My mother once told me I make everything into a drama. When my husband was having heart attacks, or the year my appendix ruptured and they didn't find it for 10 days, I assured her I didn't create the drama....it found me. This week I wasn't a bit surprised when it found me again, in the form of identity theft. Our tax man called us to tell us he couldn't e-file our taxes because someone had already filed with Elder Taggart's social security number. The next night the bank alerted us our accounts had been frozen because someone had attempted to use our password 3 x unsuccessfully to get money out of our account. Someone had already purchased two computers on a bogus Paypal account under Elder Taggart's name with our old Seattle address. I wanted to alert these people and tell them they are barking up the wrong tree. We are living in a 700 sq. ft. Condo with a plastic chest of drawers from Walmart and mismatched utensils from Salvation Army Thrift store....driving a 12 year old car. There are other accounts in the bank much larger than ours. Go find them!! Leave us alone. Better yet....GO FIND A REAL JOB.!!! We have bigger and better things to focus on than someone stealing who we are. Go find your own identity and leave ours alone!!! Thus the police photo. Glenview police department wouldn't touch the case because our 700 sq. ft. Condo is in unincorporated Glenview. The Cook county sheriffs department wondered where the crime had been committed? Was it in Seattle, Utah, or Illinois? He also wondered why we move around so much. We just laugh because last year was bizarre. We are stable people but our record recently doesn't document that fact. Slap on a missionary name tag and sent me anywhere,right? We are truly a peculiar people. We should be OK. After talking to the IRS, Social Security, the federal trade commission, the police department, our bank, our financial advisor, our credit card people, the blood bank and our shoe store (for our foot size, etc.).....we hope we have shown due diligence.
My job has literally taken off. I assigned 60 referrals on Tuesday alone. Good thing since the system was down off and on for the next three days. Gotta love computers.
Two of our sisters had a complete shake-down in downtown Chicago this week. They parked their car, got out, approached the first man they saw to see if he wanted a Book of Mormon. How were they to know the undercover police were waiting for his first drug deal to go down? They detained the Sisters while they searched their car for drugs and such. I couldn't choose two more innocent,modest,pure sisters. And no---he didn't want a Book of Mormon although it could have changed his life.
I contacted an Elder this week to see where the form was for a baptism he had performed a week ago. "I didn't have a form and couldn't find one so we didn't do one." My heart stopped. My job is to enter each baptism into the computer and send it off to Salt Lake so they can record each baptism and send out a membership number to the new member. "Seriously, Elder, I need you to send me his information." "Seriously, we don't have his information because we couldn't find a form!" (Deep breath, he is 18 years old and has been here less than 12 weeks. Two months ago he probably had his mother picking up after him and making his peanut butter sandwiches) "Elder, ask your zone leaders for a form and start collecting that information today. As far as Salt Lake is concerned, that baptism never happened!" "Oh, it happened, Sister Taggart. I was there." Gotta love 'em!!!
Happy day....my Costco rebate check came and the excite me was more than I could contain when I walked out of the store with my new Kitchenaid dish drainer. It's been a long winter.
The highlight of our week was Sarah's baptism. She was a referral I entered who happened to live in our ward. She is 25 and a preschool teacher. She was raised a Catholic but was not happy with her religion. She remembered a high school girl who was neat and smart and seemed to have it all together.(our bishop's daughter) she called Rory and ask her if she could come to church with her over the Christmas break. The rest is history. She came, she felt loved, she had her questions answered, she kept coming. Now for your part.......the ward members literally fought over who got to have her to their house for dinner and a lesson with the missionaries. Ten families have a vested interest in her. They not only invited her but her parents also. Friendships were formed. Her parents, aunts,uncles,work friends were all to her baptism....plus 100 people from our ward and the Young Single Adult ward. Her family was afraid to enter our chapel....but when they did, there was a girl in front playing a harp for prelude music. It was a spiritual experience for every person there. The bishop's daughter flew home from BYU to witness the baptism even though she felt she had not been much help in the process. She was just a quiet example of a good Mormon girl through high school who didn't even know who was watching her and impressed by her beliefs.
Times up. Must run and wish a little Lily happy birthday. We love our time here. Spring May come....after we get two more inches of snow tonight. We love you and miss you. Get involved with feeding the missionaries. They will eat anything and leave a powerful spirit in your home.
Love,
Sister Taggart
Sarah on the right.
Sarah on the right.
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