Merry Christmas!

What a great Christmas week! The highlight of this week was definitely getting to call home. It's good to hear everyones voices again. But I guess I'll give the rest of you the low down on what's been happening in my life, and what's happened since I called home.

The week leading up to Christmas was pretty tough. It was really hard to catch people at home and when we did catch them at home, it was "sorry guys, come see us again after new years." And it make it even more difficult we were biking around in 35-40 degree weather. So it was uber hot. (Don't worry, I wore sunscreen and drank heaps of water). But it still makes it hard to bike all over Kwinana on a hot day like that. We'd always be stopping for water and shade breaks. It's amazing how much cooler it is in the shade here. So yeah, I think we only got to see a total of 8 people this week, which is way low, but we still kept busy.

On Christmas eve we had a specialised training meeting. President Cahoon gave us some great training on the doctrine of Christ. It kind of reminded me of one of our old training meetings with President Maurer. We were just all over the scriptures for a constant hour. It was pretty fantastic. We would go through an entire chapter (2 Nephi 31 for example) and just write down a different point of doctrine from each verse. I never knew you could learn so much from just 21 verses of scripture. It was definitely the best way to study and learn though. At the end of each specialised training meeting president selects 3 people to give a 3 minute talk and I got chosen this time. They tell us the topic a month ahead of time but don't tell you who is going to be speaking until just before. this month's topic was "improve the shining moments". I focused my talk on verse 2 of the song, and obedience. It actually went pretty well.

After our meeting we came home and Elder Shobbrook called home and by 5 o clock we went Christmas carolling. It was a bit strange Christmas carolling in the heat, but it was still fun. Good way to end Christmas eve though.

Christmas day was epic. We went to the Preedy's for breakfast and had massive feed #1. Then we drove to Dianella for massive feed #2. We also got to play sports with all the other missionaries there. We were meant to do a lot more there, but it was 38 degrees so we just kept ourselves couped up inside the gym and played basketball and volleyball. We had some good fun there though. It's always great to see all the other missionaries too. So that lasted from 11-6ish and then we drove home and went to dinner with the Rockingham Elders to a family's house in their ward beccause nobody in our ward invited us. Then we came home and I called home!

So since then, well yesterday actually, we had our baptismal interview with Evelyn. It went so well and I was so happy. Elder Lowe did the interview and we had Caleb Simpkins as a translator. Caleb actually came and taught her with us about 3 months ago and after that he said that she was nowhere near ready and that we were going in the complete wrong direction with her. But after the interview he came up to me and gave me a really good compliment. He said that we had done a really good job with her and that she really is ready to be baptised. It was such a testimony builder for me because the only thing I had to judge if she was ready or not was the spirit, since I couldn't really have a conversation with her like he could. But then he told us that she was really ready, I knew that the spirit had told me she was ready. We're SO STOKED for her baptism. We just hope it all goes well and that heaps of people come. Arturo is going to be the one baptising her, so we're excited for that. I'll be sure to send pictures!

Yesterday we biked about 45 kms would be my guess. Gotta help Elder Shobbrook build up those bike muscles. Speaking of Elder Shobbrook, I should be getting off the computer now so he can do his emailing. We're emailing at the chapel today because the library was closed and it might be closed next week as well. And monday and Tuesday were public holidays so today is p-day. So I hope you all have a magnificent week! and a Happy new year! 2011 baby! Sorry this email is so short! Love you all!

Much love,

Elder Tanner

ps. I've seen a Dingo.

Elder Shobbrook, meet Kwinarnia!

