I saw a little too much skin this week

Hi family!

This week has been pretty good! We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today and it was actually better than I thought. But you know me, museums are not exactly my thing. But that's okay, my companion wanted to go so I went, and I really enjoyed it :)

Okay First of all, remember how I told you Elder Marcos Aidukaitis of the seventy spoke at my stake conference at byu and then he spoke at general conference, Sunday afternoon session? Well he was here last week(I forgot to tell you last time) and spoke in the singles ward but I saw him and met his family and talked to him about how he spoke in my byu ward at the beginning of the year and he was like "oh ya, so you are newer on the mission aren't you?" And we just talked a bit and he wished me luck and shook my hand and went on his way and then I told my comp who he was (she was talking to his family while I talked to him and didn't talk to him) and then she freaked out. but that was cool to have him here. And next Thursday we have to go clean the church because a "very important person" is Thursday night. Not sure who but sadly we won't be able to see that very important
person :( oh well, we are still cleaning the church for him!

Happy birthday on Saturday to Andrea Vasquez! Everyone better wish her a happy birthday! 

It's sooo crazy that Wes has been out a year already and Tanner just about has too! Where did time go? Seems like just yesterday we were all having a bonfire at the beach together.

I Got the best package ever from the Hills and Holmes and it melted my heart. It was seriously So adorable reading all the notes from them. And it had ALL my favorite things. I definitely miss those families! Thank you!!! :)

I saw a little too much skin this week.. First we saw the naked cowboy in time square..and then while walking to union square there was a little bit older and a bit bigger lady who was shakin her booty around without any clothes on... It was quite Awkward. Crazy people of New York - but I love them!

Something that is kinda funny..so when it rains here, the buildings drip for a couple days. And so when we go to the government funding buildings we always have to watch out. But those times we get dripped on is always followed by "I've been shot!" (Pitch perfect fat Amy voice) And then we proceed by lathering on the hand sanitizer. :)

On Saturday we had a Picnic in Central Park with the ward and then did some more look ups and contacting at Juilliard School and then we went to the Russian ladies house again where we were fed mysterious meat in our soup. I think it was pig foot or something, it was impossible to eat though. It was all bone, thick skin, and cartilage pretty much- But Don't worry, the elevator worked that day!

Okay now for the stories...So we found a lot of potential investigators this past week and it's been so awesome. I've seen the miracles unfold this week and it's incredible. Tender mercies are all around is week. So last week we were tracting in building 60 of the projects and we only had a few minutes but one door we knocked on started like growling stuff about satan and worshiping satan and all this really creepy gross stuff so we were like uhhh we better not leave our number on a card here...so we just left a blank card :) but for real it was pretty scary. Everything they were saying and how they were saying it was just gross and creepy. I don't even know how to explain it. But it's totally fine. WE DIDN'T DIE!
So then 2 weeks ago we met a guy named Fonzy who came up to us and asked who we were and asked if we could teach him more. He lives in building 60 of the projects too. So last week we went back to see if he was home so we could go outside and talk to him a bit more. When we got there he opened the door and started talking to us a bit..I'm pretty sure he was really high or something like that. He walked back and forth in his house while talking to us, we stayed outside of his apartment of course, but right when he started talking another young man came out and walked to the end of the hall so that I could see him to my left. When Fonzy was on one of his walks turning away I looked at the young man and he said "NO. Not with him. Be careful!" So I start gettin a little nervous of course!!!!  haha-- and so I passed it on to sister Orme as well. Then the guy walked back towards his apartment and I stopped him and he said "I heard Fonzy's voice and then I heard sweet voices so I thought I should make sure everything was okay and just warn you and that's why I came out here.
 Be careful and don't go in his house. Who are you anyway?" So I proceeded to tell him we were missionaries and all that and he asked if I had a book or pamphlets to read. His name is Ozzy by the way. (Sister Orme was directly next to me still talking to Fonzy). I gave Ozzy a Book of Mormon and he asked me to write down some page numbers to read so I did. Then after the convo was over I went back to standing there with sister Orme and Fonzy showed us random pictures and random stuff. About a minute or 2 later Ozzy came back out and tapped on my shoulder and said "I tried to start reading but I can't navigate this book" then we left Fonzy and decided not to go back there again. But thanks to Fonzy we found Ozzy who is normal and actually reading the Book of Mormon. 
Then we knocked a few more doors in that building and another lady proceeded to warn us. So then I turned to sister Orme and said "I know we always tract these project buildings but if one more person tells us to be careful and safe then we are leaving" so she agreed and we proceeded to one last door.

This door was different though. A lady answered and we talked to her a bit about God and Jesus Christ. We ended up asking when we could come back and she said "you can come in right now" so we did. She has 3
kids (9,7 and 4) and a husband and is religious. She puts up sticky notes with scriptures for the kids to read while around the house too. They are the Jenkins family by the way. And we are going to go back and teach them more hopefully. But so that was so cool to be able to find that family. The only problem is the dad has on-call work every day and then works midnight until noon on Saturdays and Sundays and then comes home and sleeps and the mom wants everyone to go to church together. So I'm kinda sorta really praying his work schedule gets changed around or something so that they can come to church. Hopefully we can go back and teach them more this week because they are so awesome.

