Authorized to Use Facebook Again

Hello again! How were the birthdays this week??

Happy Father's Day on Sunday Dad!! I love you!! Sorry that I can't skype you like we do for Mother's Day...Sometimes it's rough being a dad..

So this week was good. Last week was rough because we were gone out of our area so much and so our numbers for the week turned out terrible and we felt real bad so we recommitted to doing better this week and it's been awesome. We are on a mission wide "go super hard" kind of week because it is President and Sister Morgan's last full week! So we want to send them out with miracles and welcome President and Sister Smith with miracles. Of course we should always work crazy hard, but even more so this week. It's awesome!

Wednesday:
Okay last week pday was so much fun! So I went to the temple with the sisters that are serving in the ward I started in, Manhattan 1st. And that of course was wonderful. And then after the temple we went and got Belgium waffles from the waffle truck which was heaven of course. And I got to talk to them all about the people I love and miss.
Then I found out that Barbara is getting baptized on the 20th or maybe 27th so I get to skype into that and I am stoked!! And then after waffles we emailed and then I switched and hung out with sister Rasmussen(MTC comp) and her comp. which I love them both so so much! And we went to the roof of the building by the temple (the one with the cool view that I sent a pic of last week) and then we went to shake shack and had dinner. I felt so fat. But don't worry, It was my feast before I began 6 months to slim. So now I'm working out harddd. Anyway, so then after we unsplit and all that good stuff we got a text from our investigator Chelsea who has a bap date for June 28th said "I think I want to get baptized sooner :)" so she asked if she could get baptized. We SO excited for her. She is moving though so she will actually get baptized there since she isn't quite ready yet. Anyway, we ended up talking to some awesome people on the way home in the train and didn't get home until 9. It was a good day though!

Thursday:
We had a pretty good day. One thing that happened was when we were on our way home we had a few extra minutes so we decided to look up this potential from the elders named Carly. Well when we pulled up and parked by her house the elders pulled up right then as well. Since they were planning on looking her up at that exact time too, we all went up together.
We knocked and then we heard her say "the missionaries are here. I don't want them to be here! Make them leave!" So her boyfriend came out and told us all to leave haha it was awesome though because if we would have been 5 minutes earlier or later than the elders then we all would have been yelled at separately which would have made it worse. So luckily we all got there together and got yelled at together. It was much more okay. Haha

Friday:
We had zone conference and it was AWESOME. It was president and sister Morgan's last zone conference and we were the last session(the city missionaries had it Tuesday, middle section of the mission had it Thursday, we had it Friday). Anyway, it made it that much better!
We had a few trainings and had some really good talks from the Morgan's and the APs. Sister Morgan introduced the smiths to us and showed us lots of pictures. They made me really excited to meet them. The smiths have an 11 year old boy, 13 year old girl and 15 year old girl. The 15 yr old is super cute already so within the next three years that will be trouble for those poor 18 yr old elders who haven't locked their hearts yet! Haha
At the end of the conference Sister Morgan had all the sisters write little notes for sister Smith (new mission presidents wife) so that she could get mail in the MTC. How cute is that?
As you probably have seen, we have been authorized to use Facebook again. I'm excited because we have SO many people that we can't see very often because they live so far away and aren't progressing enough for us to see them a lot or "stop by" but they use Facebook a ton so now we can contact them easily. At first I was kinda bummed to be getting it back because it adds so much more responsibility and it's so easy to waste time one it but then President told us that if we don't want to use Facebook then we don't want to follow the prophet and therefore don't want to follow God. So I really want to use Facebook now! Haha. We aren't allowed on newsfeed or anything and we have a set amount of time per day to use it so it's all good. Our mission has also been given the NYC subway ap and the MTA transit ap so those both are really handy and helpful!
So as you know, the mission motto was "loyal to the CORE" meaning courage, obedience, reverence, and effort. There were 4 zones at the conference so president had an elder and a sister talk about each one...well as luck would have it, I got called up to give a talk on obedience! Wow, embarrassing. I really didn't think I would get called, which is of course why I did get called, and didn't really prepare a great talk. I'll send you what I sort of threw together. It was..something. Hahaha oh well, it's done and over and there were some very interesting ones so it's alllll good.
Anyway, so president talked about recommitting to being a consecrated missionary and he gave us a few points---exact obedience, cast fear from your hearts, lock your heart, increase faith, give up pride, forsake negativism and sarcasm, and go the extra mile.
Then at the end of the conference he was speaking to us and he said "alright look me in the eyes and I'll look you each in the eyes. Pretend like we are having a one on one conversation. If we were, I'd tell you how much I love you and am proud of you and the work you have done.." And he just went on and on. He was crying, I was crying, everyone else was crying. Wow it was pretty bad! Haha it was so awesome though and the Spirit was SO strong. He really has been such a blessing for each of us and has impacted us missionaries so greatly.

