Why missionaries don't have pets

July 28, 2014

It's been quite the week.

We lost our mini. Sent her home in the arms of her mother. (Don't worry, her time was up.)

We both lost and regained the Palmer family to the beach. Remember how we were going to take care of their animals during the week? Almost killed half of them the first day. Went to open the door that first morning, and the key half broke in the dead bolt. Fish, frogs, and cat all trapped inside. So we spent a little bit trying to break in to no avail. That house is more secure than I thought. So we took an unplanned detour to a hardware store, and luckily they can copy keys that are in two parts. It just takes two people, so Sister Webb got to put on the safety glasses and help carve out a brand new key. New key, some graphite lubricant, and we were in. The Palmers never would have known if their new key didn't happen to be a new color.

We celebrated both Pioneer Day (July 24th) and Christmas in July (July 25th). One with a lunch at Riley Farms "the Tavern" (okay, so more colonial), and one with red and green skirts, Christmas music, and watching the classic re-enactment of the Nativity by the Tanner family. Coolest thing with the Riley Farm. So the Rileys are members of the church, and we texted Sister Riley to find out about the Tavern. Well, around check time the waitress comes around and is like "and don't worry about the check. (Sister Riley) took care of it." Say what?! Too kind.

The D family is set for the 16th of August! At least the mom and dad. And then the daughter wants to be baptized as soon as her dad can baptize her (not usual policy, I know. But they came up with it and we got special permission.) So she is set to be baptized the 22nd of August! The son has still not said he wants to be baptized (yet).

The Yucaipian heat is killer. And I'm in one of the coolest parts of the mission. I escaped a Ukrainian winter to plop into a California summer. Joy.

The Palmer's puppy was a fiend while they were gone. She liked to go find her pee-pee pads, and rip them up right in front of our door. Definitely too much energy, that one. I also spent too much time mediating a dispute between two dogs and a suicidal chicken. Hard as I tried, that chicken did not want to leave, and it was all I could do preventing the dogs from "playing" with it. This is why missionaries don't have pets.

Well, Sister Webb and I have both determined that that is about all we can think of.

Love y'all, and have a great week!

Sister Tanner

Like Walking into Heaven

The Makeevka Branch, located on the outskirts of Donetsk, Ukraine has a Facebook page that I check in on. They have posted updates on how the branch and the members of the church are doing there. Some weekends they are not able to meet in their rented rooms because of roadblocks or other dangers. Other weeks everything is fine and they have posted photos of a 12 year old who was just ordained a deacon, seminary graduates with their certificates, and the Relief Society sisters who visited a home for the elderly and brought them treats and some cheer. This Monday the following was posted on the page. The translation is by Google.

If we evaluate the spirituality of our sacrament meetings on 5 - point scale, over the past few weeks it exceeds 7. General grief in the country and personal experiences, all our senses sharpened, are evidence of the depths of the heart. You cannot hold back her tears when listening to the remarks of our brothers and sisters. At the meeting of the Society of Mercy were expressed condolences Luhansk parish, in connection with the death of a beautiful sister, Lyubov Burmistrova. She died from a projectile during the shelling of Lugansk. She was a wonderful person and temple servant. Due to the great destruction and lack of electricity and water, a lot of people are being evacuated from Lugansk. Our prayers are with you, brothers and sisters! - Feeling anxious.

I emailed this information to Diana on Monday and asked her if she knew this sister and here is her reply.

I actually got an email from Sister Reece today telling me the same thing. Sister Lyubov was one of my best friends in Lugansk. She was "Our Fearless Leader."  She is the one, who on one of Sister Reece and I's first days in Lugansk, went out of her way to walk us from appointment to appointment so we wouldn't get lost. I love her.
This is a picture of Sister Lyubov. She was one of the only Ukrainians who came to M and D's baptism. One of the few that fellowshipped them. 

July 21, 2014

So this has been quite the week. I'll hit the highlights.

Tuesday I got to go to a party! A Relief Society party. A California Relief Society party, which meant Pool Party! I enjoyed sitting on a chair on the side. Have I mentioned yet, that Yucaipa has some very wealthy people? This party was at such a person's home. Our mini missionary took many pictures, which you now have for your viewing pleasure. Let me just say, I have always wanted to go into the backyard of this house. Dreams really do come true.

Wednesday we picked up trash. We were going to go on the side of the road, and I was not looking forward to bending over ( I was really tired), but then we crossed the street, and found at the intersection a fence covered in zip ties, and other poster hanging trash. We spent about 1 1/2 hours cleaning it all off. We even had a young man from the ward see us, and go park to come help us. Sparks flew with our mini-missionary ;) That day we also inadvertently walked many miles to see a less active family who lived further down the road than we thought. Sister Webb and I's catch phrase has become "We walked FIVE miles to deliver... a note." But oh, have those notes done wonders.

