Week 53: Bye Elche, Hi Cartagena AND the Ham Fam Visitors from Spain

Hello friends and family,

I just wanted to let you know that we had a fun surprise today (Tuesday). I got a phone call on my cell phone CALLER ID that said “Spain”.  After my heart stopped beating knowing it had something to do with Tanner, I answered it and a beautiful voice told me that she was Rocio Caballero and she was in Bountiful and wondered if we could meet her and her family at the Bountiful Temple.  The Caballero family has a been very close with Tanner (he mentions them several times in this letter as well as in his previous letters). The man Jacob that Tanner mentions in this letter is a brother to Aaron (the dad).  By some miracle our entire family was home (this NEVER happens) and we piled in the car and met them at the temple.  We met Grandma and Grandpa that only speak Spanish (Rocio and Juan). We met Aaron and Rocio and their two darling children Triana and Adrian.  They said the nicest things about Tanner.  They spoke about how much he has grown up and that we would not even recognize him mostly because of his maturity and increased testimony.  They said that everyone just flocks to him and that he is the best missionary because he just loves everyone and gets to know them personally.  They said that he’s not an aggressive missionary but his success is because of his social skills and the genuine love he shows everyone so they want to hear his message.  They said that he is their favorite missionary.  They said Tanner and Elder Llavina were perfect companions and were so much fun.  Aaron got tears in his eyes talking about his love for Tanner and said that their family already misses him and they just saw him last Tuesday.  It was such a fun time with them.  I have attached a few pictures below of the Caballero family.  

Love,

the Ham Fam

______________________________________

Hello Hello Hello there my people :)

I'm currently sending my first email from Cartagena! A little bit about my area... Well, we have pretty much 0 work. Hahaha literally all we do is walk and talk to people in the streets. We don't get too many lessons a week, but let me tell ya,  when we do.. SOLID. We have a couple investigators, but none are progressing so far. The last time we had someone come to church was about 4 months ago 😬! Sooo yeah, slowly but surely here. Also, our area is straight up weird. 75% of it is just straight up ghettoville, while 15% is rich people who freakin' have houses kinda like the ones in the states and most of them don’t want anything to do with us. Now, you're probably thinking, “Hey Tanner, you're an idiot, 75+15 is 90 dumb face”. Oh my friends, that’s where the other 10% comes in to play. The other 10% is nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. It's just land. Then off in the distance you can see some corn growing. :) Like I said, my comp is from Illinois and he skips out of here in 5 weeks now. BUT HEY NOW HERE’S SOME OF MY WEEK :)

The beginning of the week was still spent in Elche. I said bye to the Garcias, a family from the other ward, and my official goodbye to the Caballeros on Monday night. Llavina left that morning so I spent it with Elders Pesce and Stark (who by the way has no relation to Tony 😔). Tuesday we had district meeting and signed transfer journals and had a s'cute time. Then we went and ate with the Moya family! She makes the greatest plate of arroz con costra I've ever beseeched in my 19 1/2 years of life. It's like freakin' heaven on a plate. I said bye to them and sister Moya started crying. Ugh! She's a doll. She said, “Hopefully with an example like you, Isma will want to serve a mission”. Isma is her 21 year old son who she wants to go on a mission way bad. Then that night I said bye to the Palominos and after we went and played soccer and I said bye to Santi 😩. He started crying too but I told him we would see each other again and he said, “Yeah, at my baptism!”  So that was a good way to end it with him :). I already miss Elche and all the people over there. The first couple days
here in Cartagena I was way homesick and so it sucked.

So my first day here we had a lesson with an investigator named Erika. She's 25 from Ecuador and she's really cool! She has a cute little boy named Bradley. He's a stud. We went with a member named Romeo who was baptized like 5 months ago and from Africa :).  We talked about President Monson's talk from last conference about decisions and how he tells us to choose the harder right, rather than the easier wrong! We invited her to church and she said she couldn't come this week but she said she'd try and come this week :). She has a ton of potential but she's really busy. We have a cita with her tonight so I'll letcha know how it goes.

