She was literally going to wet her pants.

Hi Family and Friends,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TAKE A FAMILY PICTURE!

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

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

Love,
Sister Tanner <3

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