It's been real... Week 24

Hola familia! How is everyone? This week went by so fast! There was so much craziness. We found out who is leaving but we don't know where yet. Out of our house of 4, Me, elder Anderson and elder Brian are ALL leaving! And my comp elder stover is training! It's been real here in my first area of colinas. Elder Brian and Bruton and Buck all got called to be District leaders. We don't know where but there are definitely going to be a lot of people leave.

This week Elder Anderson went to Bahia for his visa stuff and Elder Brian went on divisions in Miramar for a week. So it was just me and my comp for  Week in the house. My first time being in a house of 2 haha. It had good and bad. Way easier to focus on studies but less people to talk to. We aren't crazy or anything but Anderson and Brian are hilarious.

Me and Stover worked really hard this week and got 4 references! 2 of them seem really awesome! We also got to play futbol with the young men and our investigator Aaron. It was so fun but then the biggest storm ever came. With hale the size of marbles. It hurt to be outside haha. Didn't stop us tho. We still balled out. The hail didn't last that long but the rain kept coming. These kids were ballers...  They were like 12 and they were so good. I got 3 goals the whole night so not too shabby for me but I had to play a little rough to get them haha.

When Brian and Anderson got home on Friday we of course had to have a little party. So we got a bunch of empanadas. We have a new empanada place that we go to almost every day haha.

We have had some lessons with Ricardo and Josefina and they invited us to have lunch with them on Thursday! I'm sad i wont be able to go :(

Even though im leaving my first area, im so ready to go to my new area with my new comp and work super hard. I read this book from the mission office called " Member missionary work" and it had so many ideas on how to contact and explain stuff in lessons better. It also said that no matter what area you are in, there are at least 5 people ready for baptism. I fully believe that, we just need to find them! I also hope i get a Latino comp so my spanish will get super good hahah.

Love you all! Hope everyone is doing amazing and had an awesome January. I hope you are keeping ur new year resolution diets too because I really need to haha.

• Elder Tanner

Where's the Paint? Week 23

Hey fam! This week was crazy so I'll just give you the highlights. 

We started teaching a 13 year old named Aron this week! He is awesome and his parents are less active members we have been teaching. We have a lesson with him right before mutual with some of the other young men present. We are having another lesson on Tuesday and we are going to play soccer with him and the other boys after.   we are stoked for him! This is our last week of the transfer so I hope I stay to see him baptized. 

We had interviews with President Cifuentes on Thursday morning, and a Charla (fireside) with him that night. The interviews went good! Short and sweet like always haha. After the interviews we tried to pass for some people with a member that was with us but nobody answered. So we went to the fireside with Adriel and Leo (both members and they are brothers)  it was kinda far so our investigators couldn't make it. The fireside was about the organization of the church and how everyone is there to help you. It was also about the atonement and how we can always be forgiven. 

The next day we had our zone meeting with both Mar Del Plata zones there. President talked a lot about how we need work harder and be more obedient. If we are going to baptize we all have to be obedient. We got the goal from Elder packer to baptize 1 person a week. In order to do that we need to get more investigators. He set the goal for everyone to get 2.6 new investigators Every day. Me and Elder Stover are ready to work! 

The next day (Saturday) we had service for an lady investigator. We asked her if she needed any service and she said yeah I have been wanting to paint my house. So came back on Saturday and she said "where's your paint and brushes?" . We dont know why she thought we were bringing the paint and brushes as well but it was super awkward when we had to tell her we only provide the service haha. 

The Church is so true! I love being a missionary. I love talking to members and sharing lessons with investigators and i love learning new stuff in my studies! But most of all i love that i can feel the spirit every single day no matter what. Hope all is well with everyone back home! love you all!

Punched in the face : Week 22

Hey fam! So this week was super fun and we worked really hard and had some awesome lessons.

An elder from our ward got back from his mission in Chile this week. His name is Elder Romero. Well right when we got home before he got set apart he wanted to come and work with us. He didn't want to stop working until he was set apart. Little crazy but I'll give the guy creds because he is an awesome teacher. He told us he wants to work with us at least once or twice a week. So we are stoked for that. The next day we had a lesson with his 17 year old brother Leo and got a baptism date from a lady named jorgelina.

At Elder Romeros open house we talked to all his nonmember friends which was cool. They loved us but none of them live in our area. They all live in another zone. But hey we planted seeds and got some referrals so it's all good.

We have a less active member Ariel we have been visiting and him and his wife and their son came to church! We are stoked Because the 13 year old son Aaron isn't a member and he's been going to mutual. We are having a lesson with him this Tuesday before mutual. We had 2 investigators at church this week.

