Last Week Before Transfers

Hello Everyone, 

 I hope that everyone had a very filling thanksgiving and played lots of football, ate lots, slept a lot, ate a lot, played a lot of football and ate a lot and slept good ;) ha-ha, its super funny to explain to the people here why we celebrate thanksgiving and what we do this day, I just tell them what I just said, we play sports mainly football, we eat all day and we sleep, it’s one of the best days in the year because your with your family! I loved the pictures of you guys, bunch of turkeys, pilgrim and Indians :) we didn’t do a whole lot here in Mexico we just talked about it, but it was chill :) 

This week has been kind of crazy and a little bit hair pulling kind of week ha-ha but it’s part of the mission, it’s such a funny thing, because the stress in the normal world is super painful and sad, but the stress in the mission is a lot of times a boost that we need to be better or it just makes us laugh, because literally whatever could happen in the mission happens a lot of times and the only way to get through it is with a smile and a little chuckle because that the only thing that you can do, The mission really is something special and it is the best two years, I feel that my faith and love for my Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ has strengthened so much and I have gained a love and appreciation for my family too :) 

But to explain why this week was so interesting, we had a problem this week with finding our investigators ha-ha literally, we would make appointments with them and we would get to their house and nobody answers and don’t get me wrong it’s like that a lot of times in the week, but literally it was almost everyday all day this week. I was speechless I really didn’t understand! So it was kind of hard to find the people to teach but we still got through and had two people in the church this week, but before I talk about that. I think it would be important to say that for the second time in my mission I almost caught my hair on fire for the stinking water heaters here in Mexico!! This week we lost our hot water that just a week earlier we received... I was ticked!! ha-ha so these little stinkers are super dangerous it’s a little bowl of electricity that heats up the water before it leaves the shower head and well here in Navajoa lots of time there’s a water shortage, and that’s what happened this day I was showering and  very little water was coming out and so it would come out super-hot!! because it had more time to be in the "electric bowl" ha-ha but eventually this little bowl got super-hot and I started hearing a whistle like the whistle a pot of boiling water makes and the whistle was coming from the holes in the shower head and the "electric bowl" on the shower head was super red! And I started hearing cracks and realized that the little bowl was about to blow up so I turned off the water so it would stop heating up and as I did the electric bowl starting throwing out a ton of steam and smoke and it’s been like that for a week and we have been showering with a bucket!! we warm up water with our electric grill and we fill up a  5 gallon bucket and we use a cup to throw water on us  and that’s how we shower in the morning, because water doesn’t come out of the shower head now, ahhhh it has been really interesting we have to wake up early to heat up the water but its kind of funny ha-ha we  should have hot water in this week hopefully it happens :) ha but we are doing good because this week found a guy that is super cool :) his name is Balvanero  and he was a pastor for and Christian church, but left because he didn’t like the idea of paying tithing as an income to the leaders so we taught him and he said he would come to church but the crazy thing that happened was the prayers he said to finished we asked him to say the closing prayer, and he started good , but slowly his voice started getting louder and louder and then he started rapping! the guy rapped his prayer I was amazed and had to keep myself from dancing because it was really cool the rap because it was a prayer!! ha-ha he went to church and really liked and we are going to keep teaching him and we will be sure to teach him how to pray this week ha-ha :) I had to do a baptismal interview this week for the sisters they are going to baptized this Saturday, but I really strengthen my testimony of the Holy ghost, in this interviews we have to be in tune a lot with the spirt so we know what to do, and it truly lead me to know what to do and say because the brother has had a lot of problems but the spirt really did guide me to know what to do he wasn’t able to be baptized last week I had to postpone the baptism from last week to this week, but I know it was the right thing to do, because I truly could feel the spirt and helped me to find out what the problem was with the brother I have also felt the spirt really strongly this week with the new video the church has made " A Savior is Born" invite everyone to see it truly is so special and I felt the spirit so strong! how beautiful is it to know that Christ came for us that he truly is our Savior and our best friend and is always here to help us and has given us a guide the Holy Ghost, Let us all look for the Holy Ghosh this week he truly does give us so much strength and help like it says in the scripture John 14:26-27 what a blessing it is to have a member of the trinity with us always if we look for him :) I’m so grateful for the guidance he has given to me in the mission and the help and comfort I have felt and I know that it is the same for all of us he is a guide in life and will help us but we have to look for him and I now that if you guys watch this video you will find him and he will touch your hearts :) I love you guys so much Thanks for everything https://www.mormon.org/christmas

