Another Transfer!

Dear Family & Friends:

Didn't get transfered. I'm glad all the missionary moms support each other. ha ha. Just remember every six weeks is transfers. Love you!

Can you believe this is the start of Transfer #3! How crazy is that! I made it to my three month mark. We had a great district this transfer. Two of the Elders are going home. How sad is that! I am SO glad it’s them and not me. (No offense mom) :) I love it out here and I would hate to leave.

This is going to be a short letter, sorry. But I still love you!

We are still doing a lot of less-active work. And we're finally able to see some progress! Wahoo! It's hard not to get discouraged when you don't see quick results (It’s mostly my impatience... "can't they just SEE they need the gospel!" ha ha). But I'm so grateful to get to know these people. I love them dearly. AND I love the gospel! AND I love sharing the gospel with them! We're working with several less-active sisters with non-member husbands. Hopefully, with the Lord's help, we can complete some families!

I’m realizing more and more the gospel is all about families. It’s about having our families forever! Everything we do in the church should be to strengthen the family! But Satan has such a grip on society. We have to work extra hard to counteract his every move. And it’s tough! We are literally battling it everyday out here.

Thanks Family for being so incredible! I love you dearly! And I’m grateful to have you!

Martin is coming along. Suzzy is too. Kate's an incredible missionary asset! I love her! She’s going to teach us how to make these fabulous scones! Remind me in a year and a half to make them for you! They are delicious!

I love you lots and lots! I feel your prayers everyday! I really do!

Sister Painter

Missionaries Best Friend!

It looks like Sister Painter had a regular Missionary Encounter with man's best friend! I suppose she will have a few of these on her mission. Oh the life of a missionary!

What A Fabulous Week!

September 14, 2009

Dear Family & Friends:

What a fabulous week! Oh man! I love my job! This week we’ve done a lot of less-active work! And we’ve had many great experiences! A lot of our less-actives are women who are fairly recent converts. We KNOW the Lord has prepared some of their families to be completed in the gospel so we’re on a hunt… it’s almost like a treasure hunt! We’ve seen “many mighty miracles” along the way. This HAS to be the Lord’s work because He has such an interest in what we’re doing!

Our investigator situation is about the same-hard to get a hold of. grrr. But our Ghanaians are doing well! And I love them SO much! Kate is doing great! She is the best missionary in the ward. I love spending time at her home! She was telling us the other day how much the gospel has blessed her life. Before she joined the church she often felt discouraged and depressed. Now since she’s joined she feels happy all of the time! Although circumstances in her life haven’t changed, she sees the blessings and feels the Lord watching over her. So she said whenever she talks to friends who are sad she tells them, “come with me to church.” I love her! Kate and Suzzy (our investigator) and Anna (Kate’s daughter) taught us our names in Twi (sounds like sh-w-ee). Since I was born on a Thursday mine is Yaa. ha ha. It’s easy. Poor Sister Thacker was born on a Sunday so she is Akosua. Girl is omba so if you say “omba yaa” I’m “Thursday girl.” Sweet huh!

We watched the movie “Pioneers of Africa” with Martin and Suzzy. It’s all about the church in Ghana and Nigeria. It’s incredible! Mom you should order it and watch it with the family. Sister Thacker and I walked away feeling inspired to do better missionary work! The movie was great for Martin because it answered a lot of his questions about the Church in Ghana.

Oh! And we had interviews this week! I’m pretty sure this is the best mission ever! And President and Sister Robbins are the best! What a tender mercy!

Lots of tender mercies! We had another tender mercy this week. We finally found 3 new investigators! It’s amazing how missionary work is really just an act of faith. You tell Heavenly Father what your goal is and then you work work work. In His mercy he’ll let us witness miracles! These three are a grandmother, granddaughter and her friend. The grandmother had the missionaries 25 years ago! And she remembers a lot of what they taught. We had a wonderful discussion about living with Heavenly Father before we came to this Earth. The girls are both 14, but they sat and talked about it with us and one of the girls told us she had a “weird feeling.” We asked if it was a good weird feeling. She said yes. We told her that was the Spirit telling her that what we were talking about was true and Heavenly Father wanted her to know that. These two 14 yr old girls were the ones that asked US if we could come back! (I love it when that happens!) The church is true.

I wish I could tell you about EVERYTHING that is going on. It makes my heart swell with gratitude! This gospel brings so many blessings into our lives. If we just do what the Lord asks we are blessed BEYOND measure! I’ll try and tell you more next week!

I love you lots! lots and lots!
Sister Painter

Cornhole. . .

We learned how to play Cornhole. Cornhole? What is that you say? Well, it’s basically the most competitive game in Cincinnati! But to be honest, it’s just a glorified bean bag toss. They love it here though.

