Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Their mother's taught them...

Hi family! 
Okay this coming week is SWEEEEET! Here is some awesome info... 

First of all, GUESS who is coming to speak to us on Saturday!? ELDER QUENTIN L COOK!! I'm so excited, except we have to leave at like 5am. It will be great though. Elder Cook will shake each of our hands and meet each of us. He is coming just for our mission too. To interview president and sister Morgan. It's going to be awesome! 
And then Sunday we get to Skype/FaceTime. And next week is transfers. So I'll let you know on Sunday what is happening for transfers. 

Oh here is something funny.. So we were driving with the Hsiehs to dinner at our branch presidents and the beyond 5 EFY song came on and I was like "I know some of the kids in this band and I think they went to Taiwan too" and then elder hsieh asked what their name was and I told him and he said he went to their concert haha...so just picture Elder Hsieh jamming out to beyond 5. Wow. Classic. 

I'm bummed that the mission emailed you and told you about this one! I was excited to tell you..but it is still SWEET. so on July 3rd we get to go to the Yankee game! So it will be a Friday night and the Mormon tabernacle choir will be singing like 4 or 5 songs at the beginning and they will be singing the star spangled banner last to kick off the game. While they are singing they will be showing us missionaries on the big screen, and our mission will get a shoutout welcome the third inning. so watch it! We have to leave either at the 7th inning stretch or at 9, whichever comes first..since we will be in the Bronx and it will be the day before the Fourth of July. So that's lame but oh well, we still get to go so I'm excited. And We have to be safe. Haha but ya..just another reason why this is the best mission ever

Today for pday we are going with our zone and getting a tour of West Point because a few of the missionaries in our zone serve there. We can't wear church clothes or our name tag so that will be different. I'm excited though because it should be fun just to be with everyone. I'll send you pictures of us later though :) 

Okay now for the rest of the week..

WEDNESDAY
For pday last week we went on a nice walk with the hsiehs so of course it was fun. We went to a beautiful place that you would never guess was in Monticello! It was so awesome. 
After pday ended we eat to visit that family we found. So we got to teach Ashley again and Giovanna came and joined us and loved it. Ashely told us that she prayed about the first lesson and said she felt that it is true. So that's awesome. Now they just have to get married. After the closing prayer Giovanna (age 7) was like "I feel so good. I feel all tingly inside." It was so cute. The whole lesson was so perfect. The Spirit was so strong and she was asking the best questions ever. She told us that every time we go over she gets the best feeling and so she knows we are good and that's why she lets us in. The Spirit is the best. 
Then we went to look up someone by the church and found Michael (the American idol kid). We sat outside the church and taught him for a while. At first the lesson was crazy all over the place but then we were able to teach him like 10 lessons in one. He was listening so intently and the Spirit really just guided us to know what to say to him. He really needs this gospel to improve the quality of his life. I think our message really touched him and he went away ready to act to become better so that was good. 

THURSDAY 
We had an incredible lesson with Barbara with sister Hsieh. Again, the Spirit really guided us to help us know what to say and teach. We planned to teach her one thing and ended up teaching like 6 things because her questions just kept bringing up more things. It was awesome. She is really progressing. 
Later we looked up a lot of people and taught some really nice new people. We got a couple new investigators, talked to some crazy people, and found another potential family who seem to be super awesome. One guy that we went back to ended up giving us cupcakes and drinks so that was nice and refreshing. 
Another place we went to was a complex we tracted a couple weeks ago. We are Famous at that place. Everyone was saying hi to us and yelling to us and asking how we were haha it was sweeeeet. We talked to like 8 people in that little complex outside. One of the guys gave us some food for dinner too. He is a chef at a restaurant and so when we were setting up a time to meet with him he was like "here you can have this" and handed us a bag full of pasta haha it was sweet. We have a new investigator there who was studying with the Jehovah's witnesses but she doesn't really like it..so we are just stealing her away to baptize her pretty much.... Jk we are saving her soul. 
Then at our last appointment, we got fed and we were given snacks and Japanese candy to take home, and they set up a time to have us over for dinner on Monday. They are a part member family and she is not a member but really nice. But she doesn't want to have life after death and doesn't want with be with her family for eternity so it's hard to teach her and sad but oh well. 
I mentioned all the food we got today because since it wasn't a new month we didn't get paid so on Wednesday we didn't buy much food because we were out of money. Therefore we would have to go a week without much food...but instead the Lord took care of us and had people 

