Hello family!!
Well, Fall is coming!! The leaves are beginning to change colors. It's so beautiful!! Except this week it was like 100 degrees and nastily humid but hey, that's okay, fall is coming!
This week was better! Things are picking up again :) except Jen had a hard hard week. Everyone pray for her please! I can just feel Gods love for her SO much.
WEDNESDAY
So last week we had our Zone activity and it was too fun. We Didn't think it would be so we only planned to stay an hour and then we ended up staying like 3 or 4 hours, so it was like our entire Pday. We all went to a members House and they had a Big yard in the middle of nowhere with lots of Apple trees and a big barn and such and just ate lunch and played outside. We played blow darts, baseball, soccer, and had some apple toss contests, "ya know" just a bunch of Mormon teenager and young adult fun. Haha It was really good and refreshing.
Afterwards we went to our bishops house for dinner. Throughout the week we were feeling bit discouraged. We have been trying so hard to find people to teach and we have been trying our best to be exactly obedient and we have been praying harder than ever to just find people to teach, and yet we have not had much success. Well at bishops we went over the list of names he gave us that we asked him for last week and then he went through the ward directory to find more people for us to visit and we had seen them all recently or had appointments set up with them for that week. He was very impressed. It really helped to boost up our spirits and remember that this mission truly is three fold and that we need to build up the ward and less active members as well. Not to toot our own horns but out of all honesty we were feeling so good. Humbly good that is. Haha
THURSDAY
We had a miracle line call in the morning and it was so good. At the end of the call president told us about how his son William (age 11) had a hard first day at school and how he had to eat lunch all alone because he was the first on in the lunch room and nobody sat with him. So then president gave us his number and had us all text him and tell him how much we love him. It was so cute. Imagine being 11 and getting over 100 texts from 225 ish missionaries! He's the luckiest kid ever. we were all praying for him and then he ended up having a much better day and made some friends!
Oh something that happened later in the day was we were doing look ups and looking up less active members that nobody knows anything about and one house seemed so nice and cute on the outside but as soon as we knocked we both got a bad feeling. So we waited a second to see if it was actually a bad feeling or if it was us being lazy and then the thought came that we needed to leave. So we got out of there. The Spirit is the coolest thing ever.
In the evening we went to a Relief society activity and it was so cool. It was all about addictions and protection from them within our families and just tons of things like that. She has four boys so she focused on pornography because she is passionate about that safety. This lady who researches that kind of info gave it and the spirit was so strong and it was just really cool to hear and get ideas from. It was powerful.
FRIDAY
We had MLC and it was so good! As always. We talked about a lot of ways to improve and to help our mission continually become more consecrated. I really do have the best mission. Let's be honest. It was Bitter sweet though because we talked about reading the Book of Mormon in 100 days as a mission and finishing the day of the mission wide Christmas party which is December 18th. It was sad because I won't even be here to finish and I won't be here for the mission Christmas party. Ya, I'll be home so that's cool, but so sad because this is where my heart is right now. This is where my people are. This is what I am use to now. I love it here so much. I am so so grateful I still have 3 months left. I know it will fly but I will make each second count. I make sister Standage practically run from door to door with me because our time is short and we need to talk to as many people as possible! (And between doors is really long and far so it takes a lot of time) haha
SATURDAY
We had a really good Saturday. We had breakfast with edgar and his little brother Mike. Edgar was baptized a year and a half ago and Mike was baptized this past March. They are awesome. We had a delicious breakfast at a nice and popular diner. We'll guess it was brunch because it was kinda late. It was after our studies and all that in the morning.
We did some look ups and tracted for a little while. Which felt really good. I really wanted to just tract and I was getting super anxious because we didn't have time to tract too much that day so when we did it made me feel a lot better.
We got to teach John Elliott again. He is just such an interesting fella. It went well though. His mom goes to a different church so she was just staring us down the whole time so that was awkward but hey, it's all good.
For dinner we went to the Hippens house which was SO good as always. They are so great. Two of the Brazilian missionaries came with us because one of them is the son to sister Hippens speaking partner that she got assigned to from the pathway program. It's a long story but it was so cool seeing her meet him. It was a really spiritual night.
SUNDAY
We had a nice fast Sunday. It was weird. None of our investigators came to church so that was sad...buuuut it made Sunday really peaceful and spiritually uplifting. Rather than worrying the whole time about whether we need to explain something or help them in any way, I got a chance to really sit back and just listen and learn.
