Thailand Adventures

Helloooo all:)

First of all thank you all so much for the wonderful birthday wishes this past week. I had a great birthday. I think this year I finally realized that I really don't need any worldly possessions or really anything at all to have a truly great birthday. That morning I prayed that I could feel the spirit strong in my studies, and Heavenly Father blessed me drastically for my birthday. For 10 minutes straight I decided to think purely on Jesus Christ and what he has done for me, us as mankind and how much He loves us. Tears filled my eyes as I felt the spirit testify to me that Jesus Christ truly lives right now. He loves us so much and wants us to come back and live with him and Heavenly Father again. I didn't have any distractions or thoughts that dettered me for that special 10 minutes and I realized it truly was a present from our Heavenly Father. I haven't received that package from you guys yet, but somehow the Elders who it did get to found me at a transfers meeting. They said that they had a big box at their house about 1 hour away and that some guy gave it to them with $20 to get to me haha. I wish I could have seen Bro. Bryant but I am thankful for him and for you guys for the package. I should be getting it on moves day (Oct. 17th). I'll look forward to it then!

Also on my birthday we had an opportunity to cut a members grass. And I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but I soon found out that they don't have lawn mowers like we do in the States haha. We cut this member's grass with a garden hoe and a butcher's knife haha. No joke. The grass had grown into like a jungle and we basically just beat it down with out knife and hoe haha. It took us like 2 hours to get her small yard done, and it was mostly dirt left over, but she was very grateful and happy. We also got to eat ice cream at Swensen's for my birthday. My whole district consisting of 6 sisters, the Zone leaders and my companion got together all at Swensen's for it. I have the coolest district. One Sister companionship gave me Mac N' Cheese and told me to save this for when I serve out in the Easan. Because foreign food is scarce out there and Mac and Cheese will be like gold out there haha. I also got a sombrero hat with a bunch of scripture references on it from another sister companionship. I\ll send a picture:)

Alot of funny things happened this week. First off, I went on splits with the Zone leaders this past Thursday where we really focused on inviting people off the street. It's hard because you don't really know what to say in Thai or how to initiate the conversation, and so some conversations can be more awkward then others. Anyways, there was three of us, the ZLs and me. One is from Brigham City, Utah - Elder Terry and the other is from England - Elder Appleyard. So me and Elder Appleyard were entering this bus that pulled up and realized that Elder Terry was still inviting and hadn't seen us get on this bus. And so we quickly yelled at him and when he saw the bus take off without him, he threw his inviting cards at the lady he was talking to and ran after this bus we were on haha. He finally ran fast enough to jump on and barely make it hahaha. I was laughing so hard, I probably should have been more worried, but it was too funny haha. Another thing that happened was that part of our electricity in our house went out. So we opened up the main box with all the switches in our house to find that one wire was completely melted and was live and exposed. So we called an electrician and up came this very small Thai electrician guy with his tool box. He looked at the live wire, and I thought he would turn the power off, but he stuck his metal screwdriver in there and started working and we could see like sparks coming off from inside the box. He finally got alittle frustrated with it, and decided to grab the live wire with his bare hands and I kid you not, for at least 2 seconds straight he let out this AHHHHHHH scream as he grabbed this live wire hahah. And after he let go of it, he was kind of disheveled and he said, something crazy fast in Thai hahah I could not stop laughing.

We are expecting another baptism this next week!:) I don't know if you remember me talking about Sister Ung but she is being baptized if all goes well. I;m so excited for her, she has such a sweet spirit, and even though having some doubts at first about tithing and the word of wisdom, she has kept them and devoted her life to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She is absolutely amazing. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for everything and praying for us. We see miracles everyday because of it! Love you all.

With love,

Elder Tanner

Hello Hello Hello:) 

Thank you all for the emails once again this week. It sounds like a lot of things are going on. It's hard to hear about grandpa being in the hospital. From the sounds of it, the Lord is helping him recover. He's blessed to have such a great family that is close by to help take care of him and grandma. I know I would be grateful for you guys if I were him, I know he is grateful for your efforts. Keep me updated on his condition. I'll be praying for him and the family.

