Transfer Surprise

Elder's are so easily entertained

Sooooo....remember how I thought that I was going English? Well they pulled a big one on me and they kept me Spanish. I thought for sure i was going english because they told me that I was staying zone leader and being transferred. Well turns out they turned my old area Stone Mountain into a zone leader area and sent me back and now i have a new companion who i get to train to be a zone leader. Yep I'm back in the Chamblee Branch for the THIRD time hahahaha. I'm not complaining though I love it here. I really do miss the Shenandoah branch though. I loved it there.

Watch your head Elder Charlesworth

Family from the Shenandoah Branch

 It was a great welcome here though. On Thursday we went over to someone I had taught and got baptized right after I left and was not able to come back. She now lives with Alex and another member that we helped activate when I was there last. They are doing so great!!! They do "family prayer" together every night. Read together and do Family home evening each week. We also met up with someone else that I found last time I was here. He was baptized shortly after I left as well. He came out of his car and gave me big hug. He is so legit. He showed up to our lesson with his white shirt and tie on and his scriptures. He got baptized only like three months ago! What a stud! We went and taught someone else that I found  last time I was here. Her name is Marta she is the one with twin girls. When she opened the door she did a double take and her little girls came running out to greet me. She told me she was very happy that I was back and then as we sat down she told me she wants to be baptized!!! We were having a great lesson when suddenly this man walked in and ruined it by trying to argue with us just for the sake of arguing. It was cool though cause Marta stood up for what we had been teaching her and basically told the guy he was wrong and that she believed what we taught her and what he said didnt matter to her. She later also texted us and apologized for him. No big deal... that happens all the time. Its really hard for me to hold back and not tear into them with the bible. I've been really good and keeping my cool, smiling and telling them to read and pray about it. Dang thats hard sometimes its so easy to prove them wrong, with the same bible they are trying to use against us I can prove it all to them...But that really does not go any where does it? If they don't have a witness from the Spirit it means nothing and does no good for them. The Spirit really is the most important part in missionary work

 This week must have been a test of my patience when someone tries arguing. We were teaching a family when there came a knock at the door. 3 people came in, one came over and set his Bible on the table for us to see....yep he was a pastor from another church and two other people. He asked the typical thing that most of them do. "tell me about Joseph Smith" then did the typical thing and interrupted me half way through. He was trying so hard to pick a fight. I nearly lost it on him. He quoted scripture after scripture and said nothing to do with what what he was trying to prove. So I just bore my testimony about the church and the priesthood authority and told him to pray about it. (he's Evangelical, they think the holy ghost is the same thing as authority) and then I asked to bless them with a prayer and we left. Well no real damage was done by them thank goodness cause we saw that family last night and they welcomed us in and the wife was actually more open than she was before. We were expecting the worst and got much better haha.

 

 Church was great! It was full, everyone was so friendly and nice and welcoming me back. One of the coolest things in the world though is when your recent convert comes up and gives you the biggest hug ever. Kenny a guy that got baptized 3 days after i left the area and literally cried when I left saw me as he was walking in late and stopped dead in the aisle and stared at me for a good 30 seconds. Afterwards he came up and wrapped his arms around me. He is looking so good! He shaved his nasty little chin scruff and was in a white shirt and tie. Such a cool sight. Sitting there next to his wife and new baby. I have been blessed to just see a couple fruits of my labors and it made every thing worth it. As sad as I was to leave my last area this made it all worth it. To see the change that the Gospel has in the lives of people is so worth every hard day. A day like yesterday is more powerful than even 2 weeks of the worst days ever! Clearly I have been sent back here for a reason, and with the little time I have left I need to figure out what that is!

 

Have a great Thanksgiving. I love you all

 

Love Tanner

Busy is good

This was a great week! BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!....We were only in our area for like 2 of the 7 days. 

We went on exchanges with some Elders down in Thomaston, its about 65 miles away from us. I went with one of our District Leaders down there and it went so well!!!!

