I look forward to mondays sooo much!! Haha everybody tells me im such a greenie. I love it! :) Yes please please please get me those pictures haha I'm dying! :) I want to see people back at home so badly. I miss you all so much but this is the right thing to do and im enjoying it so much. Earlier this week an asian called us and asked for a blessing. On our way there I was like I better not have to do it because I never have before. Well she wanted me to do it. That was my first time! It was way cool. She wanted the blessing because her head had been hurting her extremely bad. She is doing well now. We have a couple investigators that are gonna get baptized soon. 2 are smokers and can't stop. They are struggling. They are set for baptism this weekend. Not only is smoking a problem but they are having MAJOR family difficulties. The son is 18 and the mom is idk how old haha but yeah its definitely a struggle. They were found before I got here. Were just getting the finishing touches.an older lady that is getting baptized in a couple weeks who is so strong. Elder Blake (my companion) said she was definitely a miracle. Way too easy haha. Other than that we don't have other progressing investigators really. Some recent converts are interesting. This guy steve will talk for hours upon hours about his music. He is so weird. You literally have to tell him to focus on what were talking about or he doesnt listen. He just rambles on haha great guy though. There are soo many great people here in Davis. I love it here. We basically get fed every single night. Its so weird going to church though because at home the classes were huge. They are so small here!! haha Still getting used to everything. Back to the 18 year old. We had an emergency appointment last night because he ran away from home because their family problems. Supposedly he was beat as a kid and wants to change his life around really badly.. but he doesnt put forth the effort really. We don't know what to do for him really. Its a struggle.. hopefully everything turns out great! You will find out next week! :) A bunch of my friends emailed me this week that was way nice of them. I couldnt really email back though one because i'm not supposed to and two i dont relaly have time haha. I have the greatest friends ever!!! I love the support I get!! Mom hopefully your surgery ends up feeling better! Dad.. you are not going to Missouri without me. BUT we are going when I get home! :) Brayton. I'm writing you a handwritten letter today before I go play some ball. Justin. I will be writing you also. Love you all sooooooo much!! I hope I answered most of your questions.. If not i'm very sorry haha. I just wish I had more time in this joint! I love my mission! :) Please get me those pictures ASAP! :) LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

Ohh my gosh I heard about the BYU game sunday morning.. I was thinking about it all Saturday. I couldn't wait to here. Once I heard I was done for.. Just wanted to crawl in a whole haha. But life goes on! Sick new bishopric. They will get work done. They are all great peeps. I'm excited to here that everything is going well back at home! If anything happens please let me know.. there is a Sister here that is struggling because her family hid something from her for a long time. Don't do that to me! :) The missionary work is so much fun. I'm having a blast with my trainer he is way fun. He likes to get the work done but he is also way chill. I have been meeting everybody in the ward and we get fed EVERY night. It's pretty awesome. Lots of ghetto places and people here. It makes me more and more grateful for what I have back at home. It's so nuts. I cant imagine being in a foreign place. We have an 18 year old kid and his mom that are trying to get baptized from before I got here. They just have to stop smoking. I'm so glad I wasn't raised like that and had this gospel in my life in the beginning. We also have just been teaching a couple other lessons here and there nothing too special. The worst thing about missionary work is riding my bike in the heat all day and waking up at 630. It's so tiring!!! I'm gonna get mono again watch.. haha. I'm having so much fun its just hard sometimes. I'm with a great trainer and these 2 spanish speaking elders are in our apartment too. I have the 3 funniest elders in the mission living with me I am told. I'm very lucky :). One of them