Helllllllllllooooooo all the way from Sakonakhon:)

Yep, this last transfers meeting I got transfered to a new city:) But I'll get to that in a second. First, Mom, I am ABSOLUTELY excited for you! As I read your email to me, I could just feel your excitement and faith as you try those new medications. I'm so glad they are helping you! I'm so glad that you are getting better rest and that you are feeling all around better! I will start praying specifically for that and hope that all goes well! That's so wonderful! Keep me updated on how things go, I want to know if it has helped.

Hayley and Dad, thank you for sharing updates about everything for me. I wish I could have been there for Bryan's homecoming! Does he still talk a mile a minute?? Haha I bet he is so better and I hope and pray that he will help Caden out. Hayley, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you are sleeping right now, it's 1:34 pm here, which means 12:34 am there haha. But in Thailand it's your birthday already:) What are you going to do for it??? I loved the pictures that you sent me! It was way good seeing those old Orem crew members haha. I miss them all so much! If you get a chance, tell them Hello and give them a HUGE hug from me. I can't believe Wyatt is going to Taiwan. That's so cool. Him and Jacob will be able to chat it up. But I still think I beat him, because when I get back, I'll be able to chat it up with Dad:) I loved seeing your costumes haha, but I have to say... Liz's outfit beats out everybody just because it's Star Wars haha:) Thanks for sharing that with me! 

This week has been an upside down turn around kinda week for me. Both with goods and bads in it. I got moved from Pakkred, in the heart of Bangkok to a city northeast 6 hours called Sakonakhon. It is right up by Laos. And I also got a new companion who is Thai haha. We had to take a bus from Bangkok and travel all night til we got to Sakon. The town is super small haha. It reminds me of the town in The Three Amigos, but instead of Spanish Churches, it has Buddhist statues everywhere haha. It is way small. When I first got here, I kept thinking back to how much I miss Pakkred and the members and facilities there. They had an awesome fireside coming up that I had to miss, they have a BBQ coming up that I have to miss, and it made me sad, because I loved my district and members there. I kept thinking of how great Pakkred is and how small Sakonakhon is. The Zone Leaders forgot to bring down my package, so I will have to wait til December to get it. And all these things just boiled in my head. I kept thinking about myself. Me. Me. Me. But it soon hit me, I am not on this mission for ME. None of this has ever evolved around me, or what's good for me. I soon realized that the Lord has provided me with a mountain to climb. I fell on my knees and kind of embarrased, pleaded for repentance and forgiveness for being so near sighted. I lose sight of Heavenly Father so easily, but Heavenly Father never loses sight of me. He always puts up with my ignorance and things like that. I am so blessed to be out here. I am starting to love the members. They are so humble. They come to church in this little shack, and they love each other so much. I love my companion, and although we communicate through Thai-English, he is the best missionary. Heavenly Father has put me here to help me cope with change. We all know that I can't deal with that very much, but I think the key is to just not focus on myself and work hard. I thank the Lord for helping me overcome myself better and to change to become and to serve more like Him. 

Thank you all for your emails! I hope and pray everything stays good for all of you guys! I'll send some pictures. They speak a different dialect out here. Dad, I don't know if you remember but it's called Easan. It's a Thai and Laosian mix language haha. We'll see how it goes:) Love you all!

Love much much,

Elder Tanner

PS - One of the pictures is a baptismal font for the church:)

Hello All!:)

"In my journal tonight, I shall write, “This has been one of the most inspiring sessions of any general conference I’ve attended. Everything has been of the greatest and most spiritual nature.” I ABSOLUTELY LOVED CONFERENCE. Especially Pres. Thomas S. Monson's talk in which that first sentence comes from. He truly is a prophet of God. I loved it! Are they usually that good? I think I have neglected that special experience long enough now. I feel so bad looking back now as I remember I always fell asleep during conference and not realizing the true power that we feel and receive from General Conference. I guess that's what repentance is for, right? We had the opportunity to watch it in English, and we watched all of it. The sessions went so fast! And I still feel depressed that it's over and won't be back on for another 6 months. I'm almost tempted to put in a petition to Salt Lake and ask if they could do them every weekend;) Thank goodness for the internet and the ability to review them online. We are so blessed in this day and age. I loved loved loved Pres. Monson's talk about his sweet wife. It is now my goal to have that much love for my wife. You could just feel the Spirit thick when he talked about his love for her and their experience as she "slipped into eternity". I felt that they really focused on three main subjects. 1. Covenant keeping and repentance, 2. Missionary Work and 3. The Role of Women and Marriage. All three of these subject, I feel like is what the world needs to hear right now. Us missionaries don't receive much information about the outside world, but what I have heard about the United States right now scares me to death. I've heard about the Congress shutting down, gay rights passing, and all forms of wickedness coming forth. I also heard that Pres. Monson had an opportunity to meet with Pres. Obama and talk for a few hours. All this makes me think that the end is not too far off any longer and the need for repentance and convenant keeping is ever so important.

This past conference has also solidified my testimony of Pres. Thomas S. Monson being a true prophet who hears revelation for all of the Church. He is such a good man. These past few months I have had an opportunity to read his biography "To The Rescue" every so often and I'm about 1/2 through it. If you need a new book to read or want to reread something, that is the book for you:) It never ceases to amaze me how much of the gospel he live in his life. He doesn't just say what he believes, but he has shown time and time again that he acts whenever The Lord says to go and do. I want to be just like that. I want to be close with the Lord all the time like he is. I was reading one day and found a sweet poem in the book that applies perfectly to missionary work. It has inspired me, and I hope it will inspire others as well. This is the poem:

"Father, where shall I work today?"

