Aug 3... NEW ADDRESS !!

Hey!

So I'm on for an hour right now... because I am going to the beach again! Crazy because we werent planning on it but here we are again in grays harbor... so beach later. sigh. so much going on right now. 

So this last week. We found someone who is really awesome and said he is searching for something better. And he is really interested in the church! so.. he is on date for the 22nd. Hopefully that all works out well. 

As for the family that came last week, they did not show up this week and they are gone the next three weeks for vacation stuff... so a little break from them. 

And other than that not much investigator wise.

But there was an interesting experience yesterday where there was a lot of smoke in town, because of lots of wild fires around here and so we got this really strong feeling to stop knocking (which is a rule to knock at that time) and leave because we were leaving for grays harbor anyways after knocking. But we got the feeling to leave earlier. So we started leaving the knocking area and i remembered a lady who wasnt at church, which is not normal for her. and so i tried calling her and she didnt answer so i told Elder S. we were going to go to her house first before we go pack some things for the night. So we stopped by and found her really sick. So we offered a blessing and were able to give her that. So hopefully she is doing better today. I plan on calling in a bit to check up on her.

So... thats about it. Not too much more happened this week other than the usual knocking and talking with people :)

But for the most exciting part... tranfers.

So Elder S. is no longer my companion. He will be training a new Spanish Missionary! Crazy! 

And I am no longer in Shelton. !!!

I am moving to Bremerton!!!! As a Zebra! So my new Companion is Elder F. (dont know if i spelled it right?) and he is english. 

So I am going to Bremerton and my new address is:

1121 Callahan Dr. Apt 222

Bremerton, WA 98310

This call is really unexpected since i was only in shelton for two and S. has been here for three already. but it is how it is. And now i get another change! :) 

So packing tonight and leaving tomorrow for Bremerton. Havent been home so I dont know if there is a box, but if there is I will be very happy. and if there isnt then i will get it evenutally. :) And if Shelton hasnt burned down form wildfires.... I dont think it will. But you never know. Crazy world. :)

So that is my life. I am one step closer to being fully english. and i am going to Bremerton! lol they would never make me fully english. President Blatter wouldnt let me go english fully. :) He likes Spanish 

Anyways...
Thats my life Dont know how many more emails i will get to so apologize to everyone else for me if i dont get to them :)

love and miss you!!!!

-Tanner

Mom, I forgot to tell you!

two things: one i am planning on going to a star wars shop here in grays harbor so if i have money in my account i can get trace something if i find somethign cool :)

and i had crab for the first time!!! i have pics on my camera but that is not with me right now... so next week. it was interesting to break it open and eat it... i think it would be fun to watch you eat a fresh crab by opening it yourself lol honestly it looks like a spider from the ocean. but it tastes good :) lol i can only imagine your face :)

love you!!!

oh, cant get my shoes fixed... im leaving shelton. and it would take like a week to get fixed. and im not planning on spending a lot on trace. if anything :)

so shoes problem is still a problem needing to be solved lol

July 27

Hey!

so my week has been interesting. Not too much new people-wise. 

On monday we had a pretty interesting experience while knocking. So we knocked and this pretty happy woman comes out and tells us she isnt religious but she is spiritual. and after talking a bit she said she would be interested in reading the Book of Mormon. and then we were telling her it could help her life be happier. That is when she looks at us and says very seriously (or as seriously as she could because she was smiling) that she suffers from this thing called "anti-depression". and so we look at her and both say "anti-depression" doesnt sound like suffering. So she explains that she gets happy about everything and finds it hard to be sad. So i look at her and think, wow. if only she knew. we need some anti-depression. 

So anyways she tells us she will read the Book, and before we left we said a prayer and she says can i give you guys a gift? so we say sure and she ends up giving us each a pint of marrionberries. (apparently a mix of raspberries and blackberries, but look like blackberries) and so that was a pretty exciting thing on monday. :)

And i took those berries home and made a crisp for breakfast the next day :) Elder S. is very amazed at how much stuff i end up making. He doesnt find time ever to make food, and i find all the time i can so i end up making a good amount of good food. :) 

And on Wednesday we had district meeting and before every district meeting here we have district lunch, so i made some Pasta Al Forno (which you know is just baked noodles) and I made it with the sauce where you combine alfredo and tomato sauces. So i made that and it looked amazing (i broiled it at the end to give a nice crust on the cheese) and brought it to district meeting where all the sisters starting asking why i didnt make food for everyone and why i was hiding my talent all this time... 

so now word is getting out that i cook. :)

So we did end up finding a person this week. He was a referral from his girlfriends family who are less active. But anyways the family is kind of crazy and ADD, amongst other things. But we went by to teach him and found out he is pretty cool! He even agreed to be baptized. The only problem is he works on sundays, did not come to church yesterday, and that means he is not on date until he comes to church. but we will work with them to get him to church.... hopefully. 

Still no new news with J (the one who wants to be baptized in a lake.) he hasnt been in touch this week so we have absolutely no idea what is in his head or anything going on with him.... hopefully we get in touch with him soon. 

Trent told me about his youth conference stuff. :)

So for meals in this ward we send around a calendar for the month around Relief Society (since the women know better than the men lol) and then we take it to the spanish branch sunday school so they can fill in what days they want. this lets us get the onth filled in pretty quickly and gives people the opportunity to get days a few weeks in advance. in lakewood we did a weekly calendar, and here it is a monthly thing. both work well. just make sure it gets to everyone, and people will fill it in. also a hint to the missionaries. when people feed them if they were to send a thank you letter to the members then they are more likely to be fed again. :)

So my week is basically summed up in those few experiences. cant think of much else. we are doing lots of finding. lots of walking. and it rained this week! but we are going back to sun and hot... but with clouds at least. 

