Sunday, May 22, 2011





Hey guys!!!
So Landon went off the deep end and got married eh? Poor poor lost kid haha just kidding I´m way pumped for him. Hopefully they´ll be willing to chill with this weird returned missionary when I get home.
This week was definitely an interesting one. Elder Roberts left on Monday and so Elder Sorenson and Nelson chilled with me in my sector for that day to teach some lessons. On Tuesday we were either going to have to work all in one sector and leave the other empty or have to work with a youth from the ward all day. We didn´t want to abandon a sector so I had to call around to find someone who would be willing to go out to work with me from 3:30pm to 10:00pm, but this ward is soooo tight that after my first phone call I was good to go. A kid named Freddy Díaz came out with me. He´s actually goin on a mission to Perú on June 2, so it was good for him to get a little taste of what life´s like on the mission, and he got a big taste. That day it rained and nobody let us in hahaha I’m sure that really excited him for the mission. We had a good time though and I think he learned some stuff from me. On Wednesday I couldn´t get anybody to come out with me, so I went out to Puente Ñuble with Nelson and Sorensen. The only problem that we had was that we had 2 bikes for 3 elders, sooooo I sat on this little metal plate that was welded on the back of Nelson´s bike that hangs over the back tire and held on for dear life.


We rode on the side of the highway like that for a couple of miles haha. I got pictures of it that I’ll have to send. We found this way cool river that all the Evangelicals use to baptize people and we´re thinking that we might do some baptisms out there if the people want to. We taught a few lessons and then at the end of the day we went over to visit a family who had recently been baptized to celebrate one of their kid´s birthdays. We had bought him a really nice tie as a gift, but we didn´t have anywhere to hide it, so we found this giant stuffed teddy bear that sang a song when you squeeze his hand, some girl had given it to some elder a while back as a gift (snakes!!) Anyway we took a knife and cut open the teddy bear and hid the tie inside. It was really funny to see the kid´s face when he opened his eyes and had a singing teddy bear in front of him. He just laughed, so we told him that there was a secret gift as well. He looked around for a while until he felt a tear in the back and found the tie. He was pretty pumped. We ate some good food and had a great time. The people here are freaking awesome when they allow the spirit to touch their lives and accept the gospel. There´s such an awesome bond that´s created between the missionaries and converts, and they just love us to death, and sometimes feed us to death too! I’m going to have to be more careful if I want to maintain the 6 pack that I’m starting to get back from doing sit ups everyday haha.
That night we received news that another kid in our zone was going home to have surgery on his ankle, so his comp, Elder Villanueva, came up to work with me for a couple of days. He´s a really interesting but funny kid from Argentina. HIs eye sight is so bad that he uses glasses that seriously look like magnifying glasses. He´s a funny kid and we had a good time. We´ve found a ton of people to teach lately, but we´ve struggled in finding them again and getting them to come to church. We´re really going to focus on those that have the most potential to progress and hope for miracles. Our zone is continuing to see miracles weekly and we now have 18 of the 20 baptisms that we´re hoping for! The best part is that we have like 5 good possibilites for baptisms this week! A lot of families are coming to the church together and that´s awesome cuz it´s so much easier for them to endure when they have the full support of each other and the kids have the good examples of their parents. That´s why I feel that we as a family have been sooooo blesssed to have grown up in families where all are members and be able to be exposed to the wonderful blessings of the gospel our whole lives. I look at some of these converts and the sacrifices and changes they make in their lives and I really admire them. I know that it would be so hard for me to do what they do. I recently got an email from Fernanda in Molina that said that her father is now listening to the missionaries and has gone to church twice. This really is a miracle cuz that guy is awesome but he was sooo stubborn. I really liked him though cuz he had to pass through some crappy stuff last year with his wife leaving him and I think that we arrived at their home at the perfect time to help both Fernanda and her father get through that trial. God really does know and love us and he takes care of his children by sending his servants where they are most needed. Fernanda is one of my strongest converts and I’m way happy for them.
Elder Nelson went home last night. His uncle came out to film the last few days of his mission, because he´s doing a project called the 5000 day project and his uncle has been interviewing and filming him since he was in 4th grade and the project won´t end for another 6 years. When they finish the project we´ll all have to see if I´m in it cuz there´s a few times where I got to be interviewed and part of the action. Anyways now Elder Sorensen and I are waiting for our new comps to get here tomorrow, but for now it´ll just be us two in the house. Elder Dalton is coming down to be Sorensen´s comp and the new Zone leader. He replaced me up in Molina and was Balkman´s comp for a while. He´s a really cool kid. My comp is Elder Weston ( I think that´s his name) I don´t know much about him, but Elder Hadfield told me that he´s cool and played outside linebacker for BYU, soooo i´ll have to control myself and not talk football all day with him haha. I¨m really excited for the new changes in the zone and for the next few months of work that we´re going to have together here in CHillán.
I hope you all have a great week, and that everything goes well with Amy in Vegas. Let me know how you all are doing!!!
love you
Tanner


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