Someone's A Senior!

Bedtime Story

"Once upon a time, there was a girl named Cinderella...

"And then the clock struck midnight!"

"Run home, Cinderella!"

bLaSt in A bLiZzArD!

Happy Birthday, Porter!

Sweet 16!

Letter #78

Dear Family,

You'll like this letter : ) though there won't be any photos as I left my adapter at home. . . which means that I'm traveling. . . and not a little. Since Wednesday morning I've been on the road, sleeping on the floor, teaching on the run, and baptizing on the fly!

Let's see if you can follow my route up till now:

Wednesday we surprised Elder Cummings and Pinheiro in Apucarana, arriving early and following behind them in the street for five minutes until they finally saw us. Pretty funny, our stealthy entry there. We promptly set to work and after a wonderful lunch I gave an impromptu training which has turned into something we are now passing on to the entire mission. We are revolutionizing the way the missionaries should work. Forget knocking on doors people! We had a blast with the only couple missionaries in our mission, the Limas, teaching them how to do contacts and then leaving them in the street to do just that - contacts. We stayed by the church and when it was opened up we began to bring families off the street to visit the chapel. #impromptuchapeltours! The President liked it and so now the whole mission is going to put it into practice.

Next we went to Maringá which has two zones and we spent Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday there working to help them uplift their zones in the best stake of the mission. All the while I have been breaking my record for most south EVER in my life : ) I spent all of Saturday with Elder Jouinsse, a simply fantastic missionary from Argentina. Sunday after church we caught the last bus out of there to Cascavel to meet up with Elders McGuire and Vergara. Six hours in the bus! quite the adventure. Then we got one more bus there for another three hours to get here, where I am now, in FOZ DO IGUAÇU! I'm very excited to be here of course. And as you may remember Foz has a very grand attraction that I will be seeing in exactly one hour : ) As cataratas, or waterfalls. . . . . . well, that's about all that's going on lately.

We are having great results from the mission even with the changes in rules about age and times in church. We are baptizing something like 600% more men and families than only several weeks before, and the faith of our missionaries is increasing and spreading like a wildfire. There are the inevitable growing pains from members to missionaries but we feel confident, really, down and hearty optimistically good, that everything is going to be great in this area as far the church is concerned. We have on the table four stakes to be created soon, four stakes that are on our drawing board to create within the year, some within months. President Genaro is the Man!

You are all incredibly wonderful. I got a package from the Duncans, THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I know my letter output is dramatically down but I promise I'll get back to you within the next six months ; ) Stay firm and be anxiously engaged in this great cause.

I was listening to hymns this morning ironing, (what else?) and I was struck by a phrase I've heard so often, "Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? ´tis not so, all is right. Why should we think to earn a great reward if we now shun the fight? Gird up your loins; Fresh courage take; our God will never us forsake. And soon we'll have this tale to tell, ALL IS WELl, ALL IS WELL!" Let us not shun the fight but dive in head first sharing the gospel, living the gospel, and making the decision to do what Jesus Christ would have us do.

I love you,

Stay tuned for pictures ; )

Tanner

With All Our Love

Dear Tanner,

Another week has gone by! Yahoo! Google! You're on the way towards home! Every day is one day closer to July! Not that you need to think about that right now, but every once in a while it is okay for this mother to do that! Since we'll be visiting New England in August, before you head west (BYU begins after Labor Day this year!), tell your office to fly you into Huntington, WV!

Your AP letter arrived this week from your President. President Lim also gave me his copy this week as well. Your letter arrived here at the home. Sawyer loved his picture! LOVED, Loved, loved your baptismal picture last week. What a sweet day! I'm glad your drivers license arrived. Hurray! And the eye doctor. Sorry for the pain, and headaches. I'm glad you figured out to go there! What a blessing for your vision to improve. It's been added to my blessings from your mission list.

Elder Cummings got an email from BYU about his ecclesiastical endorsement. I tried to check your email to see if yours had come as well and I couldn't answer the security questions. Assuming those are new, and you've been on your account, then I won't worry about checking?

I read a funny account of most unusual foods missionaries have reported eating. Imagine eating a meal made up of tarantula, goat brain, monkey, raccoon, worms and a hairy cow tongue. While you’d likely never see them all together in one meal, if you visited all the LDS missions around the world, you might be served each of these foods and more! You've mentioned several things that made my eyebrows raise, and I'm sure you have several more than we would find TRULY unusual.

Dad wants to know if you've eaten any popcorn since you've been in Brasil?

Your cousin writes of unusual things happening in France. This week was about one house that had too many animals. "She already has too many animals in her house. It's a zoo where all the animals roam free. It's terrible. Nobody wants to be stroked by a cat tail in the face in the middle of saying a prayer. Nobody." She cracks me up! No, I wouldn't want to feel a cat tail on my face while my eyes are closed!

Sometime during the week, little by little water usage was restored to homes affected by the chemical leak. Huntington actually had the contaminated river water go by this week, as it headed over to Cincinnati, but it was diluted enough not to shut off the water. 

