Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas to everyone!! What a amazing wonderful happy time of the year to remember our Savior and be with family and loved ones :) it was an interesting week for us haha, but it was a good one also :) Bacobampo has treated us pretty well in this Chirstmas holiday :) I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas also :)  

Well to start the best part of this week was the Skype call with my family everyone is so big! haha it was so cool to see everyone happy healthy and smiling! But the craziest thing was seeing Nolan, holy smokes ha-ha I cant believe that so much time has passed, when I left he was the same size as Camden almost, but now he's walking around and talking  I was really speechless, but it made it all worth it when I got to play a little game of hide and seek with my nephew :) I truly felt something special, it's cool how the Holy Ghost not only protects us and guides us but also is the comforter and gives us hope and happiness, I truly felt that talking with my family this Christmas even though I wasn't with them and I was in another part of the world, I could still feel the love of my Family, and be with them in the Spirit of Christmas :) Our Heavenly Father loves us so much to have given us this gift that we can always have with us The Holy Ghost a member of the God Head to be with us and guide us :) It was also really cool to be talking with my family from 4 different parts of the world, Utah, Iraq, Texas, and MEXICO haha, we are kind of spread out right now but as they say Love has no Boundaries :) Payton now has the voice of a tank, and he looks huge! haha couldn't see Weston but it was so cool to hear his voice :) It truly was a very special Christmas :)  

Christmas day we went to eat lunch with a sister named Sister Adelisa, she gave us a ton of food!, I have been eating so much! haha I wouldn't be suprised if I have to buy new pants ;) and we were also able to visit other members to, its kind of a weird day to work as a missionary because everyone is with their families or they are getting drunk, so lots of people reject us but the members always recieve us and are super good to us, it didn't snow but it sure was cold, its humid here so when the wind blows it feels like your wet and getting pounded by a hurricane haha kinda cool but kinda freezing too! haha  

Its kind of different here because Christmas Eve is the real party here or as they say "La Pachanga" haha in USA its calm Christmas Eve but here we went to a members house to eat dinner and they had a fire blazing, we were drinking a mexican drink thats like hot choclate called "Champurrada" around the fire its super good! I'm going to work on getting the recipe :) but then we had dinner and we had beans, pasta,Tortillas and a type of roast but the meat was lamb so it was a little different but super good, but the best part was when they brought out the Piñata!!! Me and my comp were letting the kids take a wack at it but nothing was happenening so they started asking us to do it but my comp didn't want to, but I was more than happy haha, I got a little crazy, felt like I was in the World Series in the 9 inning with bases loaded I was hitting it pretty hard so hard that my glasses flew off my head haha I felt like such a dork because I dropped to the ground and started feeling around in the dirt for the glasses like in the cartoons haha but I found them and kept going at it with the Piñata turns out they hadn't filled the Piñata with candy... they had filled it with flour, haha I realized it when I gave it a good hit and a bunch of powder fell on me so I left it to a kid to break it haha he broke it and all the Flour went every where it was cool haha :) so it was a really cool Christmas Eve we weren't able to see the fireworks becuase we had to get home early but it was still super fun :) I'm wanting to bring this tradition home with the idea of the party Christmas eve.  

Haha the craziest things happened this week, so we had to go out to the little towns that are like 10/12 miles away to visit the people, but we started walking and were walking for a while but passed a huge truck, and we hitchhiked with him to the little town but the thing is is that the truck was so big! that when my comp tried to hop in the back, his pants ripped right down the middle with a big hole!!! haha I didnt realize it until we were getting out of the truck and it was so bad haha the hole was huge and couldn't be sewed so... what happened is that was the last pair of pants my comp had and the others also had holes haha, so we called President and explained what happened and he was like well I'll work on getting the pants but you guys have to keep working! so my companion has been leaving the house everyday for 5 days straight in blue jeans and a white shirt and tie haha its kinda funny but gotta do what ya gotta do, because President still hasn't gotten the pants and we are super far from any store, so weve been making lemonade with the lemons life has given us ;) haha 

This  Sunday was  kind of a stressed out sunday but a really spirtually filled sunday also :) haha start out I had to give a talk, teach sunday school, and teach priesthood basically what I'm saying is that in every block or every hour I gave the lesson! haha and I only had a talk prepared but I was able to give two other big lessons in each of the classes and it was super cool, haha a little different but super cool, Jose Noe didnt come :( he went to another city to visit his dad that doesn't live with his mom now :( kind of sad because we have to move his baptismal date but we are going to keep working with him, Please keep praying for him and his family :) and thank you guys so much for the prayers that you have been making in his behalf.

I hope you guys have an awesome New Year and make lots of goals!!! You guys are awesome and I love you all so much! I hope that we never lose the spirit of Christmas
I Love You Guys so much have an awesome week 

Love Elder Tanner

Bacobampo

Heylllo Everyone!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! its so close! ha, I'm just hoping that Santa knows that I got changed to Bacobampo ;) ''

I'm super sorry for the short letter I gave you guys last time, I just didn't have a whole lot of time, but I have learned that my area is a lot different from my older area ha-ha, Bacobampo is a branch, a pretty small branch, and its a little farm town ha-ha, but its cool, I found out last week too, that I'm First Councilor in the branch presidency, because there's not a whole lot of members, that just goes to show how little it is, but it is full of amazing and strong members!! 

