January 11

 Dear family and friends,

This week has been a very good week, It just zoomed by, some days were slow, but overall, this week was great. We worked really hard this week which I think is part of the reason it went by so quickly. This last week was the eleventh week of my training and that means that I was to lead the area for the whole week, including all teaching and planning activities. What a daunting task! This really stressed me out at the times when I would not know what to do so I asked Elder carbonell what we should do and who we should visit, he just smiled and said," we'll do what ever you want". This irritatted me, but I know it is for my good to grow and develop as a missionary. On tuesday we had a service project at our investigators house, we chopped wood for a while, that really took it out of us, we have been really trying to reach out to them lately because we want to baptise sarah, but her mother wendy has a hard time with understanding it,  We have been talking to her lately about the importance of baptism and about the gospel and she has really opened up to the idea in recent weeks.
We also visited with Dan and his family that night which was really good, I love  talking to him and getting him to talk about experiences he has had that have strengthened his testimony, he is really making progress I think. We also had another visit with Dean, who is still struggling to overcome smoking, but he is doing better every week and we are seeing great improvements in his attitude and with how he carries himself. He is just so happy now. I Love seeing the gospel work miracles in peoples lives. This district meeting I was assigned to give the lesson, I went in feeling prepared, but I dont think it went as well as it could have. We then began our exchanges with Elder James and Elder Inglis. I always enjoy exchanges with elder James, he just has so much knowledge. I can talk to him about anything. We had splits night as soon as we got back which stressed me out because I dont know anyone, but the members are great and we worked well together. though was a very slow day, we tracted for most of the day and we didnt do much of anything else. I did enjoy talking to Elder James throughout the day though, he has a way of talking to people that is just so peaceful and so loving. I learned a lot from him. It was good to get back to work in Oamaru. We worked hard that day, we had dinner at Dans house, they have been really generous. It was a good day, We worked really hard and the day just flew by! We had four lessons. We have been really focusing on less actives because that is what the branch wants us to do. We have had some good succes with the some of them. Dan and his family came to church which was branch conference. They are so awesome. Dan stuck around for all of the meetings and he participated in the lesson and everything, he looked like an old pro. We had a lunch after church which was really good. this branch can really put on a feast. We ended off the week with a couple lessons which was good. Overall this week has been a great success in my mind, there are many things I can become better at, everytime I am in training I am reminded of it, but, I know that with the saviors help, nothing is impossible. I really appreciate the help that I recieve from you all, I got all of the letters that have been sent in december, due to christmas it was delayed, but I have gotten quite a few in the last two weeks, Thank You! 

Love always, 

Elder Tanner Bowers

P.S Since you all wanted to know if we eat weird things hear in new zealand, a tongan member last week fed us horse. it was my very first time eating horse, I dont know if i will eat it again, but it was good. It tasted just like beef, just tougher. Love you all.

He says it felt weird to eat a horse because they got the whole horse for $100 and it costs $100 to ride a horse here in the U.S.

January 4

Dear family and friends,
Thinking back on this past year and on the year to come, I have really been quite overwhelmed with all that this calling expects, I wouldnt want it any other way though. The trials that I have had just in this little portion of my mission have been great, I really enjoy the time that I have here to improve and become a better desciple of jesus christ. I love how the mission just brings the best out of you and makes you better, if you let it. letting it do that for you is the tough part, that is where the work comes in. I hope that this next year I will be able let it build me up.
This past week being the week of new years it was tough to find some of our investigators much less have a lesson with them. we did however have a pretty good week of teaching. While door knocking we knocked on this jehovahs witnesses door and he invited us in, we had a conversation with him where we were not going any where, we finally just humbly told him that the only way that he could know if what we were saying is true was if he read the book and asked heavenly father if it was true, I think he was touched for a minute but he wasnt ready, thinking back on zone conference when we discussed the rule of sevens... I think he was a negative two, but I am glad to put him at a negative one. We ended the lesson on good terms and headed off to our next appointment, which was at the less active families house( referred to in earlier emails). We taught them quite a few times this week due to the fact that hosanna was getting baptised this week.After we closed the lesson, dan asked me what about something I said during the lesson, I had said that one of the reasons we dont swim is that satan has control over the water, he told me that he felt safe while diving on sundays and that he had never been harmed physically. I told him that maybe satan wasnt harming him physically but he was taking him away from church. Dan said that in his words that penny dropped. He said that he needed to make a change. He is awesome. We had a good lesson, and funny enough Dan, the father, knows the JW that we taught earlier and forbade us from going back, he said he was out to get him. I think we'll heed his advice. We rushed home to make curfew, where I think I got a little careless and crashed my bike, but I am fine, I just think a couple of my fingers are sprained, we did get home on time though. We had an uneventfull new years eve and got back to work unhindered the next day. On New years day, we visited this less active lady that we had found through street contacting on christmas day.  We did not even realise she was less active until the visit. She told us that she wanted to go back to church, she has just been so overwhelmed with her three boys she is raising alone. We promised her that if she did her part and came to church that the lord would bless her. She is amazing. We had a service opportunity to carry a chicken pen into this ladies back yard, it was pretty heavy but we managed. She agreed to a lesson in return, she is a buddist and has some really hard questions for us. Im not sure how sincere she is but I know that the lord can do amazing things. was Hosanna's baptism, so the whole family came to church. It was so nice to see them in there best at church. They had a great program, it was very hot though. After the Baptism Dan told us that he was planning on coming to church every week now,  I know that the branch needs his strength. They are an awesome family. I cant wait to see them become active again. This week overall was a great week. I was very happy with my progress and for the progress of some of those we teach. The next transfer is on the twenty eighth of january, and I have a feeling that Im not going any where for a least another transfer. Thank you for all of your support back home, I love all of you guys. I love hearing about your successes and I hope to hear more in the future.