Saturday night was pretty fun. There's about 14 missionaries here, and 9 of us (all elders(one trio)) got together and played soccer :). Freakin' there's a kid here named Elder Bailey from England and he played pro soccer before the mish. He was making bank and had his own piso and we're already best friends. He's a stud. Our team was ALL MISSIONARIES and for the first time in ever, a team of ALL MISSIONARIES wrecked Spaniards/Muslims. One of the Muslim kids kept saying that Osama Bin Laden was his uncle and he helped with 9/11 and so I was extremely close to going over there and scaring the crap out of him but then I remembered I'm an 😇 and also I was with a lot of other missionaries 😁. My comp is way good at soccer too. We have a kid from Switzerland who's new and balls out, another one from Finland who's basically a pro as well and a kid from Georgia who is kinda like me and just does what he can 😂. Plus with me in the goal I mean we all already know the other team isn't scoring. 😉 Our 6 man line up is literally stacked. 😍

Every Sunday here, we take the Sacrament to twp older people in our ward that live pretty far away from the church, Pepe and Trinidad. They also feed us. And when I say they feed us, I mean they FEED us. Holy crap so much food haha I wanted to die. With an eating cita like that every Sunday, I'm gonna need to play soccer twice a week. Our church starts at freakin' 5:30 PM. That's a little abnormal. Yesterday I gave my testimony. Ugh!  I love telling people my name is Jamón. They automatically just love me! Also, 2nd hour rolled around and guess who showed up to church to surprise me?? MY BOII JACOB FROM ELCHE!! I almost started crying! Not really but I mean it was dope cuz he's like, “Yeah man! I'll for sure come visit you” and boom not even a week after I left he came and visited me. :) So today we are playing soccer with him and all the friends. He has friends here in Cartagena that are members and also all the other missionaries so I’m excited for that :)!

Well folks, there's my week in a nutshell for ya. I hope all of you guys have a great week and you'll be hearing from me soon! Jesus loves you :) and so do I! Bye!

Much love.
Patience is a virtue, 

T Boy ☠

Bountiful Temple with the Caballero Family

Aaron, Rocio, Adrian and Triana Caballero

Bye, Bye Garcia Family 

Bye, Bye to My Boy Alvaro

Found my car 😈

Week 52 - BOUT A YEAR AGO, YEAR AGOOO

HEYYY YOU GUUUUYYYSSSS - (Name the movie)

Well, well, well, here we are again. I'm typing as we speak, and now as we speak, you guys are reading. Isn't it kinda cool how that works? I think so too. :) This week honestly was just a lot of fun to be honest  Here’s a little bit about my weeeeeek. 

To start things off, I'm getting transferred /::::: I'm going to a place called Cartagena. My old comp Elder Rex is there right now, but I'm taking his spot. My new comp is named Elder Blasi. Pretty sure he's from Illinois and he goes home in 6 weeks so we will only have one transfer together! Good kid from what i know.

So the subject line basically says it all. I've officially made it in the mission. One year ahhh yeah. 😜 On Wednesday, we celebrated as a district with the GNARLY package stuff my mom/fam sent me. 😍 it was sooo fun! Literally everyone in my district was so amazed by how much stuff my mom put in the box she sent me. :) I was so happy and the best was my "Hump Day” shirt! It's the best. I made a tie-dye cake and oh my gosh, most complicated cake I've ever seen in my life. You should be so proud of me. 😩 it was so good. It took so long tho hahahaha. I'll attach some pics of the party below. :) (more pictures of the party on the blog)

Friday night was awesome. We had a noche de hogar and ate with Santi and his family in their house!! Gosh they're so awesome and nice and everything but they just won't let Santi get baptized!! He's almost to Alma in the BOM, so hopefully he gets done and they realize that he really wants to be baptized and they'll let him! When we got there, the USA vs Spain game was on.............so we watched it 🙈 hahaha!  It was weird seeing actual basketball for once! For those of you that don't know already, Pau Gasol is literally a God to the people here in Spain. He's from here so everyone just bows down to him. “Oh, you like basketball? Who's your favorite player?" "Pau Gasol" every time. Without fail. Then you got those bandwagoners who say Steph Curry haha. But yeah so then we ate and after we talked to them about Jesus :) we showed his parents his teaching record, that shows how much he’s learned. Every thing that we have taught him is on there and so it was cool for his parents to see how much he's learned and everything. He's such a stud and I'm definitely going to miss him. I'm gonna get permission from Pres to come to his baptism if it happens while I'm on my mission. :)

