letter.forty.three 01.19.14 ^wanneroo wandering^

"Wow, I'll tell you what, wow." This week has been crazy. My last few days in Como with Sister T were wonderful. I love her so much. She and I had an amazing two transfers together in Como. I love the people there and I miss them already, but I knew it was time to go. I could just feel it. 

I was able to have a final goodbye with Haylee and her family and she gave me a cute little gift. I love her so much. I want to do everything in my power to keep her active. I love her too much to let her go inactive.

Transfer day ended up being craziness. Sister E didn't get up to Perth until three in the afternoon so I went with another sister to deliver a lot of luggage to people's flats. Then I finally got to be with Sister E... It is amazing. I love being her companion. She and I have the perfect personalities to complement each other. We get along so well. She is amazing and we both are so excited to work our tails off this transfer. We both have a big vision for what we want to happen this transfer. It's going to be epic.

We were doubled in (both new to the area) so we wanted to start it off right by building relationships with the members. So we made a batch of Anne Hewlett’s cookies and tried to visit as many members as we could. We had short visits but were able to get to know a lot of members and they were all amazing and so willing to help us in any way they could. It was great! We also got lost a lot. Neither of us know the area so it can be quite comical trying to find where everything is. We "chucked a lot of Uies", as the Aussies would say, but we always had a good laugh.

Also our Zone name/theme for the transfer is the “North Coast Soldiers” so S. E and I found a battle scripture and took each of the sisters some "war paint" for our next zone p-day, which will be laser tagging. We're trying to build the excitement for the zone and sister unity. It's so important. I love the sisters in this zone. They are some of my favorites so it should be an amazing transfer!

We were even able to find two new investigators and teach a lesson to an investigator with a member there! It was great. I love it here already. The people are wonderful! The ward is huge compared to the Como ward, which makes for a different dynamic but I love it so far.

I think my favorite thing about this week was just being able to do missionary work with Sister E. I love her. There is so much I can learn from her. A lot of my weaknesses are her strengths and vice versa. It's such a good companionship; although, I have loved all of my companions. I have been very blessed.

One good experience was when she and I wanted to go tracting so we prayed for a street and we felt some very slight promptings. Through that we were led to one of our new investigators who is amazing! He has such a strong belief in God and has been prepared! It was another witness to me that while the promptings of the Spirit may not be huge or obvious, when we just follow the subtle promptings we can be led to great things.

I am so happy! This is going to be a great transfer. I love you all. You're always in my prayers:)

letter.forty.two 01.13.14 ^lessons learned and transfers^

Well this week has been great! Oh man. It was good. Everything went so well for Haylee's baptism. Oh my goodness it was amazing. The Elders had two baptisms as well so it was great. The ward really showed their support too. It was amazing! It helped them be fired up for missionary work. We had members coming up to us to tell us how much they wanted to help and giving us times they could come out. It was awesome.

 

Haylee's baptism.

And Haylee was amazing. When she came up out of the water she was bawling. The Spirit was so strong. We hugged as she sobbed into my shoulder and she just kept saying she didn't realize how good she would feel and how different she would feel. I've never seen her feel the Spirit like that, I felt like her mum. I love her so much. Then she bore her testimony and it was so beautiful. It was sincere and pure. I feel so blessed to have been a small part of her conversion process.

Although, it was very interesting to me that I thought when I finally got a baptism of someone I found, taught, and baptized that I would feel a sense of accomplishment, but I didn't at all. It was so clear to me all night that Haylee didn't get baptized because of me or because I've changed something in my missionary work. It doesn't really have anything to do with me at all; it was all Heavenly Father. Haylee is amazing and I just feel privileged to have been able to witness and help facilitate a conversion. It's something that I have been wanting for a long time and now at ten months I finally saw it!

 

Como district.

