Moroni 8:26. I love that verse. Four of my favourite principles of the gospel in six words. Love, enduring to the end, diligence, and prayer. There's so much power in each of those principles. Two things come to my mind when I read that verse. A story from the scriptures and my own life. When Nephi was tied up by his brothers on the ship and the storm came, the storm lasted for four days while Nephi was tied up, and in 1 Nephi 18:19, we learn that for that entire four days, his wife and children were praying for him. Now that is love. I suppose it's a lot like Emma Smith. Love is manifest by prayer. This week I reach 21 years of living and 21 months of serving a mission, and I know that I could not have come this far in life or in my mission if it were not for the prayers and faith of my family. I love you guys. Thanks mom and dad for all you have ever done for me. I know it must have taken a lot of prayers from you for me to be where I am today. I know and am thankful that God answers those prayers. I couldn't be happier in life than I am right now serving God and serving the people of Western Australia. I'm thankful for a loving family whose love is manifest by their prayers, and I hope you all know that I too pray for each and every one of you and hope you know that I love you as well.
Now about this week, we finally got to teach Marion again! We taught him on Tuesday night and this man never ceases to amaze me. After we taught him, he offered to share his food with us. What a humble man. The lesson that night went well. We watched the restoration DVD with him and tried to help him understand the importance of the restoration. He thought that we were teaching about a restoration that was still yet to come, so I guess that's when it's important to be on the same page as our investigators. We re-explained that it had already happened and that this is the restored church. Yesterday we brought Sister Weeks with us and taught him again, this time it was the plan of salvation that we taught and also this time the whole house was present. 5 Filipinos rambling away in Tagalog and we were just kind of sitting there. Every now and then Sister Weeks would tell us what they were talking about, but it was good nonetheless that they were able to build up that friendship with Sister Weeks so that they can feel more comfortable if they come to church. Marion hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon because he says he has a lack of time, which is actually believable in Karratha. There's no such thing as overtime here. He works 10 hour days from Monday to Friday and then I think a 5 hour day or something on Saturday. So it's just work, eat, sleep, call his family in the Philippines. But we encouraged him to try to read at least 15 minutes a day before he goes to sleep or something. 15 minutes is all it takes for the spirit to work on somebody. And we fasted for him to gain a spiritual witness that the Book of Mormon is true. We just have to keep working with him. But he says he's going to come to our progressive dinner this Saturday. That's one step closer to coming to church. The other thing that we fasted for was for Carlo to get closer to baptism. He's pretty much an eternal investigator now because he's impossible to catch at home when he's not asleep. Another case of work, eat, sleep. But yesterday at church I experienced a first. President Pilkington asked Carlo if he would say the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and he said yes. He did a really good job too. So I was trying to figure out if we could count an investigator as progressing if they say the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting. I never knew that nonmembers were allowed to participate in sacrament meeting like that, but I guess it's up to the branch presidents discretion.
I know this is a short email, but I have a lot to do today that I've been putting off for far to long, so I got to get going. I'll talk to you all soon! I love you all, I pray for you!
Much Love and prayers,
Elder Tanner
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