This week has been hectic! I loved it! So on Tuesday Elder Jorgensen and I went around and visited some people that he wanted to say goodbye to after being in this area for 6 weeks. There weren't many people. Mainly the Preedys and the Cook Islanders, but the said part was that we had 3 appointments set up for the evening and all three of them fell through. So Jorgy didn't get to say goodbye to everybody which he was kinda bummed about but not too bad, because he was only here for long enough to barely get to know everybody, so it wasn't too big of a deal. On Wednesday was when all the madness began. We had to leave Rockingham at 7:30 in order to be up in the city at 9 for a Training of trainers meeting. The training of trainers meeting was great though because it was just me, Elder Metekingi, and Elder Wright that were training, as well as three sisters. I like meetings with president where there's not as many people there, it's more personal it seems like. We learned a lot of good things about how to train and the things that we need to do in order to train our companions right. President Cahoon said that the example that we set for our new companions coming straight out of the MTC will become the normal for them. Personally, I don't want the normal to be anything less than 100% obedience. I loved that meeting though. I was just eating it up. We learned the best way to teach them how to do new things and to do it lovingly. I felt pretty prepared to get my new companion after that meeting. But I just had to wait about 24 hours to do so. So after that meeting we went straight into transfer meeting to find out where everybody was going. Turned out Elder Jorgensen was off to Noranda which was my previous area. So I was able to tell him all the good people to go see in the ward and where to get the massive feed hook ups. He's going to love it in that area because I know that he is going to work his tail off and see great things happen.

On Wednesday after transfer meeting instead of going all the way back down to Rockingham, Elder Metekingi and I stayed in Dianella (the area the mission office and temple are in) with Elder Wright since we were all companionless until Thursday. Wednesday afternoon/evening was awesome! We did some tracting because we had some appointments fall through and just from tracting we got to teach 2 lessons and get 3 new investigators. In one day, that's pretty amazing. I don't know what it is, but I haven't ever had that kind of success while tracting down here in Kwinana. I don't know if it's the people or if it's just me. I'm going to say that it is just me because that is something that I can improve. I can't make the people of Kwinana more humble, I can only increase my own faith that they will open their doors and let us in to teach them. We actually had a really awesome experience with that on Saturday, but I'll get to that.

Thursday was a great day. We got to the chapel at 11:00 after teaching a lady in Dianella that got baptised this past Saturday at 10:00. Then we got to meet our new companions at about 11:45. My new companion, Elder Shobbrook is from Melbourne. He already knows heaps about missionary work because he took mission prep class for two years before his mission. He has amazing faith and I've already learned so much from him. I hope that he has learned as much from me. I feel like now that I'm constantly striving to be 100% obedient that is the best way that I can teach him how to be a missionary. As long as you're obedient and do what you're supposed to, a mission is easy. Obedience is the first law in Heaven for a reason. Without obedience, faith, diligence, patience, all those Christlike attributes, a mission would be very hard. But yeah, Elder Shobbrook has one sister and she and his dad are both less active. So I really look up to him for coming out on a mission. I really hope that his family is blessed by his obedience and hard work and maybe starts coming back to church while he is on his mission. Obedience is key! Elder Shobbrook is great though. He helps me be a better missionary every day.

Speaking of Obedience, I had a great district meeting on Friday and I gave training on Obedience, diligence, and equality. I used 1 Corinthians 12:14-31. If you haven't read those verses, they are really great. They really help us as missionaries realise that we all have the same purpose; we all are part of the same body, of which Christ is the head. We can all help each other and when one person suffers, we all suffer, and when one person rejoices, we all rejoice. I'm really concerned about my district and their obedience so I'm really hoping that they took my training to heart and they apply it in their lives and in their missionary work. I feel like they did. At least I know that Elder Metekingi and his trainee (Elder Lammi, who is also the man) did. I look up to Elder Metekingi, aye. He has helped me a lot to become a better missionary/district leader.

