Branch Conference

What What what schools out?? Where does time go?? A big Congratulations to Payton!! That’s awesome Payt that you are graduating, it was a pretty awesome week this week, but it was a really good Sunday yesterday! But I’ll be sure to talk about that later :) 

So we had our District meeting on Tuesday, and we talked about the importance of working with the members, and I have really seen the difference, between working with the members and not working with the members, it’s a lot easier the work when we all work together, like any job its always easier to work together, two heads are better than one :)  We went with Veronica this day, and we decided to teach her about the importance of repentance and having Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it was a really good lesson, she understood the importance of repentance, and said she is willing to do what she has to do to repent we invited her to be baptized again and she accepted she was a little nervous about the date, but accepted, we explained that we will never have a perfect knowledge of all things but if we have the desire to follow the Lord, we should always do it, Well we went with the sister Belen also who i talked about the other Monday because she didn’t go to church Sunday and ahhh Satan is working so hard!! but we have to work harder haha, because we found out that she couldn’t go because, her ex-husband came back after 9 years trying to take her daughter away, and know she cant go to the church, because she has to have meetings with lawyers and such!! ahh we talked to her about the importance of putting God in our lives over everything worldly and we will be blessed but she is really worried about her daughter she doesn’t want her husband to take her, but we are going to try and help and help her to get to the church because we  know that the Lord will bless her if she goes :), we also went with a member less active that started telling us about his problems of Diarrhea, the people have so much confidence in us its something that kind of makes me laugh sometimes because we find some guy in the street and he tells us his life story, before we tell him our name haha, but its chill, but that less active, went to church this Sunday so that was really good ! we taught a new family their names are Adam and Griselda they are really cool, and its the dude that we helped move like 300 bricks form his front yard to his back yard!! ahhh I wanted to call him Rick the Brick ;) 

Wednesday we were contacting people and we contacted a couple outside of their house, and we started talking with them and he asked where I was from and he was like oh Utah I’ve been there and i was like oh that’s cool did you work there? and he’s like yeah, I was a drug passer, he told me that it was his job to transport drugs by foot over the boarder... haha it’s something so common here, it’s the second one this week, I always say isn’t easier to sell tacos here? haha, but we taught them and he told us that he really wants to change, but we explained him that’s cool that he wants to change but if that desire doesn’t have works his desire is in vain, it’s a little harsh but we wanted him to get the point haha, he accepted to go to church, and a baptismal date so we are going to be teaching him this week, 

On Thursday, we went to the little town Las Guayabas ahh flip it gets hotter going every time the sun is always right in your face! haha, but it’s been worth the pain, we have seen a grand difference in the number of people that are attending church, we have almost doubled the attendance from when i got here! and a lot of people are going to church and they are from the little town Las Guayabas, they get ready early every Sunday to go to church, and well we are teaching Jesus and his family and Jesus will be getting baptized 28 of May, and he is super excited we went to teach him and he learns so fast we asked if remembers the Joseph Smith story and he told us perfectly! we taught him about the word of wisdom using a water cup and we told him the stuff he can’t consume and every time we mentioned something we would throw dirt or grass, salsa, tree bark, and stuff like and then we filled it with water and told him to drink it haha he really understood why it’s important to not consume that stuff because the cup and water is our body and spirit, its affected by the things of the world, he didn’t want to drink it but he’s little brother was like i want to drink it!! haha we didn’t let him but it was a fun object lesson 

Friday We had a really cool experience with Veronica we gave her and her sister a tour of the church and we invited a member and it was really cool the sister that we invitied her really helped her get excited to attend church and said she would stop by her to go together it wsa awesome we showed a video about baptism and showed her the baptismal font, it was a really cool experience :)  

on Saturday we had to go to Las Guayabas again because we got to get Jesus ready for his baptismal interview and we taught him the law of chastity haha and haha it was kind of funny because I showed him a picture from my book of images and i showed him this picture and asked him what is happening

 https://www.lds.org/media-library/images/laie-hawaii-temple-wedding-243957?lang=eng

and he responded, they are tempting the baby, hahha we were like NOO Jesus they are getting married!! haha and maybe later they are going to have a baby but we dont know haha, it was super funny what he said, and his dad was laughing too, 

