The people, the food, the smells, everything!

First of all, I want to apologize for my email last week! I read through it and wow, I missed a lot of great details and some stuff probably made no sense to you! I am SO sorry. But this week should be a bit better. So about sister Groberg. She is from Spanish Fork Utah. She only has one cycle left after this. She is like the nicest person ever and gives compliments to people all day long it's kind of ridiculous haha I tease her about it but I try and do it with her too. She's awesome though and we work hard together. She has 3 sisters. Her older sister is on a mission in Mexico right now and then her younger sister will leave for her mission in California a week after sister Groberg gets home.
Also, Happy anniversary mom and dad!! Thanks for being the best parents ever. I love you!!

Wednesday
So I Got an email from Sister Smoot about our investigator Barbara from my last area. Do you remember her? Well she stayed up till 3 am finishing the the Book of Mormon! Wow I am SO proud of her! She is so awesome. I can't wait for her to get baptized! I will get to skype in probably so that will be cool. Also, there are a million other miracles that sister Smoot sent me, so I'll send that to you too!

Thursday
We had a Skype interview with one of the companionships who live far away and then we planned for like 12 thousand hours. Not really but it seemed so long. We created our VGPA and we put our families down for holding us accountable, so I'll send it to you and if you ever want to follow up with me and check on something then feel free! VGPA stands for "Vision, Goals, Planning, Accountability"
For dinner we went to a members house, she is from Japan and they have three kids. Two boys and one girl. Their boys names are "shay" and "kier" hahaha not even kidding. That's their real names spelled like that.

Friday
We found a lot of new investigators who are super awesome and interested. It's really hard to tract here though because since there are 4 companionships and not too huge of an area then people are always like "someone just came here" but it's okay, we do it anyway for those people who are seeking truth.
We had a Skype conference call with a couple other zone leaders and sister training leaders for the Alma activity. It was fun because two of the other STLs that we are doing it with are from my district in the MTC. The Alma Academy is on June 6th and it's from 8am - after the adult session of conference. So really late. It will be so awesome though. We are having the seniors in HS experience a day of missionary life in the city. So here are a few things that will be happening..we will do companionship study with them, and then we will go contacting for 3 hours outside the temple and down at Columbus circle so that they can talk to a lot of people. We will do a training, some lightening rounds, and have dinner. Stuff like that. It'll be fun though. I'm excited to go back to the city for a day :)

Saturday
So we went to support Julian at his Soccer game. Julian is a little boy in a family we are teaching... but he wasn't there because he was sick. awk. But while we were there we ran into Dave who was a man we tracted into last week and he had rejected us Hard core. He actually started talking to us first..and then when we left him and went to a new spot, he came back and gave us his card and number. So now we will have the elders contact him :)

Sunday
we gave talks in church. So while I was giving my talk a huge spider started crawling around the stand and I wanted to kill it but I was afraid I would scream. So I had to keep my eye on the huge little thing the whole talk haha it was scary though! I couldn't put my hands or body or anything close to the stand because I didn't want it to get me! But right when I sat down one of the guys on the stand stood up and killed it.
Sister smith (the little one that finished her mission 2 weeks ago. She was my roommate in southman for 6 months) came back with her family so she was at church! It was so fun to see her. She came back so early after her mission to go to a wedding reception.
After church we had Interviews with president Morgan! And it was Our last one with him!! So sad! He finishes his mission June 24th I believe. I love him so much, he is SO awesome. Really, he is the BEST. You should check the NY mission blog and send me some of the interview selfies because we never actually see them, they just go on the blog. But anyway, the interview was really good. He talked about how grateful he is to serve with us and how much he loves us and he told me about different strengths that I have and how in the future I will really need those strengths as well and he kinda gave me a mission president blessing type of thing so it was really cool. He's the greatest.

