Girls Camp!

Hi everyone!
Well I don't believe anyone else got home from their mission this week that I know so that's a surprise! Buuut HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEXT WEEK MOM!! I love you so much!! Sorry that I'm gone again, but hey, next year we can celebrate! :)
So this week was good! I don't think I have ever seen so much rejection in a week where we are working SO hard. But hey, it's all good! We need the hard times to appreciate the good times even more! :) I love it! :)

THURSDAY
On Thursday we got to go to girls camp!! It was funny because sister Standage and I both didn't love girls camp yet we had to act like we did haha oh well it was good, we just talked to the girls about how awesome a mission is and we shared some experiences and had them share some with us. Afterward sister smith took us all to chick fil a for dinner which was fun to have because I haven't had it in years...and it was free so it was even better :)
We had a good lesson with John Elliott afterwards and invited him to be baptized. He said he will pray about it, so we will see how that goes!

FRIDAY
We had Zone conference which was so fantastic! Sister Standage ended up giving the talk for this zone conference so that was good! She did a really good job. Sister Terry also gave a talk (the girl from grandma harpers Ward) and she did super good as well. All the missionaries did good. We also talked about the Book of Mormon, being war builders, online proselyting, teaching doctrine, being organized and a few other things. It was all so good. Afterwards I felt so overwhelmed though. Like always the call was to do better. We can always do better. I just felt like I had a thousand things that I wanted to apply right then and there even though they would take time. After praying a whole lot, I felt peace knowing that little by little we will accomplish all the things we need to in this area. It got us really motivated to do better.
At night we were on the phone with Jenn. She was having a hard time praying and reading the Book of Mormon and she stopped having the strong desire to go to church so we were talking her through that and our district leader called in the middle. Well we didn't answer because he always calls when we are talking to her and we just call back after and its always perfectly okay. Well turns out this time they were calling us because (they are in a trio) one of the companions fainted and wasn't breathing or something and so an ambulance had to come and it was this big scary thing for these poor elders and they needed us for some reason because we live in the same complex as them. Well we are the worst and didn't answer. Luckily it all turned out okay and the elder is okay and all is well! We never again will ignore our district leader when he is calling! We ended up making them some cookies and apologizing so it's allll good :)

SATURDAY
Okay so Saturday started out great and then when we went to look up a bunch of people and to tract, nobody was home and nobody was listening, it was super rough. We kept going though but so much work yet rejection was making us mentally, spiritually and physically exhausted like always. Well we had two more potential investigator look ups that we planned to do, so we said a prayer and set out to do them. We put them both into the GPS and then headed to the first one. Well it was suppose to take us to like 217 boulevard st and instead it too us to 13 fair view ave or something like that. Super random. We were confused. So we looked back into our GpS and the address wasn't there in the history. It acted like it never took us there. So we decided to get out and knock. So we did. Well the woman was so nice but didn't speak English so we got her name and passed her off to the Portuguese Elders which was good because they gave us 3 English referrals the day before. Anyway, then we realized we had a potential across the street-Allen Ritter. So we went to see Allen but he wasn't home. However his friend who had just moved in was there. We think his name is Drew. (We are really bad with names and we forget them so fast. We are working on it though). Well Drew and Allen are both musicians and drew said that he is open to change and everything we talked to him about he liked. At the end of the conversation he said that he, Allen and Marcus (Allens brother) will all come to church next week, so that was cool. The lord definitely guided us to talk to him even if nothing comes of it, he needed our message and we needed someone that would listen so that we could keep going.
In the evening we were able to see Jenn and talk to her and teach her about the word of wisdom. After the lesson she asked us if we would fast with her to have courage and strength to give up her desire to break the law of chastity. It was cool that she came to us to ask us to fast for her, so of course we jumped on that and fasted with her. She really, wants to change. Bad habits are hard to break and satan wants her to continue breaking them but luckily God wants her on His side more.

SUNDAY
We fasted for Jenn and that was awesome. After church there was a baptism for a little boy who just turned 8 and so we went with Jenn. It was so cool. After the baptism was over we were talking to Jenn about what she thought. She said she felt like crying. She said she just felt so much good for the little boy and just felt Gods love for him. She described to us how she felt the spirit and felt God tell her it was a good thing to be baptized. She told us she wants to be baptized and that she will give up her worldly happiness. She is just so awesome. Baptisms are the coolest thing.