And then Elida. Also from building 60. We met her after meeting Ozzy and the Jenkins. We met her in the elevator and she said she is 18 and went to church with the sister missionaries by herself when she was 13
and she would love if we could come back and teach her again. So we have a lesson with her tonight. Hopefully that goes well :)

Then tracting another day also in building 60 we met anotherr guy who is so ready, his name is Jonathan and he wants to feel peace more and he wants to do the right thing always even when it's hard. He said he feels God when he prays and wants to feel that same good feeling a lot more. He is all for reading the Book of Mormon and learning more and he is so open. So hopefully we can get him comin to church so that he can progress and feel the spirit always! He's so solid.

Another story..So sister Macuilt's other nephew, Isaiah came to live with her. So it is Sasha and Natasha's cousin. He turned 18 the day we met him and he is going to live with her from now on. I guess his family situation at home wasn't very good and he has been waiting 3 years to live with sister Macuilt. So he joined our lesson on Friday and we were talking about the word of wisdom so we were thinking about how that wasn't the best first lesson for him. But he started asking all about how if you have to be Mormon all your life to be a Mormon because he has already slipped in the past and he said he "fell from the 16th floor once" so how can he repent and start over and not do that ever again). We asked him if he has ever heard of the atonement and he said no so we told him we will teach him aside from the girls lessons and so he can know more (he has to come to church every week with sister macuilt anyway). But he actually is super respectful and willing to do anything sister macuilt asks of him and by the end of the lesson he said "well I could give up coffee. I can live without it." So we will see where that goes! I think he will end up getting baptized too.

Our lessons with Sasha and Natasha this week have been sooo awesome though! Like seriously the best lessons ever. The spirit has been so strong and they have been telling their mom what their standards are
and their mom has been supportive of that so that is awesome. They are still set for their baptism on August 16 so we are excited about that (it was supposed to be the week before that but their grandma will be gone and she needs to be there). But Sasha is going to girls camp the 11th-15th so she will be in good hands before her baptism because this ward is great.

So each Monday we have district meeting and at the beginning of a new transfer we create a District VGPA(vision goals plans accountability)
so this is ours for the transfer!

-VISION-
•Be thou an example of the believers
1 Timothy 4:12

-GOALS-
• Consecrated Conversation
• Constant Finding
• Create a Culture of OBEDIENCE

-PLANS-
• Call everyone by elder and sister
• Talk about the work
   - No Gossip
   - Talk about all aspects of the work (Facebook, finding, teaching)
• Read "Consecrated Missionary" Talk at district meetings
• hand out a card/talk to someone every time our metro card is used.
• Follow up on 1 obedience thing per companionship

-ACCOUNTABILITY-
• Email it to our families (that's you guys!)
• Talk about our constant finding at dinner appointments
• Look at VGPA every week

OKAY THAT WAS A LOT OF STORIES...

So this week I have realized a couple things. So I realized I like to try and relate everything to the gospel. It's
part of trying to be missionary focused in all I do. So one thing I thought about this week is that when we think we know better, we don't. Sometimes it may be easy to say "well I'm going to church and praying and reading the Book of Mormon with my family, so I don't need to do personal scripture study today" and then slowly we start to fall and little things get messed up. We cant stop doing something because we think that we will be fine without it for a bit. We have to be persistent and continue on even when things seem to be fine and under control.
(Now you may think i learned this by not praying or reading my scriptures but that's not exactly the case..I learned all this because I thought I would be fine not taking the B-1 vitamins for the bugs since I started taking other types of vitamins and hadn't been bit at all. I figured I was covered and that it was in my system enough and I thought I'd be fine...and then a couple days later I got a million bug bites. Coincidence? I think not.)

But for real - one thing that I was thinking about on Sunday. We sang hymn 97 "-Lead kindly Light" which is one of my very favorites and so I thought about why it is that sometimes we have to be led In darkness, only seeing one step ahead of us. I thought about the many different reasons, such as sometimes it may be so that we can exercise our faith, and other times it may be because The Lord knows we may not be able to take it all on if we could see the whole path and so He only shows us one step at a time. But my favorite is that it is a way of
focusing on Christ more. There is a quote that says "Perhaps the problem ahead of us is not what we need to see more clearly. However it may be that what we need to see more clearly is Him." My invitation to you this week is to try and find Christ in everything you do and in every trial that is given to you. Remember that Christ knows better than we do. He knows our plan for us. Let Him guide you and keep that faith in Him.

Life is good. Serving a mission is great. The gospel is the best.

I love you all! Have a great week :)

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

  View from our Ward Picnic in Central Park

 Yummy! 

 Shake Shack for Dad!

 The MET