I was also able to sing with Elder A at the baptism. It went really well. God really blessed us to be able to sing better than ever before. Almost everyone was in tears and it wasn't because of us, but rather because of the Spirit. ps Elder A went to Viewmont for his sophomore year, my senior year and we both sang in a seminary assembly. Small world.

Although we had all of these beautiful blessings this week, Satan still really tried to get us. Sister T and I have become such great friends. I love her with all my heart, but this week we started to both just feel a bit blah and then we were both getting slightly annoyed with each other at different points. It wasn’t constant, but much more often than normal. Then finally mid-week I felt annoyed with her during personal study for a stupid reason and I was done. I was so over getting annoyed about little things because I love her! So I went into our room and closed the door. I poured out my heart to God. I told Him that I was frustrated with myself because I'd been feeling blah and I had been feel uncharitable feelings towards Sister T and I didn't want to be that way. I prayed with all my strength to have it removed from my heart and, it was. In comp study we were able to talk about it and we both talked about the way we'd been feeling. It was soo good. We both realized that we were being silly and that it was just Satan trying to tear us apart the last week of transfers and just before Haylee's baptism. We were able to laugh about all the stupid things we did during the week. It was amazing. We got back to normal and we love each other more than ever.

We also had a huge miracle with an investigator we found at the end of last week. We've been following up heaps of less-actives to see if they still live there for the past week and a half. It took ages and honestly it was frustrating because it made it so much harder to find and get other things done, but Bishop wanted it done, so we did. But through it we found Mark.

He's been living with his old friend who is a less-active member. We taught him a lesson and we tried to set a return appointment but he said he'd just take our number and give us a call... yeah that never happens, but he really did call us! We've been meeting with him or talking with him on the phone basically every day since. He loves the Gospel and has been searching for the truth. He read all of 1 Nephi in a day! Now he's read most of 2 Nephi as well. He loves the Book of Mormon and he is always studying things about our church and has excellent questions. We've also been able to find great fellowship for him and that's been amazing.

The biggest miracle about Mark is that he came to church and loved it and then we talked to him on the phone and we set a baptismal date!!! Woot woot! He's so solid it's crazy! We're thrilled! God is so good to us!

I love the Como ward. They have been so good to us. On Saturday it was 44 degrees Celcius.... that's like 109! It was so hot. All of the members of the ward were telling us we could come sit in their air con. And then at church they all told us they were thinking of us and were asking what they could do. One of our closest friends even let us come have our Sunday afternoon (because we have church in the morning) studies under their air con. It was amazing. I love this ward. It has so much character. They are amazing people. I'm going to miss them a lot. I'm going to miss Sister T a lot too. We've had such a good time together. She's an incredible person and missionary. I have learned so much from her. Oh and by the way, Sister Lindsay called us last night and asked us both if we would be Sister Training leaders but said that we wouldn't be together. I was really surprised because I didn't think I would be STL again, but I'm excited for the growth that will come as I get to learn from my new comp..... guess who.................................................................................................... DRUUUUUUMMMMMMM ROOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL SISTER E!!!!!!!!!! (she was in my MTC district) I cannot believe it. I'm totally in shock. I have wanted to be her comp since day one. I feel like I'm dreaming right now. I'm so stinkin' excited!!!!! I didn't think it was possible. If I could have chosen any person on the mission I would have chosen her. Dang!! God is so good to me! We'll be serving with some awesome zone leaders! I'll be serving in a district with one of my favorite missionaries as my district leader. Craziness. And I get to go on exchanges. That's the best part. You're the one who benefits as a STL because you get to learn from all the different missionaries. And this time I'll be a less-stressed version of myself. It will be great. I trust that God knows what He's doing with me. This is going to be such a good transfer.

