Mission Week 92, Tacna Peru; "PEACE".

This week was fairly interesting. I was sick for a part of it but I got over it fast. It was actually the Christmas dinner that made me sick and after that I ate Ricotto Relleno which would usually make my stomach worse but my companion told me to do it with the faith that it would make me better. I just kept on telling myself that it would make me better and with a positive mentality I got better while eating a pretty heavy dish.
This sunday I gave a talk on the message from the first presidency from this month. I enjoyed preparing myself for the talk I used a few scriptures from John. The explanation of peace is amazing and how Jesus gives us a peace that no one else can. How a firm confidince in his plan and in obeying the commandments can bring us more peace that a full wallet and a full stomach. That is just one of the fruits of the spirit. I have decided to look and develop everysingle one of these fruits of the spirit found in galations 5 this week. I hope that I can gain a stronger testimony of each and everyone of them.
Our investigators keep on progressing. We are excited to see them take thier leaps of faith in these days. Last week we all had very spiritual experiences and we were able to feel such a strong spirit and this week we really focused on committing them to act according to their feelings. We will see the results this week and I wait for them zealously.

I have a two months left in the mission. I have many plans and goals that I will accomplish in that time, Moreover I would like your opinion on the goals I have set and I would like you to help me set more. Here are some of the goals that I have planned,

1. Learn to testify in Ayamara or Quechua

​ (native language here in south america)​

and use it to help convert someone who does not speak spanish.

2. Have a healthy Diet and gain 5 Kilos.

3. Raise church attendance in the ward I am in by 20.

4. Read the Book of Mormon in the two weeks I have left while contemplating the way I have used it in the mission and how I can better that usage int he time I have left.

5. Serve my companion daily.

6. Be more spiritual in my letters that I write home. Help my family feel converted through the things I write.


Elder Tanner

Mission Week 90 & 91, Tacna Peru "One SOL"

 12/12

Another good week. It was hard to get in doors for lessons but with a some phone calls and text messages we got enough investigators to go to church. There are a few of those investigators that we want to teach and they tell us, no I just want to go to church. A little frustrating but no one ever said that the investigators would come easily. I hope that we through fasting and prayer the lord can soften their hearts or we can find the "KEY" that will get us in the door and the spirit in their hearts.

I miss being with Elder Velasquez. He is an excellent missionary. We are still living together. Its a little strange. Everyday with Elder Velasquez was a Day where you got home and you felt absolutely drained. So many spiritual experiences and surprises at every turn. Elder Cleverly is a fantastic Elder too. I do not know him quite as well but we have a much more compatible way of teaching and I can feel the spirit so strong its like it is shooting out of our fingers like it says in Preach my gospel. The weight of the zone is not the same. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to learn. It was amazing to see how the lord can fix everything and we only play a small part. He is everything. He can do everything. Sometimes all we have to do is be present and he will do the rest. Sometimes we he lets us fail so we can learn.

This was an experience from last week that I wanted to share.

Fast and testimony meeting the Bishops councilor started by talking about the example of a sister in the ward who was going to go to the temple. She had so little but she always saved enough to go to the temple. This sister was an older woman who sold juice in a market she said that she did not make much money in fact it was practically nothing. That all that was left after she had bought food and necessary items was a sol. ONE SOL. She would take that sol from everyday and put it in a jar that was saved for the temple. Every year she would go to the bishop and say bishop here it is and she would always have enough to go to the temple including a little extra that would go to help others. A few testimonies later that same woman stood up and gave the most simple and sincere testimony. She said,"the temple is a good place. It is Beautiful and I like it. I like it and the lord likes it to. He is happy that I am there. That is why he gives me extra so I can go". I could not stop thinking about the humility and example of faith in that woman. She saves 33 cents daily so she can go to the temple. What more can we give? I am making goals of more things that I want to give during the mission and after the mission. 

12/5

Whew I had a few things that I wanted to write you but today was the hard day. Changes.... I am staying in my area but I will have a new companion Elder Velasquez is going to another ward in the stake but they are splitting the zone. I have half of the zone in the larger of the three stakes. It will be a lot easier to manage. Elder Cleverly is my companion. He should be getting here soon. I am feeling really wiped out. Yesterday we readied a room and that was not the funnest. We were painting for over an hour. I loved the Christmas devotional. I should have a few minutes more to write

Today was changes. We had to send over half the zone. Imagine trying to get over fifteen missionaries on three different buses in two different terminals.... I was fairly agitated and I yelled at a member. He wanted to call me and give me a hard time and I was just not taking it while trying to make sure elders did not lose their buses. During changes I cannot describe how much less stressful the sisters are. They are mature, they get to the terminal on time. they do not complain. they dont give me problems. I would love to thank and urge all sisters to go on a mission. They have such a strong presence int eh mission.