I'm super grateful for the leadership that I learned before the mission, because I really didn't think the callings in my priesthood or scout groups would help me in the mission, but I realized it when the our branch had a branch meeting and our President doesn't like to and doesn't really know how to conduct the meeting, so I had to conduct the meeting with a bunch of adults from a different country!!! ha-ha I was super grateful for all the training I received before the mission, and I had to give them ideas on how we can be a stronger branch and it was really cool, and we are going to start focusing on strengthening the branch right now because it really needs it :) but there are amazing members in our branch :)  with very powerful testimonies, I'm super grateful to be working here with these people,

It has been pretty chilly this week actually ha-ha, I've had to put my jacket on every night because it really is kind of cold here it just doesn't SNOW!! awwww I don't know why but it doesn't :( ha-ha we were able to find some new investigators this week, because really the investigators that my comp had the last transfer aren't progressing and I had to tell him that its not worth it to waste our time with this people that aren't progressing, so we are going into this change with a lot of faith looking for new investigators :) we have a new investigator that is the son of a less active sister and she wants to return to the church and we are working with her son too!!! He has a baptismal date for the 31 of December we want to finish the year good :) and he was super excited so we are going to be working with him his name is Jose Luis :) 

I also found out that in this little farm town we have to travel to other farm towns that are on the outskirts of Bacobampo, and their are like 30!!! so every Thursday we have to work in the little towns, and they are super far away, we hitchhike to get there, because if we don't we are walking for an hour just to get to the first one!! I was able to ring up 4 rides with my hitchhikers thumb it was pretty cool ha-ha, my comp told me I'm super lucky because in the other transfer he and his comp got 4 in the entire transfer and I got it in one day ha-ha, in fact this area had bikes about 6 months ago but they got robbed, some punks jumped the missionaries with a machete and they had to give up the bikes!! ahhh but I was talking with President Munive about it Sunday because he came to see us and he asked me if I knew how to ride a motorcycle and I was like YES!! ha-ha and he's like we will see what we can do if they let motorcycles in a area so spread out like that!! I about peed my pants ha-ha I doubt that we are going to have motorcycles, but it would be so cool!! ha-ha but for now we are just going to keep using the hitchhikers thumb !!

 This Sunday we got to go to Huatabampo to see the dedication of the Tijuana temple!! its 40 minutes from our area so we hitchhiked again and we were flying in the back of a pickup truck down a highway in to know where and it was freezing because it was early in the morning ha-ha I thought I was going to die but we made it and it was super cool! Elder Dieter F Uctdorf talked about the hope and patience that these members had to for this temple because they haven't been able to go to San Diego temple that's the closest to them because  a lot of the Mexicans didn't have their visas so it made it hard for a lot of members to enter the temple and be sealed to their families and that's why this temple is such a blessing for them because its right where it needs to be, I truly felt a spirit super powerful for the love that these members had and the patience also, they are so grateful to have this temple!! I hope we have the same excitement and attitude that they have to enter the temple we are so blessed to have a temple so close 15 minutes away when the people here have to travel 2 or 3 days just to get to a temple we are so blessed :) 

 Well everyone that's all I got for you this week I know its another really short letter, ha-ha but Bacobampo is super cool and I'm sure that every week I will have a new story for you guys ha-ha, I love you guys so much and hope you all have an excellent week and enjoy the snow!! 

Love Elder Tanner  

Transfers Today...

What’s up everyone I really don’t have a whole lot of time to write, but I did get transferred! ha-ha I’m now in Bacobampo With Elder Guardado he is from El Salvador and a really good kid, after 6 months in Aeropuerto they changed me to this area, but we are super excited to start working and find the people that are ready for this gospel :) I have a lot to say but so little time.... I will be sure to explain more about the change next week :) but I hope that everyone was able to see the Christmas Devotional yesterday, I really liked the talk by David A Bednar about how Christ is the light of the world, please everyone remember the true meaning of Christmas and always find a way to help someone else. This is a beautiful time of the year when the hearts of the people are open and it’s a perfect time to give service and share your testimony :) I love you guys so much and I know that this church is true!!, Let us all always try to be better people and be more loving and patient. I’m so thankful for your prayers and I’m sure that you will be blessed, I love you guys.

Love Elder Tanner 

 

Andres Valdez is a member that would always help us with rides and pick up our investigators to go to church. 

 

This sister Obdulia and Amalia they sell hot dogs, and always gave us hot dogs and french fries!! 

 

Saying Goodbye to the Family Rios, less actives that we were working with, they are almost reactivated! They always give us tortillas!! 

 

I got some Elders in my District to match up for a Zone meeting 

 

We matched again haha as a District in AEROPUERTO!! 

 Some of the members in our area.