Enjoying the Labor Day Stake Picnic. . .

We Can Officially Be Considered Cincinnatians!

Hello Family and Friends –

Well it seems like you have a better memory than we do. We forgot the Library AND the post office would be closed yesterday. Ha ha. But they are open now so here is your email! :) We did enjoy a fabulous Labor Day Picnic yesterday with the stake! We learned how to play Cornhole. Cornhole? What is that you say? Well, it’s basically the most competitive game in Cincinnati! But to be honest, it’s just a glorified bean bag toss. They love it here though. We had an investigator, Becky, teach a few of us Sisters how to play. It was hilarious. But now we can officially be considered Cincinnatians! Pictures included!

My foot is finally on the mend! Wahoo! There is still a pretty sweet bruise, and I wonder if I should have gotten stitches because its having a hard time sealing back up (it was REALLY deep), but to late now. Plus, I have a great story every time someone asks why I’m limping.

This week has been wonderful! Our investigator situation is rough, but we were finally able to make progress with a few of them. We were excited! It’s amazing how creative you have to be, like having a pizza and watching a movie (The Testaments of course). But hey! It works! And we’ve learned to watch for “many mighty miracles.” They happen everyday!

We still have a lot of less-actives we are trying to work with. I’ve truly gained a testimony of the Lord’s awareness of each of His children and that we as missionaries have been commissioned to do His work here on Earth. It’s amazing how many times in the week we will visit someone right at the time that they needed help. We stopped by a Sister’s home last night, we didn’t know if she was less-active or not. But we were led to her without even knowing it. We quickly found out that she needed us there. She explained to us that she felt like she was loosing her testimony and she didn’t have the strength or energy to do anything about it. She is the only member in her family and she felt like she was overwhelmed and couldn’t do it anymore. It was an incredible feeling to look in her eyes and testify to her that the Lord is aware of her and that He loves her. I know the Lord was teaching me what it feels like to speak by the power of the Spirit to fulfill our responsibilities as His representatives. It was incredible!

I learned another great lesson this week! We had a great lesson with a referral from a member in Utah. This young woman had lived in Utah for two years and made lots of friends, but she wasn’t particularly interested in the church. However, one of her friends talked about the church with her often and gave her opportunities to have good experiences with the church (like singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!). When this young woman moved to Cincinnati her friend sent the missionaries. Us! She finally felt comfortable enough to ask all of her questions and we taught her about the Restoration. We even watched the short Restoration DVD with her. When it was over she looked at us and said, “It’s over? I was ready for part 2.” We smiled and gave her a Book of Mormon.

Don’t be afraid to do missionary work at home! Even if you don’t see the fruits of your labors, you will be planting seeds! Plus… WE NEED YOU! Sister Thacker and I cover an area with about 200,000 people. We can’t do it alone!

I love you lots and lots! And I love this work!

Sister Painter

Having Another Week of Adventures. . .

Look at our 'little goose girl', it is such a Carlee photo. . .
Carlee and Sister Thacker with Sister Price. . .

Carlee's war with a pen. . .I think she lost the battle!
Carlee and Sister Thacker enjoying the beautiful flowers in Ohio!

It's Been Quite The Week. . .

August 30, 2009

Hello from the Ohio!

Man, it is beautiful here! It's not raining, and it’s not 90 degrees in 90% humidity either. Oh the blessings! It actually feels like autumn is coming.

This week has been... you know I don't think any one word would describe it. Rough. Exciting. Hard. Rewarding. Painful... ha ha. Yeah that sounds like our week.

Highlights: We had a wonderful Zone Conference! Elder Packer of the Seventy was our visiting authority and he and his wife were wonderful! It was delightful to have them! Elder Packer shared a lot of what Elder Holland spoke at in the MTC about teaching by the Spirit. That is the main push from the missionary department. I think it is because now we have all the resources with Preach My Gospel we just have to start implementing them and making the work more effective. Exciting huh!

We also had Stake Conference this week which was very edifying. AND we got Sister Price to come! She's a less-active who I LOVE! We convinced her to give us a ride so she came with us. :) I attached the picture with her and Sister T. and I.

Lowlights for the week: Well, I'll only share one. Pretty sure it defies all the laws of physics. (Don't quote that to Jim cause there are probably lots of laws that made it quite possible.) So I stepped on a pen on Saturday. What I mean to say is that I actually put a hole in my foot with a pen. Yep. I'm not sure how it happened, somehow I stood up from the couch and took a step just in time for the pen to fall and catch underneath my foot with the tip entering my foot. OUCH! Sister Robbins said I basically I got a tattoo on the mission...ha ha. Who else can say that? I'll include a picture of that too. You can't really tell but it went in there deep! eck.

