Noranda Week 11

This week was actually pretty awesome. Well some of it anyways. The Zone Leaders had a baptism yesterday after church which was really good. It was for a twenty something year old girl named Caitlin and her non-member mum came to support her as well. It was probably one of the best baptisms I've been to on my mission. It was well attended and the spirit was there in abundance. You could tell this girl knew the choice she was making and the things that go along with that choice. And she was really happy that her mom was there as well. Hopefully her mom gets baptised down the road as well.

Blair Main came to the baptism to support David who's a 17 year old kid from my old ward who did the baptising. It's actually really cool. David grew up with Caitlin but hadn't seen her for 10 years or something. Then they met again at institute a couple of weeks ago and remembered each other from when they were young and she asked him to baptise her. And he was only baptised 2 or 3 years ago as well. It's amazing how the Lord prepares things like that. David gets baptised, goes to institute, meets an old friend, and baptises her. It's straight out of a seminary video lol. But anyways, It was really good to see Blair again. He looked like a completely new person having been sealed to Sophie last week. He was just so happy and talking about their experiences almost the whole time. They've already been back twice since getting sealed, once on Wednesday evening and again on Saturday morning. I think he can really see the difference in his life that holding a temple recommend makes. He was talking about how busy this last week has been and that's why they went to the temple twice this week, so that they can see the blessings more abundantly in their lives, and I think they do. It was good to talk to him about some of the families in the ward too. He said the McGaugheys have come pretty much every week since I left, but Tayzah hasn't been baptised yet. I don't know what the hold up is, but Blair says he thinks it's coming up soon. He also said that the average attendance of Madeley ward is now around 150-160 people. When I first started going to that ward is was just around 70-80 per week. It's amazing what difference 8 months can make in a ward. I never thought I'd want to go back and visit that ward after being there for 6 months, but I want to go back and visit lol.

Our teaching with Trent and his cousin is going really well. We showed them the Finding Faith in Christ dvd last Monday and they loved it. I didn't know somebody as educated as them could know so little about Christ. They had so many questions just about his life, and the miracles and things like that. It was a good set up for The Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the next lesson we're going to teach them. Now that they know about his life, we're going to teach about his teachings (faith, baptism, repentance, the gift of the holy ghost, etc.). We would be teaching them tonight, but he has to work, so hopefully later in the week we can catch up with them.

I've had a lot of time for reading recently. I'm reading The Book of Mormon again, Preach My Gospel again, and the New Testament with an Institute manual. There's just an impossible amount of things to learn, it's crazy. But I love it. I love learning everything I can about the Gospel and the doctrine of Christ.

Not a whole lot else going on right now. I wish I could make this email longer, but there's really just not a lot to talk about. Hope you all have an amazing week.

Much love
Elder Tanner

72 degrees in the middle of winter... gotta love it.

So in the dead middle of winter, I was sweating while tracting the other day. It was so sunny and hot, it felt like a cool day in July in America. It's been continuing to rain off and on this week, but when it's not raining, it's hot. And I guess this is the driest winter they've had in awhile. It's kinda getting ridiculous.

Not a whole lot happened this week sadly. On Friday after District meeting we had a zone blitz in our area and got 4 new investigators out of it so that was exciting. For those that don't know what a zone blitz is, everybody in our zone came to do some tracting in our area for about 2 hours. So that's 6 companionships all tracting in the same neighborhood. I'm sure to anybody that was driving around we probably looked like the Mormon mafia or something, but then again maybe it made them want to ask what we were doing all walking around in suits on a sunny day. It was a good experience though. I got to be with one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Crawley, during this time and he is such a good missionary. Just talking with him while we tracted helped teach me a lot. He told me about his testimony of tracting. A lot of people think tracting is a waste of time, but he has baptised somebody that he found from tracting in every single one of his areas on his mission, with the one for his current area coming up this Saturday. I just think that's amazing. As useless as tracting feels sometimes, if you just get out there and do it, the results will come. Not only does it help you find people, but it helps your testimony of missionary work as it has with Elder Crawley. Just through his example, I know that if we will just open our mouths or go knock on a door, we can baptise those that the Lord has put in our path.

I'm trying to think of anything else exciting that happened this week. I'm really just ready to get transferred or get a new companion so I can get back to working as hard as I want to. It's true the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants, "If you have not the spirit, you shall not teach." That really applies to a missionary companionship as much as it does to any one person. I try to bring the spirit into our companionship, but Elder Hunt just doesn't have the fire to keep it burning in his heart. I've pretty much found myself becoming a leader when it comes to teaching, or deciding where to tract, or correlating with our Ward Mission Leader or Zone Leaders, or doing anything spiritual really. Maybe I'm just being prepared for what lies ahead of me, but I dunno. I just keep my head up and always remember to do the things I'm supposed to, (pray, scripture study, plan), so I don't lose the spirit too.