Sunday was a good way to end the last day with my companion Llavina.  He left today because he's training so he has to go to Málaga to pick up his noob. So after church we went to the Caballero’s  house and ate with them one last time together. I had them all sign my journal and it was sad. Aaron and his family are going to Utah this week. I told them Dad would take them out on the boat if they found him 😂 so Dad, if some family with two cute little kids show up, take em to Pineview and show them how to live. :) The good news is that my boi Jacob has a lot of friends in Cartagena so he will come visit me a couple times. :) We did a tie trade and he gave me one of his soccer jerseys :’). He should be getting his call soon. I dont  know when but he said he's gonna live in Utah so we will be boiz til death 💯. Then that night we went to the Palomino’s house and they threw us a surprise party. 😊 Leaving’s bday is the 27th so it was for his bday and my going away as well. It was so fun! I love that family so much! They made us both a video of all the pics and videos we have taken together in our time together and for the song they put "See you again" and for those of you who don't know, that’s a song that is special to Reece and me. I cry literally every time I hear it. Party cuz I'm a huge Paul Walker fan (it was on the last Fast and Furious movie and Paul Walker got me 7500 retweets) and cuz when I took Reece to see that movie, we both cried at the end because I was leaving in a few days. 😩😩 So yeah, I cried during the video. It was so sad! I'm already so excited to come back and visit after my mish! Introduce all these people to my family and see what they say about me.

The next couple of days will just be saying bye to a couple more people. It's kind of complicated because I have to stay with the other Elders here because my comp is gone. I head over to Cartagena on Wednesday morning. So next Monday you'll know if I made it or not! I'll keep you guys updated. :)

I love you all!! Hope you all have a brilliant week and know I am praying for you guys! :) ALSO SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE REAL SLIM SHADYS WHO WISHED ME A HAPPY HUMP DAY WITH MY SIGN THINGY AND MY MOM TOOK YOUR PICS. YOU GUYS DA BEST!  ILY AND YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL HUMANS OF SOCIETY.

DUECES,
Transferrin'
E T B H < 3

Saying goodbye to the Palomino family.  We are sad.

See ya soon my dood!

VIVA MEXICO!! This was our party that the Palomino family threw for us last night. I drew my comp’s stache!  LOL! I was proud! 

Saying goodbye to the Cabellero family.

My District and our Hump Day party!

Best T-Shirt EVER!

Week 51: I swallowed my contact and we baptized Hernan :):):)

Hello relatives and loved persons in my life :)

W(hat) A W(eek)!

It's been a long, full, fun, and rewarding week to say the least. A couple funny things happened, not a whole ton of work (thanks to holidays in Elche) had a couple good lessons when we could, balled out in soccer, and then Hernan got dunked and received that Holy Ghost AND the Priesthood to end the week. :) Here's a couple of the HiGhLiGhTs! 💯

I'll start off by telling the story of why my subject line is what it is. Well, we had a way good lesson with our investigator Jonathan on Wednesday. We went in wanting to talk about the Plan of Salvation, and we did just that. :) We started talking about where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going. We brought Prescila with us because she's good friends with Jon's wife, and Prescila brought her daughter Vicky. Vicky looks like the sweetest little angel but (and don't get me wrong she is... Sometimes...) really is a freaking riot hahaha. While we were teaching the lesson she comes up and starts wanting me to play with her. I'm trying to keep her quiet and teach the lesson and she just wants to play. I’m like okay how bout we play later and she starts to throw a fit so I gotta play still and I’m teaching at the same time and then BOOM, contact comes out of my left eye (my worst eye). I'm like well shiz I can't leave the room to go put it back in, so I put it in my mouth to keep it from drying up. We were almost done with the lesson so I figured I could wait it out and we'd be good. We continue with the lesson, Vicky continues to want to play. We got to the celestial kingdom part and right before I start to talk, I feel my contact slide right down my throat. 😩 It like got stuck on it’s way down too. Talked about el reino celestial, we prayed, then we left and I went home and put a new contact in. :)