We left off last Monday headed to the doctor to have Sawyer's finger checked by Cooper's hand orthopedist. It was broken, his right hand index finger. He cracked the middle joint growth plate. It was a clean break, so he just needs to splint and/or buddy tape his fingers together for a couple of weeks. And he is allowed to play basketball.

Monday Cooper found out he had made the all county band. Not too many seventh graders qualified. Out of the fifteen chairs for clarinets, he is the 14th! He's in and he's happy! His friend that inspired him to practice during lunch hour plays the saxophone, and is 2nd chair! Very good for a seventh grader!

Monday Hunter found out he was chosen for Fairland's senior salute. If I remember correctly, you chose not to apply for this award, much to the consternation of your mother. He received instructions on getting his picture taken, and an invitation to the unveiling ceremony.

Monday after school the three older boys went to the church to play basketball with three friends six missionaries. I love when they go, as they all come home SO tired! That's a good state to be in when you're a boy ;-)

This week and next Marshall University, in an effort to entice more faculty members to purchase memberships to the rec center, offered free memberships. Dad took everybody swimming Wednesday. They came home SO cold! Arctic weather outside, and cold changing rooms made the little kids almost hypothermic. Porter and Hunter went again Friday evening, and everybody went back Saturday late afternoon. It's turned into a cheap way to get everybody bathed! After having to run our water continuously for days, so it wouldn't freeze, my, water bill is going to be painful. so I'll take any help to reducing water consumption that I can!

Friday I went into Miller's school and read in his class. That's always a good time. I told the kids I brought a book about penguins and a book about polar bears, because they were studying them in their class, and one boy said, "How did you know that?" So I told him. I said, "Your teacher tells us everything. She tells us who picks their nose, who doesn't cough in their sleeve, and who forgets their homework. Of course she's going to tell us what books we should bring!" Their mouths were hanging open. Okay, maybe the 'picking your nose' was a little extreme, but so funny! I also met with his speech teacher. I've been concerned about his reading or lack of, as well as his tendency to memorize instead of read. I think Miller is dyslexic, and she agrees, so he'll be tested on Tuesday.

Today is Porter's birthday. His sweet sixteen! We haven't planned any party yet, and haven't even made a cake. I keep asking him what kind, and he won't answer! So we'll have the official celebration tomorrow evening. The kids are all off school because of Martin Luther King holiday, so we'll help him feel extra love some how. Dad had the men sing happy birthday to him in priesthood. That was a nice surprise!

Just in - Looks like the Superbowl will include the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks...

This week your grandparents traveled up to New Hampshire to watch the three Ortons play ball. Serious ball handling skillz up there, good thing we share genes ;-) This is the gang being a bit rowdy!

And for a World War II / Church History moment, I bring you the conversion story of the Uctdorfs. Both Dieter and Harriet Uchtdorf were not members by birth; rather, their families converted after the war. President Uchtdorf’s grandmother was actually the one to encounter Mormonism first, when she met “a wonderful white-haired lady with a kind expression on her face” while standing in line one day, queuing up for supplies. President Uchtdorf continues, "My grandmother was a religious person, and she was always interested in the faith of others. So this wonderful lady invited her to come to church, and she went. She came home and asked my parents to go with her. They all decided that the children should not go, because they didn’t want to bring four children in to disrupt the meeting. But when they got there, they were surprised to see that the church was full of children. So the next Sunday all of us went, and actually from there on out we didn’t miss a meeting. It took a while until we were allowed to be baptized, because we had to prove we were firm in the faith, but eventually everyone in the family was baptized–except me, because I was only six years old." The sister that would lead the Uchtdorfs to Mormonism held the last name of Ewig, which means “eternal” in German!

Harriet Reich Uchtdorf has a slightly different story. She spent the war in the relative safety and comfort of rural Germany, but moved to Frankfurt afterward, where “things were very difficult. Food was very hard to find”. One day, a “blond, smiling soldier” walked up and gave her a piece of chewing gum. She recounts, "I had never seen anything like it. I looked at my mother, and she said it was okay to take it. So I had this little piece of chewing gum, and it was wonderful! I just chewed it and chewed it. After a while I said, “You know what, Mom? It’s still there!” I had never had chewing gum in my whole life before, so I didn’t even know what it was. My mother explained it. I kept this piece of gum for weeks. After chewing it for a while, I always put it back in its nice silver paper and kept it like a treasure. Every so often I would take it out and chew on it a little, but I saved it for a long time." Harriet Uchtdorf talks about knowing that these soldiers meant well, even though they had technically been enemies only a short while before. Years later, two missionaries come to the door, “smiling like that soldier.” Harriet had “such a positive feeling when [she] saw them, as if [she] was connecting them with the chewing gum that the very kind and nice American soldier gave to [her]”. Her father had passed away almost a year before that, and although her mother hadn’t wanted to the missionaries to come in, reading the Book of Mormon brought joy and light back into her life, and the Reich family was baptized four weeks later. These are great stories. Love the fact that the little things people did, like have a kind face, and a smile, because the gospel is suppose to make us happy, made all the difference.