Love always,

Elder Tanner Bowers

December 28

Dear Family and Friends, This Past week has been quite a week of anticipation! I was so excited for this week to come it was almost unbearable. My companion and I since our last week was a little on the rough side, have really been hitting it off, telling stories of past christmases and such. We have been getting along swimmingly. There will always be those little things that are out of our control but, they feel so minnute that they really dont affect the work anymore. I pray that It stays that way for the rest of the transfer. Our week started off with a rather good start, we had a fantastic Family home evening with the Kaufana family, we went christmas caroling to some of there friends and were able to visit a less active family. The visit with the less active family was really good, we have been really working hard on them this past few weeks. One of the young girls in there family has chosen to get baptised so we are teaching the lessons to her. Her parents are so excited for her and want to make sure that it is a special occasion. I am so glad that they are making this choice. We had a great day on Tuesday, we were worried with the holiday season that our lessons would take a nose dive for the week. So we piled on the finding activities. We ended the day with five lessons in all. We could not have been more pleased. it sure made up for the christmas lul that we had. On christmas Eve we had a really good district meeting where I learned a lot. We had a small gift exchange which was fun. I got a migraine mid meeting though which was crappy, but the other missionaries were very accomodating. When we got home after a brief mcdonalds stop I took four Ibuprofin, which took care of it. We proceeded to go christmas caroling at the local old folks home and we talked to some of the people there. We even had a lesson. We had a good time. Near the end of the day elder carbonell attempted to skype his family, he was not able to get into contact with his family because of local internet problems. He didnt seem too disappointed so it wasnt all that bad. Christmas day started off like most christmas days go, we openned some presents that my family had sent. I was very excited to skype you guys later on though. The skype was not all that I expected. The minutes ticked away like seconds and before I knew it we were saying goodbye. I was very depressed afterward. Five months just seems like an eternity, let alone two years till I can embrace you. Later on though I got over it and got back into the swing of things. We had a good rest of our christmas day, we ended up teaching one lesson that day so it wasnt a complete dud. We had a good amount of lessons each day for the rest of the week, so we ended up very pleased this week. On saturday we visited this woman and her husband. Her name is Lisi and I forgot her husbands name. We had a very powerful lesson with them and we left them with a Book of Mormon copy. They seemed so open to the message we shared. We were so happy afterwards. Ending the Week at church is always such a great experience. We were able to hear from the branch presidency this week and they gave so great talks. Pres. Gaskill gave a talk on Obedience and specifically obedience toward our parents, Heavenly and earthly. It was very powerfull. I guess if I could describe this week I would say it was like an emotional roller coaster, but most weeks are. We just have to trust in our savior and Keep moving forward. I am constantly reminded of the saviors love for us and for his great sacrifice, I think this is a week where I needed it a lot. I am so gratefull to be out here serving the people of New Zealand. I love you all so so so much. thank you for all that you do. Love always, Elder Tanner Bowers