It's so exciting to hear about Will's farewell and the familiar faces that I miss so much. Thank you thank you for going and supporting him. I know he absolutely loves you guys and for you to be there probably meant alot to him. I'm glad to hear that his talk went great. And I wish I could take the credit for speaking good like him, but I definitely got all my good traits from him and from being his friend for these past years. He's going to work wonders in Denmark. I'm so excited for him. And as far as sending letters and things to my mission, I posted on facebook the address to the mission office here in Thailand. We don't have specific addresses to our houses, so everything will just go to the mission office and then during transfers I will probably receive them. I hope that helps alittle:) And I haven't seen the Bryant's yet, sadly. When you told me they were in Bangkok I was excited! I hope maybe I will still get to see them, but my area is about 45 minutes from the mission office, so I'm not exactly sure if I will see them.

I'm also glad to hear that meetings in Virginia were good! I hope they understand what an awesome opportunity they have to accept the BASEcamp program. I hope they take advantage of that.

This week has been another fast one. We have felt the Lord's help as well. Dad, I'm really glad that you brought up the point about not giving up on our less active members. In Thailand we have about 24,000 members but only about 3,000-4,000 go to church every Sunday, which makes for a HUGE work to be done with LA's. We received a huge stack of some that are in our area and we've tried to contact some. I've seen both sides of people as we have done this. Some people don't want to be found again, and are very rude. We went to a house and asked the kid at the door if his grandma was home (the less active member) and he said she wasn't. Then she walked up right behind him and asked who was at the door. He lied to us straight up, but what was even more sad is that the grandma didn't want to have anything to do with us either. We asked if we could talk with her and she turned inside and left without a word. It's kinda funny but sad how they do things like that. Haha people have some interesting excuses here. I've heard people say, "I'm too old for this" or "I'm busy, I can't talk to you." when they are watching TV, or even people that say, "It's too dark out here, I can't take this pamphlet" hahaha. That's my favorite one. But on the other hand we have sweet sweet people who have been humbled and are now more fully ready for the gospel. They just need a friend to help them out. We went to see an entire family who became less active at the same time. On their record it has a picture of them and they hadn't been visited by members or missionaries for 8 or 9 years. We show them the picture of them when they were baptized and the fire is rekindled in their hearts. They think back to when they were baptized and that sweet spirit that came when they had and lived the gospel. We are currently working with them to get them back. It is always so sweet when they respond kindly to you, because it makes them feel important again. They have been neglected for some time, but Christ has never forgotten about them. We met with another guy named Noom, who when we saw him, almost had a heart attack because he couldn't believe that we came looking for him. He was on the street selling food with his wife when we came to talk to him. He saw his old picture and the missionaries that worked with him 8 years ago and he couldn't stop smiling. I think that he has potential as well. 

These past two weeks, it has rained so hard here, and when it rains, it POURS. The streets flood and everyone goes inside. Literally everyone you talk with will tell you to go home because of the rain. When it rains, people run inside because they feel they will get sick. I loved it though. I was walking through it having the best time of my life, but then I realized how dirty the water really was. Thailand sidewalks are usually piled with garbage and people throw waste on the streets and stuff. We went over to help a member deflood their house, and their bathroom had overflowed and was all over the floor and house. It was pretty gross, but it had to be cleaned. 

Yesterday I had a scary experience at church. About two hours before the meeting started, the ward clerk asked me if I could speak in sacrament about faith because a member had called and said he couldn't make it. I said I would, but I remember thinking to myself, "how am I going to pull this off?!" haha. so I prepared for it best I could, and prayed alot about it, and although I butchered it, Heavenly Father helped me so much. I wasn't really that nervous for it. I remember my mission president saying something, He said, "In this church, we do whatever we are asked to do". God helped me so much yesterday with that talk and I'm so grateful for him. I couldn't have done it without Him. That statement is truer than true:) When we are asked to do something, God will qualify us for the work that needs to be done. 

I hope everything is great for you all. I miss you lots. Thanks for thinking about me and praying for me. 

