May 30 2016

You had a much crazier week then I had... alcohol bottle through the windscreen, call form Lethbrigde Alberta Canada, summer break, and teaching youth conference. 

I thought that was really funny dad when you were teaching and you got that call, I thought that might happen, but you have also been getting a few calls and texts from Canada. It is also kinda funny because that happens to us when he calls. The call drops and it’s hard to hear etc. We thought it was our phone for a while but now it sounds like his phone is the problem. I’m glad that you got that box of goodies. That is all Canadian candy. I wanted to send some Tim Tams but I found them a few days after Johno left. I will have to send that some time. They are way too good!  

Last week from today on Pday we did some fun things with our WML. We went drifting. He has a Nissan 300zx twin turbo. He took us drifting on this pad. That was alot of fun! I have a few videos of it I will have to show them to you later. There is alot of power behind those cars. Dad I think that you would have liked to be in the car. 

Right after that, we had a lesson with Ferne. We taught the lesson at the same members’ house again. We got there before Ferne did. Much to my surprise Ferne came, her daughter came, and also her granddaughter! There were 5 members in that lesson. That is a little much to have that many members in one lesson but the lesson went really well, and it was well controlled. 

So I guess if we were to chalk our numbers we could say that we had 5 member present lessons just on Monday. hahha!    

Our ward had an FHE activity on Tuesday, and we had a really good turn out. We taught the lesson, which was pretty easy. It was on Love One Another. We had a handful of members and 9 non members show up. One of them was Ferne. 

We have  been having a Romanian mom named Valley and her daughter come to church every Sunday for the past 3-4 months. They are not members. They come to all three hours of church. We have given Valley a Romanian Book of Mormon, Pamphlets, and a Gospel Principles book. They speak okay English, but its hard for them to understand. That is why we are not able to teach them. Valley said that she understands English better when she comes to our Church. 

Valley came with her husband and daughter to that FHE activity. I saw them and went up to say hi. I noticed that Daniel (Valleys husband) had a really cool watch on. I told him that I like his watch and asked if it was a Citizen watch, and he said yes and showed me the watch. I asked if it was a Blue Angels Citizen watch and he replied with a yes. He speaks good English we talked about watches for a while and what he does for work. He is a semi truck driver. It was nice to have something to talk about right when I said hi, since we both like watches. haha

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders last week. 

When we got out of an appointment with a less active, which went really well by the way, we got a missed call from the ward clerk saying that there was an urgent move and the people were not members and they had to be out that night because they were being evicted. We were able to help out with that for a bit. They were really thankful for the help that they received. 

We got permission from President to go to the Stake Man Camp/Fathers and Sons just for Friday. That was so fun to go to! I really miss things like that. I miss camping and fathers and sons camps. They had a lot more show up then they planned for and they ran out of food. Someone had to drive to the store and buy some more food. We were not able to stay for the fireside nor the night but it was good to be there for that short while. 

We are going to teach Ferne again tonight. Looking forward to that. 

Love you all.

May 23 2016

Prayers have been answered here. We have been praying and fasting for rain, here and up north where the massive fire is. It has been raining for the past 3 days! I love the rain, its not pouring rain but its a light rain, good enough for the crops to get water, and to wash the car. 

We had a good week. We have a new investigator, and we are teaching her tonight. She is older and good friends with some members. We had dinner twice at their house. The second time we shared the first lesson and she (Ferne) liked it. She had a granddaughter who served a mission. Ferne has two copies of the Book of Mormon with testimonies of her grandchildren in it, so she has had some contact with the Church, and she has accepted to let us teach her. She has had very little questions. Any question she asked was answerable, of course. 

We have not been able to get in contact with Donna for awhile. I was thinking about her and that we need to call her at the beginning of the week and when I thought that, the phone rang. It was her! She heard that Todd, her son-in-law, the one that we did the smoking program with was 9-10 days smoke free! She called us and said that she wants this program. On Friday we taught her the stop smoking workshop and she is committed and is on her way to be a non-smoker. Its really fun to teach it and best of all to see the success that comes from it and to see someone overcome the addiction of cigarettes. 

Tomorrow we have this ward FHE activity. I think they did this same activity 6-7 months ago and it was a success, so tomorrow we are doing it again, we are teaching the lesson. 

We are having another apostle come to this mission. President Nelson is coming here on June 11. I’m looking forward to that. 

Yesterday in Church Grant came with his wife, which was perfect! The talks given were exactly what she needed to hear. I’m glad that she did not have work and that she came, because she needed to hear what the speaker was saying. 

