red, white & blue.

From July 4, 2017:

Hello, Mom!

Happy 4th of July! Happy Freedom day! Happy America! 

From the most German American you know. ;) sounds like you will have the best 4th of

July ever! I'll admit, I'll be sad to miss out on the picnic and cherry contest, not to mention just being in America for it! I did miss our traditions. Luckily, we figured out a way to have a wonderful 4th of July as a district. :D You'll see pictures. We basically dressed in Red White and Blue and did American things. We made hotdogs, we watched videos of American scenery, and we played basketball. Now we're exhausted, but we feel great. We miss America a bit though, I have to say. ;)

 Happy 24th Anniversary!! You guys have been married about 3 years longer than I have been alive! :D congrats! I'm glad Dad took you on a great date. You guys are awesome, and a great example for me. It's been an amazing example for me to have parents that love each other so much. I know it's also an example for others around you. You're what we call: a power couple.

Janelle texted you?? That is so cool! She was the coolest, really. Too bad I didn't know her for long. It's really nice to hear something like that. :) I really enjoy and love the members here in Freiburg.

They support us so much and help us keep going. They're great people. Same with the general population. I've made some great friends from the people we're meeting here. I'm very happy to hear that the members enjoy having me here as much as I enjoy spending time with them. :) I'll do my best to just keep being me.

Thank you for including these people in your prayers. They really need them. Our members could use them too. They're great, but sometimes it's hard for them to integrate new people. We really need their backup on this. :)

I know how you feel. I have lots of moments where I miss you guys so much, but feel not so far away at the same time. God really does strengthen us in our weaknesses when we do our best and trust him to make up the difference. I know the Lord provides a way, he wants me to obey.

We had a pretty great week, this last week. We were able to have four people show up at church on Sunday, and 2 of them were new! One was a friend of Kai (our ward mission leader) and she came and was super interested and we set an appointment to teach her! Btw if I haven't mentioned Kai yet, i should. Kai is a recently returned missionary, and the coolest guy ever. He's super chill and bro, but works so hard to help us with our missionary work. He's rock solid, and comes through for us all the time. He's also sadly leaving soon. He's going to move to South America to build a business to help their economy. And surf. ;) he's a stud. Anyway, the other guy that came to church was Kaja, a cool guy from Pakistan. He was super interested in what we had to say, and we taught him about Christianity using the pictures on the walls of the building! That was super fun. Afterwards, he took the Book of Mormon and said: "I must read this book. I must!" It was so cool. We also found a guy from Mississippi! We started our conversation in German and neither of us had any clue for a while. We asked him if he was religious, and he said he was in an American church. The southern baptist church! I thought to myself: there is no southern baptist church outside the US.... so I asked him where he was from, and after that we bonded pretty quick. We're hoping to meet with him soon, he said he has lots of Mormon friends!

A few awkward things happened this week too. We decided to go street contacting... on the busiest day ever in Freiburg. The two biggest events in Freiburg were going on at the same time, and we had no clue! One was a humongous flea market... the other one was a gay parade. We figured out pretty darn quickly, let me tell you that. The first guy we talked to threw up his hand and said: "nope! I find your church homophobic, and I am a gay man, and just CANNOT!" And then he walked away! I looked at Elder Walton like: what?? Needless to say, street contacting was a little tough. But it was interesting too! Lots of cross-dressing. XD we also got to talk to a train conductor through

his window while we stood on the platform. He was nice. He wanted to know what we were doing. :)

We also got in contact with a girl who used to investigate the church, and moved to America not long ago. We found out she's coming back, and has been meeting with the sister missionaries in America! We'll see what happens! :) We're pretty excited.

This week I learned that Heaven and Hell are not necessarily what people think they will be like. One of the reasons we have commandments is because God is trying to teach us how we can live like

him. He wants us to be comfortable in his presence, and prepare for his glory. We can only be prepared if we make living the commandments our way of life. If we do not keep the commandments, we are not living a heavenly law, and are therefore not heavenly. When the day comes

that we stand before God to be judged, we will see Heaven and what it is like. If we are not prepared, we will have absolutely no desire to live there... I know that we have commandments because God loves us. He wants us to love him and keep his commandments. Because he WANTS us to want to live with him again. Basically, it is exactly up to us, where we go after this life. The question is: how comfortable do we want to be in God's presence? Heaven will not be Heaven to those who aren't heavenly.

Well I better get going. Thanks Mom. :) I can't wait to get a real hug from you. I guess it won't be too long, time is moving really fast. I love you though. So much. Thanks for your thoughts and support. I

can't wait to hear from you again. :)

Love, Tanner