Coincidence? I think NOT!

Hello family! How are you?? I'm glad everyone is safe and home. This week went by fast yet again. Today my companion woke up sick so that's a bummer. Hopefully she gets better soon. I have been trying really hard to wash my hands really good and take my emergen-c and daily vitamins so that I don’t end up with bronchitis or pneumonia because we all know when I get sick, I get reallly sick. Hopefully she feels better soon so we can work hard this week! We still went to China town today though because it's just fun and one of sister Ormes old companions serves in China town so she showed us around better and took us to all the good spots :) it was really fun! We tried some good food like dumplings and pineapple bread and some other good stuff :)

Okay to start off just a little humorous story from yesterday. So as we all know, I love the movie “Elf,” so being here in the city has been fun. So we were waiting for the subway to come and it was surprisingly really quiet. Then all of the sudden this guy did a burp like the one on Elf! It was so loud and long. Okay it wasn't as long as the one on Elf but still pretty long. So after he burped it got awkward and quiet and then this guy was like "nice!! That was awesome!!" And he said it in a really deep voice while holding up a can of sprite "I had sprite." And then everyone just busted up laughing. Tons of people were just cracking up. And there was this guy by us talking kinda feminine, that kept saying to us "oh my goodness that was the most disgusting burp ever. Ew. Ew. Ew" haha it was great!  Always an exciting time on the Subway, never know what’s going to happen!

On Thursday Jehovah Witnesses tracted into us so it was fun having all four of us missionaries answer the door with our tags on. They were a little taken back but so nice. A ton of people ask us if we are JWs but I partly take that as a complement because they did really good tracting. Haha

On Friday I got to go on a Spilt with our roommate sister Bolton who goes home in 2 weeks. She is so awesome. I learned so much from her and it was a lot of fun. Even though like all of our lessons fell through and everyone cancelled we were still able to teach 7 lessons that day and get a referral and two potentials so it was sweet. I got the chance to ask her a lot of things about how I can improve as a missionary so it was really awesome. We walked a Ton though and did a lot of less active look ups. One apartment we went to yelled at us and told us that they wanted their names removed from the records forever and never ever wanted us to come back. It was quite intense haha but ya it was a good split and I wish I could have served with sister Bolton longer because she is awesome. 

On Saturday for "day of service" we did a whole lot of service. We started out by doing Mormon helping hands at a park where we dug up bad trees and pulled out all the weeds and cut down bushes so that we could plan new pretty plants. It was along side the freeway. There was a really good turnout and we got a lot farther than the park ranger people expected us to. However, near the end someone in the stake found a pair of pants, a wallet with the ID in it, some other stuff, and something with blood. So We aren't exactly sure what happened..for a little bit it was going around that there was a dead animal because of some ritual thing but then as everyone was leaving the cops showed up and taped off the area. then later we heard that they discovered a crime scene... Sooo we aren't exactly sure. But either way it was pretty sketchy. After that we got to go paint a ladies house which was fun but at the end of the day I was so exhausted. I felt bad because towards the end of our last lesson that day we were just super out of it. But it was still a really good lesson so it's okay. 

So on Sunday there was a Climate march thingy. I took a picture but then realized I'm not sure if I was allowed to. oops..but here it is! Haha it was huge and loud. Also on Sunday Elaine S Dalton was here so that was cool to see her and talk to her. She spoke at a big tri stake YSA conference that was held at the temple. And then on Monday we were going to a dinner appointment and walked through a big crowd of people and then realized it was a Jewish protest thing or something. Idk what it was but we got caught in the middle of it. So that was interesting. 

We had to transfer a lot of people's information this week so that's cool for the other missions that we find people for.. Haha. Two examples..We had two people from Paris come in and they only spoke French, luckily it was during the YSA conference so we just grabbed an RM that spoke French and he talked to them and got their info. And then a lady from Oregon called us (she use to live here and took lessons) and so I took down her info as well. She wanted to know if there were Mormons in Oregon or not haha. So we forwarded their info to Portland and France. 

Okay so there is a new family in our Ward (the Takaboris) from Japan and they are hilarious. They are so awesome and she reminds me so much of Nori! And on Sunday they got called to be Ward missionaries. We are going over there for dinner. A few of Their kids did the online BYU thing too. But anyway I think she can be "Luckyjapanesegirl#2" hahaha

Alright so at dinner twice this week people asked us what to email or write in letters to missionaries. We decided that if you have nothing you feel like you can write or want to write then a safe bet is sending pictures and telling us about a miracle that happened that week. So if you want to write me, but you aren't sure what to say, tell me about your tender mercies and miracles from the week and send me some pictures :)

Yesterday we were able to go to the temple with brother Hicks, the less active that we have lessons with every week via facebook. We have been working to reactivate him and he has been doing really well. It was his first time going to the temple so our bishop came too. it was our first time meeting him in person as well. (We just never saw him when he was at church cuz his pictures were old on FB so we didn't know what he looked like haha). He has been a member for a while now though. So when we went into the confirmation room I was just thinking how awkward he must feel because it was us, the bishop and a bunch of temple workers. But then as our bishop was introducing him to one of the temple workers that was going to be helping out, the temple worker said "I know William Hicks. William you probably don't remember me but I know you." Turns out he was the one who gave brother Hicks his patriarchal blessing! Coincidence? I think not. It was super cool. And brother Hicks works in the music business and coached one of the most famous soloists or pianists or something like that for like 5 years and everyone helping out happened to be really into music so that was sweeeet. It was definitely a blessing to have him there and have everyone else connect with him so much. 

