Old Gray Van flashback's

Well I really am pulling a blank on this week. Lets see if I can remember any of it.

We had meet the President on Thursday with the  Atlanta Zones and our zone. So we all met up at the mission office to take the trip up to Atlanta (about 30 miles) we were told to use the large mission van (felt like I was back at home in the big gray van) So of coarse I was asked to drive that big ol' thing. I don't know how grandpa could handle an RV here in Atlanta. So with 14 missionaries behind me and two other cars following we headed up to Atalanta. No  accidents or anything exciting happened on this trip. Just some laughing and good conversation. We had to drive all the way down to Griffin (30 miles below Peachtree) to drop off the elders there and then drive another 40 miles to the north east to make it for our dinner appointment, pick up the food, teach a short lesson and then drive 20 miles east to Peachtree City to make in time to teach our English class and then the Stake presidency meeting. 
The Class was great we had a couple people show up and then A stayed for a lesson and church tour afterwards. He started talking at the end of the lesson as we were sitting in the chapel. He kept making it sound like he was confused and didn't know what to do we were all getting confused at that point wondering what was going on he had always liked what we taught, seemed excited for his baptism. Well he brought it back around and made his point, and then talked about how he was inviting all his family to his baptism even though they give him a hard time for joining the church and listening to us. He is a great guy and we are excited for November 3. He came to General conference and really enjoyed it. 
 The rest of the week was pretty normal. We, like I have mentioned earlier, have been asked to bless all those that we meet with the Peace of Christ and I will tell you this....It works miracles almost everyday its been such a change here in the mission in only a couple weeks,A few days for most the missionaries. As Zone Leaders we are trying to train it and teach and show and help and guide the other missionaries so they can understand why we do it, what we do and how to do it. Its been a challenge somewhat at times because some missionaries just don't seem to get it or think they get it but don't. Its to be expected since it is a new finding tool and  new things for us here in general. I certainly have seen a difference in myself and how we act. The whole purpose behind it is to use the authority we have as representatives of Jesus Christ and bless those we contact or teach or see with his peace anything else we feel that they need. We are removing the road blocks from their lives with the authority that we carry. Truly coming to understand who we are and what we are supposed to do. Think back to the Pearl of Great Price and how Moses changed when he understood that he was created by God and was His child. If you really know who you are so many struggles in your life will go away. Just like if you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, The Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus is the Christ and through Him we are saved you know that our church is true and that any other doubts or concerns don't matter because they other things are true so we know our concerns are going to be taken care of. If we know who we are and where we come from our life just got a lot easier, not easy, easier!


Sorry this is so short its been a great week and have had some great experiences. Jack good job and the Pronghorn I want pictures and the story.

Love you all

Love Tanner

Fantastic

Hello everyone, This week was Fantastic!!! Our new Mission President arrived and we got to meet him Monday night just Elder Anderson and I went over and talked for awhile about the mission. His plans and Ideas and some recent experiences it was great. The week went on a we continued to see Miracles with B. She is staying strong regardless of the rough life she has been thrown into right now. Living the Gospel really does make life easier, well not easier but you are more able to bear it. We were outside teaching her because there was no man home and we had a wonderful lesson. We ask some questions then literally sat in silence for 3 minutes with out saying anything. Then we asked her what her next step was. What she felt it was. She said that she felt she needed to share what she was learning with others. Then we talked about the responsibility of members and that you need to testify and share and help everyone. We then asked her if she would follow Christs example and be baptized by someone with the proper authority. She paused, thought and then said yes I can do that now. She has been taught for more than a year and she keeps coming to a wall and won't go farther. Well Miracles happen. She has literally changed in a matter of days. When I met her about 3 months ago she straight up told me. "there is no way I can believe that there is a prophet on the earth today" well She asked what she needed to do to be baptized so we read the interview questions. When asked if she believed that Joseph Smith restored Christs church and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today. She said that at first she really had trouble with that but that now she really felt that it was true and that God has sent us a prophet. Don't ever give on a people. God con change them. We can't do it. We can help influence them but we can't change them.

