Elder Evans' Visit

This week has been one of the most eventful weeks this transfer, and that is saying A LOT. The most exciting part about this week was most definitely the visit that we had from a general authority on Wednesday. Elder Evans from the Seventy came and had a mission conference with us. I can't remember if I told you last week that that was going to happen this week, so I'm going to tell you everything about it anyways. From 9-12 we had the mission conference with all city missionaries, so basically excluding 7 companionships in the mission. In this mission conference he spoke to us all about ways to find new investigators. The way he presented it was really good too. He made it seem very exciting. He said there is one way to find that President Monson says will work ANYWHERE in the world. And it's been proven. That one way to find is to ask for referrals from absolutely everyone. It's something that we should be doing anyways, but he just helped us see just how effective it can be. Investigators EXPECT you to ask them who they know that you can teach. We haven't quite tested that theory yet, but I believe it's true. If a general authority says it will work, then it will work. He was very inspired to speak about finding too. He spoke for nearly an hour and a half on just developing the faith to find. We've found that in our zone alone, it is very low right now. Elder Hodgkiss and I this week found 4 new investigators, and the other 7 companionships in the zone collectively had 4 new investigators. So hopefully they'll all be inspired for the coming week to get out there and find those referrals.

So after the mission conference we had a mission lunch prepared by the local relief society (gotta love that relief society), and went back in for a leadership training meeting with Elder Evans. Really that meeting was more of just a question and answer session, but the bulk of the time was spent on one question that I think everybody wanted to have answered. And that is "How do we keep the training that we've received, (not just in this meeting, but at any meeting), how do we not let it fade away but keep the things that we've learned and continually apply them. He likened it to a game of Whack-a-mole. When you hit one problem down, another pops up. And you get a lot of situations in life that are like that. The one bad thing about the whole day was that I was feeling quite sick. I would have loved to be sleeping, but I couldn't miss a general authority. My notes were a bit sloppy, but I tried to take as good of notes as I could. I felt sick for about 3 days this week, but continued to work through all of them. We're just so busy in our area, there's not time to rest. The most rest I got was on the first day of being sick, I came home at like 8 and went to sleep. It ended up being OK in the end. I'm sure that if I had felt any worse than what I did thought I would've gotten more rest. It's actually be getting cold at nights now and even raining a bit, which is probably how I got sick, working in the rain. It got down to 4 degrees Celsius the other night, or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, BURRR. But now that I got it out of my system, I should be all goods.

The stop smoking program with Geoff (not Jeff) went amazingly well this week. We committed him to every single step and he was keen as to do them all. We visited him yesterday before church and he says that the cravings had completely gone away. He even said that he was beginning to like the taste of that unsweetened grapefruit juice. We were so excited to find out that he's stuck with it this week. Today at 4 we're doing end of the program celebration. Hopefully he keeps of the good habits after the program. He says that he feels the prayers were the biggest help to him. He was really thankful for the program and he even said he was considering coming to church yesterday. He didn't come, but hopefully he'll be able to come next week!

Last week when we were leaving the library we contacted this girl who was about our age and she looked really upset. The contact went really well and she agreed to have us over for a teaching appointment. Her name is Alicia. When we got to her house on Sunday, a 6'8" African guy answered the door so we thought she might have given us a fake address. Turns out that the African guy was her partner. So that was cool. We felt kind of bad for her because he told us all he does with his free time is drink. The lesson we had with her was excellent though. We basically taught her the basics. That God loves her, that He is there, and that He has a plan for her. We didn't get into the plan, but we just wanted to get her interested first. Chris Terepai was at the lesson with us as well. Another testimony builder that having a member come with you to the first lesson isn't all that bad at all. She seemed really interested in wanting to be able to find a religion for her and her son. I've never actually contacted people around the library, but now we're way excited about Alicia, it will probably become a regular thing.

