Fasting for Fechas : Week 12

TRANSFERS!!! So nothing happened with transfers today with me and my companion. But Elder Lumsden who lives in our house is leaving :( I'm super glad me and Elder Hayes are staying together though because we have had some had so many AMAZING lessons this week.

The spirit was just super strong this whole week.  We set a baptism date for the end of this month with an investigator named Jorgelina, and we set a date for new years for Claudio! His wife walked in from work and heard part of a lessons and she's pretty interested. We are gonna start teaching Claudio's whole family this week. Their work schedules are way different so it's hard to find a time. We have been teaching a man named Diego who has some addictions with drugs. Used to be bad drugs but now it's only cigarettes.  We told him about the ARP the church has and he's super excited. He really wants to change. He came to church on Sunday too and loved it! (we had 7 investigators come to church this week! 4 stayed for all 3 hours) (Fasting is real) He told us at church that after the lesson we had with him on Thursday, he tried to smoke a cigarette and his body wouldn't let him. Like it rejected him. He said he couldn't put his hand to his mouth. He's just so awesome and he keeps all our goals for him.

Halloween was last week….i think. Nobody celebrates it here at all. But me and elder Hayes bought a squash (they don't have pumpkins) and carved it. It actually turned out pretty good haha.

On Friday and Saturday i was comps with elder caballero. He's from Paraguay He speaks pretty good English but we tried to speak as much Spanish as possible haha. We did service (painted a house yellow) and taught some lessons. We got some fechas (baptism dates) with some of his investigators too. It was just an all around amazing week.

I LOVE missionary work... Its seriously so fun. Getting out of an awesome lesson, and looking at ur comp , like what just happened, is the best feeling in the world. Love you all! Thanks for all your support :)

• Elder Tanner

Robbed, Biten, and Rained On-Best Week Yet!: Week 11

Guys Satan has been trying hardcore to stop us this week. only because we had so many good lessons and some AMAZING Lessons. Claudio, one of our investigators is really progressing and we are gonna get a baptism this week. we are so excited cuz his whole fam will prob get baptized (hes the dad). He has a wife and 2 kids. 

Friday, after leaving a lesson with him i got bit in the leg by a dog. nothing major but it def hurt a little haha. i hope i don't have rabies. if i do, please do a "race for the cure" haha (the office fans will get it) 

What time is it? I DON'T KNOW I GOT MY WATCH STOLEN.... Saturday we were on our way home from another investigators house and we got robbed. They guy acted like he had a gun but he didn't. we were obedient and didn't resist. i wanted to smack him haha. He wanted our wallets and stuff to but i said no and he was like fine give me your watches and he grabbed our arms and took them. next time we are just gonna start sprinting away cuz i bet its gonna happen again.

Sunday was a nice day. We visited Claudio again but they were going to someones birthday thing so we just said hi. on our way home, It started POURING. Like a straight up shower. We were soaked and had no rain jackets or anything. We had to sprint home like 1.5 or 2 miles. Also Alejo, guy who gave me a tie had his farewell on Sunday. i gave him one of my ties too. 

We also got to do 2 service days this week. We built a roof for a member, and we helped clean up a ton of junk from an investigators house (the other elders in our houses investigator)

Honestly, even with all of that happening, this was my favorite week in the mission. The spirit was so strong in our lessons. ah i loved it. Guys the church is so true and Satan wants to stop us. But just keep doing the little things. Just read the Scriptures every day and pray! I love teaching people. my grammar is prob really bad but they still understand and the spirit is way strong. My Spanish has actually improved a lot this week. Gift of tongues is real but its not instant haha. but i am learning way faster than i thought i would. Love you all! 

- Elder Tanner

My Comp got Robbed : Week 10

Hola everyone! This week flew by... We worked our buns off haha. We got a few new awesome investigators that im super excited to teach!

last week i talked about how i was doing a Challenge to read the Book of Mormon in one week. Welp i finaihed it in 6 days and it was incredible. Like everything was so much easier to understand and more clear because everything that i read was still fresh in my mind. I thought i had a strong testimony of the BoM before but its 10x stronger now. I spiritually boosted me the whole week and i was in such a good mode this week. Even when we got rejected or lessons cancelled and stuff like that. Its impossible to read the Book of Mormon and be in a bad mood after. If any of you guys have an extra week where ur not doing much, take the challenge and do this because its awesome! 