MONDAY
We tracted for a good two and a half hours or so and talked to a few people but nobody was really interested. We looked up some less active families but they weren't interested in hearing from us either. We decided to head to our dinner appointment. We ended up getting there 10 minute early so we tracted a few houses. The last house we tracted before dinner was this super nice Spanish woman. Now, I have not been practicing Spanish so I used all the Spanish I knew to tell her we are missionaries from the church and that we were sharing messages about Jesus Christ. We then showed her the "because he lives" video in Spanish. By the end of it she was crying. She said a whole lot of things in Spanish. I only understood half of what she said. She talked about how grateful she was for us and how she loves Jesus Christ and yea things like that. It was really cool!

TUESDAY
So our day started out great! A member picked us up and took us to a lesson with Jenn. It was really cool to have her there because the testimony she shared at the end was EXACTLY what Jenn needed. The whole lesson though was really hard. Jenn is at this point where she knows this is good and true and she knows she needs to be baptized but she is scared to fully commit and get baptized and then make a mistake. She understands that nobody is perfect and that she can repent but she is afraid of going back to her old ways. It's hard because we know this gospel isn't easy to live by. But it is so worth it and after a while it does become a lot easier. She is surrounded by temptation everywhere she is and she has done such an awesome job withstanding it, but satan wants her so badly. She has so much potential and so many questions. Throughout the whole lesson she was explaining this and asking really tough questions. It was soo incredible though because we could just tell that all our answers were coming from the Holy Ghost. It was not us. I don't know what we said but the Spirit was so strong and she felt it. By the end her mind was at peace and she said she is willing to continue learning. after the lesson I thought to myself "oh my goodness this poor member probably thinks we are insane because we just told her how solid Jenn is and then we had that crazy lesson. She probably thinks we are awful missionaries" and then right when we got in the car the member said "oh my goodness! You sisters are rockstars!! I didn't know how to answer any of those questions. That was so tough! She truly is awesome and you guys handled that so smoothly and perfectly!" It was such a relief haha. Having members trust us is so key.
The rest of the day was interesting. We tracted for like 2.5 hours and nobody answered. And the people that did just looked at us and then closed the door. While tracting, these little kids yelled out their window at us and screamed to never come back. That was sad. And then this other lady just creepily stared at us through her window while we tracted that entire street. We just kept meeting weird people. Later it started pouring rain. There were floods in the street so we couldn't get anywhere so we were like "alright let's go talk to that potential investigator. So we grabbed our umbrella which did just about nothing and we ran to the door already drenched head to toe. Well the son answered again and he felt Sooo bad for us so he was really nice. Hopefully we will meet with his family this week. We keep missing his mom. He was the only person nice all day though! Well when we jumped out to go talk to him, our phone fell on the grass. We noticed about 30 minutes later so when we went back, it was too late. We quickly put it in rice but it was pretty much sitting underwater for a half hour. So now we dont have a phone which isn't good so hopefully we will get one soon! It was a miracle that we found it and that the rain and stopped so it didn't get even worse. It works to receive texts and every now and then we can send a text but that's all. No calling and not everything comes through, by the end of the day today it probably won't work at all.
In the evening we went to buy some fruit since we wouldn't be able to shop today because we had to take the 8am train to the city to get back at 6pm to teach people. We ended up getting pasta and apples because the other fruit was all gone. Well while we were paying the guy behind us in line asked us out on a date! Hahaha it was awkward. He talked about how we had random food and he was buying hot dog buns and tomatoes so his food was random and then he was like "we should combine our food and have dinner at my house" haha we were like uuuummm... Maybe not.. Super awkward but it was pretty funny. He loved us.
We laughed a lot this week, it has been SO refreshing and good. I love it! I haven't laughed this hard in a long time so it's been really fun!

WEDNESDAY
Today we get to go to the temple!!! :) wahoo! I am so excited! We taught Jenn about the temple this week and so it was really cool to study it a lot more before we go. It has been too long since I've been to the temple so I miss it a lot. I'm excited to finally get some peace and quiet and be stress free! It's also fun to be in the city for a Sister Standages first time :) life is good :)

This week I was studying in Alma 36. I love this chapter because it is written in chiasmus (one of many but this is one that I have marked up for it) which fascinates me thanks to my seminary teacher junior year(Brother Warner). Well anyway, verse 3 really stood out. It says "And now, O my [daughter Sister Tanner], behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." I love that. We don't EVER have to go through hard times alone! I know that God will help us through anything when we turn to Him and let Him. I have found so much comfort it knowing that I am NEVER alone and that as I have faith in God, I can find strength. I know that his gospel is true. It brings me so much joy and so much hope. I love my Heavenly Father and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. And I love being a missionary!

