Thanksgiving Week and Chicken Feet

Well Thanksgiving was great, We started out by playing Futbol Americano with the English ward then we left after a few fun games and went to a way nice field to play soccer, I hate to group them all  in like this but  holy cow  Hispanics are really hard to play soccer with. They cry so much and complain and cheat. I know this happens in every sport with who ever you play with but its bad here haha.

 Well we washed up and went to a dinner with the Familia S they are super super cool we eat there a lot, she grew up in Arizona and is very American and he is very American speaks English has lived here awhile so it was the typical turkey dinner with potatoes stuffing rolls pie and salted margaritas! we left there and went to another dinner appointment with some other members who have son on a mission in Idaho. We took the train and had fun talking to all the people on it in Spanish or English didn't matter its just fun. They cooked us a really good turkey and we had rice with corn in it and salad with lime on it and coke. I try to stop drinking soda but that's all Hispanics drink so i have no choice!

 We did service for a member named N I've talked about her before she is one of my favorites here she has a 5 year old daughter named K. We painted her house but first we had some fun and painted our names and pictures on the wall before we painted over it. Her sister in law is a member as well she asked what we wanted for dinner Elder Cowley half joking, half serious said Patas de pollo (chicken feet) she laughed and even her husband from Mexico said eww we don't eat those. Well we show up and she thought it would be fun for us to try something new so we ate patas de pollo the pictures will explain it all, Its not gross just something i would NEVER ask for! She says from now on every week when we eat there we will get to try something new (yay...ewww) Hispanics eat gross things like Menudo (cow intestine soup) Pansa (cow stomach) Chicharone (pig skin not fried) so it will be interesting. The funny thing is she does not even like that stuff ,she just thinks its fun!

 We found 6 new investigators this week so that is a huge blessing because we kinda had to drop a few of ours that we were teaching, they just were not progressing or they disappeared. ....that happens  a lot.

Elder Heimuli is the Bomb. His mom is too, she sent me spam and corned beef like my two favorite things!! We have so much fun all the time, all of our lessons start with people just laughing because we are such goof nuts and weirdos!! I love it!

MMMM Chicken Feet

 Love Tanner

Thanks to Elder H's Mom

Elder H eating a chicken foot for Thanksgiving

 Tanner didn't write much today so I borrowed some pictures from Elder H's blog that his mom keeps up to date. Thank goodness for missionary moms! Tanner did say that chicken feet are not so tasty. The missionaries played soccer and football then went to member's houses for meals.

Elder H and Elder C with matching Cardigans. Aww cute

Thanksgiving Day activities

   

Gladys Can Sing!

We were not able to do a whole ton this week because we were at the Gladyss Knight SUV firesides since thursday. Basically there from 1 pm until 11 or 11:30 everyday, all weekend. We ended up getting almost 1500 refferals from the show, Which means we will be doing some english work.

 The show was incredible! Gladys Knight directs a choir and they blow everyones mind. And then she sings and blows everyones mind even more! She is set apart as a world missionary for doing this choir. The spirit literally hitss you like a wave once they start singing. But I have to say my favorite part was the jumping and clapping a yelling and praising Jesus in a whole different way. Church is going to seem so boring now!

 Elder Heimuli and I were one of 7 companionships asked to help with the show.They asked the "people persons to do it" so It felt pretty cool being picked out of almost 200 missionaries to do this and be envolved in it in this way, got to shake her and her husbands hands a couple times so that was pretty sweet! We had to walk up and down the line talking to everyone (the line was so big, over 1000 people) We gave out a pamphlet that talks about the choir and in it, it has a card for their address so we can bring a "free Gift" book of mormon, cd sample and a restoration dvd.

Elder C and Elder Heimuli at the Gladys Knight Fireside

 So for 3 days i talked to thousands of people and now I have no voice and have a super bad cold... so thats super awesome! But it was totally worth it. The purpose of the choir is to introduce people to the church, and so Gladys can make some "real music" cause lets be honest our hymns are pretty boring, beatiful, but boring. Her husband Will Mcdauhle (dont know how to spell it) tells the story of how they met and how he came to join the church then bears a very strong testimony (mostly aimed at african americans) Then at the end gladys bears hers and tells how she joined and they basically tell everyone that they now have to true knowledge and they need to do something about it and its up to them but now they know the truth so they will be held accountable for it.