I love you all. I am thankful for your love and support. I miss you dearly and pray for you daily.

ps I did my “real laugh” for the first time on the mission. I was so tired and worn out one day. My comp hates navigating and she led us to the complete wrong place and I pulled over to see what happened and I looked how far off track we were and I just couldn't stop laughing. It was hilarious. I was crying and everything. It felt good. But now Sister T and Elders M and A have all seen the real Sister Tanner laugh... They were really nice about it though. :)

letter.forty.one 01.06.14 ^loving Como^

Well this week started off rough with Dolly dropping us. I forgot to tell you about all the drama the previous week. Her ex-husband (who is now her care giver) started screaming at us on the street. It was bad. He was threatening to call the police and telling us that we were stealing her money and that she never wanted us back. That was interesting, but then we went again when he wasn't there and she said it wasn't true and that he's just a bit funny.

Then when we went over on Monday and her neighbor started yelling at us. Dolly told them to stop, but then when we came in she said she knows she should be more courageous but she just can't handle it at her age. She loves us and said we can come back whenever but she can't join a church right now. It was sad, but it's part of life. I want to do her work after she dies. :)

In contrast, we had GREAT lessons and progress with Haylee this week! She is amazing. I honestly can't even believe it. We taught her about the law of chastity (emphasis on modesty), word of wisdom, tithing, and fasting. All things that can be a bit tricky but she loved them all. She has incredible faith. She knows that whatever God asks is nothing compared to what He's given to us. I feel so blessed to be taking a small part in this beautiful process! She's getting baptized on Friday!!! She's so excited and set to go. There are going to be heaps of people there. I can't wait.

She came to church today and fasted with us! She is really just a part of the ward now. Everyone in the ward is really excited about her baptism and there are two other baptisms at that same time so I think it's really helped build the ward's confidence and fire for missionary work.

I love the Como ward. This has become my family. I didn't think a ward could be as good as Mandurah, but it has been. It's been different, but I love the people here. They have grown to love us too. Transfers are next week and everyone keeps talking about how they don't want us to move. Two people bore their testimony about how much they love missionary work and us and we have dinner appointments every day this week (which is uncommon here. We used to get fed once a week if we were lucky.)

I feel so blessed to have the members’ support and their love. They're beautiful people full of incredible stories that we have been able to learn from. I couldn't have chosen a better place to spend the holidays.

We also had interviews with President and this was by far my best one yet. I love President Lindsay. He has so much wisdom and he really helped me feel uplifted and blessed through speaking with him. I love Sister Lindsay as well. She and I had a great talk while my comp was in her interview. She's the most positive person I know. I love it!

Sister T and I were also able to have some great chats about goal setting. She hasn't set goals a lot in her life, and since our family is a bit goal-fanatic she asked for my help. We had this whole long chat about how to set SMART goals and how to do more then just set them, but to come up with a plan of action and measuring system so that you make sure you actually achieve them. Then we took it the step further and I helped her write affirmations. She was blown away. It's changed her. It made me remember how great these tools actually are. She actually loved it so much that she asked our DL if I could talk about it in district meeting.

Of course, I can't take any credit for it. I talked about Grandpa Tanner a lot. I just didn't realize or remember how powerful these things actually are and it helped me feel even more motivated to do it right. I am excited for the things I'm going to accomplish this year, with the help of the Lord. I love the start of a new year!

I love you all. I am so thankful for the wonderful family I have and for the support you all offer. Not just now, but throughout my whole life. I'm most especially grateful for the way you all have raised me by example. Obviously my immediate family but extended as well. For example, anytime I have to do a cleaning service project that is less than desirable I think of Julie and how she doesn't cringe at things she just rolls up her sleeves and does it! I love that about her. I love you Jul! And mum with making it happen all the time. She doesn't let anything stop her if she's determined, Dad's ability to talk with everyone, Alan's energetic personality, Michelle's fashion and endurance. Scott's humor, (really helps me get through)   Matty's music, David's determination to do things well, Jenna's loving heart, Kevin's ability to just be himself, always, Alexis's fearlessness. You all are amazing. I am thankful for you incredible examples. The list could go on and on. MAKE it a great week!

Heaps of love,