The language is getting a little better every week. me and my comp were really good about only speaking spanish in the streets and it helps a ton!

My comp got robbed (kinda) this week. A super drunk guy started yelling at us and came up to us and grabbed the pen out of my comps shirt pocket. super weird but super funny. He only took the pen so we werent too sad about it 

I got a reputation in the ward that i eat alot. one of the members we ate with told us that haha. they made our boundries bigger so we have more people to eat with now. Super good pasta and steak and bread and milanesa and stuff like that. 

Guys the church i so true. Thats why i love being a missionary because i KNOW that i have the truth. working is so fun and brings so much happiness i just love it. Love you all!

Weirdly Awesome Week : Week 9

This week was so crazy and cool and weird all at the same time. Last P day we made choripan at home and it was super good. buuuut we all got sick from it haha we are fine now. But my comp has been super sick with like the flu so one day we couldnt work. So i studied and stuff all day which helped with the spanish at least. I gave him a blessing (in spanish) that night and in the morning he felt way better! priesthood power is real. 

At zone conference my zone was challenged to read the whole Book of Mormon in one week. We start today and im super excited! We need to read about 76 pages a day. 

Some other cool, but not as spiritual things that happened were i jumped out of a moving bus going decently fast because i couldnt get through the crowd of the bus (my comp already got off) and a lot of the times they leave the bus doors open so i jumped haha. Im okay tho so its all good. We discovered Chinos which are chinese markets where everything is wayyyy cheaper. 

A boy named Alejo who is going on a mission to mexico in 2 weeks gave me a tie with the Buenos Aires Temple stitched on it. He really wanted me to have it so i accepted it even though i felt bad because he doesnt have much. so im gonna give him a few of my ties before he leaves.

Weird Things were some random guy came up to me and my comp, grabbed my hand, put it on his head, and asked for a blessing. So i just said a quick prayer out loud and he loved it. he gave us cheek kisses (super common here)  and then left. This other crazy guy (a member) gives us garlic every day for some reason. idk why he always has garlic but he does. and one time he offered me money (which i politely refused) so he threw it at me and walked away haha. so me and my comp baught a bunch of bread with it on the way home. Also we learned that the bread is very flamible here. like if you light it it will stay lit for an hour 

Other than that the week has been going good. My Spanish is slowly improving (emphasis on the slowly haha) We taught a few lessons, and had a couple people come to church with us. No crazy big miracles this week but i always see little miracles throughout my day. I love this church and i love teaching it!

Predicad el evangelio : Week 8

Hey everyone! This week was another awesome week! Sorry I didn't send pics last time my computer wasn't working.

Last P Day was district p day! it was super fun because we got to explore downtown mar del pata and the beach and stuff (we can go to the beach in winter and spring). we also went to an amazing all you can eat pizza place. 

Tuesday - Saturday were really good too. we worked a lot and walked even more. we did the math one day and it was over 18 miles (we calculate using how many blocks we walked haha). We got a few new investigators and a couple dates for baptism. Our mission is really hard to get baptisms i guess. We are second to last in south america. but its all good cuz that was before i got here ;) haha jk we are just focusing on working hard and praying harder and we know we will be blessed. whether its planting seeds or baptizing. My comp made me contact a few doors by myself. the first few were rough but im getting a little better. I got 3 new investigators! 

Thursday was a combines zone conference with 5 zones. Preisident gave an amazing lesson on how to plan and teach more effectively. He did it all in spanish and i understood most of it so thats good. I got to see my comp from the MTC too. 

Sunday was my first real sunday here because last week was general conference. I bore my testimony (went better than expected) and met a bunch of members. We have the biggest ward in the mission with like 150 active members i believe. 

Ive been studying really hard and i made a bunch of goals to help me. I love seeing progress (even though its little by little) from the goals i keep! 

Fun fact. we dont use toilet paper here. Only Bidets. I had my worries and doubts at first but they are actually really nice and clean you way better hahaha. 

Love you all and im praying for you as well! 

-Elder Tanner