So i was thinking of sending you a box. because it is your birthday this next week! but i dont have much here... and maybe i can send stuff later. :) but Happy Birthday! I already have a meal planned for it. We are being fed by a member on Saturday and she ahs promised us Stuffed Shells. And she does it right... with ricotta and all the amazing things that go into that. :) and what is really interesting is she is a Native American and makes really awesome food (from what the rumors say) which reminds me.... what kind of Native Americans are in our family? see if i can relate more to her, since we are teaching her 10 year old son and anything helps :) speaking of which! she and her son came to church for the first time yesterday!!!! so we got a less active and an investigator at church!!!! so exciting for them!

so i will enjoy your birthday at their house eating stuffed shells :)

hope you have a good birthday :)

Also gave a talk yesterday, on missionary work of course. it went well. I talked about how we need Faith and Trust to go out and share the gospel, just like peter pan needs it to fly :) lol had to go disney on them 

i think that is it.... if i think of more i will let you know.

already told you about my spending at walmart, and not at the shoe place. :)

thanks again for everything you do to help me!!!!! love and miss you!!!!!

-Tanner

July 20

Hey!

I got a package today!!!! and it was from grandma Huffine!! I will send her a thank you email! listening to the music right now! and Elder S. heard it and immediately questioned if it was approved. Which he does when he like music 'too much'... apparently if it sounds good it probably isnt approved. lol i then referred him to the approval email from President Blatter, so he is ok with it now :) lol

as for our investigator... he still has no date. he keeps dodging the question or saying flat out he wont pick a day yet. but we keep praying and i am getting very specific with my prayers so he can pick a day and get baptized. no matter what it will be in a lake as long as it is not winter time :)

So for our week... we had the beach on monday. will try to send pics if i remember by the end of my email :) lol the one i got of me has a pretty ugly face though... lol

and i got some shells for abby and parts of sand dollars. its hard to find full ones at that beach. basically all i did there was walk around... and i did step in the water. :D yep... missionary got wet in the ocean. lol they said as long as we dont swim... and it was only up to my knees so i wasnt swimming lol :) (and no i was not the only one who got in)

then on thursday we had zone conference  and that was nice. learned a lot. and there is this thing that we do during weekly planning called 'pencil planning' which i have always disliked and not really participated in, because i thought it was stupid. but after thursday i realized the true purpose of it, as long as it is done right. and so now i am no longer rebelling against that. :) its a big step for me considering i havent really done it in the last 7 months lol. i guess the main thing i was against wasnt the pencil planning it was the scheduling. which is very different. and this might not make sense to you, but it is easier to explain in person and not in an email. also if you were a missionary you would probably understand... oh well. 

Also half of our new families from the other week are no longer on our list... they just werent really interested i guess. but we still have cool people to work with :) 

We have also been knocking a LOT of doors. like 4-5 hours a day of walking and knocking. its a lot. and i am getting more tan by the day. its is crazy. but it is ok, because this is apparently the best way to find at this time here in washington tacoma. (i might be rolling my eyes here, but that is what i am told) so just know that many days for many hours i am outside knocking on doors :) 

Also yesterday we had an all Spanish Fireside and it was really cool because it was only the spanish elders and all the music and testimonies were in spanish. so there were only about 2 people total who needed translation. so it was fun and small, but really cool. :)

and thats my week. 

thanks for everything!!!! look forward to a box! :) and now enjoying new cds!

if i think of anything else i will let you know... :)

love and miss you!!!!!!!

-Tanner

July 13

Ok, seriously time crunched today. We are going to the ocean for a zone activity so I will take lots of pics for you... or at least some pics for you. :)

So quick question... and a story behind it. 

So my Ecco's which are so nice and useful have gotten broken on the sole. Both feet have big cracks in the sole. I would send pics but i dont have the card reader right now. So any ways they are still useful and work it just has a problem. So there is a shoe repair place in Shelton that i took them to to see what he could do... and he said 1. eccos are not good walking shoes (but when we asked what were good he said nothing was good for walking, so whatever.) and 2. that to replace the sole he suggests a rubber sole (which last longer and doesnt crack easily) so to fix my shoes he said it would be roughly $86. So the question for you... should i get them fixed or should i just get new shoes. I do still have the other shoes i left with but the ones from mens wearhouse are slightly uncomfortable to walk in all day long, and the boots are awkward in the summer. So what do you think? I should probably know by next monday since i might not have too much time left in shelton (transfers are in a couple weeks again, but i will probably stay here)

ok, so that is my shoe problem.

for this last week we did really good. we found four new investigators and two of those are families. and we also found some part member families that we are working with. And our top investigator has decided that the Great Apostasy did happen and that means the catholic church is not the full church of Jesus Christ, and therefore he now knows he needs to be baptized! so now we are just sorting through his calendar and mental schedule to find a good time to baptize him. And I dont know if i told you or not, but he wants to be baptized in a lake... so when he gets baptized it will be in a lake. :) So cool.

So all these people are english and i just have to say that i am very happy to be working with english people. I have already noticed that I am more sincere and meaningful when i can use my english abilities. :)

So the work is going really well in english, not so much in spanish... but we are still on the lookout for them too. 

Other than that, Elder S. and I are doing better as a companionship. I think it is because of the english/ spanish craziness that we are dealing with. With that distraction we have less time to worry about each others annoying habits. :) Although today is not one of our better days. 

So another quick story. this last week we were knocking in the forest/country side places. Like way out of town in random streets in the forests. And Wednesday we decided to knock doors for most of the day and lucky us we chose a street that had many many dogs! So I was happy because I love dogs, but Elder S. was not happy because he doesnt like dogs that bark... and all dogs bark. So I had a lot of fun that day and he didnt, but we met a lot of good people (that was when we found the two families) and lots of nice dogs. I think overall there was only one dog that didnt seem friendly. 

So yeah... thats my week. Finding new people to teach. Finding cool dog areas. Still too hot for me. It did rain one day this week! first rain in over a month. and it wasnt even that much. 

The branch presidents wife yesterday told me that this next sunday they leave for vacation to Disneyland... i told her i was ignoring them from now on. :)

So yeah... cant think of much else. i guess i will get a big update next week.

love and miss you!

-Tanner 

July 6

i,

Yeah... around 8 months.... crazy. 

I am glad you got to get Travis' endowments done so quickly. :) and you didnt have to wait for the Temple to be open after a long time of closing. 

Definitely go back as often as possible. There is always something to learn, even if it is the same and repeated many times. There are reasons for that. 