 Love Elder Tanner 

Christmas. Mormon. Org 

 

The Weekly Tanner

Hello everyone :) How's it going ha-ha I'm so sorry for the letter last week I know that it was super bad, haha but this is going to be a good one, A lot of stuff has happened in these two weeks, I really don't know where to start, but I think I'm going to start with last week and work my way up to today, 

Last week in church we had to give talks all the missionaries in the ward I chose to talk about tithing, it is really kind of a struggle here, the bishopric told me to be direct with them.... And I was very direct haha, I learned a lot too as I was studying about tithing it truly is a commandment of God to try us of our faith, but it is the commandment that has a direct promise and that is to have food in our house, sounds like a good promise to me ;) haha but other than that I talked about how it is a test to see if we can support the trial of faith and give what we earn, but we have the promise that if we do we will be given the eternal life and be able to live in the presense of God. I told them that if we can not live this earthly law how will we be able to support the celestial laws, we truly have to prepare ourselves for the kindom of heaven through obedience to all the laws and commandments and paying tithing is one of the ways that we can do that :) I'm so grateful for the example of my parents who have always taught me to pay tithing first and then a toy from the toy store or a cheeseburger from Glades ;) we have truly seen the blessing through our desrie to obey this commandment :) and my ancestors also through the example of John Tanner.

We had The family Garcia Rios show up last sunday, they came even though the husband had DENGUE!! he really wanted to come they got there late but they came! even though they were sick it was so cool, and they loved it! It is truly such an amazing familiy!! we are so blessed to have found them the Family Garcia Rios has 5 people in it Hector, Claudia, and 3 Daughters, I'm going to talk about them a little bit later... 

But last sunday something super crazy happened, we got a call from the sisters, and they told us that their converts in the ward had just lost their son and they needed help and the mom needed a blessing it was super sad we went speed walking to the house of the family and found the sisters there. They told us that the son who was just 23 years old was attacked and killed the night earlier. They took him off  his motorcycle and cut his neck , we had no idea what to say we were astonished that it had happened they told us that the family was super sad, they had the casket in the house because they do funeral services a little different here, they don't have services in a funeral home. They take the casket to their house and they have the viewing their, so we got into the house and it was packed with people crying, yelling and all sorts of stuff praying, singing, but we found the mom in her room, trying to cry herself to sleep, we asked her if she would like a blessing and she said yes. We gave her a blessing and her 3 other kids and her husband too, it truly was such a sad scene this young man had a wife and a 2 year old son, it was super sad to see them she was having a really hard time, but as we were waiting to give a blessing to the family members I was just waiting and thinking and I saw lots of people yelling crying, making prayers from the catholic church, and alot of people were drinking, It made me feel super grateful, I had never seen a funeral like that, but thats how they are for people who aren't members of the church, death is the end, and all they can do is drink cry and pray to take the pain away, my testimony was strengthed a lot in that moment, I know that the plan of salvatoin is real and true and that there is life after this life, I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon that gives us the fulness of the gospel and the knowledge of the resurection and life after this life, I know that we are eternals that death is nothing but a small part in the plan of God, it is not the end, the end is to have eteranl life and to be with God, and I know that this is possible thanks to what our older brother and savior did for us, how grateful I am for the plan of Happiness, the Plan of Redemption, I know that death is not the last part in the plan of God and I know that families can be eternal and I know that they will, We were able to promise blessings and give peace to the family through the blessings that we gave and they were truly comoforted, I also know that we have angles working with us and protecting us, because I talked with the sisters and asked where he was attacked and they told us in a neighborhood called Tepeyac, that is one of the our areas its an area super dark, and lots of people have told us to be super careful in this area and not to be there at night because there isn't any light you are just walking on dirt roads in pure darkness, and we were actually in this area just 3 hours before he was attacked, nothing has ever happened to us and I know that we are super protected, its because of all the prayers you guys have made thank you for all your prayers, please be praying for this family as they are passing through this hard time its the family Eduarte. 