I love this work, even when it's hard. Sister Thacker and I memorized this little poem a few weeks back and it came in really handy this week. :)

It's easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song.
But the man worthwhile is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.

For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years.
But the smile that’s worth the praises of the earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Keep going! Keep smiling! No matter how hard it gets. Why? Because just like I said last week: Heavenly Father loves us! And is aware of each of us. There is nothing we can't do with Him on our side!
I love you!

Sister Painter

PS: Isn't that goose picture the best picture you've ever seen! ha ha! See... we're all out doing the work!

Sister Winter's

Sister Winter's in the rest home and us!

This is one of our Recent Converts. She's in a residential living center and she's bedriden. We got her a Tabernacle Choir CD, because she LOVES them.

I LOVE WITNESSING THE LORDS HAND IN HIS WORK!

Hi Mom...and Dad...and Family...and Friends!

Here let me answer all of mom's questions:
How has your week gone? Super! Oh man! I LOVE this work! But it’s hard. It never ceases to amaze me how many ups and downs you can have in a week, or even a day! No wonder we're so exhausted every night!

Do you seem to be getting the hang of Missionary work by now? I don't know if you ever can. I don't think I ever will. The work is always changing, always something different to be working on. The biggest difference from Week 1 to now is my change of heart. I can't believe I've been so blessed to be here!

Do you have to send in weekly reports, or what did you need the thumb drive for? Weekly Reports.

How is it going with all your investigators? Hmmm. Well they've all seemed to drop off the face of the earth the last two weeks. Bummer deal. But that just means the Lord has something else for us to do. More to come...

Were you able to get the Tabernacle CD to the little lady in the rest home? Yes! And she loved it! I'll attach the photo we took with her this week! She's such a cutie! She's had it rough, but we love her!

How is the weather? Still Raining? ha ha... yep. We don't know what to expect from one day to the next. Sometimes it’s hot and humid. Sometimes is cold and windy. We just wake up every morning and guess. :)

Are your shoes holding up okay? Oh they are great!

Do you have to wear nylons? Not yet! Wahoo! I'm SO grateful!

Did you get your package from home? PACKAGE?!?! No! If you sent it to the mission home I won't get it till zone conference. (Send them to my apartment if it’s not close to transfer’s week)

Do you need anything this week? Nope. Thanks though. You are wonderful! Oh wait, lots of letters! Always need letters! :)

Sorry about all the questions. Yeah sheesh Mom. Just kidding, I love you!

Can I just say, I LOVE this work! I know I say that a lot, but it's true! I definitely have been recruited into lifetime missionary service! I'm way excited!

We've had a crazy week. Like I said, the majority of our investigators sort of dropped off the face of the earth. They are around we just can't get in to see them. So we've been doing a lot of less-active work, one of the most difficult yet rewarding experiences I think. For example, Friday we saw several less-actives and basically lost hope. Several of them have joined other churches or are influenced by the adversary in other ways. One of them was telling us (lecturing more so) about the group they were apart of now and honestly I couldn't help but think they were modern day Zoramites. Everything Alma describes the Zoramites to be this group is: 1) the chosen people 2) with no need for a Savior 3) and founded on pride. It made me so sad! It's incredible that Satan is teaching the same philosophies now as he did thousands of years ago.

It’s been difficult, but we see tender mercies all along the way. And I LOVE witnessing the Lord’s hand in this work. For example, just the next day we were checking up on a young lady named Nicole who was on the ward list, but no one in the ward had any idea who she was. When we arrived at her apartment she wasn’t home but her roommate Shannon was. Right about the time Sister Thacker got out the words, “Sister Missionaries from the…” she said, “I know I’m one of you.” Oh yeah? Well that was news to us. She invited us in and pretty soon told us her story. She grew up in the church, baptized at eight, and was even married in the temple. However, her marriage ended in ugly divorce right about the time her mother passed away. She explained to us how she became pretty angry with God and how she felt her ward was judging her instead of helping her. So she stopped going to church, moved several times and “got lost.” Oh man it was such a testimony builder to me that the Lord is watching over each of His children. We had NO idea she was there, but the Lord did. And the Lord sent us when the time was right for her. After several years of attending another church she told us that she’s been thinking a lot about the gospel and wondering what she should do. She knew that we were there that day for her. The Lord loves each of His children and He is aware of each of their needs. This is His work, and we get to be apart of it!!!

I sure love you! Thanks for all the love and support! I've been so blessed to have you in my life!

Sister Painter

Some Of Our Investigators!

HI. . .from Sister Thacker and Me!!



Some Of Our Investigators at the Jungkunz dinner.
All of our Ghanian Friends


Me and Anna, Kate's daughter


Me and Kate, our recent convert


Sis Thacker and Suzzy


The Elders and Daniel


Me and Rita