Sophie and Blair Main got sealed this past weekend. I wasn't able to go, only their current missionaries and the ones who baptised Blair were allowed to go. And at first not even their current missionaries were going to be able to go. But I talked to Sister Berryman last night and she went and she said that they were just glowing when they came out of that temple. I'm so happy for them, and wish I could've been there, but I'm happy that they know what's important in this life and hope they make temple attendance a part of their daily lives, as we all should. I'm probably going to see if I can get permission to call out of my area to talk to them and congratulate them and see how they feel. I was so happy when I found out that they had gone.

Lets see, not much going on this week. We are going city contacting on Wednesday evening which is always a good experience. Hopefully I won't be too tired from the massive feed we always get on Wednesday afternoon from Brother Tupea. I've never been fed so well as I do at his house. One of the good things about Polynesians, they sure do know how to eat!

I love you all. Always stay close to the Gospel. Nothing can make you happier in this life.

Love,
Elder Tanner

8 Months!!!....?

Wow, It's already been 8 months since I first walked through those MTC doors and wondered what it was I got myself into. But now I'm loving it. It doesn't seem possible that I've already finished a third of my mission. I still feel like there's heaps that I don't know or that I haven't done yet, and there probably is. I'm sure I'll feel that way for most of my mission though.

So this week was so good and totally unexpected. On Thursday morning we got to go to the temple. Usually when we got it's a P-day but not this time, so it was real nice to not have to be rushed to do my p-day things. President Cahoon said he was surprised that we go as often as we do though, so we'll probably start to see some changes in that in the future. I imagine we'll start going once a quarter rather than once a transfer, which still isnt' too bad. At least we'll still be able to go.

Also, the other unexpected part of this week was that on Friday after District Meeting President Cahoon showed up to interview each of us. My first interview with him was so good. The first thing he said to me when I walked in was that he sensed my companion was very laid back and that he feels like I could do great things if I had a companion that wanted to work as hard as I do. He told me that my next companion is going to be like an Elder Hussey or Elder Hampson (our two APs). So that's pretty exciting, to know that my next companion is probably going to be as hard working as I want him to be. My whole mission I've felt like the harder working one between me and my companion, and it's hard sometimes, sometimes I just don't know what to do where most people would have a senior companion to look up to and ask a question, I feel like I can't sometimes. So I'm excited that President Cahoon sees a lot of potential in me and wants me to have the type of companion I've wanted for awhile. It will be a nice change I think.

Other than that though, I really liked my interview with President. He's very easy to talk to and he's a very nice guy. I'd say give him 6 months or so and he'll have this mission President thing down and be even easier to talk to and he'll know so much more about the mission. It'll be so good.

Our teaching with Trent has been going so well. He came to church yesterday and I could tell he really liked it. The lesson in Gospel Principles might have been a bit too much for him though so we're going to break it down for him tonight in our lesson with him. Our gospel principles teacher tends to go on all kinds of tangents in his lesson, so it's really hard to follow. Hopefully next time he comes to church he'll want to go to the young mens class instead. We'll see.

I love this gospel and I love sharing it with those that I meet. I know that the work I'm doing down here is some of the most important work I could ever be involved in. I wish my letters could be more interesting for you all, but they will be in the future.

I love you all and pray for you daily
Elder Tanner

President Cahoon's First Week

So this week wasn't necessarily as busy with meetings as I had predicted, only one, but it was still really good. We got to meet President and Sister Cahoon on Friday morning at 10 o clock. It was a really neat experience. When we all stood up as they entered the room, as you usually do with President and his wife, you could definitely feel the spirit that they carried with them. It was just like an instant testimony as soon as they walked in the room I know without a shadow of a doubt that they really were called of God to do this work. I love them already for the sacrifices they have made to come out here for 3 years to be with us. When President Cahoon started with his opening remarks at the beginning of the meeting there was just a familiarity to his voice, like I've met him before, it was such an amazing feeling. Sister Cahoon is just as nice as Sister Maurer. The transition between mission presidents was just so comfortable. I can't wait to see the changes that are going to be taking place in the mission over the next couple of months. They've already started to make changes to the mission but these changes mostly come from the First Presidency anyways. A lot of the changes have to do with our schedule. Not our daily schedule, still have to wake up at 6:30 lol, but changes to our monthly schedule. Instead of thinking of time in transfers we're starting to think of things in quarters. Interviews with President will be once a quarter instead of once a transfer. That will be different, only once every three months getting to talk to president, although, I can talk to him every week if I wanted to, being in his ward and all. Zone Conference is also going to be a quarterly thing, but be in a different month than Interviews. They told us that transfers are basically just going to be running in the background. Even though we'll still know when transfers are, we won't be planning or scheduling by the transfer anymore. He also said that the First Presidency wants missionaries to be transferred as infrequently as possible. For me, that's no really big change, but for people like Elder Hunt who has only had 3 companions for more than one transfer, me being one of them, that's going to be a pretty big change for him.