Thursday we went to the temple! Well, actually, the temple grounds. We went with a family in our ward, and we took the D family up to the temple to do a lesson on the temple. We just walked around, and then took them into the front hall (a lady on the phone said we could do so), and then we had a lesson over in a little cubby on the grounds. The D family LOVED it. Especially the wife. She kept telling us that walking in was just like walking into heaven; it even looked like what she imagined heaven to be like, with men in white suits. It was AWESOME.

In other news, this week I have just been really tired, and I guess feeling the stress of it all. Any extra prayers my way would be greatly appreciated.

 And not to end on a bad note...this week we get to take care of all the Palmers' pets while they're on vacation! I'm actually way excited.

Love you all!

Sister Tanner

It is kind of hot in Yucaipa

Joined by "mini missionary"

July 14, 2014

You could say this week has been a pretty good week.

But first: it appears I may have emphasized dropped lessons a bit too much in a previous letter. Please do not think this has caused me any large amount of stress. It really is just a part of missionary life. I think due to a lack of other material to write about it may have been emphasized too much. Oops :)

But anyway...this week was awesome :) For one, and I failed to write about this last week, the Palmers got a puppy.  A little boxer puppy named Roxy, and it's been a joy to hold her and play with her these past two weeks. A puppy is the closest Sister Webb and I will come to holding a baby on our missions, so we hold her as much as we can. Pearl, the other dog, has had mixed feelings towards her, loving her one minute and trying to rip off her leg the next.

On Monday Sister Webb and I discovered a fruit stand. Not only was it cheaper fruit, it reminded me of Ukraine, which is great. And that evening we had an amazing lesson at the church with a new investigator. She loved the church building, and it was interesting to watch her walk around and look at all the pictures. It made me appreciate a little more the pictures we have, and also made me realize that I wish our church building at home had the amount of pictures the building here does. And then that night we had dinner with a less active family which loves to feed us massive amounts of Mexican food, and then loves to make me eat two helpings of dessert to make up for Sister Webb.

Tuesday we got a text from the Assistants to the President, informing us that the next day we would be receiving a new companion for two weeks. Sound familiar? Except this new companion was not from an evacuated mission, but rather a "mini-missionary." Apparently that is a thing around here. Teenagers can sign up to come out and "be" a missionary for two weeks, I guess to test it out. Anyway, Wednesday morning we received a new companion, Sister Contrarus. She's sixteen years old and from Highland, CA. I feel bad for the poor girl, because she "walked" into one of the most walking companionships in the mission (get it?) In fact, Friday morning we got permission and took her against her will to go get some good walking shoes. I also feel bad because her second day "in the field" was weekly planning, which meant she got to sit at a park bench with us for four hours. With the addition of Sister Contrarus, Sister Webb and I have discovered that we ourselves are weird, referencing lines from "The District" and Preach My Gospel often, and thinking naps are the ultimate fun. Oh well.

In other news, our consistent practice of teaching about the Restoration in 10 minutes came in handy Wednesday night when a lesson was set up for us at 9:00pm. Our extended curfew (if we have a lesson) is 9:30pm. And then the people didn't show up until 9:10pm. So we literally taught the Restoration in 10 minutes, left the rest to the members that were there, and booked it home. We shall have to do a follow-up lesson for sure.

Saturday morning we picked up trash again, and at one point a member came by and gave us lemonade. Good times :)

And Sunday was just perfectly wonderful, as all plans just seemed to work. Oh yes, and as I walked through the chapel to leave after a meeting, I met the Tanners of Highland I've heard so much about. That was quite the surprise. A man just was like "Sister Tanner...do you remember me?" And I had to admit I didn't, and then it turns out we're related. Pictures were taken.

Diana with Troy's cousin Pat and his wife Jolene

I don't know, this week was just really good because we were able to meet with people, and seeing the gospel bless their lives just makes you happy. Sister Contrarus was our lucky charm this week, as we got into several people's homes who we have not been able to see in a long time. It's just great to see people make good choices - the ones you just know will make them happy - because that in turn makes you happy.

 

So yep! All is well that ends well :) Love ya!

Sister Tanner

Flashback to Ukraine

July 7, 2014

What a week! I'll try to hit the highlights.