Have a fabulous week! Thanks for the family picture! You are all adorable. I love you! Xoxox

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

Invited to Girls Camp

Hand-outs we gave after our talk at camp

She was literally going to wet her pants.

Hi Family and Friends,

How's it going?! This week was great!
First off, welcome home Olivia Oldroyd! Goodness it's just about every week that I have a friend getting home! So crazy. It seems like just yesterday that everyone left! Good thing I still have a while left :)

WEDNESDAY
We went Tracting and did some lookups. After having no success with English people we decided to try one more person. The whole night was full of meeting Spanish and Portuguese people. But we ended up meeting this man named Lewis. We talked to him for awhile about the Book of Mormon and restoration. The spirit was incredible and he loved the truths we taught him. He was glowing with joy. He said he wanted to come to church and he would ask his wife to come too. So that definitely was a tender mercies pick-me-up from God. It was really neat. Then that evening we went to a lesson that sister rocha set up for us. It is sister rochas friend, Ryana. Well once we got there it turned out that Ryana only spoke Portuguese with a tiny bit of English. In my mind I was like "oh my goodness this is going to be a disaster. But then I felt s peace and had the thought "just testify and teach simple truths so that she will feel the spirit even when she doesn't understand." So that is what we did. And we decided that maybe we should just talk about the Book of Mormon and not the restoration. Luckily we had thrown a Portuguese Book of Mormon into my purse right before we went to her lesson so that was convenient. The lesson ended up being so incredible. Ryanas face was shining as we testified to her of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and as we explained what it was to her. Sister rocha translated all she could and so that was helpful. Afterwards sister rocha apologized because she thought she spoke English and then she told us that she is so grateful we taught the Book of Mormon and not restoration because she wouldn't be able to translate the restoration. Sister Rocha is moving back to Utah on Tuesday though :( they were only here for the summer and now they are going back to BYU. Luckily I'll see them there in January :) they are such an awesome family that I love so much.

THURSDAY
We did weekly planning for a few hours...then when we got to the church to sync our iPads, it ALL got DELETED. Only missionaries can know how that feels. It was so sad. It was such a good weekly planning session too. Oh well. Then we picked up Kaylee and set out to teach the world. Well it was a really successful day! We saw John Elliott, Kassie, Crystal and Patricia, and then these two former investigator look-ups, MJ and Wesley. It was awesome! It was such a successful day. With crystal and Patricia we had such a great lesson. We just used all the pictures from the restoration pamphlet and taught them all about it. It was so fun to teach Crystal and put it into her language so that she could understand and relate. I love teaching kids!
After our dinner appointment sister standage realized she really needed to go to the bathroom. She was literally going to wet her pants. So we set out to do some bathroom Tracting. Nobody answered the first few doors. Then we got to a door and told the man who we were and he said "we are already strong in our religion" and we said "awesome, we just have one question" and we asked for her to use the restroom. He went and asked his girlfriend and she said yes so sister standage used their bathroom and then we left. It was really awkward because they wouldn't talk to us or anything. Luckily the bathroom was directly next to the front door so I was able to wait right outside the house.

FRIDAY
We had the new missionary meeting which was awesome! President and Sister Smith are just the greatest.
Afterwards we did some pretty Successful Tracting and felt really good about it and then we headed to the wells house for dinner and practically died with how much they ate. After my mission I don't think I ever want to eat again. Seriously. You might want to go out to eat when you pick me up, but I'd rather go run a marathon.

SATURDAY
Sister Standage woke up sick and it was so sad. She didn't want to go back to sleep but she threw up and wasn't feeling well so I talked her into it. She felt so bad because she didn't think she should be wasting the Lords time by sleeping in. I told her that it would do us no good to go out if she was that sick. Meanwhile, I got a lot of little things done that I had been wanting to do and had some great studies. Once she was feeling better we headed out to do some Tracting and to teach some investigators so that was good. We ended up having dinner with two young couples in our Ward and it was a lot of fun hearing about their missions.

