I sure do love "ull"!

"Ull" is how one of our investigators spells y'all:) Cool story about her and Bro. P, the two happiest people I know, literally. I've seen her get a little upset before, but the happiness comes back immediately! It's incredible, esp. despite the MANY hardships of her life. Bro. P has been through a LOT too, but i've literally never seen him upset or not smiling. Literally. It's amazing. All of this changed, on Sunday. Bro. P was crying and looked pretty darn sad, and our investigator came into Sacrament Meeting and I waved to her and she barely waved back, no smile. This crushed me. The combo of the two people whose examples of happiness affected me for the better the most...I was allowing it to destroy my spirits. It was almost too much. I couldn't believe this. Then we sang some Hymns and I started to feel better and I realized I couldn't let this get me down. "Not today, Zurg!" (Name that movie, easy one, I know.) I waved at her again, after Sacrament Meeting was over, and tried to be super upbeat when I talked to her. It seemed to help. She talked to Elder T, and he cheered her up too. Good guy. She and Bro. P were in our Gospel Principles class, and they had both cheered up again, thank goulash. But I wouldn't have let it get me down, not any more. I have to choose to be happy myself, I can't just rely on others good examples.

Lunch at the W's after church helped a lot too. I love them. I told them about how they remind me of Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell, they liked that. They're so great. I had felt bad, not helping prepare the meal the past few weeks, while the Sisters went right in and asked how they could help. So this week, I suggested to Elder P that we go ask if we can help, before the Sisters got there, and he agreed. So we went in and helped a lot. The Sisters did too, when they got there, and we all had fun making lunch. (Awww, cute! Right?) It really was fun though. Brought me back to making sunday dinner with Mama...yeah, that one time I helped. You might not remember, Mama. I love our district. We had tons of fun at the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford last Pday! We were the only ones in the museum...:) And after, we got to go to WalMart!! Woot. Best day ever. So much better and cheaper than the stores in Clinton.

Elder Tanner with his zone at the museum

Oh, quick sidenote, I think Ryan Innes is on this "Nashville Tribute" missionary CD that Elder Gardner plays in the car all the time. It rocks! I couldn't believe I was hearing my man, Ryan Innes again! I'm almost positive it's him. Anyway...

I saw a Mormon Message with David Tanner in it!! Elder P was watching it, it's new, called Daily Bread. It's by E. Christofferson, who's in Elder P's home ward. David's in the first of 3 parts. It's an incredible message too! I love it. The concepts of it have helped and blessed me so much here.

So, we haven't been having much success at all recently...except with S, but even he has been m.i.a. the past few days. He may be with his family somewhere for his sister's Quinciñera(sp?) though. So we forgive.

We taught a guy last night about forgiveness. our lessons with him always get back to repentance somehow. So we purposely tied it in last night. We shared an awesome Mormon Message from my DVDs with him about forgiveness. And I felt that I should bear my testimony of repentance and forgiveness. Man...that was an incredible experience. I can't describe how it felt, but it was amazing. If it didn't help him, at least it strengthened my testimony and helped me realize that I truly am a worthy servant of God, and an instrument in His hands. There's no better feeling, than to be in His control. So liberating.

Here's a short testimony I shared with my friend for her "Missionary Book" her sister's making for her, before she leaves:

This gospel is everything, literally. You can't escape it, no matter how hard you try. That sounds restrictive and harsh, but it's really liberating and comforting, if you know of it's truthfulness.
Repentance works, God will forgive us, and we can all change. Christ made sure of that. We will never be given a trial that is too hard for us. God promises that.
Missions are the best thing ever, so far:) I love mine A LOT, even the hard times. Because in and through our weakness, the Lord shows His strength.
I love the Lord. He is always mindful of us and all we're going through.
This gospel ROCKS!

I don't know why, but I felt like I should share that with y'all. And I didn't think much about what I wrote, it just kind of came. So...take it or leave it, I guess. Probably not the right phrase for that situation, but whatevs, right?:)

Al, we're going to wealthy areas this week!! It's amazing how many times that's come up since you wrote last week. We know that's what we're supposed to do. I'm so excited! It'll be hard, but awesome. We are having almost no success, so we pray this will help.

Man...this has been a looooong week. Monday seems like forever ago, but it went really fast too...weirdness. We had a Veterans' Meeting for all the newbs, like me. We went to it with the Woodward Elders, so I got to be with Elder B a lot! They slept over Tuesday night, so we could leave early Wednesday morning. SUPER fun. The Vets meeting was amazing too. I loved it. So good to see all my MTC buds again. They're all doing so well! And Pres Walkenhorst is awesome. Super goofy, but very insightful and wise too. I love that guy.

One investigator, F, sends us some funny texts. At least to me:) One day, he randomly sent, "Where's Joseph Smith?", then later sent, "I'm at the casino, reading my Book of Mormon." I love that guy. He used to have a baptismal date, then he went to Utah, of all places, with his fam, and we haven't been able to catch him at home since he got back.

We had an amazing district meeting with the ZL's, Elders G and Z, on Friday. Elder G goes home in a couple weeks and is very wise, and Elder Z is too, just has 5 months:) They taught an incredible lesson on the promptings of the spirit, even though they planned to teach about finding. I guess they followed the spirit..:) It really was amazing. If you haven't before, or if you have too, ask yourself how you feel the promptings of the spirit. I never really had before Friday, and it really made me think. I'm still not 100% sure. But it helps to recognize promptings better. Just do it.

Elder P and I also did exchanges with the ZL's on Friday. All 4 of us stayed in clinton, so we doubled the area. Which is hard to plan for, trust me, but it's great. It opened my eyes to a couple of things. There are a lot of different door approaches, Elder P and I were mostly just using the Heavenly Gift (a Pres. Taylor, the prev. Pres., thing where you pray with the people at the door in a special way, it's cool and works), and I need to be better. Don't worry, i'm not depressed or anything, I just need to work harder on a couple things, and Elder Z and I made some goals to help me. It was a fun day. I love those elders a lot. Good men. Elder Z said the apartment's much cleaner since I got here..:)

In D&C 35:12-14, it talks about missionaries "manfully fighting for God", and that made me feel pretty sweet action, not gonna lie. I'm manfully fighting for God...booyah.

We had a miracle with the Heavenly Gift the other day, a lady who didn't seem very intersted, even after the prayer, was very interested when we went back another day. she said her life's been much better since we prayed with her! I was like, Booyah! We know why! It was cool. We're going over to her house tonight.

Read the grace article by Brad Wilcox in the Ensign for September. It's amazing. Great analogies.

Well, I gots to go. I love y'all tons. I can't thank you enough for your love, support, and prayers.

Thank you. The Lord blessed me with literally the BEST fam ever.

Love ull,

Elder Tanner