Baptism ! BEST WEEK EVER !!! : Week 41

BEST WEEK EVER!! This week was filled with so many miracles, spiritual lessons, new investigators and we topped it off with Malen’s Baptism!!  

The baptism went perfectly! Me and my comp went to the church in the morning to clean the font and the church and set up all the chairs and everything so that was fun. The baptism started at 5:30 and like 40 or 50 people showed up! (which is crazy for Argentina) I had the opportunity to be the one to baptize Malen! She was really nervous and was shaking as she was holding my arm in the font. But right as she went in the water and came back up she stopped shaking and had the biggest smile on her face. It was so awesome to see the pure joy she felt the whole rest of the night and the next day when she was confirmed.

About 10 minutes after the baptism I started to have this super bad stomach ache. So we stayed a little longer for the refreshments (and like 5 trips to the bathroom). I had really bad food poisoning and I was throwing up the rest of the night… literally the whole night haha. It sucked! I felt 100 percent fine and healthy the whole day until right after the baptism. So it was a miracle i was still able to do it! On Sunday i really didn't want to go to church because i was super dizzy and had a migraine and could barely move but we had the confirmation to do and i had to give a talk. So we called a member to drive us to church. I had the talk all written out and so my comp offered to just go up there and read it for me. So I was super grateful for that. Everything went good so we left after sacrament and I slept the rest of the day. I feel good now!!

Luciano and Romina are doing really good! They have been praying every morning and night and we gave them a list of our favorite scriptures to read one a day (a least) before their nightly prayers. Romina is doing awesome but Luciano is still having trouble and questioning why God took their little baby away. He’s really praying to see if God is there and listening.

We also had our Conference with President and interviews. President has been focusing a lot more lately on our personal conversion as missionaries and a lot less on the numbers and baptisms. I love it. Personal conversion is the most important thing for all of us. Once we are truly converted, everything else will fall into place. I hope everyone can do what they need to truly be converted! It's a constant battle!

Love you all!! Have a great memorial day and week!

• Elder Tanner

Who Doesn't Like Maple Syrup? : Week 40

Dear Family and Friends,

Such an amazing week!! Our investigator Malen is getting baptized this Saturday and we are so excited for her!! Her family has been coming back to church and the older siblings have been going to mutual and seminary and everything! It's awesome!! She had her interview and she passed!!

We had a couple really good lessons this week. One was probably the most spiritual lesson of my mission. It was With Luciano and Romina who had a 13 day old baby recently pass away. They are mad at God right now and doubting if he even exists. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and told them that they will be able to see their baby again and that she is with Heavenly Father and Jesus right now. And that the ONLY way they will be able to be free from the pain and sorrow they feel is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The whole time me and my comp were testifying and everyone was crying and their parents who are members were there too. It was amazing! But this goes for everyone! No matter what trial you have, Christ knows what you are going through and the only way to heal the wound is to use His Atonement.

We had a FHE with the Labrin family and we made pancakes with maple syrup (my comp had some pure maple). Well turns out they thought maple syrup was disgusting. So they all just put dulce de leche on the pancakes instead haha. We weren't too offended. But not gonna lie we actually made it pretty good!! Like it was good maple syrup. My comp said that all Argentines that he's made it for think its gross haha. And they also don't like peanut butter.

Love you all!! Hope everyone is doing good! Have a great Week!!

Love Elder Tanner

Pics:  1. In front of the Church with Malen and Family.  2. Miracle:  We were running late to church and a member from another ward saw us and crammed six of us into her little car. 

"The Best Breakfast There Is" : Week 39

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! Shout out to all the moms out there (especially my AMAZING mom Lisa!) Nobody celebrated mother's day down here in Argentina because their mother's day is in October, but I hope you all made your moms and wives feel special!! I got to Skype my fam and it was awesome!! It was just what I needed after a long hard week to help boost me and rejuvenate me again!!