Love you all 

May 16 2016

Because of the fire up north in Fort MacMurry, we had a mission fast. We fasted for those who lost their homes, for those fighting the fires, and for rain. Much needed rain. They reported that the fire was not acting naturally, meaning that the fire was not behaving like any other naturally caused fire. We have a less active member in the ward, whose son fights fires for a living. He said that no man is going to put out this fire. Only a higher power is going to put this out. 

This fire is big, 200+ feet high, jumping rivers and roads. Some houses and the LDS Church building were left untouched. It was recorded that only 30% of the town was destroyed, which is a small number looking at how big the fire was and how much it could have done. Elder Spackman (area 70 friend from Calgary) issued a province wide fast for rain. We fasted, and lots and lots of other people fasted. Fort MacMurry received rain! It rained there and it also rained here! 

When we gather in fasting and prayer the Lord hears and is quick to act. Just like the summer of 2009 or 10 or 11 or 8. We had a stake fast because of the lack of water received.  We fasted and rain came down. 

We had another zone conference last week in Cardston. The whole south part of the mission was there, so there was about 100 missionaries there. We all went to the temple. When we came out of the temple it was snowing! It was snowing hard, huge falling flakes of snow and it was sticking! Cardston ended up getting about a foot and half of snow in May. 

After the temple they fed us some Costa Vida salad which was so so good! At the zone conference we had a discussion about the atonement and a testimony meeting. That was very nice. 

President Miles said that we will have another opportunity to have another apostle come to the mission and the whole mission will be able to go! He would not tell us which apostle is coming, but he did say that if there was any apostle coming, this is the one the you want! We just had an apostle come to this mission 2 months ago. I guess they just can’t get enough of me. They just all want to meet me and shake my hand! Hahaha. But that won't be happening till June 11. 

The only thing that we can think of to explain why this is happening again so soon, (besides them wanting to meet me), is maybe we will be getting iPads. They will roll them out after I get home! That’s how it works. It would have been so much easier and better to teach with an iPad than with books, and USB. 

We shall see what happens......  

The next day I went on exchanges with a homie in the district. We had so much fun. We are going home together. We found a new investigator for their area. That was really cool. We knocked on this door that we got as a referral. His name is Chris. Chris's parents were there working on his house that he rented to some people. They did not take good care of his house. When we knocked on the door his parents were kind of stand offish a bit. They were probably taken back when they saw two good looking men on the doorstep. Hahahha. But we were able to get a hold of their son and 20 minutes later we helped him move some big things into his house. Chris's parents were so happy and they opened up more. They told Chris in front of us before we left, that he needs to listen to us. He needs to join the Church. He needs it in his life, and it will change him for the better. Chris said “I know.” They are from Hong Kong. 

After we helped him we found a park and talked to him and helped him more. He has met with missionaries before and almost got baptized, but he had a pending charge, so he was not able to get baptized then. 

Here it was a really slow week. We were not able to meet with as many people as we wanted. Numbers were low, but hopefully that will change this week. 

Tanner, keep an eye out for an Elder Drew Rollins in your mission. He speaks Spanish and he just might be training you. 

Thank you for the emails and the prayers.  

May 2 2016

Greetings! 

It is hard to believe that it is May. May is one of my favorite months because its spring, the weather is nice, and also because May is the easiest month to spell! ;) And Mothers Day is this Sunday! We will be Skype-ing on Sunday at the members we live with. They have Skype so this time we will give Skype a go, instead of Facetime. Also their internet is pretty good so I will be able to see all of your smiling face. You may, however, not be able to see mine because of the server....   Naaa I’m just kidding. Everything should work out. We have church at 09:30 so expect a call at abouts 14:00. I really, really am looking froward to seeing all of you! If more family is able to be there then the better. This is my last time calling home! I think that is crazy to think about, because I will see all of you 2 months later. 

So last week I got my trunky call from the mission office. That was weird. They asked me what airport I want to fly to. I told them to fly me to Hawaii and then to Florida and then Salt Lake City. They thought that was funny and that it most likely will not happen. So they are going to send me to SLC. They also asked who my stake president was, I did not know so I had them call you. What number did they call? I thought it would be funny to have an Alberta number call home like it surprised you when Bishop Galbrath called last year. 