Funny stories. Well one isn't so funny...

Our zone leader from Mexico was on divisions here in colinas with Elder Brian and some got mad at them when they said hi and tried to Rob them. They both didn't have money so this guy punches our ZL right in the face and tells them to give them their bibles. He took their bibles and threw them on the ground and walked away. Funny part was they were accidentally a couple streets in our area....  

Another story (Lisa you can decide to keep this one or not) me and my comp found a hole in the wall of the super wealthy golf course, so of course we go in there and I found a golf ball. Then we see a big truck coming towards us so we ran out of there. We didn't get caught and I got a golf ball.

I wouldn't say me and Elder Stover had the most success with lessons and stuff. A lot of people fell through. But we are definitely working hard. We found some awesome investigators that I'm stoked for this week. Guys I know this church is true. I had the opportunity to teach the first vision a few times this week and the spirit is so strong every single time. Don't be afraid to give the missionaries references of your friends. We were told by president that every 10 references there is one baptism. And for 100 contacts by missionaries is only one baptism. So think of people to give references to the missionaries. Love you all! Have an awesome week!

• Elder Tanner

I Broke It . . . Week 21

Not much happened this week so i'll just give a short little update.

We worked and worked all week and found some new investigators and had some good lessons! Elder Stover and I work really hard. We also had divisions with our zone leaders, and i stayed in our area because i know the area better.

We had an awesome lesson with a lady named marcella. We taught her the first 3 lessons, and she is lovin it. She was crying when i said the first vision. But we are gonna go watch the restoration movie with her. She has a baptism date for april but we are gonna try to move it up.

When the zone leader wa here we had a ward baptism to go to. We invited some of our investigators and one showed up. But he was super high and maybe a little drunk. So we kinda had to get him out of there. But he said he liked to baptism haha.

We met this kid named Allan. He is a little white boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Anyway he is convinced that we are cops (he's like 6). He was telling us about how kids are going on the golf course and we need to stop them. We tried to tell him we weren't cops but he wasn't buying it. So he asked for our number in case he runs into more trouble.

Side Notes: It was elder Brian's birthday so we ate some cake and ordered some empanadas. They were probably the best empanadas i've eaten. So good. Elder Anderson hit the 6 month mark so of course he burned a tie. We were told to fix the sink and of course when i touched it the whole pipe just falls off. Like i seriously barely touched the thing. But we got a member to come fix it so it's all good. I was worried for a second though.

This work is awesome. Its way tiring sometimes especially the days where nobody answers, but its so fun. And I love seeing the little blessings while working when the big ones aren't always there. Like how i'm just walking around argentina talking to people. Even if they don't want to listen to what we have to say. Its legit haha Love this work and i love my Savior!

• Elder Tanner

New Years Kisses!! Week 20

Happy New Years everyone! I hope you all made some good new years resolution. Mine is to lose some weight but let's see how that goes haha. I've also made some personal ones to work and study harder!

Skyping the fam was awesome! We had some trouble with the wifi and computers and stuff so that was stressful but everything turned out ok. We made an super good asado for dinner and watched the fireworks. I thought Christmas had a lot of fireworks but new years was even bigger! We drank sparkling cider on the roof and watched them. I even got a new years kiss! (we gave each other argentine cheek kisses hahaha) Sounds gayer than it was. We keep spending the holidays with the same family because they love us and make super good food. We had a bunch of empanadas and stuff on New Years with them.

As far as the work goes, it was really hard this week to have lessons with investigators. We found Diego (an investigator we couldn't find for a while) and had 2 lessons with him so that was good. So since none of our other investigators were answering or there, we visited some inactive members and had 9 lessons with different inactives! So that was really good. The spirit was super strong because they know the church is true already, they just need to endure to the end. My New Comp Elder Stover is a worker so i'm glad for that. We are a little different personality wise but we get to work! He knows about the same amount of spanish bas me so i'm definitely talking a lot more in the lessons and lunches with members and stuff than i used to. I feel like that's going to help me a lot!

It was super hot all week but then a storm came and it cooled down. We have had cold showers for the past month and a half so those are finally starting to feel good haha. I had to wake up twice in the middle of the night to soak my head and clothes in water and then go lay back down wet. But I always woke back up dry and hot.

I'm so thankful that i'm able to spend 2018 as a missionary! I know this church is true.. I feel the spirit so strong every time i teach. I love that i just get to dedicate the year 2018 to serving my savior Jesus Christ! Hope everyone has an amazing year! Love you all!

• Elder Tanner

Photo shoot for vent and rook (Elder Anderson's brother owns the company)...