Lotsa Stuff!

Dear family and friends,

Lots of stuff from this week, so let´s get right to it:

I don´t think I´ve talked much about my branch president.  His name is President Diaz, but EVERYONE calls him Pionner or even President Pionner for his printing business by the same name.  Why he named his business Pionner? I have no idea.  But he´s super good about just getting out and visiting people, and is always really blunt and straightforward with what he says.  Anyway, he´s been getting really animated about the lack of full tithe payers in the branch, and has turned tithing crazy.  Every lesson, whether it be with a 40 year member or the first visit to a new investigator, it´s tithing.  Every time he stands up in church, to speak or just to direct the meeting, it´s tithing.  If you weren´t a member of the church, or familiar with the doctrine, you´d think he was living off of it haha.  It´s getting kinda out of control, but his intentions are right at least!

I read a quote this week by Joseph Smith, saying that we will never receive an answer to our prayers if we don´t understand who we´re praying to! That we have a real Father in Heaven, with a body of flesh and bones, who hears and loves us.  There´s something to work on with investigators!

The elementary school here is super different.  For one, there´s a billion projects!  Like science fair times 100.  The poor kids literally study at least 6 hours a day! It´s a pretty different education system.  The other thing, is it´s a whole lot less politically correct.  Example: this week, the local teacher (a member of our branch) took us to the home of her 7 year old student to teach him and his mom.  Can anyone imagine that happening in the US without a huge uprising??

We had a fun first lesson this week with someone we found in the house of a less active.  This lady was a recently converted Jehova´s Witness.  There are lots of those here, by the way, and I really respect them actually.  Most of them are very polite and dedicated to their work.  This lady was super sweet as well.  We asked if we could share a message with her, and she agreed.  We began talking about the restoration, like always, and all went normal, until we got to the part about Joseph Smith.  The first time we mentioned his name, she got this huge smile on her face and said, "Oh that´s right! I was just reading about him in my bible the other day!"  ....It seems that the Jehova´s Witnesses are hasting the work by adding Joseph Smith History to their newest version of the bible.  So that´s good news! ;)

I think I talked a few weeks ago about this, but the thing that stresses me most about this work is just the fear of not doing it well enough.  It´s so important! If someone chooses not to accept the gospel out of their own agency, there´s not a whole lot we can do about it.  But if someone doesn´t accept it because we dropped them before they could, or because we didn´t teach with enough power or clarity, or because we didn´t work hard enough...that stresses me! One scripture, however, that has comforted me this week, is the famous 1 Nephi 3:7.  I often thought of this scripture as teaching the truth that in order to not give us commandments that are too hard, Heavenly Father will change or alter the commandment.  That he´ll look at us, his children, and say, "Well they can´t handle this, so let me change it to make it easier...there we go."  Of course that´s part of it, but I failed to learn the lesson taught about the Savior and His atonement.  Maybe Heavenly Father will never give us a commandment without preparing the way, because He already has prepared the way! The Savior is the way! His changing power and grace is unlimited, and every person on this earth can keep every commandment given of the Father by relying on Him.  So even if the commandment to "go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" is daunting, the qualifying power of the atonement and Christ´s magnifying of our weak efforts is even more hopeful.

Well...that about covers it.  Hope you all have wonderful weeks, and we´ll talk to ya next Monday! Thanks for all the emails and pics and everything, they really make my week!

Love, Tanner

You're from Utah, right?

Dear family and friends,

We´ve had a week full of service! Wednesday we cleaned the walls of a chapel here; that turned into a water fight pretty dang fast.  Friday we moved firewood (everyone cooks with propane gas or on open fires) and Saturday we did the good ole "Helping Hands" service, or as it´s called here, "Manos que ayudan."  You can go to gngwhitney.blogspot.com to see pics haha.

Stemming from that service was an interesting drama.  To make a long story short, we had to deny a refreshment that the members had prepared for everyone involved in the service.  Boy oh boy, the members got pretty offended haha.  All day Saturday we were hearing, "Why didn´t you guys eat the refreshement??" It got pretty big haha, all for nothing.  The District President is going to have a talk with the zone leaders and everything! Hopefully it doesn´t affect our relationship with the members too much, especially because the only members there were from our branch!!

One funny thing here: the little kids.  Many of them like to say, "Hello," whenever we pass by.  They think Elder Ricse is North American too, especially for his non-latino last name and the whiteness of his skin.  I´ll be honest, if I saw him in the US, I´d think he spoke English too.  Add the missionary tag and it´s a done deal.  The thing that´s even funnier, however, is the responses of my companions.  EVERY COMPANION I¨VE HAD (all latinos)  has been lightning fast, way faster than me, in responding with a "Hello" of their own!  It´s a funny sight: two latinos, walking in Perú, greeting each other with "Hellos", while the only one who speaks English remains silent.