This week we were able to help with some service for a non-member. We helped her move. We provided the manpower, and the truck and the trailer. We got there before all of that and we sat and visited for a while. I asked her what she was doing tomorrow at 9:30 (this being Saturday) she replied, “Nothing. Why?” I told her that she should come to church with us. She said that was a good idea, 

and that she would come... Next day Sacrament starts and she does not show up, for the whole time. I will give her the benefit of a doubt that she was too tired because of the move..... The member that we live with works at the hospital. She says that she knows her and that she is a regular at the hospital. I guess I'm not the only crazy one in Claresholm.. haha 

We also helped lay sod. That’s fun. It is also an art. The members we helped lay sod have 2 German shepherd’s. They love me!  One of them is about to have puppies. I will be bringing one of them home with me as a Canadian present for Harvey. 

We had a lesson with Todd & Candence... they basically dropped us. They are happy where they are, and a living prophet is kind of a struggle for them. But Todd has expressed that he wants to quit smoking. We have just the thing for that: The 15 step stop smoking program. He said that he is willing to give it a try. We will be meeting with him on Wednesday. Tanner, this smoking program will be a huge help for you on your mission. I’m sure your mission already has it but I will give you a copy anyways. 

We met with Grant last week. He is doing well. We were not able to meet with Donna. We called her but she was not home. We will call again... 

Yesterday I got a taste of what you, Mom and Dad will be going through when you teach primary. We were asked to teach the 7 year olds. All I’m going to say is that I’m glad that my investigators do not act like they do. 

Well, I'll see you on Sunday! 

Love you all  

April 25 2016

When I sent that box down I was not sending all of that just for Callie. There are some things in there that are for you boys. I just did not write your names on them. I want to send another box of other Canadian things for you like Canada shirts. I don’t really like the normal white ones from the MTC. Whenever we get to a Wal-Mart I will see if I can get some. We do not have a Wal-Mart here.

I was not transferred. I’m staying in Claresholm. 

We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Donna. We taught her at her house, with a member. That was a really good lesson. Having a member with you makes all of the difference. That is why as a mission we try to have 100% member present lessons. We also had another lesson with Donna the same week, but we taught it at the Church, which is a wonderful teaching environment. 

This week the sisters in an area found someone to teach. He really wants to change and he knows how to change. Only thing is, it was hard for him and the thing that he was dealing with is something that no one wants to deal with. Anyway we were able to help with that. We got a transfer call that same night. Elder Panter is gone. He’s in Lethbridge West. My new comp is Elder Tanner Smith, from Roy, Utah. You probably already saw him in that text that our ward mission leader sent you.

We had two choir concerts this week. One on Thursday, one on Sunday. Both of them were at the Catholic Church. Elder Panter was able to get special permission from President to come back to this area after transfers and sing in the choir, our bishop called President and asked him, and Bishop drove to Lethbridge to pick him up.

The concert went really well! I will be getting a CD of it so you will be able to hear the songs. On the Sunday concert, President and Sister Miles came to it. He was planning on coming, so a few days before the concert I texted him and asked if we should get tickets. He said that there may not be enough time because of the meetings after stake conference. He called us before stake conference and he said that he was coming. Our ward mission leader already had tickets for him. That was really cool to see him there, even though I was the only missionary there. We also have about 3-4 members in the choir as well. I still can't sing..  

It was cool to see President there.   

   
We had stake conference last week. I went to both Saturday and Sunday. It was really, really good. President spoke, and also Elder Spackman. He is an area 70, I’m pretty good friends with him. I've known him from past areas and I worked with his brother who is a Stake President. Because I’m good friends with Elder Spackman maybe he will be able to get me good seats for the Priesthood session in October. haha 

Some of the things that I liked that were talked about in stake conference are:

To have family scripture study, family prayer, personal scripture study, and personal prayer. 

-Think of an hourglass, the top part is Heaven, the bottom is Earth, the center of the hourglass is the Temple. The Temple is the only thing that will connect heaven and earth. Temple attendance is very important. Also family history. They talked a lot about that, which is true! There are a lot of people in the world that sacrifice so so much to go to the temple. Here all we do is drive 5-40 minutes to go to the temple. 

This was also mentioned in Stake Conference. There was a study done showing it takes the average person 7 times to be invited to hear about the gospel. When we invite and are turned down with a no, that’s okay. We cannot always be number 7. We could have been number 4 or 5 or 6 or even number 1. The more we invite, the better of an opportunity and chance there is that they will say yes to the next person.  

We have been getting some rain, which is really good. We need rain here. The farmers need it too. 

I love you all !