I had to go do two baptismal interviews for them and on our way we stopped by a mormon.org referral. We had one of the most amazing lessons I have ever been in. This email will not do any justice to the experience and the Spirit that was felt there! He is an older man who is a Deacon in his church and said he was comfortable and he had accepted Jesus as his personal savior so at first we thought oh he just wants to talk the bible. We continued to talk with him and did whats called beginning teaching basically it is just setting expectations of what we do as missionaries. After he responded well to all that we said we prayed and began to teach him the restoration. He pull out his bible (one of 9 he has around the house so he can read whenever he feels the urge) and his note book and took notes. We taught about the apostasy and how Christ's church fell and he loved it, it made so much sense to him. We then went through the Joseph Smith story. After the first vision and the Spirit was burning inside his home he said "confirmation" so I invited him to be baptized by someone who holds the authority of god and he said "amen" we continued to teach and introduced the Book of Mormon and he said " I read about that on mormon.org and I'm anxious to begin reading it" he committed to read it daily. I then invited him to be baptized on the 24th of November, He accepted and asked how often the elders should come by to get him ready. We said at least 2 times a week if not more and he said come everyday if you want I'm retired and i'm ready to learn. He asked about where the church was and said that every time he drove by he felt his heart turn towards it like it was calling him. We blessed him and his home with a prayer and left him with tears in his eyes. It was an amazing experience!

The Lord is preparing his children for the gospel. I can promise you that!!!

The next day was not near as good. I took off with the same Elder on bike and we started tracting when we got a call that was very broken up. Elder........car.......broken bumper..... cross streets.... hurry.... so we took off on our bikes and made it to our companions about two miles away who had just been t-boned. Not exactly the news you want to get. No one was hurt the car was wrecked pretty bad but no injuries not even whip lash! Good thing they are elders hahaha.

we got it towed and a very nice senior couple came and got us fromThomaston. Which is in the middle of no where with no cell service hahaha. 

The next day we did a Zone Training meeting it went great! President and the AP's came. Elder Anderson and I tried to direct a lot of conversations and communications and get everyone involved by using the church's new teaching program which is using smaller sub groups to discuss things and then have a spokes person talk about the findings. It went really well we all enjoyed it! 

Saturday we had a baptism!!! R was baptized and he was so excited all week he keeps telling us can't Saturday get here already!! This week is so long, i'm so ready for this! A lot of the branch showed up and it went great. Elder Anderson Baptized him and I confirmed him in sacrament meeting the next day! He is so solid and such a good guy. He was interviewed to get the priesthood next week and is studying and loving what he is learning. 

May the Force be with you- The Griffiths family

Saying goodbye to this branch has been hard. This is probably my favorite area. Things really got going here we have two baptisms set up in two weeks and many others who are very close. The Branch has been giving us their friends to teach and helping us out a lot. When I told the Branch President I was leaving even though Elder Anderson is going home he said he's calling the mission president hahaha. We told the high council man over missionary work in the stake Brother Griffiths about it  and he said the same thing. He invited us over for dinner last night. They are such a good family. They are both from Oregon and know the Ainges  actually. They love Star Wars so we had light saber battles. They are such an impressive family I was so glad we got to work with so many stake leaders as Zone Leaders, we got a lot more opportunities to meet so many other people than we other wise would not have. They are one of those families that just gets it, they live and share the gospel.

This Branch is so great and now I have to move on to other places,in English, which will be a big change. They won't tell me where I'm going all they said is I'm staying Zone Leader and need to go take care of some things. I am really sad but looking towards new opportunities that the Lord has for me.

I love and miss you all!

Something about that southern food.

love Tanner

99!

This week was fantastic!!!! Such a good week. Everything is falling into place now.

Atlanta temple

We have been teaching a newly married member's husband and he will be baptized this coming Saturday the 10th! It has been such a treat to teach him. He really just wants to learn and change his life. He is from Puerto Rico! He married the granddaughter of a Emeratis 70 that lives in our branch Hno. Sanches. So he is in good hands when we are not there. Hna. Sanches reminds me so much of Grandma Charlesworth!!!! SOOOOO much its literally makes me double take every time we are there. The way they look,dress,cook and help and love everyone! She is just the sweetest little lady! We have spent a lot of time over there teaching "titto" and its been so great. Makes me miss home a tiny tiny bit though!!

Yesterday in church for the first time EVER we had to bless more water for sacrament because we ran out. We added it up and based on the cups that were used there were 99 people. Normal attendance when i first got here was about 45-50 on a good day its doubled!!! We had a bunch of investigators there, Less actives a lot of people. And we even have active members that are out of town!

What a problem we had right, so many people we had to bless more cups!!!!

