Sister Kiera Tanner: A Blizzard ...... For REAL this time!

Hi! How's it going? This week has been good! I was completely better...until I woke up a little sick yesterday haha but I'm not nearly as bad so it's okay! :) We actually got a good amount of snow this week. Of course we were grounded a couple days this week too. I got a package from Kristy Jones and her family this week!! That was super exciting and fun to get! Thank you so much! :) one of my new favorite snacks is Peanut butter monster trail mix. I'm not sure where Kristy bought it but wow it's delicious.

I also got the Book of Mormon from the primary! I will write a letter back as soon as I give it away so that I can tell them about it. Super cute idea! Love it!

Alright Here is another lame joke for Ya..

BIBLE JOKE: Why was the giant Goliath very much astonished when David hit him with a stone?

Last week the Cardonas taught us how to make murir suñando which is so good! I didn't expect it to taste so good, but I loved it! The Spanish elder that is going home has been wanting to know how and so they came with us to our lesson with them and afterwards made it for us and taught us how.

Oh so I don't know if I told you this before like right when I got here but I was told that Andy Grammer (we went to his concert at BYU) grew up here in Monticello and graduated from Monticello high school. I'm not sure if it's true, but you can look it up. As of now, it's true so that Monticello can be a little cooler :)

Something funny that happened was on Saturday we made cookies for all the relief society sisters who had birthdays in January. At one house we went to (active right now but sometimes less active) they were super moved and the husband kept saying to us "wow you have such Christlike attributes, that is so nice of you guys to serve us like that. Thank you so much for taking time to do that!" And before we left he said "really I just see all the Christlike attributes in you sisters. It's just like Jesus Christ himself walked in through those doors." So pretty much we Got called Jesus Christ... which seemed very sacrilegious and caught us off gaurd. We had no idea what to say at first haha it was awkward but wow, I guess that was a pretty great compliment to get even though we are far from it, at least we are trying.

Sunday night our phone was in Sister Quackenbush's bag and it beeped a couple times while we were praying and so after our prayer she looked at the phone and it said we called 9-1-1. We have a 9-1-1 button on our phone so it makes it really easy to call on accident. Then a couple seconds later, we got a call and it was from the cops and they were like "did you call?" And we explained that it was an accident and so then they asked our name and address and sister Quackenbush told them her name was sister Quackenbush and he was like "Sister Quackenbush??" And she said yes and then he asked our address and we both didn't know so we said we didn't know and he was like "you don't know your address? You don't know where you live here in Monticello? Really?" And we felt so bad but we said no and explained that we are only here for a short time and he was just like alright goodbye. He was so mad. So don't ever accidentally call 9-1-1! He thought we were Crazy! soooo funny!

Last week you asked but I forgot to tell you about the mulhollands! Okay so she is from Napal and he is from Jamaica. He is in the branch presidency and she is in the relief society presidency. They have 6 kids (5 girls and 1 boy. He's the youngest). We go to their house every Thursday just about. She feeds us dinner because she feels that is how she can help with the missionary work and she is always so nice about it even when we try to tell her she doesn't need to feed us. I tried the chicken feet at her house, and we always eat food that is really cultural to them. Half the time I don't know what it is but a lot of times it's tons of rice and something else. The kids are so energetic and fun and crazy. When we go over on Thursdays we normally eat and then help them all with their homework and read stories with them and have a little lesson. When we have time then we sing primary songs with them because they LOVE that. One of the little girls, Sariah, absolutely loves me and it's so cute haha. If someone asks her what her favorite something is then she comes and asks me first and then gives her answer saying whatever I said. So if they ask her favorite color then she asks me and if I say pink then she tells them pink haha. She made me a little bracelet at school and always is giving me sparkles. She's just adorable. She is 6. She tries to sneak her way onto my lap when we are reading stories (and we aren't allowed to have kids on our laps) but there has been a couple times where she succeeded and I didn't even notice. Oops haha and on Sunday's she holds my hand and walks to greet everyone with me. I love her. so Ya that is the Mulholland family! I absolutely love them! :)

