I am sitting in the internet place with ice cole hands and a runny nose. that answers your question about the weather and my cold that i have. I´m okay, i don´t feel sick but my nose is driving me crazy!!! I´ve been eating a lot of really good caramel candies, my self prescribed medicine that i found last week, to see if that´ll help me haha.
Sounds like things are going well back at home. Everyone´s getting home, married, etc. it´s so crazy to see how many people I know that are just progressing through life. I told Andrew that he´s now an RM....that´s really weird. I really never thought I´d look at myself, my friends, or my cousins my age as RM´s. The mission was always something in my future, and now it´s rapidly coming to an end. God has been soo soo good to me though. I´m loving everything right now. Our ward is tight, my comp and I are having tons of success and get along great, and we´re seeing miracles left and right. I was telling dad that God´s vision for His children is the family. Now that our vision and desire is to teach and baptize families, His vision and our´s has become one, and we´re working together and seeing the results. I read a scripture somewhere that said that we are co-laborers with God and Christ and I really feel like that right now. I feel like we aren´t having to fight and struggle to bring others to Christ, but now that we´re trying really hard to be obedient, positive, and to find families, things are just working out. There´s a part in the book of mormon where tons of converts come unto the church, so much that the priests and teachers are surprised at the success and growth of the church. My comp and I were talking about that and we feel the same. Even when something goes wrong, we see a miracle afterward that erases all memory of our trials. We are marvelling and loving the success that we´re seeing. I´ve been thinking lately that if I had just had the same vision, obedience, and desires that I have had in this sector, I would have been able to help so many more people. That´s in the past though, so all I´m doing is worrying about the future and the next 3 months. I know they´re going to fly by, but I´m soooo excited to see what the future will bring, and how many people we´re going to be able to teach and baptize. I´m loving the gospel, I love teaching it, and I love how much the people we teach love us and we love them. This is how the gospel should be preached. If a missionary can get through the growing pains in the beginning quickly and get to this point, they will have ridiculous success. Tell Mckay to pray that he can have that vision, and the desire to baptize, and the ability to love the people. It´s ridiculous the difference it makes when one has these things. It´s also ridiculous that i´ve taken so long to get all things together, but i am so pumped at how i feel right now. Elder Weston has been a huge help and example to me. He´s a young missionary, but he has the vision, he has the drive to work, great spanish, and i´ve learned a ton from him.
We are teaching a lot of people, so planning has been a bit difficult lately. We have so many people that we need to see that we are starting to have to put great people as second priorities because there are other people and FAMILIES that are progressing more quickly. We´re seeing awesome things with Gabriela´s family. I don´t ever remember what i´ve written in past emails, so i don´t know if i´ve written about them. Quick review: they´re a family of 5, the dad, Farid, is an inactive member, the mom, Gabriela, is an awesome lady who is leading her family reading, praying, and going to church, they have three kids: Josefa, Monserrat, and Benjamin. They´re an awesome family and we love them tons. On Saturday we had an awesome activity and they helped us out a lot. We had a movie night, watched the Testaments, and they brought their projector, a popcorn machine, and other things to help us out. It was a big success and we had a lot of people there. They´re preparing to be baptized on the 25th, so please pray for them every freaking day!!!
We saw a couple dissapointments this week, but this week coming up with fix them all. Naiza couldn´t get baptized cuz she got really sick,but she´s going to be baptized on Wednesday along with her neice Dania. Also one of our oldest investigators, Marco, is preparing for baptism on the 18th. WE had a lesson last night on the law of chastity. It was a funny lesson, and we feel bad for the guy, but we told him straight up how it is. I asked him to be straight up with us and tell us how he felt about the lawe of chastity. He said to tell you the truth, I don´t like it. We laughed at his girlfriend´s face, who´s a member, cuz she just looked at him and hit him. Marco hasn´t had a very Christian background, so all these things we´re teaching him are very very new. He´s being a good guy about it and accepting what we teach and completing with his commitments. His girlfriend, Berni, has been a great help and they´re an awesoem couple who have plans to get married by the end of the year, but she says the only way that´s going to happen is if he´s baptized and they go to the temple afterward. He hasn´t missed a day of church for about 3 months, and has been a slow progress, but he´s making great strides right now. So if all plans go well we should have 2 baptisms and confirmations this week. Pray that all goes well.
Basically everything else is going well. We´re finding new people, they´re accepting our invitations to make and keep commmitments, they´re coming to church, and preparing for baptism. The Lord is blessing this sector, and we´re actually leading the mission in baptisms. I know that it´s not us that are making things happen, but we´re simply working hard, effectively, and are happy, so God is doing to the rest. Just like Ammon we don´t glory in ourselves, although we do feel pretty dang good about what we´re doing, but I truly know that it is God and no one else that is in charge of this work and that he´s working here with us in our sector. It´s awesome and I love it.
I love you guys tons and hope you all have a great week, let me know how all those RM´s are doing out in the real world, say hi to everyone for me.
Tanner
p.s. if you guys haven´t sent off that package yet i would a bunch of Stephen´s mint hot chocolate and that beanie that chelsi´s making. I´m goin to need it here soon.
LOVE YOU