   More miracles happened. A the guy we are teaching who is basically an indentured servant who can't get a Sunday off to go to church called us up Saturday and said hey Elders I'm off today and tomorrow come over here and teach me and get me to church on Sunday I want to go so bad, Please can you get me to church. Turns out the place he works is remodeling and was closed Sunday so he was able to come to church and He loved it!!!!! He is now looking for a new job and asked the members in Priesthood meeting to help him out so he can come every Sunday. The only reason he is not baptized is because he couldn't be active in his current way of living he has been begging us for months to help him so he can be baptized. He is one step closer now! He was even fasting with us yesterday.

 We meet with the Stake Presidency each Thursday for the Stake Presidency meeting and give them a report on the Zone. Its interesting how humble these men are. Here we are two 21 year old missionaries and they are asking us what to do and for help. We spoke about some investigators in our zone and the numbers from the past six months that we had on plot graphs and you really can see a huge difference in the past few months everything is shooting up. After some discussion we were about to leave and I just was not going to let this moment slide by without inviting them to do something. As missionaries we invite all people to do things, to make and keep commitments to help grow their faith in Christ. So I told them "as missionaries, as you know it is our job to invite people to do things" they all kinda groaned jokingly because they knew that they now had to do something hahahaha (you know how high priest are!!!, haha grandpa lake that joke was for you) We invited them to find someone to be taught in their homes by the time we meet next. We committed them and there were a couple of faithless complaints. As in " i don't know anyone to invite" We promised them that if they prayed they would be led. The Stake President who is such a wonderful man said "its all a matter of faith" and then he recommitted his counselors to do it. 

Friday we were able to go to the Temple with President Harding for a Zone leader council it was fantastic!!! Private session with just us and a couple people getting their own endowments. We met before hand in a room and discussed some things. We heard from the Temple President and then President Harding. We had a wonderful experience it was a so needed Spiritual lift. President Harding is really trying to help us understand our calling and authority as missionaries. He has challenged us to bless each person we meet with that authority and we really have seen miracles come from it. By chance Elder Anderson and I had had some experiences doing that the week before and now that we are getting encouraged to do it we know why and have jumped right on board. 

Good luck on the hunts!!! Everything is going great here I'm loving it. I expect pictures and stories

Go BYU

Life Is good!

Love tanner

The Spirit of God Like a Fire is burning AGAIN

This was not the Elder's car but it was right next to their's

This was one crazy week!!!! I don't think many missionaries have to deal with this around the world no matter where they are at!!!
 We decided to wake up at 6 to go run and lift before we played tennis and there were all these saws and loud noises. I go outside and there is a car on fire!!!!!! Yes a car. Right in front of our apartment! Turns out the arsonist struck again. This time he used a rag soaked in gasoline and put it on the tire of a car so as you can see in the pictures that car got a little bit messed up! after studies I walked outside to get something out of the car and I got confronted by the police and the fire marshal saying that he also tried to light our car on fire. He used the a rag with gasoline and put it underneath our tire. Well guess what? The Lord paid for that car so as you can imagine there was minimal damage it was slightly melted where the rag was placed so for precaution we got a new tire and life moved on. They suspect it's the ex-husband of a woman who lives below us. I've heard gun shots, seen fights, lived in some very sketchy areas and now that I'm in one of the nicest cities in America the craziest stuff is happening! There is a $10,000 dollar reward for catching this guy so its tempting to maybe camp out hahahhaa. The senior couple that lives a few buildings away has warned me time and time again that if I see him I can't attack him. Pretty sure I can take him. If he thinks a lighter can protect him from me he's gonna be wrong hahaha. I'm kidding I'll be safe!!!

 Other than that this week was pretty normal. This whole fire thing is starting to become normal as well though haha. President Harding got here on Saturday and we have yet to meet him. We had a meeting set up before a teaching appointment yesterday and the Assistants forgot so we sat there for a while called and called and then went to our appointment which was soooooo good!!! We were teaching B. I've mentioned her before. She cancelled on Saturday because she was really sick. We took this kid named Ben who leaves next month on his mission to Everet Washington Spanish speaking. We wanted to take him out a few times so he could get used to hearing spanish a little. We were teaching B and she was asking us those questions like why does God let bad things happen in the world especial why does he let little kids die if the reason for life is to get experience why do they die before they get that and questions like that. After some scriptures and some solid testimony we shared her real concern came out. The Spirit was speaking through us by this point. I don't know why I said many of the things that I said i certainly would not be saying that personally. We were bold and forward and I made her promises in the name of the Lord and then Elder Anderson asked if she wanted a blessing. I was privileged to do it. We entered her house with her a little down and left with her beaming. She said she will come to church next week and try it again (she went 6 times about 2 years ago and stopped so missionaries stopped teaching her) she didn't have a great experience she is really just looking for that feeling that she is loved and is at "home" She is coming a long great and we are excited for the promises we made to be fulfilled. 

