Week 40 Baptism!!!!!

First of all, we got transfer calls last Monday afternoon, so... I have a new companion! No, I didn't get moved. I am still here in beautiful Plattsburgh. On Tuesday, Sister Williamson and I had to drive to Liverpool to get new companions, we had to be there by 5 pm, so Sister Williamson took the whole morning to pack and we left here around 12:30. It was a beautiful drive there. Then I got my new companion, Sister Gardner! She just came from Ithaca! ️

After some minor technical difficulties with the sim card, we headed back up to Plattsburg... A 4 hour drive... We stopped at 9 to stretch our legs and watch the evening devotional. So we didn't end up getting him until 10:32... It was crazy!

But I love Sister Gardner!! She is the best! And she also is a hair stylist, so she cut my hair for real today and it looks so good

We had a baptism this week!!! David got baptized and it was interesting, but perfect. He was able to be an amazing example to his family and friends and he feels so good! He is so amazing!

That's about it for this week. It was fun and I am now 5 days behind in my journal🏻

My spiritual thought comes from 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."

Love you all!! Have a great week. 

Love, 

Sister Thacker

A few are self explanatory

But there was a pretty rainbow

A pretty tree

Pretty transfer drive views

My hair cut

First Pic with new comp

Pretty sacrament drive river had to stop and take pics 

Annnnnd, CHICK-FIL-A as always , but this time with a PEACH SHAKE! Yum!

BAPTISM (we cannot show faces)

Week 39 Heat Wave

It has been so hot and humid this week and it's not okay, everyone here says it's a heat wave

I don't think there was anything huge this week, but it was good. We made plans for David baptism which is this Friday, so exciting!

We had a lesson with David on Tuesday and we had the opportunity to have his cousin join in! (His distant cousin) 

But it was a very cool experience because, his cousin, is a missionary serving in Spain, and so we had both him and his companion. We all testified of the blessings of obedience and the power of Spirit that was in that lesson was so tangible. The Spirit that missionaries have is real!

We have lessons with a returning member and she is amazing! She shared her testimony with us a few times this week and she said, "when you are so full of joy, you just want to share it. But you forget to sit down and listen." she was talking about her experience right after she got baptized, compared to now after having been inactive and coming back. She talked about the JOY she felt when we joined the church and how much love she had for it. She wanted to share it, but she also didn't take the time to continue growing her testimony and eventually, she began having doubts and went away for a little bit. Now, having come back, the joy she feels is even greater because she is taking the time to study every day and learn all about the truths of the Gospel. And because she is doing that, her capacity to share the Gospel is more than before because of her stronger testimony.

Its a testimony to me of the importance of daily scripture study and prayer. 

We taught a lesson this week about CPR. Not the life saving CPR, but the soul saving CPR. C stands for Church, P stands for Prayer, and R stands for reading (or repentance). If you feel weak or you start to have doubts and feel your faith weakening, I promise you, as a representative of Jesus Christ, if you do those 3 things, that you will feel your faith increase, you will have more joy, and your capacity to endure through trials with will be strengthened.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!

Sister Thacker

Pictures...

We didn't take very many pictures this week

But here is a quote that I really like

Week 38

Oh my goodness what a week this was!

It was crazy. 

So some highlights

Monday we found out we are now...Drumroll... Authorized to have Baptisms!!!!!!! We have been busy this week trying to get all of the details worked out for both David and Braden!

We had some crazy lessons, David almost dropped us, but it's all good now and he is preparing to be baptized on June 26th!

We had a Devotional with Elder Christofferson on Friday and that was amazing!! Wow, he is truly an Apostle of the Lord. He taught us so much and reminded us of the simple truths of the Gospel. 

1. Read the Book of Mormon every day!

2. Pray every day!

3. You can count all you need to do to enter the Celestial Kingdom, on one hand. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. It's that simple, 5 things.

4. God loves us and knows us personally and the struggles we are facing. 

5. Trust the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

These are just a few things he said, but it was an amazing experience. The Spirit that was felt in our apartment through the screen was so strong! 

