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