Another School Year Begins 08/28/12 Week 80

Hey!

So I´ll be staying here in Azcuenaga as zone leader for another transfer and my new companion will be Elder Paredes. I´ve heard good things so i´ll let you know how it goes with the new fella.

Wow, talk about tons of weddings! Make sure to say congrats to them for me!

As far as the work goes here, its a little bit on the slow side, but only for a small moment. We have 1 investigador that has a baptismal date for the 22 of September. His name is Elias and we are going to be working really hard with him so he makes it!

Thats super cool that the Brigham City temple is already going to be opening! wow, you´ll have to send me pictures of it! I heard it´s a smaller version of the salt lake temple kind of style, sounds shweet. Here on the 9th of September the Buenos Aires Temple will be rededicated, so everyone is pretty excited for that as well. We´ll be watching it by satelite transmission at the stake center.

As far as the packages go, my watch got here safe and sound. Thanks mom! I´m also still waiting for the debit card, but it might just be chilling out in the mission home, so hopefully i´ll be getting it rather sooner than later. As far as another package that will be sent.......i would love a bunch of random seasonings (for meats, ranch, barbecue sauce, gravy, taco seasoning, garlic salt, etc), another pair of basketball shorts, socks are always welcome. Thanks for always sending stuff mom! I really really appreciate it! I´d love to send stuff back as well but its just so expensive and the prices continue to rise!

As far as the temple in Cordoba....i´m honestly not sure of the progress. I´m not sure if they have started yet due to the fact that they have been working on finishing the buenos aires temple.

Anyway, everything is going good! Sounds like a little bit of everything is going on in the family! tell casey and kari to take shelter and be safe, and its good to hear the dad is home enjoy a well deserved rest. Tell Tiffani good luck with speech pahtogly....apahgey.....pathgolgy..... :)

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Winger

Mishhhh update ‏ 08/21/12 Week 79

Hey fam!

When i opened up my letter for this week, i had no idea who "Robert Redford" was, but i guess that´s cool that you sang happy birthday to him haha. After a little bit of research, i now know who he is no worries.

Mom, thanks for sending my debit card, and yes i did receive your package with girl scout cookies and all. Luved it! Everything was gone in like 2 hours ha........food is always a top priority.

So this week was one of mixed feelings.. We had a fun activity yesterday in the ward where we played volleyball, ping pong, and breakdancing. One of the brothers in my ward is a skilled breakdancer and he brought his friends. They taught me a few moves so i´m going to be ready to throw it down. Not sure if breakdancing was appropriate, especially in missionary attire.....but it was fun so "ya fue" :)

Unfortunately all of our investigators without baptismal dates are not going to make it anymore......but we are still working with them so they can get baptized in the future, but we are mostly focusing on the effort, as always, of finding new people, new investigators.

Transfers will be coming up next week, so we´ll see what happens....i´m pretty sure i´ll be getting a new companion! Hope he´s ready.

Anyway, thanks for writing me again this week, i love you all so much!!!

Elder Winger

Scripture: Ether 12:4

I, Tanner, having been born of goodly parents....08/13/12 Week 78

KOWABUNGA!

So hey there. Mom, the first part of this letter goes out to you, in response to an email you sent me a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting with a new convert family a couple days ago and the mother was telling me about how its been so stressful to be doing EVERYTHING without much help in the home. She has felt overwhelmed and she feels that her grown up kids don't make the sacrifice to give or do what is asked. I replied to her by saying "welp, i know exactly what its like to be one of those kids ha". I expressed to her that one of the things that helped me realize all that my parents have done for me, something that has helped me to want to express more gratitude and help, and a way that has brought our family close together was Family Prayer everynight. I want to thank you so much, you, dad, tiffani, nate, and casey for making that an important part of the day. I can remember that almost every night i was the last one on my knees. You expressed in your email that you may have felt a little discouraged from not reading from the scriptures with me as much as you would have liked to, but mom, you did. I will never forget you waking up at 6:00 AM with us to read a scripture and say a prayer. I won´t forget dad waking up every morning, even before me and tiff, heading out to another day of work with a big ol grin on his face under that big ol mustache. I really miss those things. Thanks for those examples that you gave me. I have the best family ever.

So this week the work has continued to move forth. We are struggling with baptisms in my area, zone, and the whole mission, and it has really been a time to dig down and kick it up a notch. One of the greatest scriptures of spiritual strength that have touched me is in Alma 26:27. The secret to overcoming any obstacle is work. So we are going to keep chugging along and the lord will continue to bless us.

I´m so grateful to hear that everyone is still doing good good. Let me know if there is anything needed or desired to know :)

LOVES!

Elder Winger

Hey! 08/06/12 Week 77

Hey Family!!!

This week has flown by, once again!  Just keepin on goin ha.  I´m glad
to hear that everyone is doing well and have taken a little bit of a
rest break.  Sounds like the oneida river trip was a blast! Today I
finally took the time to organize my pictures, so I don´t have a lot
of time to write again....as usual ha, but i´m doing great!  We had 5
investigators come to church yesterday so that was exciting.  And what
happened with the breaking window.  We were driving along on the bus
when all of a sudden the window shattered!  We came to find out that
someone shot a 16mm steel ball at the window with a slingshot i would
assume.  close call ha.  Anyways, we are looking to have a couple of
baptisms on the 11th!  there names are Ismael and Rodrigo who are 11
and 8 years old.  We are still working with the parents, but they
aren´t married and for now the husband isn´t interested...but they are
an amazing family, and veronica, the mom, is the sister in law of our
recent convert valeria who got baptized last month.  Also this
week.....fun fact for ya:  my comp taught me with his extensive
knowledge that a cow has 3 stomachs or something.....one of which is
used to store "the garbage poop".....anyway, i ate THAT stomach this
week.  boiled.  im really getting used to eat every other part of the
cow besides the meat part haha.  Have a great week, love you and miss
you!  Ill be beginning my final 6 months this week!

