Go Be Awesome...

Well this week was pretty good. 

Both of the baptisms fell through due to the Law of Chastity and the Word of wisdom. One will be able to be baptized this week if all goes well, and the other the following week if she keeps doing what she needs to do. My comp and I have been getting along a little better, so that is fun. 

There has been a lot of hate coming towards me for just being American, so that is also really fun. When I talk, a lot of people ignore me or will answer to my comp instead of to me. Then they will talk about how everyone from the US is racist. The worst though is during prayers--they will pray for Elder Angeles, and then just say nothing for me. They won't say please 'bless the elders', but will say (with a lot of emphasis) 'please bless Elder Angeles' with stuff.

But hey--that's alright because I can only be accountable for my own self, not for others. And its kind of fun.

This week was honestly so incredibly boring though. We honestly didn't have anything exciting happen to us at all. The best thing was that we found a few new people to teach, but no where near how much we wanted. It's not that we weren't working, it was just that every house was shutting the door on our faces, or they just listened and said 'No', or they said, 'Come back tomorrow and teach me another lesson', but then they are never home when we do return. But that's alright--when we push through these hard times we will be blessed.  So that'll be amazing.

I've started to read and study talks and write little reports on them. It takes me awhile because I like to really dig deep and think hard on the talks. The ones that I have lined up to study are, Your Happily Ever After, The Witness, Broken Things to Mend, Finding Joy in the Journey, Hope You Know We Had A Hard Time, and a few others that I cant think of at this moment. But I encourage you all to go and watch these talks because they are all so incredibly beautiful and teach us a lot of important things about life, the Atonement, and Comfort. 

One thing I have learned is to not take life for granted.  God always has His hand extended and we realize that when we reach out for it, we never walk alone.  (...and a lot of other stuff)

That is really all for this week.  Sorry that it is so short. 

I hope you know that I always love you guys and will always do anything for you guys. You are all awesome and God loves you all. 

Church is true--Book is blue--go be awesome. (Trademark Sister Anne Bagley)

Cool Story...

Well I'm officially half way over with my twelve week training--so whoop! whoop!  We ended up not having any

baptisms this week, so that wasn't fun.  Why, you may ask? I have no idea why to be honest, but we have 2 for sure

this week (and 1 more 'probably') so that's really good.  Also we figured out that our 'Golden Investigator' has a 

lot of problems with 'Question 4' (like with all parts of it, if you know what I mean).

On Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Olson (the one from the CCM), and I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. 

We both don't know a lot of Spanish--which actually was a blessing because we learned a lot that day. It started 

off with me and the zone leader actually.  We went and had breakfast and after breakfast he remembered he had 

to do interviews today with some investigators and needed the district leader to do them. So the district leader came 

and I was then put with Elder Olson. The day started off kinda slow, but we found one new investigator and his wife--so 

a family--and taught them a completely Spirit-led lesson on the Restoration. We then went to another investigator's 

house that has had cold feet for baptism because he doesn't think he has received an answer.  So me and Olson taught 

an amazing lesson on revelation through prayer and scripture study.  The investigator then agreed to pray about it and 

read, and said that he probably already knows its true by the way he feels while Reading the Book of Mormon. After that 

we went to comida (lunch).  That was really, really rough!  It started off with me finishing my noodles (and already being 

full) when they asked 'quiere mas'?   'No, No está bien hermana. Elder tenemos mucha comida'. 'Okay un poco por favor'. 

So then I ate that and I'm already about to puke.  She then puts two of the nastiest hamburgers in the history of the 

world on my plate and I down one and gagged like twice. After that I had one Burger left.  Keep in mind these burgers 

aren't really even cooked at all  (like the cow's still mooing).  And it (no joke) took me like 30 minutes to finish this last 

hamburger.  Afterwards I literally could not move at all because my stomach was on fire.  So we left the house and went 

over to some bushes and I just puked like half of it out because I felt like I could not move.  After comida we went out 

and contacted like crazy.  We don't really know how many people we contacted but it was an extreme amount.  We also 

taught ten lessons after lunch!!   So yeah, that felt so incredibly amazing.

Cool story about that day though. We were going to our last appointment and we knew exactly where the house should 

have been, but it wasn't there--it was actually abandoned. So we started asking people where the house was and (this 

was for like two hours).  We would also contact these people as well.  So anyways, we were about to give up when we 

decided to ask this last house. The mom walks over and we ask where the house is, and she says its the abandoned one 

right over there. We then say well Hermana Somos Misioneros de la iglesia de los santos de los últimos dios o mormones 

usted sabe sobre nuestros iglesia.  She said she knew a little and we both got an extremely strong thought that we 

needed to share a lesson with her. So we shared the Restoration with her and her family of five. At the end of the lesson 

we asked if they would like to be baptised and they all said yes!  We ended up not actually finding the house but we 

found a whole family ready to hear the Góspel!!!

The only bad thing about the day was that at night Elder Olson forgot to pay the electric bill so we had no lights and 

no clima which was extremely rough.  So we moved all of our beds downstairs and slept on the floor.

That is really about it for this week.  I'm doing good. Love you all.  Pray for you all.  No joke--its like a twenty minute prayer 

every night. 

