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
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