Sunday was awesome because we had our Branch Conference, and we found out that Veronica and her sister got to the church before us!! haha they showed up super excited, and it was a really great conference Pres. Munive came and gave a really great talk that I liked :) he talked about how are testimony isn’t worth anything if we don’t put it to practice or if we don’t live what we know, it was super cool his message, and Veronica really liked it and her daughter as well she was playing with all the little kids from the primary it was awesome, but Jesus also came with his family, and that means that he is going to be baptized this Saturday!! whoo!! and also we have been working with his  family and this Sunday when he is confirmed we will have reactivated his mom and his dad and baptized the son!! ahhh it’s so cool to see their progression! They are super excited! we are hoping that his dad Baptizes him, thank you guys so much for your prayers and please keep praying, I hope you all know that I love you so much and thank you for all being a part of this work with me :), I love you guys so much :) and hope you all have a good week!! Be Happy and keep smiling :) :) 

Love Elder Tanner 

 

The Prayers of the Faithful

What can I tell you guys, it was a pretty crazy week in the work here in Etchojoa it was truly a week of many miracles, but also challenges, Challenges that are going to require the help of our Heavenly Father, and the members here in Etchojoa but we are super excited to see the work progress here in Etchojoa!  

On Tuesday we had our district meeting, and it was really good we talked about how we can work with more faith and how we should be the people to set the example of living the gospel of Jesus Christ, after we were having our weekly planning session, and we got a surprise visit form Pres. Munive!! whoo, haha, we talked about how the work is going in Etchojoa he gave us some ideas on how we can work more with the members and the importance of planning but also planning how to get something done from the start to finish to the evaluation of the plan, Well we got my bike repaired I had to do it,  and it came out pretty good, haha its working up till now so i think we are all good :)  

On Wednesday is the day that we left the house and found our horse haha, but we also found a guy that day with a really cool name haha his name is Perfect, it’s the perfect name... ha I think I’m pretty funny but he’s a really cool guy :) He knows a little bit about Jesus Christ, and had a desire to learn more :) so we are going to keep teaching him, he like everyone has asked himself why there are so many church’s, but he like many other people explained that there isn’t a true church that God is in all parts, and that one is the church, it still amazes me at how quick and witty Satan is, he says a truth but with a lie, it’s hard to explain to the people that God is in all parts but there is only one true church, we see many examples of how Satan uses his lies to trick us to believe it is a truth in the scriptures the example of Nehor with the prophet alma when Nehor taught about God and that he loves us, but then comes the lie that makes all the difference that God will grant all mankind eternal life... that is the lie from Satan hoping that if people believe that they will not worry about sinning, I hope that we can always recognize the lies of Satan and not be lead down the dark and dreary path, but through prayer and study of the scriptures we may be led by the iron rod, to be protected from the darkness or the lies of Satan, sorry haha just a little spiritual thought, but we also ran into some sheep and lambs and I decide to do the mutton busting again... naw I’m just playing haha but I did give them some food but they just about bit my hand off haha, 

On Thursday haha what a crazy day but so spiritual day!! so we started of the day with another surprise we were studying in the morning and we heard someone knocking on the door , and turns out the zone leaders came to check on us see how we are doing to see if we need help in anything haha, but we started studying with them, and later we did exchanges for the morning and i went with Elder Chichia to check out in the city offices about marriage requirements because we may have to marry a couple so they can get baptized but after that we started for looking for people to teach, and Elder Chichia decided to contact a house and I’m just like sure lets go for it and wow, what happened next is super crazy a young lady answered the door, and when we presented ourselves with her, she left to get her older sister and we found out that the girl who answered the door is Juliet and her older sister is Veronica, and when she greeted us she was super nervous and was kind of jumpy and we asked if we could share a message with her and she let us pass by to her patio and we started sharing our message and she told us about how she lives with her boyfriend and has a little girl but wants to change her life, and so we started talking about how the importance of the family in the church and how important it is that we know which church is true and then she told us that she has been looking for a church in the Christians and the Jehovah Witness and all the other church’s and actually thought that we were Jehovah Witness haha, but we explained to her what we believe and she was really interested and wanted to know about the church and how it was restored and all that, but we asked her why and explained again that she wants to have a new life and we invited her to be baptized in that moment and she accepted so we put a date for 18 of June, in this moment she started crying and we were a little confused, but she started to explain to us that just the night before she was crying and praying to God that he would send someone to help her find a better life... We were speechless, and ahh it was so cool, I told her that God had answered her prayer and that has a much better life for her but she has to do her part and work for that life, it won’t be easy but it is worth it, she told us she would go to church and read and everything so that was super cool :)  we left her with that but she also told us that she has had problems with her boyfriend and has told her not to listen to the Mormons because they have like 7 wife’s ahhhh why do people think that, haha, but then after that we went to lunch with our Branch Pres. and he invited us to sushi, haha I was a little nervous for what happened in Aero Puerto when I got sick super bad, but i ate it and nothing happened whooom, after we took a 45 minute bike ride to a faraway town Las Guayabas we had a lot of really cool lessons there we found a sister that is accepted baptism and a date so and also we are reactivating a family there and their son and daughter isnt baptized but the parents are and the Dad told us that he wants us to teach his kids so they will be baptized! We taught his son and is super excited to get baptized we couldn’t find his daughter but we are going to try and find her in the house, but the son will be baptized the 28 of this month!