...basically I guess those were the biggest things that happened but the baptisms were a week long process because of all of the details we had to figure out. It felt like a lot more happened. 

Well I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

Sister Thacker

Some gorgeous peonys from our Branch Presidents yard

A cute caterpiller we saw on our walk

Elder Christofferson!! 

Waiting on Zoom for our friends

Week 37 Faith In Christ

This week was good! We found some new people to teach and had 4 friends at Zoom church!! It was awesome

We have a new friend named Heather and she is amazing. We had lost contact with her this past week or so and then she called us on Friday and asked if we had time to meet right now, and we did! We also set up a meeting for Tuesday and Wednesday! Anyways, she told us that as she was reading in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11-13 (we invited her to read there) she was crying and she could feel the Spirit. It was amazing!! She knows that this is something good and she even joined the Zoom church for a few minutes (technical difficulties). She is amazing and we are so excited to teach her all about Christ's restored church

We also have another new friend, Marie, who is actually our neighbor. She is so sweet and we have only had one lesson with her, but she was so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the additional witness it is of Christ

David is doing amazing and he is so ready to be baptized He really knows that this is Christ's restored church and he loves it! We are hoping we will be able to have baptisms then

I have read a lot of talks and quotes this week that I have wanted to share, but I want to talk a little bit about Faith. 

This week, as a mission, we have been focusing on faith and its been really amazing. President Vest asked us to find 3 scriptures on faith that we want to Memorize. One of the ones I chose is 

Hebrews 11:6

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

I have faith that as I seek God, He will bless me. To have faith in God means that we believe He knows and loves us, that He has a divine plan for our lives, that He is our Father.

To have faith in Christ, we believe that He is, that under the direction of the Father, He created all things, that He lived, suffered, died and rose again so that we can all return to live with Him again. Because of Christ we have an opportunity to be clean from our sins. 

I have faith that as I diligently seek Them, and keep Their commandments, I will be blessed in this life and in the life to come. 

As Ether said, "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

-Ether 12:4

I have Hope for a better world because of my Faith in Christ. It is an anchor to my soul in the hardest times.

I invite you to do the same thing as we did in the New York Syracuse Mission. Chose 3 (or even just 1) scriptures on Faith and memorize them so they can remind you of Christ in even the darkest of times.️

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!! 

Love,

Sister Thacker

Pictures

We take our walks in 2 cemeteries

We love these scripture quotes from the Ensign

Week 36 What Happened This Week..... and Birthday Week!

I don't even really remember what happened this week... Our friends are  doing well and we had a good week haha.

Oh yeah! It was my birthday! I am now officially 20! It was a great birthday!!

I got some presents from my family, and we had so many members bring us food. We got brought cheesecake and eggs(we really needed eggs) and another remember asked us what kind of ice cream we wanted, so I got some chocolate fudge brownie non-dairy Ben and Jerry's!!  We also made brownies! 

We were able to take the sacrament again

I also gave a talk for our Branch Zoom Church and it went well. It was really nice to give a talk over zoom because we don't have to see anyone's faces

I talked about personal revelation and it was the very first talk that I have given that I didn't have to have a script. I just had some notes and was led by the spirit 

I don't really remember much else.  It's been a slow/long week, haha.

I invite you all to read "A Good Foundation against the Time to Come" by Elder Stevenson from this past conference and evaluate your spiritual foundation.

A quote I loved from it was: "What might spiritual cornerstones of our personal and family lives be? They may be the simple, plain and precious principles  of gospel living - family prayer; scripture study, including the Book of Mormon; temple attendance; and gospel learning through Come, Follow Me and home evening."

 

Something that we have been focusing on with our friends is making sure they are reading the Book of Mormon daily. I know doing this will strengthen your foundation in Christ because it testifies of Christ on almost every page!!

Love you all!!

Thank you for the birthday wishes

Sister Thacker

Oh yeah, also I accidentally burned my hand on the oven, so there is my picture of that lol.