SUNDAY
Saturday night we decided we wanted to fast for Jenn. So on Sunday we did. Well Jenn came to church but ended up leaving during sacrament crying. It was the saddest thing. She was having a really rough week and just going through a lot. It was so so sad. We ended up going to visit her after church and helping her feel Gods love. It was really cool that we had fasted for her as well because we really felt we were able to help her feel Gods love more.

MONDAY
After district meeting and an interview with the Hermanas we went to the Chiropractor again! It was good to be back to get popped and cracked. Afterwards we did some Tracting for a couple hours in the nice humid heat and met an awesome woman named Meg. Then we headed to Ossining To go on a split with the sisters!

TUESDAY
We had an awesome Split! I was with Sister Kovac again :)
We started out by going to this less active families house. Wow it was the saddest thing ever. His testimony is still there and pretty strong for a less active. But hers, wow it was the saddest thing. She was telling us about how the church needs to catch up with the world and change some of the rules because the world has changed and she doesn't like the rules so she won't follow them or ever come back to church. She talked about so many other heart breaking things. All we could do was apologize for the way she feels and testify that this church is run by God and not man and that we know 100% that it is true. It was the most heartbreaking thing to hear and see. They have a 4 month old and a 6 year old too. We were so distraught after we just wanted to cry for them. The poor kids and husband too. Gosh it was the worst.
Luckily afterwards we went and had an AWESOME lesson with Jenn. She is so solid. We talked about giving up our "favorite sins" and by the end she really was all in for giving them up. So hopefully she acts on that and continues to progress towards baptism next month. It was cool because she kept saying how she knows she will be miserable if she gives up her favorite sin so we had her think back to before church. Before she went to church she was terrified to go. She felt awkward wearing a dress because she hasn't in so long and she felt unworthy to go. But then once she took that leap of faith and came to church in a dress, she loved it. Now she loves coming every week and it makes her happy. So she agreed to taking that leap of faith and following all of Gods commandments so she could truly be happy. We shared John 16:33, D&C 130:20-21, and a couple others that I can't remember right now, but they were good for her. It was a great lesson for her.
We then did some service look ups but nobody let us serve them haha and then we changed and did regular Tracting in the super humid heat of 95ish degrees and just about melted. It's so much nicer when there is a pool to jump into but hey, it was awesome anyway.
We then visited a few less actives including Crystal (the 8 yr old) and sister Nieves. Both are doing awesome, sister Nieves is working towards the temple now and she came to church this past Sunday for the FIRST time in years! It was so cool, she is awesome.
We had dinner at a members and then went to see the wells. They are still doing awesome and I still love them a lot. They are fun, they even gave us some mangos to take home :) then we headed to the church to Unsplit! It was a good successful day.

WEDNESDAY
Next week we are going to the temple so today we prepared for the next two weeks. On Friday we have zone conference and so we had to write talks about Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon and this talk is so much better than the last one I had to give. Let's just say I am much more prepared. We also are headed up to speak at girls camp with Sister Smith tomorrow so we prepared for that today and we took a nap! It was funny because Sister Standage said she was tired so I told her we could take a short little nap and she said "WOW! Normally when I'm tired you are like 'okay let's go tracting!' Pdays are great!" Haha

TAKE A FAMILY PICTURE!

I read one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon this week. As I was reading alma 26, verse 27 really stood out to me Again. I love how the Lord is telling them to just be patient through their hard times. He didn't say he was going to take away their trials, but that it would be okay in the end. I picture Christ talking to me just like in Alma 26:27 and saying "hey, it's okay. Just keep going. You're fine. You've got it. Keep trying and in the end, it will be okay. I promise. I'm here with you and I know your capacity. You need this trial and when the good does come, your joy will be so much greater." I know that afflictions are for our good and that we will not be given trials that we cannot handle. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us each individually. They know what we go through, They know our trials. They also know our strengths and the power that we have. I have really felt that this week as I have seen investigators and members go through hard times. It helped this scripture truly move from my head to my heart. God loves us and wants us to be happy. If we keep going, we will feel that joy. The gospel is amazing.

I love you all so much. Have a great week! Xoxo

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

Ps. Seriously, TAKE A FAMILY PICTURE. SOMEBODY GO TO MY HOUSE AND TAKE A PICTURE OF MY FAMILY. Thank you. I love you all.

We had a nice smack down...

Hello! How is everyone doing? First off, Welcome home Tanner!!! 