On Friday the whole zone fasted so that we would all be able to have a miracle occur on Saturday. The miracle we were all aiming for is to set a baptismal date. We didn't quite all achieve it, but we got close. Our miracle was after we visited this less active lady, I got a flat tire. And while we were walking back to the flat to fix the tire I was talking about how great it would be to buy some ice cream from Mr. Whippy (the ice cream truck around here) but we didn't have any money. No longer than 5 minutes after we finished talking about that, Mr. Whippy drives up behind us and hands us a free ice cream. How could you not know the church is true after that?! Our other miracle was being able to find this guy named Keelan within 10 minutes of tracting. We only had time to tract for 15 minutes because we had to go to a Christmas activity for Rockingham. So we prayerfully selected a street, drove to it, and found Keelan who was keen on having us come back and teach him but he was just going out as we got there. He even gave us his phone number which was amazing. I haven't gotten that good of a potential investigator from tracting my whole time in Kwinana. So it was a great blessing and a miracle. Miracles happen every day. We just have to realise them. The Christmas party that night was cool too. They assigned the missionaries to act out a play of Jesus' birth as given in the Book of Mormon. I got to be Samuel the Lamanite. The Rockingham elders had a miracle of a couple that they met just not more than an hour earlier come to that activity and they were able to give them a chapel tour. The girl had lots and lots of questions. It was so good.

I love this mission. I love being obedient, it makes me much happier. Even obeying the small rules that don't seem that important, bring great happiness. And mission rules are commandments of the Lord so we can apply it to real life as well. OBEYING THE COMMANDMENTS BRINGS HAPPINESS! I love being a leader and being able to set that example for those around me.

I love you all! Have a merry Christmas! I know I will! Yay calling home! Sorry there's no pictures of my new companion, I forgot my camera cord today.

Much love,

Elder Tanner

Less than two weeks until Christmas! I can't believe it, but it's almost here. Excited to call home, that's for sure. This week has been great. More than great actually. It's been amazing! I suppose that the two highlights of the week would be finally setting a baptismal date with Evelyn and the Summer Wonderland activity that happened on Friday night. This week has flown by though because of how busy we've been. All week we've been full on with teaching. I'm struggling to remember the specifics of this week because I left my old planner at home, since today is the first day of a new transfer and all. Speaking of transfers, I'm staying in Kwinana for at least another 6 weeks, which I'm so happy about. I realllly didn't want to get transferred right before Christmas and miss hanging out with the Preedys and all that. Elder Jorgensen, however, is getting transferred. This is the first time that I've ever had a companion for only one transfer. It was pretty unexpected especially since he's only been in the area for one transfer and he's off. So we got the call that he was getting transferred on Saturday night from the Zone Leaders but last night (Sunday) we got a call from President Cahoon that Elder Jorgensen is going to go be a district leader now elsewhere and I am going to be training a new missionary! And this time he is going to be a legit NEW missionary, straight out of the MTC, not Alabama haha. I'm pretty excited to train. I'm just on this "new experience" buzz you know? I have no idea where he's going to be from or anything like that. I don't find out until Thursday this week. What is also going to be exciting about it is that Elder Metekingi in Rockingham is also training at the same time so we'll be able to help each other heaps. Although I will miss his previous companion, Elder Abel, I'm sure I'll serve around him again. I love both of those Elders. They're always such a great help to me and to others. I am sad to see Elder Jorgensen go so soon. He and I were just starting to really get along really well. It took us awhile to get used to each other I think, but we really started to get along great about 2 weeks ago. Something just clicked, I don't quite know what it was. But he's a district leader now, just like I told him he would be. He is sort of dreading it, but he'll do a good job.