Elder Ricse and I had a neat conversation this week.  We got rejected kinda harshly by a referral we had received.  As we walked away, he said, "Let´s just let Alma and Amulek teach them in the spirit world." It was funny, but it got us thinking...do you think they´re back together?? Then we started thinking of all the powerful companionships that are back together, doing the work on the other side of the veil.  "Alma and Amulek: The Comeback!" would make for a pretty sweet movie;)

One of the craziest things of the mish also happened this week.  I was standing, minding my own business, buying a flashlight, when a girl approached us and began to talk to my companion.  I didn´t think much of it, that is until I heard, "You´re from Utah, right?".  I was so shocked to hear someone speak English! Next question: "You´re the Mormons, right?" It was some girl from Chicago here doing something with Peace Corps...I think.  It was so weird to speak English with a non missionary though! The first time that´s happened since I got here! So that was funny haha.

Haha sorry for the lack of spiritualness this week.  The work of the Lord continues.  Shall we not go on in so great a cause?? I love this experience.  What a unique opportunity! Talk to you all next week!

Love, Tanner

Hmm...

Dear family and friends,

To be honest, not a lot happened this week.  Hardly anything actually.  I always hated it when missionaries said that so sorry! Haha I´ll do my best...

Also, fun fact: the song that the choir sang to close the Saturday Morning session is the same song the district choir is singing here! It´s such a sweet song! Now if only I could download the dang thing from LDS.org, it´s not working...

We had interviews with Presdent Rios this week.  Solid as usual, nothing much to report there.

Being a district leader is proving to be fun.  I have one other companionship in my district, and they just can´t seem to get along.  We´ll have to see what we can do this week to try to improve things there.  It seems to be the traditional situation, with one solid, obedient elder who´s got a red and white personality, with another elder who doesn´t seem to care to much about anything.  Haha looks like an interchange this Friday!

The conference was so good, as always.  I was literally awaiting it as if it were Christmas this year.  I have no idea why, but I was so excited!! Like counting down the days excited! And of course it didn´t disappoint.  For one, two days of physical rest, not to mention spiritual renovation, are always welcome.  I could go on and on about talks and quotes and all of that, but I´ll let all of you take from it what you will;)  For me, it was and always is an impressive evidence of the restoration of the gospel  through the prophet Joseph Smith.  A church, based on a book, and restored by a 14 year old boy, having a worldwide conference broadcast in all sorts of languages and to all kinds of countries! Covenant makers from all over the world, gathered to hear the words of living prophets and apostles! It just has this spirit of the restorarion that I love, every time it comes around.  Now I´m going throught the post-Christmas depression, the "6 more months??" feeling.  I´m pumped to go back over the talks though and really go in depth!

Sorry for the lack of material this week haha.  Love you all tons and will talk to you next week! 

A Priceless Duck

Dear family and friends,

What a week! We started out with a bang on Monday.  I´ve talked quite a bit about the Pereda family, a family that I met in March when I got here and was able to participate in their baptism.  They´re 5, Carlos the dad, Isela the mom, and sons Carlitos, Mathias, and Rosita.  I have really come close to that family, kinda going through a few ups and downs with them and witnessing their conversion! It´s been a really cool thing.  Anyway, on Monday, we had a FHE with them and talked about Alma 32. Keep in mind, this is a pretty poor family, one of the poorest I´ve met so far.  They somehow came across 11 ducks in May that they´ve been raising to be able to sell and make some money.  Well, as we were about to leave on Monday night, they said, "Hold on Elderes!" as they walked out with 7 plates of duck and invited us to eat with them.  The first one they´ve killed, and they didn´t sell it; they wanted to eat it with us! Wow, that was a humbling moment, and one I´ll probably remember for a while.  And it was awfully tasty too haha.  I thought lots of Ammon´s words, " Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us." 

The other big thing that happened this week was the chance I had to participate in two baptismal interviews!  The first one was with an older sister on Thursday night.  The other elders in my district, and my branch, taught her.  She was a super duper Catholic lady! To the point of having one of those statue saint things in her house, always looming in their lessons! None of the ward members thought she would progress at all.  Lo and behold, she was baptized Saturday, and bore quite a sweet testimony after her baptism.  I was kind of cringing with all the members and leaders at the baptism and their "Wow, I NEVER thought you´d be here!!", but it´s true! Heavenly Father is truly working with all of his children! That was sweet to be able to talk to her for a good hour in her interview and be a part of her baptism.