WEDNESDAY 

So I got my new companion! Her name is Sister Standage and she is the cutest thing. She is 19 years old (she will be 20 on November 27th). She is an awesome missionary and loves being here. She wants to work hard and she is so humble and open. She is super loving and loves everyone already. She has the faith to move mountains and wants to conquer the world. I love it. She is from Mesa Arizona and is the youngest of 6 kids. She went to an Esthetics school before her mission and graduated because it's only a year. 

Anyway here is a fun fact, The mission provides bedding for all the missionaries now. And a pillow. Like WOW! That's cool. but I have sufficient bedding so it's okay. 

So after going shopping and all that good stuff we set out to work hard. So we went to find Patricia and crystal (the less actives who accidentally gave us the wrong address to their new house) and we started Tracting. Well we met this super awesome woman who knows some members in Utah and so we will go back to her. Then after a while when we were walking back to our car to leave we spotted Patricia's car! So we found their correct address and there was a man outside so we were able to find out which apartment is hers. It was such a miracle because we were thinking God just guided us there for the other woman but then we were able to find both! :) 

THURSDAY

We were able to sit down and have an incredible lesson with Stephanie! She came to church two weeks ago and loved it. We talked to her all about church, the Book of Mormon, our mission calls, and then the whole restoration. It was so cool. The spirit was so strong and she kept saying "wow I just got chills! That's the Holy Ghost!" She is seriously so cool. She is having surgery soon though and so she will be out for two weeks and then she said she will be at church again after that.

FRIDAY

We had MLC (mission leadership council) which was SO good. I can't even explain how great it was. It really Motivated us all to be better. We talked about a lot of things but one cool thing was about not being missionaries that are "people persons" or "number pushers" but rather becoming "preach my gospel missionaries" and "white handbook missionaries" so that we are "consecrated missionaries." We also heard some really good thoughts from president and sister Smith and planned out the next few "miracle lines" that we will do. Miracle lines are the big mission wide conference calls that we are going to start doing twice a cycle. 

President went up to sister Standage at lunch after MLC and asked her how she was doing in this area. Turns out he had her placed with a different companion in a different area and then my name kept coming to his mind during her interview and so he switched it after her interview. I'm so grateful for that because I definitely think of all the sisters that came in, sister Standage and I would work the best together. So that was cool to hear especially for me. 

Later on we Did some really good Tracting and got sister Standage in the hang of it, she loves Tracting so that's good! That's Always a plus. She's great.

Later whole doing look ups We even got yelled at by this man, he told us we had no right to knock on his door and that we were tressPassing, we told him we would leave and started walking away and then he asked why we thought it was okay and so we told him we are missionaries and have permission and what not but he didn't like that so he yelled some more. It was sad but it's okay haha. Sister Standage was terrified. 

SATURDAY

We had an awesome lesson with Patricia. We were able to sit down with her and talk about the Book of Mormon. Crystal wasn't there so it was actually perfect because then we got to really focus on Patricia. We had a really powerful lesson and ended up giving her s Book of Mormon that she is going to read. It was awesome. We also took Kaylee out with us again and met with Dan and Dan. It was cool because we haven't seen them in a couple weeks, yet he remembered all the things we talked about and we didn't expect him to.

SUNDAY

Jenn came to church and stayed so that was good! There was also this guy visiting that is an RM of about a year so he asked us who he should say hi to (less actives and investigators) and so that was nice. And his wife stayed in Utah and so he asked to come to lessons with us. So we got his number and set up a time for him to come tracting with us and then he did on Tuesday haha

Afterwards We had dinner with an awesome family and then did some tracting. It was good but not many people were home. We met one guy that listened which made it worth it but it was rough.

MONDAY

It was a stressful morning. It is really hard training and being STL because we had 3 STL meetings in a row. So the first was a leadership meeting before district meeting and I had to lead a little 10 minute talk/discussion. I was freaking out in my head about what it should be on that would be exciting and new for all the missionaries. Then we had zone meeting which I taught with the zone leaders. Luckily that was more planned out already. And then we had an interview with the sisters which was hard because I didn't know what they needed or were struggling with so I really had to rely on the Spirit to help me with the message I was to leave with them. Normally my companion would help me with it all, and in the plans that we made she was suppose to. But it was her first everything and so it got kinda crazy. She still gave a lot of thoughts and was super awesome but it was stressful for me because I had to make sure preparation got done and that it was done well. Those three meetings were Just really key for this week because they had a lot of important information. I was very grateful when they were finished. It was awesome though because I really saw God help me through that by giving me the ideas i needed so that they would all run smoothly. Without His help I would not have been successful. The zone meeting especially turned out really well and everyone had a good time. 

