Disclaimer: I'm not sure if I finished all my thoughts because I was skipping around so sorry! Not enough time to
reread it. Love you!
Hello!
To start off, since I have been slacking on bible jokes, here are two more!
QUESTION 1: Who in the Bible was the champion runner of all time?
QUESTION 2:How do we know that Noah was preceded from the ark by at least three other people?
This week has been good! Busy and crazy, but good! We were grounded on Saturday due to ice and snow and all that lame stuff. Luckily we got to teach a lesson over facebook and then rest of the week was great. A lot happened so I'll just make this email long instead of super long. :)
Speaking of facebook, tomorrow we are going to the TEMPLE CHURCH BUILDING (just picture my excitement in your head that we get to go there) so that we can join together for a mission wide Meeting where two general authorities Elder David Evans(who is the lead general authority for missionaries for the past 5 yrs or so) and Elder Steven Allen are going to give us direction for 4 plus hours about the new iPads we are getting and new set rules and guidelines for Facebook, iPads, Internet, and just all the other technology stuff. The meeting is titled "Hastening the work in this digital age." President said We will also all stop using Facebook for about 4 weeks and then we will start fresh using all the new information. It's supposed to be super intense. The general authorities asked that we be seated and quiet 20 minutes early and we had to do all this preparation stuff with the white handbook and preach my gospel. It will be awesome and exciting though so it'll be good! :)
This past week we had transfers and I met Sister Dakota Terry who is in the same ward and grandma and grandpa Harper! She said she knows who they are and that they should know her family. I can't help but think she is the very girl that they tell me I look like every time I'm at their house, even though Sister Terry looks nothing like me haha
Oh my goodness let me tell you, the Heishs told us the funniest story the other day. Mostly it was just funny seeing their faces and how they said it because their English is so cute but I'll tell it to you anyway... So when they were converted to the church their branch president(who was a RM and served in Taiwan) told them that chocolate was against the word of wisdom. It happened to be right after elder
Hsieh got home from a work trip where he bought a ton of chocolate. So when they heard that they couldn't have chocolate, they threw it all away. Their kids cried and said "we hate this church because we can't have chocolate!" And for a few years, they didn't have chocolate. Then one day elder Hsieh went to a meeting where representatives of BYU Hawaii were there to speak to get people to go there and during the meeting whenever people participated, they got chocolate. Elder Hsieh said he was so shocked. So then in the PowerPoint he saw pictures of
the first presidency giving kids chocolate (I'm not sure why that picture was on the slide) and he said he just was so shocked and thinking "what are they doing giving the children chocolate! And the prophet too!??" So then he went back to their president and told him and eventually they learned that chocolate was okay. So now they eat chocolate. But every time their kids hear something about the word of
wisdom then they try to find out the true facts right away because of their mistake without chocolate for so many years the first time.
This week we had such a great lesson with the Kings. The spirit was SO strong. I'm not sure how much I have told you about them but they are the less actives (she is the one we made a cheesecake for that was in jail for a couple days) and they are working towards the temple as of two weeks ago. So yesterday we went to teach them and follow up with their smoking and he said he has cut back so much and will be quitting completely this week or next week. That is a HUGE step for them!
Before, he wouldn't even join in on the lessons and then about 3 weeks ago he started coming and now he buys us treats each week and is always telling us about his progression with smoking and it is so awesome. And he told his boss his last day of work is March 6th which means he will be able to come to church after that and he told us about how he got the Aaronic Priesthood and and how he use to be so close to the Spirit and he wants that again. She is right behind him
too with smoking but she is the best missionary ever and continues to share he gospel with everyone. Pretty much they are awesome and you have no idea how much I love them. I am SO excited for them to go get sealed in the temple even though I won't be around to see it. Goodness my heart just overflows with joy towards them.
