Dear Family!

I'm glad you are having a great January! Haha I can only imagine all those pictures from the times of yester-year haha. And now Sean is going to be able to take pictures of when he is a new father. I still can't get over the fact that we are adding to our family! The next email I'll get will be that Hayley is getting married or something haha. Oh boy, let's hope that doesn't happen for at least 5 to 15 more years;)

This week the Sakon Nakhon Branch had another baptism! The other 2 Elders in our district found a lady about 30 years old and began to teach her. She is an only child and didn't have any problems with the commandments. We still don't know the exact number for baptisms this month, but when I find out, I'll let you know. We have faith that it's 200+:)

This morning I was reading in Mosiah 28 and 29 about the Sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger as well. I love that story because it's easy to compare with our lives and the lives of investigators as well. In the chapters it says that after their experience with the angel, being converted, repenting and learning of their true mission in life, they were desirest to go and teach the Lamanites. Many people thought it foolish of them to even try, but they remembered what they had felt from our Savior. It says that they wanted to go and help the Lamanites come to a realization of the truth because they could not stand to bear that one person would perish and be damned. What desire they have! They had that desire because they were the "most vilest of sinners" before but with the infinite mercies of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, were aloud to come back and start over. As I read that, I started thinking about mercy. I can't comprehend His mercy for us. If it had been me, I would be done with myself along time ago, because I make the same mistakes over and over. But Jesus Christ is so different than us. He sees us how we can become and when we think of the times in our lives where he has really been there for us, when we have felt his presence close, our hearts can be filled with gratitude and our desire to go and visit that less active member we have been meaning to go see, or act on that prompting from the spirit the first time we hear. I love this gospel because it's a "pay it forward" mentality. We receive, then we want to help others feel the same as well:) I'm so far away from being good at this, but I have felt mercy from Jesus Christ in my life and know it makes me want to share this message with others:)

I love you all so much! I hope you guys have a great week and continue to be happy, because you all deserves to be happy!:)

love love love you all!

Elder Tanner

Hello Family all the way from the Great Kingdom of Thailand,

Well today I about fell out of my chair when I got an email and picture from Sean saying they are expecting!!!!!! I at first thought it was all a huge joke, that he somehow photoshopped something haha, but now I know it's for reals! Can you believe it! So many things are changing it feels like! I'm going to come home and have an additional member to the family. How crazy is that! I gave Sean some advice about names, I heard Jameson was a really good one;) I'm so excited for them. Mom and Dad will now be grandparents, and we will be uncles and Hayley will be an Aunt! How crazy is that!

I'm glad to hear that everything is going great for the family. Hahah even after having some mix ups on Sunday haha. Thank you all for your wonderful emails!

This month is going great! We just had a baptism yesterday. His name is Brother Egg about 22 years old and he was a man we met inviting at the park. We went up and asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he told us that he actually was thinking about changing religions like 2 weeks previous so he said he was really interested. We met him about two weeks ago. We inviting him to a branch activity night at the church, and first he said he couldn't go because he had work, but miraculously he showed up, talked and played with the members and was so accepted. That was three Saturdays ago. We invited him to church, but he said he couldn't go because he was working. The following Monday he called us (which is very very very rare for somebody to do) and asked if there was any other branch activities going on that night. We told him that we wanted to teach him more about the church and he agreed. And the rest is basically history. He came last Sunday to church (1/12) and felt the Spirit so strongly. He began praying and reading the scriptures daily. In one of the final lessons, we asked him about his reading in the Book of Mormon and he told us that he LOVED it. He opened up to 1 Nephi and told us that when he read a verse about the Lord providing an opportunity for Nephi to do what needed to be done, he felt that the Lord was really giving him a chance to finally get it right this time. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom, he was pretty addicted. But when he made up his mind to not drink one day, he said it cleared his mind and he could feel the Spirit and he didn't drink anymore after that. He was baptized yesterday and shared the most beautiful testimony I have heard.  He began to cry as he told the congregation that when he prayed he really truly knew that Heavenly Father loved him. And he hadn't been the best of people in his life, but he felt that he had really been forgiven for everything and that he was ready to follow the Lord through everything. It touched me so deeply to know that there are people that are so ready for baptism. We met him two or three weeks previous and now he has a strong testimony and it's building. After church was over, he helped us teach another investigator and bore a great testimony about the Word of Wisdom and was looking up scriptures in his Book of Mormon that he had. He has only read to 1 Nephi 10, but something sparked his mind to search through the scriptures and find something that he read before. Heavenly Father has BIG plans for Brother Egg in the future. Whether it be a mission, or a Stake President, he has tasted of the love of the Savior. I know he's a day old convert, but I want to be more like him. I want recommit myself to our Savior. 