Well that's about it for this week. We have a lesson with Geoff again in 3 1/2 hours, so p-day is running short again. I love you all. Keep up all the amazing work that you do. The best way to stay healthy according to the 89 year old in our ward: SERVE OTHERS. (That has no relation to my story about getting sick by the way)

Much love,

elder Tanner

List of things to do on the Sabbath

• spend time with family
• family history
• have a feed
• read the scriptures
• visit the sick
• do your home/visiting teaching
• watch church videos/Mormon messages
• go for a walk
• WRITE TO A MISSIONARY!!!!!!

Who needs a P-day?

"Not I" said the zone leader. I don't have much time to email today because we only have 5 hours today for p-day because we're keeping ourselves too busy. And most of that 5 hours is going to be spent preparing a stop smoking program for an investigator that we're teaching at 4 today and starting the program with. And we didn't leave the flat til 11 today studying it. I'm really praying hard that it goes well. I've never run the stop smoking program before but I've heard a lot of really good reviews on it. I talked to Shay Preedy yesterday at church and he said that he did the program when he was quitting when he was coming back to church and he said that it was amazing, that no other program works as well as that one does. The investigator that we're doing it with today is named Jeff Tangaroa. He's related to the Tuaanas and the Tregos in our ward and he asked us if he could do it. For those of you that don't know about the program, it's very full on. It takes a lot of preparation on our part and a lot of hard work on his part. There's 15 steps to follow that include drinking unsweetened grapefruit juice after every meal and brushing and using mouthwash after every meal. It's not about using will power to quit (although I'm sure that does play a role in it), but it's more about turning off the bells that make people want to smoke. Lots of people can quite for short periods of time by will power alone, but if they want to make it permanent, they have to turn off those bells, which is where the program comes in. So we're stoke for it.

I went on two exchange this week, which doesn't quite seem possible because of how fast the week has gone. I went on one with Elder Narhwold on Tuesday and then Elder Ariki on Saturday. They were both really good exchanges. The amount of exchanges that we do as zone leaders is kind of crazy though, one last week, two this week, and one next week. Back in the day I'd be lucky to do two exchanges in the one transfer. Sometimes you just really want to stay in your own area and work with your own companion too because you have so much good stuff happening that you both want to be there for, but then again sometimes it's good to have a bit of difference in your life. Change it up every now and then. Elder Ariki and I hit the bikes hard on Saturday and come Sunday I was dead. We had to go to two sacrament meetings as well because Elder Hodgkiss had to go talk to somebody down in Mandurah ward. By about 6:30 in the evening last night, I was ready for a sleep. But Sunday night means correlating which means I knew it was going to be a late night. We ended up correlating until about 11:45, well, Elder Hodgkiss correlated until about 11:45. I was out by about 11. I tried though.

This coming week we have a mission conference with Elder Evans of the Seventy who is going to be the new director of the missionary department. He's coming just for a short visit so we're getting the mission together on Wednesday and having a conference with him from 9-12, lunch from 12-1, and Leadership meeting from 1-3 or 4. Knowing meetings, they always run over time, but it's supposed to get done at 3. We had a Zone Conference this past week which is just our zone and Southern River Zone combined and we got to listen to President talk to us for a good amount of time about the doctrine of Christ. Very simple topic, but yet so deep. It was a great spiritual feast. The assistants did a training on the new commitment pattern which is so inspired and it's amazing that we didn't think of it sooner because it just makes so much more sense. They got the idea for it from the Elder Robbins talk from General conference about the Be's and Do's. The commitment pattern used to be "Will you [action]?", and now it's "Will you be [attribute] by [action]?" It's all about helping people see that they are changing by keeping the commitment which we leave with them. So far it's been a much more effective way of getting people to understand why we're committing them to certain things. I just couldn't believe it took me 18 months of my mission to figure out this new and improved commitment pattern. It's amazing the things you learn from conference and inspiration combined.

Well that's about it for this week. I'm attaching a couple of pictures. The two dealing with food are just funny ones. Hope you all have a good week! My p-day is wearing thin! Love you all!

Much Love,

Elder Tanner

Mother's Day Week! 18 Months!

My last time to ever call home from Western Australia. It came and went so fast. But it was definitely a boost that I needed. It's crazy to think that next time I call home will probably be in the Sydney or LA airport having a massive layover on my way home. Wowzers.