FRIDAY 
We had a really good lesson with Barbara about the word of wisdom and it went really well. She is progressing so much so it's awesome. We actually weren't planning on meeting with her but we ended up in her neighborhood right when she looked out the window. So as we were walking we heard her yell to us and she asked us to come over, so we did and it was awesome. The Spirit definitely guided us there.

SATURDAY 
We helped with the branch garden! It was pretty tiring. Now I know why being lazy and buying it at the store is so much easier. Ya, it's not as good, but good thing I'm not picky anyway! It was fun though...for the first hour.. 

SUNDAY 
After Church we were driving home and Sister Smoot was like "I think Tiwi is dead!" So I looked at Tiwi and it was off. So I asked her if Tiwi was unplugged. Sure enough, it was. And she unplugged it Saturday too. So twice in a row. And if we unplug Tiwi we get our driving privilege taken away, but it was an accident so we just emailed elder Gardner the vehicle coordinator. Needless to say, it's okay. But it was funny that Tiwi died twice this past weekend. Sadly, he is back alive. 

MONDAY 
We taught Bob (the one we gave a chastity pamphlet too a few weeks ago when we tracked into him because he was naked) and we started talking about the Book of Mormon so we asked if he had heard of it and he goes "ya I have! actually my ex brother in law's mom lives up in roscoe and she reads that I think. She's a Jehovah's Witness too" haha we were like nooope, different. Good try. So that was kinda funny. He thought we were connected I guess. 
Later We worked with a lot of less actives and helped serve them in many ways. It was cool to see their attitudes change from when we first walked in to when we were leaving. They were much more peaceful. 

TUESDAY 
We got to teach Barbara again and it went so well! She about died when we told her she can go to the temple after she is baptized haha she is so excited! She loved looking at all the different pictures of the temples and hearing about how we can be sealed to our families and what not. It was an awesome lesson. She's great.
We also got to go see crazy sister Beth. She is still crazy and scary but I love her! We have been over there 3 times this week actually just doing service for her. One night we had to go tuck her into bed haha she can't get her foot up onto the bed because her cast weighs too much for her. It's been interesting. I took a video of her so I'll send it to you haha. Then you will know. It's great.

So ya, it was a good week! Not as eventful or exciting but still awesome and this next week will be even better!! 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! 
Talking about Helamans 2000 stripling warriors, Alma 57:21 says "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." Their mothers taught them "that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." 
I love what a huge impact their mothers made on these incredible young men. As missionaries we too try our best to be the missionaries that our mothers think we are...because that is, of course, a perfect missionary. Thanks to our mothers, we can exercise all we have been taught as we serve in foreign lands. We don't have to doubt if we should be out here on a mission, because our mothers have taught us to do Gods will. What a huge blessing that is.

Mom, I am SO thankful for all you have taught me and for the love and support you provide for me. You have done so much. I could never repay you. Thank you for all the times you spent with me, laughed with me, served me, put up with me, joked with me, cried with me, disciplined me, and helped me. I appreciate every minute of it. I will eternally be grateful for the love you show me and for the positive influence you have been on me. I wouldn't be here today without you. You really are my biggest cheerleader out here. Thanks for all the packages, emails, prayers, and words of encouragement. Even though you are across the country, I often think about things you have taught me and it helps me to work even harder and press forward with faith. You're the best! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM! :) I love you! 
I'll talk to you on Sunday! Have a great week! Xoxo 

Love, 
Sister Tanner <3

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