Soooo, Santi is supposed to have his baptism this Saturday. But, it doesn't look like his parents (just his dad) are going to let him yet. :( They keep telling him he can get baptized once he reads the whole BOM, then it changes to "in October" then it changes to "when you’re 16" so basically we just want to sit down with his dad and be like, yo, dude, your son wants to get baptized. He's 12 years old and not a member and has already done a full 24 hour fast. That's something that some members who were born into the church have never done! (I was one of those until I was 18 😛) His mom said if it was up to her and Santi, he'd already be baptized. Buuuut guess his dad wears the pants. (That’s a first in a marriage ;). So basically all we are waiting for is for him to get permission from his dad. We have prayed and fasted that by some miracle his dad will let him get baptized.

To end off the week, like I said.. Hernan had his baptism!! It was such a freaking cool experience to see everyone there to support him. :) There were so many people there. Oh my gosh haha! I got in the font and looked at everyone there and nearly turned the water yellow 😳. But then Hernan looked at me and said “Come on Jamón Baby" in his very Colombian accent hahaha and all the nerves went away like that. :) After we got out, he goes "Hammond I told you to not get my hair wet we have to do it again” hehe. Ahh good one Hernan. Saturday was also the last day of holidays here in Elche and so that night we went over to the Palominos to celebrate his baptism and also celebrate the holiday. :) There was a freaking ginormous firewoPPrk show that was way cool and at the end, they do this one huge one that turns into a palm tree (cuz Elche is know for those) but yeah it was freakin dope. Also me and my comp made hamburgers and they were scrumdiddlyumcious. 😊

Sunday rolled around and we were able to give Hernan the Holy Ghost and also the Priesthood. His mom came to his baptism and church on Sunday and she said she has never felt so good as she did Saturday and Sunday seeing her hijo as happy as he was. :) Seeing Hernan go through what he has gone through and do what he has had to do just to be baptized, shows how much he loves God and how much he cares about being back with him and also so his whole family can be with their baby boy who died last month. He and Priscila are still working towards a marriage date, but yesterday when he got the priesthood and she realized that he could baptize her when's she's ready made her sooo happy and it was so awesome. :) It's been so cool to know them and to see Hernan go through this whole process.

I also found out that I'm leaving Elche 😩😩😩. The worst part is that I don't know where I'm going or who my comp is yet because all President said is that I'm leaving. So this week I will be finding out where my next area is and who my next comp will be. I’ll letcha guys know. But until then, I hope you guys all know I love you and am grateful for all of you guys. :) Have a great week and you’ll hear from me S O O N L I K E I N A W E E K O K A Y P E A C E O U T B Y E T H I S L O O K S K I N D A C O O L H U H okay I'm done lol bye. :)

OH YEAH I HIT ONE YEAR THIS WEDNESDAY SO EVERYONE GO NUTZZZZ AND GET CRUNK FOR ME!!!!!!!!!

Contact Swallowin'
Elder THam 🤓🤐

Hernan ;)

Family ;)

Vicky ;)

Week 50: "How to Practice Fasting" from a 12-Year Old

What is up my beloved family and friends? :)

It's been another pretty good week. We've been pretty busy these past couple of weeks and this one that is coming up is going to be filled with activities all over the place! I don't have a whole lotta time today. OKAY HERE IT IS!

So we started the week off with splits from the other elders in our ward. I was with Elder Fumero, from Venezuela. He's been on his mission for technically (as he says) 3 years. He started in Chile or somewhere and then went home after 15 months then waited a year and came back out to Spain and goes home in December. Good guy. We were passing by some old investigators and we met this girl from Romania named Narchisa. (Kinda like SHARKISHA NO!!!!) The Hermana missionaries that used to be here used to teach her. We talked about the Book of Mormon and she's like “Oh yeah, I know! I've read all the way to Alma 40! I haven't read in like almost a year but I'd love to get back into reading it, do you think you guys could come by next week and talk to me about it?" I was like "yes" so that was that! :) Normally people from Romania who come to Spain don’t speak Spanish very well but she's like the opposite and so when she told us she's from there we were like "no way" and that’s what started the whole conversation.