So Wednesday I had the ever so lovely opportunity to go on an exchange to a Young Single Adult ward. As I ate dinner in the home of two guy roommates with their friend who's a girl, and they talked about young single adult things and half flirted with each other, I felt like I caught a glimpse of Doug's life. Oh the joys of going home one day. I do not envy the sisters who serve there. :) I did, however, get to eat at Chick-fil-a and Jamba Juice because the exchange was in Redlands. So there are definitely some perks.

                                                                      July 3

Thursday we had Missionary Leadership Council/Conference (don't know what the C really stands for). It was an inspiring time as always, and both Sister Webb and I walked away with some ideas of how we can improve our area, especially our work with the members. It's all about working with the members these days - nothing will happen without members. Basically, my mission is actually preparing me to be a good member. Fun little miracle that day! So MLC is at the mission office, which means you can pick up mail. I had a package waiting, and I was wondering what ever it could be; open it up, and find a new journal! Which was awesome because I was literally to the last page in my journal.

That night we were at the park doing some bookwork, and a firework went off, and it triggered something in me. It was weird, but it was like this super fast memory of Ukraine, because they were always setting off fireworks there, but suddenly I was in Donetsk, not knowing if it was a firework or gunshot, and it was mixed with all the sad emotions of leaving Ukraine. Anyway, it was super fast, super weird, and suddenly I was in tears and apologizing. But then I was fine, like, two minutes later.

So then we had the Fourth, and you would think "oh dear, there are tons of fireworks on the Fourth" but we didn't see any. Yep. Our curfew was 6:00pm, and we were to be inside, weekly planning. But it was still a crazy awesome Fourth. We went up to Oak Glen that day, the beautiful mountainous part of our area, and planned to drop off some notes before going to a park bench to start Weekly Planning. Well, we were walking down this steep road after dropping off a note, when this little black bear starts following us. Actually it was a dog, part something, part pitbull, but it looked like a mini black bear. We kept thinking she would turn around and go home, but she never did. We got all the way down the road and crossed the street to our car, and she still followed us. So now we felt guilty, but didn't want to waste all the time and energy to walk her back up to her house.

So...well...the white handbook doesn't say anything about dogs in the car, so I opened the passenger door, told her to get in, and she just crawled right into my lap and we drove that little black bear back home. Opened the door, she jumped out, and that was that. Then we made it to our park bench to be surprised by the Palmers, the people we live with, coming out of a trail head. So that was a pleasant surprise that ended up with them buying us wonderful sandwiches and eating lunch with us. And then when we really settled down to Weekly Plan the storm clouds that had been threatening us decided to finally release their fury upon us in the form of golf-ball sized hail. You should have seen us trying to gather all of our things and dash to the car. We had to wait out the storm in the car, and by then it was time to go back down the mountain to normal Yucaipa. They also got some pretty heavy rain down there. We thought maybe we could see fireworks from our little house, but all we got was a beautiful sunset. I was okay with that :)

Saturday we picked up garbage. So our mission president wants us to be doing around 10 hours of service per week, and when there are no service projects in the area, we're supposed to go find a busy street and pick up trash. In our proselyting clothes. So we did just that, and had a great time. One guy told us we were either the best looking, or best dressed roadside crew he had seen (not sure which). We had several comments from members on Sunday asking what in the heck we were doing on the side of the road. Orange jumpsuits were suggested for future excursions. Saturday we also got to spend our dinner hour at a BBQ which the whole ward seemed to be invited to. When they learned we were using our dinner hour, it was announced the food would now be served so the Sisters could eat. Talk about embarrassing. But it was great fun :)

And then Sunday was just awesome. We had seven investigators make it to church, which is way beyond anything I ever could have dreamed of. We had an unplanned wonderful lesson with the D family. Some other great stuff happened. And that night we learned that Sister Webb and I are both staying! Can you believe a whole transfer has already passed? It blew by. But anyway, Sister Webb and I are both stoked we get to stay in the Yucaipa First Ward together. We were so close with so many things - we just couldn't get transferred. This next transfer is going to be awesome :D

Anyway, so a good week! Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

Love you!

Sister Tanner

                                                 English nametag has arrived

Week of exchanges

June 30, 2014

I have a problem. I live one day. And then another. And pretty soon I've lived a week, and all this stuff has happened, and then I sit down on Monday to write about it and it's all gone. So I apologize.

