9 Months ago today....

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

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! 

It's dangerous I swear...

February 18, 2015
Hello!
Okay so I thought I would have pday Friday because that is what they originally said since Friday is transfers, but I guess it's today and Friday is just transfer and work day. Sister Quackenbush and I are staying here of course. This next transfer is a big one for me because I hit half way which is totally weird. It's all a blur. I'm not sure how it went so fast! Shout out for the Valentine's Day package from the Wallace family and from the Summers and a Valentine's Day card from the Harper grandparents!! Thank you soo much! You guys are the best! Best Valentine's Day I've
ever had, wow! I really feel the love! :)

Rory looks SO cute in that little white dress I love it! The babies are getting so big! Sounds like the baby blessing went well though :)

Today we built a snowman with the Hsiehs (senior missionary couple from Taiwan) and it was adorable! They were SO excited. They loved it because it was their first time. They are the best. The snowman turned out hilarious because the snow isn't good for building one anymore but they made it how they wanted it. And it was super warm while we were doing it. It's like 20 degrees today so we are living the life! It's nice :)

So this week was super cold but super good! The temp was in the negatives all week. On Thursday we had a lot of time because 3 of our appointments cancelled(that is very normal for us.) So we prayed and prayed to know what to do with our time that day because we were getting bummed at how often people have been canceling and how little success we were having and then that day, not long after, we found two new investigators!! We were doing potential investigator look ups and
found 2 people that were contacted 5 years ago but never learned a thing. And they said they want to know more and learn more so we went back Tuesday and one of the two was super cool and interested. The other ones girlfriend just yelled at us and then slammed the door on
us haha.

On Friday we finally went down to Scarsdale and got Tiwi. Tiwi is the thing that gets connected to the car to tell you when to slow down, stop driving crazy, and put on your seatbelt. Well in our car when we go 3 over the speed limit it yells at us and tells us to slow down. In a serious and deep man voice it says "check your speed." Let me tell Ya, that first day it nearly gave me a heart attack every time! I hate it so much! I literally would jump. It's dangerous I swear. That first
day it yelled at me to check my speed like 20 plus times (which is very bad) so then my goal for the week was to not let it yell at me anymore. Haha Today after grocery shopping we were heading home and I turned super smoothly and it told me I was driving aggressively. Definitely was not, so it's lame. Tiwi and I aren't really friends but I'll deal. While we were in the mission office waiting for tiwi to be installed we got to talk to President Morgan a little and all the other senior couples in there so that was fun. President laughed at us and told us we would hate tiwi and that we were about to begin a new life. Now I see where having the need for speed like my parents is not a good thing.

The rest of Friday the 13th was very much unlucky. All of our appointments cancelled yet again. So we went to an investigators house that isn't calling us back. When we got there they were having party and sounded too intoxicated to open the door. So we left. That's when we noticed the stars were even better than last week. So we drove to an open place where it was pitch black and got out and laid on the car to look at the stars for a bit....then we heard the bushes move, so we
ran into the car and drove away haha. Then we decided to get icecream (from a place we see advertisements for everywhere) since it was 1 degree outside because that would be fun. But it ended up being closed until spring. So we headed home for dinner. When we got home, a closet
door was opened and it was one we closed that morning because we heard something move inside of it as we were leaving. We heard something move in it again so we texted the elders and told them to come look in our closet when they got home....they agreed but then we decided we
were brave so we decided to look ourselves. So we looked inside and found an empty water jug (with a hole in the upper side of it) which was full the week before when we had cleaning checks). So that was weird. Then suddenly we heard the sound again but couldn't figure out what it was. After we grabbed flashlights and a broom and looked through the entire closet and didn't find anything, we noticed water all over our pamphlets on the other side of the closet..it wasn't
possible that the empty water jug made it over there though because it was safely placed behind everything else on the opposite side. That's when we realized that the sound was water dripping from a different jug up top..which somehow was leaking too. Only a little water was gone though. So we cleaned it all up and took the jugs out and then we heard something move the backpacks. But there are no rodents in the closet or bugs or anything so it's just a mystery...then in the
bedroom it was superrrr cold. I guess the heater broke in there but then it got super hot suddenly. So that was weird too. Pretty much we just freaked ourselves out since it was Friday the 13th.... Haha we are such girls I guess! At least the elders didn't have to come over to save us :)