After all that we went and had a linner type of thing with oswaldo. We ate at a public place so that we could teach him. He has a thousand and five questions and it was really stressful because it took forever. But he should be coming to church on Sunday so we will go from there. We also did a whole lot of tracting and look ups but didn't find too much success there either. It's okay though because no effort goes wasted! The people we talked to probably just needed to be introduced to missionaries :) 

At night we went and saw the wells and read the Book of Mormon with them. They are slowly making progress so that's good. 

I felt so bad because we had a rough day with a lot of rejection. Well it was fine, like not as bad as it gets, but it was really hard for Sister Standage. She didn't like that so much and it just stressed her out a bit and made her feel a little sad and unsuccessful. I just had to reassure her that it's okay and that not all days are that hard. So hopefully we find some miracle families soon that are ready for this gospel to bring some more happiness! 

TUESDAY 

We had a nice smack down lesson with Jenn about the law of chastity and it was really good. I think she really understood the important afterwards and so hopefully that gets better soon so she can get baptized. 

We had to go to Firestone because we needed an oil change and then we ended up being there for 3 hours! It was ridiculous. It's because they called Elder Gardner since our car needed other maintenance and so he told them to do it all. So we ended up asking them for some plastic utensils and a microwave and we ate our lunch while we were there. It happened to be the one lunch that wasn't easy to just eat. Like not just sandwiches. But we made it work. When we finally left we went to do some service. 

After our dinner appointment we had this guy we met on Sunday (Mitch) come to a couple lessons with us. He is here visiting from Utah, he has been married about a month and home from his mission about a year. He is staying until Friday. Anyway, he wanted to come so we had him meet us at some lessons. Well they all cancelled and so we went Tracting with him and then he came with us (followed us in his car) to do service for a family that is moving today. He is awesome. He is going to come to some lessons on Thursday too.

WEDNESDAY 

Today we are shopping and getting everything that sister standage needs so that we can go to the city a few times in the coming week :) it's been a really relaxing much needed day so I'm happy! :) but then again, I'm always happy as a missionary :) 

This week I was reading president uchtdorfs talk from October 2011 and There was a part that stood out to me that I really liked. It says, "It may be true that man is nothing in comparison to the greatness of the universe. At times we may even feel insignificant, invisible, alone, or forgotten. But always remember--you matter to Him!" I love that because we meet a lot of people who feel worthless or insignificant. They feel alone, forgotten, and neglected. With the knowledge we have we know that that is never true. We are never alone. No matter where we are and who we are, we matter so much to God and He loves us. It's such a blessing to feel His love each day. It brings me so much joy when I get to teach people how to recognize Gods love for them, and even just to simply tell them they are loved. The light that comes into their eyes is indescribable! We all matter so much. I know it is true That "Compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God." We truly are God's children. What a blessing it is to know that the most powerful and supreme Being has asked us to call Him Father. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you!! Xoxox

Love, 

Sister Tanner <3

Sister Standage my new companion

Tracking Break!

Book of Mormon Pic!

Awkward Car Pic!

This is what happens when you ask an Elder to take the Picture
These are my Sistas

I "killed" my companion

August 5, 2015

Alright this week was incredible. I wish I could explain more about it but it's been such a busy crazy week that I don't have any more time. It's just been so awesome! Gosh I LOVE being a missionary! First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREA! Hope it was fabulous in Peru! 

WEDNESDAY 

So I got a call from President Smith Wednesday night and he asked me to TRAIN again!!! So I am SO excited for that. I was reaaallllyy hoping that I would train one last time and I only have 3 cycles left so now is my only chance! I am excited. Everyone pray for my new companion, sister Standage! :) it's cool because president smith does it differently than president Morgan did. President smith didn't pick our comps that we will train until he met them. I like experiencing things differently with different mission presidents. I'm sure these next two cycles will be really hard but help me to learn and grow a lot! 

THURSDAY 

We had to go down to Ossining for Sister Grobergs exit interview and it was pouring rain so bad that while driving down a lot of the missionaries said they had to pull over and wait a while. It ended up taking most of the day and then we had dinner after the interview and did some tracting. 

