Week 18 Of Mice and Men...

Hello family and friends!
I hope you are having a great week. I cannot believe it is February on Saturday! It is so crazy how fast time flies.

This week we have had some good experiences.

We had interviews with President Vest which is always awesome. He is an amazing and inspired leader, and I am so grateful to be a missionary under his direction.

We put Bro. Young on date!!! He is getting baptized Feb 8th and he is so excited!
His testimony is so strong, his goal is not only to he baptized, but to be sealed with his family for eternity.

Jessica is doing good. Unfortunately she was unable to come to church yesterday, so we have to move her date back. But that way we can make sure she will be completely prepared for the covenants she is making.

We hadn't caught our mouse friend by last Monday, so we had to buy more effective traps... as we came to find out, our mouse was too big for the first traps we bought!!
We caught it (pic included), but the next day, we found more teeth marks in the butter! Yuck! We had another mouse! We caught him too (pic included)... now we have a trap out just in case there is a other one... didn't think I would have to deal with mice, yet here we are.

I also have been sick this week. We both got colds and have been dealing with runny noses and sore throats while out talking to people... let's just say, we went through many many packs of tissues, cough drops, and cold medicine. We ran out of the pill cold medicine that we had to start taking the liquid Nyquil... gross.

We have met some awesome people this week as we have been out tracting. It is a great reminder to me that not everyone is mean. There are people out there who are genuinely looking for the truth and we can find them as we follow the spirit on where we need to be.

My testimony of prayer has been strengthened this week. Being completely honest, this has been a hard week for me. I have struggled for various reasons, but the thing that has affected me the most is not having my time alone. As a missionary, you have a companion for 24/7, the only time you get alone is while in the bathroom. President Vest gave the council at Zone conference to go into a separate room and take time to pray vocally to Heavenly Father.
I had not taken that council until yesterday afternoon. There is power in praying vocally. The Prophet Joseph Smith prayed out loud for the first time in his life and in response to that prayer, he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ.
I am not saying that when you pray out loud you will get the same kind of vision, and I certainly didn't, but I was able to receive answers to my questions and comfort in my struggles. In praying vocally, you show Heavenly Father you are sincere.
I invite you to pray vocally and sincerely this week, asking Heavenly Father a question or just telling him about what you are going through, and I promise, you will feel his love and know that he is aware of you and your struggles.

I love you all!!!
Sister Thacker

PSA: there are dead mice shown below... do not view if you are queasy easy.

A reminder of home I found when tracting

Stop Scrolling if you don't want to see the mice! 

The first mouse

The second mouse

Week 17

Hello family and friends!

I hope everyone has had a great week!

This week was awesome! We put Jessica on date and she is so excited! We had two good lessons with Pete and Lou Ann. Eduard came to church again! We had two great lessons with Katina and her son and mom. We had a lesson with Bro Young, and he is determined to be baptized within the next month! There were a few others as well that hopefully I will have more to say about next week.

We also had Zone Conference this week and we implemented the New Missionary handbook!!!!! It's so exciting!! So many great things that are going to help the work of salvation move along.

This week we went from really nice warmish weather to a snow storm on Saturday that brought a foot of snow! But today its clear skies again!
We had quite the Saturday and Sunday nights as we trudged in the snow around Ballston Spa, but we talked to some nice people and testified of the truthfulness of our message.

I am so grateful to be a missionary and to help others come unto Christ.

A spiritual thought for the week: the Book of Mormon is so powerful and amazing! A Testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ hangs on our knowledge that Book of Mormon is true. When we read and sincerely pray about it, God will answer us, letting us know the truthfulness of His word. Once we know that the Book of Mormon is true, we then know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, called of God, and that the Church Jesus Christ established on the earth has been restored and President Russell M Nelson is the prophet on the earth today.

I know for myself that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know this because I have prayed and asked Him myself. I feel of its truthfulness everytime I read it.

I love you all!!
Have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Thacker

Pictures

1. The beautiful snow storm, sorry it's super blurry...

2. A gorgeous view in the Greenwich area as we headed to a lesson.

3. We still have a mouse.... bought a few more traps today. Apparently it likes butter.

4. Cool horse, cause Saratoga Springs

5. Me and my companion at Zone conference!

Week 16

Hello family and friends!

First things first, It was transfers this week, and I stayed in Saratoga Springs! Sadly, Sister Geddes got transferred But I like my new companion Sister Sessions! She is great!

We have had quite the week! On transfer day, I drove to Syracuse, a 3 hour drive there and 3 hours back.... in a blizzard... but it was fun! I got to talk to a Sister who was going home so I got some great advice from her.

In other news, the work is booming here in Saratoga! We have had a lesson every day and we have a few friends getting ready for Baptism!!!
Jessica is the first one, she called us on Thursday and wanted to meet with us. She had been reading out of the Book of Mormon and she felt that she needed to meet with the missionaries! She already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and after reading 3 Nephi 11, she told us that she wants to be baptized... during the second lesson! What?! It's amazing!!! She is so eager to learn and also to share the Gospel. She even invited a friend to church yesterday! She is absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to teach her more and help her come unto Christ.

