Sister Kiera Tanner: We had a nice smack down...

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

WEDNESDAY

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

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

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

THURSDAY

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

FRIDAY

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

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

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

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

SATURDAY

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

SUNDAY

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

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

MONDAY

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

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

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

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

TUESDAY

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY

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

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

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

Love,

Sister Tanner <3