Fruit NInja……for reals.

Dear Mom and Family,

Haven't got the package yet, but I'm doing better haha ;) I think I had an initial freakout, but I still am getting a little fat and losing basically all my muscle...;) so I'm slowly but surely working on that!!  (He keeps sort of freaking out that he's getting fat. …..if he is, he seriously hides it much better than I can!)

Yep....it's finally come...the end of E Jellen....today is my last full day with him, and then we have transfer conference tomorrow....I would be lying if I said I haven't cried, maybe on mutliple occasions...but hey, gotta keep them tear ducts working right!! ;) Last week was crazy, he had his departing statue of liberty trip on monday, departing temple trip on thursday, along with his departing interview right after that. Ever since his departing interview, he's defintely been different. He says that Pres. Jeppson made hime trunky because he wants him to go on a date within 31 days of being home haha! But he's been stressed. I've been grateful for how he's handled it though! He's still very much the amazing missionary I keep telling you about, even though he doesn't want to go and he's sad about leaving everyone! It's just so weird that it's finally here….(We went to Elder Jellens homecoming, and I have to say - he is awesome!  I'm so grateful Tanner had such a fabulous trainer!)

I think I know who my new companion will be though! Technically I don't find out till tomorrow at transfer conference, but E Jellen and I are about 95% sure that it's Elder Carballo, one of the AP's. He's a native of Mallorka, Spain, and I'm not sure what to think about this ;) He is getting released tomorrow, and they're calling my old ZL, E Jones to be the new AP!!! We're pretty sure he's coming with me because he's going to a spanish walking area, and he didn't get to go exactly where he wanted, which was union city. That's what he's told us. And the rest of the info just makes sense. The AP's cover the same area as we do, so he's familiar with the area. My particular area hasn't had a baptism in 2+ years, so they're looking to fire it up with some exAP power, he's fluent in spanish, and he'd be able to take over as district leader very easily because of his experience as a leader. We asked him and he just said "I dunno, you'll just have to wait and see!" So we pretty much know it's him ;) it'll be interesting. I really like him, but he's alot different than E Jellen or me. He's very...official. So it'll be interesting, I'm interested to see how it turns out haha!

(Remember a few weeks ago….Alex Boye???  Seriously so awesome!) 

This week we have somehow managed to hit almost all of our goals, despite all of E Jellen's departing trips and the freezing cold. So that's great!! This week has been an amazing week of change for me. I think it's probably been the week that I have changed the most as a missionary. We watched a mormon message with a member the other day about New Years, and I read Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about starting fresh in the ensign. Both very powerful messages about learning from the past, not living it, and moving forward with faith and hope, and the future can be better than the past, if you make it that way. I was really grateful for those messages, especially in this huge time of change. I've been really anxious about the New Year, and you know how I get when I'm anxious haha ;) my worries just kinda take over. I asked E Jellen for a blessing of health to help with my anxiety on New Years morning, and it was amazing. It brought such a feeling of peace and comfort to me, I wrote down everything in my journal! At the end, I remember very specifically I was healed from anxiety, blessed that these fears and anxieties I was having would be softened, and blessed with a keen knowledge that Jesus Christ, my brother, did all that he did for me. It was really amazing, and ever since then, it's been a TON easier to control my thoughts and feelings. That, coupled with those inspired messages about looking to the future with faith, have really helped me this week. I really want to be out here, not that I didn't before, but I have a new perspective on the Lord's work. There has been a spirit brought into my life this week that I never want to go!

 (Tanner in NYC eating his first 'city' hot dog)

It was a good week, although nothing super amazingly crazy happened with our lessons or anything haha! Like I told you last week, I spent monday with the AP's, and that was fun. While E Jellen was at the temple on thursday, I spent the day with my Zone Leaders, and that was fun too haha! Thursday is weekly planning day, so I did that by myself, then I made a cake while the ZL's finished theirs. After that, we took a 10 minute break, and E Jester and I may or may not have played fruit ninja. He has several knives that a member gave him in his last area, including this huge hunting knife. So he took that, and we found an old apple and pear in their fridge, and I threw the fruit to him, and he cut it. It was pretty awesome!!! (Apple's influence is reaching farther than just electronics, it's affecting our very way of living ;)  (We were all seriously laughing out loud at the mental picture of real live fruit ninja!) And then after that we had TAC, which is a once a transfer, heavy duty apartment cleaing. So I helped clean the ZL's apartment. And then we went and picked up E Jellen!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to sit in on a District Leader Council with E Jellen, the two other DL's in the zone, and the ZL's. It was a really really cool experience to be able to see the influence of prayer and council in planning for the needs of the zone. I hope that I'm able to be apart of that soon!