My companion and I have turned over a new leaf. Being in a new district I think has inspired us to work twice as hard this... transfer...(I don't know how to not think about transfers yet)... because we both know that last transfer we could've worked a lot harder. So this week we tracted for about 10 hours altogether which is a huge improvement for us. Our new district leader promised us that if we tract at least 3-4 hours a day, we will see a baptism within the next 2 months. And I really want that to be true.

We started teaching the Dashwood family this past Friday. That's the one that I think I mentioned in my last email with the single mom that is returning to church with the unbaptised kids. We taught them a really great lesson and all we really taught was what our purpose was as missionaries, and that is to invite them to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost. They had heaps of questions for us which is what i think made the lesson so good. Starting tonight we're going to be having a weekly Family home evening with them and we're going to teach them the lessons so hopefully we can get Trent, the 15 year old son, baptised. She has a 9 year old daughter but she just left for NZ to go live with her dad for 2 months I think. But teaching Trent and his mom is gong to be a really fun experience I think, as long as they keep up the questions like the other night. Not to mention to new weekly feed :)

I never thought I would miss hot dogs on the Fourth of July, but amazingly I do. I probably wouldn't miss it as much if I could buy hot dogs over here, but I can't! For my fourth of July celebration I got to eat a Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly sandwich, Lucky Charms, and Cheezeits, all things not found in Australia, courtesy of grandma, thanks grandma! Haha, God Bless America.

Oh yeah! One thing that President Cahoon said that really stuck out to me that I wanna share. He was talking to us about how he was sitting at the feet of the Apostles over the past couple of weeks receiving their training and such. He loved hearing their Apostolic witness that the work they were doing was true. But he said the one thing that amazed him was something the Jeffrey R. Holland told all the new mission presidents in one of their meetings, "Tens of millions will soon join the church". To hear that come from an apostle... wow. To think that ONLY 13 million have joined the church over the last 180 years, and that TENS OF MILLIONS will SOON be joining the church.... wow. And to be a part of that work, I feel like i have a huge responsibility on my shoulders to help that statement come to pass, and I'm going to be doing everything in my power to do so.

The Church is true! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Tanner

President's Final Farewell

Yesterday was such an emotional day. The whole mission got together for President Maurer's final transfer meeting and it was so good. We got to the chapel and 10 and didn't leave until about 3:30 or so. Usually those meetings only last about an hour and a half or less. But this one was special. After President read the transfers out (and no, I didn't get transferred, nor did my companion) we had some activities and the prizes were some of President Maurer's ties. I wasn't good enough to win though, the activity was a scripture chase and when you found the scripture you had to recite it from memory. I never really did that in seminary, but oh well, it was still fun. Then the longest part of the meeting was a time for us all to ask President and Sister Maurer any question we wanted. There were some really good questions asked, and some pretty funny ones. We found out a lot of things about President that we never knew before. For example, he got to be Gordon B. Hinkly's chauffeur while he drove him around to look at temple sites for the Brisbane temple. He was a stake president at the time and the stake he was over was the one where they wanted the temple to be because I guess it's a really nice part of Brisbane. So that was pretty cool. Someone asked him what his greatest accomplishment was on his mission and his answer was building a model boat with his 11 year old son Liam. He said with the busy schedule of a mission president, making time for his family still had to be a priority for him. What a great example he is for everyone. I think the whole state of WA looks up to him.

After the transfer meeting itself, we all went into the cultural hall and had some of the best chili. You don't get chili that often down here, but it was made by the senior couples from America. And we had time to take pictures with President and his wife. The highlight though was the 20 litre ice cream cake. I'll try to upload some pictures with this email, or maybe send them in a separate email. I got a picture with them along with my MTC companion Elder Neibaur who just spent 5 months up in Karratha, so I haven't seen him in awhile. It was good to see him again though. Oh yeah, another highlight was the hug that I got from Sister Maurer. It was just like hugging my mom. I'm going to miss them.

On Saturday night we had a ward farewell party for him, one of the perks of serving in the mission president's ward. Since Sister Berryman was mostly in charge of it and she loves Elder Hunt and I, we got to sing for President and Sister Maurer with the Berryman family. I didn't get a video of it sadly, but Sister Maurer came up to us in church on Sunday and told us how proud of us she was. The Party was good because all the stake leaders in WA came and got to say a few words about President's family. It was about a 3 hour party too.

President Cahoon and his wife are in New Zealand right now receiving training from the area presidency. Their flight gets in at 6:10 on Wednesday night. President Maurer and the APs will pick them up from the airport, take them back to the mission home, show them around, give them the keys to the car and house and the phone and then President Maurer is gone. He said he will probably only spend about 2 hours with President Cahoon, wow. Then we get to meet President Cahoon on Friday. So this should be a very busy week. Just like any other week lol.

We've finally found someone solid that we've started teaching. The mom was less active before but she's been coming to church for 2 weeks now, and she has 2 unbaptised kids that's we're going to hopefully be teaching and baptising this transfer. They seem like a pretty cool family, which means they are from New Zealand lol. Not that Aussies aren't cool, I just love Polynesians.

Well times almost up for this week. I love you all. Have an amazing week.
Love,
Elder Tanner