This week has been so incredibly full on. The weeks with Elder Hodgkiss are just flying by because of how busy we keep ourselves and how much fun we have working together. This week we had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday, Temple and City contacting on Wednesday and District Meeting and exchanges on Friday. Zone Leader Council is always good. Since Elder Hodgkiss is still pretty new to the zone, it seemed like I had to do a lot more talking that usual, but Elder Hodgkiss is still catching on quickly though. President Cahoon wants to introduce a new phrase into the mission and make it as popular as "We Can Do That", which is the last phrase he introduced into the mission that became popular. He wants everyone to always say "this is a GREAT mission." It has to do a lot with attitude. If missionaries think this is a hard mission, then it's going to be hard. And it works either way as well. If they think this is a great mission, it's going to be a great mission. I think President just really wants to change the reputation that this mission used to have in Australia. I never knew before my mission that it had a reputation, (not a very good one at that), but down here, it does. I've already seen it change heaps since the start of my mission. President Cahoon coming in has been a major contributing factor to that as well. He is just an outstanding mission president and has improved the mission tremendously. We spent most of ZLC talking about skills and attributes that are good in the mission and that need improving. In our zone it's mostly finding skills that needs improving, and this week we definitely saw an improvement. Especially since this week in the competition it mostly focused on finding. We saw 21 new investigators for the whole zone which is phenomenal considering the last couple of week's numbers of 6 and 10. So we're pretty excited with the results from the competition.

I learned a lot more in the Temple this week than I have in the past couple of times going. I don't know what made it different, but I thoroughly enjoyed it this week. And that even made it easier for me to do city contacting. usually I'm not a big fan of city contacting, but this time around I found myself with a lot more confidence because of the things that I learned in the temple. I had a few good chats with people, but wasn't able to get any referrals. I still enjoyed it though.

Thursday was a crazy day. We wanted to ride the bikes, but we were running late to our first appointment and that put us behind schedule for the whole day. I don't think there was one appointment that we were on time to because of that. We had 6 set appointments that day too. That's the biggest reason we were running late the whole day. I've never had so many set appointments in one day. I love it! Not a single one of them fell through either. Now that never happens. I wish every day could be like that. We hardly got any time to tract this week, but we still got 4 new investigators. That's the way that it should be.

Zone Conference coming up this week! Hooray! We only have them once every three months, so it's bound to be amazing. And then next week we have Elder Evans from the Seventy coming to speak to us and we're going to have a mission conference then. I absolutely love these meetings that we get to have. I feel very privileged.

I had an experience this week talking to a man that was actually on our ward list, but he has gone apostate as since he was baptised 3 years ago. His mind had been filled with anti-Mormon material and all kinds of false doctrine. All I could really do was bare my testimony and tell him how much I love the gospel and how much it has blessed my life. But he still wasn't having it. I was on exchanges at this time with Elder Grbin, and Elder Grbin tends to freeze up when talking to people like that, so I was basically on my own. It made me feel sad for the man though. He believes every single bit of false doctrine that he hears, but when it comes to true doctrine, he won't have a sniff of it. I don't know how he was baptised or what has changed since he was baptised, but it must have been a dramatic change. I'm so thankful for the testimony of the gospel that I DO have and how I know it can bless my life in this life and the next. This guy was a family man as well and yet so far from the truth. I wish I could have helped him. I'm sure someday he might come around though. I just hope he doesn't pass his foolish traditions on to his children and friends.

Well that's about it for this week. Kind of short this week, I know, but my time is up on the computer. We have a busy day planned today. We're even teaching somebody today at 5 before p-day is over at 6. Sacrifice that p-day!

I love you all! Stay safe. Enjoy the warmer weather coming up, it's your turn! Bring on the cold! Relatively cold anyways haha.