This weekend has been hectic starting from Thursday. We went on Thursday morning to do some service for a friend of Angela's. He wanted us to lay some pavers, or slabs of concrete (I don't know what they're called in America), in his back yard. He originally told us that it wouldn't be that big of a job. When we got there, there were about 50 of these pavers that he wanted us to lay. This being our 4th job like this to do, we knew that this was no small job. In the past we've laid like, 15-20 pavers for one job. Luckily though, we've gained the experienced and cranked it out in about 3 hours, lunch break included. There were 4 of us missionaries there, Me, Jorgensen, Metekingi, and Lowe, and Metekingi and I were the only ones that really knew what we were doing so we just hammered out quick as we could. It was mean. I got a nice little sunburn from that as well. It was nice. So when we got back home by about 2:30, we baked some cookies for one of our investigators, which took about an hour. I don't know if you remember me saying anything about John and Tina how he is a less active and she's a non-member. Well we haven't been able to see them since that first time that we saw them. So we decided to bake some cookies and take them over to them to let them know that we haven't forgotten about them and hopefully they haven't forgotten about us. They've had to cancel on us the past two weeks but we have another appointment with them tomorrow, so we'll hope for the best. By the time we baked them and biked over to their house and gave them the cookies, it was time to go to Arturo and Evelyn's house. We taught Arturo and Evelyn a great lesson, about what I cannot remember, I've slept since then. But I know that it was a great lesson and we all felt the spirit testifying to each and every one of us. We asked Evelyn if she was able to pray about a baptismal date and she told us the date that she came up with was December 25th. Afterwards Arturo said it would probably be better to have it a week later because everyone will probably be to be on Christmas day. Personally, I couldn't think of a better Christmas present to give someone than the gift of baptism, but I understand that people that aren't missionaries still have lives to attend to. Looking at the bright side, I can't think of a better way to start the new year other than having a baptism on 1 January 2011. It's going to be great. So over the next few weeks we're going to be teaching all of the lessons again and then set up the interview with a Tagalog translator. We're pumped. Jorgensen is sad he has to miss it though.

Friday night was the Summer Wonderland activity which was AMAZING! They guesstimated that there were about 1000 people there, give or take a few. I got to see the McGaugheys, the Mains, the Berrymans, everyone! It was so great to see everyone. It was even better to see that they all still remembered me haha. The McGaugheys invited me to their temple sealing which they are anticipating is going to be on the 15th of January! So he gave me his mobile number and I just have to give him a ring early January and get it all organised. I feel pretty honored that they feel like I left a big enough impact on their family that they want me to be at their temple sealing. He gives me the credit for helping reactivate him and his family. One of my biggest goals on my mission is to see someone that I either taught or baptised get sealed in the temple before I go home. So I feel so privileged to be invited to their temple sealing. They said that they got the letter that I sent them awhile back and put the picture of me that I sent them in the corner of the frame of the picture of the temple that Elder Glover and I gave them while we were there. I thought that was awesome. Lucky I'm not getting transferred too, because I could've gotten sent up north or something and not have been able to go, so I consider myself pretty blessed.

Seeing the Mains and Berrymans was great too. The Mains have moved to a place called Clarkson which is in Merriwa ward in Warwick stake. That means that I have another chance to serve in their area! They said that every missionary they've told that to has said the same thing though haha. So if I ever serve up in Merriwa, I'll be so happy. I've heard that it's just a good area anyways, even before they moved there. But yeah, when I leave Kwinny I'll probably only have 6 or 7 transfers left in my mission, so the chances are pretty slim. Auntie Berryman told me that I'm welcome to have my farewell party at the end of my mission at her house. She just had one last week for Elder Weitzeil who went home on Friday and she was sad that I couldn't make it, so she told me to come have mine at her house. It's a long time from now, but never hurts to plan ahead.

We didn't get home from the Summer Wonderland activity until after midnight, but we had permission. All the missionaries had to stick around to help clean up and get everything off the field outside into the chapel. The activity itself didn't end until 9:45 so we cleaned up until 11:30 then drove home. It was good to see all the missionaries too. Well, most of the missionaries anyways. Great night though. The APs sent us all a text thanking us for all the hard work that we put into it and told us that someone has already set a baptismal date from that night. We were way excited to hear that. What do you expect though when you have around 400 nonmembers show up to an activity like that. So yeah, fantastic night.