The Burke's are... interesting. Very energetic and slightly crazy, but fun. They live a ways out of town and own horses. And Brother Burke speaks Spanish so he can help us when we need someone for fellowship :) And they fed us pulled pork sandwiches (definitely homemade like not from a package... which means they are good) lol And I wrote on a wall in their back yard shed so now i am forever marked at their house. They have a shed where all their guests write their name on the walls (they have a lot of names already) so it is kind of like a guest book, but bigger and cooler. :)

And it was kind of weird when i first met their son he shook my hand and said hey cousin burke... weird. and at the end i prayed and i asked to bless the burke family, and after the prayer elder S. looks at me and says hey its not cool to pray for your own family, you need to pray for other people too. and yeah... its weird saying their name or hearing their name, since it makes me think of us. kind of confusing sometimes :)

So this week, besides the Burke Family, our investigator did not get baptized. He actually cancelled our appointment and rescheduled for this week. But he did come to church, which i wasnt there for until Sacrament (english ward starts with Priesthood and then Sunday School and then Sacrament. and i was in the spanish branch yesterday during english classes... yeah sundays are fun and long) But he came to sacrament and said he felt the Spirit for the first time in sacrament! so we are getting closer!

 

For 4th of July we were told certain rules. We could not be out past 8pm, we could not knock from 5-7 like normal, but we still had to knock for two hours during the day, and fireworks are always not allowed for missionaries. So we did our day of looking for people. and Shelton was dead because 1. nobody wants to be in Shelton for a big holiday if they dont have to be. and 2. there is a massive fire danger right now so they left town to blow things up. So our 4th was kind of lame. and no we didnt see fireworks. but its ok. we still got to talk with people. :)

It was funny because we went to the recent converts house because he has no family nearby and cant get around much with his wheelchair. so we visited him and he said a prayer before we left his house and he prayed that God would "bless the fools with fireworks so they dont burn down the forest." it was kind of hard not to laugh during that prayer.... :)

Other than that not much happened this week. We are still trying to find people and teach people. Shelton is just so small and has such a crazy population of different people. But we are praying to find those who are ready, and praying to get some of these people in our list baptized. We have a few that are really close, we just need to keep working with them. 

Hope you have a great week!!! Love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!

-Tanner

June 29

As for the first week of Spanglish.

 We jumped right in and saw a recent convert, who is really cool. He is
stuck in a wheelchair all the time and half of his body is paralyzed. (so i
 dont know how they baptized him, but they did) and he looks like he is late
40's- early 50's, but he is really 73! He definitely looks a lot younger.

 But anyways, we stopped by to see him and get to know him a bit. He is  really an awesome person.
Also we saw a person who english left for us who is basically ready for
 baptism he just wants to know that if he leaves the catholic church, it is
 not going to backfire on him. He really just needs to take a leap of faith
 because he knows the book of mormon is true and that joseph smith was a
 prophet, he just has problems with letting go of the catholic beliefs. so
we are trying to work with him so he can hopefully be baptized this week!

 So look forward to some exciting emails next week if we do have a baptism!:)

 Other than that the bishop of the english ward is really cool. Very much
 into missionary work, so he is willing to help us with anything we need,
which is awesome.

 And the members are really nice. and we have more meals planned for this
 month than i have had so far. :) By the way we are eating at the Burke's
house on Friday. lol everytime i see something mentioning the Burke's here
i get so confused. :)

 We definitely still have the car. We still cover a long way out of shelton
with spanish work (and some english people who live out in the country) so
we still need the car.

 For my birthday, i didnt really tell anyone about it. a few others knew
 about it so i got texts, but most people didnt. But we went to a meal with
a members that day so i got a really good bbq bacon burger at a restaurant
called roosters. So it was almost as if i were back home, getting to go out
to eat :) 
and sister blatter called and told me happy birthday in spanish.
(she did call last night and said she forgot on thursday, but at least she
called. lol ) 
and Sister Blatter even offered to get
us a new couch because at our last apartment we have a very broken couch.

 So I almost could have gotten new furniture for my birthday :)
I think that is it for this last week. As always if i think of something
else, i will let you know.

 love and miss you!!!!!!
-Tanner

June 22- NEW ADDRESS AGAIN!

Hey!

so today we are super busy...

I did get the three boxes. and it was funny because the three boxes surprised Elder S. and he kind of ran out to see the mail lady and the lady just looked at him with a "Heck if I know" face and left. It was just funny because i guess its not normal to have three boxes at once.

As for what was inside... of course I am happy! Candy!!! :) Elder S. keeps asking for some and I keep looking at him like he is crazy. but I did share a caramel apple twizzler because he kept bugging me. :) 

So this week was interesting. We did not have investigators at church, but we had a potential person who is a friend of our branch presidents wife (the mom) and she seems pretty interested so maybe we can get her to be a legit investigator. 

and we have a pretty legit person who is kind of older but has family who are members in Chihuahua, Mexico so she knows we are good people and she wants to learn more. :) 

and other than that not many new people. But we are doing a lot of finding to try and get new people and more to do. 

Speaking of more to do... 

Transfers!!!! So we got the call in the afternoon on Saturday (first time not being late at night!) and President Blatter told us that we are staying together for another transfer. So I am with Elder S. for the third transfer now! and We are both staying in Shelton!! But... 

We are going Spanglish!!!!!! So what that means is we are both still teaching all spanish people in our large spanish area, and also teaching any english people in the area where the english elders were in shelton. 

So there are still sisters in shelton, and we do not teach the english people there, but we can teach spanish in the sisters area. So for at least part of shelton we are Spanglish! (hope that makes sense) 

Also... we are moving!!! so right now our apartment is "ghetto" in the words of President Blatter lol and so we are moving to the nicer apartment which the english elders are moving out of.

 so the new address:

615 east E St. Apartment 201, Shelton WA 98584

!!!!!!

wow. so today we are moving a lot of things from the former apartment as of tomorrow, to the new apartment. and i looked through their kitchen and they have nothing too, so please still send kitchen gadgets when you can! :) thank you!!!!!