Oh this is random but this week I learned what a tag sale is. I didn't know before. I guess they don't say yard sale or garage sale here. Only tag sale and estate sale. It's fancier I guess...

FRIDAY

On Friday I got to go to the Train the trainers meeting. It was so cool. We went on a split and I went with another sister who is training. The spirit was so strong and we had a really good time. There were 16 of us there who will all be training. President told us that it was easy for him to pick the trainers because the spirit told him each of our names and he knew that we would be best. He talked about how we are going to set the tone for their whole mission and life and we all talked about our trainers. The whole meeting just pumped me up so much to train. I feel so at peace because I was praying to know how to be happiest for the end of my mission and how to finish strong and training kept coming to mind but it's not like I can volunteer to train and so it was definitely an answer to my prayers when I got the call. I know that something challenge in will be good for me so that I can learn and grow these last 3 cycles. Something that I found out while there is that Beau McCraney from the beachside Ward was my mission presidents trainer! Small world right? So that was funny because I could pull up his picture on lds tools. 

SATURDAY

Jenn is doing so awesome. She is still on tract to be baptized next month on September 19th. She even invited her friend to church. She is learning so fast and the spirit was so strong.

Alright here is a good story full of emotions!! So we prayed to find a miracle family and all day we were in search of that family. Well I guess we weren't specific enough. Here is what happened. So Jays phone was off and we wanted to meet with him with Edgar. So we went to his house to talk to him and he opened the door with a sigh of relief and he said "sisters my phone plan is up and so I am so glad you came over. I have a lot to talk to you about. Don't freak out. Can I get baptized in the Philippines??" So of course we said yes but explained that he can get baptized here too since he has a couple months. Then he said "well all last night I was thinking about how maybe I should get baptized with my wife and kids. So do you think I should wait and get baptized with my family?" And we explained how he could do that or he could still get baptized and then later he can baptize them when they are ready and he said "I can't baptize them. I don't have the proper authority!" So we talked about the priesthood and how he will receive it after baptism. He was so excited. Then he told us that he got a job and leaves for the Philippines on August 5. I was so sad to hear that. He said he is going to go talk to his family right after the flight lands there and teach them and then have the missionaries over. He was so golden and the new missionary was going to love him! But I was also at peace. All week as we were thinking about Jay and how he wanted us to fast for him to find a job here in America, sister Groberg and I kept getting the thought that he needed to go back to the Philippines with his family. But of course we couldn't tell him that because we are missionaries and so we aren't allowed to tell him to go back to his country so it was worrisome for us. So when he told us that was what the answer to his prayers were, we knew it would be okay. So even though I am so sad to see him leave and sad that I can't see him be baptized, I know he will be. He shared with us miracles that have happened to him to bring his family together and how he is so grateful for all he has learned and for the friendships of the ward members. His family really is that miracle family we were praying for, we just forgot to ask them to live in our boundaries. So Be specific with prayers! It was awesome though. 

SUNDAY

Wow! Church was awesome! During gospel principles we were talking about covenants and and jay brought up the priesthood and then answered all the questions about the priesthood. He is so cool!! 

Jenn brought her friend named shayla to church as well! (Except she spells it a bit different). Jenn is so awesome doing missionary work already. She said she just wants to share all she has learned with everyone so they can better their lives. And it was shaylas birthday yet she still came to church. What a perfect way to spend a birthday. 

We also asked a less active family-the wells- to fast with us so that we could find a family to teach. And they did it so that was super cool! 

It's the best when investigators actually come to church! 

MONDAY

Monday was so awesome. We started with a "Funeral" for sister groberg since she "dies" today and that was really fun and all tied in at the end with a good message about member missionary work and the importance of always being faithful. It was really awesome. Afterwards we set out to work hard. We first did some serve to help a less active woman pack. She is moving to Arizona to live with her mom. Her mom is a super solid member and seems to be in close contact with the sister missionaries there so it will be a good move for her.  Afterwards we went and did a couple look ups and then went to PJs who we met last week. Well PJs fiancé was asleep so we talked to him for only a little bit about the Book of Mormon and about the restoration. He was really nice about the whole thing but we didn't stay long. As we were leaving we saw this man getting into the back his car full of gifts and so we asked him if he wanted help bringing them in or if he was packing up. He said it was his 2 year old sons birthday and that he was headed to spend the day with him. He then asked who we were and what we were doing. So we explained all about how we are missionaries and how we teach people all about what we know is true and about the Book of Mormon and how it helps us. He then asked me how the Book of Mormon has changed my life and I was able to testify of the Book of Mormon and how it has helped me and the peace, hope and answers it provides for me. His demeanor changed and he quietly said "I ask that because I have been going through a really hard time. My wife and I are divorced but I still get to see my son on weekends but it is just so hard being away. I want to be a good father and it's sad that his mom and dad aren't together. We are on good terms though but I have really been seeking for guidance and help. It's funny that you come today because I have been thinking about that a lot today and about how I can find peace and hope and answers to my questions." We went on and talked with him for a little while longer and gave him a Book of Mormon with some passages to read. As soon as we left he got in his car and started reading and for the next 5 minutes while we were in that area he continued to read. We are headed back next week and we have his number and all that too. He truly was so prepared and God sent us to him for a reason at that specific time. 

