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
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