Week 97

It was a long but good week for Tanner.  He was working in a trio since Elder Gardenhire was sent home.  They were able to have 23 lessons between the two areas, which was alot of lessons for them.  They are no longer a trio because they had transfers this week.  Tanner did not get transferred and will finish his mission in Ventisca where he has been.  By time he leaves he will have been in this same area for seven and half months.  He was happy about it but scary to think it was his last area.   Now Tanner is starting to see Elders, who he has served with his entire mission, start to finish their missions and go home.  I think the end of your mission is as hard as the beginning.  Leaving the known and people you love to the unknown and people you need to learn how to live with again.   But we can do hard things.  As Tanner gets closer to the end of his mission he is thinking about what he wants to do with the rest of his life.  He said, ‘I am scared to get back to real life to be honest.  I am still not sure what I want to do with my life.  But I know that the Lord will help me to decide.  I would really like to do something with music because that is something I know I would love to do, but it scares me because its not an easy career.  But nothing that’s worth it really is easy I suppose.  Who knows, the unsurety scares me I guess. ”  I mentioned to him that maybe he could be a music teacher and he told me that they visited an old lady that is less active who was sad so to cheer her up he gave  her a guitar lesson she’s been asking him for.Tanner said that it was cool.  Again music being a good missionary tool.

Tanner was able to watch General Conference in the stake center in Spanish.  He said that he really enjoyed Elder Renlund about repentance.  I like how they mentioned missionary work and gaining our own testimonies to share them with others that was cool.

Tanner sent a picture of a training meeting.  It looks like alot of the other ones but it is cool to see pictures of him 

 Tanner said that he also saw Herbie and I was not sure what he meant until he sent me the picture and then I understood.  Herbie the Love Bug

Week 96

This was a rough week for Tanner.  From Tanner’s email-It was a rough week, to be honest.  Well the end of it was.  Its cause Elder Gardenhire has been sick this whole change and was in the hospital at the beginning of last week and they found out he has diabetes.  And they had him there till about Wednesday in the afternoon.  and he worked a little on Thursday and Friday and he was fine, but since he goes home in a week they decided it was better to send him home early.  It was sad.  I am glad he is in his house now and he was happy to go, but I’ll miss him.  He taught me so much in the mission.  He honestly changed my mission by being a good example to me always.  But I’ll see him again in about 2 months  I guess.  He says he is going to my homecoming.  That would be cool.  Then while we were in the offices to say goodbye I read a letter I got from you guys about how Emmie died, so that made me even more sad.  But I am glad you guys told me at least.  I don’t want to get home and have to hear,”oh by the way this person died, this happened, we sold all your stuff, etc.”  I prefer you guys tell me it.  So thank you for telling me that.  I did not like reading that he had an extra hard week but I knew that he would have a tough time when he got the letter about Emmie.  I was hoping that he would be able to read the letter in the privacy of his apartment not in the mission office with a bunch of people.

Week 95

Tanner had unsuccessful week this week because on Thursday and Friday they had to be home by 6:30pm and he said he was so bored.  They had to be home early because of the Mexican Independence Holiday and it was not safe for them to be out.  Glad that the mission president made sure that they were in early.  But he did have a cool zone conference with Elder Valensuela         ( first counselor of the area presidency).

I told Tanner that in our stake when the High Councilman speaks in Sacrament they ask a return missionary to speak with them.  Tanner said that it would be interesting to speak with a High Councilman. He said that he and his companion spoke in church yesterday.  Tanner spoke on faith and his companion spoke on prayer.

Week 94

This week Tanner said that they were getting ready for Mexican Independence Day.  The stake had an activity of Noche Mexicana and it was cool. He said that there was music, dancing, food, and stuff like that.  But they only stayed till like 9:30.  But it went on until like 12 or so. He said that it would be cool to see them celebrate it one day though.  Tanner said, “They do a shout for independence that I’ve never seen before.”

I ask Tanner if he was counting days until he came home.  Tanner said, “I’m not going to count the days I’ll go insane.  I am working hard.  We are finding new people that are great but if I want to see any of them get baptized I need to get to work now.  There’s no time to mess around or worry too much about coming home I have work to do.  But I do admit that it is getting harder to work hard because I have in my mind that I will be home in 2 months and it excites me and scares me at the same time.  But I am going to work hard and I know God will help me to give all I can in the end of my mission whether I see the fruits or my work or not.”  It’s hard not to tell him each week how many days until he comes home.

Tanner told us of a time when they were contacting people to talk to. He said, “Dad will like this story: Sometimes when we contact people we talk to them about the clothes they are wearing or things we see that interest them so we can gain their trust a little before talking about the gospel.  I contacted a guy wearing a Judas Priest shirt.  I didn’t plan on talking about Judas Priest with him but that was the only thing that was coming to my mind to say so I asked him if he liked Judas Priest.  and he did trust us a little more and at least excepted our phone number to call us one day.  It may not have been a perfect success but he at least felt comfortable enough to talk with us. The weird thing is I actually felt like the Lord wanted me to talk about Judas Priest in that moment.  it was weird haha!”  I love how music is a great missionary tool, even rock and roll.