On Saturday we were grounded but we went to correlation which was probably a bad idea because we couldn't get up the big hill by the church, burned our tires, and had to reverse down the big hill so we could go a back way. Luckily we were safe. So when we got home from correlation the power was out and even the emergency lights were out and it was freezing in the apartments. So we went and talked to elder and sister hsieh as soon as we got out and the look on elder hsiehs
face was priceless. He was soo worried. He was like "we cannot stay here! The lights are not on. We must go to the church to sleep!" And he was getting super worked up and we told him it was okay and it wouldn't last long. So we had them get warm and we went and got pjs on and stuff and then headed back over to check on them and they had talked to the zone leaders who said to just bundle up and stay and so then he was like "sisters come sleep over here! We will make sure you stay warm!" And we were just like "no thanks, our apartment is warmer
than yours" haha because since we live on the second floor and they are on the first, their room was cold and ours was still alright. Anyway, to make this long story end, that night the power came back on but in the meantime that flashlight that sister Steingraber gave me at the beach, once again, came in handy since it is magnetic and bright.
We are teaching this cute tiny 7 year old who wants to get baptized in March, his birthday is March 22. His name is Davion and he comes to church with his grandma. We asked him why he wants to get baptized and he said "because I have done a lot of wrong things and I want to be clean." It was so adorable. But anyway, we are meeting with him once a week now and he will be baptized when he is 8.
Monday was an awesome day! First of all we went to Panera Bread for lunch so obviously I was in Heaven. Buuuut then things got crazy. We are working on following the rules with exactness so we can be more consecrated and have more success. So we told a member that in the future we only could stay at her house for an hour(she normally keeps us three or four hours) and so we wanted to give her a heads up and we kindly explained how it's a rule to only stay there for an hour so we were going to work on that and even though we love her and want to
stay longer, we couldn't. and she got really mad at us telling us that that rule is dumb and that we can't eat dinner and have a lesson in an hour and we wouldn't be able to bond and all this stuff. Which, that isn't our purpose so whatever we kinda let it be. It was really intense though.
Right after that we had planned to go Tracting for a couple hours. So we found the complex we wanted to tract (a less active told us about it) and we started knocking doors. First of all, it was incredibly cold. Probably around -20 or -30 up where we were. And I had forgotten my hat and headband! Well we knocked..and knocked...and knocked.. And not 1 door answered. It didn't even seem like people lived there. It was extremely quiet, the wind was blowing really loudly, and there
were screen doors creaking as the wind blew them open and closed. The place seemed desolate! So we looked at the clock and saw that it was about 4:20. So we decided to set a goal. We decided that we would tract until 5:45 and we wouldn't stop until then unless we turned purple(thats when president said we have to stop). We prayed and prayed to find someone to talk to finally we met a guy named Aaron who was really nice and asked us to come back when his mom and sister were home. Then a lot more doors passed with no answer. Then we met a crazy guy who was yelling at us because we wouldn't go into his house haha and then some more empty doors. By this time it was 5:35, we couldn't feel our fingers, our toes, our cheeks, our mouths, nothin. It was bitterly cold. But we knew we had 10 minutes left. The last 3 doors we knocked on we found the sweetest families ever that we are going to try to see again this week. So four potential families, hopefully one of them will be solid and amazing. Either way, it was the perfect end to Tracting that day. I know that God held those people for us and made them be last to see if we had the faith and strength to keep going even when it was rough. God works in mysterious ways and sends miracles with effort. I know that setting goals and praying to ask is so important. The scripture 3 Nephi 27:29 took on a whole new meaning. "Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened." Because we asked, doors were opened. Althought it
was not as many as we hoped for, it was Gods answer to our prayers and
it was enough for us.
ANSWER 1: Adam. He was the first in the human race.
ANSWER 2: Because the Bible says that Noah came forth [fourth].
Well 9 months ago today I gave my farewell talk and said goodbye to most of you. That day I would have never imagined where I am today. Never in my life did I imagine loving New York so much. I didn't know how I would come to love these people so deeply. Or how much I would learn and grow. It feels like I just left yesterday, but I also feel like I have already learned so much. The next nine months better slow down a bit because I have so much more work to do. I love being a missionary here. I KNOW God loves me and that He trusts me with His
children. I KNOW that I am here for a reason and that I will continue to learn and grow each day. I know that God accepts all the work I do and that when I try my best and give my all then He takes care of the rest. I KNOW this church is true. I KNOW the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. I KNOW that God has a specific plan for me and I am so excited to work even harder these next 9 months. I LOVE being a missionary. It's the BEST!
I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Sister Tanner <3
Hello!
To start off, since I have been slacking on bible jokes, here are two more!