 Thursday night we started English classes. While in the church preparing we started speaking to a woman in the Materials Center and turns out she's the stake presidents wife. We have been trying for works to get an appointment with him a( Zone Leaders we work with stake leaders) We were telling her about the success our Zone has been having a few baptisms recently and 15 more baptismal dates for this and next month. She said her husband had seen the year to date numbers and was feeling a little depressed about it. She told us to go into his office and tell him. So we did. He was thrilled and invited us back for the Stake Presidency meeting at 8. We arrived introduced ourselves and mentioned aligning priesthood keys. They said very sincerely and honestly "I have an idea of what that means but what does that really mean to "align priesthood keys" so here we are two 21 year old boys teaching the Stake Presidency what it means to align keys. What an experience it was great! They were very humble and invited us back on a weekly basis to personally give them a report about the work in the zone every Stake Presidency meeting. We talked a lot about counseling together and returning and reporting. Shared some scriptures and some experiences that blew every ones mind! haha The young can confound the wise. We certainly did not do it alone I know that our words were guided.

 Other than that its been a normal week. Out working we set up a lot of appointments for next week and we are excited for whats going to happen here. :)

Sounds like a busy week for you all!!!! Happy Birthday Kaydie jo!!! I love you!!!

Love Tanner

Pants crisis

There is something about Mondays that hit a re-start button and I forget everything that happened during the week!

 I'll tell you about the funny and or exciting things and maybe the rest will come back to memory.

On Friday we helped the A Family(probably one of the coolest families ever) paint a shed outside. We had a troop of helpers. A bunch of little kids stepping or dropping balls in the paint, trying to paint on us haha. I had someone take a bunch of pictures but, some little kids hid my bag at church yesterday and since we had a baptism right after I totally forgot to pull it out of the dark space behind the couch and the fake tree in the church lobby. So i'll send the pictures later. 

Yesterday right after Stake Conference I crouched down to pick up Elder Andersons PMG that was left on the floor and i heard this strange sound and realized it was my suit pants splitting now stop laughing and realize that I have not gained any weight I have only lost weight out here. So clearly it is not because the tortillas have gone straight to my booty! Its because my suit is getting worn out and maybe my butt has gotten a little bit bigger (which means I have one now haha) I went to member who is 16 that lives close by and tried to borrow a pair of his pants (we are 30 minutes from home or more,when we are out working) Well he has a simlar style to me. You know slim fit stuff, classier style looks nice. Well he is much smaller than I am and so when I put on his "slim fit slacks" it looked like I had just put on a pair or Sierras spandex leggings hahahaha i was laughing and so i tried a pair of normal slacks that he has and they fit great in the waist... the legs were at about mid shin so we went to plan B. Got out the needle and sewed them up enough to get us through the day. Thankfully one of the A's is a (forgot the word in english) a person who fixes clothes.. what is it like a seamier or something like that???... Well she said I give  her an entire mound of clothes to fix and she would gladly do it for me hahaha i may take her up on that hahaha! So there is a funny story for you all to laugh at. Yes i just split my first pair of pants ever! hahahaha might not be the last time I've been running and working out alot so you know i'm getting ripped hahaha!! I wake up early at 6:20 for a few extra workout minutes and that way by 6:30 im warmed up and ready to go! makes the day go by better.

 So i am pretty allergic to poison sumac! After a week of creams and benadril I still have large rashes on each arm and it look slike I have a skin disease, its just lovely!!! One arm is now peeling and the other is still covered in large red ish brown bumps that will not go away, i think i may have to go to the doctor. The funny thing is they really don't hurt or itch they just look really nasty ahhaha people constantly ask. What happened? Are you okay? Its the first thing you see haha I think its funny.

