Picture time

Aug 10th 2011

This week was Fantastic. We had a Baptism on Saturday. Karina a sister to a member who last week i thought would not be ready to be baptized, I prayed so hard that she would realize the importance of it and take it seriously, well it happened she was baptized saturday and confirmed sunday. She is a fantastic young girl who will do alot of things in this life.

Oh ps I am staying in Smyrna, Elder wood is going somewhere else and I am staying here and very happy about it! The members are now on board we finally have a branch mission leader and he is sooooo on the ball! A lot of good work is about to come forth. We spent this whole transfer building smyrna's base up. there was so foundation in it or no investigator pool to work from, members were not fond of the missionaries, well I am happy we now have them on our side!!  I cant relly remember a whole lot of this past week it went by so fast! Its already been 6 weeks i cant even believe it. I find out tomorrow who my companion will be and will let you know more about it next week! I hope Katherines service went well.

I am sorry this is a short one this week but we spent most the week getting karina ready for baptism, I spoke at the service about baptizm and how it is just the gate or "puerta" and its our job to stay on the "camino" and endure to the end, i read most of it because i needed them to understand my spanish but i think it went pretty well. well for a first time speaking atleast haha.

 So let me tell how the end of last week went for me you all will find this just humerous!

 We do lots of service now, thats why the members are back with us. SO we cleaned out this ladies yard i was going to town with a mechete on a magnolia tree that was super over grown with 3 foot high grass all around it, elder Heimuli had a chain saw and was cutting the bigger ones i got to do the hard work and use a machete, well turns out there was tons of poison Ivy in the tree and the gras i was standing in, elder heimuli got it on his fase from the spray of the chain saw that night it starting coming up all over my legs yeah super fun!! So sunday we went and helped another investigator move as i was carrying a table a bee flew up my sleeve and stung me right on the arm!! I dont know why but they have it out for me, i do nothing and they always attack me! my arm is still swollen and sore haha, super great weekend though baptizm makes it all worth it!!! well I hope you all are doing great I miss you and love you

Love tanner

Last week in the MTC EVAAAA

This week has been great! I´ve seriously been working my butt off, i´ve lost another 5 pounds! so glad to get out of here and get some weight back on! Physical therapy kicked my butt this week! he gave me all the exercises to do so i dont need to go in any more, they are tough i can hardly do them with my right arm but it will get better the more i do it.

Hosting this week was really fun! i helped like 8 elders one is going to villahermosa so that was kinda cool!

I had the opportunity last night to give an elder a blessing with the zone leaders. he is struggling really bad with medical stuff and stuff going on at home. I got thinking during the blessing and it was pointed out to me that maybe one of the reasons i was held back for so long is to be here for him. he comes and talks to me everyday looking for some sort of support and having been in his situation before i am able to help him a lot, i share scriptures about faith...trials and the importance of getting and using priesthood blessings. it was a total 360 after the blessing he had a smile on his face and a literally skip in his step it was as if he had the burden lifted off his shoulders. It was such a blessing for me to be an answer to someones prayers i think that builds my faith more than having my own prayers answered knowing God trusts me enough to help the ones he needs to help. Its beena  great week, only a few more days left and I´m out of here and this is the best time of the year to be in the MTC whole first presidency, and the 12. tonight and sunday are going to be epic devotionals! Love you all love tanner

sorry my spelling and phrasing is probably horrible Ive not spoke english for 4 days!!!!!

Happy Fourth of July

July 5 2011

This week has been interesting! haha i wrote you a letter with my passport i sent home that tells a little about it. We white washed in and the apartment was a wreck the map is on the floor with nothing on it the area book is big but out of date, there is lots of work to do here we are just spending time organizing everything so we can be more effective. fourth of july was fun it was p day so we went to the mall i got a cool braves shirt, i had to its my team and i'll be here a long time haha.

 we went to a cook out for someone who is moving back to Guatemala and had real mex bbq, so in other words like "300" chickens were cooked refried beans with pig skin hot chillis and tamerine drink, all coked on a coal stove.

then we played basketball with someone we are doing service for and trying to let us teach his family he is 18 his name is angel we have been helping his family do major yard work and building trust inviting him to do stuff with us.

it rained so hard! and lighiting struck like a block away and got some people! we were eating outside when it all happened, it basically flooded it was crazy! it rains so hard for like 20 minutes then its like it never even happened! there are probably more trees here than Oregon Sierra Dont get mad!!! but its true! and no mountains! I've not got a chance to go fishing, Even though I'm in Atlanta there are lakes and ponds all over the complex the other spanish missionaries are in up the road from us has a lake so i need to get a pole soon and hit that up!