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed out a tiny spot

and said, "Tend that for me."

I answered quickly, "Oh no, no that!

Why, no one would ever see,

no matter how well my work was done.

Not that little place for me."

And the word He spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly:

"Oh, little one, search that heart of thine;

art thou working for them or for me?

Nazareth was a little place,

and so was Galilee."

It doesn't matter where we serve, but how we serve is what I've learned. I think Elder Dube talked about that in Conference. He kept telling his mom, "Mother, look how far we've come, look how much we've done!" But his mother answered to not look back, but to look at the work ahead of us. We all have a work in the service of the Lord, no matter if your the prophet or a missionary in Thailand. 

I'm so glad Hayley received my letter this week. It got there way faster than I expected haha. Thank you for the updates with Grandpa. I'm so glad he is continuing to grow stronger and stronger. I don't know much about moves/transfers until later today or tomorrow. I have a good chance I will be in this same area for another 9 weeks but I am most likely getting a new companion, but I will let you know what happens. Watching conference made me miss you guys. I'm so blessed to have been born in the gospel. I look at these Thai people and think that that could have easily been me, not knowing Jesus Christ and His tenderness, living in sin and filth all the time. I really am blessed infinite times more than I deserve. I am forever grateful for a mother and father who know their roles as nurturer and a provider and who have taught me the truth all my life. I love you guys and pray for you! Until next week:)

Much love,

Elder Tanner

PS - the pictures I am sending are of a Less Active family that we are working with who are so ready to come back to the church. Their father hasn't been baptized yet. Another is a picture of a sister who got baptized last week in the other branch. The other pictures are of my Zone leaders who live in my house, Elder Terry from Brigham City, UT and Elder Appleyard from London, England. Elder Appleyard finishes his mission in 3 days. They are both great guys.   

 

Swasdi Khrap!

The General Conference sounds so unreal! Thank you for sharing your thoughts about it with me. I have not been able to see it yet, because it takes about a week to translate it to Thai, but we will be able to see it this weekend. I think I'll be able to watch it in English, so I'll look for those specific talks you guys told me about then:) I really am super excited for it!

I'm am super grateful that Grandpa is recuperating. I'm glad he is doing better each day. I continue to pray for him and hope for the best in his situation. I also loved hearing about the Bryant's time in Bangkok. We had 4 foreigners in our church meetings yesterday from Australia. They originated from New Zealand and had the best accents I've heard haha. It was really cool to see them in their traditional skirt things that the men wear and stuff. And at the end, they gave us 1000 Baht (which is equivilant to about $40). As missionaries we aren't suppose to take money like that, but this man insisted that we take it to get something nice to eat. I'm thankful for him.

This week has been eventful. To start off, me and my companion locked ourselves out of our apartment not once, but twice! and both time my companion had to hoist me up so that I could climb on our balcony to climb my way up to the back door. It was so freaky, but I am thankful that we only live on the second floor haha. I also wanted to add something that I think Sean would get a kick out of. During our Correlation Meetings, we have a man named Bro. Wisat who is our Elder's Quorum President, and he has a lazy eye. And at first when we first met with him, me and my companion sat at opposite sides of each other in the bishops office and I could never tell who he was speaking to, because he can look at me on one end of the room and look at my companion at the other side of the room at the same time with his eyes haha. But he really is such a great man. He is organizing this American style barbeque to reactivate less actives and rejuvate the ward members. It's such a great idea. We also got word that our district is now Stake worthy!!! Meaning that when we submit papers, we will be able to become a stake! We are all happy about this, because you need about 3 stakes in a country to be eligible to get a Temple. And we already have 1 stake in Asoke. So we are that much closer to getting a temple:) Keeping praying for us, we are getting closer in other areas of the country as well to be getting additional stakes.

This weekend we had 2 more baptisms:) One was an investigator from the other branch named Sister Doughnut, and one of our investigators named Sister Ung. I don't know if you remember me talking about her, but she was the one who came to America and found Christianity there, and when she moved back, she prayed that Heavenly Father would lead her to the right church in Thailand for her. She was able to be baptized yesterday at 6:00 pm and what a special and spiritual time it was for all of us. Although she had to get rebaptized 3 times (the man baptising her was a very old man and couldn't get her down in the water all the way) she held on to faith in Jesus Christ and to his teachings. She believes with all her heart that she belongs to this church and she puts her whole trust in God. She's such an amazing person! I'm am so blessed to know her. The other day at a lesson with her, she brought a birthday cake for me and said that she felt bad that I couldn't celebrate it with family and that I didn't have a birthday cake on my birthday, so she bought me one. I'll send a picture. She is such a sweet heart and has such a pure spirit. She will be such an amazing addition to our branch. 

That's it for me here. We are seeing miracles everyday. I can't wait til we watch General Conference! Thanks for all your love and support. I really truly feel it everyday.

With much much love,

Elder Tanner

A Video of Elder Tanner's Arrival in Thailand!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWT9gsntqwc&feature=share