- Today we went to another district council. This time on Prince Edward Island. It was a super cool place to visit! We gave a training about the merged mission and how we can help things run smoothly. Everybody is pretty hyped about the merge! On our way back to Moncton we stopped at this ice cream place that some members own and got some ice cream. It was some of the best I've ever had! So good! Later we had dinner with some members and had a lesson right after so we were going to have to leave early. We felt like we should stay a little longer and the person ended up calling us a few minutes later to tell us she needed to reschedule. As we were leaving the member's house we saw a lady taking out her trash so we went and talked to her and tried to help. We asked if she would be interested in hearing our message and she said yes! She moved here from the Congo and said that she has been waiting for guys like us to come! Miracle!

Things are really good and busy here! We have a couple exchanges this week and a lot of lessons with new people set up so it should be another great week! Always listen to the spirit and do what it tells you! Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Tait

Traveling, Service, Exchanges & Canadians, Eh?

Hi everyone hows it going? Things are good here! We've met lots of cool people and set up lots of lessons, but they've all been falling through. Hopefully people will start to become more available soon! Even when stuff like that happens we don't get discouraged, because we know as long as we do everything on our part in life things will work out the way they need to!  Here's some of the week 

Wednesday- we had district council in Bathurst which is a couple hour drive away. Weekly road trips just like the good old days in Newfoundland! District council was great and it was fun to meet everyone in the district! After district council we started exchanges. I stayed with Elder Morrell and did the new missionary Skype call since it's his first transfer. After the call we drove back to Moncton and ate dinner and then went out finding for the rest of the night. It was fun to work with Elder Morrell and think back to when I first started. Time flies!

Thursday- we kept going with our exchanges. We did some service in the morning, weaving sleeping mats for homeless people out of milk bags. The mats are actually pretty cool! After that we switched and I went with Elder Pierson. We did some follow up and had a good visit with a lady named Barbara and set up a lesson. She has met with missionaries before and loves us! When we were leaving Elder Pierson accidentally took the car up a curb and when he backed up off the curb the car smashed down and broke something off the bottom. I thought it was hilarious but Elder Pierson was a little worried. We were still able to make it to the apartment.

Friday- we did all of our studies and planning. I'm trying to learn a little French so I can actually contribute when we meet French people, but it's super hard! That night we dropped by a member that neither of us had ever met. We got to his apartment and he buzzed us in. When we got to his door and knocked he yelled "come in" so we did. We opened the door to the sight of a very old man trying to put on his pants. Once he got fully clothed we had a good visit haha.

Saturday- we spent awhile planning for a church open house we are doing this week. We have a lot of people that said they are coming so hopefully it's a good turn out. Other than that we had some good lessons with some less active members. We also had a feeling to visit a guy we met. He never has time to meet, but right when we got there he pulled up and we were able to teach him the restoration in his driveway and gave him a Book of Mormon. It was super cool! 

Sunday- we had church and then had studies and 3 lessons with new people set up so we were pumped for a busy day. But sadly, one by one, all three lessons fell through, but we still had a good day. We saw the most Canadian thing driving home. We were behind a car driving through a neighborhood, when there was a car backing out of a driveway. The car in front of us was passing directly behind the driveway when they noticed the car backing out, so instead of just continuing to drive like a normal person, they slammed on the brakes, and backed up, so we had to back up just so the guy backing out of his driveway could go. Canadians eh?

Monday- today we had our calls with the APs about the zone and also had a ward Canada day BBQ. Canada Day is a Great Value version of the 4th of July. In the evening we had a rocky start, but it ended really well!

We will be traveling a lot this week with exchanges and visiting district councils. I'm really excited for it. Should be lots of fun! Have a great week everyone love you!

Love,

Elder Tait 

First week in Moncton, Prayer and Miracles...

Hey everybody! It's been a good week here in Moncton and we've already seen some sick miracles! Here's some details

Thursday- got up super early and then went to the mission office and drove to Moncton. Elder Kennedy and I went back to the apartment and planned exchanges and things for the transfer. Then we had a few lessons fall thru but met a super cool guy named Abou as we were going around following up with people.

Friday- today we did some service where we made mats out of milk bags for homeless people. Later we had a lesson with Abou, the guy we met yesterday and taught him the restoration. His kids were going crazy the entire time but the lesson was still pretty good and he's excited to read the Book of Mormon. That night we did some more follow up and then met with a recent convert named Daiji. He's from Nigeria and is super cool! He speaks pigeon English so he was teaching us a little bit about that.

