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 :)