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