April 15, 2013

Hello Family!!

Next week is transfers so I will be emailing on Wednesday. A while back when we had set the baptismal date with Raelyn and called President he mentioned that transfers were on the 25th and that we might want to consider moving the date up a few days. This last Wednesday we talked with Raelyn and helped to really see that she was ready for baptism. We talked about the 27th with her and she mentioned to us that ever since she said she wouldn't be ready by then, that she's really debated that in her mind. As we talked with her we came to all learn that it was just fear and that she had faith and she just needs to take that leap of faith and trust that everything will work out and that blessings will come as she obeys the commandments. She had extended family in town when there was General Conference and so the following Wednesday she downloaded 11 talks, several of them we had recommended to her upon her request, and listened to them all that day!! That evening as we met with her she was telling us different things she had learned from them on her own and what she liked from various ones! She's so ready! Our district leader has invited us to memorize the baptismal interview questions and Sister England and I have been working on them the last few weeks getting it down. That night as we met with Raelyn at the Boucher's we went over the questions to help Raelyn realize that she was indeed ready. Sister England and I opened our planners to the page that lists the baptismal questions and we didn't look at that page once! Sister Boucher was very impressed! Raelyn's husband and her parents are planning on being there the 27th!

Oh, another great thing that happened this last week is that on Saturday the 13th, Geena Schmidt was baptized and Raelyn was able to come to it. She really enjoyed it and on Sunday Brother Boucher told us that Raelyn finished her baptismal program later that night!

After Geena's baptism we went up to congratulate her and she gave us a big hug! About a month or so ago Sister England and I were contemplating who in the ward we could meet with to help them in their missionary efforts and see who might know of someone whom we could teach. I kept feeling impressed that we needed to meet with Brother Howell in the ward. He's in his early 20's and attends school here. We met with him at the church building with Sister Lee and afterwards when we asked him if he knew of someone whom we could teach he said no. A few days later on Sunday we receive a call from him and he tells us that his friend wants to meet with the missionaries. We were in contact with her within the next 10 minutes and learned quickly that she was in the Ankeny 1st ward boundaries. We passed her information along and they have been working with her since. Even though it may have only been a small part, Sister England and I feel we played a role in helping Geena come unto Christ :)

On Tuesday we had exchanges with Sister Robinson and Sister Hunter. They came down to our area and helped us in our finding efforts. We ended up meeting one woman that day who became a new investigator and we also made three return appointments. Those return appointments came after we received a headquarters referral for a gentleman. The address given to us was for an apartment building and was missing the apartment number. The manager couldn't tell us if he lived in that building or even what apartment number he lived at if he even lived there at all. With that we said a prayer and began knocking on doors. Of the three return appointments that were made, two of them weren't there when we stopped by later on, but the other one became a new investigator along with his wife! They have a 3 year old and 5 year old girl who are really sweet. On Saturday when we went over for a lesson with this family and the husband informed us that they had just been in an argument and you could feel the tension in the home, but the spirit was so strong as we shared the restoration with them and you could feel that it was present in their home when we left. The two girls were supposed to be taking a nap but they weren't asleep and one had ventured out into the living room toward the end of the lesson. As we were about the kneel in prayer the husband asked if he should get his other daughter and have her join because she wasn't asleep, we said that would be a good idea.

This week has been really good overall and many great things have taken place. I'm excited to see how this week will play out!

I love you all and hope everything is going well for each one of you! Take Care!!

Love,
Sister Tucker

P.S. On Monday it was 75 degrees!! I didn't wear a coat that day! However, by Wednesday it was back down to 38.