By the way i have been feeling kind of bad for using the personal funds (your money) like every week, so i am going to try and get better at not using them if i dont have to. :) But just letting you know that i might use it today for a haircut, if i get time. 

oh and i went to walgreens this last week and got more meds (vitamin d and levothyroxine) And I remembered that back home when i didnt use insurance that the three months was under $50 and here for the 1 month supply with insurance was like $20... and that doesnt add up. so i asked if i could take the insurance off and get a three month supply instead (since the insurance was the one dictating the one month at a time rule) and they said yes and it ended up being like $40-something for the three months. so form this experience i now have more meds, more money saved, and less hassle with needing to go to a walgreens every month. :) overall pretty happy. thanks again for the personal funds that enable me to get meds :)

I think that is all for now. If i think of something and have time before leaving i will let you know :) 

Thanks for the happy birthday's, and the boxes, and everything, and prayers, and love, and all that jazz :)

Love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Tanner 

oh yeah...

so along with doing spanglish we are now covering the spanish branch and an english ward. so two areas, two missionaries, two languages, not too much to do. :) 

 they both kind of are intermingled at the same time (so spanish starts at 11 and english at 1230 so classes in spanish are during classes with english and english sacrament starts at the end of classes of spanish.) kind of confusing right now how it is going to work... but we will find a way. somehow. lol 

oh hey!

i forgot a huge thing that happened this week!

we had Zions Camp!!!

so for the most part of a day we go to this thing called Zions Camp once a year. and so this last week we got to go and it is a bunch of teamwork things that are fun and we relate everything to the gospel. So basically like summer day camp/ efy/ missionary life all in one. so we went on tuesday .. let me say that some of the things i did not do. mostly because we had a group of 20 of us missionaries and some of the things work better with not 20 people. so yeah... but it was still a really cool thing that we got to do. And at the end we had some nice trainings from President on how to plan better and how to teach better. So it was really nice to have a day like that. 

just letting you know more of my life. :)

June 15

Hey!

it could be spanglish or zebra (spanglish is two spanish elders doing both english and spanish, and zebra is a spanish and an english elder together in one area) :)

and if it does go either of those it will be at the start of any transfer. they are predicting the beginning of next transfer. but who knows? transfers are very unpredictable lately. 

Yeah... being a spanish missionary. definitely a trial, but im working on it, and hopefully getting better. and when i say that i mean with the language (which i am doing much better with btw) and with the work itself. 

ok for my week, since i am sure people want to read about that. lol

i am getting a really nice tan. which should surprise people when they think i am in northwest washington. but yeah... tan. and you know i only get tanner (always a good joke there)

anyways. this week was good. we finally have some inverstigators progressing!!!!! two people came to sacrament! and another person showed up for the second and third hours. so we had some people at church!! and since they came to church they are considered progressing! one more step towards baptism! 

one of those people who came even needed a ride to get here because he lives 40 minutes away from the building. and he is really sincerely trying to change his life. it was amazing because he called us asking for help and we stopped by after the long drive and he told us he has an addiction that he wants to get taken care of. so we gave him a 12 step book and invited him to church and to continue to take lessons so he can come closer to God. So he agreed and actually came to church. it is really amazing to see him trying to get better. hopefully we can get him to continue to progress. 

and another person is the boyfriend of one of the branch presidents daughters. and he is pretty interested, and he came to church too. even though it was after his catholic services.... but you know, its good. at least he came. :)

and the really fun thing is that these people are considered spanish enough to be taught by us! (some people we have right now speak more english than spanish :) ) 

so... yeah. good things here. praying a lot to continue to find more people and to teach more people, and to eventually baptize people. 

so yeah... thats about it. 

if i think of something else i will let you know. :) 

love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Tanner

part of Roberts email:

My spanish is good. I dont use it as often as i should... but thats because im a little stubborn when it comes to some things. but i have been praying to get over my stubborn-ness and be able to do what i need to do. :)

i definitely can say though that i am more mexican spanish than anything else. Elder S. has mentioned a few times how i talk like a mexican... lol. i guess i rather be told than than i speak high school spanish. (lets all admit that high school languages are kind of not real) :) but it will be nice for you guys to learn some things from that, and then i can get home and teach you how to talk like mexicans :)

thanks for everything!!!

love and miss you too!!!!!!!!

June 8

Ok, 

so this week was just kind of full of crazy people and a few others who are really cool. 

my week. so we found a couple really cool people this last week. 

one guy was when we were knocking doors and he opened up and he was in just a longer shirt... luckily covering a good part of the lower section. and he had a strange sculpture out front and we mentioned it and he said he was an artists who works with bronze so that was one of his pieces. so we went from that to explaining that we were sharing a message and he told us he had 4 minutes to spare so we could talk. and we introed the book of mormon and a bit about why we call our message the restoration. and after some explaining of words and ideas he agreed to read the book! he said to give him three weeks and then we could come back, but we bargained it down to two weeks. and unfortunately for us right now he was english so... we sent his name and address to the english elders. but for the moment he was cool when we got to talk with him. he said the way we explained it all was simple and easy to understand and made him interested. so hopefully that works out well. :) (and if this area goes spanglish which is the rumor, maybe in a few weeks if i am here i will end up teaching him anyways)

also we met a guy on the street the other day whose grandparents were mormon and always took him to church when he was little. and we ended up talking to him for a few minutes about the book of mormon, and he said he had been wanting to learn more about Joseph Smith and the church for a while now, he just never had the chance. so now he does have the chance, and the way it seemed was once he can learn why Joseph Smith was a prophet he can believe the rest of the stuff. so... another great person! and... another english person! (yeah... i wish i was english, even though spanish is fun and all)

and we have a spanish! person. all his relatives are members and he is the only one who isnt. so we have been working with him and his family to get him baptized. and he said he would like it, he just needs to commit to it. which takes time. so yeah... praying for him.

also ran into some crazies. dont want to talk about them too much... because of time and because crazy is crazy. and yeah... :)

we were at the branch Presidents house (btw half the members here are from that family)  for a meal yesterday and i was about to mention that you were going to the temple, but i ended up not talking about it. 

also i am getting a nice tan/sunburn here. lol lots of sun and heat. apparently its drought year and that is not common. but its a very hot summer so far, and lots of people talking about how its just going to get more hot. so today i bought the two things i need. sunscreen. yay :) and aloe vera for when the sunscreen stops working. :) yay lol at least its not humid. and its not the desert. so you know, its nice. :) hope you are enjoying maryland weather. 

guess thats all for this week. 

love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!! 