is from Ohio and the other is from Missouri. Ohio elder is such a nerd. But the happiest bubbliest kid ever. He is sooo funny! I love him! He seems liek hed be on the Big Bang Theory or something. haha and the other Missouri elder is way chill. He played baseball back at home and is just a hard working super funny guy. Now here is something very important. DAD This elder owns 48 acres of property in missouri and he hunts ducks quails and pheasants and says we can go!! If you turn down this offer so help me I will be very angry.. He has been out a year this thursday. We HAVE to go!! Me and my companion ride our bikes everywhere we go. I get sooo tired! But he seems to go hard because he is so used to it. I wish we had a car.. but oh well. The spanish speaking elders drive us places sometimes so that's nice. A funny experience that happend earlier this week was random was we were riding our bikes and some super old guy drives by on his bike and we say "hey how are you!?" all he says is "Romney sucks" we just busted up laughing. People are such goofs. Love my brothers and sisters :) My address is 4447 Cowell Blvd Apartment #75 Davis, California 95616. I have some things that I would like you to send me :). I want some pictures.. I want the collage of me and trenton. The collage of me and madi bernson. I want the one with me and mac (btw how is mac.) I want some from the temple. I want the one with me zack jordan thomas and nate. Its my fb timeline pic. Pictures of me and robyn and her kids and the one with jeremy jon trenton and yeah. Just send me a bunch of pictures! I'm sure you can figure out some that id like. Please send them here ASAP! :) And also throw in some little gifts if youd like haha. Nothing too special :). Anyway.. I think that is all I have for this week. I hate closing an email because then i feel like I forgot something haha. Anyway.. Love you all soooo much and miss you!!! Peace out peeps!!

He's there!!

Heyyyy!! I arrived here in Santa Rosa safely don't worry :). The flight was way too fast haha I didn't want to land. I love plane flights! The kid next to me asked for a bag in case he threw up.. luckily he didn't or else he probably could have gotten some all over me. My trainer is awesome! He actually trained Dax Johnson! The kid I know from school that is here. His name is Elder Blake and he is from Ohio. Great guy. He goes home in January. I feel like I'm going to learn a lot from him. Go to I believe santarosamission.blogspot.com.. I'm not exactly sure. I'm sure you can find it somehow. They will have a bunch of pictures on there! Did you get my pictures from the MTC?!! You havent answered that question yet haha. My Pday is on Mondays, so thats when you can expect an email. With the whole bike situation I was actually lucky to get a free one. There is an elder that was too tall for it or something so he gave it up and is using somebody elses. So I get to use the one he used. They say it's a nice bike. I just had to buy a lock, helmet, and a tube for the tire because that was ruined. I was also able to contact the bank, but they said that the card might get denied sometimes. I don't know why he was super confusing haha, but I'm sure its fine. I actually have not been to the apartment yet. We drove around for hours dropping off all the other companionships. The only thing I got to do today was go eat with a temple sealer and his wife. They are sooo sweet! The people here are so nice. I got to meet some of the ward members too. Tomorrow morning all the work begins. I am going to be serving in the Davis 1st Ward. Were outside West Sacramento. 2 of the elders that i roomed with in the MTC are going to be in my zone! Its so cool! I didn't want to leave them. Sadly I had to leave my companion.. he is more North I believe. I love the mission president and his wife. They are sooo nice. I was homesick for a little like when i first got here, but after getting to know my companion and eat with the members and meet them I love it right now! I also was able to receive the package you sent me. Thank you so much! I'll have to try posting pictures of this awesome place next week hopefully. They say it's probably the least beautiful place in the mission, but the people here are awesome already! I don't really have much more to say except..... GO COUGARS!!!! Beat Utah!! Love you all so much!! OH and happy birthday on saturday to you dad!! LOVE YOU!!