The other interview was Friday, of an 11 year old boy.  A little different than the first one haha.  I love kids! That was a fun thing, and we actually saw him get baptized in the same service as the first lady.  

Mmm...I think that´s about it for the week.  We had a fun zone training on Tuesday about the use of the Book of Mormon, and a sweet branch council yesterday.   The members of the branch are so pumped about missionary work after seeing lots of baptisms this past month.  They were all throwing out names and offering to go out with us, so we´ll do our best to capitalize on the momentum and see what we can do this month! The branch, and the ward mission leader in particular, have come a long way since March.  If I did nothing else in this area, what a blessing to be able to be a part of that kind of growth and establishment of the church!  We were pretty excited as missionaries yesterday.

Thank you all so much for the emails and pictures and words of support and everything! I take a picture of every email I get, and read them multiple times throughout the week! I´ve been so blessed to be surrounded by such loving people.  Have a super week, and I´ll talk to ya next Monday!

Love, Elder Tanner Hart

From the head to the heart

Dear family and friends,

The biggest event of this week was Tatiana´s baptism!  Many of you may remember when I told the story of my pensionista´s (cook´s) son´s motorcycle accident and death a few months ago.  About a month after his passing, his wife-but-not-legally came to us and asked to meet with us.  We taught her the restored gospel for two months, and Saturday she was baptized.  She whispered, kind of to herself and kind of to Elder Ricse as she went down the steps into the font, "I never in a million years thought I would be here." But there she was! The other elders in our branch will be baptizing her aunt and cousin soon, and then all in in the retention effort! She´s super excited for the Women´s session of conference this Saturday and our district temple trip on October 15.  So that was sweet!

An update on the district choir: things are getting out of hand haha.  Sister Whitney was reminding me of my Grandma Hart, trying to teach this teacher, as best she could in Spanish, how to read music.  The teacher didn´t really think much of her advice...that´s when Sister Whitney started to be a little bolder and the Grandma Hart side came in haha.  But it´s pretty crazy, she´s got the poor choir doing all sorts of crazy things, then five minutes later she changes it up.  It´s all be ear!  Then, she asked me to play "How Great Thou Art" for her as she sang a solo.  When she got to the third verse, she asked me to play it in a minor key, because that´s how they do it in a version she downloaded off the internet.  Um, I´m not my dad here, I don´t just "switch to a minor key" whenever I want haha.  The members are such good sports though, and it actually sounds decent.  Especially when I turn the piano volume all the way up;)  The song is "Si la vía es penosa," a really pretty song actually, but one we don´t have in English.  Look it up.  

We met with a less active this week, and her husband showed up.  We´ve taught him before, but he never had any interest.  This time, however, he opened up.  He started crying as we talked about how the gospel blesses families, saying how he never had any sort of a family.  He´s been on his own all his life, and now feels like he wants to just follow Christ and be happy but he doesn´t want to be wrong in choosing "his church."  Wow.  The Lord prepares people.  We had a sweet lesson with him just about Christ and his gospel.  Now, I feel like Nick Kurtz in the BYU Cincinnati game last year (I had to get at least one reference in haha).  Wide open, in the end zone.  It´s right there, he´s so ready!! I know as we continue to trust in the Holy Ghost and teach him truth, and as he acts on what he feels, he will come to feel the truthfulness of the gospel.  

To close: the theme of my mission seems to be experiencing things that I already knew before, but that I had never felt.  Getting the gospel from my head to my heart, as Sister Oscarson said.  Many times, I shared in talks or scriptural thoughts about Christ with the fishes and loaves, and how Christ has power to magnify weak efforts.  Well, here I am, experiencing that first hand! I was kinda discouraged this week at one point, just for the amount of people that we can´t teach basically, when the Holy Ghost reminded me of that.  What a comforting principle! As we give ALL we have, it´s enough.  Christ can magnify our weak efforts to meet His purposes!

Love you all, and hope you have wonderful weeks.

Love,

Elder Hart

Tatiana's Baptism

Transfers...

Dear family and friends,

Dang.  I normally come into these emails kind of prepared with a few things I´m gonna say.  I´ll be honest though...this week I haven´t thought once about it.  So this will be straight from the hip.  Here goes.

