Elder Tanner Bollar New Hampshire, Manchester/Brazil, Florianopolis

Hey everyone!!  Obviously this email is gonna be a little different! The end of my mission is here! Truly a bunch of weird emotions that I don't really know how to describe. My mission has completely changed who I am! Every day has pushed me further and I can see changes in myself that prove to me that everyone who can, should serve a mission!  I have come to know that Jesus Christ is a very personal Savior. At times I felt very alone during my mission, but in those same times I felt His presence so strong. I have come to know that it is not just a spiritual thing but something physical. I have never felt alone knowing Christ is with me. I'm so grateful for my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that Book is true and therefore, I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. And because of the Book of Mormon, I know Jesus Christ truly lives. And that He died for me and each of you.  I'm also so grateful for everyone I have met on my mission! You all have had a huge effec...

Hey Everyone!! Start us right off, this week we had a lesson with the family of our recent convert!! It was so cool to have a member at the lesson and that member was someone we baptized!! We taught them the Restoration and they loved it! It's always fun when people have questions and this family had questions me tell ya. The one that called most attention was asking if we pray to Joseph Smith. Which we promptly told them we dont haha We explained it a little more and they grasped the concept that we can be so grateful for everything he did, but in the end we always pray to Heavenly Father! It was so fun to teach them! They also had a cat that liked me a lot so that was cool haha We got to teach the Restoration to another new family this week!! Their question that stands out the most was: is Mormon our god? Hahaha which we addressed faster than praying to Joseph haha We explained that the reason the church is called the church of Jesus Christ, is because He is our God. And that...

Hey Everyone! Boy did we have a sick week haha Last pday i was sick and then it got worse until Thursday and I slowlyyyy started to get better, but my companion started getting worse on Thursday and is pretty sick right now haha But we still had some miracles!! Since I dont have a whole ton of time left, our goal has been to get all of our friends as ready as possible! So we started with one of our old friends! Hes been struggling with getting over word of wisdom stuff, but hes come so far!! We were able to sit down and ask him what kind of goals he wants to make. He said that he wants to be baptized before I go (which I was okay with haha) so we marked his baptism for the 4th of June! We were able to read some scriptures with him and show him that today is his day to decide. Because how bold we would have to be to assume we have tomorrow. He completely understood and said he was gonna be ready!! Send him some prayers! Then we went to the couple's house and had a real nice sit down...

Olááá Everyone!! We had some miracles this week!! First and foremost, our convert who got baptized two weeks ago, brought his whole family to church!! We were so proud of him!! We immediately went over and talked with them all and our convert goes "so let's mark some lessons right now, and let's have at least two lessons a week." I was so excited!! Not one but two lessons this week!! Then the coolest thing, we got to give him the priesthood :') It really made me remember of when I got it back at 12 and I had so many feelings!! This church is so true!! With the couple that's always so apt to change, we had a stressful week!! So we needed to take them into the city building with like 20 documents for EACH of them so we can get them married! Some how, by a miracle from God, they didnt have any problems!! It all went very smooth:) but then when they asked for my ID I whipped out my Utah Drivers license and they said that wasnt valid and I was like "are you ki...

E ai everyone, we got some miracles!! This week we were able to teach the couple and have a super good lesson! We were tasked to teaching the Law of Chastity! Which has super importance to God as we know. I I that the best way to go about it would be to read a few verses on eternal marriage and just show to them that God has God tthings waiting for them and all they need to do is take them! So after we read the few verses, my companion explained a little bit more specifically teaching them about it! And at the end we asked them if they had any questions. And the boyfriend said "I dont really have any questions just more of some thoughts" and I was like please share!! haha he said "I feel like we need to get married as soon as possible to not be living in sin". I was stunned. He totally grasped the idea of how important this is to God and wants to start making changes right now!!! The spirit honestly works so strong with the couple and I know its because they are mak...

Olá tudo mundo!! This week we taught a few more reinforcement lessons to our friends who are struggling with the word of wisdom, but these lessons were so good!! For one of our friends we talked about the vision of the tree of life. And when I shared what I thought, I talked about the verse that says: "And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost." So from that i talked about how it is the same with us! When we start to get a testimony of something, we learn that not following through with that thing is going down a forbidden path! And then that line "were lost". So SCARY! Basically I told him that now that he is gaining a testimony, he gets to have more blessings but live at a higher standard! And he said he is ready to stay off the Forbidden paths!! Then this week we started teaching a new couple!! Yall. I have never ever had anyone in my mission, pay at...

Hey Everyone!! This week was so good! To start us off, this past week we started teaching a new friend!! Hes super interested in the church which has been so cool because we have been able to teach him 3 times already!! Yesterday we were able to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the third lesson we usually teach. So we got through it and we could tell he was grasping the parts we were teaching (as much as anyone new can haha) and at the end we asked him if he wanted to be baptized!! He looked us both in the eyes for like 30 seconds and just said "that is something I want". It was so cool!! So we're gonna hopefully get him taught everything else this week!! Next is our other friend that we have been teaching for a little now! He has received all the normal lessons so now it's more focused on smaller ones to help them get ready to be baptized so this week we taught the word of wisdom. It was fun to teach cuz we could tell he had a problem with it, buttttt we as...

