We didn't get transfered by the way!

Dear Friends and Family. . .

Sorry this is a day late. Carlee forgot to tell us that on Transfer weeks that their P-day is on Tuesday. So we were wondering all day yesterday what the problem was. We were glad it was only transfers. She sounded happy that she gets to stay where she is.

Hope all is well with all of you. Send her a letter if you get a chance. If you need her address just email me and I will get it too you (ladawn79@hotmail.com).

Thanks LaDawn


August 11, 2009

Hi Everybody. . .

I LOVE THIS WORK! Oh man! I can't even tell you the joy that it brings to my heart! I've successfully completed my first transfer. Its successful because I'm still here! ha ha. Sister Thacker and I didn't get transfered so we get at least another six weeks here! Wahoo! I'm grateful for Heavenly Father's perfect love... and patience! He's been so patient with me in my prideful, selfish ways! And I'm quickly learning that this truly is HIS work! His work is IN HIS HANDS! And we've been blessed to be apart of it!

I keep pondering this week the devotional Elder Holland gave at the MTC before I came out. He taught us the vital role of the Spirit in this work. Of course he said it in a way that only Elder Holland could:
"My point tonight is to stress that the Spirit must be with you and you must teach by it when you teach because that is the way this lesson ceases to be your lesson and becomes His, becomes under the power of the Spirit a vehicle for lifting your investigators out of the temporal world."

This isn't MY work, its HIS work. He continues and this is my favorite part:
"We are charged with the responsibility of getting people out of their ruts and routines, out of their problems and their pain, out of their little arguments and ignorance and sins, and take them to the Gods - to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost - ultimately we are to take them toward their own Godhood. In short, we are to take them to the divine. And the Holy Ghost is the connecting link which the Godhead has agreed to give us here in mortality for that heavenly connection..."

Wow huh! Isn't that amazing! What's even more amazing is that I've seen this happen! It's real! We have an investigator right now, her name is Marlisha. She is a wonderful woman! (I might have mentioned her already.) She has so many questions about life, about why things are the way they are, what really is God's plan. Sister Thacker calls her an "honest seeker of truth." Everytime we go in her home to share the gospel the Spirit fills the room! It's not because of us, it's because of her. She has the desire! We read Alma 32 with her this week and discussed faith: how it isn't to have a perfect knowledge, but it's to know that the puzzle pieces will one day fit together. It's to have a testimony that the whole puzzle, the gospel, is real and true and beautiful! Oh man! Everytime we talk to her she tells us that is exactly what she needed to hear. That's not us! It's the Spirit! And I extended my very first baptismal commitment! The Spirit prompted and I asked her. She didn't even hesitate. She already knew! We have a long way to go still, but I've seen how the Spirit has literally taken her out of her "ruts and routines" into the divine. And I'm so grateful I get to be apart of it!

Something else I learned this week is how actively we need to seek the Spirit! I was praying one morning and had the impression that it was time to fast. (Oh man, no H2O in the hot muggy air!) But the Lord reminded me that we needed to do everything we could to have the Spirit with us! So I did... and I was blown away with the increase of the Spirit! It taught us in our studies, it testified in our lessons, and it guided us to those who needed us, members and non-members alike! It reminds me that "we are living far beneath our privileges." We have so many opportunites to develop gifts of the Spirit that we aren't. Sister Thacker and I have stepped it up and it shows in the work!

I also love when Elder Holland said, "The Godhead will bear testimony of you and your companion-frail little uncelestial souls that you are (believe me I already know!)- when you have earnestly tried to become part of the Divine Order. You have prayed and studied and fasted appropriately, and have always exerted great faith. You have been obedient to the commandments...and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You have kept yourself clean in thought, in word, in deed...You have tried to develop Christlike attributes, have worked diligent hours and have tried to be a witness of God 'at all times and in all things and in all places.' If you try to live this way - try with all the best that is within you - The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost above you will smile and say 'It is enough. We will let these missionaries and their investigators feel a portion of the poower of heaven. We will let them feel the touch of our unity and our divinity'... Welcome to the work of angels. Welcome to the work of divinity."

Powerful huh!

Oh man. Sorry for all the thoughts. You probably are more interested in what happened this week. Real quick:

Tried Salmon for the first time! ha ha! Kate cooked some Ghanian food for us! It was crazy cool! We tried peanut butter soup. Yes... peanut butter. And she made this crazy onion, spinach, tomato, canned salmon sauce to eat on potatoes, or rice. It was intense. But I'll have you know I tried the Salmon anyway. ha ha. I guess I can cross "Try seafood" off my 100 Things To Do list! :) I love Kate and her family! There is so much love to share!

We got caught in several lightning storms. Wahoo. Ha ha. Funny weather here. It switches between rain and 80 degrees, 80 percent humidity.

Teaching lots. Knocking lots of doors. And loving every minute of it!

I love you! And I love this work!
Sister Painter

P.S. Thought you would enjoy this picture of my first district. They are crazy! ha ha.