Well aside from that it was a good week, we were able to keep teaching the Family Garcia Rios it truly is a golden family they always have awesome questions for us and they learn so fast. They went to church this week again, and with their 3 daughters. Their daughters went to primary and loved it!! it was so cool, I know it sounds super femine but I dont care haha it truly is a beautiful family and its so cool to see them creating stronger bands in their family and we are super exctied to see their progression and when the time comes their baptism! and then their sealing in the temple, but one step at a time. The only problem with them is that the dad works our of town}, well out of state haha, he works out of state for 20 days and is only with his family here for 10 days and so he can't go to church as much, nor can we teach him as much :( so we can't really put a baptism date with him because we dont know when he will be in town, its hard because the transfers are coming up and we dont know what will happen but what ever happens I'm super happy that they are growing in the gospel and that this family will gain lots of blessings through our work, if I'm not able to be in the baptism I will definatly be in the sealing!! ;), I'll be sure to send pictures next week of the family they are soooo cool!! :) We were also able to reactivate a sister in the ward!! Reactivating someone is the same as baptising someone you just dont have water haha but she is super cool and yesterday was her 5th Sunday back and she is now reactivated!! whooo haha :) I was able to study in the Book of Ether this week and it truly is such a cool story about the civilization, and how much faith they had at the start to get in the barges and cross the seas, only being lead by the hand of the Lord, lots of times we think that the Lord will solve our problems }, but we have to a lot of times climb the mountain with our rocks and simply the Lord will touch our rocks (lives) and give us light and hope, I know the church is true and that faith is the first principle of the gospel because it is what we need to have a testimony and not only believe but act according to our faith :) I love you guys so much and I'm super sorry for my english, haha but I hope that more than anything I

can help you guys feel the spirt and your testimonies grow, I Love you guys Keep praying and Keep studying we are all missionaries and we are all in the field :)

Love Elder Tanner 

 

I say that my companion is like a little bear because when its "cold" here he gets sleepy and he likes to eat a lot ha-ha MI OSITO 

There is still Sunshine

Like the subject says there is still lots of sunshine, but I'm super jealous of you guys for the snow that your getting its like 65 degrees here at night and everyone is walking around in snow coats and rain boots freezing cold, and I'm walking around in a short sleeve shirt haha its kinda funny, it was a pretty good week :) 

Se had quite a bit of success, and we are super excited for the persons that we have met and taught this week :) we had a conference with President Munive this week with all the District and Zone Leaders, it was a really cool conference, they talked about how the leaders have to be examples and how if we don't progress the mission doesn't progress, gave me a lot of strength to keep on working and want to be better.

We were able to find another family this week :) family Garcia, the husbands name is Hector, and he is such a good guy but the only problem is that he works out of town for 20 days and is in town for only 10 days, its kinda hard but he has a big desire to learn more he's such a good guy, flip I'm super sorry everyone for this email I know that it is super tiny but I didnt have a whole lot of time this week I'm super sorry but next week you guys are going to get a newspaper from the Weekly Tanner I love you guys so much and please pray for the Family Morales and Family Garcia I love you guys so much :) thanks for your prayers and help, this is the work of the Lord and the people are ready for this message I love you guys have an awesome week I love you so much 

Love Elder Tanner 

Welcome to the family Camden

Wow so much is going on back home, I dont know how you guys are keeping up with all the stuff going on, haha but wow that is so cool that I've got another nephew!! whoooo, thats so cool and I love seeing the pictures, sounds like its getting a lot more chilly there, haha its getting cooler here also, its still hot in the day but the night and morning is cool. 