This week was the week of exchanges. Due to a scheduling mistake earlier, we had two this week. We've been trying a different way to exchange, where we exchange at lunchtime. Jury's still out on how we feel about it. But I quite enjoyed my time in Banning. Banning is a little less affluent than Yucaipa, so it was kind of like coming home (mission wise). Plus wonderful things happened. For example, we found six quarters on the ground, and three were state park quarters! I was so excited, but then I realized they were in front of a house, and here I knew was a test, because the Lord knows I started collecting state park quarters, and here were three, but they possibly belonged to the owner of that home. So we went up, knocked on the door, and asked the man if these were his quarters. Nope :) And he thanked us for our honesty. Score! So I got three guilt free state park quarters, and I gave the other three to Sister Swan to use for the car wash. Plus I had two awesome lessons with amazing investigators, got to eat dinner at an old people community club house, got an Oreo shake (remember - no fast food in my area), kissed (or got kissed by?) a parrot, AND that night we knocked on the door of a potential, and after striking up a conversation with her, I learned that she lived in College Park like me! College Park is where I lived in Atlanta. She even knew my apartment complex, because apparently her brother lives there! It was perfect :) Unfortunately that next morning Sister Swan threw up. Twice. Turns out so was the other sister with Sister Webb. Sister Webb and I actually texted each other at the same time saying our companions were sick. So we had to end that exchange a little early.

The next exchange I was working in our area, and it went a lot smoother than the last. It helps that we had a car this time, but I'm also becoming more confident. Highlights of that day included walking around in the sun and becoming dehydrated (waves of nauseousness = no bueno), and then becoming all better at a pizza party that night :) We were invited by the couple who we helped set up for their daughter's wedding, so I not only got to see the bobcat again, I got really good pizza. Lucky, lucky me. This exchange ended normally.

In other news, Sunday was awesome. First off, the son in the D family has been making us very happy with his experiences with the Spirit. He's started reading the Book of Mormon because "something just told him to" and this past Sunday he was alone with his grandparents, and again, because "something told him to" he took the initiative and looked up the nearest church building and then took his grandparents to church! And the husband was alone this weekend, but came to church by himself! I love the D family so much. We've had people praying for them, and for the son specifically, and they are working in big ways :) This Sunday was also wonderful because Sister Webb and I actually got to go to the patriotic fireside that evening. To our non-missionary peer folk around us it was clearly not the most engaging, but Sister Webb and I were eating it up. It was nice to just sit there...and enjoy.

One last fun snippet: this week Sister Webb and I also got to teach our favorite 94 year old recent convert C. Unfortunately signs of age are beginning to just now show, as he told us about five times (literally) that "well, I guess Jesus was the first prophet," and we had to keep telling him that Adam was actually the first prophet. We had a girl with us who leaves for her mission in August. Now isn't that just the thing to get you excited for missionary work ;)

Anyway, that was my week! It's crazy, but next week is already the last week of the transfer. Sis. Webb and I are hoping we get to stay together for another, but you never know.

Happy Independence Day! I certainly never expected to see this much red, white, and blue on my second 4th of July on the mission. But hey, I'm not complaining :)

Love you!

Sister Tanner

A Whole Year

June 23, 2014

Well, well, well folks. Little Sister Tanner ain't so little anymore. This past week I was haunted with memories of confusion, foreign languages, skirts, and brown hallways. Yes, the MTC. A place I entered exactly one year ago last Thursday. Can you believe it's been a whole year?! I can't. But then again, a lot has happened to me so maybe it has been a whole year.

                                                    Entering the MTC

                                               Tracting in Atlanta, Georgia

                                          Tracting in Lugansk, Ukraine

                                           Street contacting in Kiev, Ukraine

                                          Tracting in Yucaipa, California

I'm just glad I managed to throw off the little mission weight I gained in Lugansk. Walking for 6 hours a day will do that do you. And no, that number is not an exaggeration.

You see, Sister Webb and Sister Tanner didn't have a great deal of appointments this past week, so we did a lot of walking. Maybe too much. We do have a car, we just try not to use it too much. But really, we need to use it more because we are getting way too tired and sore by the end of the week. I have never had my feet muscles hurt so much. And this past week it got HOT.

This week I went on my first official exchange as a Sister Training Leader. Woot woot. I was with a brand new sister. Which means I have served in the Redlands, California Mission longer than she has. WEIRD. Because neither she nor I was cleared to drive a car we got to walk. All day. Luckily it was a cooler day. Poor Sister D - we stopped by the D family, and the mom and daughter were there. We had a good impromptu lesson with them, but during the little chit chat the mom had been going on about how she was just feeling old that day (she's not that old), and then Sister D is like "so do you have any grandkids?" This lady's oldest is 14. My face may have turned a bit red. But it was pretty funny. Also that day there were some men working in this guy's yard, and this one man was hacking away at a bush with a machete, and Sister D is like "I like your machete!" and the guy literally said "Why are you liking the machete and not the men?" Uhhh... So we kept walking, but then we had to walk by them again, and the same guy is like "You must have big muscles, you walk a lot." ...why? This is all in a Mexican accent, mind you. Anyway, also pretty funny after the fact.