 Saturday sister Quackenbush was really sick. She got the flu and was throwing up all night the night before. So we stayed home all day and she threw up all day. And then slept the rest of the day. It was sad. Even though I absolutely hate when people throw up and I wanted to get
a mask and spray her wih disinfectant spray so I didn't get sick, I decided to play the mom card and be brave! I made her rice and toast when she got hungry, gave her water and medicine, checked on her all day, did the dishes, cleaned the apartment, and I only sprayed the disinfectant spray when she was asleep and didn't know haha. For he most part I studied all day and accomplished a lot so that was nice! :)
Sunday we had an hour delay of church and then it was only 2 hours long, but I gave another talk! This one was on the talk titled "Believe!" From Elaine S. Dalton from April 2004 General Conference. I'm not too sure what I said but it was good! :) everyone go read that
talk. It's good!
On Monday we went Tracting for a couple hours and we ended up running into one of the elders investigators. He is this man that is a little disabled and so he opened and we were super awkward because we didn't want to do a normal door approach since he knew us but we weren't 100%
sure it was him. At first we thought so then he asked if we were from "the kingdom" so we were thinking oh shoot it's not him and we were like "no we are from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" And he goes "oh I go there!!" So then we knew it was him. Now, we talk to him every Sunday he is there so idk how he doesn't remember us haha Then a few doors later we found this super awesome kid named Kevin. We talked to him a lot about the church and he asked if we had a Book of Mormon..which we had just ran out of haha so we said Ya in the car. So we went back to the car and got it for him and when we came back to his door he had so many good questions that we answered for him. Then I told him I wanted to share a scripture with him so I opened to Moroni 10:3-5 and it was all marked and he was like "wow thank you for marking it for me!" And I tried really hard not to laugh as I said "no problem!" Haha the funny thing is we have no idea who marked it because it wasn't either of us. It just happened to be like that. That
kid also asked me if I was from England..I get that a lot here. So many people tell me I have an accent. ....Later that night we found out we aren't allowed to tract that apartment complex. Oops. That happens daily. We are hardly allowed to tract anywhere here. It's lame.

Yesterday I went on a split with sister Amorim from Sao Paulo Brazil! She is super cool and she wrote me a little paragraph in Portuguese to send to Sam! She speaks English and Portuguese fluently and doesn't have an accent. She's been going to BYU for a year and a half and her
family just moved to Rio! It was good, but I'm glad to have things back to normal. Splits are fun but stressful at times haha

Remember that song "all times, all things, all places?" The one that we would sing and listen to on the way to church each week. I love that song. If you forgot, these are the words (or look it up on
www.lds.org/youth/music or something like that)....

"It's not in the letter I can't wait to open, it's not in the badge
that will carry His name.
It's not gonna grow in just 3 weeks of study, or magically come when I
get on the plane.
So today I'm becoming who I'm meant to be, the worthy unshakable
witness He needs, At all times, all things, in all places. I will sing
and shout His praises. I will tell the whole world that I know what
His grace is, at all times, in all things, in all places."

Everyday we should be living in such a way that we are becoming better and closer to him. We should make sure the places we go, the people we associate with, and the things we do are always in harmony with the standards we hold. It doesn't come all at once, and it starts within us. So especially for those planning on serving a mission, start preparing now. Even if you have over 2 years (aka hunting). It's never too early to prepare. Right now in a way you are giving 1 day to the Lord and taking 6 days for yourself to do everything else but once you become a missionary you give 6 days and have 1 [part] day for yourself. So plan now so that you are ready for that. And if you aren't planning on serving, we should still live this way. We should still prepare each day to be that witness Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ need us to be.

Mosiah 18:9 says "... and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until 

death, that ye may be redeemed of God..."

Never forget who you are and what you stand for :)
I love you all SO much! Have a good week!!

Xoxo

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

Snowman we built with the Hsieh's

MY ZONE

-3 outside but that's a warm day

People just yell through the door that it's too cold...

February 11, 2015

Hello! How's it going?
First of all, thank you SO much for the Valentine's Day package package! Those socks, gloves, and hand/toe warmers came just in time! I got it Friday :) It's like you knew Walmart ran out of warmers last week, so thank you!! I loved the cards and hearts and treats and all of it! And the hymn book is perfect! I like it with
my name on it so thank you!! And livv, I love the skirt you sent! You're the best!! Love youuuu! Wow I'm just so thankful for all the love. I have the best family ever :)

Wednesday night we were Tracting and hardly anyone answered because it's so cold. People just yell through the door that it's too cold, or they open one door, see us and then close the door haha. Its funny
because we always want to ask them 4 billion questions but they don't want us to ask them any. (Ex:are you religious? Do you have a family? do you know anyone else that is interested? Or anyone who just had a
baby, or a death in the family? Etc)...but let me tell Ya, my outfit was full of fun patterns that definitely did not match. I'll send you a pic. But I had my coat on top so nobody else saw. That's the beauty
of having a big coat.