With love,

Elder Tanner

Dear Fam,

Another week down in Thailand:) My oh my how time is really breezing by. I can't even believe it myself. It feels like I was just emailing you guys yesterday haha. Dad, thanks so much for your photos you sent. You look amazing in those! I'm going to keep those pictures the rest of my mission as a goal to be as good of missionary as you were. I'll show them to this sister and see what she says. I'm hoping she knows you! Mom, thank you so much for your email. It helped me so much, I especially loved the part about Paige. I think she is discouraged because Satan works the hardest on those who he knows will make the most difference. I bet she's an amazing missionary.

I can't believe Steven is going to Samoa!!!!!!! That is SO awesome! And what's even more crazy is that I remember him telling me specifically, "I have this weird thought that I am going to be called to Samoa." I remember him saying that! This is going to change his life forever and it will help his dad who is Samoan. The Lord really blesses us in such special ways. I have a testimony of that. And I'm excited for Will to go too. He leaves the 25th of September to Denmark!:) If you guys have time, I think he'd like it alot of you guys stopped by or went to his farewell. 

This week has zipped by! We are being blessed everyday. We just met with a lady who was a walk in at church named Sister Ung. She knows alot of English because she studied in Missouri and she is just a ball of energy, even though she is probably 50 or 60 years old. She is my absolute favorite. We met with her the first time and explained how she came to know of Christ. She said she was in Missouri when she learned that she had cancer. She was at Walmart one day wondering how she was going to work everything out in her life, when she met another Thai lady who was Christian. This lady invited Sister Ung over to her house to have dinner with her and her husband. Sister Ung told us that she felt like she needed to go, but she didn't know why, so she went. She later ended up living at their house while going through therapy for cancer and learned about Christ through this family. I don't think they were LDS, but they invited her to church and she just felt so much love from the people there and felt God's love. She then came back here and looked for a Christian church and she found us. She told us something very interesting as well. She kept telling us that she just wanted to repay our Heavenly Father. She told us she just wanted to clean his house or do something for him to show her love for Him. She truly was prepared by God. There is no other explanation for her. She has such great faith and soaks up everything that we teach her. We met with her 3 days in a row and taught her about the Restoration and about the Plan of Salvation. She is absolutely amazing, and I feel so humbled that Heavenly Father lead her to us. I remember one of her lessons, I was trying to explain about the purpose of this life, and why we came here and my Thai was so confusing and so disorganized and sounded so terrible, and I remember thinking, I am going to make her not want to meet with us. I'm going to mess this all up because I am saying things so confusing to her and she won't even be baptized and it'll be all my fault. But as the lesson went on, the Spirit took over. And soon we all could feel the sweet peace and humility that comes from learning about Christ. She is still learning with us. I need to get my own personal issues out of my brain. I just need to get out of the way for the Spirit so it can work it's magic. I now realize that I don't really have any part in this whole process. I don't really know anything about the gospel. It's all between Sister Ung and Heavenly Father. It's so amazing.

This really is the true gospel, through and through. It's true. It's true. It's true. No force both of this world or the unseen world can stop this work from progressing. The work will go forth with or without us, and I'd much rather be apart of it then not. I don't have the best mind, I don't have the best knowledge of the gospel, I can't form pretty and wonderful sentences, but I do know that Christ is our Savior and I love him with my whole heart. I know that Heavenly Father is constantly watching over us, and if we follow him til the end, our tears of this life will be returned a hundredfold with tears of joy from our Heavenly Father. I want to stay close to Him til the day I return to Him to give Him a big hug. I love you all. Thanks for all your support. Keep praying for us, and pray that the Lord will open up the hearts of men here. We are pushing so hard for a temple here. That's all our meetings and the talk is about here. With enough faith and hard work, we can do it:) May God continue to bless us all.

I love you all,

Elder Tanner

Howdy Howdy!