The next people are Pete and Lou Ann. They have been reading the Book of Mormon and have been wanting have a direction with reading it. So, we introduced the Come, Follow Me manual to them and they were so excited! Now we just need to get them to church again!

We also have Eduard who speaks another language (he knows English, but it's not his first language), however, the Bishop and two other members speak the same language! So that's awesome! He wants to learn all he can! He came to church yesterday and the ward was so welcoming, he loved it!

We are so excited for all of our friends and the progress they are making towards Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

For one of my New years resolutions, I am reading all of President Nelson's talks and I have found some amazing things!
One that I want to share is from his talk, "Joy cometh in the Morning". 
"in order to experience true joy in the morning, or at any time, at least three factors are needed. You need to feel good about the people with whom you live and work—your companions in life. 
You must feel good about yourself—not in any sense of conceit, but simply a proper esteem for yourself, well deserved. 
And possibly most important, you must feel good about your relation to God and sincerely love him.”

I wrote these down and I have read them daily to remind me to have Joy in the morning.
When you have Joy in the morning, it sets the tone for your whole day. When we are Joyful first thing, we can continue to be joyful throughout the day, no matter what happens.
This has been something I have needed to focus on this week. As we have been out tracting and spreading the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, opposition has come. As the Prophet Lehi taught his son Jacob in 2 Nephi 2:11 "11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things..."  People use their agency to reject the message of Christ.
One man we talked to while he was in his driveway, told us to "never come back or he would call the cops" after we told him we were sharing a message about God and Jesus Christ.
It is very sad to see our brothers and sisters reject the Savior, and His important message. But we know that God is aware of each of them, He loves them and one day they will know the truth.

I love you all! Thank you so much for the support.

Sister Thacker

P.S. My address is still the same

My new companion, Sister Sessions at Stark Terrace (Marvel reference) 

and a horse statue in town

We have a mouse, it ate our Graham crackers

 and bag of Chocolate chips... we bought a trap today!

Funny Church Signs

Week 15

Happy New Years!!!

We had an amazing lesson with Pete and Lou Ann yesterday. I absolutely love them! We set up lessons with them for 3 times this week! They want to learn everything!

We also found someone on New Years Eve and shared Moroni 7:33 with her. She said that it was exactly what she needed and wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon. We have a lesson with her on Thursday!

Some funny things that have happened this week, we started a list on my phone of all the funny things that Sister Geddes says. One of my personal favourites, "We even knocked on the mouse's houses" As you can tell, we have done a lot of knocking on doors recently. 

Something that I feel that I should share this week is from my study of the recent General Conference. I studied the talk, Consistent and Resilient Trust, by Elder L. Todd Budge. I loved the whole talk, but one particular section I want to share.

"Afflictions and sorrow prepare us to experience joy if we will trust in the Lord and His plan for us. This truth is beautifully expressed by a 13th-century poet: 'Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.'"

Elder Budge goes on to say, "The good news of the gospel is not the promise of a life free of sorrow and tribulation but a life full of purpose and meaning—a life where our sorrows and afflictions can be “swallowed up in the joy of Christ.”" 

No matter what you are going through, Jesus Christ is always there to provide strength, relief, and forgiveness. He knows perfectly your sorrows and afflictions because he felt them. The Prophet Joseph Smith, while in Liberty jail received this answer to his cry for comfort and help. D&C 121:7, 122:7-8

"7. My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

7. (...)all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8. The Son of Man hath descended below them all." 

I know you can turn to him for strength, comfort and forgiveness always. As President Eyring said in the talk, Mountains to Climb, from April 2012, "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing."

The Savior is with you and if you trust in him, you can have peace through any trial, any sorrow and replace them with Joy through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much!

Sister Thacker

P.S. please read President Nelson's most recent post on Social Media, and/or his closing remarks from General Conference about the April 2020 conference and prepare to have an unforgettable experience!

P.P.S. transfers are this week, so if you want to send me a letter, please send it to my misson address, not my apartment address!!

Pictures!!!

1. Happy New Years celebrating with Chocolate milk

2. Saw some Chickens this week...

3. Pretty clouds at sunset yesterday

4. Me and my cute companion, love her so much!

Week 14

Hey everyone!!!
I want to start of by thanking everyone who sent me Christmas cards and gifts!! It meant so much to me to know that I am loved by so many!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas worshiping our Savior and remembering his birth.

This week has been great! We have been doing a lot of finding, knocking on doors and talking to people on the street.

We have seen so many miracles as we have had the faith to find those who are ready to receive the Gospel.

We had a great Christmas!!

We were able to help lift others by giving them candy and Light the World cards! We talked to some awesome people (see photo).
That's about it!

Love you all so much!!
Talk to you next year, Haha.

Sister Thacker

Christmas Morning 

Face Masks

The pictures are from district council, that is elder Perry and elder rust.