Elder Tanner's email 11/2/14
TIME NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN!!
This week was quite an awesome week!
I
don't have much time cuz I was reading a few LONG emails from President
Ames... He's so spiritually in tune and such a great support! He told
me "Your brother's doing well" And I was like "You talked to him??"
Then he said no but Tyler's mission president was his counselor at one
point so I was like "Oh yeah!". Then he said "Ya, he said that our
Elder Judy is perfect, then I said...'No, OUR Elder Judy is perfect!"
So that kinda made me feel ON TOP OF THE WORLD. haha
We
had a great district meeting this past Wednesday! The assistants
came! It was kinda verve racking. One of them came and sat in with me
and Simmons as we role played a lesson point. He thanked us for how
well we work in unity and was really impressed. He called us later that
night and just thanked us more sincerely and said he was so impressed
with my progress as a missionary 2 months out. He said he has never
seen a missionary that new, know the doctrine so well and have the
humiliyt to take the intruction and go with it and said how well Simmons
has done training me(: I take NO credit for that compliment btw it is
ALL Simmon's work) He said he was really grateful to see our unity so
that was really awesome.
We almost wrecked Thursday
cuz this guy had a TRAIN HORN on his car and went past us and honked
it. It scared me SOO bad. hahaha I laughed cuz I straight almost ate
it cuz I jumped so much. Simmons got mad at him ha.
We
got our first referral! We contacted them and the husband was SO nice
and gave us his number to set up an appointment cuz his wife was
nursing. Sunday night we were in the are and decided to sop by but as
we turned down the street we saw a car just pulling out. We were like
Crap. Then the car stopped and the wife was also SO nice. She said that
she was sorry she was going to the store to get medicine for her boy but
gave us her number to set up an appointment! So we will see how that
goes!!
Saturday was amazing. We taught Kenny and it
started out with him telling us he was really sad but he couldn't come
to church with us cuz his friend was holding his bible hostage til he
came to church with him to get it back. He said he felt bad cuz the
only reason he'd go to his friend's church was to get his bible back.
We were really happy/sad to hear that! We taught him about the Joseph
smith story and how it took faith to START the church. We gave him encouragement to commit
to the church he felt was right. He told us he for sure felt like this
church is right. We asked him if he'd be baptized and he paused "...well obviously the answer is 'yes', but how can I be ready?" ...YYESS!! We were so happy!! So we committed him to the 29th.:)
We had a great fast Sunday. Elder Simmons and I both felt the spirit so strongly at sacrament meeting.
Our 2nd counselor talked about how when we come unto the Savior he will
make our burdens light because he has already suffered for them and
wants us to come unto him. It just takes trusting him to do so. I felt
the spirit very strongly when he said that. I felt like he truly knew
and had felt the redeeming love fo the Savior in his life.
I
re-learned one valuable lesson for sure this week about success. I
came on a mission expecting success to be measured by how many lessons I
teach/ how many people listen to me/ how many people I make cry with my
testimony or something. Tis not so. Success is measured in many ways
but in the end it can be simply defined as progress forward. "Success
is measured by viewing the progress we make in moving forward."
I
also got taught by Elder Simmons about charity. When the Savior came
back and was on the shore of Galilee, he asked Peter "Lovest thou me?"
"Feed my sheep". 3 times the Savior was testing the love Peter had for
him before sending him out to do what he had to do . Knowing that his
trials would be really hard, he asked Peter if he loved him. I wondered
'why'? Simply, the answer Simmons gave me was, charity never faileth.
charity is the pure love of Chirst, right? Put another way, charity is
the pure love we have for Chirst because if our love for the Savior
increases, such will our desire for others to feel His love. I learned
that when I increase my deep heartfelt love for the Savior, my love for
those areound me will automatically follow because I feel of Christ's
love for me and desire to share it.
God is good, hurrah for Israel!!
Elder Judy
I
emailed Tanner before he got off the computer. I told him that it
was fun to hear that Tyler is doing well. I asked him if he missed him.
He wrote back...
Yeah, I kinda do at times, but it's ok! I know he's doing his best and that means a lot to me!
I'm outta time, but I love you! And I'm praying for you! Thank you so much for the package! I LOVE the Iowa hoop!!
He also wrote to me...
I
love you so much mom! I thought about the day I left a little bit and
I'm so grateful that you were strong enough not to cry but to rejoice.
It's been a strength to me for sure.
I love you!! I hope your sub job is going well!
Elder Tanner Judy
Part of Claine's letter...
I'm
so glad to hear about he unity you feel in the family. I've been
praying for you guys and I'm so glad things are going well!
I
had a good experience with an exchange the other day. We went on a
double exchange. He's a younger guy probably late 20s. He was pretty
real with me about how Simmons and I have his complete trust and he'll
gladly give anyone of his friends to us cuz he loved how we had a plan.
I had 3 other names to see other than the one we wanted to see.
I've
really been working on charity and just like you said...teaching from
the heart. So, thank you for increasing my testimony on the importance
of that.
I loved that experience you had! It totally makes sense to me! It really makes me want to do better day by day.
I
thought about the day I left a little bit the past few days and now
that I'm about 3 months on my mission, I'm so glad for the spiritual
growth I've received and the knowledge of how much deeper the atonement
goes in our lives. At the same time, I can't believe where time is
going!! It scares me! haha But the work is going well and the gospel
is true and restored to the earth. That much I know.
Thank you for your letters! I'm working on responding better you and to mom, then writing my email to everyone else!
Love you! Have the best week ever!
Elder Tanner Judy
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