On Friday we had another powerful lesson with a sister that is named Belen, we taught her  and invited her to the church, and we finished and we told her we wanted to finish with a prayer, and we asked her if she could say it, but she said she had never really offered a prayer and we taught her how to do it :) and she said it, and she did really well, and after she said the prayer I always like to ask the people how they feel after saying a prayer i learned that from one of my companions, and i asked her immediately her eyes filled with tears and she couldn’t keep from crying, the spirit was so strong and she said kind of laughing crying what is this feeling, I can’t explain it, and I said  Belen that is the Love of our Heavenly Father he loves you and has a plan for you, and she said she felt super good, we explained that she should always do good so she can feel that and that should use these feelings to keep moving forward and progressing in the gospel :) That is one of the coolest things that i have recognized in the mission as a missionary I have realized that one of the grand gifts that our Father in Heaven gives to the missionaries is the power to detect when people are feeling the spirit I can’t really explain it but there has been so many times in the mission and my companions have all agreed with me that when we are teaching sometimes we stop teaching what we are teaching and out of nowhere we say Brother or sister what you are feeling right now is the Holy Ghost, and they don’t deny it because they know they are feeling something and they recognized that the Holy Ghost is testifying of the truth and that’s how we felt with Belen it’s so cool, I can’t really explain it but I’m just so grateful to be a missionary and, it’s so beautiful to see or feel that other people are feeling the spirit, We also helped a guy the same day move like over 300 bricks haha, it was good little exercise but we sat down with him and he offered us a cold coke but we had to deny it haha, but it whoo it looked so good haha, but it was really cool what he started asking us he was like so.. why do you guys help people or why are you here, and we explained that we try to do what Christ would do just like what we learn in the primary ;) haha and he thought it was really cool but really different and explained that you don’t really see that any more in these days, it was a cool little experience  

Saturday ahhh it was a day of patience for the missionaries us here in Etchojoa it was like the party week for the virgin aahhh all the Catholics were having there parties and when it’s a party here it’s like fiesta days in Spanish fork but there are bands playing everywhere everyone is walking around drunk and if they aren’t walking they are passed out and they do it because they say they are making a promise with the virgin Mary! ahh so they do a 10 mile walk from town to town looking for the virgin... and because they do it they say they have the promise to receive blessings from the virgin ahh it’s so frustrating but we couldn’t really have a lot of lessons this day for that because everyone was in the party. and as a result very few people went to church Sunday... :( but Jesus did go so he will be baptized 28 of may but we were super sad because Veronica didn’t go and she was so excited to go and we went with her Sunday and it was such a hard and sad lesson because she explained that she tried to go with her daughter but her boyfriend wouldn’t let her and then she explained that she is having a lot of problems with her boyfriend and that is afraid to leave him because she won’t have money for her nor her daughter, but basically her boyfriend is abusing her, ahh that ticks me off so much, the men here are so bad it’s such a common thing and ahh it ticks me off that the women here have to put up with it, we explained to her that she should try to separate from but she is afraid to do it, we are brainstorming what to do with her but we are going to need the help of our Heavenly Father please pray for her I don’t have a lot of time to write about her but it’s a long story, and it’s so sad because she wants a new life, but is scared of her boyfriend, please pray that she will have the courage to separate from or that her boyfriend will have a change of heart, we need your guys help we now that we found her through the power of prayer and we need to help her through the power of prayer, We are going to keep working with her, and we hope that we will be able to help we have some plans but we are praying that she has the faith and courage to do what is right, but i want you guys to know that God lives that we are his children and he loves, Know how grateful i am for your guys prayers, and be happy this week I hope I didn’t leave this letter on  a bad note, but just know that we talked with Veronica and she is thinking about separating from her boyfriend and we are asking for help from the members so everything should work out :)
I love you guys so much
Love Elder Tanner 