QUESTION 1: Who in the Bible was the champion runner of all time?
QUESTION 2:How do we know that Noah was preceded from the ark by at least three other people?
This week has been good! Busy and crazy, but good! We were grounded on Saturday due to ice and snow and all that lame stuff. Luckily we got to teach a lesson over facebook and then rest of the week was great. A lot happened so I'll just make this email long instead of super long. :)
Speaking of facebook, tomorrow we are going to the TEMPLE CHURCH BUILDING (just picture my excitement in your head that we get to go there) so that we can join together for a mission wide Meeting where two general authorities Elder David Evans(who is the lead general authority for missionaries for the past 5 yrs or so) and Elder Steven Allen are going to give us direction for 4 plus hours about the new iPads we are getting and new set rules and guidelines for Facebook, iPads, Internet, and just all the other technology stuff. The meeting is titled "Hastening the work in this digital age." President said We will also all stop using Facebook for about 4 weeks and then we will start fresh using all the new information. It's supposed to be super intense. The general authorities asked that we be seated and quiet 20 minutes early and we had to do all this preparation stuff with the white handbook and preach my gospel. It will be awesome and exciting though so it'll be good! :)
This past week we had transfers and I met Sister Dakota Terry who is in the same ward and grandma and grandpa Harper! She said she knows who they are and that they should know her family. I can't help but think she is the very girl that they tell me I look like every time I'm at their house, even though Sister Terry looks nothing like me haha
Oh my goodness let me tell you, the Heishs told us the funniest story the other day. Mostly it was just funny seeing their faces and how they said it because their English is so cute but I'll tell it to you anyway... So when they were converted to the church their branch president(who was a RM and served in Taiwan) told them that chocolate was against the word of wisdom. It happened to be right after elder
Hsieh got home from a work trip where he bought a ton of chocolate. So when they heard that they couldn't have chocolate, they threw it all away. Their kids cried and said "we hate this church because we can't have chocolate!" And for a few years, they didn't have chocolate. Then one day elder Hsieh went to a meeting where representatives of BYU Hawaii were there to speak to get people to go there and during the meeting whenever people participated, they got chocolate. Elder Hsieh said he was so shocked. So then in the PowerPoint he saw pictures of
the first presidency giving kids chocolate (I'm not sure why that picture was on the slide) and he said he just was so shocked and thinking "what are they doing giving the children chocolate! And the prophet too!??" So then he went back to their president and told him and eventually they learned that chocolate was okay. So now they eat chocolate. But every time their kids hear something about the word of
wisdom then they try to find out the true facts right away because of their mistake without chocolate for so many years the first time.
This week we had such a great lesson with the Kings. The spirit was SO strong. I'm not sure how much I have told you about them but they are the less actives (she is the one we made a cheesecake for that was in jail for a couple days) and they are working towards the temple as of two weeks ago. So yesterday we went to teach them and follow up with their smoking and he said he has cut back so much and will be quitting completely this week or next week. That is a HUGE step for them!
Before, he wouldn't even join in on the lessons and then about 3 weeks ago he started coming and now he buys us treats each week and is always telling us about his progression with smoking and it is so awesome. And he told his boss his last day of work is March 6th which means he will be able to come to church after that and he told us about how he got the Aaronic Priesthood and and how he use to be so close to the Spirit and he wants that again. She is right behind him
too with smoking but she is the best missionary ever and continues to share he gospel with everyone. Pretty much they are awesome and you have no idea how much I love them. I am SO excited for them to go get sealed in the temple even though I won't be around to see it. Goodness my heart just overflows with joy towards them.
On Saturday we were grounded but we went to correlation which was probably a bad idea because we couldn't get up the big hill by the church, burned our tires, and had to reverse down the big hill so we could go a back way. Luckily we were safe. So when we got home from correlation the power was out and even the emergency lights were out and it was freezing in the apartments. So we went and talked to elder and sister hsieh as soon as we got out and the look on elder hsiehs
face was priceless. He was soo worried. He was like "we cannot stay here! The lights are not on. We must go to the church to sleep!" And he was getting super worked up and we told him it was okay and it wouldn't last long. So we had them get warm and we went and got pjs on and stuff and then headed back over to check on them and they had talked to the zone leaders who said to just bundle up and stay and so then he was like "sisters come sleep over here! We will make sure you stay warm!" And we were just like "no thanks, our apartment is warmer
than yours" haha because since we live on the second floor and they are on the first, their room was cold and ours was still alright. Anyway, to make this long story end, that night the power came back on but in the meantime that flashlight that sister Steingraber gave me at the beach, once again, came in handy since it is magnetic and bright.
