Week 72 "Busy, Busy Busy!"

This week has been packed! We are teaching so many people from Facebook and our own areabook. We have 6 lessons every night from 6-9! Its amazing!

Garth and Stephanie are doing well! Still working towards baptism, and please continue praying for them! We saw them at the store today too!

Peter is doing great as well! He is still working towards baptism too! He came to church yesterday and he is beginning to live the Word of Wisdom! We are also giving up habits to help him... so pray for him and us as we all overcome our habits. I am trying not to pop my knuckles...

Kelly is doing amazing! Still working towards baptism. She is also striving to live the Word of Wisdom. She has such a strong testimony! Keep her in your prayers

Catherine is amazing as well! She loves reading conference talks and is so excited for General Conference right before her baptism! We hope that will help her testimony of Priesthood Power.

Tracy has been going through a rough patch, so keep her in your prayers!

The work is progressing so much here in Bennington! Hopefully I don't get transferred this week, but we will see. Anything goes this transfer because it's my last transfer and I have been here for 3 transfers.🤷‍♀️ that's right folks, I have 6 weeks left

That's about if for this week, but the Lord is hastening His work!

There is a beautiful verse from the Book of Mormon that I wanted to share. Jesus Christ was talking to the people in ancient America and He was going to leave them, but then He says this in 3 Nephi 17:6-8,

"6 (...) Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you.

7 Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.

8 For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you."

Jesus Christ can heal you, but you need to show your faith in Him! Sometimes He doesn't take away the trial, but He can lift and strengthen you in your trials.

I love you all!

Have an amazing week!

Sister Thacker

Pictures

Our snowman - Doris, best walk ever!

District picture!

Gorgeous Sunset

Week 71 Vermont Country Store

Today, we got to go to the Vermont Country Store!! We thought the rules were that we could only go to the grocery store and the post office on P-day, BUT, Sister Vest told Sister Godfrey last week that we needed to put it in our plans to go there next P-day, so we went today!! It's barely in our area, but we took the time to go. Pictures will be included!

This week has been great! We saw some great miracles!

We put Catherine on date!! She is getting baptized, April 10th!! She truly is amazing and is loving the Gospel

We also put Peter on date! He is amazing! We taught him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and he said, "I want that!" He is getting baptized March 17th!! He is super excited!

We also have started teaching a man named John who was taught previously by 6 sets of missionaries. He said that with each of them, they would have 3 lessons but then not meet anymore. 

We just received a training on teaching to our friends needs, and it prepared us for teaching John. He is very intellectual and we have been able to relate his questions to gospel principles instead of just teaching the lessons. He has progressed a ton this past week! He watched church and the Spirit touched heart. He sent us a beautiful email about it! We are so excited to keep teaching him 

We started our first week of Family Home Evening over zoom with members and friends. We had 7 or 8 members join (no friends yet) and we played 2 truths and a lie. We related it to hearing the Holy Ghost and it was so fun!

Keep Garth, Stephanie, Tracy, Jennifer and Kyle in your prayers! We haven't been able to talk with them at all this week!

Also, Curtis from Plattsburgh got baptized this past week!! Not effort is wasted!!

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Thacker

Pictures

Lots of pictures of us on walks

Vermont Country Store!

Facemasks

Week 70 Zone Conference!

Wow, it's been a long week. We have had many miracles!

So the biggest one is our new friends, Jennifer and Kyle. They are amazing! We called Jennifer doing an activity called double beef burger. She was really interested in learning more. So we called back and she answered immediately! She was eating up our message. We called her last Monday and Kyle answered! He was so excited to talk to us too! We have talked with them so much this week and they love this message

We also taught Kelly some important commandment lessons and she is so willing to live them!!! Pray for her as she strives to begin living them! Pray for Garth and Stephanie too!

We had interviews with President and Sister Vest and they brought their kids! 

We loved talking with the kids! They asked us all what kitchen appliance we would be. At first, I said a mixer, but then later when I said my biggest pet peeve was things being dirty and messy, their son said I should be a dishwasher

We had in person zone conference yesterday! It was really nice to see everyone. Sister Tolman, my MTC companion was there from Plattsburgh and she told me that Curtis, someone I was teaching in Plattsburgh, is getting baptized on Saturday!!! Woohoo!!

It was a great meeting!

Today was District P-day and Sister Downs (our STL) is going back to Brazil, her original mission, this week so we heart attacked their car and saw some pretty places! We will miss her

Hope you all had a great Valentine's day!

Love you lots!

Sister Thacker

Pictures

Lots from District P-day!

The one of all of us in weird poses is us spelling out NYSM! (New York Syracuse Mission)

The sunset is from a walk we took

Heart pancakes for Valentine's day🤤

Week 69 - Miracles!

This week has been good. Missions are hard. There are so many rewards and blessings from serving. One of which is growth through the hard times. I have made the goal to turn to God in prayer in those hard moments. It's amazing seeing people grow, and find those elect people. Sometimes those inbetween moments can be hard.

We taught some of our friends the Law of Chastity and it went super well!! Pray for Garth and Stephanie that they will receive answers to their prayers.

We met an amazing woman named Jennifer doing something we call, Double beef burger. This is where we change the last 4 numbers to be the same 2 numbers in the middle and the same 2 numbers on the ends. She was so interested in hearing more of our message! The next time we called, she picked up almost immediately. We dropped off a Book of Mormon to her today!

We also had a miracle from our Facebook ad! She is super interested in the Book of Mormon! We gave her the number for the Elders in her area and she said she would give them a call this morning!

We did a live event last night on our Facebook page - Church of Jesus Christ in Eastern New York. Please go watch it! It was actually really good

My Spiritual thought is a recap on the Restoration Proclamation! We had a lesson with Peter about it and he felt the Spirit so strongly from it! The Restoration Proclamation is true! Please re-read it and pray to know if it is true!

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's day and that you all eat lots of chocolate

Have a great week! Talk to you on next Tuesday because of Zone conference.

Love, Sister Thacker

Pictures

My companions and I next to Robert Frosts grave

Sister Godfrey looking like Eep from The Croods

My comps being dramatic in the snow

Week 68 -11° and we still went out 😄

You heard that right, it was -11 degrees on Saturday morning. So for exercise, we decided to walk to the Bennington monument at 7am. It was so fun!! (You Rafeel me?) We were FREEZING! We all had icicles for eyelashes and frost on our hats from breathing. (Pictures will be included)

We had some great miracles this week! Do ya'll remember Peter from my first transfer in Bennington? Well, he said he was ready to meet with us again!!! (He was starting his own business, so he got really busy) He also came to church!!! He is going to work towards baptism and do all he can to learn about the Gospel. He is so tender!!!

Our other friends are doing great! They are all progressing well and loving the gospel!

This week we had a training from President Vest about the talk by President Oaks, "Be of Good Cheer"

He gave us 6 steps to help us Be of Good Cheer:

1. Trust God, He is all powerful

2. Embrace opposition to become like Christ

3. Choose to act, not to be acted upon

4. Stop Whining

5. Take care of your body and mind

6. Turn to Christ for strength

These apply to everyone in all circumstances! I need to apply them more, and I am working on it. I invite you all to consider what you can do that will help you Be of Good Cheer in all circumstances.

I love you all so much!

Have the best week!

Also, we are doing a live event this Sunday at 7pm on the page, Church of Jesus Christ in Eastern New York, please join!

https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristaroundAlbany/

Sister Thacker

Pictures

 The Sunrise

 Me and my cute companions 

 Our morning walk to the monument

The cold made my breath freeze in my hair 

 -11°

Our cuteness again in the freezing cold