Dear family of mine:)

First of all I LOVE LOVE LOVE that missionary plan. That plan is amazing! I loved everything about it! It had both learning, studying and going out and testifying and sharing. I want to be apart of it as well! I'm so thankful for you guys to be able to catch the wave!

We have new Thai family members at the house! It looks like things are going great there! I wanted to include something for them in this email:

สวัสดีครับครอบครัวสองคนใหม่นะครับ  ยีนดิต้อนรับที่บา้นผม  ผมช่อเอ็ลเดอร์แทนเนอร์  ตอนนี้ผมรับไข้พระผู้เป็นเจ้าที่ประเทศใทย  ขอโทษที่เราไม่มีข้าวเหนียวที่บา้น  แต่ว่าผมขอให้สองคนมีดวามสุขและลองคำสอนของพระเยซุคริศต์นะครับ  ผมรู้ว่ากับพระเยซุคริศต์สองคนและเพื่อนจะมีชีวิตที่สมบูรณ์นะครับ

Typing that seriously took me like four hours haha. But I'm super excited for them to come and learn about Jesus Christ! They are in no better hands then you guys!:)

This week has been crazy! We have seen seriously so many miracles and have been so blessed from the Lord. I truly feel that we are working with angels from the other side of the veil as well. I don't know if you remember the story about Brother Mang last week, but his story continues this week:) We had been teaching this man whose name is Mang, and he has been into illegal drugs and other stuff that have really damaged his brain. He was fully into Buddhism and everything and would always take the teachings of the Savior and pull them back into what Buddhists think. Anyways, we had no idea really how to teach him, but we soon realized that we aren't the teachers. As we continued to meet with him, he continued to change. His mind became more firm and retained more information. He lost his Buddhist ideals. We lost contact with him all last week, and were worried about him because his phone was off and only knew around where he lived. So we prayed and faith that we could find him. This last Saturday we started looking for him, and after about 1 hour, we were kind of getting down. My companion then had an impression to go back to this house that he had invited like 2 or 3 months ago and ask if they knew of a Brother Mang. We went over to this house, and out came our investigator, Brother Mang! He was able to get baptized yesterday and I just sat in aww as I looked at how much Jesus Christ had literally changed him. He had gone from smoking 10 times a day and being Buddhist, to loving the Savior and being clean. It just goes to show the church is so true! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are real beings, and although we can't see them right now, we know they live. This world has so many obstacles, so many things wanted and yelling for our attention, but I have learned that only by directing our full attention on our Savior Jesus Christ and on his teachings and commandments, can we have the MOST happiness. Jesus Christ can literally change ANY person, if they will but trust in him.

We were able to also see two other younger girls ages 17 get baptized. One named Sister Pen was struggling to know if this was really the right thing for her to do. One day, her family had run out of work, and so she decided she wanted to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help her parents find work. She said not 5 minutes later her parents found work and that was her answer. She is so great! 

I testify that the Lord is in the work with us. Please continue to not feel hesitant in sharing the gospel and helping these Thai sisters come to the waters of baptism. This is the most important thing in their lives. There is nothing that we can say or do to mess up the Lord's work:) I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers and righteousness. I know through God, all things are possible.

Love,

Elder Tanner 

Dear Tan Fam,

I'm SUPER glad mom and Sean had great birthdays last week, I was sure thinking alot about them and how grateful and blessed I am to be in such a great family. I love you all so much!

March is more than half way over! Where does the time fly! I loved hearing the story that dad sent about Sister Parcia about her relative on facebook. People have so many questions, they just don't know where to find it. If we can be the beacons of light that it talks about in the scriptures through social media, through examples at work and play, we can/will see blessings that come from it. People are now flocking into the church with little or no help from the missionaries. The work is truly hastening, and we are seeing it first hand. If you want some more ideas on missionary work, and what you can expect from the Lord in His work, you guys could read "The Challenging and Testifying Missionary" talk by Elder Alvin R. Dyer. Our mission has required all missionaries to read and reread that talk to better get acquainted with the work we are now seeing been done. The Lord is truly preparing people and there's not much we can do to mess that up. He just requires a willing hand so that he can work miracles through all of us:) It's so great!

I saw Sean and Jaimie's house they are closing on, what an amazing beaut it is! I'm so excited for them! And you are now adding to the family by getting two new Thai daughters as well:) Please do tell me where they come from and how more about them. I could maybe send some pamphlets in Thai or something to help them study the gospel more in depth if necessary. Also dad, could you send Brother Rogerson's email (the man you spoke of last week that you saw in the temple who had been a missionary with his wife in Burma)? President Senior wrote back and said that as of right now they are not allowed to proselyte, (sorry I told you wrong) but they are allowed to come together and build branches and things like that. President Senior said that he would be happy to receive any additional information.

This week I have truly seen that there is opposition in all things. We have an investigator named Mang who is currently ready to get baptized, but is still addicted to smoking. He is alittle brain dead because of illegal drugs he had done in the past, but he has changed SO much since we first taught him. He had been smoking about 10 times a day to about 2 times a day, then went 3 days without smoking and relapsed. He had set a baptismal date for this last Sunday, but had smoked before he came to church. So we are working with him for this next week to help him quit that. We have faith he can quit. Come to find out as well that he lives with an older sister of his who abuses him emotionally, which is the main reason of why he smokes. It relieves him, he says, but it's interesting to see Jesus Christ work with him and he now is striving to read the Book of Mormon to get those temptations to go away. There have been more than a couple times this week that I have truly felt pure joy because of being a member of this church. No other job or occupation can compare! 

I love you all so much! Thank you all for your righteous examples and prayers on my behalf. I need them.

much much love,

Elder Tanner