October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

This week we are heading into transfers. President Jergensen called early Friday morning to discuss some things with Sister Brown and then he took a few moments and let me know early on that she will be training a sister in Iowa City and that I will be getting transferred this Thursday. I had some mixed feeling in the beginning, but I know that the Lord is in charge of this great work and that I'm needed in a different area at this time. The Sister who is coming in is from Tahiti and has been serving at Temple Square. She knows French which will be a great blessing to Paul, Silvie and Moses. Paul has a baptism date for November 3rd and she will really be able to help him be ready. She can also help the ward members as well with their French. I was a little down at first because of my lack of French, but then I realized that I was called to serve an English speaking mission and that I need to use my time and energy in other areas instead of learning French. One thing I would like to be able to do is bear my testimony in French. Dad, could you help me with this? How would I say that I know the church is true, that God is our Father and that Jesus Christ is our Savior who died and made it possible for us to return and live with our father again? I know that Joseph Smith was called to God to restore Christ's Church and that he was and is a prophet of God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet to day to lead and guide the church and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. 

We had Zone Interviews last Wednesday and President Jergensen talked about the keys of the Priesthood. He walked us through the organization of the church and we talked about who holds keys and who acts under the direction of certain leaders. The President of any quorum holds keys and the prophet holds all the keys and is the only one authorized to use those keys. The Twelve apostles hold all the keys the prophet does but they don't use them unless directed by the prophet. President Jergensen also talked about our responsibility that is given to those of the tribe of Ephraim and that is the gathering of Israel. The whole purpose of the church is to gather scattered Israel and we do that by teaching the doctrine of Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Enduring to the end means repeating this process of faith, repentance, renewing our covenants as we partake of the sacrament and then receive the Holy Ghost. It also means receiving our endowment in the temple. As we are working with less actives we are identifying what ordinances they have yet to make in the temple and that helps us know what we need to focus our lessons on and to help them progress towards the temple.

I'm looking forward to this new transfer and am excited to see what is in store there. At the beginning of this transfer I received an impression of the spirit that I may not be in this area much longer and that I need to do my very best. We have been able to increase our teaching pool and our investigators are on more of an escalator than an elevator. Through faith and prayer we have seen our group of investigators grow from 5 to 11 which is amazing!

The apartment is looking really nice and it's been fun being involved in this process of setting it up for future sister missionaries to come and live in. We've received some old dinning chairs from one sister in the ward and from another sister who is a recent convert, we received a couch, a chair and a beautiful buffet table. As we were doing service for a less active women in the ward she pointed out that her son was going to burn a coffee table in their fire pit. We took a look at the table and said it would go perfect in our apartment, so we loaded it up in the van and took it home! It looks great!!

  

I hope you all are staying well!! Take care!! I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Tucker

P.S. I forgot to mention that we were able to see the Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday and everything that was talked about was incredible! We had an investigator, Mary, there and she really enjoyed how the messages focused on Christ and the atonement.