Work wise, not gonna lie this week was a little rough.  We had like 4 really awesome investigators drop us out of the blue. We were stoked to go to their house and they said “We read your pamphlet a lot and talked as a family about it and it just isn't for us. We want to continue with the Catholic Faith”. We were devastated because we have been meeting with them for a while. We invited them to pray about it and we told them they have our number if they ever have questions but there isn't much we could do :(

On the bright side, MALEN CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!! She is going to get baptized on the 26th of May!! We are so excited. We've already taught her all the lessons as well. Now we just need to prepare her for the interview! It's gonna be awesome!

We also went to the Zone Leaders house to help them paint the inside of their apartment on Thursday and then when we finished they said we can go get something to eat at mundosalad with them which is super good! I love our Zone Leaders.

Funny Stories:

1. There were a couple funny stories this week. I'll start with the funniest one. Probably one of the funniest moments of my mission. We were in a lesson on Saturday morning with a man named Juan Gonzalo. So he invited us into his backyard where we had a table and chairs to sit at. We started talking about church and who we were because he said he talked to Elders before but he thought we were Jehovah Witness (everyone does). So we explained to him we weren't and he was relieved and willing to listen to us haha. So we were sitting in his backyard, and he says wait here I'm gonna go get some breakfast.  He comes out with a big jar of weed and some paper to roll it. He cuts up the weed and rolls the joint right in front of us and starts smoking it… He said “this is the best breakfast there is”. He offered us some but we had to refuse of course haha. We continued with the lesson because he was a super cool and funny guy who wanted to learn more. It was actually a super awesome lesson (probably because he was so relaxed) But we will have talk to him about his choice of breakfast later haha.
2. I was walking in the street whistling a song and something copied me super loudly. I thought it was my comp but we look to our right and there was a green parrot sitting there. There are parrots everywhere here but I've never had one copy me. So we stopped and whistled some more and it copied everything haha. I wish i had my camera :(
3. We were contacting a house and see a lady and a little kid in the window. We make eye contact and wave at the lady through the window. After about 2 minutes the kid answers the door and says his parents aren't home. I was like “we just saw them haha” but he just laughed and closed the door.

I love this gospel and i know without a doubt that it is true. I love being able to represent my savior every single day. Hope everyone is sharing the gospel and helping the missionaries!! Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Tanner

I'm Thinking About It: Week 38

Hola! Como le van todos?! This week was another amazing week in the mission! We worked super hard and had tons of fun!

On Tuesday we had a district meeting! We got a new Zone Leader (Elder Gonzalez from Mexico) and he is awesome. We knew each other in Tandil and he just became a zone leader. Last week on P-day we got to go play soccer with the ZL's (Zone leaders)W and a bunch of members it was super fun!

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Beatriz whose husband is still thinking about getting married. He went from saying “no” to “I'm thinking about it” so we are happy with that. Slow progress haha But she taught us how to make torta fritas and they were super good with dulce de leche on them! So it's a win.

Malen finally came to church for the first time!! Now all she needs is to come one more time and she can be baptized! We were stoked. We went early to go wake them up, but surprisingly they were already ready so we just walked with them! It was awesome!

We got to do divisions on Saturday and I was with the DL Elder Smith, from Blackfoot Idaho (shout out to the Hansen's our Idaho cousins) idk how far that is from Rupert but he said it was a small town haha He's a little different than me but it was still fun haha Divisions are always nice to just get someone new for the day. And there's always more to talk about.

I wanna bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon! If you haven't read it, read it!! It's so true! And because the Book of Mormon is true, the Church of Jesus Christ is true as well! We read the introduction with one of our investigators and it talks about the promise and how if we read it and pray about it we will receive an answer. And it goes on to say that if The Book of Mormon is true then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the ONLY true church here on the earth. I challenge everyone to read the intro of the Book of Mormon this week because a lot of times we just skip it. Love you all!! Have a great week!!

• Elder Tanner