The biggest thing of the week was Flor´s baptism! The marriage on Thursday was a success.  I had the thought, "2 years of waiting and doubting for that??"  Haha a little ceremony from the local judge, a few signatures, and that was that! Hopefully her husband will feel the Spirit touch his heart and listen to us more intently, so they can experience a temple marriage and sealing down the road.  I´m sure they´ll find it a lot more gratifying.  Then the baptism on Saturday! It was programed for 4:00, and due to a dance festival that her daughter was in that got delayed, she was baptized at about 6:30 haha.  It was worth it though.  That daughter got baptized right away after hearing the missionaries two years ago, and has been waiting for two years for her mom to take the same step.  We could wait 2 hours for her.:)

I read a really simple verse that for some reason impacted me this week,  It´s in 2 Nephi 26:30, "But the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion." It´s so simple, but I love the principle! If you´re gonna labor IN Zion, you´ve gotta labor FOR Zion! If you labor for money, or recognition, or pride, or any other reason, it´s not the right reason!  Pretty applicable to missionaries.

Our laundry lady this week not only gave us our freshly washed clothes, but also a whole 9x13 pan of this pudding cake stuff.  But we were worried the ants would get to it, so we took my towel and made a little hammock and hung the desert from the ceiling overnight.  It worked perfectly. We had a pretty tasty weekly planning.  

We got transfer news last night! Or we should have, but they killed us and made us wait until this morning! We were on pins and needles all night waiting for the phone to right, until we get a text at 10:30: "Thank you for your patience, due to difficulties we´ll be informing you about transfers tomorrow." I slept very uneasily haha.  One of the assistants did call me last night to let me know that I will be a district leader this transfer which I´m excited and overwhelmed about.  But I didn´t know where.  Until this morning when they let me know that....Elder Ricse and I are staying together one more transfer! We were so pumped, we high fived and would have hugged but I was sweaty from running the stairs all morning haha.  We´re super excited for what this transfer holds though.  For example, we found a family of five yesterday that seem really solid.  Safe and sound in Virú until October 23 baby!

Love you tons! Thanks for all the emails and pictures! And for not mentioning the BYU game too much.  Things haven´t changed...

Love, 

Tanner

The hanging dessert

Peruvian Idol and BYU football

Dear family and friends,

I gotta start with the cougs.  I know I´m on a mission and I´m in Perú, but I just have to say I´m pleased with the performance (from what I´ve heard of course), and that Saturday night I was thinking ALL NIGHT LONG about the game.  I even dreamt about it.  Just shows me that I´ve got a long ways to go still, that even here in the middle of the Lord´s work I´m obsessed about a silly little game.  That being said...this week may be even tougher.  At Utah.  Will my prayers make it all the way from Perú? ;) I´ll send a few pics of gameday, after daily planning.  Here´s to college football.

On to the real work now.  It was a great week! We´re still working closely with Flor, who´s got her marriage date all set for this Thursday, and will be baptized the following Saturday.  Friday morning we were running all over the place, from city building to city building, finishing up with a few documents that we didn´t know we needed.  It´s kind of a fun experience that I didn´t expect to have before my mission, but that I´ve now done twice: organize the mission papers for a couple. It´s surprisingly easy, and kind of unsettling, how all of the papers can be done without the couple actually being there.  They just give us their ID (it´s called DNI here) and we do the rest.  But that´s exciting that after 2 years of investigating, she´s finally mustered up the faith to get married and baptized!

Elder Ricse and I nerded out hardcore this week and talked about how it would be if there were mission stats.  Examples: daily distance traveled, most productive hours, luckiest ties, indicators after meetings and trainings, correlation between time spent studying and progressing investigators.  It was quite the conversation.  Send me other ones, I want to hear your ideas haha.

Yesterday, I was asked to support the district and play piano at the district choir practice.  I was like, "Oh yeah, that´s fine, whatever." We show up, and there´s this singing teacher there! That´s a little weird...but no problem.  She was doing these exercises to warm up their lungs.  Well then, she starts doing these audition type things to see where everyone´s at.  One by one, with me at the piano playing the C scale and these poor, great intentioned, humble people who just wanted to sing in the district choir trying to follow along.  They don´t use A B C for the notes here, they just call them Do Rae Me.  It´s a good thing I´m a Sound of Music fan or I would´ve been completely lost;) It kinda felt like American Idol, when they had auditions.  And also in the Top 12 when they went and had one on one practices with the famous people.  Peruvian Idol.

I read in Preach My Gospel this week, something like, "the gospel of Jesus Christ will solve almost every problem we have." Any problem we can think of, the true answer is to have faith in Jesus Christ, place our lives more in line with his will through repentance, make and keep covenants, and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  To any problem!! Man, I know a little more how Alma felt in Alma 29 and the sons of Mosiah in Mosiah 28.  We have a solution to all the world´s problems!! It´s so sad sometimes, people don´t know what they´re rejecting! But, I´m just as grateful to know such a perfect gospel, centered on a perfect person.  Shall we not go on in so great a cause?!

Love everyone.  Hope your weeks are stupendous!

Elder Hart