Sister Kiera Tanner: 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