Monday
Since it was Memorial Day, what did we do? We went tracting! :) and it is definitely starting to heat up a lot. So we went to lunch with sister smith and a member in the ward and then we went tracting for 2 or three hours. We met some awesome people. One house we knocked on a guy answered and he was so taken back and confused. We didn't understand why he was so confused....until later when we realized we had knocked on his side door and not his front door haha oops so that was kind of funny. A lot of people were really nice and glad to see us. Most people were home too so that was good. However, some People are so scared of us. We are so nice though! We were talking about how When someone is in the dark and a light is turned on all of the sudden, it hurts their eyes for a little bit. And that's how it is with the gospel sometimes. Some people have been in the darks I long that they get scared at first because of the light and the peculiar-ness of it, but eventually they realize the spirit they feel. So when we talk to people and they aren't interested, we try to break past that "no, I'm not interested" until they feel the spirit. And I have really seen that make a huge difference throughout my mission. Some people who at the very beginning say no, end up taking lessons because they realize it is good.
After tracting we looked up some less actives in New York and then headed back to Connecticut for a BBQ that a ward member invited us to. It turned out to be really fun. We only stayed about 45 minutes but we had delicious food and got to get to know a lot of members and their friends. There was country music playing and we were dying because we miss it haha. We never hear music here like we did down in the city. One guy came up to us and was like "sorry you have to listen to country music. I bet you hate that" haha

Tuesday
Oh my goodness. Okay so we went to get certified to volunteer at this place called Glen Hill. It's a little senior center. so we did this training and it took like 2.5 hours! If it wasn't for sister Groberg I probably would have been like "forget it, I don't want to come here anyway!" Haha because it was Sooo boring watching these lengthy videos about safety for so long. Ridiculous if I do say so myself. But it will be worth it because it will be fun actually visiting the people when we go back.
One less active that we looked up at night let us in and she was asking us about missions and getting our call and how it all works. We told her how it's a big deal and how we have a bunch of people come and then we record it and stuff. She then asked if we had the video of us opening ours...we didn't. So can you maybe send that to me?? Luckily Carter Had sent me a video of him opening his call so we showed that to her and she thought it was the coolest thing. She got all into it and was cheering. I wish I would have recorded her somehow. She was like "ohhh he has to learn Samoan! I didn't even know that was a language!" She actually watched it twice. So good thing I had that video on my iPad! She thinks elders are so cute and awkward and then when carter said "I'm nervous" before he opened it then she was like "awwwe cute!" Haha

Wednesday
Today we are going to the Templeeee! And I am SO glad that sister Groberg is my companion because she loves the city as much as me. So it really helps! I am so excited. We are going to do a little shopping and go to the temple then head back up and buy groceries and what not. I love it. I love being back in the city though! The people, the food, the smells, everything! I love it!!
Thanks for the reminder that I hit my YEAR mark this week! Ah, crazy. As time goes on, don't remind me how little time I have left! I have to finish strong. It'll be good :)

It was interesting, at the bottom of my journal where I write my testimony of Christ each day, the two scriptures were "For after much tribulation come the blessings"(D&C 58:4) and "and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose"(Romans 8:28) and I thought about president Hinckley's quote that is something along the lines of "everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, then it's not the end." I just love those scriptures and that message. We were talking to an investigator about suffering this week and why we have to suffer. It's hard to fathom the thought of God loving us, Christ paying for it, and us Still suffering especially because some suffer way more than others. But as we keep our faith and broaden our view of the great plan of happiness, we can understand a little bit more. Although we can't completely know why we sometimes must suffer so much, we can always remember that Christ knows how we feel and that God wants us to feel His love and turn to Him especially during those hard times.
I was reading this talk this past week called "the inconvenient messiah" it's from the March 1989 Liahona and it is really good so you should go read it. It talks about difficulties and temptations we will face. Elder holland says "Life was very inconvenient for the Savior, and, I believe it will often be so for us when we take upon his name." And one of my favorite quotes is in it as well that says "If sometimes the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived." Although life won't be easy, it will be worth it. I know that enduring to the end is real and that when we give our all and hold strong to the faith we have, one day, even if it's in the next life, we will be able to understand the trials we go through. I know that this gospel is good, and that God is good, and that he loves me and each of you.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you so much. Happy anniversary again! Xoxox

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

It was just so clear

We serve and love so much here. I love it. Sister Groberg is awesome and so sensitive to the spirit.

Hello! It feels like it's been three months since I last wrote a weekly email! This week has been crazy busy and full of hard work. I love it! The ward here is awesome. Much much bigger than the branch. And we get fed every night! It's so awesome to be with all the members. It's easier to get fat, but we work out more so hopefully it's not too bad! Haha I love this area already though! The families here are incredible AND we are teaching a couple families! We also get to serve so much. Everywhere here is so green too. It's beautiful!
However, the bugs are BACK! So, therefore, I'm back on bug vitamins and I ate my last banana today. It's all good though, it's getting nice and warm here.