Have a great week! 

Love you all.

This week was pretty good...

This week was pretty good but not as exciting as last week--so that was a bummer.
The week started off with us hardly ever being in our area at all because our district
has a lot of baptisms coming up so we had to do all the interviews. So we really only
were in our area for probably 2-3 hours a day until Friday. We actually got along pretty
well this week so that was exciting--hahaha.

My Spanish is getting better and better everyday so that's also pretty darn cool.

So first experience:

Sunday I had to give a talk on the Gift of Tongues--all in Spanish. So that was super different
for a few reasons. First reason is because I had to write the talk myself (which is difficult in English)--and 
even harder in Spanish. But I trudged through it and wrote it during the sacrament hahaha. It involved
a lot from Preach My Gospel.  I did a lot of reading straight from that and from a sheet of paper. 
I also told a story about the Gift of Tongues that I had in the CCM off the top of my head (absolutely nailed it). 
After the meeting people came up to me and told me I did a really good job--so that felt really good. 
On top of that they said they were completely ready to strain to understand me, but when I was talking 
it was really really easy to follow along, even when I went off the top of my head. So boom!!--the 
Gift of Tongues!

Additionally, we had a good chunk of investigators at church this Sunday--so that was good.
One investigator (Silvian) randomly showed up as well, which completely surprised us all. She then told us
she wanted to be baptized this Saturday!  So that's cool.  We just have to get permission from her mom
who is really opposed to Mormons. 

Second Experience:

I believe it was Saturday or Sunday (not really sure--days are getting blurred together and rush by). Anyhow
we had to go meet with the Hermanas from Technologia when a drunk guy came up to me and started
speaking "English." All he was saying was "what's **** good my ****  ******".  I said, 'What do you want?'
Anyways, it kept going and going and I started to get really annoyed.  He then started saying, "Call my sister,
beat you up.  She, she beat you up."  I said,  'Cool.  Don't care.  I'm busy.'  Then he said some really
inappropriate things about me and his sister.'   I said,  'Not gonna happen'. Well that kept on going 
and going, and I kept getting more and more annoyed, and my comp wasn't doing anything really--just 
encouraging the guy.  So I finally ended it and walked away.  (anticlimactic ending).

Third Experience:

Well the devil is definitely real. So we went to do an interview in Cordova, and it went well so--whoop whoop!
The Hermanas asked us to go back to their house because they were having a problem. Well we went and
got talking and they said they believed a not-so-good spirit was in their house. We asked why and they said,
'Well our neighbor worships el diablo (the devil, a lot of people here do). So this causes problems for a lot
of the missionaries for clear reasons. We then asked where do you think its the worst at and they said
their room. So we went up to their room, and when we walked in I just felt this terrible feeling come over me--
like there were literally weights on my shoulders (like it was bad). I look up--it was literally like the stuff in
the movies. There was this massive black shadowy outline on part of the ceiling that clearly wasn't 
from something like a water mark. It was pretty freaky.  I was always skeptical of this type of stuff--
but I now believe it!  Anyways, we pronounced a blessing on the house, and I still felt like crap, but 
my companion was refusing to give another blessing--even though the Hermanas were practically begging 
him. So I was just sitting there when I heard a voice practically 'yell' at me telling me that we 
needed to do another blessing. so I told my comp to shut his mouth and that we were doing 
another blessing. The Hermanas asked me to give it. So I said, 'Yeah, but in English'. 

When I was giving the prayer it was the strongest time I have ever felt the Spirit in my life. You know how in the
scriptures it says they were 'consumed with the Spirit'...and 'talking with the Spirit', and stuff like that?
Yeah--that is what was happening with me when I was giving that blessing. I don't really even 
remember what I said.  I just remember a literal burning in my chest and in my eyes. When I ended the 
prayer we asked the Hermanas how they felt. They told us they felt way, way better, and way more 
peace and comfort. And here's the freaky part--I looked back up at that spot and it was completely white--no 
difference in color at all. 

I assure you that there will be more of these experiences; more once I leave this area. Every missionary tells me
that its like a massive problem in Veracruz.

So that is all for this week really. This Saturday we will have 2-3 baptisms in my area. And for the next four weeks
we will have at least 2-6 baptisms a week--so that's pretty exciting. I hope all is well with you guys and I love you
all.  

Have a great week

A Week of Close Ones!!

So a little back story--the Mexican government only imports oil from the US, and they only have one gas company. So this week the US raised the cost of gas-so for every litre of gas its an extra 2 pesos (roughly 10 cents) I think.  So everyone started freaking out and it is just a mess here. 