Saturday- we had some sweet miracles today! During daily planning we prayed for an unplanned act of service. A little bit later we got a call asking us to come help someone move. Later we were doing some follow up and we knocked on the door of this guy who said he was interested, the other door opened and so we talked to the mom in that house and she said we could come back! Then we were walking down the street minding our own business when we saw some old ladies on the porch, so we went and talked to them and they love missionaries. They want to come to church and meet with us! Then we went and had a lesson with a member that hasn't been coming to church and after the lesson we talked to this guy in the street that was playing soccer and he was super interested and he is pumped to meet with us!

Sunday- we had church today and it was great! I got to meet a bunch of members of the ward so it was really good. Later on we had a couple lessons with members and they went pretty well. There are lots of members to meet with here so we stay pretty busy.

Monday- most of the day was studies and then calls. We had our weekly meeting with Pres. Low, and the APs to talk about how the zone and how everything is going. It was great to be able to council and see how we can improve the work! Later we had a dinner appointment where we loaded up on food. "Fill your boots" I felt like a bowling ball after the meal but it was really good Haha! Then we had a lesson fall through so we did some finding, stopped by FHE and gave a spiritual thought and then had a lesson with a recent convert and read Mosiah 13 and talked about the commandments.

Overall it's been a great week! There are tons of members here that don't come and there has been a lot of drama in the past. Elder Kennedy and I have been talking a lot about how it seems like many people are converted to the social aspect or other things in the church, so when something happens they are quick to give up and leave. There are so many good activities and opportunities in the church but that's not what it's all about. We need to be converted to Jesus Christ if we want to last through hard times. I encourage all of you to focus on your testimony of Jesus Christ and try to build it up through scripture study and prayer! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Elder Tait

Transfers...

Hey everybody! I don't have much time today but it's been a super fun week! We started teaching 3 new people and had lots of fun street contacting!
We talked to some drunk bridesmaids who tried to get us to come on a boat with them for the night. We decided it was best for us not to go Haha. We got lots of great quotes for them that aren't very appropriate but really funny! It's transfers and I'm getting moved to Moncton New Brunswick! My companion is elder Kennedy, from Draper Utah and we'll be the Zone Leaders! It should be exciting and lots of fun! I'll send more info next week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Tait

The Trio - Elder Martinez, Elder D'eon, Elder Tait

Transfers...

Hey everybody! I don't have much time today but it's been a super fun week! We started teaching 3 new people and had lots of fun street contacting!
We talked to some drunk bridesmaids who tried to get us to come on a boat with them for the night. We decided it was best for us not to go Haha. We got lots of great quotes for them that aren't very appropriate but really funny! It's transfers and I'm getting moved to Moncton New Brunswick! My companion is elder Kennedy, from Draper Utah and we'll be the Zone Leaders! It should be exciting and lots of fun! I'll send more info next week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Tait

The Trio - Elder Martinez, Elder D'eon, Elder Tait

Exchanges, Bus Contacting, Changes & Another Great Week...

Hey everybody! Things are going great here still and I'm loving it! We had exchanges this week, which are always super fun! 

Wednesday- we had district council in the morning and there was also a conference going on for all the senior couples in the mission so we had lunch with them after our meeting. That night we had English connect and it was great! One of the guys that comes is from Brazil and he brought this drink for us to try. It tasted like warm grass but it was fun to try! There was a new guy that showed up to the class and then came to church on Sunday! After English connect we went home with the zone leaders and started our exchange.

Thursday- I started off the day with Elder Bluth, we bused downtown and did some street contacting. We talked to one lady who didn't speak much English. She whipped out her phone and called someone and handed me the phone. I was really confused at first, but it was a translator so we were able to invite her to English class. After lunch Elder Bluth and Elder Martinez and I went to a lesson with Nathan who is a recent convert. We talked about the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet and it went well, then we bused back for dinner. It was during rush hour, so a 30 minute bus ride turned into 1 1/2 hours. It was a good time to bus contact though, so it wasn't too bad. That night Elder Groneman, Elder D'eon and I went to sports night for basketball. We had a really good turn out this time, so we had a few different teams going. It was a fun night! 