 

El Dia de Las Madres

What a blessing it was to be able to talk with you guys yesterday and loved seeing you guys!! Thanks for all the prayers that you guys have said this week in my behalf I have truly feel the love of you guys :) and we have seen the blessings of your prayers. We had a pretty good week this week :) 

Well I feel like I got to tell you guys, that the beast is down, yup my bike has got some problems it happened on Wednesday, and so we had to put it down for a while right now I’m using a bike that’s from a member whoo! haha and its a lot nicer than mine so I don’t think I’ll be fixing bike up anytime soon ;) nah I’m just kidding, but hahh but Wednesday was kind of funny because my companion feel haha it was pretty funny I was laughing, but it was funny because we were riding down a pretty busy road and we were about to turn right and my companion was to the right of me, but before turning my comp saw a member to the left of us on the other side of the road and so he turned his head to wave to them and everything and was saying hi to them, but didn’t realize that I was turning right, so I turned right and he kept going straight and I kind of like cut him off and I just heard metal crash and turned around and saw his bike thrown down haha, and he was brushing himself off and I couldn’t help but laugh, but its chill cause he didn’t get hurt so we both laughed about it, that same day we had a pretty crazy experience we are teaching some investigators that are super humble we went to visit them and they were telling us that they don’t have any money, that they are working but wouldn’t get payed until Saturday, they had received 15 pesos that’s like a dollar to buy tortillas from one of their friends, and my companion was like lets help them, and I’m like let’s do it, so we decided to give them some potatoes, and oil to cook, because they have a little brick stove were they put branches and stuff to light  a fire and cook, so we helped them have a little dinner, sometimes we forget how blessed we are, but we should always do as the hymn says count our many blessings :) 

On Thursday we went to Las Guayabas a little town to visit some members and some investigators, we taught a brother that didn’t want to accept that you can close a store Sunday we explained to him that God doesn’t give us commandments that we can’t keep haha, and he’s like well that’s true, a lot of times the natural man blinds us telling us that Gods ways aren’t correct and we start to justify ourselves in our wrong doings, we explained to him the importance of the Sabbath day and how it can be a blessing for us but he was still a little stubborn about it but as in Mosiah 3:19 we learn how to overcome the natural man, through being humble and childlike, we were able to invite a lot of members to the church, we also got in a little bike accident again we were coming home from the little town and we were on a little street with houses on both sides and a dog started chasing my comp and he got scared and started pushing me into the fences of the houses, and just my luck is that they had barb wire on the fence, i just jumped off the bike before my comp planted me in the fence completely haha and luckily nothing happened but i found out my comp is scared of dogs haha, 

On Friday we had our zone conference in Navojoa, and they talked a lot about the importance of using the members in this work and how we have to remind all the members that they are missionaries and that they should always be  sharing the testimony that they have :) 

Saturday we did exchanges with some members to visit the less actives and it was kind of a funny experience because I went with a brother and he was taking about the book of Mormon and the was like sister this book is really important because it teaches us about Christ, it answers are questions about why we are here, where do we go when we die, and why we are brown people, haha I couldn’t hold myself from laughing I thought it was so funny and he was like isn’t that right Elder and I’m just haha yeah i guess its true haha. We also had a branch activity for the Moms the priesthood made dinner for the Moms of the branch and well there isn’t a whole lot of priesthood so they asked if we could help, my companion was grilling and I was cutting, we made steak tacos, and they were super fantastic, haha the steak tacos are really common here, 

 

Sunday was cool because lots of members and an investigator from the Las guayabas came to church! And we had a lot of people in the church it was awesome!! we have been working with a lot of people inviting them to church, and they promise to go to church but ahhh it’s a little frustrating when they don’t show up on Sunday, it’s so hard to help the people change there perspective on life and the most important things like church and family, but we were able to see a really big blessing through working with the less actives a brother that is less active came to church with his wife which is member and they brought their two kids a daughter that is married and son, and they haven’t been baptized and the dad told us that he wants them to get baptized and, so we are super excited to get working with them and see if we can help this family be a member family :) Thanks for all your prayers everyone and please keep making them, so we can find the people looking for this message and the true gospel and true church, I love you all so much and, a special thank you to my Mom for always helping me and loving me I love you Mom 

Love Elder Tanner 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1440-it-was-mom-a-mothers-day-tribute-to-moms?category=topics/mothers&lang=eng&cid=HP_FR_6-5-2016_dMIS_fMLIB_xLIDyL1-A_

