President Maurer's last week

So, sorry I didn't get to email before you all went to bed. We had a Zone P-day today which was so much fun. We started off by doing some service which was just cleaning up someone's yard. With all of us working on that, it didn't take any more than like 15 minutes (it was a pretty small yard with about 14 of us working.) After that though we went to a park and had a sausage sizzle and a sports triathlon. We split the zone into fairly even teams and played basketball, ultimate frisbee, and touch rugby. My team won frisbee easily and rugby we won but that was a fluke. I STILL don't know how to play that game properly. Basketball was fun too, missionary sports are always so competitive. I love it. So that's why I'm emailing now, which is the middle of the night for yall, but I've had an amazing p-day so it's ok.

On Thursday we had our last zone stewardships meeting with President and Sister Maurer. I can't believe they're leaving next week. holy cow. My very last interview with President Maurer was definitely the most spiritual one. I can't wait to see what the rest of my mission has in store for me after some of the things we talked about. He gave us the talk that he probably gives missionaries when they're going home, but now that he's going home, he gave us all that talk. Those who have served missions probably know which talk I'm referring to. He talked to us about what to do when we go home, gave us advice on finding a wife, going to school, doing the right things, you know. It was a pretty good talk. Although, I couldn't really think about some of the stuff he was talking about since I still have a year and a half left, but nonetheless, it did make me a bit more comfortable about my post-mission life.

We finally got our new Ensigns today. Haven't started reading it yet but totally looking forward to it. I already know that Elder Bednar's article in it is amazing since that's one that mom sent me awhile ago. Thanks mom. I'm excited to read it again though. Elder Bednar is such an inspiring speaker. And I love getting inspired.

The Sabbath yesterday was quite good. After church, Elder Hunt and I asked our ward mission leader, Brother Ghergori, if he'd like to come out teaching with us and he was more than excited. Brother G is the man. From what I've heard he's one of the best Ward Mission leaders in the mission. He used to be in the Stake Presidency. He's just such a loving guy though. It's amazing. We took him out and visited 5 less active families and shared a good spiritual thought and invited them to church next week. You can definitely tell that Brother Ghergori does his job as a Ward mission leader just like he probably did his job in the stake presidency as well as a bishop before that. Every house we went to, the family already knew him and was more excited to talk to him than they were to us. It was so cool though to be able to bring him with us. Partly because he has a car and we don't lol. So we were able to see 5 families in about 2 hours, whereas seeing those 5 families on our bikes would've been an all day affair. But yeah, Brother G is the best. More ward mission leaders should be like him. Well, to tell the truth, more members in general should be like him. He's one of the most Christlike guys I've seen in WA. Well in my little part of WA anyway. Transfers are coming up next week, and even though I've only been in this area for one transfer, I really want to see the rest of WA. If I do get transferred, hopefully it's not just down the street again lol. But nah, I probably won't get transferred, but we'll see, crazier things have happened.

It's been a great week for receiving letters. Keep them coming. The only thing that makes me happier than doing missionary work is getting letters from family and friends. I'm so grateful for yalls support. A mission would be very hard without it. Hard, not impossible. It's amazing how much you learn to rely on the lord on a mission. Just like John 15:4 says, we can't bear fruit without the help of the Lord. That's something I've come to live by. John 15 is an amazing chapter, and the parable in verses 1-10 is one of the best. Never forget that. The Lord is always with you, if you allow Him to be.

I love yous. Talk to you next week, don't know if it will be in the middle of the night again though or not because it's President's last Transfer meeting and it's supposed to be a pretty good one. Everyone is invited, so it should be fun. Like our final goodbye.

Love you lots,
Elder Tanner