There have been several funny instances in the past two days...yesterday E Jellen and I were walking to our first appointment, and we both slipped, charlie brown style, several times! It's so icy here haha!! This morning I was dancing because a really cool version of "give said the little stream" came on, and I ran into a door....E Jellen and I have really really funny late night (10:15) conversations....Life is great!! I'm grateful to be out here with an amazing companion and an amazing calling! Thank you for all that you do at home, be safe, enjoy every minute of every day, don't procrastinate, and live life with no regrets! Love you! :)

Love,

Tanner :)

Lots of walking, drunk guys, and miracles….oh my!

Dear Family,   (And FINALLY some pictures - …..Did my heart good!)

 

 I have the R.M. soundtrack already, I only listen to the hymn renditions (I hope they call me on a mission, abide with me tis eventide, give said the little stream) and that stuff is my favorite haha! I have 4ordained and EFY 2012 and 2013, so more EFY would be great, it's all approved. Anything else like that you can find is great too haha! Like I said, the Lower Lights are really good and also approved....so...;)

 

 What a week! My companion was not E. Carballo like I thought it would be!! My new companion is Elder Walter Diaz, a native of El Salvador via Texas. Born in E.S. but moved to texas when he was like 10. He still has a little bit of an accent though, and his spanish is definitely native. I think that was the language they spoke in his home. He's been out for about 10 months now, he's starting his 8 transfer. I'm still weirded out that I'm starting my 3rd transfer haha! But he's cool, I really like him! He's a lot different than E Jellen...He's not quite as firm as E Jellen I don't think. Like he has a testimony, and he's committed to work, but he's not quite as...missionary like maybe? To me he doesn't seem quite as converted, more out here to have a good time. But he's really cool! Pres. Jeppson calls him the man of steel, so I'm gonna get yoked this transfer!! ;)

 

This week has been really weird. I dunno if it's just because Elder Diaz is here now or what, but it's been weird. On Tuesday the only thing we had time for was soccer, which we've started playing again! We are going to be starting each session with a prayer and a spiritual thought and get everyone's info so they are all potentials, so that'll be really good!! Elder Diaz and I were so sore after that though haha!! It was a lot of fun!

 

Wednesday we taught four lessons, which is really high for us!! We picked up a former named Pricila. I have only taught her once, like my third week in the mish, until E Jellen and I dropped her. So we just did How To Begin Teaching and tried to start teaching the Restoration. Towards the end, we established her beliefs, and the one thing she absolutely does not believe is that there is a living prophet today. It's weird though, she wants to be baptized...so...we have work to do haha!! But we had a really good lesson with her!

Funny story, on wednesday when we were walking around at like 4, a black guy pulled up next to us and gave us fliers to this Bethel AME church dinner that night. He double checked that we were going to be there like 5 times. The time was right when we had planned on having dinner, so we figured we might stop by for some free food :) we finished up our plans before dinner and headed over. So we get there, and walk in, and sign as the elders so we can get our food. We walk in and sit down, and realize it's like a charity event. It was too late to get up and walk out, but too weird for us to fit in with the other hobos....So we ended up eating a quick meal with the hobos, and we got two potentials out of it! We both felt really bad about taking that food, but we figured there was a reason for it, otherwise that black guy wouldn't have triple checked that we were coming. I still feel bad, but oh well...I can check eating a meal with hobos off the bucket list ;)

Another Funny story, on wednesday night, we were walking home at the end of the night, and a drunk man stopped us. He was Enrique, a former that I have never taught, but who Elder Jellen and I dropped. We saw him on the streets sometimes, but he was always just looking for money. So he stopped us and recognized me, so made a big deal out of that, and starting talking to us about the word of God and how good we were and the importance of God, crazy stuff!! He was very flamboyant with his arms and motions, I was surprised he was still standing!!! It was hilarious!!! What made it funnier was that E Diaz couldnt stop laughing. And it was contagious, so I started laughing too!!!! It was probably quite a sight to see, a stoned man acting out a scene and two young men cracking up right in front of him haha!! Then E Diaz leaned over to me and said, "Elder Nelson, I peed my pants!" Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!! It was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The next couple days passed without incident. Very tranquilo, very regular. Nothing to report. We taught a couple lessons, but nothing more than we have done before. I'm sorry!

 

But Saturday was another good day. We had correlation with Hno Morales, and that was really effective. E Diaz and I rewrote the branch mission plan ( with a few notes from E Jellen) and we brought that to correlation. We discussed alot about what needed to change and what we could do, and we got some really good ideas! We also had P.E.C. on sunday where we discussed all of that with the Branch Presidency. We are having branch conference on the 26, and I've heard the branch is doing a 100%turnover change sorta  dealio! So that's hopefully when we can start encouraging people to work together and start back at the basics of daily prayer and scripture study. The next two weeks can't go fast enough!

 

Also on saturday, we taught Ana, a former that E Jellen and I picked up again last week. We taught her with Hno. Morales, and had a lesson. I don't know that it was good or bad, but we learned alot and know what we need to do now. Hno morales kinda took over the lesson and didn't go where we wanted to and didn't let anyone else talk...but after that, I said to her "You know the B.O.M. is true, you've been to church tons of times, you pray daily and received an answer through prayer, so how would you like to be baptized?" She responded that she doesn't feel prepared, yada yada yada, so we're going back on wednesday, and we prayed about it this morning, and we feel like we should commit her to a baptismal date of Feb. 2!!! So that'll be great!!