So one thing I loved from my Book of Mormon reading this week was Jacob 3 and 4. Jacob 4:3 says, "Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents." I love that. It took a lot of hard work to get the Book of Mormon how it is today. I think it is really easy to take the Book of Mormon for granted but Jacob tells us he hopes we receive it with "thankful hearts" as we "learn with joy." I realized how important it is to take a step back and think about how we view reading the Book of Mormon. Do we do it with joy? Are we as thankful as we should be? Are we reading as often as we should to be showing that thanks or are we taking it for granted? I have really come to love the Book of Mormon as I have applied the teachings to my life more often. It really does contain all the answers. I wish everyone could just read the book. I want to be better at being more thankful and having more joy as I read and learn so that I can continue to share the Book of Mormon with others. 

I love you all so much. I hope you have a wonderful week! I'm excited to hear your weekly miracles :) 

Love, 

Sister Tanner <3

Saturday Service Project / Mormon Helping Hands

Best nuts ever!

Cool Statue of Liberty tagged on the Building in China Town

The front of our Church in China town, it is used for other things too.
I took a picture here because the front matched my shoes!

That March thingy I was talking about

luckily she gave us our clothes back....

Hello!
Wow, it looks like you are really enjoying Costa Rica! Looks like so much fun! Can we do that trip again sometime? K thanks :) How is everyone else doing? Hopefully good! I am doing well. Still loving it! It's always an adventure here in NYC. We almost got hit by a car again, and it wasn't even a yellow one! Rude. But we are still alive so it's okay.
It's been getting cooler here! We started to wear cardigans this week because it's a bit chilly in the mornings and at night and when we go running in the morning my cheeks and nose get real cold. I think fall is cominggg :)

I finally got my missionary Facebook! So that is weird. I'm still in the process of "cleaning it up" to make it 100% missionary minded or whatever. So I just have to "hide" or delete all things that are not about missionary work. Like every. Single. Picture. I posted from byu.. Which is a lot. But I should be done soon. Just letting you know because this is the last letter you will be able to post on my Facebook page. (If you even get home in time to post it). But you can read my letter on my moms. I'm going to hide or delete them all this week though. So everyone add me on FB if we aren't already friends!

Okay so something kinda funny that happened this week...So we went to Lioudmilla's house again, the Russian lady who always feeds us. However, before we got to her house we got poured on and we didn't have our umbrellas that day. So we were soaking wet. But before her house we dried off as best we could and rung out our hair and what not and then went to her house. When we got there she noticed we were kinda wet and cold so she started telling us in Russian to take our clothes off. She was motioning to us to take them off and then her home attendant told us she was saying to take them off. So of course we were like no-no-NOO we are good! Thanks. Then she goes to her closet and starts throwing out clothes for us to put on. After going back and forth for a couple minutes she nicely yells at us in Russian to take off our clothes and change. So right there in her bedroom we just stripped off our clothes and put on hers. It was so awkward hahah. So then we go to have the lesson and of course she feeds us. It was some of the same stuff as last time. But then she gave us herbal tea (peppermint flavor) to drink. Everyone knows how much I hate herbal tea. Especially my roommates. When I made it at school while sick I could only take one sip before I would gag and have to dump it out. So there we are trying to choke down this herbal tea and I'm dying. And I burned my entire mouth cuz it was so hot. It still feels weird to this day and this was Saturday. So then the home attendant comes and puts honey and Hershey's chocolate syrup in the tea. It didn't get any better. So Then I just chugged the rest. I wanted to throw it all up, it was nastyyyy. Then we finally got to share our message. We just shared a Mormon message in Russian and then talked about it in English (she
understands some English). Then after the lesson she gave us 2 boxes of cereal and some fruit. And then we asked for our clothes back to change cuz we had to leave and she said No! We were like uhhh ya we have to go, we need our clothes. So then she calls a lady who speaks Russian and English and tells her what she wants to tell us and then hands the phone to us and the lady said that we had to go to our next lesson and come back at 6:30 to get our clothes. (It was 5:30 at the time. So we had to leave her house in her hideous clothes!! So embarrassing. We hid our name tags cuz we looked so ridiculous. So we ran to the church and took some pictures and then ran back to her house. When we got back to her house, luckily she gave us our clothes back and then sent us on our way with the food. And when we were saying bye she kissed us righttt next to our lips. Slightly Awkward. She really is a nice lady though and loves us so much. Anyway, so that's the story about how the Russian lady made us take off our clothes and then she stole our clothes but then we got them back.