First off before I start my email, I think I found somebody that knows you, Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the Branch President's wife Sister Chaimongkhon. I'll be attaching a picture of her but she asked me if I remembered what areas you served, and I couldn't remember. Do you think you could send me the different areas you served? That would be awesome! She asked me how long ago you served and I said about 30 years and she said that it fit with who she is thinking of! She then asked what Mission President you served with and I could only remember President Hogan and she told me that that fit as well! I think it's a tender mercy from the Lord. If you could send some missionary pictures of you back in the day that would be awesome. She said she wanted to see you to remember. She has been a member for about 35ish years so she would have been a member when you served. It's gotta be right!:)

Anyways thank you all for your emails. Mom, I'm sorry you didn't get to go to that concert! That sounds like it would have been so awesome! If it's a concert with good ol' Jimmy Taylor than it must have been good:) And I'm so greatful for you guys going to Chris's mission farewell. He must have enjoyed that alot! I'm trying to send him an email later. And Drewby thanks for the advice. I really really needed that. I have been studying up on how to just give my mission my all and your knowledge should help me so much! Thanks brudder. And Hayley, you gotta gotta gotta tell me where steve and wyatt get called to! as soon as you find out!!! Don't forget:)

This week was an eventful one! First off a couple of funny stories. We were teaching the same Less Active member (Bro. Robbin) this time as the last time when I gave that coconut to that nutty girl, and another strange thing happened haha. We were talking to him on his porch (if you could call it that) and pretty soon this drunk guys shows up. I'll attach a picture with him. He was shirtless and drunk off his rocker. He kept yelling to me in his broken english, "I LOVE YOU!" "I LOVE YOU!" And he would talk in Thai about how he felt like he could never die and how he was scared to ride in airplanes. It was the funniest thing of my life. He would then like spit HUGE globs of spit everywhere and sometimes we would be so tipsy that he would spit on his own leg and stuff. Then he told us that he needed us to see his daughter because she had been to America. So we started going over to his house, and my companion whispered that we should ditch him. So as soon as he went around to let us in through a gate we hopped on our bikes and away we went hahah. I hope he's not mad, I'm sure we'll see him again, hopefully more sober this time haha.

The next one was when we were in a taxi. I was riding in front and hadn't looked at our taxi driver in the face until probably mid way through our ride. But as soon as I took a look at him, I knew something was weird. I looked at him and his left eye and watched as it slowly began to bulge out of his eye socket. I continued to watch and figured out that he had a normal right eye but a pigs eye for his left eye! And everytime it would start to pop out, he would reach up with his fingers and push it back in. It was the craziest thing of my life! I was so scared and I should have invited him, but I just felt so nervous. He just kept pushing it back in haha. I will never forget that experience haha.

We also rode the bus this week. And in Thailand alot of the time the buses will stop at the bus stop, but we were riding it on it came to where we needed to get off and the bus driver slowed down and opened the doors but didn't stop haha and so my companion thought it best to just jump so we jumped out of the moving bus haha. I felt like James Bond, but come to think of it, it probably didn't even look cool at all. And finally we were in a market place where like hundreds of people were out. and at 6 o'clock they have loud speakers in the market area that blares their national anthem each day. So everyone was bustling around to and fro but when the national anthem started playing, everyone froze. It was like a flash mob. Everyone in the entire market place froze on what they were doing. And I kept looking around like "Is this real life?" and then as soon as the anthem was done (45 seconds) they went back to what they were doing. hahaha it was so cool. We need to do that in the United States.

This week we also had two baptisms! Our investigators Beam/Mint got baptized and we had the sacred opportunity to baptize them. It was the best experience ever. They are such good people and we love them so much. And I felt the spirit so strongly during their whole Baptismal Service. The best part is that they are free from their past sins. Completely clean through and through. It's humbling to me how Heavenly Father let me take a small part in that. I really didn't do anything. These investigators had been investigating for a few months, so I didn't find them or anything and the Spirit taught them everything they needed to know. It's humbling to know that we really don't do anything but be a vessel in which the Spirit can work through. I have a hard time because I always get in the way with worries and doubts that come, and all Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want is for me to move out of the way so that their work can progress and save lives. It's such a beautiful thing! I can't get over how much the gospel truely blesses everyone, no matter what you have done in life. I want to be closer and closer to the Savior everyday. I love feeling his spirit and although I'm pretty sure the animals in Thailand can speak Thai better than me, I want to bless people through his gospel in their language. I have along ways to go, but I feel Heavenly Father's hand everyday, whether it be to take caution or comfort my weary heart, he's always there. I was thinking about the Hymn, "I'll go where you want me to go" and when the chorus says,"Ill go where you want me to go, Dear Lord, I say what you want me to say, I'll be what you want me to be." When I get to heaven I wish with all my heart to have Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ say, "Welcome Home my good and faith servant, you have gone where I wanted you to go, You've said what I've wanted you to say, and you are what I wanted you to be." His gospel is the best and truest. We also had Elder Wong from the Seventy come and be at our district conference Saturday and Sunday. He is the funniest guy in the world! I don't know if there are any talks by him, but if there are, look them up. He's a great disciple of Christ.

