Elder Tanner

Elder Tanner

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Mission week 37, Arequipa


We had BISCUITS AND GRAVY!!! :D
 
 
Here is my desk and the view that I have of Arequipa!

 




 

We have three baptisms today also I finished my training and I am officially the new fully trained financial secretary!

I am doing good I have about three minutes before we leave and I just finished 9 CAJAS :D

I am keeping super busy we have more missionary work than I have ever had before and we only have about 3 hours to do it. The only other time we have we are doing paper work. I have been working on closing the year with all the missions finances... Not fun... also renewing the contracts that we have with the office and the apartment where we live... My testimony has been growing and I am looking forward to Christmas! Although I cannot send the package home, also I cannot receive packages. The Post is on strike in Arequipa and close areas. It costs about $50 to send a single page letter it would cost upwards of $300 to send the package for Christmas, luckily people in the ward often go to the states and I could probably send it with one of them! I will let you know how it goes love you bye!


Monday, November 23, 2015

Mission Week 36, Arequipa


I do not live in the mission Home... I live in an apartment with six missionaries. The apartment is about the same size as Bensons and Kaitlyns apartment. Its only one floor but its big. The mission home is fairly nice. It has lots of rooms and its not huge but the landscaping is beautiful. I have only been there twice in two weeks but Elder Carter says we go every now and then. I would have to say the nicest thing about being in the office is the office. Its on the seventh floor in one of the nicest buildings in Arequipa! Okay maybe not the nicest building but I have an awesome view of the city from my desk. Arequipa reminds me a little of Treasure Valley except its much more arid and concentrated.

I am the Financial secretary. I am in charge of finding solutions to all problems with money:
  1.  I make sure that all the missionaries in the mission have enough money to get through the month. I also revise and reimburse the costs of all the zones and their activities. The mission will pay for some of the activities that the missionaries do. They have to call me and make sure that the mission will reimburse their activity. I also get tons of receipts from all the ten zones in the mission, I have to archive them and send money to the zones through the Zone Leaders cards.
  2. I am in direct contact with president and I make purchases for the whole mission and leaving and coming missionaries. For example President comes in and says I want Christmas hats for every single missionary in the mission get it done. I have to create a budget and get them bought through whatever means possible. I also buy food for the mission house. Basically when president needs something done that has anything to do with money he goes to me.
  3. Pancho and Obispito: Pancho and Obispito are two Men who work for the mission. Everyone in Arequipa knows them. They are registered as taxi drivers but they deliver water, they make hospital appointments, they take missionaries to and from places. They always help us out in the office with making deliveries and I will often times send them with a budget to go purchase things

Thats mostly all of my responsibilities but I have to keep track of everything and its one hundred percent problem solving, I am still just a missionary.
I wake up and have a normal missionary schedule until 10:00 AM. At that time most missionaries leave. I go to the office. I am working in the office from 10:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon and then we leave to go teaching.

Yes I do still have an area. I work in the Umacollo ward and its amazing. It has about 200 active members which is a large increas from the 50 and 30 from my previous wards. The bishop is awesome and we have tons of progressing investigators. I am super sad because There is so much potential and we have to go to the office. It gives us tons of incentive to get our office work done so we can go leave during the day. 
 
We do have Pdays, because we just stay in the office and write family and then do things to help the rest of the week go along more smoothy instead of going to the beach or playing football with tons of missionaries. So we do have a P-day do we do much on P-day no ..
 
Arequipa is expensive but Now I am in an area where I can go the mall! I CAN GET ANYTHING I WANT!!!
 
I was being trained by Elder Carter all the time! I am still super overwhelmed but I have learned a ton and I am going to try to help the mission in whatever way possible.
love Elder Tanner
 

 

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Mission Week 35, Arequipa: Mission Home

Big Changes happened and I am extremely overwhelmed but still keeping my head.


This Wednesday I got a call about my investigator who needed an interview however I was talking with the financial secretary Elder Carter. He asked me If I knew who he was... I did not and He told me who he was and said that I had an Emergency Change and I needed to be in the office the next day to start my training to replace him as the New Financial Secretary. I kinda said something to mom about how I would probably be skyping from the house In tacna unless I got a change or I was Called to the office to replace Elder Carter, I was completely joking. When He called me I was on the bus and almost started crying. 
 

This is going to be super hard and super challenging however it will be possible... They called me in because of my ability to use Microsoft Excel (Thankyou dad) and other reasons. I still am getting used to Arequipa and I got here the day before my birthday. I was super upset because I came to this brand new place on my birthday and nobody knew... but I quickly figured out that I am a missionary and Birthdays are not important. I have been trained in a little bit of things but I still feel like a fish out of water! I will be writing you guys on Saturdays now because in the office we have to work on workdays. I will most likely be here for the next six months.

 
Let me know how your week has been I love you guys a ton

Monday, November 9, 2015

Mission Week 34 Pocollay

 
super good place to eat I ate ostrich and Alpaca and Cow!

This week was really slow however we are finding lots of new people and recieving tons of references! We did not do anything super spectacular or amazing but we might have a baptism next week his name is david and he has gone to church four times and he is going to get baptized however we do not know when... I have lost two kilos and I am back to 56 kilos :( Mama Luz is mad at me... She says I need to go back to moquegua. My ankle now is just a minor nuisance. I love my ward and my area! I found a child in our ward who was baptized only because He liked the elders who were teaching him... He has never read the book of Mormon.... He is a little anti social but we freaking love the kid! He lives in Pachia. Super lehos(far)!! It would be like the of star also teaching a small family in melba! That was my week! I have met amazing new people who do not know that they want to progress yet! 
 
 

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Mission Week 33 Pocollay

These are photos from Pachai and Alto Calana We have to take a thirty minute bus to get there


 
 
Pday soccer injury.