Don't worry, it rained again yesterday but we brought our umbrellas.
We learned our lesson :)

So I realized that going to college before my mission really did help me a ton! My comp wasn't able to go to school before she came out and she always asks me lots of questions that I know the answer to because I went to college. It just puts you ahead a lot in the mission when you have college experience. Plus I have a lot to talk about haha

Today we got to go to the temple again so that was wonderful :) and next week we might be going to do baptisms twice with less actives so that'll be sweet too! I love the temple so much. It is the best thing ever. I had an amazing experience in the temple today and it was just another testimony that God does answer our prayers. There is not better place to feel peace and love, talk to God, and receive blessings than in the temple. It's almost a bad thing that I went so much before my mission because now it kills me that we only get to go once a transfer. But I'm lucky we can go that much so I'll take what I can get :)

Alright so one thing we are focusing on as a district is having pure Christlike love for everyone. It's been rough having so many appointments fall through this week while knowing all we can do is love them anyway haha but I know it's what we need to do. I know everything we do is worthless if love isn't there. In 2 Nephi 26:30 it says that if we don't have charity we are nothing. I love that. Charity really is the pure love of Christ. Even though it may be a bit hard at times, we need to think about how Christ would handle
situations and do our best to show love to everyone no matter what.

I love you all so much! I hope you have a good and safe week!

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

Ps. does anyone have any referrals for me yet? Preferably in NYC. :)  If you know anyone in NYC even if they are members, I would love to talk to them. Send me their info please.

"Looking a little homeless" (My outfit from our Russian Friend.)  

Hot Dogs from Grays Papaya!  I'm a New York Foodie

I felt like a proud mother

Hello family!!
This week has been so awesome and crazy and fun!

Let me tell you, the sound of a baptismal font filling up is the best sound in the whole world. But more about that later :)

Something strange that happened this week was when we were on the subway coming home one night all of the sudden it stopped super fast and everyone slid a bit forward and then an announcement came on saying there was an Emergency inspection and that the cops had to help out doing that inspection. Everyone on the train said they had never seen that happen before so it was pretty weird and crazy. After we finally got moving again and got home all the lights were off in our building which was super weird and the cops were outside with their car spotlight thing on the door to the entrance and the door to the entrance was propped open, also weird. So we waited for a bit and looked towards the cops for instruction but since the cops didn't say anything to us we just ran inside up to our apartment and locked the door. Good thing we didn't hear any gun shots that night :)

So birds here are not afraid of people at all. You don't know how many times I almost get hit by them. But the other day when we were walking to the church one pigeon flew right into me and I ducked and dodged it right in time and everyone was laughing. it was so embarrassing but it was better than getting hit in the face by a bird! So that Book of Mormon video thing was made.I don't know if it was put out yet. Sorry but I'm not one of the people they interviewed because it was during our baptism and the baptism was more important than being in a video.

Since we couldn't go to fashion week with Ron, He gave us the fashion week party favor things hahah it is this bag with favors like nail polish and fashion week cards and a key to see if It unlocks the box to some super expensive purse. Idk haha oh Ronald! We don't know what to do with him yet.

Okay baptism time..Saturday was a Crazy day. So our bishop decided that he would turn the font on for us cuz he lives in the temple building and we live about 30 minutes away. So he did and when we got there at 11 we found that the font filled up two hours faster than it should have and it was freezing cold. So we drained it and started over so it was warm. So we told the girls to be there at 12. The baptism was at 1. They got there at 12:50. It was the most stressful thing ever, we thought their mom took them away or something so they couldn't get baptized. So the baptism ended up Starting at 1:20 but it was okay because their friend Tiffany came right before the baptism so it worked out perfectly. (Oh side note, Ron was at the baptism and he LOVED it). So on with the baptism. Natasha had to do it twice cuz she slipped a bit and her leg came up but overall it was so cute and wonderful. Their mom and cousin Leah came to the baptism too so that was good and the mom thanked us and said she wanted her kids to pick their own religion and that's why she didn't baptize them when they were born. And then on Sunday for their confirmation we told them to be there before 12:30 and they got there are like 1:10 (church is at 1) so that was stressful again haha but they came so it's okay. And then their mom and cousin Isaiah came to the confirmation on Sunday so that was also good! Since Sunday was fast Sunday there were like 5 people that bore their testimonies and mentioned Sasha and Natasha and how great their baptism was and then Sasha went up and bore her testimony! It was soo awesome. I felt like a proud mother! I bet if I had kids that's what it would feel like.

Life is so good! Each day I love it here more and more. The people here are so awesome. Prayer is so real. God can help us with anything. There is no time for bad days, excuses, or laziness. Each day we have to work our hardest. We have to Give Him our all and be happy.

I hope you all have a good week! Have fun and Be safe in Costa Rica mom and dad! I love you!!

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

I feel like a proud mother

Sasha and Natasha ready for baptism

Such a great day!