It was rough.

Hello!
This week was very different! It's been good though! I'm glad to hear you are all doing well. Thanks for the love and emails and pictures! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY Westin!!

This week we spent a lot of time looking up part member families and it has been so good and fun. I love it! Poor sister Standage is already wearing her winter coat and it's been in the high 50s and 60s. The poor girl is going to freeze!! Haha I'm scared for her!

ELDER ARNOLD
So like I told you last week, Elder Arnold of the 70 came to our mission. Well the first like 3 hours we had MLC(mission leadership council) which consisted of like 20 of us. Five minutes into it, Elder Arnold had Sister Standage and another sister leave who weren't STLs so that was sad but later I was thankful because she would have been in tears haha...pretty much Elder Arnold chastised us the whole time. He is intenseeeee. It was really good though. He gave us a lot of helpful and awesome tools to use. Great things are about to happen in this mission.

That night was probably one of the hardest nights though. I felt so inadequate. So discouraged. And So spiritually exhausted. It was rough. As I prayed that night I was really able to find peace and comfort through Christ. It was just really hard because during MLC there was an Elders conference and a Sisters Conference going on at the same time and those were both about how great we missionaries are. So sister Standage was on a spiritual high and I was just spiritually exhausted and so it made it hard to talk about it because we had heard different things that day. Haha it's alllll good though! Life is good! Prayer works people!

TENDER MERCIES/ MIRACLES:
#1 we went to look up Melva and Lucas yesterday because they cancelled last week but when we went, they weren't home. So we went back to the car and decided to update a couple lessons before going to our backup plan. Well during those couple minutes we were updating lessons, Melva and Lucas got home! We ended up going back and she invited us in. We got to know them more and showed them pictures of our families and then talked about what we do as missionaries. They loved it and the spirit was definitely there! At the end of the lesson Melva was like "Lucas I want you to go on a mission! Do you want to go when you are older??" Haha it was such a cool experience. She invited us back over for dinner next week and she is going to Try to come to church on Sunday! What a miracle it was that we had waited a couple minutes and then she was home!
#2 When we went to look up this less active, we found that he moved. So we had 2 extra minutes so we decided to knock the door across the street. So we did and they weren't home. But when we were leaving we saw this man who we met like 3 months ago. We met him at the library cafe and then in a parking lot somewhere another time. So that was the third time we ran into him! Super crazy. He wants us to teach him but he doesn't want to pray about it or read the scriptures or anything so it doesn't make sense. So we will see if he comes to church or prays. It was just so crazy that we saw him AGAIN.
#3 this kid in the YSA Ward named Ravy got baptized a couple months ago and so we reached out to him and found out his aunt is a member who isn't active and her records weren't even here! So we got her information and went over there on Thursday. We ended up talking to Kyanna. (Kyanna lives with her brother, aunt and uncle). Well she is 12 and super awesome. We were able to go back last night and talk with her more and invited her to the primary program so it was awesome.
#4 one of the less actives we are working with watched conference and decided to ponderize and now her whole life is like changed!! She is so cool. She loved conference so that was awesome. And then another family (the wells) watched conference and Serah loved it! She said she cried through the whole thing because it was so good. And she watched every session! Not like her at all. She hates churchy things. So that was a miracle in itself.

QUOTES:
"Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil"-Boyd K. Packer
"Obedience sometime will offend but it's the easiest to defend. " -Unknown
"Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship." -Dieter F Uchtdorf
"All men/women have their fears but those who face their fears with faith have courage as well"-Thomas S. Monson

STUDIES:
This week I was reading from 3 nephi 26 and it talked about how not even a hundredth part of Christ's teachings are written in the Book of Mormon. I thought about how cool it would be to read all about that time. Then I found this quote in the institute manual by President Spencer W. Kimball
“I have had many people ask me through the years, ‘When do you think we will get the balance of the Book of Mormon records?’ And I have said, ‘How many in the congregation would like to read the sealed portion of the plates?’ And almost always there is a 100-percent response. And then I ask the same congregation, ‘How many of you have read the part that has been opened to us?’ And there are many who have not read the Book of Mormon, the unsealed portion. We are quite often looking for the spectacular, the unobtainable. I have found many people who want to live the higher laws when they do not live the lower laws”
It's so true. We are given so much! If we want more we have to use what we already have. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that we can constantly learn from it every single day. I don't know what I would do if I had even more to try to study and learn from! I'm grateful we have what we have :)

I love you all so much! Have a fabulous day and think of me on Sunday because it's my half birthday ;) haha
xoxox

Love,
Sister Tanner <3