 This was one of those life experiences that I will remember forever. It was so awesome!

Dad glad to hear you got an Elk, what did it score?? Can't wait for the pictures! Glad you made it out okay!

Hope everyone is doing good! Love tanner

They Finally Came!

NOT EVEN EATING AT MEMBER'S HOUSES WILL HELP THEM FILL THESE SHIRTS OUT.

Well first off i should tell you about out "Downtown drug adventure" We went downtown last week for P-day in normal clothes and well Apparently two young men walking downtown look like they want drugs, 4 people asked if we wanted to buy and 1 guy asked if we were selling! haha... not a normal experience you would think to have on a mission but then again I am in downtown Atlanta so i imagine about anything is possible.

 This week went really well. We have been focusing on using members in out work, that members are the key to things progressing in all areas of missionary work here. Elder Heimuli and I put together these "Missionary Packets" just a couple teaching folletos and videos a book of mormon and tarjetas for the members to use to share to gospel with friends and family and not having to come up with it on their own. We have been visiting each member in our area teaching them the restoration and then giving them the packet and asking for their help in finding and teaching. So far it has been going really great we have visited 4 families and they all reacted really well and though it was a great idea.

 We also need members involved in teaching our investigators and the Menos Activos in our area. The Familia F that i have been teaching and trying to get to come back to church since i first got here last transfer has been making excuses since i got here. He does have a really hurt back We understand that but he has 7 kids and a wife, they all need church. We decided that we needed a member to come with us a teach the family. Members can say things that we can't they have an influence that we don't have. The member we took served a mission, is from mexico and just a solid great guy. He helped us out so much. The next time we went over two days later the family had a completely different attitude, He said "If i am in the way to God (meaning driving to church) then i know he will take care of us and we will be okay, we need to go to church" his wife who is terrified to drive even said if his back hurts to bad to drive she will drive...But we found this super great lady E (a member from the english ward who loves to help the spanish missionaries even though she knows no spanish at all) she drove them to church, so after about two months of going over two to four times a week and teaching and helping and doing everything possible they are finally going to church! I have no doubt it is because we have started using members in all of our work. It all started by sitting down together Elder Heimuli and I at the begining of this transfer and praying for what we needed to do in this area. Well Revelation is real I can tell you that. This transfer has by far brought me the most happiness out of the whole time I have been here. Elder Heiuli and I are on the same page in all things and work hard all day and have a blast doing it. The work is a little slow right now because we are focusing mostly on the members but i know that towards the end of this transfer and the transfer after this one, this area will be so busy. Right now we are doing all the actual hard work. Mapping, Looking for potentials, Going through all the less actives in our area and seeing who still lives there and who has moved. Its a lot of work but I love being busy!

Hope everything is going great at home. Hope Dad gets that Big Bull... Can't wait for elk jerky

Love Elder Charlesworth

So glad I'm not a greenie anymore!

We got 5 new spanish elders last week at transfers. Because there was so many I lucked out and Elder Heimuli came to Chamblee with me and it has been so great....Except for me getting the flu for a couple days, that was a little less fun. But other than that it has been fantastic, We are both on the same page of what we want to do with this area and have been working hard, basically started over with the map and other things. Mapping for 3 hours is so lame but Heimuli and I always seem to make it fun! I'm just super jealous of his angelic singing voice.

 We went to a Quince which is a fancy way of saying a sweet 15 party, huge deal for hispanics. It was fun but all the dancing and really fun stuff started at 10 and we had to leave at 8:30 to get home in time. They did a Catholic Mass ( It was a part member family) they do a ceremony for the girl who is turning 15. The Priest who did it was from spain and instead of saying "sss" sound in words they say "thh" so its kind of hard to ltsten to if you are not used to it haha, its like speaking spanish with a lisp but all spanish people do it. (spanish as in from spain.)

 Glad to hear Dad got his spot, I'm excited for you I hope that you get a big one and I'll be waiting for some elk jerky!

Don't have much time today things are going great here. Have a ton of work we need to do for the rest of this transfer.

Love you all Love Tanner