Saturday
Wow it was an awesome day.
We saw crystal and Patricia again! The ones that came to church. We set a date for Crystal to get baptized on July 5th so that's exciting for her! She is SO cute. She wants to get baptized so badly. The spirit was so strong as we read the Book of Mormon stories with her. She loves it so much.
Afterwards we went to Jaime and Max's house where we had an incredible lesson. They are such a golden family and they just need to get baptized. But they teach us patience because they want to take it sllloooowwww. Which is fine, but they are so awesome. So Max was busy at first but then he came and joined us for the lesson. So we showed him the earthly father Heavenly Father video since he wanted to know where a fathers video was when we showed a Mother's Day video on Mother's Day. He loved it so much and so did she but he was all in it and watched it twice even. Then we read from the Book of Mormon with her and she told us about how she has really felt a difference and seen a Change in her life since she has been meeting with Us. She said she feels more peace and gratitude and it's really helping her. How awesome is that!? we are giving them a children's Book of Mormon stories so that they can read with their kids every night and she is really excited about that because she wants them to know how to pray and know who God is. After the incredible lesson where the spirit was so strong, we played with the boys for like 12 ish minutes. They always beg us to play at the beginning so we tell them after the lesson we will. Jaime and max are so grateful that we do. They love seeing us play with them and it means a lot to them so we do it. We dropped off a doughnut and balloon for Jullian(the 7 yr only boy) for his birthday and they were so grateful for that as well so it was cool to see. Anyway, we have a good time with their perfect almost Mormon family.
At dinner we had a bbq outside and they had these vines. So sister Groberg was like "oh can I swing on it?" And they said yes they always do. She asked me to spot her as she did, just in case. So I did.....I'll send you the video of the rest... :)
***video next week***
We ended up home early because Sister Groberg wasn't feeling so great after that. Haha so sad!

Sunday
We got to visit 3 less active families who all needed us SO badly. They broke down in tears while we were teaching them because they were so grateful we were there. It was really neat to see their love for the gospel and their desires to come back to church.
At church we talked about how we can make the sacrament more holy which was really interesting and good to think about.

Monday
So I went to the Chiropractor again! So he gave me my xrays! I'll send them to you. My neck is 75% off. Awk.. So it's like way more forward than it should be and when I look down the cervical vertebrae don't line up smoothly. Look at the X-ray picture and you'll understand. He had a program on his computer that showed two lines of where it should be and where it is but I didn't get those emailed to me so I tried to make them up from memory so that's what hose are. They aren't exact but they are just from me and what he showed. Anyway, they are still cool. So he just adjusted me again and I'll go back on Thursday (next week) since Wednesday is transfers so Monday will be a crazy day preparing for transfers as always.
At night we felt like we should look up this family so we did and we met Kayla. Kayla needed the Spirit right then and so us sharing a message with her helped to really uplift her. She hasn't been to church in years but seemed to really want to go back so hopefully she will come on Sunday. She loved the message and asked us to come back and show the rest of her family. She also asked us to pray with her and write down the scriptures we used so she could find them again. The lord definitely guided us there so that was incredible to see.

Tuesday
We had such an awesome day. We went to visit a less active and it went really well. They are actually headed to California today though so we had to keep the visit short so they could pack. So we had like 15 minutes after and decided to tract around that area. So we picked which houses to go to. We knocked on two doors and both opened and both were awesome. It was so cool to teach them and just have the Lord guide us to the two people on that street that needed us right then.
We had Cleaning inspections which was really good because this place needed a deep clean. I always love when it's really clean.
Anyway, the rest of the day was Awesome. We met so many Awesome and prepared people. We had some incredible lessons And met with a lot of our investigators. For dinner we are at a less actives and they made us this delicious healthier version of lasagna. It was SO good. Probably the best kind I've ever had. He's a chef so he made it, and we are going back in two weeks to have something different!
We met some really interesting and crazy people while Tracting after dinner as well, but also got another new investigator who is so ready to learn. Ya it was just a really good day. That didn't tell you much, but just know that I love being a missionary. It's the best.

Wednesday
Today for pday we are going Fishing and having a BBQ! I'm excited. We have had a lot of BBQs lately so i love that.


This week I studied family prayer a little bit! At church we talked about how we should pray for our crops and animals and daily work and I thought about how dad always asks us to pray for him. The teacher asked us how many of us pray for our family members to get more work or keep up with the work that they already have and not many people raised their hands. I just thought it was cool to know that dad has always taught us to pray for him and the work he has so that concept wasn't foreign for me. In the October 2014 General Conference talk "make the exercise of faith your first priority" It says "Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life."
I am SO grateful that we had family scripture and prayer each night even if some nights we forgot. It really has made an impact on me. I'm sorry for the times where I grudgingly went  downstairs for family prayer because of homework or something lame but I can assure you that I have changed! :) I absolutely love kneeling down with families after the lesson and praying with them and feeling the power that comes from it. Prayer is the best.

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week! And Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, but especially to mine! :)

Love,
Sister Tanner <3