We are teaching this cute tiny 7 year old who wants to get baptized in March, his birthday is March 22. His name is Davion and he comes to church with his grandma. We asked him why he wants to get baptized and he said "because I have done a lot of wrong things and I want to be clean." It was so adorable. But anyway, we are meeting with him once a week now and he will be baptized when he is 8.
Monday was an awesome day! First of all we went to Panera Bread for lunch so obviously I was in Heaven. Buuuut then things got crazy. We are working on following the rules with exactness so we can be more consecrated and have more success. So we told a member that in the future we only could stay at her house for an hour(she normally keeps us three or four hours) and so we wanted to give her a heads up and we kindly explained how it's a rule to only stay there for an hour so we were going to work on that and even though we love her and want to
stay longer, we couldn't. and she got really mad at us telling us that that rule is dumb and that we can't eat dinner and have a lesson in an hour and we wouldn't be able to bond and all this stuff. Which, that isn't our purpose so whatever we kinda let it be. It was really intense though.
Right after that we had planned to go Tracting for a couple hours. So we found the complex we wanted to tract (a less active told us about it) and we started knocking doors. First of all, it was incredibly cold. Probably around -20 or -30 up where we were. And I had forgotten my hat and headband! Well we knocked..and knocked...and knocked.. And not 1 door answered. It didn't even seem like people lived there. It was extremely quiet, the wind was blowing really loudly, and there
were screen doors creaking as the wind blew them open and closed. The place seemed desolate! So we looked at the clock and saw that it was about 4:20. So we decided to set a goal. We decided that we would tract until 5:45 and we wouldn't stop until then unless we turned purple(thats when president said we have to stop). We prayed and prayed to find someone to talk to finally we met a guy named Aaron who was really nice and asked us to come back when his mom and sister were home. Then a lot more doors passed with no answer. Then we met a crazy guy who was yelling at us because we wouldn't go into his house haha and then some more empty doors. By this time it was 5:35, we couldn't feel our fingers, our toes, our cheeks, our mouths, nothin. It was bitterly cold. But we knew we had 10 minutes left. The last 3 doors we knocked on we found the sweetest families ever that we are going to try to see again this week. So four potential families, hopefully one of them will be solid and amazing. Either way, it was the perfect end to Tracting that day. I know that God held those people for us and made them be last to see if we had the faith and strength to keep going even when it was rough. God works in mysterious ways and sends miracles with effort. I know that setting goals and praying to ask is so important. The scripture 3 Nephi 27:29 took on a whole new meaning. "Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened." Because we asked, doors were opened. Althought it
was not as many as we hoped for, it was Gods answer to our prayers and
it was enough for us.
ANSWER 1: Adam. He was the first in the human race.
ANSWER 2: Because the Bible says that Noah came forth [fourth].
Well 9 months ago today I gave my farewell talk and said goodbye to most of you. That day I would have never imagined where I am today. Never in my life did I imagine loving New York so much. I didn't know how I would come to love these people so deeply. Or how much I would learn and grow. It feels like I just left yesterday, but I also feel like I have already learned so much. The next nine months better slow down a bit because I have so much more work to do. I love being a missionary here. I KNOW God loves me and that He trusts me with His
children. I KNOW that I am here for a reason and that I will continue to learn and grow each day. I know that God accepts all the work I do and that when I try my best and give my all then He takes care of the rest. I KNOW this church is true. I KNOW the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. I KNOW that God has a specific plan for me and I am so excited to work even harder these next 9 months. I LOVE being a missionary. It's the BEST!
I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week!
Love,
Sister Tanner <3
 |
| Hit my 1/2 way mark - Time to burn a skirt! |
 |
| To recognize the occasion - Elders burn a White shirt or Tie and Sisters burn skirts |
 |
| Don't worry mom! |
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