PICTURES FIRST! BEFORE I FORGET!

So the first two pictures are just me and my companion and then the photo from Evelyn's baptism. The third one is from last p-day, we got to use the music room at the Kwinana arts centre and I got to play some drums again, fun times. The last picture is my all time favourite. I had a pretty good crash on my bike this week and received very little scrapes or anything except for on my name tag. I think I slid on it on the pavement for a good meter and a half. So I'm going to be ordering a new one of those, but I'll definitely have a nice keepsake name tag now though haha

The Adventures of Lewis and Clark to the Land of Kwinarnia!

So my companion's first name is Lewis and I just made the connection this week that we are Lewis and Clark. Maybe that means we'll get to discover a new land together, or we'll meet some Indian lady that will be an interpreter for us and help us on our way to baptise thousands! Haha, I just thought that was funny.

We had an abolutely amazing week in Kwinarnia this week. We even got to meet Aslan (I think that's his name, right?). Haha, well enough of the Narnia analogy, but we did have a super amazing week. We got 5 new investigators this week which is just totally awesome. I've never gotten that many in one week in this area. And all 5 of them came from getting out and knocking on those doors. The first two came on Monday, the next two came on Wednesday, and the last one on Friday. The two on Wednesday were my absolute favourite. We decided that we needed to go do heaps of tracting out in Bertram because we had 0 investigators and 0 potential investigators out there. Bertram is the furthest suburb that we cover from where we live to get to on bikes, about 6 or 7 kms. So we don't do much finding out there. But on Wednesday we resolved that we would go out there after lunch and spend the whole time until we went to the Preedy's for dinner just finding people. So we biked out there, parked up the bikes, and just started walking and knocking on every single door that we walked past, just like Elder Metekingi and I had done the week before. We had about 3 hours to tract before we were going to head over to the Preedy's and in the first two hours we got nothing but one person that said she would like to have us back for a chat, but she also said that her husband wasn't going to be very keen on the idea, so we'll see how that goes. But after two hours of tracting is when the miracle happened. We had about 3 houses left on this one street and then we were going to start making our way back towards the bikes to leave for the Preedy's. So it wasn't looking too good really. So we went to knock on this house and we got let it! It was absolutely amazing. We went in, had a chat with this awesome South African family named the Erwees, stayed there for about 45 minutes just talking about our different beliefs and that, and when we had to go they invited over for dinner next week. It's not very often that you get a dinner appointment that comes from knocking on doors. They were the nicest family that I've met in ages. Probably has something to do with the fact that they're South African. South Africans are always the nicest people. It turns out that before they moved over from South Africa, they were having missionaries over and all that and got really close to them and even came to church with them a couple of times. But ever since they moved over here 5 years ago, they haven't really gotten in contact with any missionaries or anything like that. I'm so excited to go back there this Friday. I think if they have potential to become my favourite family in Western Australia, even though they're not even members..... yet! I would love to see them get baptised, but if it does happen, it's probably not going to be in my time in Kwinana. We'll see what happens with them though. They have 2 children, and their son is the same age as me, I can't remember his first name though.

So finding the Erwees was by far the highlight of the week. We've just had such great success in finding lately, it's been amazing. When we did our weekly planning this week, we had like 10 investigators to plan for which is about 9 more than we had when Elder Shobbrook got into the area. I don't know what we're doing differently, but whatever it's doing, it's defiinitely working. Maybe it's just Elder Shobbrook's Edward-Cullen-like charm. haha who knows.

Thursday was definitely the longest day of the week. We had to drive down to Halls Head so that I could do another baptismal interview for them for a 15 year old kid named Jamie. When we got to his house though, he wasn't there. So we decided to go out to lunch and check if he was home after we ate, so we did that and he still wasn't home. At this point it was about 1:00 pm and so we decided we needed to head back to Kwinana and try again the next day. While we were driving back, the Mandurah elders called and asked us if we could come pick them up because they got a flat tire on their bikes and they knew that we were in the area. Luckily Mandurah was on the way home and we were pretty close by when they called. So we went and helped them and while we were helping them the Halls Head elders called again and told us that Jamie was home now so we should turn around and come back to do the interview. Lucky then that we did stop to help Mandurah, otherwise we would've already been home by the time they called us, or close to it at least. So we headed back to Halls Head and got there about 2:15, and finally got to go do the interview. This 15 year old kid was so on to it. He definitely knew his stuff. And I could tell that in 4 years, he's going to be an amazing missionary.

We've had lots of opportunities to do service this week which has been great. We got to help our neighbour Joe with building a fence, doing some brick laying, and digging a giant hole in his backyard for him to bury some dog poo and weeds and stuff. Luckily since there is only sand over here, we dug a massive hole in like 15 minutes. And then he even cooked us up a barbecue which was great. And he's heading off to work tomorrow back to Marble Bar. Apparently "MARBLE BAR IS THE PLACE TO BE!!!" according to Joe, but it's also apparently the hottest town in Australia, with an average of 50 degrees Celsius. Yikes. To each his own I guess.

We had a zone meeting on Friday which was nice because that gave me a break from planning a district meeting. It just meant that the zone leaders led the meeting instead of me. They did really well too. They gave us some good training on planning and tracting. It was funny because it seemed like Elder Shobbrook and I were the only ones that had any input on the stuff that they were training us on. And we were the only ones that were answering questions. At some points it seemed like we were talking more than the zone leaders were. But it was a great meeting. We had the chance to do a small testimony meeting at the end. I bore my testimony on Alma 5:40. We talk to so many people that say they don't believe in God because of all the bad things that have happened to them in their lives. If that is the case, who do they give credit to when good things happen to them? ALL good things come from God. Whether they be big or small. If it's good, it comes from God. That's why so many things that have happened to me in my life and on my mission have come from God, because I know why good things happen. It just helps me to know that there IS a God. If there was no God, there would be no good things in our lives. There's so many things to help us know that God lives and loves us, that's just one of them though.