On Saturday I got to give my first baptismal interview as a district leader. It was for an 11 year old girl so it went really well. She was on to it though aye. Way smart. Her dad who wasn't a member was way proud of her for passing the interview, so hopefully those missionaries can work with him and teach him as well. Then on Saturday night we had a ward Christmas party which was by far the best ward activity I've been to in this ward, well probably in my whole mission. Not only because most of the ward showed up, but because there was lots to do. Bouncy castles for the kids, Barbeque outside, sumo suits for the adults. Good fun. I'm really growing to love this ward though aye. This will be my second area to serve 4 transfers in and there is even a possibility of doing 5 in this area. I'm pumped!

I love this gospel. I love sharing it with everyone I meet. I'm so excited for this new experience ahead of me. I'm going to realllly have to start doing everything straight by the book. I want to train this new missionary as best as I can. I gave some training this week in District meeting on accountability and who we are accountable to and for what. I feel very accountable for how I train this new missionary. I want to see him become a great missionary, and I know that it is up to me to help him become a great missionary.

Well that's about it for this week. I love every single one of you. I pray for your safety and protection both physically and spiritually every day. Always stay close to Christ and his Gospel if you want to always be happy.

Have a great week!

love,

Elder Tanner

The Epistle of Elder Tanner to his family in the Land of America, which is near the Waters of Pacific which borders the Land of Australia

Well I must say, I really wasn't expecting to hear that Buddy had to be put down, I was sure that he would last until after my mission, or at least that Charlie would go first. But at least we know that God is a loving God and that he will let us see Buddy again someday. But until then, I sure am going to miss him.

Well anyways, on to a happier note. This week has been fantasmigorically awesome. It's been super busy, which I guess is the reason that it has been so awesome. On Monday night I got to go on an exchange down in Mandurah with Elder Taumalolo. He served in Girrawheen right after I did for 6 months so we had some really good chats about people in that area. I found out that one African lady that Elder Richards and I had found got baptised. Her name was Catherine and to be 100 % honest, I had no idea that she would ever be getting baptised. He told me that the Mains have moved as well, so that means that there is a chance of serving in their area again, a small chance but a chance nonetheless. I really liked it down in Mandurah though. They have a massive area down there but it's really nice. I'd love to serve down there, but then again, I'd like to move around a bit as well. I'm really hoping to get to go serve down in Albany or something someday, something really far away so that it would just be me and my companion and that's it. I think it would be a lot easier to get a lot of work done that way. People say that country areas are hard to get baptisms in, but Elder Happel, our last zone leader, who just got transferred out to Northam (an area that has been shut down for 18 months or so), they now have 3 baptismal dates set out there. So I think an area is exactly what you make of it. There's no such thing as a dead area, just dead missionaries. That would be a quote from Elder Metekingi that he used in his 3 minute talk on Enthusiasm last week in our Specialised training meeting. I think it's so true, aye. An area is only as dead as you make it out to be. I'm going to try to remember that throughout the rest of my mission. Just ignore what people say about certain areas. Because usually if they tell you it's a dead area, you'll probably believe that and won't get much work done, if they tell you it's a great area you'll believe that and get heaps of work done. So if I just believe that every area is a great area, I'll get lots of work done. That's the theory anyways.