Santi is still progressing towards his baptismal date! We still need to get a couple things sorted out with his parents for the baptism, but we have been praying and fasting for him that they will be able to see how happy their son is! We talked about fasting and tithing this week as well as other commandments. When we were talking about fasting he was telling us how he thought it would be hard so we invited him to fast with us yesterday because it was Fast Sunday. The next day (Wednesday) we saw him and he told us he had been practicing fasting! It was awesome! He said, "I ate breakfast today and didn't eat lunch and I'm gonna have a small dinner tonight so I can get ready for it." Needless to say, the practice paid off during his fasting on Saturday and Sunday. During sacrament he said, “Oh no, I can't take the sacrament. I'm fasting!" So I told him he could take the sacrament and he was like, “Okay then I'm going to enjoy this piece of bread and cup of water a lot." The kid is so amazing and has such a desire to follow the Lord.

As for Hernan, we will be having his baptism this Saturday!! We are so excited for him. We had a couple of lessons with him this week as well. We had a good lesson on forgiveness. We watched a video about the guy who's family got killed in a car crash by a drunk driver and instead of holding a grudge that he could have had for the kid that was driving, the man decided to forgive him right away. He lost his wife who was pregnant and two of his kids in the process. Forgiveness is possible through the Atonement. :) We went to Alicante for a priesthood meeting with our entire stake on Saturday. We talked a lot about the love of God. It was really cool because Hernan was one of the few people that isn't a member there, but he was also one of the only ones to raise his hand and share his thoughts when our Stake President was asking for people's opinions.  :) After he shared, Llavina and I just looked at each other from opposite sides of the bench and gave the grin like, “Heck yeah! That's our investigator!" 😏

I read a talk by Elder Bednar this past week and it really made me realize how God has a plan for each and every one of us. It talks about a guy who married his wife and 3 weeks after their marriage he was diagnosed with bone cancer. The man knew Elder Bednar and asked him to give him a blessing. Before Elder Bednar gave the blessing he asked the man if he had the faith to NOT be healed. When I read that it took me a minute to really understand what it meant. Sometimes we don’t understand why certain things happen in our lives. Sometimes when we need help from God, we don't get the outcome that we wanted and we hope for things that don't happen. But faith in the Savior is submissively accepting His will and timing in our lives even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted. I tried to put myself in his shoes and I can't even imagine how hard it would be to maintain my faith in the Lord through all of the things that happened. But I realized that if we really do trust him, and we believe that he knows what is best for us, everything will turn out for the better and how it is supposed to be. :)

A little different approach on the whole email this week, hopefully you all don't mind. ;) I hope you all have a fantastic week and all know I love the heck out of all of you guys. :) You'll be hearing from me next Monday! 😊

Zone Conference in Alicante

Week 49: I Am Happy 😊

Good Monday (or whatever day you guys read this) to you all, :)

Well, I first wanna start out by telling everyone the big news here in Elche. Some dude who lives here found all the Pokemon characters in the new game, that is completely outrageous and a total waste of time, Pokemon Go!!!!! Wow!!!!! How awesome is that?!?!! I was blown away!!! I'm joking. Honestly, that is kinda cool though because he is the 2nd person in the world to do it and he lives where I live right now. Props to that nerd! Second of all, I gotta shoutout my boy Elder King for killing his farewell talk yesterday (so he claims) and because he dips to the MTC this Wednesday. Good luck man! Thanks for filling in for me when I left. I'll see you in two and I'll be awaiting our hug ❤️! Now that I just got all mushy on you guys, here's my week. 😜