We started a Book of Mormon Challenge with F a 16 year old member and we have invited a few otheres to join. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing yesterday. While talking with F during my pants crisis we were talking about stories from the book of mormon and about how great it is and asked if he had ever read the whole thing and he said no but he's started it a few  times just never finished so we decided that together we are going to read the whole book of mormon in 2 months before Elder Anderson goes home. So that means 9 pages a day in English and 11 a day in Spanish. I am nearly finished in spanish so i decided i'd read it with F in english. We are going to text at night to make sure we are all ready and share incites or versus we liked. I'm really excited about this. We got F mom to do it with us and we are really excited about it. We have been inviting others to join. So please if you'd like to join us feel free. Anyone can do it. I would love to hear your experiences throughout. I promise that as you do this your faith and testimony will grow and your lives will be blessed you will see that everything in life will fall in its place and your testimony can become unshakable (jacob 4:6) in jacob 4:6 its uses the word we "searched the prophets" in spanish it uses a much more powerful verb it is "escrudinar" which in a way for you to understand means to get to the bottom of or investigate or to really search out. so in other words study,pray study more you know talks, other books really "search the prophets" then continue in the verse and it will tell you how powerful your testimony in chirst can and will be. So please feel free to join us. Its going to be hard 8 pages a day may seem like a lot but if you read it this fast the book comes more alive and makes more sense!!! you'll love it! So thats 9 pages a day, you have two months...if you get behind it becomes much harder to catch up so start today! The Book of Mormon is true and will you teach the doctrine of Christ! or in other words how to receive exaltation!! Membership in the church does not promise you will be "saved" it just so happens this is the only organized religion with the keys and authority to administer the saving ordinances that are required to be exalted on high! Think about that. Its more than just "I'm a mormon" being a mormon just gives you the tools, so get to work and use them.

Love Tanner

FIRE, FIRE! or The Spirit of God Like a fire is Burning

Thank goodness some elders send pictures. Stole this from Elder H's blog. Elder C Elder Heimuli and Elder  Anderson

Everything is going well here in South. Just a couple Hurricanes and storms and major humidity no big deal right? They are sending members here to the hurricane so that they can help with clean up. I heard its pretty bad? Just hearing things from other people.

How is everyone doing? Everyone settled into school yet? So Jared has his license now huh? That is neat!!!

We didn't have that eventful of a week here. Did I ever tell you all about the Fire we were in? I don't remember if i did or not that since that happened nothing else has seemed super exciting haha. In case I didnt tell you all. We were sleeping.. you know like how you do when its 3 in the morning, when suddenly we are awoken by yelling and this annoying buzzing sound that wouldn't shut up no matter how hard I tried to black it out. Then the word FIRE rang an alarm in my head and also the Fireman Pounding on our door shouting "FIRE, FIRE, get out now" so we get open the door to a large plume of smoke and try to feel our way to the exit railing. We made it out got to the parking lot and realized that something right below our apartment was on fire. We were then interviewed and asked if we have any enemies or anyone who would like to cause us hard, We answered that we are missionaries and lot of people don't like. Then after the cop left I had to get in my sarcastic answer is was killing me not to say while he was there. "well we are servants of the Lord so Satan really hates us, He probably started it" Turns out it really was arson though. They have reward signs up for 10,000 dollars on any information leading to it. If they had not come when they did we would have had to jump out the windows or off the balcony because it was right below our front door and bedrooms. Thankfully the fire station is literally 100 yards away haha. Lucky eh?

We had another zone leader council with president snow on Friday. Those are the best meetings its form 9-4 and we just sit and talk and council together the whole time. We learn so much! This month we learned and studied and talked about a talk by Elder Christoferson in the September Ensign called how to strengthen your faith in christ on page 52 (look it up) it lays out the process an investigator needs to go through in order to be converted. This does not only apply to an investigator. Hes it is directed towards mission presidents in the mission president seminar. Why do you think they put it in the Ensign though? Because its for EVERYONE! We all need to apply the Gospel Of Christ in the same way. Repent! We broke it down and talked about what we need to do as missionaries to help people take the next step in that process! Its really a great talk it literally gives you the key to missionary work and or the key to building faith in christ so that you can have power and find exaltation, Pretty neat eh? (i'm using "eh" because my companion is from Canada and they really do say it a lot!) 

