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. :)

March 9

well... 

here has been really sunny and honestly i am thinking way too warm. :) but then i think of you and i dont complain. so i am soaking up enough sun for both of us. :)

sorry to hear you keep getting snow and ice and cold and snow days... i cant imagine how the dogs feel about it. 

speaking of dogs. i keep finding these random dogs around (with and without people) and i cant help but pet them. i miss daisy and brandi. there is one dog at the members house who feeds us weekly (the one with the pigs feet) and every time i think at least i get to play with the dog while eating this strange food :) but this week they fed us tacos (the mexican way, which is just corn tortillas, some type of meat, and toppings of lime, onion, and cilantro. and homemade salsa) i miss your tacos. lol

 

i keep telling my companion how much easier life is with pampered chef and he is telling me i am spoiled :) i know i am, but there are just some things that make life a lot easier. i made bruschetta the other day and that brought up the topic. i had to use a really cheap can opener.... and i complained the entire time. :) but the food was good. 

surprisingly with the time change i am not more tired than usual. maybe being tired constantly just covers DST. :)

Ok... now for the sad thing. 

O. did not come to church. We stopped by his house on Tuesday and explained the importance of coming to church, and then called him Saturday, but he didnt answer. But he did call back Saturday night and explained that he had work so he couldnt come. and we explained again the importance. and he did not show up. So the baptism is void and he is not a member. also we have decided to not see him again unless he asks us to come by. We are not ready for that kind of stress again. Yay for my first baptism being a sandbag baptism....

and Hermano S. We talked to him on Tuesday also and he told us that he wasnt feeling like he got an answer. so we tried to teach him how to receive one. oh and something really funny. When we started the lesson his wife asked us who was getting baptized because we told them the PMG sentence for baptism the last meeting (we are having a baptismal service on ___, will you commit to being baptized on this day?) and so she asked who was getting baptized on saturday (the date we gave them). so we had to quickly think and tell them nobody, because he was not fully committed. But then i look at him and just say "usted..." (which is you in spanish) and we all awkwardly laughed and then it got serious and he told us no. but it was good :) really funny afterwards

so we stopped by again on Friday with Sister Blatter! (the mission Presidents wife) and had a lesson with her! She knows some spanish and was really good to have along. A lot of struggling with correct words, but the Spirit was definitely with us. and he said he still wasnt ready and he probably wont be ready by the time he leaves. but it is ok, he is still interested adn making a really honest effort, and that is all that matters. and maybe we will have a miracle later this week... 

for the exchange. it was very stressful for me. but it was good. that was on tuesday, so i was with him for both the really important people (O. and S.) but it was good. He is really trying hard with Spanish and it is getting really good. Definitely going to do well in the mission. 

For the Fiji Lady... we got a call from her during the fireside saying nobody came to bring her to church. so we had to get the sister missionaries to get in touch with her. apparently the sisters are way more responsible when it comes to getting in touch with people.... imagine that. :)

 We did get another lesson with M. and his wife was there this time! so that was cool and we really feel good about them. if only they would come to church. that is their only problem so far. they wont come to church ever...

oh and we had a mission meeting with Elder Maines from the 70 on Saturday. That was cool. a lot of new things that we are going to try and work on as a mission. and this next sunday is stake conference and we are lucky enough to have another general authority come. and the really cool thing is he is from Guatemala, and is going to have a special meeting in the morning for all the spanish members in the area. Basically he is having a special meeting with our ward in complete spanish. really cool. :)

so yeah... that is my week. 

We get the car again this week, so should be a little more productive maybe with getting to see more people. :) 

i will pray for you to get some sunshine too :) 

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

-Tanner

March 2

so this week was a big struggle for me. I am really getting down on myself for not learning enough spanish fast enough. I feel as though I can't help out very much because of that. but you know... just have to keep moving forward. 