WEDNESDAY
Goodness transfers was a crazy day, as always. I was exhausted by the time we got home. Not too much to say except I love it here.

THURSDAY
Wow, we wake up at 6 to workout each morning. We go running and then just do little workouts and then run some more. Let me tell ya, I am SO Out of shape. It's bad. Anyway, we had a really good day meeting awesome people and planning. It was really cool to pray about the splits we need to go on this cycle with our sisters because after setting them up and then praying about them, we both felt that we should change a few things and add an extra one with one companionship. It was just so clear.

FRIDAY
We had a Skype call with the APs in the morning and it was good. It's pretty cool how we can use technology. It was just to go over all the responsibilities and what not.
I got to meet the Cutest family ever! They will be the perfect Mormon family one day. It's adorable. They have 3 little boys. We also met this potential investigator and she invited us to go on a hike with her next week and share a message there. She is super awesome and has a little girl and she wants to know more. It's going to be awesome working with her.
So something cool, There is this investigator named Khem and her sister was in the hospital and getting ready to transfer to Another hospital. So she called us and asked if we could go to the hospital and pray with her. So we were on our way and then we decided to call the elders so that they could give her a blessing. So we did. Our district leader didn't answer. The elders that we serve with in our ward couldn't come. Then the Zone leaders didn't answer. So we were going to just go pray with them. But then we decided to call the Portuguese elders who speak Spanish too and they were like "ya we can be there in 10 minutes and we can stay for 10 minutes" so they came. Turns out khems whole family was there and they spoke Spanish and one of the elders had the phone number for the missionaries (not in our mission) where the sister was getting transfered to so that she could get another blessing later if needed. Coincidence? I think not!
We also teach an 18 year old girl who is super awesome and wants to get baptized. She isn't quite ready and she is moving like next week but she is progressing SO much. She comes to church and reads the BoM and keeps all her commitments. She's awesome. Her name is Chelsea.
After meeting with Chelsea there were these two little girls, 10 and 11, outside and so we started talking to them and ended up getting them prayer rocks so they didn't forget to pray, they were the cutest. Their names are Ariannie and Ashley.

SATURDAY
So we were suppose to go to the soccer game of a little boy in the cute family we teach but it was raining so it got cancelled. Then we did service allllll day pretty much. Everything kept getting cancelled and it just felt right to stay and help this woman. Her husband is in the hospital and they do SO much for the ward I guess. She needs a ton of help right now but she gets to overwhelmed to let a lot of people help so we just stayed. Plus the bishop and like 7 members all asked us to visit her to help. So it was good just to be there, uplift her and serve her. Her name is sister George.
At night we went to buy asparagus for a less active to give her on Sunday (she loves it) and we decided to buy a coconut for some weird reason. But when we were picking which one to get we decided to ask this lady who was walking by. We ended up talking to her for like 15 minutes and teaching her. It was awesome. She then invited us over so she could teach us how to make a coconut dessert that she loves. So we will be doing that next week too! People here are so much nicer than NY haha but I still love New Yorkers :)

SUNDAY
We Fasted for Chelsea on Sunday to overcome her addictions and to feel Gods love and it was amazing. Everything just fell into place after that. Before church we decided to bring brownies in case we found someone we could give them too. We didn't know who though.
That night we went to dinner and found out that the husband was less active. We ended up staying longer than planned because her husband got home at the end and it felt right. So after we left we decided to go bring brownies to a less active. We called him but he didn't answer and the only way to get into his apartment building was if he came down and opened it. But we decided to go anyway. It just turned out that as we were pulling up he was getting back from walking his dog. So we got out and called his name so he turned around and invited us in. So we went up and met his girlfriend and she was mad to see people there cuz she was cleaning, but by the end she was asking us a million questions and now she loves us! It was the coolest thing how it all played out.

MONDAY
We just had Leadership meeting and district meeting which was good. One cool thing is that the STLs and ZLs from 3 out of 11 zones are invited to this big multi stake future missionary event for all the seniors in HS. It will be all day in two weeks down in South Manhattan. We are planning it and we will be taking the kids out to tract in Central Park and stuff like that. More details will come after it happens, but I am SO excited, it will be awesome.