Hey yall?? This week I had a scary story!! We were driving home from zone conference that is about two hours away. And when we were driving home, I was passed out because zone conference took out all my strength. (Remember that I'm not super tall but here in brazil I'm relatively large). So I woke up to our driver jerking the whole car and thus my head getting sent into the roof! It turns out he was swerving to avoid a big street dog which he didnt and the whole front of the car got destroyed. And I walked away with a good headache for two days haha But I learned a lesson! When we were leaving our meeting I heard a voice say "put on your seatbelt" and i said back "this is brazil, they dont use them here" later I learned that I should've put on my seatbelt!!! Listen to those little promptings!! I got to do a super fun interview this week! It was a little 10 year old girl and why it was so fun is the following! I would ask this little girl some hard questi...

Hey Y'all! How are you?? This week I wanted to talk about our friend Alexandre! This guy is so cool! We got to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! I think one of my favorite parts was when my companion had just finished teaching his portion of faith and then it transitioned to my turn, and I immediately started teaching. But then he said the following "Elder Bollar, can you wait a second so I can write down what elder Ribeiro said?" I was like "yes please!" if you're actually taking notes, I'll give you all the time you need hahaha then later we talked about enduring to the end, and he really liked that point. He talked about how after we do big things in our lives, if we don't keep doing the little things, those big things dont even matter! And I could see how true it was! We always need to be doing the little things to keep us on the path! 2 Nephi 33:6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from...

Hello Everyone! This week we had some good experiences so we can just hop right in!  We found that some earlier sisters had worked in a smaller city outside the main city and we decided that we we're gonna go out there and give it a go! I'll just say that was the best decision ever haha we basically got to knock doors for 5 hours straight to a bunch of people that were super willing to hear about Jesus. At one point we got to a house where this lady was washing clothes so we went up, introduced ourselves and asked if we could come back another day because she was busy and she goes, no no! Please sit down! I could never turn away representatives of Christ. My mind was blown!!! So we got to have a super amazing lesson with her right there At another door that we clapped, this older man of probably 80 years old life in him opened his window and we introduced ourselves and then he opened the front door and his son hurried to the door and was like "hey who are you guys!" S...

Hey Everyone!! This week was a little slow haha we had some medical problems haha My companion ate some wrong food and starting to have a reaction, so we went to the hospital where they proceeded to give him medice he is allergic to. So his face swole up like a ballon hahaha so we had to wait most of the week out, waiting for him to get back to normal. So this week I'm excited to catch some miracles! Last night I had a little miracle! I was doing some random calls and I called this one lady and she answered. But then she hung up Haha But i wasn't taking no for an answer! So I found her number on WhatsApp and called her again! This time she seemed a lot happier because she answered and let me talk! Haha When we got talking she said she didn't have a whole lot of time because she was going through a rough time. I said a prayer right there thanking Heavenly Father for helping me call her! So I said Sister, can we call you on tuesday and say a prayer and share a message about J...

Hey y'all?? How was your week? We gonna start out with a story: We had just gotten done with some service so we were pretty beat. We got in the elevator and pushed the level 4 button. So we get there and we walk to our door, but the key wasn't working. And I was kinda freaking out cuz that's the only way in. So I started pushing the door and pulling the handle a little to try and get it to unlock and my comp was like "oh no" so he started getting even more aggressive with the door and I was just like "man I'm never gonna get to shower" when I looked at the door number and realized we had somehow pushed the level three button and we were on the wrong floor hahahaha we just looked at each other and walked to the elevator laughing so hard hahaha whoever lives there definitely thought we were trying to break in hahaha But on with missionary stuff hahah this week we did exchanges with a member and it was so fun!! Sadly it was raining but as two veteran co...

Hellooo Everyone!! This week was so much fun! We were able to stay so busy! We had one lesson with a friend where we got done teaching the Plan of Salvation and I asked her where she wanted to go after this life. And she happily replied with, living with Heavenly Father and Jesus! And then I said, we for us to get there, they ask a little bit of us. And one of those things is that we get baptized. So we gave her an invite to be baptized and she said that is what she wanted!! There are definitely some elect people in Curitibanos At one point we had a little bit of free time and we didn't know what to do, but out of the blue we both felt like we needed to call one of our friends and just check up on her and see how she was. And when we called she gave us the news that her husband had just asked for a divorce... that was one of the harder things to hear. But I know that we were guided by the Lord to be there in that exact moment. We were able to say a prayer and read a scripture and s...

Howdy Everyone! This week we have done a lot a lot a lot of walking haha Our ward sent us to find a lot of members and I think I put out 10% of my shoes from all the walking Haha But it was super fun! We got to see a ton of members and be able to help them get back to a place where they feel they can come back to church! A little christlike love is usually all it takes! We were teaching one of our friends this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Which very simply is the 4th article of faith! It was so much fun to teach her about this! We told her what each point is, then we went her to a scripture that talked about that point, then after that we asked her to tell us what she thought each point meant from the scriptures and she did so good!! She's already learning how to understand them!! Great steps forward! Other than it a few small lessons it was a ton of walking haha But every minute of every week teaches me a lesson! Missions are worth every sacrifice! 3 Nephi 9:20 And ye sh...

Hey Everyone!! Tudo bem??  We sure had a miracle filled week here in Curitibanos! Let's hit it! So we started off this week with a lesson with our new friend! We got to teach her the restoration which is my most favoritest thing. A little later in the lesson we asked her if she would be willing to ask if these things were true, and she said she had already received an answer. I was like alright well please share your answer haha She said that before church on Sunday she wasn't sure if she should go or not. So she said a prayer to ask if she should go! Come to find out, she had gotten an answer that this church was the one for her! Then we got to say the best words in the world "Are you willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding authority?" She said yes!!! The next lesson we had with her, she said her first out loud prayer in her life. It hit us all with The Spirit so so strong. So cool to see!! A funny story this week: We were wal...