Much Love,

Elder Tanner

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Send a letter to:

Elder Clark Tanner

PO Box 185

Tuart Hill, WA 6939

Australia

Zone Competition/Carrying a Bike to District Meeting

Well it's only been 5 days since last p-day, but it's been a great 5 days. Elder Hodgkiss and I have spent a lot of time and effort this week preparing this massive zone competition that we hope will help missionaries improve their skills and become better "Preach My Gospel" missionaries. The way that we have the competition laid out is that each week focuses on a different aspect of the work. The first week, which is this week is all about finding. And in each week, or phase, there are different things that you have to do to earn points such as contact 50 nonmembers in a day, invite 25 people to church, tract an hour a day for 7 days straight, etc. The second week is all about teaching and some of the things in that phase include teach an investigator on a p-day, use 3 scriptures in every lesson that you teach in a day, bear a preposterous amount of testimony in one day, and so on. The third phase is member involvement with tasks like have a member visit an investigator during the week, have a member at 3 lessons in one day. And then the last week is just setting a baptismal date. I think putting it into a form of a competition (with a cool theme and everything) will really help motivate people to take it seriously and work hard and hopefully it will instill some good working habits with all of them, including us. I'm pretty excited to do the competition myself.

I have a funny story from Friday. Elder Hodgkiss and I decided to bike to district meeting because we were running low on k's and we didn't want to ask for more just to prove that zone leaders can ride bikes. He didn't have a bike though so we ended up borrowing one from the Hita family but we had to do some fixing up on it before it was ride-able. So we took it to get some air in the tires, tightened all the screws and it seemed ride-able. This was on Thursday. So Friday morning we get ready to bike to District Meeting and along the way, this dinky old rusty bike that Elder Hodgkiss was riding decided that it didn't want to work anymore. The wheel was bent and by riding it halfway to district meeting it got bent even more and eventually the wheel wouldn't even turn because it was crammed up against the frame. We knocked on a random guys door and asked if we could borrow a spanner to try to fix it, but it only made matters worse. So we ended up walking the rest of the way to district meeting and Elder Hodgkiss decided to carry his bike because it was easier than dragging it along. Well, that's what he said at first, by the end though, he couldn't quite decide what was easier. Lucky we left the flat plenty early and didn't live too far from the chapel, that would have been funny, try to set the example by biking to district meeting and contacting people along the way, but instead show up late, hot and sweaty, carrying a bike on our back. Lucky we were still on time though, just barely. District meeting was good too. There's a YSA in our ward named Chris Terepai who returned from his mission just last year and he was having a bad day, and he called us up and asked if he could spend a couple of hours with us. He said he just needed to be around elders. So he came along to district meeting, and then afterwards we went with him in his car (the Lord was watching out for us) and visited a few less active members as well as tried to see a couple of investigators. He spent probably about 5 hours with us, and bought us lunch. And he felt a lot better afterward too, he was going to go to the temple later that night as well. That's what I like to see, someone that knows what to do when they're feeling down. Go teaching with the Elders and go to the temple. Just get that spiritual buzz.

I don't have a whole lot of time to email today. We moved house this morning from a house to a flat, but I think the flat might be bigger than our house, so that's kind of cool. And we actually live in our area now. Our old house wasn't even in our ward boundaries, just because the missionary boundaries changed recently.

Elder Hodgkiss and I have been working hard out this week. We got 6 new investigators! The rest of the zone as a whole only got 4 all together, so hopefully they can follow our example and have a better week this week. Of course, we're hoping that this competition will help with that as well. And if it doesn't, then we'll have to go to plan B, after we figure out what that plan is. Only 2 of those 6 new investigators that we got came from finding from our own efforts though. The other 4 were all member referrals and part member families. One of them came to our sports night at the chapel on Friday and we showed him around the chapel and he thought the family history centre was the coolest thing ever. He was going to come to church even, but the member that brought him to sports night got sick and wasn't at church on Sunday either. We're really excited for what lies ahead for us in this area. This is exactly what I needed to help me get back to enjoying this area again. We have so much going for us, it's amazing. Elder Hodgkiss and I have so much fun too. We pretty much spend any free time we have just laughing at something. Or when we're driving too and from places, we just talk and laugh. We get on really well. We're going to have a great transfer together, hopefully two.

Mother's Day this week! Every missionary's favourite time of the year! Calling home! Well I'll talk to you all soon! Have a great week this week. Pay your tithing!

Love yous!

Elder Tanner