That night was crazyyyy. We were tracting and ended up talking to this awesome man who kept talking. Which made us a couple minutes late to dinner. On the drive over we missed the turn, which added 10 minutes. Then when we got to their house, we found out they moved and we went to the wrong address. Then our phone dropped on the floor and broke for a bit. When it finally worked we called the elders and got the new address (we told them we weren't going to go but they said to just go). So anyway, by the time we got there we were 40 minutes late! But it was like a party for all the people who helped them move. Turns out, the fiancé was even later an us, so it was fine we were late because we had to wait 5 minutes for him until we could eat. Then all the elders had to leave cuz they had been gone for so long. So they left and we shared the message. We ran out to the car after so that we could be home by 9:30. Luckily we were 40 minutes late to dinner though so that we could stay longer than the elders and share the message. While driving home we looked over and saw is kid while at a stop light. He was in the car next to us and he looked SO sad. So we waved and smiled. He waved back. Then we thought "oh let's give him a Book of Mormon!" So we grab one and I get out and he rolls his window down and I hand it to him, share a quick explanation and testimony telling him it will change his life for the better and I invited him to read it. Then I ran back and got in the car. Then we realized we forgot to give him our number or card. So we quickly found one and then ran it over to him and told him to come to church and to call us with questions then I got back in the car. The whole time the light was red..and I didn't have shoes completely on. Oops. Then we realized we didn't get his name, so we rolled our window down and he did the same and we asked his name. It's Bruno. So pretty much sad Bruno became happy because we are crazy missionaries. He will come to church one day though, I know it.

TUESDAY
We saw Ariannie again, she asks the best questions ever. She could totally get baptized. She is 10 and loves church, her grandma is a member but is moving out of the country soon. She told us about a dream where she went to heaven and God was there and smiled and waved to her and welcomed her in. It was so cute. We ended up talking to her for like 40 minutes. She is super mature for her age. She invited us to her baptism and communion into her moms church and she invited us to watch her in the parade next week. But by the end she said she wanted to pray to know what church to get baptized in so that God would be happy with her. When we were leaving she said "don't forget to pray!" Gosh it was the cutest thing. People never tell us that! She is so awesome. My heart hurts for her because her mom is against the church and won't let her. But we pray that one day she will be able to get baptized in this true church. She's incredible.

WEDNESDAY
Today we went to a Members house for lunch and also worked out at her house punching Bob-I'll send you pictures. It was really fun and delicious and healthy! Yay! Anyway, it was really good! Stressful though because since it has been a busy week we haven't had time to read or prep emails so that's why this email is shorter than it would be and super scatter brained and crazy.

This week we have been focusing on inviting people to church. It's part of the zone goal for the month. It's been incredible to see people really commit to coming. It's incredible How we can really only have The Spirit to be with us always if we take the Sacrament each week. Because without the sacrament, we aren't clean and pure again and when we aren't clean, we leave the spirit and can't recognize His influence as well. So make sure you take the sacrament every week! Because it makes a huge different. I have a talk that I'll tell you about next week because I can't remember the name. It's about the sacrament and super cool. I know the sacrament can change us every week if we let it. We can't ever be the same after we take it. Think about Christ's sacrifice as you partake of the bread and water and really reflect on your week and let it change you.

I love you all so much! I hope you have a fabulous week!! Xoxoxo


Love,
Sister Tanner <3

Going to Connecticut

Wednesday May 13th

Well first of all, it was SO good to talk to you and see your cute faces! I love you oh so much. Please don't put that video anywhere, embarrassing! Some of this email I wrote before I talked to you, so some will be repeated. But for the sake of the future when I go back and read these some day, it will be good to know that I got a transfer call to go to the Yorktown zone. My area will be Danbury, Connecticut and I am going to be the STL (Sister Training Leader) there. I'm pretty excited to go to Connecticut! It'll be awesome. My companion is going to be Sister Groburg. She only has two cycles left. So I might kill her here...(meaning I will be her last companion). She is really nice. She was in my zone in Manhattan so I already know her :) 

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD AND MARISSA!!! I love you both so much!! Have the best birthday ever!