I can't believe I leave on Tuesday!! I'm so stoked but im not sure if im ready. I really have learned so much here its awesome. Some of the funniest and funnest experiences of my life have been here. As much as i love it here, it sucks at the same time haha. It's so repetitive. It's a great learning experience though. Trenton you're my hero keep up the good work. My parents cant do it all i guess ;). Thank you for shipping my stuff to the mission home. Can't wait to get there. Actually.. I can't wait to get to the airport and call home! I'm so looking forward to that it's not even funny. GO AGGIES!!!! I read that and started celebrating giving high fives to everybody around me! That's soooo sick! I probably will be able to hear the BYU game tonight.. Bleh.. It's okay though. Hopefully they destroy like they did last week. I really want updates though of the games. I love hearing about them. I miss them so much, but I'm in the best place possible right now. I saw Cole Morgan the day he got here. I saw him in the cafeteria and walked over to him to give him a big hug. I was so glad to see him! He is gonna be an amazing missionary. We talked a little bit and he said the curb was terrible haha it really is though.. Glad I don't have to do that again. I also saw him yesterday and he is doing pretty good. Just being a beginner just like everybody else has done. His companion is struggling though.. hopefully things get better. Nate villegas leaves 3 weeks after me haha. I got here after him and leave before him :) he's upset about that. I literally see him everyday! I don't know if i'll go play soccer today because my whole district plays basketball.. it's such a good time. I'll play once I get out into the field. So about my week... I have one very good story. So my district is a bunch of goofs.. We like to have a good time a little too much. Anyway.. we had to teacher our teacher/investigator and he knew we were not taking it seriously. When the first companionship went down to teach him the teacher sent them back. We were all confused. The companionship stood up in front of the class and said Bro Reeves (teacher) is not happy with us and doesnt want to come up. So... we fixed all our problems and decided we need to change. Well.. that night we had a district teaching with Bro Reeves in mirror/window room. Each companionship takes 10 mins to teach and then the next companionship goes. WE NAILED THE LESSON!! The spirit was so strong. At the end Bro Reeves comes out with tears in his eyes and said "This is a new district than 2 hours ago." It was such an amazing experience. Since then everybody has been working hard. I still personally struggle teaching haha everybody is so smart! It's okay.. things will get better. Our district is so fun though. At night we made bows and arrows out of hangers and launch them at each other, tell stories about girls haha, make fun of each other, oh and last night i tried buying a hot pocket and it got stuck! So i tried buying another one and the first one came down but the second got stuck! So i took a hanger and tried shoving it down into the vending machine to push it down and i look over and there is a camera. I was out of there so fast hahaha everybody was in there watching me. We were laughing way hard. I finally got it though because this kid in my zone bought a hot pocket by it and it pushed mine off. Great kid :). We also made a launcher out of this rubber band thing and launched apples! That was pretty sweet watching them splatter haha. We have so much fun here. It's gonna be hard leaving them behind at the airport.. we have become close. I had in-field orientation yesterday. That is for all the missionaries that leave the next week. That was sooooo boring. It was basically 13 hours of just listening to people talk. BUT on the bright side we had 2 hour lunch and dinner so i was able to squeeze in 2 naps. I miss naps so much... haha. The devotionals here are really good. We have had 2 people from the quorum of the 70 speak.. I don't remember their names, but they were really good. The spirit here is just so strong its amazing. I don't really have much to say.. it's kinda same old same old. Big thanks to my grandparents for their letters and emails, my brothers and their letters, my dad and his email, Jon and Trenton Neilson for their letters, Macee for her letter, my mom and her DAILY dear elders I love those so much! I always feel special getting mail. Marlies Robinson and Kayla Criddle also wrote me! I also am getting to email Ryan Head, Zac Farnworth, Jordan Tuckfield, and Trevor Osborne. I email them because theres no way I'm sending out a letter. That will take FOREVER! Thank you everybody for those it really means so much to me! I LOVE hearing from all of you! Sorry if I forgot anybody.. I'm doing this off the top of my head because I left my journal back at residence. I'm going to quickly try sending the pictures I sent to the gmail account to this hotmail one. Hopefully it works. Looking forward to the phone call on Tuesday! I don't know what time i'll call. I only know it's between 6-845.. LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL!! Elder Howell- Tanner had the opportunity to see a lot of his friends and former soccer teammates while in the MTC.