In other news, again, I turned a year old, and Sister Webb bought me two donuts and then made me eat both of them right away because she is currently off sugar and didn't want to be tempted. They were delicious but two made my tummy hurt. I have also eaten many delicious apricots straight from the tree.

                        One of the perks of California is homegrown fresh fruit.

This morning we heard the sad news that the family dog, Pearl, had killed one of the baby chicks. Of course it was the runt. I can never look at Pearl, the chick murderer, the same.

                          This photo with Pearl was taken before the chick murder.

                                           The family chickens

On Sunday we had a lady who we just barely started semi-teaching come to church! She is a Seventh Day Adventist but wanted to check out our services. Seventh-Day Adventists are the nicest people ever, and actually believe many of the same things. In fact, this lady very much enjoyed herself, and said herself the services are very similar, and she felt right at home. Good, because I was semi-freaking out the whole time. Didn't help that Sister Webb and I were teaching Gospel Essentials/Sunday School (it went well). That night there was a fireside that we really wanted to go to, but we needed an investigator or someone to come. This SDA lady said she might, so we got to wait in the lobby and earnestly hope (because all our other investigators know each other they were all having dinner together. Or otherwise busy). Well, she didn't come, so we had to sadly get up and leave. One day, my ability to attend a social event will not be determined by other people's agency.

That is about it I think. Like I said, we walked a lot. But all is well in the neighborhood. The work is great actually. Hopefully I will have some exciting updates for next week :D

Love you!

Sister Tanner

Yucaipa landmarks

June 16, 2014

This week was an eternity week. Why was this week so loooooooong? Probably because we got dropped by three investigators, everyone and their dog was up at girl’s camp, the progress of those we're teaching flat lined, and we walked for four or more hours a day in the draining California sun. I would go to bed exhausted, and wake up exhausted still. Actually, one night this week I finished my nightly prayer, walked into our bedroom, and Sister Webb was passed out on her bed - skirt, shirt, shoes and tag still on. I don't think she meant to fall asleep, but she was passed out all night. I looked for the phone to plug it in that night but couldn't find it, and figured she fell asleep with it in her hand. Yep. Also, and I feel pathetic writing this, no one had us over for dinner this week, which meant we had to break into our little food stores (we don't really have appliances meant for real cooking) (they are living in a pool house), and had to eat tuna fish (Sister Webb) and PB&J (me) all week. When did I become so pathetic? Our house smelled like stinky fish and stinky feet.

We had an older woman in the ward come out with us for an hour one evening and all our plans kept falling through. So as we went from one back-up plan to another, she commented "I feel like I'm in a movie." We're just glad she enjoyed herself :)

Also, we discovered Yucaipa is the biggest small town ever, as all our investigators seem to know each other. And have mixed feelings towards one another.... Yikes.

But "wo is me" is over. This week is already looking to be better. The past week was just one of those where you go "that happened just this week? It seems like forever ago."

In other news, I got to enter a parakeet atrium this week. Basically a giant bird cage with parakeets flying around your head. I also got to pet two baby parakeets. Talk about wobbly heads. Fun fact: if you touch one, you must touch the others so as not to confuse the momma bird.

Sister Webb and I made sugar cookies at a member’s home to deliver to our investigators and other people we work with for Fathers' Day. Somehow I was deemed a sugar cookie expert because I used to cut out sugar cookies (with a mold) at Christmas. We attempted to hand carve ties, and even after I discovered a pattern to cutting, they turned out looking like rocket ship things with toothpaste (frosting) on top. But they still tasted good :)

On Father's Day I also came to terms with the fact that I learned how to EAT in Ukraine when I received a massive steak for Fathers' Day lunch and managed to eat the whole thing. Plus some vegetables and rice and an ice cream sandwich. And I still managed to be hungry later in the day.

To end, Sister Webb and I are pretty sure we're becoming Yucaipa landmarks. We always wave to passing cars as we walk, and more and more people are waving back. You can tell the members because they're the ones that wave first. :)

Maybe more happened, but I thought it happened last week. Or the week before. Or a year ago. Who knows? I did manage to write in my journal every night this week, so we can sort it out later.

Love ya! Hope you have a great week :D

Sister Tanner

Are you still teaching the D family?

We are still teaching the D family. The daughter actually went to girls' camp (so we couldn't teach them) but she loved it and even bore her testimony. They are coming along so well and they may go to temple square this week with some family friends (the ones who introduced them to us, and who come on every lesson). Things should pick back up with them.