Happy New Year!! 

wow 2015 went by flying!! 

but here comes the big one!! 2016!! whoo thats awesome haha 

It was a prettty cool year this week ;) if you get what I'm saying haha, I'm terrible with jokes I know ;) but it was an interesting week, I forgot to tell you guys that Monday in the morning we gave service to a family, their dad has a problem with his legs and they needed fire wood to make food and sell it and to be able to cook food for themselves so me and my comp decided we would take a swing at it ;) another cheesy joke haha, but we got up early and went to their house to cut fire wook, well its not like when I would cut fire wood with dad haha, becuase we didn't have a chainsaw just the good old fashioned axe!! haha we had to cut down a big ole tree!! we had to  cut down the tree and clean the branches with a machete! haha but it was cool, I left with a couple of blisters but it was cool, I liked getting out and working a little bit!  

Then Tuesday in the afternoon we found out that we would be having our Chirstmas Party as a mission on Wedensday in Obregon, so we had to go to Navojoa and sleep there for the night tuesday and wake up super early to go to Obregon for the party!! It was cool, because I was able to call some Elders from my Old district, and sleep with them!! it was super cool to see them, and see how they are doing and hear about the people that I had to interview for baptisms and how they are doing!!! Wedensday in the morming we woke up at like 4 to get ready and go to Obregon and we got there at like 8, it was super cool because I was able to see a lot of my old companions Elder Yoo, Elder Hernandez, Elder Rivas!! haha I love them all so much and it was so good to hear from them and see them, Elder Rivas is going to be finishing the mission in about 2 months super crazy!! in the Christmas party Pres. let us get into sport clothing and play some games it was super fun to relax a little and be with other missionaries! then we had a christmas dinner!! some senor missionaries Gringos made the christms dinner it was super good, but the gringos forgot to buy tortillas :( haha, we had turkey, pototes, yams, stuffing, corn, and all sorts of good stuff it was awesome!!! then to finish the party we were able to have a talent show! the district we did a play about what Christmas is like in the mission it was super funny and I was finaly able to get my package, and I found myself, the most amazing tie!! haha its a tie with a bunch of flowers on it haha I love it! a brother in the branch asked me if I was a gardener before the mission hahaha I thought it was pretty funny, 

Well it was kinda rough Wednesday because we got to Navojoa late because of the party in Obregon, and there weren't any buses that went by Bacobampo, so we had to sleep another night with the elders from my old district haha two nights in a row sleeping on the ground with just a blanket haha but it was worth it super fun :) we were able to have dinner with a sister in the branch, and she made us pozole its really popular here and one of my favorite dishes its super good :) we didn't stay up till 12 haha thats not for missionaries but it was a good year thanks for everything guys and I hope you all have an amazing week, I don't have a whole lot of time to write, but I'm so thankful for the support that you guys gave to me in 2015, and I know that you will continue to do it in 2016, thank you guys so much for your love and I hope that in this year that comes we can all make goals, both spiritually and physically to be better I love you guys so much and have an awesome week there is so much more that I would like to write but I don't have enough time haha, but I'll be sure to let you guys in on total next week :) I love you all, Love Elder Tanner

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.

 

 

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