For dinner we went to this families house. It was the moms birthday and the dads birthday two bdays before so it was a little "Birthday party." We had a Brazilian meal and then a cold stone ice cream cake that their home teacher (edgar) gave them.
We spent the rest of the day Tracting. Well everyone was mean or wouldn't answer. Gosh we were so set on finding someone solid too. It was another super rough week for finding. These last two weeks have been some of the hardest of my mission finding wise. It's been soo slow. It's all good though because there is a family here being prepared for us! We will find them soon!! :)
MONDAY
We had zone meeting on Monday. It was really cool. We talked a lot about giving our all and being exactly obedient, the spirit was really strong and a lot of people cried good tears..so it must have been good haha
We got to meet with another super awesome less active who hasn't been to church in many many years. We talked to him outside his house for like 40 minutes. He just kept asking questions and bringing up things. He talked about how every Sunday he thinks about church and how he knows he needs to be there. It's sad, there are just a couple things that hold him back but we were able to really bring the Spirit to him and help him remember that church is where we all need to be no matter what.
Then we started our split with the Hermanas.
I went with Hermana Pressley to her area. We first went to this FHE with this cute old couple and all the people they invited and it was the cutest thing. They picked out the songs and made dessert and then we had a little lesson about the Book of Mormon. They absolutely loved it. I guess they invite people every week but nobody really goes and so they were overjoyed when we showed up to support them.
TUESDAY
While trying to find new people to teach, we went and looked up and his lady that had stopped the Hermanas on the street a week or so ago. Well she gave them her address but didn't say which apartment she lived in. So we decided to just knock on a random door and ask if they somehow knew her and knew where she lived. Well the very first man we talked to knew exactly which apartment was hers. So we were able to find her which was so happy and exciting because a lot of times when people give us their address on the streets, it's a fake address. But this woman was different. So now they have a new investigator which is so exciting!
The whole day was in Spanish, which is fun. During studies we sang the hymn in Spanish and read the white handbook in Spanish and all that good stuff, so it was awesome. I'm practically fluent now!
After our split, Sister Standage and I headed to the church because the young men and young woman were having a combined activity and they were playing chopped and asked us to be the judges along with a member of the bishopric. So we did. It was a lot of fun. We tried a lot of weird things. They made ice cream Sunday's but since it was so hot it was more soupy haha and we had to try icecream with pickles. Never eat that in your whole life. It was so gross. There was also pepperoni, hot sauce, gold fish, French fries, nerds, and yea, stuff like that. It was interesting to eat but fun to be with the youth! And then at the end we gave them all awards so it was good!
We called Jenn after and she answered in tears. It was so sad. She preceded to tell us that she had made a lot of dumb choices the past week that she felt so ashamed of. After talking her through things for a while and using the opportunity to explain the atonement to her again, she felt so much better. We are going to see her tomorrow since she had work today. It was so cool to once again feel God say to us "don't give up on her. She needs you and she needs this gospel more than ever right now." She is so so so awesome. She has trials and some of them are a result of others and the stress it brings her and it's so sad. She just wants to change. The Atonement is the greatest blessing in the whole world! I love it :)
WEDNESDAY
Today is a hot day! But We were able to go to the mall...and I didn't buy anything! I just can't find anything good because I hate shopping when there is nothing. Oh well.
This week we have been focusing a lot on Gods love for us and our love for Him.
This past week I read the talk "The Love of God" from the October 2009 general conference by Dieter F Uchtdorf. It is SO good. He talked about how we need to love God and how we can increase that love. One thing I really liked that he said was, "No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are--and who we will become." It is SO true. We want to become like God so we need to follow The teachings he has provided us with and love him completely.
He also said "My dear brothers and sisters, don’t get discouraged if you stumble at times. Don’t feel downcast or despair if you don’t feel worthy to be a disciple of Christ at all times. The first step to walking in righteousness is simply to try. We must try to believe. Try to learn of God: read the scriptures; study the words of His latter-day prophets; choose to listen to the Father, and do the things He asks of us. Try and keep on trying until that which seems difficult becomes possible--and that which seems only possible becomes habit and a real part of you"
I love that because at times it is hard. We make mistakes. But we can keep trying and God will keep loving us no matter what. The gospel is good and is true. I love being a member of Gods true church!
I hope you have a great week!! I love you! Xoxox
Love,
Sister Tanner <3
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