Ok so hello everybody. Everything is going great here. I’m still struggling here teaching haha but I'm learning so much and I love it. I’m kind of sick of the repetition though, so I'm excited to get out of here. I hope everything starts clicking as soon as I get out there haha. I got my travel plans and I'm getting out of here on September 11th and my flight leaves at 8:46am. I'll be flying Delta Air Lines. It was such an amazing feeling getting that bad boy. I'm almost there. So about my district. I love these guys. I have had so much fun here with them. It’s going to be hard leaving them behind. There are 12 of us and 4 of us are going to Santa Rosa the rest to Roseville. My companion is way chill but he doesn't like soccer so I have to stay in the gym and play basketball which is still way fun. I own all day long :) My companions name is Nick Miller and he is from Pennsylvania. I have become really close with this other elder in our district that is going to Roseville, California. We're like the exact same person. Both not super intelligent and laugh a lot. Not going to lie.. I laugh at inappropriate times sometimes but it’s so hard when something is funny. Everybody makes fun of my laugh and we just have a good time. I’m going to tell you about the people in my district. Elder Ashby-My really good friend. He's from Pocatello, Idaho and super chill. He's going to be playing some college ball when he gets home. That's pretty tight. Elder Soloman-He's such a goof. Funniest kid I have ever met though. I love him. He has like ADHD or something and can't focus, makes me laugh so hard. Elder Miller-My companion. He likes metal music and farms in Pennsylvania. Doesn't like any sports really except four square. :/ Elder Murray-Super chill guy from Syracuse, Utah. Played football in high school and is getting a super strong testimony so fast. Elder Young-From Hoodriver, Oregon. He is just like me and Ashby. We get along very well. Went to Westminster for a year. Elder Ballard-He is a giant. Very scary guy when he's angry and builds engines for planes. Great guy though. Elder Lundell-Short chubby kid. Super funny and way nice. He played high school football somewhere around here I don't remember where. Elder Balaiche-Going to Santa Rosa. Super chill guy. Went to BYU and is a spiritual giant. Elder Kruckeberg-He is going to Santa Rosa too. Loves cars and is way chill. Elder Edwards-Lavell Edwards nephew. He is definitely a spiritual giant. Very quiet but super nice kid. Great example. Elder Heinke-Just know he hates sports. Very strict. Not fun. Me, Kruckeberg, Balaich, Miller, Murray, and Edwards room together. We know how to have a good time. A spiritual experience I would like to share happened on Monday in TRC. We practice teaching real investigators. Me and my companion nailed it once. We felt the spirit sooo strongly and she started crying. We felt so awesome getting her to cry.. :) We talked about her daughter and how she is mentally handicapped and we told her she will be perfect in heaven with a resurrected body. She is an amazing woman. We have basically 10 hours or something of class a day. It's a killer.. But I’m enjoying strengthening my testimony and meeting so many people. I see Carson Broadhead quite a bit. Saw Isaac Yates twice.. he wrote me a letter for my first day getting here. I love that kid. I've seen Dallin Van Mondfrans only a couple times. I see Nate Villegas I swear daily. I have seen Dylan Reynolds only a couple times too. I love running into people I know.. It makes me feel so much better. One super funny story I'm going to share real quick. Yesterday 8 of us were in the elevator and Elder Young had the genius idea to jump and we broke the elevator hahaha. We got stuck in there for 45 minutes and missed our TRC. Everybody was wondering where we were at. It was soooo funny. It was 90 degrees in there, we were dying of heat. Shhhh they don't know we jumped ;) I love you all so much! I hope I answer lots of questions and gave you an idea what's going on here. Big thanks to Trenton, Teri, Grandma Howell, Grandma Thorne, Macee, Justin, Brayton, Hannah Belnap, and Madalie Darrington for writing me. Love you all so much! Until next time.. Elder Howell out! Temple Day- Tanner with his companion, and 2 other members of his district.