As I read my seminary lessons each day I'm not thinking, "What would help Tanner?" But once each week, only once, on one of the days between Sunday and Thursday, while reading in the scriptures, I'll receive an impression that this is the thought you need this week. So this week's impression happened while I was reading Alma 13. In the words of Elder McConkie, "Some of our best information about the Melchizedek Priesthood."

"And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption." Meaning, that Melchizedek priesthood holders - through their ordination, their example, their teachings, the ordinances they preside over - everything they do - points towards Christ.

"And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works...called with a holy calling...to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest." What a privilege to be one of the few with this power and trust and responsibility.

"And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance." Because you too have experienced this great anxiety and pain makes me love you even more for the love you have for the Brasilian people.

Have a wonderful week! We love you dearly!

Mom and Dad

Driving Lessons!

Princess History Lessons

Wound Care

Cubscouts were lucky to have their nurse visitor teach them the ABCs of first aid...

helping them to make a first aid kits...

and taught them how to close wounds with butterfly bandages!

Letter #77

Dear Family, 

My what a time we've had this week! Baptisms, meetings, lots of pondering, deadlines, more pondering, and plenty of food. Not to mention a package each from the Lozadas, the Bachs and home. Today we will eat pancakes for lunch and my companion voluntarily bought bacon and eggs. It's going to be good. Good to have a break : )

Last week we killed our p-day to prepare for the leaders counsel and to have a war council with president. All in all, we will be doing many different things because that's what it takes to reach new levels. Already we've begun to see some results both good and bad. For example, our efficiency this week in terms of what we said we were going to accomplish with what we actually accomplished was spotlessly perfect, but with some of the new rule changes, going into play this week, what we accomplished was a little low. But I'm very optimistic with the results, and am very excited by the growth available to us in our mission. There are stakes to be created, cities to open (that will open!), and lots and lots of families to find and baptize, bringing them into the fold.

The brother of the young man who is leaving for his mission in April and who has been a member for ten months, was baptized this week, along with his wife. They had gone to church for the first time last week. How they have changed in six days! They have riveting testimonies and are bold to share them. We had a very successful turnout at the baptism as well, with more than fifty present, some investigators and lots of family and friends. 

Two young men who were baptized three weeks ago, also were interviewed for the priesthood and came to church in white shirts and ties.

Also this week we had our leaders counsel. The word for this one was material. Lots and lots of new material and rules, and work to pass on. We took a break in the restaurant which as you saw, I enjoyed. This is one quality buffet! I ate there again this week when we returned to the city for my eye exam. . . Speaking of which I went to the doctor for the first time ever in Brasil and it was interesting. Try filling out technical terms in English with a Portuguese doctor.

All in all there was nothing third-world about the visit, except that they dilated my eyes about 10x the necessary dilation which turned me into a very cartoonish missionary, which is not a problem. You can always break the ice with this :) but it was a very, very sunny day and they didn't have those disposable sunglasses we so often take for granted at home. Sooooooo, I held my companion's arm for ten blocks until we got to the mission office, effectively blind and in some pain. Note, we can't bear glory as Moses learned, without first being transfigured. I had a little too much glory in me so I passed out in the office for a couple of minutes until my eyes returned to a more normal level, allowing us to continue our journey. My companion took advantage of the pause to update numbers on the computers. Beware the eye doctor.

Good news from this you may ask? My vision has improved GREATLY in the mission, from 20/50 to 20/25, almost eliminating the need for glasses at all. With glasses I was seeing like 20/10 or better. This explains why wearing my glasses during the day was giving me nausea or tiredness, sometimes headaches. They were way too strong. This is one trend I hope continues. Also, I will be able to drive when I get home having received my new drivers license.

Having to change in some part the way we're working has led to a greater effort to work with members. What was before giving more headaches than glasses is becoming slowly but surely a blessing as we learn to work as one. Our greatest incentive is to follow Pres. Costa's advice who advised us to help the members invite friends and family to Family Home Evenings in their homes. We did this, helping them make invites, a cake, then delivering the two together. He promised significant results if we did this. We have five Family Home Evenings marked for this week, and I'm excited to see how this first wave of efforts turn out.

We also had to take care of some disciplinary things this week resolving problems between some elders. Not too fun. But I testify that the Lord helped me to resolve them and guided me to bring peace to the mission. That we have the right to this revelation I have no doubt and I was thankful for His divine help in my hour of need.

Not much news I know but this week will be great and I'll have plenty of things to share. I think we'll travel during the week, probably beginning with the zone of Elder Maguire. . .in Cascavel. Going south, baby!

LOVE YOU,

Tanner

P.S. Haven't gotten the Duncan's box yet, but I look forward with anticipation as I expect to finish my journal in two weeks or so.: )