Friday- we got up and finished up our exchange with the zone leaders and then went home to our apartment. We spent awhile doing our studies and planning and then went to the radio station to follow up with this guy we met. He was busy doing an interview, so we weren't able to talk much. That night we had institute and we studied the book of Acts.

Saturday - we did a Plan of Salvation booth downtown. It was a lot of fun! Booths always bring out some crazy people! Elder D'eon and I talked to a cool guy and were able to teach him the restoration for a solid 20 minutes. Later we dropped off a triple combination to a lady that responded to a Bible ad. We were pumped because she seemed super elect. When we dropped it off we realized that lady is already being taught by the sisters. It was pretty funny! In the evening we went and played basketball at another church with a guy we met on the bus and a bunch of other guys.

Sunday- we were pretty much at church and meetings all day. We had an area coordination and now we are just covering the YSA ward. We had a musical fireside in Dartmouth with Wayne Burton who does a lot of church music. We sang a song called "The Living Christ". The fireside was awesome! 

Monday- the highlight of the day was when we went to the library and did some digital finding. There was a bunch of guys in their 20s playing minecraft and they were super intense and were saying a bunch of funny stuff. I cried from laughing so hard. We did some street contacting in the rain and then had dinner with Joan. After that we had a great lesson with Kudzai where he taught us the restoration. He is doing great and wants to go to the temple! We finished the night with chair soccer for FHE.

This transfer is flying by and is only going to get busier! We've got more exchanges this week that should be a blast! Have a great week everyone! 

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Creative Finding, Choir Practice, Where’s the Sun??

Has anybody seen the sun? I haven't seen it in a few weeks and I'm starting to get worried that it might be lost! Haha it rained a lot this week but we still had a good week!

Wednesday- we drove way out to the middle of nowhere to help a guy we are teaching move. He lives by the church now so it will be easier to meet with him. Then we had district council and then a dinner appointment with a couple that are big NBA fans so we got playoff updates. That night we had English connect and taught how to describe family members.

Thursday- we spent the day doing a lot of service at the food bank and then doing our studies and calling people from our area Book. Then we went to sports night and played basketball.

Friday- we did all of our planning and studies and then went downtown and street contacted to dinner. Joan took us to Your Father's Mustache! We went to wash our hands before we ate and had a good laugh at the bathroom wall Haha! After dinner we bused to the church for correlation. I was pumped to ride the bus again but right when it pulled up I realized I made the rookie mistake of leaving my bus pass at the apartment so I had to buy a ticket. After the meeting we just street contacted the rest of the night.

Saturday- in the morning we used the media room in our apartment for wifi and did some digital finding. While we were there another guy came in and turned on the TV and was watching golf. So we watched and talked with him for a bit. We did some street contacting and accidentally went way over time but it was good because there were tons of people to talk to! That night we had an awesome church tour with a guy from the bus. He asked a lot of good questions and was really interested. He's going home to Bangladesh for a month, but we are going to start teaching him when he gets back!

Sunday- we spent most of the day at church and then singing practice. This time we had a member who is a legit choir director come and lead us and it was really good! It's amazing what a good choir director can do! Later we did service at the Sunday supper and then on our way home we saw a couple guys playing basketball so we went and talked with them and shot around. They are going to come to English connect and Thursday night sports. Basketball is a great missionary tool!

Monday- we had a lot of time to go finding today which was fun, we also had a lesson with a returning member and talked about forgiveness and then met with Kudzai before FHE and went over the restoration in basketball form. Next week he's going to teach us. For FHE we played volleyball. The talent was low, but the fun was high!

That's all for now! Our mission is trying to do more creative finding so we are going to try new things to find people to teach. It's going to be fun! Have a great week!

Transfer Week, Seeing old Friends, Hard to say goodbye...

Hey everyone! Transfers are here again! It has been a great few months. Elder Strong is getting transferred to New Brunswick and I am kind of staying here. I will be moving across the city to a new apartment and I'll be in a trio. We will cover the family ward and YSA. It should be really fun!

Wednesday- We had district council in the morning and then practiced singing for a musical fireside we are doing at the end of the month. That night we went to the English class all of the missionaries in Halifax are doing at the church. Our job is basically to sit by a person and help them along during the class with pronunciation and the activities we do. One guy we met street contacting a few weeks ago came! His name is Shun, it was crazy that he came for the first time that night because it was also our first time going.