Things are going really good here though. Sadly president snow is leaving soon. On the 22nd president Harding is coming to take his spot as mission president and as sad as it is to see president snow go i am excited for president harding. They snows have met him many times and talk with him often and say only good things about him. 3 mission presidents thats neat eh?

I hope you all are doing great!!!! Miss you a love you, Jared still waiting for 1 letter from you, thats all i ask buddy 1 letter. Your 16 step up and be a many and just do it hahah.

Love Tanner

Drink the Windex??

It is always so hard to remember the last week when you are already focused on the week you are in. I am will try and do my best but it seems as if I am just drawing a blank right now. 

 Its been a good week though. Elder Anderson and I have just been trying to figure out this whole Zone Leader thing as we are trying to pull our area together. We have spent lots of time doing "administrative" things and its been hard to sit in the apartment so long in the day. We have meetings and trainings to study for. Fixing up the area map and area book. Just all that little stuff that you don't like to do but if you do it makes the big things go better.

 It really has been a lot of fun though. Elder Anderson and I get along so great! its been a while since EVERYTHING was this enjoyable. All that we do we do while laughing. I think Elder Anderson is a little bit weirder and crazier than me, so for once in my life I seem some what normal hahah... Then again the two of us combined is just a bundle of strange awesomeness that I dont think anyone can be around us and be upset, they are always laughing....Unless we are teaching serious stuff then we mean business.
 
 Monday was great. We had dinner with the M and did this really cool object lesson. We took blue powerade and a windex bottle and made a switch. We pulled out the Windex first and then talked about the commandments and baptism and how it is so good at cleaning, why wouldnt you want to partake. Well everyone was obviously very hesitant to drink windex and refused. So we kept explaining and talking about how we should trust god and god said it was okay to drink the windex and that you need to. So as you could imagine no one would drink it. Until finally Sis M took a chance after a little do you really have this little of faith in god guilt trip. After she took a spray to the mouth and declared to everyone it was juice, we pulled out the blue powerade bottle and said well now do you all want some of this look its good for you it has vitamines and minerals it tastes good, it has electrolytes. They had put two and two together and no one would drink form the powerade bottle. We then explained how satan will do this when he tempts us. He makes it look so good and so fun but inside there really are things that could make you sick. It was a fun and eye opening lesson.
After that we went over to G's house. She is someone I have mentioned before. She was baptized in Mexico a few years back we found her while teaching someone else and well we were finally able to meet with her. We got to know her a bit more and then taught the restoration and challenged her to read and pray about it again. She was so happy and is really strong. She joined the church for the right reasons and to this day is still the only member. She is very excited and is so happy to have a Book of Mormon again. She left hers when she came form mexico and that was the first thing she asked for when we found her. She works at Shoneys here in town and so we didnt have a dinner appointment on saturday and we decided we'd stop in and try to see her to invite her to church the next day. She was so excited to see us and she told us that she had read and prayed again and that she showed the restoration video to her boyfriend and asked us to start teaching him soon. She really wants to come back. It was really neat.

I don't really remember much of the rest of the week. We had a lot of fun with some members he took out his guitar and was singing in spanish and just having a really good time. 

We did some service on saturday for a member and we had to cut giant tree branches from the trees around his house so they don't fall on his roof. This involved some ladder climbing and some sketchy tactics but it worked out great and we got the branches all down. and no I didnt get hurt or fall... and these are big trees out here. 

Its been really cool to work with all the English Elders as a District leader I got a small bit of that but now we are involved with an entire zone of Elders and Sisters. Sister Mortensen is from Pleasant Grove I've gone to school with her since 6th grade she is in our zone as well as Elder Russon who is from Pleasant Grove, I didnt know him but he says he knew me and saw me all the time (not so sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing ahahaha) It really has been going well and we have been learning a lot together Elder Anderson and I. He goes home in like 10 weeks. thats really crazy thats not that much time at all. President Harding should be coming in at the end of this month so I can actually find out when I'm going home hahaha. 

Hope everyone is doing well in school!!! Do your homework and listen to mom.

Love you all. Love tanner

Service is just about killing me-are you up to a challenge

Hello!!! How is everyone?