Friday was so much fun! The "blizzard" part 1 came on Thursday night-Friday morning. At first we thought we were going to be stuck inside all day. All of our appointments were cancelled because of the snow...but then it randomly cleared up and got sunny! So we decided to go shovel snow for people. We started by going to a mans house who we know from the gym. (He isn't interested in learning about the gospel right now, But he has a Book of Mormon and feeds the elders and us sometimes). He is really nice, and really rich, and 73 and in really good shape. So anyway we drove to his house to help him first and he was outside doing it already. So we finished for him and then went to his sisters house 5 houses down with him and we shoveled her driveway and sidewalks. And then he drove all of us over to Richards house(which is another guy from the gym) and we shoveled Richards sidewalks since he was at work and thennn tony took all of us out to lunch and it was expensive! He is super wealthy though, so we don't mind him feeding us because he is helping in "building up the Kingdom". He is really nice. After we finished there we went and shoveled the church and then played in the snow for like 5 minutes as a break.

After shoveling snow we went home to change back into church clothes to teach a lesson and when we got back to the church Harry(the guy who does the parking lot who I mentioned last time) was doing the parking lot and then there was another truck there helping too. So I parked the car and then asked the other guy in the truck if it was okay if I parked where I did or if I would be in the way. He said it was perfect where I parked and then he said "are you from California??" (Now I never met this guy before) and I said yes and then I was confused so I asked why he asked and he said "you just have that aura about you that makes it seem like you are from California" and I said "oh, well thanks I guess! I love California!" And he was like "wait, really you are from California??" And then I said Ya and he asked why so I talked to him a bit about how I'm a missionary and what I was doing in NY. Then I went in the church and a minute later came back out to grab a progress record and then Harry rolled down his window and was like "hey California!! How are you guys doing? What have you been up to today?" And so I talked to him for a second and told him a little more about what we do as missionaries. Haha so that was fun!

Things have been going great with Sister Quackenbush. I just love love love prayer. I can never say that enough. We had so much fun together this week. Lots of laughing and smiles so it's been good!

On Monday part 2 of the blizzard came. We got over a foot of snow and had to stay inside all day cuz it just kept snowing and snowing and the roads never got cleared. We ended up making snow cones with snow and cool aid, Studying, and calling potential investigators and less active members. For dinner we ate with the hsiehs and sister Hsieh taught me how to make a delicious meal with homemade noodles and everything. She had me make the noodles so that I would know how and I never realized how easy it is. It was delicious but I forgot to take a picture to show you what it was like. So sad. Next time I will!

So we have been shoveling a lot of snow and wearing toe warmers while Tracting. It's the life.

Work wise, it's been good! Kinda Hard because we have been grounded a lot, but we found some new investigators..which we had to give to the elders cuz they are male. But we also had some really good lessons with less actives. Tears were shed by the less actives as they felt the spirit so it was super awesome. AND there were like 60 people at church on Sunday!! It was packed. That's the most I've ever seen while I've been here in this little branch. It was super awesome!

While Tracting in the bitter cold, some people let us in because they feel bad and some open the door, see that it is us, and then close the door on us because it is too cold for them to stand there and talk to us when they don't want to listen anyway. It's been fun though haha. I still like Tracting, I'm not sure why most people hate it.

ANSWER: Because such a thing had never before entered his head.

Something I studied this week was the CES devotion from 2015 that you find under the young adult section in the gospel library. It's called "Living with Purpose: The Importance of “Real Intent." It's really good so go download it and listen to it!! It applies to everyone, so watch it for FHE or something, it's good! It talks about doing things with real intent. Rather than just praying out of habit over food or at night or whatever, pray because you want to talk to God. Remember that Christ is praying with you. He is right there next to you and you are talking to God. We are so lucky that we can talk directly to Him. We don't have to go through a priest or whatnot, we get to speak to Him. Use that to your advantage. Tell him everything. Pray sincerely and be fully involved. Same goes for reading scriptures, going to church, etc. give your all. You only have a lifetime to get it right, but you have eternity to dwell on it. So don't forget to work your hardest now. It'll be worth it in the end. We all feel satisfied after accomplishing something big. Whether it's a to do list, or conquering a fear, or trying something new, or working hard all day long. At the end of the day, we just feel great. Imagine how that will be in the next life. We can look back and say "wow I feel good. That was awesome." Don't you want that? Start today :)

I love you all so much! Have a good week!! Be good and be happy! :)

Love,

Sister Tanner <3