Anyways, the work is going great here in Thailand. We are all hoping and working and praying for a Thailand Bangkok Temple here! Pray for us and that. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

With so much love,

Elder Tanner 

Adventures in Thailand

สวดี!

It is incredible how time flies! I have been out on my mission for 3 months on the 12th. It feels like it's flown by, but at times I'll admit it feels slow slow slow. I've learned it's all about your attitude. I am so jealous that you guys got to almost shake President Uchdorf's hand! I wish I could get that opportunity sometime in my life, I absolutely LOVE reading his talks. I have one that I just read called "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" and "We are His Hands". They are incredible. I truely know they are apostles of Jesus Christ because I just want to do better when I read their talks. I don't know if I've ever been excited for General Conference until now. I really can't wait to hear from the prophet and the apostles! It sounds like you guys are having a crazy week as usual! I love hearing all about it. I'm glad that Mikayla and Katelyn and Chris came to waffles last week. I miss waffles, in fact I just miss regular food haha. They have some weird stuff here and I've learned I can't be picky because they insist that you eat it all haha. It's the best.

Dad, I'm so glad you got to bless the Meyer's family this last week for school. It is so important. I have come to realize on my mission that the priesthood is really powerful and necessary here for our survival and benefit. It's also so important to work on being worthy for it. It's such an incredible power and brings so much light to a dark place like Thailand. It's incredible. 

I have a funny experience. We were teaching a less active member in a park the other day and had finished our lesson and began walking him back to his house (He is kind of old). We had eaten some coconuts while talking to this member but I hadn't eaten mine because I don't really like them. So while we were walking we noticed a group of girls sitting on a bench that we were coming up to. And to preface this story, the girls here really like foreigner people, no matter what you look like. Even if you are the ugliest white person, they will still try and ask you on a date or something like that haha. So as we were walking and one of the girls asked my companion something in Thai which I didn't understand. He smiled and just kept walking, and she kept saying stuff to us as we walked past so I decided to give her my coconut and so I handed it right to her. My companion started laughing and kept walking and said, "Elder if you only knew what she was saying....". I later found out that that girl was asking my companion if he had a girl friend and if he wanted to date her and if we ever wanted a girlfriend we could come back and stuff like that. And then I gave her a coconut right after she said that hahah. Needless to say I was pretty embarrased. I need to work on my Thai so much more. And just this past Sunday I found a little paper under my bag that I had left saying, "Wil you marrie mee? I luv you." haha I have no idea who put it there or if it was even for me, and I will never find out. Haha and I wish it were for my good looks... but I think that I could be any white person and get that here haha.

The work is going forward here. We just had another baptism here and it's awesome! You can feel the spirit so strongly here when there are baptisms. Like the whole ward just gets so excited and comes together in celebration. We have two investigators who are set up to be baptized this next week. I can't wait for them. I'm so excited! They have come to church alot and have been fully accepted by the wonderful members. The Lord is so merciful. We have had some great investigators come from people who just walk in the front doors of our Church on Sunday and want to know more. Heavenly Father is really looking after us. 

This week has been great and more awesome things to come! Pray for our investigators that they can come through for their baptism. We have faith they will:) I love you all so much! Thanks for all your prayers and support and email. I love it all.

With much รัก,

Elder แทนเนอร์