-Tanner

June 1

Hey just a few minutes right now. ill be back on later. going to a zone activity so elder s. can get a haircut. :/ 

sounds like a busy week for you. :) 

just a quick thing while on my mind. the branch president here in shelton has a daughter serving in the DC mission and she is currently in the visitors center. so... if you wanted to search for her tomorrow. just saying. :)   (mom note.. we found her!)

so yeah for now... not too much time.

elder s. is doing much better. back to mostly normal days. going back to doctors on wednesday. yeah there is a cafe rio here too somewhere...

so this week has been slow. taking it easy for elder s. (much to his dislike). he would much rather be out and about. but he wasnt realizing it was probably better to be inside and resting. 

so yeah. not much new. not much going on this week. just living life and working as hard as we can without causing further damages. lol

so i guess not much time is good, since that is about it. short list of stuff done this week = short list of stuff to talk about. :)

but still going to get back on later to write more. especially since i might remember something important. :)

thanks for now. love you! miss you! talk more soon. 

(mom note: he got back on but nothing to write on the blog about)

May 25

so sunday was the hospital and then on monday it didnt get much better. in fact it got worse. so we called sister blatter again that night and she said that she wanted him checked out by a different doctor. so a senior couple happened to be in olympia and heading to aberdeen (where this doctor is) and so they were able to pick us up at around 9pm to take us to their place. and their apartment is right next to the bishop for the english ward in aberdeen. so we drove about an hour and a half from shelton to see the doctor super late at night. and when we got there he runs over and determines that it is not a gallbladder issue, but appendicitis. so he gets rushed to the hospital where the on call surgeon is a member so he can get properly diagnosed and get surgery. so we get there and find out it really is appendicitis. so he goes to surgery, where the surgeon and the anesthesiologist are members and surgery started around 3am. and the surgery ended around 4-4:30ish. and i finally got to see him at like 5:30. so no sleep monday night. then on tuesday he stayed in the hospital. and i went back to the senior couple's apartment to sleep a bit. then after that i was told to go with the english elders in aberdeen (there are 4 of them so i made it 5 elders plus the senior couple... lots of missionaries) and i went with them to visit some people on their list. and while i was out president and sitter blatter visited elder s. and let him talk with his parents. 

so that night i stayed at the english elder's house (talk about a crazy place with 5 people) and the next day elder s. got released. but we ended up staying at the Hinds' place (the Hinds are the senior couple) for a few more days. So while Elder S. was recuperating i went out a bit every day with the other elders so i could do something besides sitting around :)

and that was fun...

so then on saturday we finally got back to shelton and Elder S. is still unable to do much work, but we are getting him back to working slowly. He really wants to do a lot, but he cant because he just had surgery and yeah... that takes a while to get healed. so i have been going out with the english elders here and visiting some of our people so our area doesnt die. :) 

and that is my week. 

By the way. I think Sister Hinds requested to be your friend on facebook and i gave her your number so she can send you pics of when we were at their house. :) they are a really nice couple, and they originally live in Joplin (well before the mission originally). so really close to grandma huffine. :) and sister hinds made us a strawberry salsa that you should try. i have the recipe. :)

so my week was filled with the hospital and going english. :) but i am not complaining and still going strong. lol

oh and while i was in aberdeen one of the english elders got bit by a german shepard.... on the butt. and that was an ugly mess. his pants and garments were ripped and his butt has a few big holes that are not normally supposed to be there. 

so its been a very exciting week for me. basically a vacation to aberdeen. lol but still doing good work. 

oh and while i was there i was worried of running out of meds so the bishop got me a prescription (that i ended up not needing) but now i have an extra 3 months supply of meds, so really good with that :) glad that area is filled with doctors of all kinds because they hook up the missionaries in any way possible. :)

yeah... lots of stuff.

ok, so thats my week. 

love and miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Tanner 

May 18th

OK, 

not a lot of time this week. Elder S. is sick and I dont want to keep him up for very long. 

Long story, i will get to it. 

So please make sure that the other relatives know that birthday things should go to the office address for convenience. :)

ok so for my week. it was actually really good. We havent had any real problems being around each other again. which is a good thing. His birthday was on wednesday, and that was park day so it was tough. But we got through it. Shelton is a lot more of a mountain town than lakewood so biking is a lot less fun... 

But this area is really nice. Its a lot of farm land, and forest. And Shelton itself is a very small town. But with all that we found a new investigator almost every night this week. Except for tuesday (we didnt have much finding time because of transfers) and yesterday (we were home all day). 

so for the most exciting part of the week. 

Yesterday Elder S. was fine in the mornings until a little after breakfast when his stomach started hurting. So we kind of ignored it and went to church, and after church he said the pain had increased. So we went home and I called Sister Blatter (mission Pres. wife) for advice. And she told us to stay home and let him rest. We figured it was just a stomach bug thing at this point. 

So we waited and it just got worse with time, so I gave him a quick blessing and afterwards I called Sister Blatter again and she wasnt sure what it was so she had a doctor friend call us to give us advice. So we explained the symptoms (pain, not able to go to the bathroom, pain, vomiting everything he tried to eat or drink) And that turned into a visit to the hospital. Because with all the symptoms he was having and with his diabetes it was a better idea to just go get someone to look at it. so we called the branch president and him and his wife took us to the ER. 

There we waited for a little bit, for the pain they gave him some pain drugs and tried to figure everything out. After a few hours we find that it is most likely his Gall Bladder. And he had a "gall bladder attack" due to the food he ate at breakfast. So now he is on pain killers and resting a lot. And if he doesnt feel better by tomorrow he will need to consult a surgeon to see what we can do to help. So kind of scary stuff. Definitely not expected. 

