Mission Week 98, Umacollo Peru; "Plant good habits in the mission and cultivate them at home."

The mission no longer has weekly indicator of lessons they only count the following Baptisms confirmations, New investigators baptismal dates and church assistance.

This week has been great. I have noticed that with the new indicators we can really focus on our goal as missionaries. Before sometimes I stressed over the goals for lessons in a day. Sometimes as a missionary I found myself teaching ineffective lessons just to complete the goal. I understand that Lessons are still a key part of the progress of the investigators and we will always teach lessons but now we are not focused on teaching lessons for the simple fact that we teach lessons. I was talking with Elder Mendoza about it this week. We talked about how one of the companionship's in our zone had always had so many lessons every single week back to back there numbers were huge, However for the last few months none of their many investigators who have baptismal dates had NOT entered into the covenant of baptism. We could teach more than 30 or 40 lessons in a week and I am sure we would be feeling great and loving the opportunity to teach HOWEVER if none of our goals for the month become baptized, Were those 40 or 50 Lessons very effective? No. With the new indicators we are really focusing on finding people and with the spirit getting them to the faunt. I love the new indicators and we have found that they help us to focus on those who are willing to progress and not teach those who are only ready to Listen.

This week we had a lot of fun teaching more people and focusing on the spirit. We have been looking for the people who are willing to progress. It was amazing to see how focusing more on the needs of people and the spirit helped all of them keep their commitment to go to church.

The gospel is true and I love it. I will not stop sharing it. I loved what the mission council talked about in terms of applying the mission after returning home. Plant good habits in the mission and cultivate them at home. That is definately my plan!

ALSO!!!! We had an investigator named Benancio go to church for the second time and the ward mission was talking about Priesthood and how a worthy holder must pay tithing. Our investigator went to the bishop and told him that he needed to teach him how to pay tithing and HE PAID TITHING!!! He is an investigator and he is paying tithing! I could not believe it. An amazing sunday.

Elder Tanner

Mission Week 96 & 97, Umacollo Peru; "Do we have a Dog?" "Last Transfer"!!

1/17/2017

MOM!!! :D Love you so much I got changed back to arequipa. Was on a long bus ride and did not have any time to write. I will get you more details and photos next week. I am in the UMACOLLO stake with Elder Mendoza! He is from Bolivia! We are going to have lots of fun we are zone leaders of two Large stakes. The office is in the zone! I am really close to umacollo! Love you tons mom!!!! QUESTION: ¿Do we have a DOG?😲

1/23/2017

So this week has been a little bit to take on. For the first few days I felt like I was underwater. The stress and the anxiety got me so worked up I could not understand what was being said in the lessons and my Spanish stopped working. Elder Mendoza is a great missionary but there are a few character traits that make him a very unique companion. He is a very timid and shy. I have been working on gaining his confidence and helping him to get to know a little bit more about being a zone leader. He lacks a lot of basic social skills that many of my other companions have had.  He is an only child and he and his mom are the only converts in their family. He is fairly relaxed with the missionaries and hard on the investigators. I went through a few panic attacks but I think I can help Elder Mendoza with the zone.
The biggest difficulty and frustration that I have had with the zone is not knowing anything. It has been a large part that gets my spirits down because I would like to do exactly what I did in Tacna with Elder Velasquez or Elder Cleverly but its not the same. I love the missionaries in Tacna. I am new and I have yet to develop a relationship with the Elders Here but that just means I will have to try that much harder with the time I have. I also still do not know how to treat the Elders in the office thats an enigma but we will present you the idea when we go to visit you for interviews!

Mission Week 95, Tacna Peru "Opportunities to serve and love"

 Monday Jan 9, 2017

We cannot compare ourselves to others. The mission is not a competition. When we start to compete against others in our mission we put a limit to the blessings that we want to receive from God. A long distance runner always competes against himself comparing old and new times looking for ways to improve his performance.  If a Long distance runner stops focusing on his goals and focus himself on others he might sacrifice his own progress and become satisfied with being faster than another runner when in reality he could not only beat the other runner but many more.
I loved the message about comparing resulting in Pride or discouragement.  In talk of President Leguia he shared about a parent correcting a child and said that God corrects us.  He has two sons, one who he saw was loosing his way; with tears in his eyes he expressed his love for his wayward child but still longed for him to come back to the gospel.  God does not want to discourage us.  He loves us and will correct us but does not want to discourage us.  I have seen many runners who become satisfied with less than their full potential because they compare themselves with other runners.  Many times we as missionaries see baptisms or leadership positions as a form of recognition.  They are wrong.  It gives us opportunities to serve and love.

-Elder Tanner

Mission Week 93 & 94; Tacna Peru "The Lord has a plan"

12/26

Something that I recognized this week was that we have one purpose on the mission. Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. Elder Sorias conversion story was definitely a huge example to me of someone who fulfilled his missionary purpose and a mom dedicated to the lord. Elder Sorias brother passed away on the mission. When a ward member broke the news to his mom she screamed out of agony and fell to her knees and prayed. She must have prayed more than an hour when she stood up and said "I know and trust in the lord. If it was his will to take my son let it be. I have four more children that need to send on a mission as well." I was blown away by the faith and trust in god that this woman had. The first thing that she does after hearing about her sons death is testify of the will of god and promise to send her other children. Neither she herself or any of her other children at that time were members. After the news of their sons death the family soria quickly converted to the church and made a long and hard journey to become sealed in the temple. Even though their son passed away on his mission he fulfilled his purpose as a missionary for his own family. I know that the Lord has a plan and he will never waste our efforts on the mission and we will always receive the rewards of our efforts, we may not see them but the blessings come and they last forever.

1/02/2017

Hey mom here are the baptisms and funny photos. If you look at me and my companion in the street its called colon street!!!}