Elder Winger

just a quick note ‏ 07/30/12 Week 76

Hey fam!

So i don´t have ANY time to write this week :(  I've been bombarded
with things to do here haha, but just want you to know that everything
is fantastic.  We are looking to have some baptisms here in
August....and here's just a hint of a crazy story:  i was sitting on
the bus when all of a sudden the window next to me exploded :)  ill
let you know all about it later. don´t worry, I'm safe.  have a great
week!

Elder Winger

bricks and stones can break my bones, but wheelbarrow grills are legit. 07/24/12 Week 75

Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight.

what shall i write to my dear family, friends, and fans tuned in from all around the world?

The work continues to move forth in my little vineyard of Azcuenaga. At church, the sister in law of our recent convert Valeria came to church with her 4 kids, so that i was a huge plus! Valeria is definitely a fire-ball super missionary member, definitely something we've needed in the ward!

Cool story of the week: I passed by for one of our investigators named Pablo, we found him constructing a house nearby his only house for one of his friends. We entered inside, checked it out a little bit, and got to know Diego, the friend. He immediately was super weirded out but interested to meet missionaries.......at first he treated me like an extraterrestrial, and then i just told him i was from the united states....and then he said it was the same thing. Anyway, he turned out to be super cool and invited us to come by the same day to chat a little more and have an asado (argentine barbecue).....super brownie points. So we pass by the next day, and let me just set the scene out for ya: Imagine yourself sitting within the walls of an unfinished house of brick and cement, using fragile, unstable bricks for chairs, using a slab of wood as a plate, using the empty paper bag that held charcoal as a napkin, eating delicious meat that was cooked on a metal rack settled on top of a wheelbarrow with the burning coals inside. Classic. Definitely bringing this tradition back to the states. We will be teaching Diego and his mom, who lives next door to the house- in - process on wednesday.

Anyway, just having a great time here.....theres definitely more to do than time to do it, but I'm doing what i can!

Thanks for your support and all the good stuff, love you so much and I'm getting ready to hit my "6 months to sexy" as they say.

until next week! love you!

para siempre dios este con vos.

Elder Winger

p.s......sorry i didn't send pictures (again)....forgot my memory card in the apartment. :(

Justin Beiber is in my zone ‏ 07/17/12 Week 73/74

Top of the morning to ya.

So, i just finished writing a huge paragraph about why i wasn't able to write last monday, and all of a sudden the whole page just went blank........lñksdahgiowhgksñljgas.
anyway, lets just say it was one of those days where bad luck just seems to plague EVERYTHING (bus breaking down, power outages, forgetting essential items.) but now here i am, writing to my dear family once again :)
So Tiffani is headed off to Peru tomorrow!!!! That's so exciting!!! Ive already told all of the peruvian families (theres like.....2) that live in my ward that you are going there. They were pretty jealous haha. But you'll have to let me know all about it! I also got your letter that you wrote me....I've just been super bad at responding, just like i am with everyone else.......but guess what, the prices went up here again for sending laters home.......when i got here in the mission, it was about 7 pesos per letter....now its 11 (or a little less that three dollars). Even though that's not an excuse, its an interesting fact.
So we are still working hard here in my area of Azcuenaga. We have transfers tomorrow and i found out that........................drum roll...............................I'm staying here! shocker! with Elder Bravo. haha, my little el salvadorian not escaping my wrath for at least another 6 weeks. It'll be fun because we get along good.....but he has a knack for attempting to make me "super trunky" about home since we are both going home in february. But it doesn't work and he just ends up "killing" himself haha. Anyway, thats what we are up to.
On Saturday we had a legit stake activity that we missionaries put together called "A trip with the Nephites" We used the whole stake center to make different sections, and the activity is set up so that the participants find themselves living in book of mormon times (including the travel from jerusalem, wandering through a maze of chairs to find and slay laban, lehis tent, boat building, zarahemla, nephite battles, and the coming of Jesus Christ. Every section had games and food, and it turned out really well. We began setting everything up saturday morning and it was really tiring.....we were expecting about 150 people, but unfortunately only 40 ended up making it. bleh, bummer, but it was fun anyway. President Giuliani and his wife made it as well and enjoyed it. Its been quite some time since an activity like this has been done, so it was good.
Here in Azcuenaga we are currently in "search mode" to find new investigators. gotta love clapping those doors.
So anyway, theres an Elder Farley from Utah in my zone who i never mentioned....hes pretty psycho haha. Hes my super redneck friend. But yeah, EVERYONE tells him that he looks just like Justin Beiber, so everytime i see him i sing "baby, baby, baby, oooh!" he hates it :)
Welp, that's the update that I've got for you, it sounds like everythings nice and toasty at home! Its strangely warm here too........short sleeve shirts for the majority of the winter. hmm...global warming.
Sorry about not sending pictures lately, ill be getting better at that.
I love you all so much and thanks for your constant letters and prayers. I love being a missionary and i love the gospel. Take care of yourselves this week........and i will too, making sure i don't slam my face into the wooden floor while doing morning yoga.

Elder Tanner Winger!