So the problems started at Plaza Americas on Monday--literally like 2 hours after we had left there. A mass of people stormed the mall and stole literally everything--like literally everything--from every single store. There isn't a single thing (not even a piece of candy) left in the mall.  Tuesday and Wednesday it stayed in that area of Veracruz  (by the port)--I'm like 45 minutes from there.  On Thursday it had finally reached my area (Reservas). So we go out at 2 because that's when we are allowed to go out and we get called back in by 4. In those two hours a lot of stuff happened. First thing that happened was that we saw Aurura get sacked. So what they do is get a large group`of people outside the certain store and they all get rocks and through them through the windows (or tear the metal doors off). Pretty awesome.  So we walked past that and then we get the Pharmicia Guadalupe and there was another one--but this one even worse--like bloodied up people and people on the ground covered in blood (but not dead). and then we are walking down the street and my companion is talking to the President because he is now leader of the district. And a taxi pulls over and asks us if we need a ride.  We say 'No'.  They keep insisting we get in, but we stood our ground and just walked.  Well that seems harmless, right?  Well, President asks what just happened and we explained, and he said, 'You guys need to get home right now--like as fast as possible'.  Turns out that the drug cartel or gang here play a little game. So they pull up in a taxi and ask if you need a ride. If you get in the go (bad things happen). So that was the first close encounter this week. So we jogged home.

Well, the second one was in the back side of Reserva 3.  The people here have been cutting down trees so people (mainly government vehicles) can't pass. And in all the main entrances there is around 20 or men with some knives and weapons. We were passing one of these areas on the back side of Reserva 3 to visit the pantojas when we got stopped. The men started to spit on me and yell some stuff that I didn't understand (cuz its Spanish), but my comp says they were death threats. He had a sharp 'object' against me as well. Well, anyways we get past them and the family is not home.  So we turn around and go back the same way. We stopped and said a little prayer for safety, and when we passed the people it was as if they could even see us. We walked right in the middle of it all and not a single person glanced in our direction or said a word to us. So 'boom'--answer to my prayers. That day we were home by 1. It then happened again right next to my house (well, every day this week we have been home by at the latest 6).

On top of this all I'm getting blamed for this! :)  All of members and non members. We went to the ward missionary leader's house and he said, 'You know who is responsible for all of this, right?  I said, 'No'.  He then pointed at me and said, 'You guys!'   I didn't say anything because I didn't want to start anything. But it has been coming from everywhere and has been happening to all the Gringos here.

There is nothing at any of the stores.  So me and my comp go to our lunch appointment and eat as much as humanly possible, and then go a full day to our next appointment and eat again. haha Pretty fun if you ask me.  However, we haven't been able to work all that much because of the situation and having to be home really early. And we had to close like half of our area because it isn't safe for me.  And when we do get to work it is good, but I get a lot of hate. 

We usually teach 5-7 lessons a day.  I'm hoping to bump that up to 8-10 a day.  We have 11 baptismal dates set.

All in all this week has been good--and really entertaining. I have seen God's hand in keeping me and the other Gringos safe here. None of us have been harmed yet--so that is good. hope all is well with all of you guys and have a great week love you all.

Hello Everyone

Hello everyone,

I am sorry to hear that it is so cold where you are at. However, I would rather have extreme cold than this amount of heat 24/7. To put an idea in your mind about how hot it is here let me tell you one of the new rules of our mission. We are required to carry around a rag at all times to wipe away the river of sweat coming from our foreheads. The heat is absolutely killer, but hey I' come back dark as night I'm hoping.

This week was goo--still difficult with my companion--but hey, God gives us challenges to grow from. New Years Eve and New Years is a pretty big holiday here, so we had to be home no later then 8 o'clock. It was so incredibly loud that night. There was a party right outside our window and music was blasting. On top of that, they were letting off the loudest fireworks imagineable. So when it came time for bed I said a little prayer that Heavenly Father would help me sleep and let it be silent. When I put my head down to fall asleep I didn't hear a single thing--only the thoughts in my head. I fell asleep so quickly. When I woke the next morning my companion asked me if I had just as miserable of a night's sleep as he did. I told him 'No, I slept like no other'. He aksd me how that was possible considering it was so incredibly loud the night before. I said 'lo siento, I didn't hear a single thing.  Last night was as quite as church mice'. So that was awesome just seeing how God answers even the small and simple prayers in life.

A few more cool things this week. I made us contact every single time we were walking from one appointment to another. And there was one house which I knew we needed to contact, so we went up and started talking to them. It turns out that the daughter had recently been baptized but no one else in her family was. We started talking more and more and the whole family of 4 decided to take the missionary lessons--so whoop whoop! 

The second thing that happened this week was that I had another feeling to go and talk to this mother and her hija. Well it turns out they are members and had recently moved in, but knew nothing about the ward or where or when church was. We told them all of that information and then said we gotta go cuz we gotta be home by 8, but we will be back tomorrow. We went back and the girl had 20 referrals of all her friends for us--so whoop whoop!

Third experience this week. We had a feeling to go talk to one of the old investigators. When we got to his house he wasn't there, but his sister was. We talked to her and taught her a lesson. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she excepted the invitation and is super excited.

This month we will be helping to baptize 9 people, if not more.  So that's really awesome. We already have 3 for February--so whoop whoop! 

During one of the lessons this week on splits the casa next to us got into a fight. Well we heard gun shots and one of the guys had killed the other one. Then yesterday we were going to an appointment and when we were walking we saw another guy shoot a guy across the street.  So life is interesting down her. 

That's all for this week. 

Love you all. 

Adios

Tanner Hall