Thursday- We did a few hours of service at the food bank again and had some fun sorting moldy bread. The rest of the day we spent street contacting and also met with Shun and helped him with some English and also taught him a little about God. 

Friday- Today was a really nice day so we decided to go finding down on the boardwalk. There were people everywhere but none of them were very excited to stop and chat. Eventually we made our way to the ferry and took a ride on it. I met a really cool couple from China on the ride. Then we went home and did weekly planning and then did bus contacting for the rest of the night, I met this kid who knew every fact about the buses and was telling me all about them, he even had the robot voice that announces the stops down perfectly, I was impressed.  

Saturday- We did some bus contacting while it rained all morning and I talked to one of the first guys I ever met on the bus. We reminisced about the our first time meeting, he's still not interested in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ though. Maybe next time. Later we went to the church to do some digital finding and there was a party going on. One of the members invited us in and we ate some food and talked to some people. That night we bused around some more.

Sunday- We had church and Kudzai got up and bore a great testimony, it was awesome! After church we practiced our song for the fireside and then bused home. I sat next to this older man that I've talked to before and had a great conversation. He got off with us and asked to take our picture because we looked so "smart" with our suits on. So he took some pics of us and said he will print them off and give them to us next time he sees us. Later we helped out at the soup kitchen. For dinner we made alfredo and bacon and then put the alfredo in the bacon grease. It was amazing, maybe not healthy, but really good! 

Monday- We were supposed to have a lesson in the morning at the library, but the guy didn't come, so we just street contacted and then went home for studies, lunch and our apartment inspection. In the afternoon we had a really crazy experience, every morning we pray that we will be guided where we need to be and we definitely were. We were in the right place at the right time and ran into this guy we'd talked to before. We were able to sit down and just talk, if we hadn't run  into him when we did it could have been a really sad day. We ended with some hugs and then ran to dinner with Joan. We had dinner and then got ice cream and went to the church for a lesson with Kudzai. He has had all of the lessons taught to him since his baptism so now we are having him teach us. He did a great job! Then we watched the YSA devotional for FHE. 

Tuesday- We had a member lesson in the morning and then we went street contacting for most of the day. We got wrecked. We talked to a lot of people, the only problem was most of them didn't talk back. We bused around for the night and got to ride our favorite bus driver's bus, it was emotional when Elder Strong had to say goodbye to him. 

It was a good week here! I'm really excited to be in a trio this is gonna be a fun transfer! This week I really gained a testimony that Heavenly Father will guide us exactly where we need to be if we pray for his guidance and then act. Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Tait

Finding, gallons of water, District pday...

Hey everyone! I don't have much time today cause we got to have a district p-day today! We played ball hockey for awhile and Pres Low came. That man is a wizard on the sticks. Then we came to the church and I played 1 on 1 basketball vs Elder Olsen for a while. Our series tied 3-3 until next time. You know that feeling you get when you've been ballin' all day, you're super tired and haven't really had anything to eat but you still gotta ball? I got that feeling again today, I've missed this.

This week was another good one, we did lots of finding again and met some cool people. People have been responding to our messages lately so we are living the dream right now. Good stuff! My water bottle got lost, so I switched over to a milk jug instead so we drank a lot of water this week (a gallon a day each) so we had some fun times trying to get to a bathroom while finding.

I've gotta go but I'll leave you with a good quote from someone we met this week- "I was thinking of being baptized but ain't nobody sprinkling Holy water on me... Naw no way not for Dewayne"

I love you all hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Tait

Zone Conference, Exams, Always a Miracle...

Hey everyone! Things are going well here and we are so close to meeting with a bunch of people! "I can't I have exams" has been the quote of the week. Hopefully after exams people will want to rejuvenate their souls with the gospel.

Tuesday- we went and got some music from the computer at the church and then bused to the Bedford elders apartment and did our laundry. We spent awhile there hanging out and then went to Walmart. We got groceries and then that was it for p day. Pday is so short when you gotta bus everywhere! That night we did some bus contacting 

Wednesday- we bused to the church in the morning and picked up our laundry from the other elders. Later in the day we took a long bus ride to the mission office and had our interviews with President Low. We bused through the ghetto of Dartmouth and I tried to talk to this guy, he told me we were in the hood so I shouldn't talk to anyone so I just kept talking with him. 