December 21

Dear Family and Friends,
This was a great week of missionary work! I felt as though I have made some good progress, and I have found many things that I can improve on, I love how we have so many opportunities to learn out here in the mission field and we can choose to learn and progress or you can reject the opportunities and fall into a hole. I have been working hard to not fall into the hole. I had a realization this week that if I continue with my missionary service the way its been going so far, I will not reach my full potential, I have a lot of things to change but I have decided to start with what Elder Pearson talked about, to be more fully obedient and faithful in my work. I am so grateful for such wonderful leaders that help us missionaries reach our potential. This week before the zone conference we had exchanges with the district leaders and it was to be my first time with elder Cook, and it kind of made me nervous because we were staying in Oamaru so I was the one that we were relying on to have a plan. I was excited though for the opportunity to test myself and see how much I had learned in the past weeks. Tuesday proved to be a pretty good day with us spending a good chunk of the day door knocking and then finishing off the day with a couple lessons, I love having opportunities to watch other missionaries work and to see how they talk to people, elder Cook was great in the teaching situations and helped me whenever I didn’t know what to say. Wednesday was also a great day we had a lesson with a guy who was more than a little crazy but we ended it leaving him with our number and address from the church and he said that he would be willing to go to our church out of curiosity. We proceeded to spend the rest of our day tracting but we did find a few people that were open to learning more, at the end of the day we were picked up by Elder James and Elder Carbonell and we headed over to Dunedin for the night to go to Zone conference. I really enjoyed being able to learn from Elder Pearson, he is an inspired man. I needed to hear what he had to say and I was so grateful for his message. I had heard him speak before at the NZ MTC and I knew he was a very powerful speaker but he certainly is surprising in his countenance and his spirit. I have made conscious efforts to become better since his lesson and will continue to do so. I realized throughout this week that I was getting complacent in my service and that I needed a kick in the butt. Elder Pearson gave me such a kick and I needed it. Friday and Saturday were good days aswell, we worked hard and learned much, I talked with one of the members here extensively as we went around on splits night and he gave me some great advice on working with members and it is something I am trying to implement with my companion, if we can get out of this cycle of endless tracting. Ending the week with the sacrament was so perfect, I was so happy to be able to just sit down for a little bit and think about the savior and his sacrifice for me, I was also very glad to sing some Christmas hymns. We had dean over for a dinner at the Kautai's home. He is making some great progress which is nice to see. most of our plans fell through at the end of the day though so we found ourselves visiting old contacts and checking up on them. I am so glad for weeks like these that show me how to be a better missionary, I just hope I can obtain and implement all of these lessons being thrown my way.
 Also this week being the first week I can start opening those boxes finally, I was so grateful to have your love and support. I love you all so much! you are seriously the best. I pray for you all and I hope that you will pray for me, I need them haha. I know my redeemer lives and it is such a wonderful thing.

love always,

Elder Bowers/Tanner

P.S

I would love to hear back from you. A letter or email would be great.

11a URE st.

Oamaru 9400

New Zealand

December 7

Dear Family and Friends,
This Week Started off Very slowly, like in some weeks past, but this week was very slow. We had many lessons planned and we were hoping for a very productive week of spreading the gospel. We made efforts to reach out to less actives and to work with members to fellowship with them, but almost all of the lessons planned fell through. To be quite honest it was very depressing to not know what to do, we piled on extra finding time to fill the gaps and tried to look for past contacts. we found one of the previous missionaries planners in a drawer and we used that one afternoon to reistablish contact with those that may not have been in the areabook. They did not pan out and we were again left fruitless. I got very low at the beginning of the week, and I was humbled quite a bit. I am so gratefull though, for those times that the lord humbles us, because those are the best times to get down on your knees and know your savior and your heavenly father. The turning point I think was Thursday, we had planned five lessons throughout the day and we were working with some members that day so we had hoped to get some member present lessons. The day had started out with heavy rain in the morning, and our first two lessons with less actives fell through, then our next two later on, but we did end the day with one lesson. when we got back to our flat that night I was very depressed, after a discouraging planning session with not much to do the next day either, I wrote in my journal and just had to pray to the lord. I was very low, but I knew that the lord could lift me higher. After a very emotional prayer, I jumped into bed, slightly more comforted. The next day being also fruitless we had a corrolation meeting with the branch mission leader and at least I was embarrassed with almost nothing to show for our efforts and I was hopefull that since saturday was splits night we would have some lessons to show for our efforts. On saturday we work very ernestly and ended our day with Four lessons, which was great. Elder Carbonell and I really needed that day, we were really getting discouraged. We also ended the day at a moari cultural night which was chalked full of Phillipino's which made elder carbonell happy, we talked to quite a few people and found some people willing to hear our message. This sunday was fast sunday so we had the wonderfull opertunity to fast and to listen to the wonderfull testimonies of the members. We ended the day with three lessons which was great, I was very happy with our day. I have come to really appreciate the work that the members do for us, When they help we really notice and it makes a wonderfull difference in the work. My companion and I are getting along better than we have before, we still have our differences but with the saviors help we can see eachother with our spiritual eyes and we dont notice as much our imperfections. The work this week though tough, I feel has really been a very constructive week, we have come to know eachother and the lord that much better. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone back home who makes that effort to email or write me, it means a lot, I really do love you guys! I would also appreciate letters from family and friends if possible. I love hearing from you. I love all of you so much! I pray for you and I know you pray for me aswell, I can feel it!

love always,

Elder Bowers