Our mission has 102 baptisms as of 1/19 for the month of January. And next week we have 110 people more as a goal to hit 200+. We cannot do it without Heavenly Father. That I know to be true. My fear is that I will become prideful and trust in my own strength and lose it all. I know I am nothing, but when we the instruments, are in the Hands of the Master, each of us can play as beautifully as he needs us to be. Please continue to pray for us, Thailand and our investigators. How humbled we are to know that our Heavenly Father knows us, sees us here in a little town in Thailand and loves us. I love this work so much!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and faith. The Thailand temple isn't that far off. The Thailand people need it so bad to return to Heavenly Father. This is His work and it's moving forward. We can help in many ways! I love you all so much!

Much Love,

Elder (soon to be uncle) Tanner

Dear Family,

First, if you could give Grandma and Grandpa a big squeeze for more for that Christmas present, that would be awesome. I am for sure sending them a thank you letter, as well as for Brent too. He did not have to do that either. How my life is just full of good people and good examples. It's awesome to hear of that Elder who came home from Thailand. I think I know who it was. I've seen him before but hadn't had an opportunity to talk with him. He was one of the first missionaries to open up the Laos area there. It's definitely an amazing opportunity for him. Even though they couldn't preach the gospel out in the streets, the branch there still flourished and there are converts each month in Laos, which goes to show that no country or land can stop this work from progressing. It's inevitable.

You're guys Sunday sounded quite eventful! I'm so grateful for my friends who come to waffles! How is Jake doing? I haven't heard from him in a long time! Wyatt soon leaves on his mission to Taiwan in March too! Mom, thank you for that email, that's exactly what we are focusing on our mission now. Obedience so that we can see miracles and I'll touch on that later on. But thank you for sharing your thoughts. And dad, President Senior actually had us read about the Israelites and the Midianites to see the miracles that happened to them when they repented and showed faith. I am so grateful for our latter day Prophets. When I read their words I feel so safe and I know that this plan of Heavenly Father's will lead us straight home. It's in our behalf, we can't fail:)

This month, President Senior has set a goal to have 200 baptisms here in Thailand in the month of January. That's something that has never been done, but we know we can do it, because the Lord has helped us in the past. He has told us to pray and expect miracles and they will happen. He also told us something I thought was very interesting. He said before these miracles come, we can expect to see some MAJOR opposition from Satan. And we are starting to see that here in our area. Some people are now fighting back with words and anger when we explain about baptism. Our investigators all have a slight problem that delays their progression or makes it so they can't be baptized quite yet. We had an investigator set for yesterday to get baptized but hadn't gotten his marriage papers signed yet, so he couldn't get baptized yet. Just things like that that we all have never seen such crazy opposition before. Which means at the end of this month we are going to be seeing miracles left and right. Please continue to pray for the Thailand Bangkok Mission. We cannot do this without the Lord and His mercy.

I also had an embarrassing experience while I was inviting. I was talking to these two women, but first only talked with one. The one on the left was not interested, and so I asked if this was her mom (the lady on the right) and suddenly she looked offended and said, "THIS IS MY FRIEND" haha they were both the same age, I just guess I am super bad at telling ages here. They both looked really similar so I thought that they might have been mother and daughter but boy was I wrong haha.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. Please keep them coming. Send your faith our way, because we need all the help we can get this month:)

Love,

Elder Tanner