11/8/11

Hey!

Its weird to hear you are watching the 4 oldest of DeeAnna's kids,
that's all of them isn't it? For some reason I don't see Dad staying
up till 2 though, as much as he loves those kids.

I don't blame you for listening to Christmas music. Walmart was
playing it the other day. It's a nice break. I love MoTab, but I
think I can just about list the order of the songs on Elder P's
CD's without too much trouble.

As for me, it's been an interesting week. I did a lot of service.
There was a guy stalled out on the side of the road one night as we
were headed to an appointment, so we decided to stop and offer him a
push. The funny thing about Pennsylvania, its all hills, and of
course the closest gas station was up and on the opposite side of the
busiest street in New Castle. So we rolled up our sleeves and dug in
our toes. We were just about there when someone else pulled over and
offered some help. He had a gas can that someone else had given him
when he had stalled out. So the guy was able to fill it up and his
car worked. We were saved!

Also we helped some members and less actives put up a barn in their
yard. All the framing was up so we just put up the walls. Sometime
this week we will get to help put on the roof. Along with this I've
been able to help out at the Habitat for Humanity a couple times.
They keep us busy, and those houses can go up quick. It was a little
interesting though when a reverend came and read the blessing. That's
alright, because we had everybody sing "I am a Child of God" earlier
that morning.

Probably the biggest thing I've learned this week is the power of
commitments. We have been way too lenient with our investigators, and
they progress very slowly because we don't follow up well. That is
about to change. Especially because T and H are the only
investigators we are still meeting with. We are trying to get the
branch to take more responsibility. We shouldered a lot of it and it
didn't do them any good. So we are backing off, which means I might
have to actually start tracting this week. Somehow I've made it this
far and have been tracting more outside of my area on exchanges with
other missionaries than I have inside.

That's about it for me, I'm still working on finishing off your
package. I just got your letter so I will be able to read it tonight.

I love you so much, keep doing great!