We've had lots of meetings this week. One meeting that we got to go to that was completely unexpected was Zone Leader Council. The reason that we got to go to that was President Cahoon invited Elder Jorgensen to share some of his insight on tracting that he received while he was in the Alabama mission. He was able to share some really good stuff that apparently President Eyring shared with the mission president over there. Some things that he shared with us are, "tracting is not only for the salvation of the souls of those people that we meet, but it's also for our salvation. There's something that pleases the Lord about tracting." Before I got with Elder Jorgensen I wasn't really a big fan of tracting either, but since becoming his companion we've tracted heaps and found a lot of success from it. Not only do we find investigators going door to door, but the Lord blesses us when we're diligently seeking those souls that are waiting to hear the message of the gospel. He blesses us as well as our families in more ways than we even recognise at first. He blesses us with new investigators that we find through other ways other than tracting. I think the attitude of this mission is that there's no point in tracting in God-less Australia so we're just going to sit around and wait for a member to find us somebody to teach or something like that. That's sort of the attitude that I had even adopted for a time. But Elder Jorgensen and I have been extremely blessed and I believe it is because of the amount of tracting that we have been doing. Tracting just makes you feel like a missionary more than anything else I think. Getting out there, getting those doors slammed in your face, all that good stuff. So yeah, Zone Leader Council was great. I'm really excited for the things that are coming up here in our mission. We've got a lot of good things happening. And a lot of the new missionaries coming up are so much better than some of the past generations of missionaries. Past missionaries sort of got lost in the traditions of their fathers, but not these new missionaries. They are so on to it. They'll probably all reach leadership positions at some point in their mission because of how on to it they are. So yeah, I'm way excited.

So that was Wednesday. On Thursday when Elder Jorgensen and I had our weekly planning we had one of the most intense weekly planning I've had on my whole mission. Because we spoke so much in Zone Leader Council on the importance of Key Indicators (which is just a fancy way of saying numbers) and how we can get those numbers up, Elder Jorgensen and I set plans to reach all of our goals and it's just going to be a great week. I think setting those goals makes us even more accountable and accountability is the best way to help us reach our goals. For every goal that we set we had a name to go with each number (besides new investigators of course). My whole mission I haven't been that gun with setting goals, but now I think I realise the importance of it and I'm just going to try harder from now on.

Exciting news with Evelyn is that she is now praying for a baptismal date and we're hoping to set that date either this month or next. It's so exciting because awhile ago we thought it was going to be ages before she decided to be baptised because of her staunch catholic traditions, but she's definitely had a change of heart and it's apparent. We taught a super spiritual lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon in conversion. We were finally able to get them a Tagalog Preach My Gospel and we did some reading out of there. I think we helped her realise that she really does know that the things that we have been teaching are true. Because she does read and she does pray every time that we ask her to, so she definitely has a testimony of the Book of Mormon as well as prayer and we explained that because you know these things are true, you know that this church is true and that you should be baptised. I just hope that she understands everything that we've taught her. But I'm sure she does. Arturo has been a great help as well. I'm sure he teaches her and helps her do the things that we ask her to do when we're not there. So we just gotta keep praying for the best and pray that we'll be able to see Evelyn get baptised soon.

In our Zone meeting on Wednesday we made Titles of Liberty from "rent garments". The Zone Leaders were talking about things that really frustrate us on missions and then out of nowhere they ripped their shirts off (don't worry, they had another white shirt on underneath). Then we made our own titles of liberty on their rent garments. On them we wrote why we came on a mission and what we want to do with the time that we have left on our missions. On the bottom they had us write Alma 5:26, which just happens to be one of my favourite verses in the Book of Mormon ever because of Pageant. I'll be sure to hang on to that Title of Liberty, help remind myself of the things that are on it.

Oh I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you about my experience city contacting this week. We went up to the city on Friday evening to do some contacting with about 20 other missionaries. It was SO packed. Friday night, everybody doing Christmas shopping, just heaps of people. While I was contacting somebody that turned me down anyways this old crazy drunk homeless man came up to me and out of nowhere hit me in the butt with his knee. He was yelling something in my face but I have no idea what he was saying because of how drunk he was. He smelled like pure gasoline. Looking back on it, it was a pretty funny experience, one that I love sharing with people because of it's hilarity, but at the time, i was just like.... whoa what's going on?? hahah funny.

Man! so much happened this week. Last night we had one of the best family home evenings ever with the Cook Islanders. I'm sure I've told you about them before. But they live in a house of 9 guys, 4 nonmembers. We taught them a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching that because it helps build my testimony of it.

Anyways, gotta go, lunch time! Love you all!

This is Elder Tanner, and I close mine epistle to my family, whom I love and whom I keep in my prayers.