 

Etchojoa

That’s awesome that you guys had Prom this week, pretty good looking Tanners, so this week we worked super hard ha-ha we are really working hard in this area and we are hoping to see the miracles soon!! We have already seen some but we want to see even more! haha we have really found a lot of Catholics lately haha in other areas there have been lots from different churches, but lately we have found a lot of Catholics, and haha I’m not going to lie sometimes they give it to ya good, haha it’s kind of sad to see people treat others like that, they treat us like we are nothing and sometimes ignores when we are talking to them haha, it’s kind of funny I just laugh about it, but a lot of times it reminds me of little kids haha really they remind me of little kids, but I’m not saying that all the Catholics are like that we have found a lot of amazing people this week too that have an open heart and are willing to listen to us. We found a really cool sister, locked outside of her house haha   kind of funny how God puts people in our path ;) but we talked to her and she couldn’t really escape so she had to listen to us haha! we taught her outside of her house and she started to ask all the questions of gold haha, she was asking us what is the true church and how can she know, we explained to her that the true church was established by Christ, but was lost for a long time but through a prophet our loving Heavenly Father has brought the truth and fullness of his gospel, she was really interested but a little hesitant on the baptismal commitment haha she said that if God tells her to get baptized she will do it haha that’s good enough for us :) on Wednesday we had Mutual, and the branch presidency asked if we could help the youth in mutual so we helped them have a fun little activity, but my companion nailed me in the face with a ball.... haha but it was an accident... I think ;) haha but I had my glasses on and they basically got wrapped around my face haha, but they didn’t break whoo haha, my eyebrow was swollen, and my nose got cut and under my eye haha we didn’t realize it till we got home that night and my comp was like ELDER!! what’s up with your face, and I was like your fault man haha, We were also able to find a sister that the Elders had taught earlier but she couldn’t progress because she was living with her boyfriend, and she couldn’t get off of work Sundays, but we decided to go with her and we found out that she had split up with her boyfriend and that she doesn’t work on Sundays!! hallelujah ahhh and she accepted to be baptized the 28 of May, so we are going to be working with her this week, to help her prepare for this day :) on Thursday ahh was a little hard haha we had to go to Bacobampo to take out all the stuff we left in the house, and turn in the keys and the house to the land lord but the crazy lady wouldn’t give us the money that she owed us for the deposit that we made when we first started living in the house, ahhhh, haha we explained to her the things and everything but she wouldn’t give it to us and I’m just like ahh whatever if you feel good about stealing money from servants of the Lord go for it. so we left it like that, oh also this week I almost forgot we found a really cool guy! he is catholic but is really smart and understands stuff really easy, he was a teacher but stopped working because two years ago he lost his vision, and it’s really interesting to teach him, I don’t know why but it’s just interesting knowing that he can’t see us and everything that we teach him he imagines it in his mind it was really interesting for him to know that we have a living prophet and twelve apostles! he always asks a lot of questions, but the tough part is that he isn’t all that excited to change he doesn’t get to excited about going to church, so we are going to have to find out what his desires are and help understand the importance of this message :) I was thinking about the way he uses his imagination and i thought to myself that he understands the message clearer because he has to imagine it, and pay lots of attention and i thought about how God is so loving and patient that he gives us weaknesses to make us strong!! but it is so true, we can easily look in the mirror and see ourselves with countless flaws and weaknesses and imperfections, from the inside or maybe even the outside, but what we choose to do with those weakness, can shape us into who we are or what we will become, God has a great potential for every one of us and has given us the tools (Strengths and weaknesses) to shape us into the person we can become, there are hundreds of examples from the scriptures, Moses who had a difficulty with speaking became one of the most greatly known prophets in this world beside Jesus Christ, was known for his courage, faith, patience in tribulations, and humility to ask for help, Moroni from the book of Mormon who really wasn’t all that good at writing, explained that this weakness had strengthened his testimony in the Lord Jesus Christ and helped him to be more faithful and work hard, I know that God lives and I know that he loves us I know that we are never alone, I know that God is conscious of our weakness and is more than ready to convert our weakness into strengths, but he can only work when we have and open heart, the desire to work, and the faith in him that he is The God of Miracles and The creator of all things, I love you all so much I couldn’t write a whole lot we didn’t have a whole lot of time today but Please know that I love you guys so much and I’m going to pray for you guys, and please pray for us so that we can find our brothers and sisters that have the desire to change and make covenants with our Heavenly Father
Love Elder Tanner