Got a great week ahead of us. We have interviews with President tomorrow, woo! This will only be my third one with him since he got here in July. So I'm looking forward to it. Lots of good stuff happening for us here. It's a shame that it has taken me nearly 5 months in this area to see this much happening, although I guess I have had 2 baptisms in this area. I feel a transfer in my near future, but I'll know that for sure by next Saturday.

I hope that you all are staying safe and loving life... and winter. We're burning up down here, however, we DID get some rain this week. Rain in January is very uncommon down here, so it was great. Keep me updated on everything that is going on in life. I love you all!

much love,

Elder Clark Tanner

Evelyn's Baptism! Happy New Year!

This week has been one of the most amazing weeks ever. Even though it hasn't been a full week since my last email, I think I've had more great experiences within the past 6 days than I've had in a long time. The two highlights definitely being my exchange with Elder Metekingi and Evelyn's baptism.

So after our last p-day last Wednesday, Elder Metekingi and I went on an exchange in my area and let our two trainees be together for a day in Rockingham. When Elder Metekingi and I were planning on Wednesday evening, we really could not think of what to do to fill our day with productive activities. There was a challenge from President Cahoon for exchanges in December that we tract for 2 hours and mark the streets that we tract. Well we ended up deciding that we were just going to take that to another level. We decided to tract ALL day. From 10-8. We knew that it would be tough, especially with the heat, but we also knew that if we relied on the Lord that he would take care of us and help us in our endeavour to preach the Gospel to everyone we met. The next morning in companionship study we were studying in Preach My Gospel about finding people. We read one verse in D&C 24:12 that we would be given strength beyond that which man knows if we talked to EVERYONE. So we made that our goal. We decided that we were going to be more bold on that day than we had been our whole mission. And let me tell you, that promised blessing in that verse is true. We also decided that morning that we were going to be relying on the Lord completely that day. Not just to help us find people, and give us strength that we needed to walk around in that heat all day, but to provide us the food and water that we needed throughout the day. So all we took with us was our phone (for emergencies) and a bottle of water each, and the pamphlets at things that we needed. We found such great success on this day, it was amazing. Throughout the day, we found 13 people that wanted us to come back. That is definitely the most people I've found in one day by far. On one street there were even 4 houses in a row that said they were interested in our message and wanted us to come back. How amazing is that?! We also were able to ask people for water and they'd give it to us even if they were about to slam the door in our face. And we ended up calling a member to bring us some food while we were taking a shade break in the park. I don't think anything went wrong that day. Now the only thing we have to do is follow up with all of those people and hopefully get to see them progress towards baptism someday. Following up is the most important part. We already have gotten the chance to follow up with one of the guys and it turns out he wasn't as keen as his friend was that was living with him and we were able to teach, give a book of Mormon, and invite to read and pray about it. Who says you can't see the fruits of your labours right away. Maybe in some cases, but definitely not in this one.

Evelyn's baptism on Saturday was also one of the most memorable days of my mission along with that day with Elder Metekingi. I was really worried that nobody would really show up for it with it being on New Year's day and everything. But boy was I wrong about that. We had about 30 people show up. That right there was definitely a blessing. Past baptisms of my mission have had no more that like 10 people there, and the experience just wasn't as good (even at the ocean baptism), but because there were so many people there, you could feel the spirit profusely being poured out upon us that attended. I asked a few members of the ward to get up and bear their testimony towards the end of the baptism and I think that was great for Evelyn. The biggest thing that we've been struggling with with her is helping find some fellowship for her because of her language barrier. But because these people came to the baptism and congratulated Evelyn afterwards, I felt like she felt a lot more welcome into the ward after that. Arturo bore his testimony last and it was so strong. He told the story about how his wife was converted and how it just happened over time as we kept teaching and she kept reading. There were definitely some tears in the room. I loved it. The next day for Evelyn's confirmation, she actually came to church wearing a skirt and everything where in the past she would usually just wear jeans and converse to church. You could tell that it actually meant a lot to her to be confirmed and become a member of the church. Even though I didn't get to be the one that baptised her or confirmed her, I feel such a connection with her and Arturo since I've been in the area ever since she came over from the Philippines and been teaching her every week since then. It's going to be sad to leave this area, and it's also a bummer that I won't be able to see them get sealed in the temple next year. But I know that it will happen. Her testimony is only going to get stronger and if it matches up with Arturo's testimony, they'll be such a strong couple in the church.

Speaking of people getting sealed in the temple. I got permission this week to attend the McGaughey's temple sealing. I'm so excited to be able to attend that. I called up Jeremy McGaughey after I got permission to go and he said that the sealing has been pushed back to late February because of a delay in the temple garments. Hopefully I still get to go in February. I guess the only reason that I wouldn't be able to go was if I got transferred to somewhere very far away. But Jeremy was still excited for it and still working towards it. I guess this just gives them an extra month of preparation. So it should be good in February. I'll let you know when that happens though.

I don't have much time to email today because the library is still closed and we're using he Internet kiosk at the mall. $6 an hour, so my time is almost up but I hope that you all are having a great week and had a great new year! I pray for all of you and your safety. Have a great week! Love you all!

Much love,

Elder Tanner

ps. I was going to attach a picture from the baptism but you know how public computers are, of course the USB slot doesn't work. I'll try to remember next week though!

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.