We had a good week this week, we were able to get a lot of stuff done, and we had a zone conference with President, we talked a lot about the importance of study and how we always have to be ready to answer the questions that we will make or that the people will ask us, I have grown a really strong testimony about the importance of studing the scriptures I can't lie and I feel super bad , becuase before the mission I was always such a little hard head, but I have realized how much power and knowledge there is in the scriputures, sometimes we just read them because our parents make us or its a commandment , but when we read the scriptures with an attitude like that, we will not get anything because we are not seeking anything. Start your study with a prayer and ask questions that our Heavenly Father can answer through his holy scriptures, look for answers and read with humility, knowing that there is always something new that we can learn, the scritpures are truly so powerful and contain the knowledge of things that have passed are passing and will pass. The attention that we put into the study will help us understand the mysteries of God and through his Holy Spirit we will know the truth of all things :) 

 

We had two people in the church this week :) a Brother that's named Ephraim,  he's got a friend in the church and his friend gave his direction and we started teaching him with his friend, hes a great guy and him and his friend went to church together this week it was super cool :) and he has a true desire to follow Christ and start fresh, he has had a little problem with drinking but we are helping him get rid of it and his friend too, and he has told us that he wants to quit so that he can be batized so he can be with his parents forever :) he's a really good guy.  Michel and the family Morales didn't go to church this week they haven't been progressing really well. I think we might have to have a serious talk with them and see what their goals are and if they are not having goals to be baptized or make the changes necessary in their lives we might have to stop teaching them for a little bit, but we will be praying for them and were going to see what happens this week :) Ephraim has a baptismal date for the 28 of November, please pray for him that he can over come this addiction and be ready to be baptized this day :) Thanks you guys so much for all you do, I truly do apreciate it and I know that when we serve others, we are serving God and with this faith and love that we have for our Brothers and Sisters God will bless us and help us in our trials. I love you guys so much and thanks for all you do 

Love Elder Tanner 

Dia de los Muertos

Hello everyone, I'm hoping that you all had a very happy Halloween ate lots of candy, carved lots of pumpkins, and got to go through lots of corn mazes!! haha because that's not what they do here!! haha its a little different Halloween here is called Dia de los muertos! it meas Day of the Dead! Pretty crazy right its kind of like Memorial Day, but still super different, all the kids run around in costumes, but there not costumes of power rangers or ghosts they were masks of like a skelton face with makeup haha its pretty crazy and freaked me out a little but, it was super cool the people here have a lot of respect for their dead, everyone... EVERYONE goes to the cemetery! and they decorate it super cool, and they all hang out in the cemetery sunday night and practiclay all day monday it is super cool, but it's a tradition pretty crazy, and it's kinda different their mentallity on the dead, I can't really explain it right now but it's a lot differnet then ours being members of this church.

This week was pretty good, the Family Morales couldn't go to church, because they had to go to the cemetery, and also there Grandma got sick and had to take care of her :), but they are super excited to go to church this week :) We went to Michels house in the morning Sunday to wake her up and invite her but she stayed up late because of the dia de los muertos and didn't go to church, its a tradition here kind of a annoying haha, because even the ward members didn't go to church haha, there were very few members, it makes me super sad, but I just hope that we can make sure that we are converted that is something that I have been trying to learn about, being converted and having a testimony they are topics really interesting and I invite all to learn more about what is the conversion and how we can achieve it :) Michel is getting a lot better she is setting lots of goals to be better and be more humble :), but we are going to keep working with her, I'm super sorry for the short letter we have a lesson right about now that we have to go and teach, but I'm super happy to hear that you guys are doing good and that I have another NEPHEW!!!! ahhhhh whoooo, Felicidades!!! Mis hermanos Jordan and Krystle :) I love you guys so much and please pray for the Family Morales this week so that they can keep learning and progressing and have the desire to be members converted in the church :) 

I love you guys so much
Love Elder Tanner