Hello from Chicago. So much has happened this week, I am not sure just where to start. I guess I will start by simply saying that we are extremely busy which has mad things somewhat stressful but we love it here and are excited to be part of this great work.
A week ago yesterday, we picked our new mission president and his wife up at the airport and had a wonderful visit with them. Last Sunday evening, he asked the other office couple, the AP's and us to join them at the mission home for dinner and also to be part of dedicating the new mission home. He also invited the stake president and his wife along with 4 people from the FM group who had worked so hard to secure and totally update the mission home. We had a lovely evening and got to know each other much better. Our new president is nothing like the other one. He actually wants our input and values the perspective of everyone. We know we will love working with him.
At the end of the evening after much conversation, dedicating the mission home and having the opportunity to enjoy the Spirit, one man who works with the FM group and who is not a member, said that he would like to have the first discussion and see where that goes. He obviously felt the Spirit that evening. The mission president and stake president conversed and then asked us to attend Notheshore 2nd ward where we will work with less-active members in the evenings after taking care of our office duties.
We officially opened the new mission office last Monday amidst many boxes, etc that still needed to be unpacked. On Tuesday we had 4 youth from our ward help us unpack and organize all of the pamphlets, Books of Mormon and missionary supplies. that gave us a chance to get to know them.
We spent 8 hours on the 4th of July scouring our new apartment so that we could stand to move in. The previous tenant was a smoker even though the contract states that no smoking is allowed. The landlord said she had cleaned the carpeting 3 times and repainted everything with a paint that is supposed to eliminate the odor. There is still a very stale smell that we are hoping will go away as we cook, etc and invite a few smells of our own liking into it. We scrubbed everything. There was grease all over the cabinets and fixtures in the kitchen. The fridge still had food in it and had obviously not been cleaned for some time. I tried four different cleaning solutions to get rid of the grease and was successful in getting rid of most.
We even scrubbed all of the retro furniture we picked out of the mission storage units to furnish the apartment. It reminds us of our early married years when we furnished with early depression flavor. Sister Taggart is going to buy some fabric and spruce things up a bit and also tie the various colors together. We also spent too much at Costco and Walmart for furnishings we will use and then donate to the mission for some future missionaries to enjoy.
We moved in yesterday with the help of 6 different missionaries. It took that many because the storage unit we got furniture out of is in the old mission so we had the AP's from that mission help us load that in the mission truck and trailer. They couldn't help us move out of the old apartment because it is now in the new mission boundaries, so we had two Elders from that area help us load things from that apartment. Then we had the AP's in our mission help us unload things at the new apartment. They don't want the old missionaries lifting too many things. I guess they think we are too fragile.
We went grocery shopping last night and finally stocked The fridge for the first time in over 3 months since we left Seattle. It will be very nice to actually unpack and not have to live out of a suitcase.
Our new ward is gong to be awesome! It is very diverse. Today we heard testimonies from a sister from the Ukraine, a brother from the Congo in Africa, a sister from England, a Hispanic brother and others. Besides these we have met people from Mongolia, Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico and all over the USA and Canada. I personally love the various accents and all of the color. We are excited to get to know these people and love them as we do all we can to help them move the work forward. In addition to us in this ward, there is a set of young sister missionaries and the mission President has already told the bishop they will get a set of Elders on the next transfer. The stake president challenged us to help create a new ward before we leave in 22 months. What an exciting time to be part of this great work.
With the creation of the new mission, we now have only 124 young missionaries. But there are an additional 82 missionaries who already have their call to our mission. By the end of the year we are supposed to have 250 missionaries and the mission that just split off ours is also supposed to have 250. Look out Chicago.
I am hectically trying to make sure that we have sufficient vehicles for all of these new missionaries. I currently have a fleet of only 44 vehicles but have an allocation of 92 by the end of October. The young missionaries are awesome and we love being able to work with them. We are counting on the Lord to keep us young enough to keep up with them.
This is a great work. The gospel is true and it changes lives for the better. There are many who need what we are blessed with and often take for granted. Pleas open your mouths and talk To those in your circle who need what we have. Catch the wave and be part of this huge tsunami that is on a roll. We love you.
Elder Taggart
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