it was a ding-dong ditch

Hello family! Sounds like an eventful week! I'm glad you are all doing well. Can you believe it's the end of October already? Time flies so fast! 

We went to the temple today so that was amazing like always. The temple is the best. I feel so blessed to have a temple in my area. 

How is your Book of Mormon reading going? I don't know if you read today's chapters yet, Alma 32 and 33 but I just love those chapters so much. They are so marked up in my scriptures from studying them so often, and I'm not even close to being done. The pages are beautiful though. I love it. The Book of Mormon is the best. I've never loved it so much until I came on my mission and really studied and applied it every day. Everyone should read Alma 32 and 33.

Okay so everyone has asked me about Halloween. So we have to be home at 5:45 now. So that means we will need to leave our area about 4:45 or 5. Then we are going home and having dinner with our roommates and just hanging out. Our instructions were "to eat candy until we puke." I won't do that but ya it should be fun. We will pass out candy if anyone knocks on our door with pass along cards that say "the gospel is a treat." Kids around here trick or treat from store to store I guess. Apparently all the shops along the roads have candy. Also they shut down a street and have a big Halloween party with some trick or treating that way. We also have trunk or treat on Saturday, even though it's after Halloween haha so ya, that is Halloween in NYC! 

So on Saturday we were teaching Thelma and we had her read 2 Nephi 28:30 and she busted up laughing. And then she said "that's so mean!" And we were really confused so after she stopped laughing she said "I used that how teenagers use it. Like a good kind of mean. It kind of means cool or true. But they say mean instead. It's a good thing" haha! soooo …I don't know if that's a thing or what but she is 63 and thought that scripture was hilarious. 

I went on a split last week with Sister Hubbard who is a new missionary. She's only been out 2 or 3 weeks now. So that was fun to be so someone younger than me in the mission...except 5 appointments cancelled, nobody was in Central Park or any other park for us to talk to because it was raining and freezing. And then when we were tracting we were having no luck and then all of the sudden we got to this door and knocked once and then we ran. So pretty much it was a ding-dong ditch type of thing but oh well. We both just got this really bad feeling about it and felt like we should leave so we got out of that project building as fast as possible. And then we went to look up the new records we received that nobody knows and they were just addresses for high schools or hotels and the people weren't there. And then the media referral we looked up was fake as well. So it was a realllllly successful split... Haha so ya that was the worst. But it was fun to be with Sister Hubbard for a day! 

We started this new service project with a group called street smart NYC. We pretty much deliver boxes to people who order the street smart NYC cards. The cards are given to people in need of food and they just have a list of all the food kitchen places and stuff like that on the island of Manhattan that those people can go to. So pretty much we are UPS delivery people because that's what we do. This week we are delivering a box to a NYC cop. Hopefully she will be able to tell us about some more service opportunities. 

On Sunday we got to go to a mini sacrament meeting all in Spanish and I led the music... It was great! So our bishop holds a sacrament meeting for brother Lopez (because he only speaks Spanish really) and because he absolutely can't get work off and so he has a sacrament meeting at 6:00pm on Sunday's. Other people who work can go as well. So on Sunday sister brown and I went to this sacrament meeting and we got to see brother Lopez bless the sacrament for the first time. It was reallly incredible! 

So we are loaded with New investigators.....all who live out of area. Awkward. Well except for the lady with the granddaughters from Utah. But she hardly speaks English. And then Norma who has been being taught for a while but she is moving up to Albany which isn't in our mission. So that's sad. But that's okay! I feel pretty certain that she will get baptized up there though. 

So as you know I met sister Wiggintons mom, aunt carries friend! That was fun to see her :) and then Quentin smith and his wife are in my ward. He played volleyball at BYU and so I talked to him about knowing Aunt Kera, Uncle Steve and Taylor haha so that was fun. 

So our music selection is getting changed to no more EFY music or anything like that. Only Mormon tabernacle choir because people have been pushing the limits I guess. They started doing anything that can be bought at desert book..which turned into all sorts of music I guess. So that's lame. So in two weeks no more efy music. So livv, send me that efy cd today so that I can listen to it for a week :) haha 

So this week I was studying a bit about how we came here to be on earth to change, not to change Him. We have to change our own actions and not try to change or alter he commandments. When we accept and choose Christ, we choose to be changed. We can't fight the waves and storms, that won't make them stop. We have to learn to live in them and we can only do that peacefully with Christ’s help. There are three parts to following the savior. The first is to keep the commandments. When we follow the commandments we are choosing Christ. In Alma 41:7 it says we will be our own judges to decide whether we follow good or evil. Secondly, we have to ask Him for help and he will answer us. And finally, he will confirm it with us. When He asks us, We will be in perfect alignment with what he can provide. That alignment comes from following Him completely and perfectly. One thing our stake president said was that If we question the prophet then we may not have a testimony of modern revelation. If we question the commandments then we do not have the faith and confidence that He is all knowing. If what Christ spoke and taught was not true then why would it matter what he said? Why would so many want to tear him down?

I love that. It's so true. I think it goes along nicely with the talk "which way do you face?" From this past conference. I know this church is true. I know that if we better align ourselves with Gods will, we will be blessed. As we pray to our Heavenly Father in the name of Christ, the Spirit will be with us to help us along the journey we face in life. 

I love you all so much. Have a good week and a Happy Halloween!! 

Love, 

Sister Tanner <3

With Sister Hubbard on splits (she's brand new out!)