January 22, 2013

Dear Family,

That is so crazy about the weather there in Utah! This last week we had some warm days. The temperature was nearly 50 degrees! Today however, was a different story. The temperature on the car said 2 degrees and we were moving!! Never again if I can help it will I move when it is that cold. Luckily we had five men from the ward help us and we mainly just directed them where things were to go. A really nice family in the ward has offered to house us in their basement. It's the Jensen family and they have 5 girls that range from 13 to 2 years old. We'll have a large bedroom, a bathroom and another room that will have a kitchen table and room to prepare some food. There isn't a small kitchen down there, so we'll be cooking our food upstairs. It'll be a little small, but it will help save the mission money. The furniture from our apartment will be stored in a member's basement until more areas in our mission open up and other missionaries can take it to furnish their own apartment. It was a very quick move. We didn't know for sure that we were moving today until last night at 9:00pm. We packed up a few things that night and then got up at 6:15, got ready for the day, went to the grocery store to pick up some boxes which a man had saved for a couple to pick up the day before but they never came, so he gave them to us. What a blessing!! We packed our suitcases, and then boxed up all the kitchen stuff to be stored for future missionaries. The Bishop, his son, Bro Jensen the 1st Councilor, and Bro Schaale and his son helped move things from our third floor apartment. I'm so grateful that we went through things last P-day, even though it isn't the first thing we would like to do with our free time, but it needed to be done. I'm a little tired of moving at the moment and in some way if I do go back to Ankeny next transfer, I'll be moving my things again. The next transfer takes place in two weeks! Crazy!

There are a number of good potential investigators that we are really trying to get in with and teach them more. There is one woman who is interested in quiting smoking and also learning more about our church. The church has a Quit Smoking Workshop that we are excited to go through with her this Wednesday. If she follows the 15 steps in this program for 7 days, she will be smoke free. We're excited to see how it goes. We're going to have a ward member come with us that used to smoke so she can give encouragement and support to this woman.

The members in the ward are so great and we usually have a dinner every night. We also have received a number of referrals from the members which is so exciting. Many of them are very natural at sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors. It's so great!!

Our investigator Paul, whom the previous sisters were working with had his baptismal interview last Wednesday and everything went well. After the interview, he couldn't hold back his smile. Everything seems to be going as planned for his baptism this Saturday, the 26th at 7! One thing that was interesting was trying to find the keys to the baptismal clothing closet. Our ward mission leader, Bro Harris gave up after some time and took the hinges off the door and opened it up that way. It was hilarious to watch :)

I'll fill you in on Paul's baptism and all the details next week.

I love you all so much!! Take Care!!
Sister Tucker

P.S. Way to go Mom in being bold! I'm getting better at it, but I still have a ways to go. I am getting bolder in inviting people to keep commitments though which is great.