The members have really gotten on board! They are giving us referrals, inviting friends over to have us teach them. This is how missionary work should be! Just last night we went by a members home and she had friends there and said. "elders I have promised them a book of mormon for a few days now and have not gotten it to them can you give them one and explain it to them" So we taught the restoration and then Blessed them with a prayer that the end and then We gave their 8 year old daughter a priesthood blessing because she has been struggling in school. Everyone was touched and we testified to the father that as the leader of his home and when he is baptized he can bless his children like we just did.

 We are looking forward to what this week brings. We will be running crazy busy all week! Even get to go up to the temple in Spanish on friday!!!

Love you all, hope everything is going great.

Love Tanner

BYU!

Thanks Coach Dupaix!

Mom note- We were lucky to get a first hand report that Elder Charlesworth is doing fantastic. One of the BYU coaches,Bro Dupaix lives in our ward and was kind enough to take Tanner a package and snap a picture.I received this picture just a few mintues after it was taken. Yes it is a mom thing, but it made me so happy. Bro Dupaix reported that Tanner looks great.

The View from the top

Here are some pics from the game!!! I had a blast! 


BYU!!! So that was basically an awesome game. What's funny I'm sitting next to the mother of number 81 a receiver from Georgia Tech. They are planning a trip to the game next year and I told her I'm from Utah and so I'm helping her plan her trip. 

Elder Anderson and Tanner

 

Elder Heimuli,ward member and Tanner. Check out the Elder in the background
Is that appropriate missionary behavior

That game was great!!! BYU destroyed.
Other than the pick 6 and the kick off return The game was nearly flawless. I was very happy about it!!!  Still not impressed with Rylie Nelson!!! I mean come on! BYU has NFL grade receivers and an incredible running back and they can't even hardly use them! Oh well they won. Finally did something with the offense. The Defense only allowed 3 points which is pretty great! I had a great time. There were only a couple Mormon haters on the corners on our way to the game. Clearly they had no idea what they were talking about hahahha. It was so funny. We just smiled and walked away. I almost started laughing out lot because they did not do any research hahaha. But apparently Brigham Young is burning in hell, just so you're all aware....hahahhahaha

            This week was a good week. Kind of un-eventful other than the game. Clearly that was my highlight! 

We are coming to an end of the transfer and Elder Anderson only has two weeks left. Which means I get a new companion and oddly I'm not that excited about it. 

It was fun seeing some old mission buddies there at the game. A member from Chamblee was there with his wife so I sat by them for most the game it was great catching up! 

We have been teaching a lot of people. Even driving as far as 40 miles to teach some people. That's a long drive here in Georgia. They didn't plan the roads out at all here! hahaha. 

Things are going really good. Our Branch is growing in faith and they are really great!! Its been so fun to serve here for this time and I am looking forward to staying here! I get to stay here for at least one more transfer. I am excited about that. 

I love you all!! Brenen that is a great buck!!! I want to hear the story about it!!! 

Another Mom note. This is what Tanner was referring to. 

Brenen's first hunt. Brenen looks like a mini Tanner.

Short but sweet

Hey, Well this week was pretty fantastic. We were out busy all week. Visiting members of our zone just trying to figure out what questions they have and it was a really good time.

We had a couple really neat experiences this week that I will share.

Basically yesterday there were more people at church than I have ever seen before at our Branch!!! A family we are teaching, couple other investigators and some Less Actives came. We've been working really hard and leaving a blessing with everyone as representatives of Jesus Christ. There is a member who has a husband that was raised in an anti-Mormon church and has been hostile towards the church in the past. For some reason we have been able to get in good with him and he has been very nice to my companion and I. He showed up to church on Sunday with his wife and kids! That is against everything he has been taught his whole life. They literally teach anti-Mormon stuff to kids in Sunday school. He came and sat through the whole thing and then came up to us afterwards and happily chatted with us. I know this is a direct result from the blessing that we left in their home a  couple weeks ago. We asked him to come down and join us in the prayer before we left and to our surprise he did. We blessed him, his family and his home. Well he is now coming to church and being much more open about letting his wife and kids participate. Just a month ago they almost split up just because of the religion conflict. 

A member from our Branch Presidency told us about a problem he was having learning the new system they are using at the warehouse he works in. He said no matter how hard he tried he could not figure it out. His boss was starting to get upset about it cause its been over a month and he could not figure it out. So at the end of the lesson with him we said a prayer and blessed him. He told us on Saturday that it was like a switched turned on he walked into work and just did everything perfect. His boss even told the higher bosses that he is doing really well! He was so thrilled and said that God blesses his children.