 

Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Laura, a member. And after the lesson she told us that Obdeli, a former, the Elders Quorum President's son, and her friend, wanted to take the lessons again. So we called him up right then and are going to go teach him tomorrow!! I really feel like these two incidences with Ana and Obdeli weren't coincidences, and that they really will be baptized soon. I think we're going to commit him to the same date as Ana!!

 

That's mostly all for this week. We've been contacting like crazy, had lessons and discussions with several drunk guys, seen miracles, taught lessons, and walked for miles. Welcome to Morris-Hood!!

 

Glad to hear all is well, tell Grandpa Berry I love him, and I love all of you as well!! have a great week! :)

 

Love, Tanner :)

'Nothing much', and an awesome Christmas message….

When I say Skype is truly just about the best invention ever, I'm not kidding!  Nothing does a mothers heart so good as talking to her missionary son and hear him so happy!  What a blessing to be able to spend time talking with him -  the whole family plus 2 gathered around for nearly an hour and a half and had a great visit.  The time went far too quickly, but we truly loved every last minute of it.  

Dear Mom and Family,

It was really good to talk to all of you too!! Yes, I felt really homesick after haha! But I'm alright now! It took a few days but it was really good to see all of you, even though it doesn't feel like it's been almost 4 months! It's great to hear everyone is doing well! :)

Not much happened last week...We had our zone christmas party last P Day, and at the end, we did a white elephant gift exchange. I got a duck dynasty christmas hat haha! It's pretty awesome! Christmas eve, we had District Meeting, and then later that night we had dinner at a members house. Christmas, we went to the Morales' house in the morning for breakfast tomales and "caliente", a really good hot fruit drink thats kinda like apple cider, but I like it better! After that we just went back to the apartment and played basketball on the little hoop you sent and made cookies to take to a few members, rather than interrupt family parties on the holidays. The Morales' invited us back for an early dinner at about 3:30, and that was really good!! It was meat, rice, and veggies. They made this salsa out of chiltepe peppers, you can only get them from guatemala, they are waaayyyy hotter than jabaneros!!! It was really good! But never eat the peppers alone, they're so hot!!! After that, we made our way over to the Chiviliu's for our skype call. And the rest is history. ;) Carlos, the member I've told you about, got us christmas presents! E Jellen is his favorite, and because he's leaving, he bought him some really expensive usher cologne and body wash. He bought me a towel. hahahaha!! I don't really care, I just thought it was funny ;)

But after christmas it was just a regular slow week...I had an exchange with E Guijarro, from Mexico City, on friday and saturday, that was fun! We got to go give another blessing of health to Judith on friday night, she was in the hospital for a heart problem I think she said, and she felt better after the blessing.

I'm sorry, but this week really wasn't that interesting...we didn't have any super spectacular events going on or anything ;) The thing that has stuck out to me this week was just the realization of how much Jesus Christ has done for all of us and how much He love us. This has been a weird Christmas, I didn't expect to be here last year, but that is something that has come to me as I've studied Christ's life and listened to talks and all sorts of stuff this month. I know that Jesus loves all of us, and that is why I am out here as a missionary, to share that love :)

Love you guys!! Have a great week!! :)

So…..I have to preface this next one with some background….

The Sunday before Christmas, in our church meeting - it's typically inspired music and messages related to Christ and Christmas.  This year, unbeknownst to any of us, our sweet choir director had contacted all the missionaries serving from our ward and had them jot down their thoughts - a short little message about Christmas.  Then, in between the musical numbers, those messages were read from the pulpit.  It truly was a powerful meeting.  Emotions were close to the surface for many that day - not just the families of those missionaries, but the whole ward.  In a way I can't really explain, it brought a feeling of unity, and a powerful reminder of the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  There were more tear filled eyes than dry that day.  It was beautiful.   Here is the letter from Tanner…

November 18, 2013

The birth of our Savior was the most amazing thing that our God could have given us. A lot of times I think we take that for granted; that on that Holy Night, a child was born. A child who would lead a PERFECT life, a child who would teach us to return to our Heavenly Father, a child who would suffer for our sins, suffer for our temptations, and suffer for our afflictions, all so that He would know how to best help us. That night, a Savior was born, and I think it was no coincidence that a new star shined in the heavens, because a new light was born on earth; a light to lead us, guide us, and show us the way. How amazing it would have been to have been a shepherd and heard the angel and seen the Christ child!! What an amazing gift, and what an amazing night.

I know that Christ was put here to lead us back to our Heavenly Father and to help us find peace in this troubled world and there was none other who could have qualified for that same responsibility.  Jesus Christ is our older brother, our Savior, our Advocate, and our best friend. We can never understand Him perfectly, but He understands us, and that is a gift that we should cherish more than anything else.

Elder Nelson