Sister Kiera Tanner: Conference is the best!

Hello Everyone!!

Wow! Hasn’t it been an incredible week? Hearing the words from our living prophet and his counselors has been so incredible. Conference is the best! Yes, we watched it at the church. My whole district was there but we didn't sit together. We try not to make missionary mobs. And there were also quite a few other people. Ron came and so did Thelma so that was awesome. A guy named Al and his wife Monju came too. They aren't members but they come to church every week I guess and so on Sunday I am going to talk to them :) oh also, don't worry, on Sunday I wore my Christmas pajama shirt from last year to watch conference in so I could feel right at home :) I took a picture so I'll send that.

I absolutely loved all the talks. There were too many good ones to pick a favorite. It was wonderful! But Did you notice that David A Bednar shared the SAME story that he told when we met him in Rochester last year!?!? So now I have heard the same story twice from Elder Bednar in New York both times.

On Saturday we planned to get to conference early right? But when we left it was pouring rain. Luckily we had umbrellas though. But we got to the subway station at 135th and it was CLOSED!! So we were like oh my goodness. Guess we will go to 145. But nope, it was closed too! And we had just missed the bus to take it to 125th to see if it was open. So we decided to take the 1 train. It ended up being like a 10 minute walk to get to it which was a lot longer than we remembered and then when we got on the train it was delayed for like 5 minutes. Our roommates were running late too but they caught the bus and took it to 125th. So at 11:58 the train arrived and so we booked it. We went running out of the station to the church. All of the sudden the other sisters came running from the opposite direction (they took the A train) and we all ran in and the guard of the temple/church (aunt Millie) opened the door and was like "lets go! Let's go! Gets go!" Luckily we made it just before the opening prayer! It was definitely close. But we didn't miss anything except that first song so it's okay! (The next 3 sessions we were sure to get there 30 minutes early :) )

On Sunday before conference I got up and showered first and then made some eggs and waffles for my companion and our roommates :) yes they were homemade, and they were quite delicious. It was convenient that the first session of conference started at 12 here because we still got to do our normal daily routine. Well today are transfers and after 4 months of being together, Sister Orme is leaving! She is headed up to Yonkers and I am getting Sister Brown as my companion from South Jordan, Utah! I am currently waiting for her here at the church where we have city transfers because she is coming from Connecticut. I have heard all good things about her so I am excited for a little change :)

I forgot to tell you that we did another APF (Area Proselyting Focus) with free lemonade again last week with just my district. It was much more successful than the one in the rain. It was a pretty hot day, I actually even got a tan line on my feet and we were only out there for like an hour or so. We did it across the street from the church/temple where the bus stop is, the subway entrance, and the waffle truck. So it was busy and we got to talk to a lot of people. I'm pretty sure we talked to the humans of New York guy too! (I didn't ask him though because I didn't want to be disappointed if it wasn't him). He said that on the way too and from work he takes pictures of people in Central Park and around New York and learns about their stories. He took a picture of us altogether handing out lemonade so if you ever see a picture of that, then I'll know it was him. But for now, let's just believe it was him :)

Okay so last week I had a dream that I went on a split with President Eyring (hahaha) I'm not sure why. It was weird, but sweet! I guess I was really excited for general conference.

On Thursday night our roommates who are the STLs (sister training leaders) got a call from someone in Salt Lake saying that they wanted to film them during their morning companionship study/planning. Of course they said yes and the people asked for their address. So they texted president morgan to ask if it was legit or not before they gave them our address just in case. Turns out, it was real. So president said "all I know is that you better clean your apartment really well. They will be there on Tuesday and so will I." So for the past week every chance we got we have been cleaning Sooo much. The apartment was sooo dirty before so it's good that we cleaned it and organized it. I feel much better. Even though our new furniture isn't here yet and we still have a big dip in the bathroom floor, it is still looking pretty good. President didn't end up coming but the film people did. It took foreverrr and we had to stay because it was all men doing the filming and so the sisters weren't allowed to be here alone. Pretty much sister Orme packed while I got things ready for sister brown to come.

Okay so on Friday we went tracting for general conference in one of the nicer project buildings. After a good amount of tracting we were on the 4th floor. After that we wanted to go down to the 3rd. Since that building has 26 floors, the elevator alwayss takes foreverrr and its sooo slow. So we decided to take the stairs since it was only one floor. Normally we don't ever take the stairs in project buildings because they are super sketch and that is where all the scary stuff happens normally. So we tend to stay away from that. As we were heading to the stairs though, the elevator door opened on the 4th floor and nobody pushed the button and there was nobody inside. We joked about how that was a sign that we needed to take the elevator and not the stairs...but we didn't. So we walked down the 15 steps or whatever to the 3rd floor..but the door was locked. So we were like "oh I guess that means we shouldn't tract the 3rd floor" so we went to the second...but the door was gone. There was no door for the 2nd or 1st floor. So we freaked out thinking we were locked in and we ran all the way back up to the 4th, took the elevator down to the 1st and left the projects :) I guess maybe the spirit told us to take the elevator in the first place but we didn't listen. Not sure what happened or what could have happened or what, but we are safe and next time we are going to listen to the thoughts we have :) I promise! :)

Alright so back to conference :)

I loved Jörg Klebingat's talk and the 6 suggestions he gave. So good! And Lynn G Robbins about which way do you face. I love how he talks about how the Savior is fearless because he NEVER forgot which way he faced. We need to constantly be repenting and remembering that we are accountable to God and not to man. I think about how at times I get nervous to open my mouth to start talking to someone and how I shouldn't because that is what I have been called to do. I don't need to be afraid. So that was good to hear that. Something else that I loved that Elder Bednar said was something along the lines of "because once you feel the love of Christ, it's worth it." When I was in the MTC we always talked about why we each decided to come on a mission in the first place. Now that I am serving I think about Why it is that I am staying here on my mission. That is the very reason. Because feeling the love of Christ makes it all worth it. I know that this is the true church. It brings me so much joy and happiness. I love sharing the gospel with everyone here in NYC. It's the best.

I love you all so much. Have a good week!! Keep reading the Book of Mormon. Like Richard G. Scott said, studying the Book of Mormon is more important than sleep and homework and everything else. So do it!

Xoxo

Love,

Sister Tanner <3