Tuesday we had a nice district meeting. That night we met with a new investigator named Jonathon! His wife is a less active and so we are killing two birds with one stone. :) We had a good lesson with them about why we are here and how the Book of Mormon can help them in their lives and then to top it all off, Jon accepted the baptismal goal for August 20th! It will more than likely have to get pushed back a bit but at least he shows signs that he wants to get baptized. :) After that we went over to Santi's house and talked with his parents about everything. Like I've said, if it was up to Santi, he would be baptized right now. But, he's 12. So, it's not up to him. We talked to his parents and they think it would be better if we waited a little bit longer so we pushed his baptismal date back to the 20th as well. I'm hoping that's as far back as we have to go because I'll more than likely be leaving the 24th to a different area. So as of now, Santi’s date for his baptism is August 20th. :)

Wednesday was a way good day. The morning sucked because we passed by a ton of people and didn't get anyone to answer. But Mediodia hit and went over to the Garcia’s house to eat. Then after while we are walking home my companion starts going the opposite way and I guess during our lunch, we got invited to eat with the Palominos as well. So, we went and had some Colombian food from a family from Ecuador. I wasn't too upset when I figured out what we were eating. My favorite food from South America. I don't know how to spell it but it's like this fried ball with mashed potatoes and meat and stuff inside and it's so good. We ate some of that and then went home and died for the rest of media did because we had so much food. 😩 When it was time to go out again, we had a doooope cita with Hernan. He found a piso to rent, SO HE’S MOVING OUT!! Which is freaking dope because now he can get baptized! :) We were talking and he said, “Hammond, when do you leave?" And I said, "Well transfers are the 24th so probably then.” Then he said, “Well, then we have to schedule my baptism before that. How bout the 13th?" Hernan is getting baptized on the 13th!!! I was seriously so happy it was unreal. :)

Thursday. We planned for this week and then after we went and picked up some food that a member made for us. That night we met with Jonathon and Vanessa again and talked to them about the Restoration. :) it was a really good weekend and we are excited to see what happens with Jon! After that we stopped by Santi's house and picked him up then went to the church for our "pre-soccer lesson” again. :) We talked to him about a ton of stuff and he understood all of it and it was awesome. We started with the 10 commandments and then into those we talked about the Sabbath Day, Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom! He told us he was gonna try and obey everything. :) After that we went out and played some soccer.

Friday was the start to a pretty lame weekend. The only thing I can remember is that we worked in the morning and once again had no luck. Then we had English classes that night and after went to Burger King and got ice cream. 

Saturday, once again, a day chuck full of nothing! We contacted 53 different people during the morning and only got about 4 numbers out of it. It was sad. And hot. To end the day, we went over to the Palominos and had dinner with them. We had a cute lesson on the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament and the importance of it. It was good, and then we ate some chicken and rice. Betcha didn't see that one coming. 😂

Sunday was a pretty good way to end the weekend. We went to church, enjoyed the classes, and then after we went over to Hernan’s to eat! After we ate, we went over the baptismal interview questions and he’s almost too ready for it. :) He's way stoked about it. After that, we went back to the Palomino’s house again and hung out with them for awhile, playing games and then somehow we got into this giant pillow fight. My comp was in the kitchen making some cookies and it was me and my dude Rafa (their nephew) against all 5 girls. 😩😩 We held our ground for the most part. Rafa was a champ and took most of the heat for me. On the bright side nothing broke which amazed me because it was like a pillow fight that lasted 25 mins and we were freakin zingin’ pillows across the rooms. It was good fun :)

Today we went to Alicante and went to that castle again. It was cooler the first time 😜 mostly because we had a car and someone who knew where to go and what to do, but it was fun to get the whole district together and disfrutar some PDay. :)

That’s all she wrote for this week. Happy August to you all and I hope you all have a great week. :) Oh yeah I forgot to mention this. Last Monday we played tennis with Aaron and oh my gosh people I think I found my future living if the whole playing football in college thing doesn't work out. I had so much fun and I wrecked everyone. I felt like Andre Agasi (no idea how to spell it but he's like a way good tennis player and I think he's my dad’s favorite). Either way it was dope and I'm definitely playing tennis when I get home and when I get old. :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Pillow Zingin'
Elder THamNer :)

Our District ;)

Cheesin'