WEDNESDAY 

So we went to West Point last week for pday with the zone. We went on a history tour and went through museum like things. The campus is beautiful but Let me tell ya, I was dying. I hate history overload, I hate long tours, I hate too many museums. Not my cup of tea. He stopped to tell us about every plaque and symbol. It was the longest two hours of my life. The Food place where they feed the cadets was cool because they feed thousands within minutes and it had a really pretty view outside so that was nice.  But other than that, forget it. Haha 

THURSDAY 

So Thursday was super hot so we decided to go look up this religious friend we have. He just feeds us and talks about God with us, super respectful and loves missionaries but he isn't interested in switching religions or anything. But anyway, he has a little store thing so he gave us free lollipops, cupcakes and big Popsicle like things. It was sweeeeet. We also got to teach some awesome lessons. Oh ya, a less active of ours gave us a few dollars and asked us to go buy her a notebook and pen from the dollar store so she could have a journal to write down notes about the BoM in. So we did and we ended up buying perfume from the dollar store so it was only $1 and its called "only she" and it's compared to "Justin biebers girlfriend" perfume hahaha  it actually smells great! 

FRIDAY

We had an APF and so it was our turn. So we decided that we would do a pamphlet and teaching people competition thing again. If we won, the Elders had to sing with us for Mother's Day and if they won then they didn't. Well they ended up barely winning..but since they never made us waffles from the last time they lost they decided they would sing with us. So that was a relief haha so we practiced when we got home. It was 95 while we were Tracting and it is getting so humid. Not sure where spring went. 

We had the most incredible lesson ever with Ashley and Giovanna her daughter. Giovanna still loves us. Whenever she sees our car pull up she stops playing and runs to her mom and yells "mom the church girls are here!" And then she comes back outside and waits for us so she can give us hugs, it's so cute. Anyway, Ashely invited her friend to join our lessons. So her friend was there and we taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and then the friend had tons of questions. We talked about the Spirit for a while because they didn't understand and hen Ashely was like "will you teach her the restoration and plan of salvation right now please? She would love to know all that" then she turned to her friend (Denise) and said "this is really good stuff. You will like this" and then told us to "take it away" haha so we taught her super simply those two lessons and then the friend was like "wow I just got the chills!" So we explained how that was the spirit and her mind was blown. She opened up to us like crazy and told us all the reasons why she wants to know more and how she wants to go to church and all this stuff. Then Ashely's husband came out and he was like "not that I was listening or anything but can you answer this question..." And he went on to ask us a question that we answered for him and then he thought that was so cool so he decided to join us for the closing prayer. So ya it was awesome. When we left we took out their trash and all their boxes to recycle(they had just opened a new air conditioner [one that goes in a window] so they had boxes for it) and then the husband LOVED us so we got some nice brownie points from him. Haha jk, it was awesome though. 

We ended up taking dinner from 8-9 so that we could just eat super fast then shower and go to bed at 9 since we had to wake up so early! 

SATURDAY 

We woke up at and headed to Manhattan. It was the best day ever. I can't even describe to you how incredible it was to meet and hear from Elder Cook. We all got to shake his hand and he said he had a personal interview with each of us as he looked into our eyes.. Scary. Haha..He told us that New York is the center of the universe :) it's true. Anyway, he left the most incredible apostolic blessing EVER on us. Like the coolest one I've eve heard. I think that's the 3rd or 4th I've heard on my mission and this one was by far the best.  [family I hope you never forget it! I told you about it on skype, but I don't think Riss was on yet so pass that message on to her too. And tell Sam too please!] And then his testimony. Dang. Now that was incredible. He talked about how sacred some things were but that he wanted to share with us part of his testimony (which I told you about on skype). I wish I could just tell you all of it! But just know, everyone was crying and he Spirit was soooo strong it was the most incredible thing. 

Elder cook also had us stand up with how many lessons we teach on average a week. (Now this isn't Mexico or something, so it's hard to teach a lot of lessons). So like 5-10 then 10-15 then 15-20(most people stood up here) then 20-30 and then 30+ and my comp and I were like one of three companionships to stand up for elder cook for 30+. It was pretty sweet because it just showed how much the Lord has blessed this area. That would NOT be possible without the Lord. This is Monticello. Population 50. Afterwards he told us that we can measure success of our misisonary work by how much we invite. So if we teach someone something and invite them to do something according to the Spirit to exercise their faith then even if they reject, we are successful. He said that if we have more faith and teach more then we will have success even if people decline. 