we have alot of things planned for tonight. the spanish and mission here in Georgia has been struggling, so we have set high goals for this transfer and trying to find new ways to do things because the old ways things were done here in Smyrna were clearly not working, Its been Awesome I;ve been super busy. Nolan Haycock one of my really good friends from spanish fork is the new assistant and picked me up when i got here he gave me a huge hug and it was a really great way to start things out here.

well like i said i sent a little and i'm trying not to repeat myself from that to much love you all!

well the site to write my president is down so i have a little extra time!

how was the lauou i dont know how to spell it haha! hoe is school, or i mean how was school your doen now right? yeah you can send stuff directly to me from the address i sent you in that package, the mission office stuff i wont get until transfers which is 5 weeks away haha

yeah i was trying to think of stuff i'd ask for my bday and the ipod shuffle sounds the best, i dont know how much the new ones are but they are so cool and touch screen and there is a wrist band that you can get that you can turn the shuffle into a watch haha i dunno how much but i just htink they are awesome and small, there are so many cool hmn remastered like to guitar and chill hymns i dinno its way cooll i had no idea! also could you send me a few space bags, i dont have the weight lomits anymore and it would make packing way easier for transfers and what not!! yeah so basically all i can think of is music haha, its so nice to have while drving and studying or eating as long as it is inviting of the spirit of course! do some research find some awesome church music it does not have to be mormon but there are some good mormon ones! i love you all

tell guppy i miss here! and tell everyone else to stop being lazy and help you around the house i know i'm not one to talk but i'll say it anways,

hows dad? not heard anything from him or much about him haha just that he lit off my old fireworks

Love tanner

Aug 2 2011

ts SOOOOOO HOT here, I literally have never sweated this much, luckily i don't sweat a ton so its not been super horrible compared to other elders here. We went to a wedding on saturday. Hispanic weddings are so crazy and different, wild and fun! I wanted to Dance soooo bad! but couldnt because clearly that would be against the rules. They also dont wear clothes to parties, even the members lose standards for parties haha. latin life... so different.

 We gave alot of blessings this week. alot of stuff happened. this girl visiting a member, she is from utah got bit by her uncles pitbull in the face, it was horrible i saw it.... stuff torn, hanging needed so many stitches. the doctors did a really really good job. she is in active and during the blessing she started to cry the spirit was really strong so i'm hoping that maybe this was a push back to the right direction.

we are supposed to have a baptism this saturday. But i have a feeling it wont happen we have not had a chance to meet with her because her uncle was in the hospital, her cousin is the one who got bit and now her brother needed sudden surgery for his lungs or something. That family has had it rough this month so it might get pushed to the next saturday. we are doing everything we can to help the family and get her baptized this saturday! I will send pictures of the wedding and stuff from out here hopfully this month. Ive only taken like 5 the whole time so I'm sorry. just busy haha.

Jared, Brenen good job on getting hunter safety going. this Fall is gonna be hard for me not going out with ya'll.

 Not a whole ton has been going on other than the regular teaching, knockig, finding, we have got a few new Investigators so thats good. we spent our whole Pday helping a family move, the are old Invest, but want to start taking lessons again. the father said his paretns, sisters, brothers whole family are members. so jokingly I asked "why are you not a member" he said he was a stupid kid but now he looks back and now that he has kids he thinks he needs that change in his life and the gospel to be a good father, the family has had a big change. they just lost thier house to forclosure and needed to move into an apartment. We are going to start teaching them again and if they really are as ready as they we can baptize a family of four, families is what this church needs to grow and especially the spanish branch here, needs families to be strong. We are focusing alot of effort in working with members all of the in active members are recent converts..... there is a problem there. there is no point in baptizing if the branch is not there to take them in and befriend them, so thats where most of our efforts are going is to strenghten the branch. they are headed in the right directon. they have had alot of reorganization and it seems to be doing some good. and we finally got a Branch mission leader!!!!! we have not had one til this week he starts so we will have someone to help us! he is Hermono Brown he is the one from Venezuela? he is the gospel essentials teacher and is ver dedicated to be a good mission leader.

transfers is the 10th so just send any letters and things to the mission home address this week because i dont know if i stay or go. I would love to stay here we just got things going.

Give my live to Aunt Katherine and the Dukes. Love you all

con amor

Elder Charlesworth