Later on after dinner we decided to tract one house. So we prayed about it and both thought we should go to the same exact one. So we went and they turned out to be hard core catholic. Well we asked her if she knew anyone that we could talk to and she said "well there is this family across the street with 3 kids, you could talk to them. Well maybe don't actually. Ya maybe not. Well I guess you can." And so hearing "family" we headed right over there. Well nobody was home. As we were leaving a car pulled up and a man got out and he came and talked to us. It was the dad of the house. We ended up talking to him for like 20 minutes and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He said his wife is one religion and he is another so they haven't decided how they should raise their kids. He also told us that he hadn't been home for 2 weeks and when we got home we were there so he knew God sent us at the perfect time. His family's a away for the month because the grandpa is dying so we taught him about the plan of salvation and eternal families and he loved it. He was glowing and just in shock by the time we left haha. The spirit confounds people sometimes. Seriously it was so cool. He was so thankful for the Book of Mormon we gave him too. We will go back on the 17th and see if he has questions and teach him more! 

So many miracles and such an answer to our prayers and fast! 

TUESDAY

Oh my goodness so at 4:30am sister groberg and I were both awake because there was soooo much thunder and lightning. the thunder was louder than I have ever heard and the Lightning was more then I've ever seen. It was so crazy! And the rain was literally buckets and buckets. 

Anyway, we had a lesson with Jenn about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went so well. She even changed how she dresses and so that was good! The spirit was so strong and she told us how excited she still is for baptism.

Later we went to say goodbye and have our last lesson with Jay about temples. We gave him pictures of the the temples in the Philippines and wrote notes on them. We explained how if nothing else, just remember that he can get to the temple. It was such a cool lesson. He loved it and he is so excited to go to the temple! He is so set. He said he packed his Book of Mormon in the side of his bag so that he can have easy access to it to read it that night and in the morning before he flies out. He said he will keep us updated with his family and he asked us to keep him in our prayers. Today and tomorrow (Wednesday and Thursday) we are praying for him all day because he will see his wife and kids today and they need to accept the gospel. He wants to take his wife to church and to the temple. Oh yea and they have 4 kids and the oldest is 17. Sister Groberg and I promised each other that we will go to his temple sealing next year. It's a plan and it will happen! :) it was sad leaving but also really peaceful because this is right and it will be so good for him and his family. 

It was an awesome day though, we said bye to a lot of people and finished packing and cleaning! 

WEDNESDAY 

Today is transfers! I'm excited as I mentioned earlier. I'll tell you all about my companion next week :) 

This week I was studying about miracles and how we can pray to see miracles. In the Bible Dictionary it says "miracles were and are a response to faith and its best encouragement. They were never wrought without prayer, felt need, and faith." Then later on it talks about how if miracles cease then it is because our faith has ceased as well. We have seen a lot of miracles this week. I know it is because the Lord is blessing this area and the people here who are ready to learn. I love studying about miracles because I feel the spirit so strong as I do so. I have felt so much peace and motivation as I have witnessed the Lords hand in this work here. It's so awesome being a missionary! 

I hope you have a fabulous week! I love you all! Hunt and Liv, Have fun in Peru!! Mom and dad, have fun playing with Jax! Riss and David and Rory, drive safe to California! Shay and Sam, good luck with work, I love you both! 

Love, 

The Wells

Sister Tanner <3

These two are awesome!
Edgar on the left and Jay on the right

My zone

Getting ready to "kill" Sister Groberg
(she's going home)

Sister Standage and I (My new companion I will be training)