Elder cook and President Morgan also both talked about how there may be several people who are more qualified and prepared but the Lord has called US each to serve here and to teach in the areas we are sent in the positions so we hold. Pretty much it was AWESOME. Best day ever. 

On the way home there was this girl who seemed to be less active and she said to her friends, "You have to be home at nine, that's why I'm not going on a mission!" What a great reason not to go.. Haha  

Later that night I got a phone call from President Morgan asking if I would accept the call to be a Sister Training leader in the Yorktown zone. So that will be interesting. I'm glad that it's right now though because I will get to go to MLC (mission leadership council) right when the new mission president comes in, so I'll be able to get to know him more a lot faster. Pretty much I just will have to work along side the zone leaders and then go on a split with all the sisters in my zone each cycle and interview them and make sure they are all doing well. Stuff like that. It'll be good though, I'll learn a lot from it I'm sure. 

SUNDAY

On Sunday we Sang "come thou fount" at church with the elders and played a recording of the piano since nobody can play the piano. Haha it sounded like it was coming from the piano though so it's all good. After church we just went to the hsiehs to skype. Sister Smoot Skyped her family and then I Skyped you. We were so excited! And as I said, it was so good to talk to you all for a short while! 

I talked to Talked to sister Macuilt from my last area!!! She is doing SO good. I called to wish her a happy Mother's Day and what not and we ended up talking for like 30 minutes or so. She just got called as a ward missionary and she is preparing for her endowment so I will get to go to that when that happens!! I'm SO excited for her! Goodness I can't even contain myself. 

MONDAY

Monday was rough, it started out by me stepping on my hot curling iron. My toes got all blistered up. The bottom of my foot is nice and pretty. Then later on when we were cleaning and packing I knocked over Sister Smoots red juice. That stained the white carpet nicely. I have too much stuff so packing was a nightmare. I ended up gettin it all to work, I just had a few extra additions to my suitcases :) but district meeting was good, probably the best one we have had in this area. We mostly talked about the conference with Elder Cook and then the doctrine of Christ. 

TUESDAY

We finished packing and cleaning and saying bye to people. We also went to the food pantry and said bye to everyone there and interfaith council at the Jewish Temple. 

When we went to have a lesson with Barbara (our investigator that is super awesome and has a bap date for next month) kept asking if we could come over Wednesday on the way out. She hugged me like 20 times. It was so cute though haha. She decorated her house with all the pictures of Christ we have given her and she set her pamphlets out and her Book of Mormon stories. She is awesome. I can't wait for her to get baptized. If she wasn't still smoking, she would already be baptized. 

We also had a lesson with sister mccreary and she took like a million pictures on her wind up camera haha it was cute. She just kept thanking me and gave me all her contact info and she gave me a scripture too. It was adorable. 

And I'm pretty sure it turned green outside like overnight. It's been so green everywhere here the past few days. Definitely better than the white snow and brown trees. 

I went to mail a package full of random stuff that I don't want to carry around and it came up as $155 and I was like ohhhh man, nope. That can't happen. And then the lady was like "oh wait, that's only if you want it to get there tomorrow. How fast would you like?" So of course I said "as slow as possible" and it ended up being $44. It's a big box with a ton of random stuff in it. I just about had a heart attack though when I saw $155 haha

So this week I was studying faith because that is what we are focusing on as a mission this month. We exercise faith all the time. We take a shower because we have faith that we will be clean from it. We try out for sports teams because we have faith that we can make it. We put things in the microwave because we have faith that it will become hot. Faith can be hard at times. Faith is trusting that God knows something we don't. Faith can be believing that everything will be alright in the end. Just as president Hinckley said, everything will be alright in the end, and if it's not alright, it's not the end. It really is hard to have complete faith in God all the time. Trusting in His timing and His will can be a big struggle. I have really noticed how prayer helps me to have that peace so that I can have faith in Gods plan and faith in Gods will. 

I love you all so much. I am praying for you. I am thinking of you. I am going to work extra extra hard this week in hopes for some more blessings for you. I love you! Xoxox 

Love,

Sister Tanner <3

Saying goodbye to the great people of Monticello!!

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