Mission Week 89, Tacna Peru "Prudent and Simple"

We had a baptismal date for this Saturday but the investigator, Raquel, did not feel to good about choosing between god and her family. It was a really hard moment it was the first time that Elder Velasquez and I had ever gotten back to the room and just thrown ourselves in bed without changing brushing our teeth. It was a pretty hard moment but we bounced back even stronger. With the determination that God is preparing people for us and we need to find them.

 This week was good. I feel like there are many things to do in Tacna and with the determination that Elder Velasquez and I have we will keep on doing it. I feel like some of the Elders feel comfortable being outside of Arequipa, we have taken the initiative to see how there studies are going and take time to talk with them one on one. It has been a great opportunity to solve problems have companionship inventories and show the Elders that we are more than just a digital audio recording device. This week I read a scripture that I love and until this day I have not been able to stop thinking about it.

Mateo 10:
16 He aquí, yo os envío como a ovejas en medio de lobos; sed, pues, prudentes como serpientes y sencillos como palomas.

The lord sends us like sheep between wolves. I have seen the importance of Permanecen Juntos SIEMPRE. What is one sheep all by itself going to do between a lot of wolves. I cannot imagine it getting very far. The lord promises us protection and success when we are obedient. We must be prudent and simple. Many times, as missionaries, we try to complicate the gospel and we are blinded by confidence. We believe that we can trust in ourselves more than the spirit but the gospel is simple.

Mission Week 88, Tacna Peru; "trying to bathe a cat"

Today we had an excelent companionship study where we talked about how we could improve our teaching methods and use of time. We concluded with us needing to be more focused on those who were prepared by god to recieve us. Many Missionaries in Tacna believe that we must prepare and teach our investigators and help them to find their testimony, however, Preach my Gospel teaches us to FIND, TEACH, INVITE. That is all we can do. Preach my gospel does NOT say that we must force the spirit into someones life by teaching them OVER and OVER and OVER AGAIN. We must be effecient Missionaries and the lord will to the preparing we just need to do the Finding the Teaching and the Inviting. This last week we found Three people ready to baptize. THEY WERE PREPARED BY THE LORD and all we had to do was find them. I know that The Gospel Changes lives but if we continue to  teach people who are not prepared it would be like trying to bathe a cat. You might be able to do it, but the likelyhood of that happening is a lot better when we work with the will of God. The gospel is like a river. We need to help every that wants to go with it. Some people might be already trying to go with the flow of the gospel but they are tangeled in reeds of doubt. Others are actively marching upstring. We must help those who let us help. 

Elder Tanner

Mission Week 87, Tacna Peru {Chased by an addict; font overfloweth; needle in a hay stack.}

This week has been much smoother than the last. The last week had me at the end of my patience but I now know that god listens and answers prayers not in our own time but in his time. He knows our weaknesses and our strengths and he is going to push us to our breaking point and then give us all that we need. This week we had a few notable things happen.

1. I was shouted at and chased by a drug addict from Brazil. He was yelling a lot of different words and the best part was that it was in Portuguese and I did not understand anything.

2. We had lessons set up with a family that we really want to help but they rejected us three times.

3. We had meetings with two of the stakes and because of the holiday no stake is having it at the same time.

5. after the church meeting on Sunday we had a crazy guy who is also famous come to the church. He started yelling and saying that these are my brothers from the one and only true church. People say that he is crazy but that he is also extremely intelligent!

4. We prepped the baptismal font for a baptism. Usually the fonts take around three hours to fill and when they do they have a run off pipe that keeps them from overflowing. Little did we know that the font in the arias araguez building fills faster than the run off pipe lets water out. We started filling and thought that it would at least take a few hours to fill and we left to go make a payment. When we cam back to the church we found water in the entire floor of the church. It somehow had managed to make it into the entire sacrament room and cultural hall but avoided the classrooms. We were extremely lucky to have caught it before it made it into the basement. We spent the fallowing two hours cleaning up all the water. During which we did not have any idea how to turn on the fans which would speed up the clean up. I said a quick prayer asking God to send me the knowledge to figure out how to turn on the fans or to send me someone who knew how to turn them on. About a half an hour into the clean up our relief society president rung the bell in the front door and asked about a certain activity that was going to take place in the church. We had no idea of the activity but we asked her how to turn on the fans in the sacrament building and she explained us the way to turn them on.

5. NEW INVESTIGATORS: this week has been an amazing week to find new investigators and we have received MANY references. I am not saying that all of them are golden investigators that are ready to be baptized in fact until Sunday night I was super happy to have the new investigators but I told my companion that all of them are going to be a lot of work. I was telling him that we have lots of new investigators and lots of work to do but I did not see much desire to learn more, However, Shortly after saying that we had a little kid run up to us and say ELDERES!!! we contacted the family. They are not members they have been going to church and they want to hear more. That was a tiny mercy of God. He was letting me know that he is going to make us look for the needle in the haystack. We are going to find a LOT of hay but that is what it is going to take to find the needle!

