Sister Kiera Tanner: Everyone is in such a rush and run everywhere they go!

Hello familia! How's it going? Sounds like you are having so much

fun with everyone at home now! I loved the pictures from Jax’s bday

party! So adorable! Again, happy birthday Jax and Shay and happy

Father's Day again! Hope it was wonderful!

Okay, so I'm totally getting used to being in the city. So far the weather has been fine. Today is the first day it's been super hot - so that's funnn! I feel like it was a slow week but I have nothing to compare it to so I don't really know. Next week will be way busier so that's good. I've had some NY pizza, NY cheesecake and even some street meat off a cart, so needless to say, I feel pretty cultured. The elders talked me into getting lamb like them from the cart and it was really good.

To answer some questions, we do go tracting but it's really hard because at most of the apartment buildings we have to buzz people to open the door or we have to have an appointment with them and we have to go through the front desk guy.

We have even tracted the government buildings..aka the projects. However, sometimes it's sketchy and it usually smells bad and looks disgusting but hey that's okay. Some people answer their door and start talking to us, and then realize who we are and then pretend like they don't speak English, but that's okay. We did an area proselyting activity in the projects and got 4 possible investigators from it so hopefully that goes well.

In my district there are 2 elders and 6 sisters. So sad for those boys

haha. My mission is over 42% sisters right now so we are gettin there! They are all fun though. Our zone is about half and half ratio right now too.

Okay so you asked about my companion, I'm not sure how much I told you last week. She's from Montana, her name is Sister Orme and she's really nice. She's been out 6 months and in the city for 6 weeks. Not sure what else you want to know about her!

So we live in Harlem. Not in the city. Which is super lame but also

nice cuz it's actually quiet where we live. The elders live in the

city though. It's about a 20 minute subway ride/walk to the church. We cover one ward and it's 42^nd – 86^th , and then from the water over to 5^th avenue. So we have Time Square and Central Park in our area. And we live on 139th ish.

I'm getting super good at getting around. Yes, we take the bus and subway, and then walk everywhere. The first couple days when we were looking up less active members we played a little game. My companion would give me the paper and say “okay take me to the next place”. And so we would walk and even if I was going the wrong way she would wait for me to fix it and not say anything, haha! This made me learn real quick so that we didn't have to do a ton more walking. But now I pretty much know the subways and walking routes. Not so much the bus though because we hardly take it.

On Saturdays we wake up at 5:30 and go to the Harlem building to

exercise/play sports with the Harlem zone so that's fun. I get to see

my MTC friends serving in that area. It's a nice building too. It's

weird getting used to having the church buildings being like 4 stories

high but it's fun.

So we are always at the Manhattan Temple/ ward building. The hardest part about going to church there is that there are always visitors from out of town. It's hard to know who is in the ward and who is visiting so we are working on getting to know the members better. But it's also really fun because we see lots of visitors. And with summer coming its gonna be craazyy. If anyone happens to visit New York City this summer, you should go to the 1 o'clock church- It is the best... Just sayin.. :)

Actually the rule with that is that if someone you know is in NYC for

any reason other than to see us then we can get permission from the pres to meet up for lunch or something and it can be for 1 hour and they have to pay for the companion too if we go out to eat.

Church on Sunday was excellent! I gave the opening prayer, which I didn’t expect being so new and all so I felt a little weird. Oh, and it’s such a small world that the girl aunt Carrie knows is in my ward so that's fun! She seems super nice and fun. And then, Brian Tanner from Chino Hills, the guy we went to the Laker-clipper game with was there too. I'm glad they sent you those pictures! That's the best I could do as a substitute for talking to you on Father's Day dad, haha, sorry that they don't let us call home for you.

Okay so I guess I was right. During the last transfer you get to do a

bunch of things as long as you set it up and pay for it all yourself.

Like go to a Broadway play, go to the Statue of Liberty, go to the

temple one last time. Stuff like that. So that’s pretty lucky. Hopefully it

stays that way! Not that that is what I think about or anything because I really don't!

Yesterday after we did some service at the food pantry we had a picnic in Central Park for lunch. That was fun :) and then for dinner we went to Brett and Jenny Leavitt’s house and they are a new couple that moved in 6 days ago! They got married in the Newport temple and are both super cute. She's from somewhere close to Mission Viejo. They both served missions too. They are super cute and so that was fun to go there for dinner. We don't get fed every night but it's getting better. Hopefully as we get to know the ward better we will get more dinner appointments.

Today we cleaned a bit, which was much needed. Let's just say I am SO thankful I lived where we did. Also, I wouldn't live here on my own if I wasn't a missionary. But that's okay. I'm getting use to the holes

in the floor and the cockroaches that roam. Life is good! And we live

by a beautiful small park that we exercise at in the morning so it's

okay. Sometimes I would rather live in the subway. Not the stations

but the actual subways.

Okay so mail all goes to the mission home. Then on Tuesdays it gets

brought down to the church and our district leader gets if for us and

brings it to the temple/church building. So I got a million letters

yesterday and everyone was like "wow you are loved!" Haha so thanks for the letters! I just found a couple I wrote in the MTC that I

thought I mailed but didn’t so I sent those today. Oops (sorry none

were to you family)

So my iPad is lame cuz the church took off the camera. So everyone

else can send pictures home so much easier and can make videos but all us newbies don't have the camera app :( so sad. And we can't have fb until we are done with training which is in 12 weeks. Lame. Oh and our internet doesn't work on our iPads so it's superrrr lame.

The other day our Zone leaders were on the front cover of the metro

newspaper so we all had permission to get the paper and read it haha! so that was funny because the article says missionaries don't have the newspaper and we all have one now.

I'm learning a lot. It's super hard to talk to people here because people move fast! Everyone is in such a rush and run everywhere they go. On the subway and bus they put in headphones or read a book or sleep. I think our less active list has like 300 people on it because everyone is too busy for church apparently. But we are working on it! I have already been able to give out a couple Books of Mormon though so that's been awesome. I learn more everyday. Today I read all about how important it is to be a good member missionary and not just and observer of missionary work. So get out there and talk to people! Be an example to everyone. I love that you are talking to the neighbor a little bit. Keep up the good work. It's hard being a missionary so help me out! Everyone in the mission says we are more like farmers than missionaries. We plant seeds all day and that's enough for them. Lost of people we talk to are just visiting. So they leave after we talk to them.

I love being a missionary. It's weird thinking I live here in NY but

I'm learning to love it and love everyone here. The gospel is true.

Share it with the world. I have taught a few lessons so far and each

time my testimony of the gospel grows more and more. It's incredible

to be able to learn so much everyday. I love you all so much! Have a

good week!

Love, sister kiera tanner