Thursday- Zone Conference! Zone conference was good and there were a bunch of good trainings given. We took a long bus ride home and ate dinner. Later that night we met with a member. We pulled out this box of random stuff from the primary room and taught him the restoration using the props. It was pretty fun and he was able to think of a friend that he can help out. We had some pretty good props in the lesson I think my favorite was using play dough talking about how we the gospel helps us shape our lives in order to succeed and be happy.

Friday- It was a full day. We had weekly planning and then went straight to service at the food bank. There was some extra orange juice that we took out into the lobby where people were waiting and we got mauled. It was scary! They all wanted those cartons of orange juice! After dinner we had correlation and then institute. It was the last class of the winter semester so no more institute this transfer sad day. 

Saturday- We went to the church in the morning and did some digital finding, there was a family ward Easter breakfast going on so we were treated to some leftover pancakes and sausage #blessed then we went and did some street contacting and talked to this Philosopher guy for a really long time about many things, especially absolute truth and relative truth. He thought he was going to destroy our belief in God when he asked us "if God is real why would there be people who never hear about him and then go straight to hell?" We agreed with him that it would be dumb so then we taught him a little bit about the plan of salvation. The gospel makes so much sense! He said he'll read the BoM and text us if he's interested. Hopefully he actually reads! The rest of the day was a lot of finding.

Sunday- We started off with branch council and then had church. Nobody we invited came to church this week because of finals. Finals is wrecking us at the moment, nobody is available to do anything but study. After church we had a little linger longer and sang to Elder Strong for his b-day! Then we did comp study and did service at the soup kitchen. That night we went to pick something up at the church but it wasn't there, it turned out to be perfect timing because there was a random dude outside the church who had come and was looking for a missionary who served here awhile back. We let him in and gave him a quick church tour and then rode the bus downtown with him. Miracle! Then we street contacted for the rest of the night. 

Monday- it was pouring rain all day today so we bus contacted for awhile. Later we planned an Easter booth with the rest of the district and then some members took us to dinner for Elder Strong's b day. I had a fried chicken and waffle sandwich. Halifax has some good restaurants! For FHE we did karaoke and it was a blast! 

We had some fun stuff this week! Zone conference was awesome and karaoke for FHE was hilarious. Elder Strong is officially 19 so we won't get kicked out of the sports bar now! Have a great week everyone! Good luck on exams! 

Love, Elder Tait

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The last of Burger week, love general conference

Hey everyone! General conference was the highlight of this week! It was so great to hear from the Prophet and Apostles I hope you all enjoyed it too! 

Tuesday- we went back to Darrell's and got peanut butter burgers for lunch and then emailed at the library. After emailing we walked around downtown and looked at a bunch of stores, but the only store where we could afford anything was Dollarama. We finished off burger week by going to Krave Burger again. It was so good! That night a couple of members took us to get ice cream and then we had a lesson with them.

Wednesday- we had district council in the morning and then spent awhile learning about this English class we might help out with. It was raining pretty hard most of the night so we went bus contacting.

Thursday- we had exchanges today so we bussed across the city to Bedford in the morning, then we did comp study and went out. Elder Smith and I did some knocking and then visited some members. Later Elder Martinez and I were supposed to have a couple lessons, but they both fell through so we just walked around and street contacted. We were on Gottingen Street, downtown. That place needs the gospel! After we got to the apartment I got to video call into Lindsey and Adam's wedding and say hi to a bunch of people it was awesome! 

Friday- super short day we finished our exchange in the morning and then bussed home. We spent the afternoon doing weekly planning and then went to institute. 

Saturday- General Conference! We did some finding in the morning and then went to Bulk Barn and got some snacks for conference. Then we were at the church from 1:00 to 11:00 watching conference. Between the first and second sessions we played volleyball and while we were waiting for priesthood session we had pizza with the elders quorum and all the other elders in our area. There were so many great talks! I really liked Elder Hale's talk and his stories! 

Sunday- we went to the church and watched the first session of conference, then we went to the soup kitchen and did service. After service us we went and watched the second session at the Bedford elders apartment cause they have a theater room. 

Monday- winter came back and it snowed today! We spent the morning and the afternoon doing some finding and then Joan took us to get sushi for dinner. Then we had FHE where we played volleyball/ had a going away party for one of the members who is going on a mission. It was a fun night!

General conference is so great as a missionary! The chance to just sit back and relax and learn by the spirit is so great! I hope you are all doing well! 

Love Elder Tait 

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