I am just grateful for the opportunity to be in the mission for this opportunity to serve my heavenly father and my siblings.

Mission Week 85 & 86, Tacna Peru: "I know that God lives and He loves each and everyone of us. It is the first truth of the gospel."

HEY MOM! (10/24)

Wow Stressful week full of amazing experiences. This week I was able to get through my last week alone without having another companion. President was telling me the whole change that I was going to train in the upcoming change while being a zone leader. I was on top of everything trying to prepare the rooms and getting all the things I needed, writing contracts and going to get things legalized. I almost jumped on a bus to go get a document from a really small town a few hours away. super stressful week. I was called rude by three different people who almost did not make it to their bus because I was pushing them out. INSANE WEEK!!! but its over my new companion is another Argentinian. His name is Elder Velasquez every has great comments for him

(10/31)

 This week was a good tough week. The work was a little slow. We found a lot of new people and were rejected a lot too. We had a fun time teaching a fairly stubborn family. I hope that the lord will answer there prayers and soften their hearts. When we got back there were lots of missionaries who needed things done, people waiting for us to remove the furniture out of their house. Today I became overwhelmed and was thrown into a down warding spiral of doubt, frustration, and feeling inept. I get to the point where I do not know what to do. Do I do the things that the missionaries need, or do I do something that would help me unstress. I cannot sit still knowing that other missionaries are not well because they do not have money and need reimbursements. Is there a moment where I just say I cant do it anymore and stop answering the phone calls. Maybe I am just overthinking everything. I feel bad because today it is taking a toll on my companion to see me in such an oblivious state. I feel bad but at times I do not know how to react and rather than getting angry its just easier to literally let everything go mentally.

What is it that you do when you cannot feel like you can complete all the things you have to do?

Some of the sacrifices that I want to make for this week in November are...

1. Smile all the time. I guess you could take this as maintaining a positive state of mind even when passing through difficulties.

My companion and I went to one of the ward activities and as we walked into the activity we could both feel the spirit slowly dwindling away. After sitting through the most uncomfortable 45 minutes of my mission we left the activity. As we silently walked up the road from the church I talked with my companion. I asked him if he could feel the spirit in the activity and he told me that he did not feel it at all. It was a strange feeling of emptiness that I have yet been able to shake. I worry a lot about the Esperanza Ward. La Florida is doing great we have been finding new investigators asking for references and receiving new work. This upcoming month will be a fruitful month.

I hope that I can shake this feeling of doubt and inability.

Elder Tanner

After Five minutes of sitting and almost crying in a public internet cafe president gave me a call. He just gave me a pep talk and helped boost my mood. God answers our prayers!

I love you. I want you to know that in the hardest times of my mission and the hardest times of my life I have always depended on the testimony of you and Dad. I know that the promise of alma is true. In alma 37:16-17 we learn the importance of being obedient. If we are obedient nothing in hell or on earth can take away the blessings of the lord. I know that this is true not because I have participated it first hand but I have seen the blessings that my parents have received. In the mission I have seen Elders go home because they doubt. I know that God lives and He loves each and everyone of us. It is the first truth of the gospel. There is no way that out of two hundred letters to president he read mine out of chance and new that he had to call me. I Know god has a divine path for each and everyone of us. Sometimes we need to do hard things with him to be able to help others. I love you Mom. Thank you for your testimony always!

Elder Tanner

Mission Week 84, Tacna Peru: "Dedication, Devotion, Allegiance."

"Gopher Everett?"

Gray Hair or just dust?

This week was a good week. The zone had success. We Ended this week with 6 confirmations and 7 rescues. We still have room to improve. The Tacna district seems to be having a few bumps in the road. Elder Barrientos is trying to do all he got here this week in an emergency change and he will go home this week too. The Missionaries in the Alameda District are having lots of success. This week we will do divisions with Elder Senden and we will have a good day contacting with lots of spanish practice. 

Compromiso. While pondering you letter I thought about the things that I needed to do to become a more committed missionary. While looking for synonyms to commitment I found the fallowing word. Dedication, devotion, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness and fidelity. What mission president would not want missionaries with these actualities? I feel like I would shout with joy if our investigators were a little more dedicated to their scripture study. What would any missionary do to have liders devoted to The Mission Work. I know many missionaries that long to have a more loyal companion. I feel like there are so many ways we can improve our commitment to the mission. 

 I feel like before the mission we were all spiritually unformed. We all we starting our lives and starting to understand our purpose in life but we there was something that was missing.  A lot of times when a person needs to get in shape physically they go on a diet and they stop eating and drinking things that are not bad, but at this time they are not absolutely necessary. The mission is a diet of our lives. For two years our heavenly father is ready to shape us spiritual. The commitment to this spiritual diet will effect the results for the rest of our lives. I will be putting goals down and looking for new opportunities to become a more committed missionary. Thank you president.