We had a few more experienced like this. We are seeing more and more and the Branch keeps getting bigger. We are teaching a couple families and some other people and its just going great!!! 

Looking forward to the BYU game this Saturday. It should be a great time. I just hope they can pull something together this weekend and not muff it up!

Good luck on the hunts! Get a big one everyone!!!

Love Tanner

This week was a good one it went by very fast! Seems like the weeks keep going by faster. My companion now only has 4 weeks left in his mission which is hard to believe cause when he came here it was 12 weeks. Time is going way too fast. At times it sure is nice though.

 We have been working with a guy named J he goes by the nick name "chu-chin" he lives with the relief society president he is her Godson (big catholic thing) He has taken the lessons before but was just not interested at all. Well recently we have been teaching him and inviting him to do things. He has been doing them. He has been coming to church and even watched conference on his own. Hermana Medorio told us to extend a baptismal date and see what happens. So we did. We had a great lesson and invited him to be baptized probably like 7 times...allow me to explain. He kept saying how true he knows the church is and that he has no doubt that he will be baptized one day and that this is the true church its where he knows he needs to be etc... but he understands the commitment involved with being baptized and he kept saying how he does not want to get baptized and then mess up.So we'd teach something... he's respond well and so we'd invite him again...and again and again. So then we just talked and tried to get his concerns out. We found out later that he is scared we will not be able to quit smoking or drinking. He has agreed to us teaching him all the lessons again and we will teach him 3 times a week. He is coming to church by himself and actually really helps us out in our gospel principles class. He answers questions and yesterday we had a new couple there for the first time he helped answer their questions. Its only a matter of time until his faith is strong enough to come closer to Christ. he is on the right path.

Tuesday night we had an appointment with the Stake High Councilman over missionary work and his family. We talked about some things. Their own personal work of salvation efforts and after some discussion. Their concerns and feelings We all got on our knees and I blessed them with the things and the opportunities to accomplish the goals they had to invite their friends. Well we got a call Wednesday morning from Brother Griffiths( he loves stars wars by the way and is a pilot instructor) he said he had an experience he wanted to share with us. He told us that after the blessing we left with them that he prayed that night and then the next morning before entering work that God would put someone new in his way that he could share the Gospel with. He said one hour later one of his employees  walked into his office with a restoration dvd and a Book of Mormon in hand and asked if she could talk to him about it. She had a lot of questions and she got the Book of Mormon and DVD from someone else that he had invited to a fireside about a year ago. He said Elders prayer works!!! They are a great family and a huge example to the saints in the area here. They are always inviting people. More than most families do and they are so concerned and care so much for opportunities to do so. Even their teenage kids invite friends all the time. They are so great. Its been such a privilege to work with him.

Friday night we had day of nations of Dia de las Naciones. All the members make food and put on display stuff from their home country and some preform dances. It was a blast. There was over 200 people who came. Great turn out and a lot of fun! I enjoyed eating all the food the most. Where else can you get empanadas form Argentina  chicken from Colombia with coconut rice, and horchata from Mexico all at the same time???... I don't think my stomach could have been happier It was so great. I ate way too much and loved every bite of it!!!! I'll send pictures soon. Forgot my camera today. It was a great time.

F asked us if we could go watch his cross country meet so we drove out there to cheer him on. His family was not able to make it so good thing we went. We had many funny looks and many people came up to us "hey, Elders i'm a mormon, I go to this ward etc." there were about 80 schools there for this race it was a big one put on by Asics company there was one member who happens to be a coach and came over with some of her team to talk with us. After wards we heard their conversation. The girls were all asking what we were and why we dressed like this so she explained and then told them about her mormon.org profile and shared some Gospel things. Its interesting how God puts us where we need to be. We really do need to go where the people are. That's why I'm so excited for the BYU vs. GT game we were going to get a lot of people asking about us!

Sunday Elder Anderson and I were lucky and got to speak in sacrament meeting. I spoke on power in the Scriptures and then ended earlier so he could speak longer since its probably his last time speaking before he goes home. The Branch President then said some very nice things about us. He basically said that they forget most missionaries that pass through but that we make a difference there and well I wont go into detail but it was really nice and then he came up to us after the meeting and said that he meant everything he said. Its just good to know that we are making a difference!

GOOD LUCK on all the hunts go get a big one.

Love Tanner

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