So we went shopping today and i bought some stuff for him . he is stuck to a diet of clear liquids and no fat foods. lots of fun. But the way i see it is everything happens for a reason, and we will be able to see the reason later on. Just hope that it doesnt get worse and he doesnt need something more drastic than rest. 

so that was last night. We finally got home around 1130 (past our bedtime) :) and i stayed up a bit longer to get some jello made for him. and finally got to bed around 1am (just me, he tried sleeping right away). and a few times during the night he needed help with pain. So running on around 5 hours of sleep right now. lol not complaining. I am glad I am here to help him get through this. Maybe that is why we are together again, so he could go through this with someone he knows already, and not a complete stranger who doesnt know as much as I do about him. :) who knows.  

so staying home for the most part. lots of time to clean and study lol

yeah... great transfer so far :) 

not much else going on. got to go though so we can get him back to resting. 

love you!!!! miss you!!! 

email more next week, hopefully with great news :)

by the way..  there are a few familiar names here in shelton. all in the english ward but we have a sister woodward. and there is a burke family. lol i got here and immediately all the members ask if i know the burkes here. i still havent met them. :) 

one hispanic even asked if i was their son... nope. :)

fun stuff.  

May 11.. day after Mothers day phone call/Skype! Also NEW ADDRESS!

Hey!

so today has been rough. We spent 3 hours looking for a bike seat for someone (not me) and really i am done with bike shops. But during one of the bike shop visits my companion and i left the others to find a bathroom and we found a donut shop in the meantime. And we both got bacon maple donuts. :)

ummm... yeah not much to talk about.

Going to Shelton. I hear it is not a big branch and the members dont feed us much, which is great for me. now i can cook more! i just also have to be more frugal with money though. 

NEW address: 

281 SE Arcadia Rd #C1

Shelton, WA 98584

make sure both grandmas get this please. they have sent me stuff to the appartment before and i want to make sure they have the right address. Shelton is not near Lakewood. So i have a limited amount of times of getting things from other areas. Oh and for birthday stuff, send boxes to the office address because the next transfer is two days before my birthday and it might get hectic if i am moving again. :) but who knows if i will really change again so soon?

So yeah. Getting back with Elder S. (MTC companion) Should be fun. I guess we will see. lol 

glad i got to see you guys! even though there wasnt a lot to say. :)

As for this last week, not much happened so not much to say. Changing areas is basically the news. 

cant think of much else, so i will end for now. 

love and miss you!!!!!!!

-Tanner

May 4th

ok my week-

found a couple new investigators. going to be visiting them more this week. 

Still trying to work with members more. Such a hard job. We visited one couple the other night to spend like 30 minutes with them and ended up staying for an hour because they had some things they wanted to get off their chest about the ward. Nothing like listening to other people complain. So we are helping everyone to get their feeling out so hopefully we can know where to focus. Yeah... but at least we are getting somewhere with that. 

Along with that we are going to start trying more on getting home teaching done with members. They are all converts and dont know about things like home teaching very much, so we have to help the members with that too. maybe that will help the ward function? who knows?

So this was bike week and it was a good week for it. But we walked three days this week. The first time we were stuck in the not so good city again. without bikes or a ride. because a member we set up stuff with cancelled. so we walked home from there again. then the next day we were about the same distance away as that city but in the other direction and my comp got a flat tire, so we walked home again. and the third day we walked because of his flat. oh and two days before the bad city walk, one of my tires went flat. luckily one of the other elders had a spare patch to fix it. that was an adventure too, fixing the flat. so i had a patched tire and his went flat without another patch, so we were walking. 

lets just say how glad i am to have a car this week. 

so buying a new tube today for my bike (i dont like the idea of a patch on my tube forever) and a new patch kit in case it happens again. 

so lots of trials this week. with bikes mostly, but we got through it. and I know that as long as we are doing our best everything will work out fine. 

Oh, and another exciting thing this last week. We set up a booth at a local place called swap meets (have i told you about it before? dont remember?) anyways. swaps is like a giant daily flea market, mostly hispanic, and great for finding hispanics to talk to. so we normally just hang out outside and talk with people in the parking lot (sketchy)

but this time we went inside and got a booth (normally they charge people, but since we give out free things we got in for free, just needed a license form town hall) and that was exciting. only a few people tried to bash with us over doctrine, and we gave out a ton of pamphlets and cards. So many seeds planted, now we jsut wait to see if anyone actually cares :)

and we are planning on going back for the next few months during summer time every weekend because of all the people we can talk with. that and it is fun to look at flea market stuff (you know) :)

other than that stuff i think everything is still the same. still finding people and praying a lot for miracles. 

transfers are next week btw so during my skype call i will let you know where i am going (if i am going) :)

yeah. 

cant wait to talk on sunday!!!!!! 

(btw- six months and my family starts growing up without me. those pictures of everyone are crazy different! wow. cant wait to talk on sunday! oh and i like daisy in the pic of you and abby lol)

Love you!

-Tanner

April 27

So things here are still slow. We keep trying to find people and really have little to no investigators right now. So we keep going out to find people. It is a tough job. But we keep going. 

We have also been working with the members in the ward here to try and get them better, so maybe they can get their own friends to meet with us, but that is tough too. Really everything is kind of slow. 

But It's ok. We are praying a lot, and trying a lot. In the Lord's time He will bring those who are ready. We just have to be patient. And until then, keep trying through our own means. 

As for anything specific this week... umm.. we had a ward party. That was interesting. I might upload a video for you to see one of the things they did. 

And... that lady who was from Fiji and came over in a toolbox (i mentioned her a while ago) we visited her last night, because we were knocking her apartments and decided to knock her door to see how she is doing. And she did find the church. But still having some problems... but thats life. At least she is still staying positive and getting things done. 

Other than that. Like I said not many new things. 

love you!!!

April 20

OK, 

so this week was interesting. 

but first:

wow trent looks different. amazing what changes in 5 months. (btw can you believe it has been that long? some days seem that long and others seem like it was really a short time ago) 

As for our week:

Monday was raining. Elder R. got absolutely soaked by a car while we were on bike. That was not fun. it was also like the only cold night this week. But we got through it. :)

As for the other days...

Thursday was Zone Conference.  :) That was nice. Elder R. and I have been having some troubles lately with finding people and getting members to help, and the conference talked a lot about those areas and how we can improve. So some prayers were answered. 

Then we tried implementing some of the ideas and found two new investigators last night. It was kind of a surprise to them i think because when we first contacted them it was only the husband and he said to come back and talk with his wife, so we came back the next day and talked with her, saying that he said we could come back. But she wasnt available, so we tried again last night (waiting a few days because she was getting surgery on her hand) and found them both at home. But it was as if the husband thought we were there for the wife, and the wife thought we were there for the husband... so we sat down with them both and gave an intro to the book of mormon and asked if they would be interested in learning more (they were about to eat dinner so we were kind of in a rush) and they both agreed. so we set up a return appointment and the wife actually prayed at the end (which is not normal because normally the investigators find the idea of praying very foreign) so we now have a couple that we can teach! 