 Things are going really well here! We had a very busy week. Stuff to do in our area and in the Zone. It was a new transfer so we had people who "white washed" an area (two new missionaries in an area) and had to drive 50 miles to give them supplies because they had zero things to teach with. So that took up a large chunk of the day. We were running all over the place trying to get things done. We did some service for the C family who is so great. Such a solid family. They told us how they are having an armadillo digging stuff up so I said I'd take care of that and would get a hold of a trap and bring on Sunday. While I was about to mow the lawn. Right there on the edge of the grass part way in the driveway I had one of those sudden "spidy sense" moments I had the thought" jump out of the way." I felt like something large was on its way. I dove out of the way for no apparent reason at the moment I thought. Then realized there was a mini van a couple inches away from me at this moment. Sister Castros 20 year old daughter was trying to avoid the trash can on the other side of the driveway (they have a nice house with a very large driveway) and didn't look to see if there were any PEOPLE on the otherside. She came running out of the car freaking out feeling so bad. So of course I had to give her a hard time. My adrenaline was going, I had a racing heart. Oh wow I was litterally a couple of  inches from being under a car. We ate dinner over there last night and I kept giving her a hard time about it and her mom loves to join in with me haha. She's a really nice girl and I should probably stop and just let it go. She did alnost "kill" me though hahaha.

 Elder Anderson is my new companion. I knew him before and was so excited for him to come with me. We are very alike except he's a little weirder than I am. We are both tall and skinny and goofy goofy Elders who love to joke and have a good time. We mean business though! We really have a lot of goals and things we would like to see happen. He only has 11 weeks left so I might be in the area for a bit longer but i'd be okay with that. We had a really good Zone Leader council meeting on Friday with President Snow and all of the other Zone Leaders. Elder Heimuli was there and holy cow that Elder is doing so good. He is on fire right now I want to serve with him again, He also goes home in 11 weeks so I wont get the chance. He's grown so much and is really doing some good stuff there in his zone and area. The meeting was great. Its just that a council we talk about the zones and about what we need to do about the Gospel its so fantastic and President is so inspired we truly are blessed to have him here.

 We had some really great experiences with members this week. We are trying really hard to challenge them and grow their testimonies. There is one family that has 11 kids 2 of them are on a mission and others are married. They do have a 13 a 10 and a 7 year old still at home and 4 of their daughters live in the same street as them. Everytime we eat over there they all come. A lot of them have not been that active recently but have been growing a lot and coming to church every week the past few weeks. They are so neat. All so funny and you can just feel the friendship and love they have for each other. We have been challenging them to introduce the Gospel to someone new. This family already has done that for years. They were the first Spanish members here in Peach Tree City over 10 years ago. They are really fun to teach with all the Grandkids and kids running around. They make it fun. We can joke a bit with them but still be spiritual. We talked about Sacrifice. If you have not seen the John Tanner stroy you need to watch it. (youtube i bet) we watched the short video and then talked about the things that we can sacfrifice for the Lord. Time, missionaries, money, talents. tons of things. We all really got to thinking. This question is for you at home! Whatcan you all sacrifice for the Lord? Remember the excuse I'm busy or I'm poor or whatever does not work with sacrifice because if it were easy then it wouldn;t be a sacrifice then would it? Sit down as a family and pray and then decide something you could sacrifice/ TV or maybe go mow a neighbors yard whatever it is make a sacrifice and I promise you that blessings will come in to your life that you have no idea that God had them waiting for you. I have been making lots of sacrifices lately not only do I feel the Spirit more but i feel better, I have been blessed so much. So what can you put on the alter? in oder to receive certain blessings we need to sacrifice. First we repent of whatever little thing keeps god's power from our life (remember repentance is not always a sin it could be anything that you could do better, like read the scriptures more, pray more tell mom I love you more, help mom more. etc.) Repent, and then sacrifice you will see the blessings flood into your life! Thats my invitation to all of you. I want to hear about how it goes!

 It is going really good here. Church was great yesterday I learned a lot from the classes and got some newat revelation of soemthings I need to do. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday. Just not much time today.

Sounds like life is back in the norm. Kids going to doctors. School. No rest haha thus is life right?

I hope everyone is doing good and I want a letter form ALL of the kids this week. Jared you have not written me once I'm calling you out! I want to hear how highschool is!!!!! how you're gym is doing all that stuff. I never hear anything from Jared!

hope everything is going great.  Love Tanner