Elder Tanner Newey

10/31/2011

Hey Dad!
>
> As far as my bike goes, its that $500 we had to pay, so I get to keep
> it. It's pretty nice, hopefully it will last a good long while. I
> still have the same companion, we get to work together for one more
> transfer. I guess I never explained it before, but there is a new
> program, where essentially I will be able to train at the end of this
> transfer. For 12 weeks each week is broken down with what we are
> supposed to study during companion study and what I am supposed to
> start doing, like leading lessons. My trainer went through the same
> program, so he has only been out three months longer than I have.
> It's a really great program, it helped me adapt a lot quicker.
>
> Sounds like you are all doing good and keeping busy. I'm glad Reid
> had a good birthday. That's really cool he was able to finish the
> Book of Mormon. He's farther than a lot of people are out here. He's
> going to have a lot of fun. Wow, so now you have a kid in all the
> quorums up to you. No wonder they made you young mens president, they
> need you to keep an eye on them and make sure they're not breaking
> into houses, haha.
>
> So I'm doing really well, there have been a lot of cool things going
> on. Yesterday President and Sister S came to the branch to
> teach the third hour. Everybody was pretty excited and Elder and I were running around like crazy. He offered to lead our branch council too. They showed the branch all the ways to use mormon.org,
> and all the cool new things to do. Now they allow everyone over the
> age of 14 to create a profile, which I highly encourage. There are a
> lot of people on there, even a few who are famous. I saw that Brandon
> Flowers even made one. Blake will know who he is. That's been one of
> the biggest things we've been pushing, and we hand out cards for the
> website like crazy. The website is just awesome. Another cool website
> he showed was youth.lds.org
>
> Along with mormon.org, the main point was Rescue, finding not just
> investigators, but even less actives who have wandered off. Some of
> the greatest missionary work comes because of less active work. We
> found our star investigator because of a less active member. He
> showed videos from Preach My Gospel (which you can also order, and I
> suggest that as well, they are amazing) and the video where President
> Hinckley talks about the three young men who helped the pioneers
> across the Sweetwater river. By the end everyone was ready to go and
> the Spirit was strong like crazy.
>
> After that was over he met with our investigator, T. She is the
> one found because of a less active. Its a cool story. It all started
> back about the first or second week I was here. One of the members
> took us to visit his niece, who is less active and was living with her
> three kids and boyfriend who is not a member. While we were meeting
> with them the less active said she wanted a temple marriage so we
> started teaching her boyfriend the lessons, and we thought he was
> golden. He was just soaking up everything we told him like a sponge.
> At one point he even asked us when he could be baptized. Then all
> sorts of crazy things happened and the boyfriend ends up getting
> kicked out of the house. Turns out the niece really isn't interested
> so we have since stopped visiting her, but the boyfriend wants us to
> keep teaching him. He was staying with some friends and they said it
> would be ok if we came over, and they wanted to know if they could
> listen in. By this point we are going crazy. Here we had J, the
> boyfriend, just ready for baptism, and he is handing us more potential
> investigators. So we get over there quick as we can. We start
> teaching J, but soon his friends end up dominating the conversation.
> T and H, the friends, had a lot of questions.  H is
> T daughter, and they have been through a lot in their life.
> Because of this T told us she was agnostic, she believed in God
> but had too much anger built up against Him. After several very long
> appointments T realizes we do have a lot of answers, and even
> better, she is finding a lot of her own answers in the Book of Mormon.
> What's more crazy is she had a big answer, as she calls it her
> revelation, and has been anxious to be baptized and hear what we say
> since. She is so excited to learn. She introduces herself to the
> ward members as an investigator, she hand sewed a skirt together
> because she has nothing else, and she will not dress casual for
> church. We mistakenly told her she couldn't take of the sacrament
> yet, and it tore her apart to think she wasn't worthy of it yet and to
> pass it on. We teach her the Word of Wisdom and first she says no,
> because if she gives up both her coffee and cigarettes she is not
> going to be the favorite grandma. But then she comes to church, and
> tells us that that morning she threw it all away. Even though the
> other two in her house still smoke, she is pushing through to make her
> baptism happen. Then she meets President S. In their
> conversation she mentions how hard it is to come to sacrament and not
> partake. President tells her she can, and no sooner had he said that
> than she broke down, I could see the relief in her. We then stepped
> aside into a little room. Sister S gave Tracey a pack of gum
> to help the craving. President S gave her a blessing, and then
> told her how she can help H come around, and how T can be an
> example to her. I can just see the Atonement working in her life.
> She has had so much peace come. Because of this she sets it up all
> the time so that her kids will visit while we are over. We have met
> all four of them now, and they all have so many questions, but are so
> willing to sit and listen. The gospel makes sense to them.
>
> So that's our crazy day yesterday. By next week I should be able to
> tell you when she is getting baptized. I imagine it will be before
> November is through. The Lord has a great plan for her, and it is
> amazing to see His love for her each and every day with all the little
> miracles that work in her life.
>
> We are still being fed well. I haven't had to cook anything since
> I've been here, and usually I only have to eat leftovers for lunch.
> The members just need to know what to do now. The branch council has
> been shown what needs to happen, now we just need to apply it, and
> focus on the people. Great things are happening.
>
> Well, I hope you have a great Halloween and a fun week. We aren't
> allowed out today so we are spending the rest of the day at the stake
> center having a zone p-day and a district meeting after that. We have
> been given a lot of candy though. Oh, which reminds me, thanks for
> the package! I'm going to be able to eat well for a while now, the
> granola is already almost gone.
>
> Have fun in young mens, you are going to do great. Hope everything is
> still going well at work and Mom stays legal. I love you. By the
> way, all of the gospel analogies and stories over the years have
> stuck, so that helps out with the lessons. I'm still waiting to
> describe the apostasy as the basketball smashing the glass table, but
> it will happen. Thanks for everything!
>
> Love
>
> Elder Tanner Newey
>

10/24/11

So I'm doing great way over here, some cool things are happening. I spoke in church on Sunday about temples. The branch president asked me to prepare a twenty minute talk on Pres.
Monson's talk last April on Temples. So I worked on it Sunday morning
and felt pretty good about it. There are only three speakers usually,
so I didn't think there was much chance of me cutting anything, and I
was actually trying to think of some more stories. The youth speaker
ended up talking for over ten minutes though, and then by the time the
other sister was done there were five minutes left. They also were
given the exact same talk to work with, so I was relieved when I had
decided not to use the same stories in the article. All I really
ended up doing was bearing my testimony of temples, talking about my
Kirtland experience and how cool it was standing in the Twin Falls
temple with everybody. I let slip the story about me leading, so in
priesthood opening exercises I was volunteered again.

Ok, so I am in a car area. I have only been on my bike once, and that
was the other day. We do have a pretty big area to cover, but I'm
pretty sure we could use our bikes more. As far as the weather goes,
it's just like being home. Sunday was close to freezing but today is
up in the 60's. Not much wind yet though. So far everyone has been
pretty good to me and I haven't eaten anything weird or even bad.
I've had a lot of Italian sausage sandwiches, so I'm happy. It's bad,
they keep piling food on my plate. Actually its great, but somehow
I'm still hungry at night.  
   Therewas a deacon just ordained last week. We've been working with his
family and know him pretty well. He was a little late, and came
running up to me. He asked where to go and I pointed across the
chapel and he was off again. He plopped down on the chair with a huge
smile. President L  sent one of his counselors to get him a tie,
but as soon as the counselor stepped out of the chapel the deacon
pulled a clip on out of his pocket, still beaming. It was cool to
watch as he passed, and he told his grandpa he knows he was doing ok
because I was making sure he was doing it right. I hope Reid has the
same excitement, it is a great thing that he gets to be a part of.
 Love you all,

Elder Newey