As for our investigators-

M. We havent taught him since last week. He was too busy this week.

O.- did not come to church again. So he has one more week before his Baptism is invalid... really concerned for him

and Hermano S. He is doing good. We have taught most of the lessons and all he needs now is a desire to be converted. We found out yesterday he only has two more weeks here so we are trying to work with him a lot. tomorrow we have another appointment with him... which is going to be interesting. We are going to be exchanging and I am left in my area with a completely new missionary (this is his 3rd week) and we are set to go see him tomorrow night. so with both of us not knowing a lot of spanish it should be lots of fun trying to talk and teach. But I am going to be praying a lot until then so hopefully all goes well.

as for other things this week. 

we were knocking on tuesday at some apartments that we both really didn't want to knock. But we were there and it was time to knock so we did. and it turned out really good. We met this lady (english speaking) and she told us this crazy story of how she had just driven in from California the night before and was having a lot of issues in her life. But she is a member and was really concerned about finding the church. so she was praying about that and then we knocked on her door. and we were able to help her get the number of the english missionaries. And by the way she told us her life story and that was crazy! at some point she was smuggled into the U.S. from Canada after a flight from Fiji (where she is from) in a toolbox. She was only in the toolbox from Canada to the U.S. but still... crazy. 

but then she called last night and told us the english missionaries never got her for church so she was slightly upset. 

and last night was a cool fireside. it was a "missionary fireside" which means that the speakers were all recent converts explaining the greatness of missionary work and their conversions. some really good stories. 

and other than that, not much. just struggling with a lot in my brain, and trying to find a way through it all. 

February 24

So we were knocking doors a little while ago and found someone named M. who is married (we think) and he has a one year old daughter. And we have taught him a couple times now and he is really cool. I think it is awesome when we go over to teach him because he gets really excited about the things we teach. Like the other night we taught the Plan of Salvation and when he would read a scripture he would stop in the middle of the verse and just say 'wow'. or when we would explain something interesting and new he would say 'wow' and explain how that makes sense to him. It is really cool and I hope he can get past his catholic baptism stuff when we talk to him next. that seems to be the main problem at this point. 

And we are teaching this older guy, Hermano S., who is the husband of a member in the ward. But he is not a member and he lives in new york. But he is visiting for a month and we figure we can baptize him while he is here. :) so we have a time limit with him and so far so good. We are seeing him again tonight and hopefully we can invite him to be baptized soon. 

And the last person we are focusing on... O. The one with the interview problems and being taught forever. We talked with him on Wednesday and he was telling us he had a problem with the idea of tithing. so we discussed that for a bit and after the lesson he said he wanted to be baptized the next day (thursday). We were shocked, but agreed and that whole night was stressful getting everything together last minute. Trying to get people to come to a baptism in the middle of the day is tough. 

So the next day we continue to try and get things together and we try to call O. in the morning to make sure he is still good to come, but he didn't answer. so we had another appointment at noon and after that we kept trying to call him and figure out what was going on. and by that time we needed to start filling the font at the church (we were running a bit late actually so even more stress) and we prayed and started filling the font. After a little while of that stress, and still no contact with O., we found some other missionaries to watch the font while we went to O's house. This was 10 minutes before the baptism was set to begin. the water still was not full and we had no one to baptize, but some of the people we invited started showing up. So we rush over to his apartment and find him and he goes on to say that he can't come for some odd reason and we are explaining that he has to come. So he tells us to come back in like 20 minutes so we can give him a ride. 

So we head back to the church and get him a ride with one of the older members of the ward who we find reliable most days. and ten minutes later the member shows up with his wife and no O. So we stress out a bit with him and start heading back to O. But at the moment we get to his apartment he calls us and says that he is not at home but at the church. So at this point we are just happy he is at church and not somewhere else. So we tell him to get with the other missionaries there and get ready and we rush back to the church. and this is now almost an hour behind schedule. 

So we get back and figure out who is baptizing him (we still had no idea who that was either) and we get everything started. I think total in attendance were 14 people. 4 missionaries (besides us, so 6 total) an older couple, and two other members, and O. and his three siblings. very small. But we got him baptized and explained after that he needed to come to church to get confirmed on Sunday. 

So we had a lot less stress for a couple days as we continued our lives like normal. then Sunday morning came and we tried calling him to make sure he was coming to church and got no answer. So we quickly rode our bikes out to the City where he lives (4 miles) and found him asleep at home. Where he tells us he cant come because he is going on a trip with his family. So we begin to stress again and tell him he just needs to come to Sacrament meeting at least to get confirmed. and he was confused because he thought that happened with baptism. We quickly explained that was not the case and got him to commit to coming to church. We even offered a ride with a member if he needed it. But he said he didnt and he would come. 

And then we were stuck in the City 30 minutes before church started with no way to get there in time. So we call the other missionaries who share the car with us to give us a ride and we get to church right on time. But O. never shows up.... so we had a baptism but no confirmation. 

Such a stressful week. Honestly, the stress here was crazy. 

And now we have to get O. to come next Sunday to be confirmed. Which means more stress coming this week. But it will be ok. 

And that is my week.