On Thursday I woke up more sick and just got worse and worse. So Saturday I was told I had to sleep in so I did that but it didn't do much. But Im feeling better now! :)

On Saturday we had a winter carnival with our branch. We invited sooo many people and a lot of people asked us for the address and said they were coming but then it snowed a lot Saturday morning so people backed
out :( but it was so much fun! We only were going to stay an hour but then our branch president asked if we could all stay the whole time. He said it's not a branch carnival without the missionaries. We got to go sledding, roast hot dogs, make s'mores, have hot chocolate, and eat chili. Then we all just played in the snow and hung out and it was so great. I'll send some pics of us sledding and whatnot. At the end sister Quackenbush and I went all the way up to the top of the mountain to where we had to turn a few times by sticking out our hands to turn and we ended up going so fast. We got the award for the best/fastest run down the hill. It was sweeeet. Pictures don't do it justice because you can't see the top of the mountain from the bottom.

On Sunday it was freezing rain and while in a lesson it got bad, so we ended the lesson and left and on the way home we saw a car get stuck on the hill that we needed to go up in order to get home. So we took a short detour and that car backed down the hill and drove away. So other cars were getting up this hill so we went for it too with all the energy our car has...yet it wasn't enough. We were sliding all over the place and sister Quackenbush and I were yelling at the car "come on you can do it! Go go go!" We were trying to go fast so we could get up but it was going sooo slow. So then I was like "sister Quackenbush, say a prayer out loud right now! Go!" So she did and we made it painfully, yet safely up the hill. :) and we are alive today.

Monday it snowed allll dayyy and of course the roads were super bad and we got grounded again. It seems to snow every Monday which is frustrating because there are people we can only see on Mondays due to work schedules and what not and we haven't seen them all cycle! But then yesterday it was super warm! We were shoveling snow at the church and we had to take off our gloves, jackets, and sweaters and we were
sweating. I think I was sweating more than I do at the gym sometimes!(on lazy days of course). It was like 38 degrees so it was awesomee!! I guess you know I am truly a New Yorker when I think 38 degrees is beautiful and hot! :)

Last night we went to visit a less active and after we go there we always smell so bad. She has like 50 animals and smokes and so our clothes and hair and everything just smells so bad. We always make
sure we wear clothes we can wash easily and we go on Tuesday nights before pday so we can wash them quickly. So anyway, we were dying in the car after cuz we smelled so bad so we decided to pull over and
stick our heads out the window to breathe and look at the stars! They were incredible, it was a super super clear night and I could see more stars out there than I ever have anywhere else. We were in the middle of nowhere with no trees or lights or anything around so it was really cool. That is one thing I will really miss about this area.

So mom, do you like my cover photo on facebook with the quote I used for the picture? You should because I got it from you! :) you're the best! A couple weeks ago in a lesson I mentioned that you would tell us that everyday and the recent convert we were teaching loved it so much that the next day at church she told everyone about it haha.

Transfers are next week! As of right now, I am staying but things can change, it's just not likely. So I'll be here until April 1st (or longer). Just a heads up though.

This week I have been studying love, families and family history because that is our monthly focus. Something I thought was really cool is that when I was studying love, I looked up heart and under the verb definition it says that it was first used as a verb in the 1970's because of the I <3 NY advertising. Just another reason why New York is the best I guess. In true to the faith it mentions how the only place that can compare to the temple in sacredness is the home. I absolutely love that. Our homes have to be a place of love and kindness so the Spirit can dwell there. We are SO lucky that we can have our homes be so sacred that we can compare them to the Holy temple. The Lord can be amongst us in our homes if we allow Him. However, we can't be living as slobs, or have our houses smell terrible (that happens a lot here), or be doing things that God doesn't agree with. We have to have a house of order and learning and love. So especially this week since it is Valentine's Day, show some extra love, especially towards family members. Make home a sacred place just like the temple. Go and watch "how do I love thee" [the mormon message] too. It's a good one!

Alright well I love you all so much! Happy Valentine's Day! Thanks again for the love and support. Have a fabulous week! :) ...also, don't forget to take a picture since you will all be together so you can send it to me!! Thanks! I love you!

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

playing with the kids at the Branch Winter Carnival

The Branch President made us compete in the sledding competition

Happy Valentines Day!

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

SNOW DAY with Sister Quakenbush

Stuck inside so we made snow slushies

A shoveling break turned to a Snow Angel

After we shoveled the walk it snowed again!

The Mulholland Girls