And besides that we are trying to get our ward back into a functional ward, so we have a goal to teach every member in our area the 1st lesson, The Restoration. And so far we havent gotten anyone taught that, but we have a couple appointments this next week for members. So that should be fun. And hopefully inspirational enough to get the members to do something productive. :)

And yeah... thats my week. Still trying to find people. Still trying to stay dry (its been easy this last week. Really sunny and warm) Still staying positive. :)

 

love and miss you!!!! 

-Tanner 

April 13

We are still kind of struggling with the area. Not many people want us to visit them. So we are deciding to start completely over. We are dropping everyone we have (except for maybe two people) and just going to start over with finding more legit people. We kind of lost G. (the guy on baptism date) so he is not on date anymore, and we are trying to find him to see what is happening, but for now... we dont know.

We also started teaching our next door neighbor. She has been taught before, and we dont know why they stopped, but we are starting again, and so far it is good.

So yeah, thats basically it. Not much to say... we dont have too many people.

But I have noticed that I am getting better overall at being a missionary. I have started to realize that I actually care about the people and the work. Before I didn't think too much of it, but now it is a daily thought. And a couple times now I have gotten upset because people just dont seem to care. And it gets frustrating when they stop caring. But then I think of the good people we find too, and I dont dwell on the frustrating parts. 

Ok, so to make this a little longer. We had an interesting experience the other night. We were knocking doors and found this hsipanic guy who acted as though he expected us to be there. And he told us that the other guy was taking a shower so we would have to come back to talk with him. (still dont know who lives there and who he was talking about) But we ended up asking if he was interested and he said yes. So we talked about the Book of Mormon a bit, and he asked us to read him a verse or two, so we read him a scripture and in the middle of the verse he gets on his knees and starts praying. and we finish the scripture and he tells us to read more as he prays. So we read one more verse and he gets up and starts thanking us. Then we prayed together and we tried to set up a new appointment but he said he didnt live there, and if God is willing He will send us to his house one day, but he wouldnt give us the address. So we shook hands and before walking away he asked if he could hug us, so we hugged and he thanked us again and we went on our way. 

Kind of weird, but definitely not complaining. At least he was nice. Just a little strange. And maybe we will find his house one day... :)

April 6

Hi again :)

Yes I made eggs benedict. We even dyed eggs (1st, heard you didn't!, and 2nd, it was Elder R's first time dying eggs!)

So that was fun. and the food was delicious of course! Elder R. liked it too, first time for eggs benedict too. 

 spanish is fine. i am not struggling. i am doing well. 

Baptism is set for the 25th, but might be moved. G. S. (the guy on date) is hard to catch. he works a lot (like everyone) and has been going through some stuff that takes a lot of time at hospital and court. (long story) so yeah, might get moved back, but still lots of hope and potential for him.

of course i watched conference. It was good.  the talks were good. when it turned to spanish speakers we ran out of the room to listen to the spanish tv, in another room. That way we could listen to it without the translation. But other than those we just listened in english. What did you think of Uchtdorf speaking german? lol

and the shoutouts to the WaTac! there was teh Pearsons guy who was the former president (a while ago), and in Nielsons talk he mentioned a family that has close ties to the WaTac. so two shoutouts in one session. Made everyone here get super excited. :)

Other than that. We had a slow week. Not much going on. it is always tough just starting off with someone new though. Hopefully this week is better. 

Elder R. is the oldest in a family of three. From Utah (of course). Dont know about food choices. He did say he likes Asian food...  likes Mike and Ikes and any snack food. :) Frosted Flakes, resses cup cereal for cereal choices..yeah, other than that not much about him either. 

and that is my week.

listen to this song when you can. "In the words of Satan" by some lds artist. it should sound jazzy and talk about how many distractions there are in life :) its fun

love and miss you!!!!!!

-Tanner

March 30

Ok, here I am again

So, yes I made the cookies :) they turned out good

Yes, losing weight. Even one of the people from church said something a couple weeks ago... but not a lot.

For the GPS, I might need it sooner than later. Just because we use C.'s right now, and he is leaving the area, so I might need one. Depends on if my new Companion has one. 

As for my week...

We dont have too much new.

We did get transfer calls and I am staying in Lakewood for at least another 6 weeks. My new Companion is Elder R. He has been out for a little over a year and a half. Pretty excited to get a new companion i guess. But this also means I am in charge of remembering a lot. Because now I am the one who knows the area better and the people right now... lots of stress there. But it will all be good. 

Also when we found out about other people's calls that the mission itself is getting a lot of changes. President thinks that the Spanish missionaries need to be better utilized, so he is switching things around to put more Spanish missionaries in leadership positions. So a few areas that were only spanish are now Spanish-English (what we call zebra, because the companion-ships are now one english elder and one spanish elder together) so the spanish elders can be zone leaders and district leaders more. So about half the spanish zone is now part english. Kind of interesting. This means that basically anyone these areas meet can be taught. English or Spanish, where before it was solely Spanish if you were Spanish. The area I am in will not be Zebra though because it is in the one Spanish Ward area. So it makes sense to not go Zebra. But this means later on I will probably go zebra. I am really excited for that. 

Some of the other Spanish Elders I have talked to about it are thinking it will ruin the chances for Spanish, but I dont see how that could happen. It just gives more teaching opportunities. Fun stuff.

Spanish is coming... slowly but surely. I am able to have conversations, but small ones and the other person generally asks the questions. but it is still better than nothing.

Also we have someone on date for baptism!!! for the 25th of April. 

We went to the one persons house really late the other night and found him home (surprising because he is never home). So we taught the first lesson and invited him to be baptized and he said yes, and that he has been wanting to be baptized into the church for a while now. (he was taught like 5 years ago in another area, but moved and fell into the crack of not being taught) so now we have him on date and all we need to do is teach the lessons again and get him to baptism! Pretty Exciting. 

So yeah, things are looking good here. Busy, and stressful, but good. 

 Kind of a busy day today getting ready for transfers tomorrow.

hey, 

i told trent about this... sounds cool. :) https://www.lds.org/church/events/new-face-to-face-event-to-feature-elder-and-sister-bednar?lang=eng

oh!

and we were volunteering at the local food bank on friday and they took out picture and asked us to say something for their newsletter. so if you search the tacoma rescue mission site and find their newsletter for next month you can see us in really nice hair nets lol 

Love and miss you!!!! 

-Tanner

March 22 part 2

I got a haircut two weeks ago. first one since MTC. it was getting kind of long.... but everyone said here that the hair rule is really not strictly enforced (i knew there was a reason for me being here lol)

and i went to this asian lady who i guess all missionaries in the lakewood area goes to. and she did the same thing with the straight razor. it was interesting. and my hair doesnt look too bad

 The temple here is nice. It is a little smaller than D.C. I think. And Moroni was holding the scriptures. Didnt you say someone told you there were only like 3 temples in the world that have him holding scriptures? If so I have seen all three in the last year :)

And we got both those names you sent done. My companion said all his family work is done so he was able to do the other name.

And it was different going through without one of either you or mom being there. But it was still nice. 

 I guess most people right out of training stay in their areas for another transfer, so i will probably stay in Lakewood with a new companion. but nobody knows for sure until we get calls on Saturday. :) Kind of stressful. 

Hope you have a great week!

love and miss you!!

March 22

Temple trip was tuesday. That was nice. It is around an hours drive from Lakewood. We were able to take pics outside  and before we went into the session we had a short meeting with the temple president. And the session was good. It was weird not having a family member there with me. and the set up is different. I think for going as family members, I like the Washington D.C. setup better. the aisles arent separated there. lol just a little thing i thought id mention. :)

 After we had a lunch provided by the temple cafeteria. and another short meeting with the Mission President. then headed back home to get back to work.

On Monday night we were kind of scrambling to find a knocking spot by 6, so we went to some apartments close by. And we knocked into S. again! (the lady from a while back who was praying and reading the bible when we showed up). So we had a nice lesson with her. Even though it was in english, and the other missionaries are teaching her too. lol It was really funny because we sit down in her living room and she tells us its really funny because its like everytime she sits down and prays the mormons show up at her door. So we taught the restoration and she tells us she went to church with the Sister missionaries. And her 13 year old son wants to be baptized! after just one visit to church! And she is really interested in learning more. When we taught the Joseph Smith story she said she heard it a few times before, but that was the first time it made sense to her. I kind of wish I was english with some people so I could have cool people like this all the time. But I have come to grips with the fact that I am not. But also I am still a missionary, and I figure as long as I can help people be happier, be it in english, spanish, samoan, whatever language. If I can help I feel as though I accomplished a lot. 

By the way I need you to watch my account. I should have a charge for  a motel here in lakewood. but if there is any more than that $15 charged at any time you need to tell the bank that is not me. This was a one time thing where a lady was needing help and said her and her kids were about to be kicked out unless they had $15 to pay the rest of the room fee. so i helped out. So just letting you know to watch for that. Hopefully nothing else happens with the motel. 

Hermana S. (the member who is married to Hermano S. in New York) Is moving to Utah this summer, and just yesterday took a trip to Colorado for a couple months. She works as a nanny for a military family and she is only traveling and moving to help them out. But I am slightly sad because she is an awesome member and I probably wont see her again. But it is ok. As long as her husband gets baptized and they get sealed sometime next year I will be ok. lol

As for other investigators we arent having many lessons. Everyone is getting more jobs and working all the time. So it is tough. But we have found some other people, and we have the car this week, so we can see more people. Hopefully we have more lessons this week. 

Oh and transfer calls are this Saturday! So I will let you know on Monday what is happening. I am probably staying in Lakewood, with a new companion. But we never know what will happen. So be ready for that. :) 

Other than that stuff, not much is new. 

Have a good week!!

March 16

while tacos are good, i miss your tacos. i keep telling C. about our tacos and he tells me that those are not real and they are gross, but i like them, and will probably make them at some point. :) 

Yeah, about O. we stopped by him yesterday and he told us he had a problem with some doctrine (as always). so he told us that he thinks Jesus only died for the Jews. and we were really just done with these problems so we told him no in the scriptures it tells us he died for everyone. and we told him when he gets any other problems in his head about doctrine, just read the scriptures and pray and he will find the answers. 

and Hermano S. left on Saturday... and our final lesson was watching the Restoration DVD. and that was good. Apparently him and his wife are going to move to Utah later this year, which is good for them. I just hope he gets baptized and they can be sealed sooner than later. He is definitely ready, he just needs to realize all that in his own time. 

And that is all that really happened this week. We did find a couple new people, but not sure how serious they are yet, so i will just tell you that we are finding people. :)

The special meeting was really cool. It was Elder Falavella from the 70. He is from Guatemala. He basically just told the Spanish members that they need to do 3 things. 1. Share the Gospel. (which was nice because we have been pushing member missionary work lately) 2. Learn English (which was shocking, but nice. He said how can you expect to be successful in the U.S. if you dont speak the main language?) and 3. Plan for the future. If they want something to happen they need to plan for it, and then work towards it. No blessings come for free. 

So I thought it was really nice. and at one point when talking about speaking english he was telling everyone to watch tv in english and to talk in english at home, that way they can learn faster. so he asked everyone to raise their hands if they were willing to do these things. and I raised my hand because i was like yeah! i will speak english! but Elder C. quickly pushed my hand back down and said it doesnt apply to me. :) lol

But that was good, and then we had Stake Conference, and I didnt get most of that because we were in a special area for spanish translation, and the translations were just not working for me. but yeah... im sure the speakers were great then too. 

oh! for the car. we did go get our tires rotated and while we were waiting, there was a TV on with the news. and that was interesting to see what was going on in the world. (Elder C. did not like that I was watching TV, but what else is there to do in a waiting area?) luckily not very long after that  the car was done so i wasnt distracted with that for too long. lol

Other than that not much new here. 

We did get rain this weekend, the first rain in a while. and people are saying summer is going to be hot and not rainy. So I guess I am getting a good year to be on a mission here. :)