Family

Dear Mom and Dad!

25 years! Amazing!

We talked to a woman in the grocery store today. She has been married 55 years! I told her you had your anniversary yesterday and she said, “Oh the second 25 years are harder!” ha ha. So hang on! You’re not out of the water yet! But you are both amazing and I know you are in it for much longer than 50 years! I’m grateful for the gospel! And I’m especially grateful for temples where we can be sealed together as a family for eternity! I keep reflecting back to when little Damiance told us she didn’t want to go to heaven if her family isn’t there.

Our ward had their primary program yesterday and each young child bore their testimony of “eternal families.” I couldn’t believe how powerful the Spirit bore witness to the truth of those simple words they spoke! We have a Heavenly Father who sent us to earth to learn and grow and become like Him. He gave us families to help each other. The longer I’m out here the more I’m realizing how Satan is literally destroying the concept of “family.” Society is trying to make the ‘individual’ the “fundamental unit of society,” but in any healthy society the ‘family’ is truly that fundamental unit. And it’s because it’s an eternal principle!

We’re teaching a sweet woman named Mary! Oh I love her and her family so much! She lives with her son and 14 year old granddaughter and they are a neat little family! The other day we were driving to another neighborhood but the Spirit prompted us to stop at Mary’s. So we did. We found out it had been an extremely hard week for their family. Mary’s granddaughter is in a difficult circumstance with friends and drugs and it’s been hard on everyone. We had a beautiful lesson with Mary about the Holy Ghost and how that peace and comfort can be a reality in our lives.

I couldn’t get them out of my mind this week. I become more and more grateful everyday for the gospel in our family! We are so blessed!

Martin came to church yesterday! We were excited because we haven’t seen him for awhile with his work schedule. He was touched by the primary kids! Who wasn’t?! Actually all of our meetings were centered on the family and eternal marriage. So Satan is on the offense, but we’re still standing our ground!

I love this gospel. Really it is the way to find peace in this crazy world! Mom, I’m so proud of you for doing acts of service! See! It’s a wonderful feeling!

I sure love you all! And I love this work!

Sister Painter

Great People In My Mission. . .

Here is a picture of Cassie and I that we took last night. Cassie was just baptized earlier this year. (I love her!)

I got to play playdough with Adela, which is always a highlight of my week.


Julie labeled every single book in her scriptures! Isn’t that sweet! She told us she reads almost an hour and a half every night! If only we all did that!

I love this work!

Dear Family:

Well last week was hard, but now we have a new week ahead! What a blessing! I’ll tell you the highlights of last week:

Our lesson with Martin and Suzzy was amazing! Bishop and Brother Jungkunz came and helped Martin work through a lot of his concerns. The Spirit was strong! I love that! Sister Thacker and I walked away practically floating on air!

Our lesson with Julie and Vicky Weisenberger was fabulous! They have been working with the missionaries for awhile to get back to church. I love them! We gave them the Book of Mormon Challenge that President Hinckley gave the church a few years ago to read the whole Book of Mormon from the time of General Conference (October) to the end of the year. Julie is tearing it up! She’s amazing! (Picture included) She labeled every single book in her scriptures! Isn’t that sweet! She told us she reads almost an hour and a half every night! If only we all did that!

I got to play playdough with Adela, which is always a highlight of my week. (Picture included) Adela loves when we come over! Her mom is a less-active we're working with. It always seems that we get there and I end up playing with Adela for an hour while Sister Thacker talks to her mom. haha.

We had another cottage meeting at the Junkunz’s home last night. I sent a picture of Cassie and I that we took last night. Cassie was just baptized earlier this year. (I love her!) Sister Thacker and I gave the lesson on President Monson’s conference talk. We handed everyone a “warm fuzzy” and committed them to do an act of service for someone this week. The world would be such a better place if we just turned our hearts outward to help others more! And it doesn’t have to be a big thing.

This might sound silly, but another highlight this week was doing Coranetta’s dishes. She’s been feeling a little overwhelmed so before we left Sister Thacker and I rolled up our sleeves and did quickly cleaned her kitchen. What I loved was watching Coranetta getting motivated and feeling a little bit better. Sometimes all it takes is something small, but the Lord truly will work through us if we let him.

So anyone that is reading this, I’m committing you to do an act of service for someone this week, especially someone that you might not see or serve regularly. (So the kids don’t count Mom. ha ha) I know that when you do you’ll realize your own capabilities to be the Lord’s hands.

Even though the week was hard my little “miracle” journal still has many entries everyday. The Lord is in the details of our lives… even as missionaries.

I love you lots and lots.
…except for we seem to be in a mail drought. What’s up with that? :)

Sister Painter

Early Christmas Present. . .

Sister Thacker and I and our finished Pierogis!

Becky giving me my "Christmas" present. . .HaHa!

Terry and me with my "Christmas" present that Becky found me because I love hers!

Finding. . .

Sorry this is a few days late. We have been in Florida playing at Disney World for the last 9 days. We couldn't get this done until we got home tonight. So enjoy. . .all sound well in Sister Painter's world. LaDawn

Dear Family:

I’m following up to see if you read the Members doing Missionary Work article in this month’s Ensign. Did you do it? And don’t tell me, “We were out of town on vacation.” What a perfect opportunity! Did you even take pass along cards with you? Ha ha. I hope you are having fun in Florida! I bet it’s twice as hot and humid there than here! It’s been beautiful. Although a little cold for Sister Thacker. :)

We had a fabulous week! Can you believe I’ve been out for four months!

We found 5 new investigators this week! It sounds low for some missions, but for Sister Thacker and I right now they were such a blessing! We’ve been praying for new investigators! It was a tender mercy too, because we’ve been praying to find a family to teach: father, mother, kids. And we found one! They were a HQ referral for a bible. When we delivered it we had a wonderful conversation about the Book of Mormon! And they were open and excited to read it! Prayers are answered!

On Saturday, our friend Becky taught us how to make Pierogi with her mom. It’s a Polish dish made out of egg noodle dough with cottage cheese, onions, eggs, and all sorts of crazy stuff. But it was delicious. See Ohio is pretty cultural huh!

Our funny for the week was when we were out tracting and were invited in by a woman who was from Africa. She let us in but had no intention of listening to us. We were in there for 45 minutes being lectured about not being misled by false prophets. She read from the bible in 1 Kings 13 and said we were making a big mistake. All we could do was bear our testimony. When I did she said, “I love your sincere heart, but even the terrorist are sincere.”

Well I don’t know much, but I do know that we have a loving Heavenly Father! That He has a plan for us! Jesus Christ is central to that plan! And oh how I love both of them with all of my heart. I know that they are preparing us for great things to come and because of that God called Joseph to be a prophet and restore the gospel and the priesthood to the Earth.

…And I’m being sincere!

I love you lots!
Sister Painter

Conference Weekend!

Hi Family!

I’m so glad you got to go to a session of conference with the Tuckermans! It looked like fun! Wasn’t conference incredible! I can’t stop thinking about it! It was power-packed!

All of us (missionaries) can’t get over Elder Holland’s talk about the Book of Mormon! He nailed it! He boldly proclaimed his testimony to the world that the Book of Mormon is inspired of God! He taught me more by his example than anything! He taught powerfully by the Spirit. He taught the simple truths of eternity. And he shared with the world his witness that he had found out these things for himself and challenged everyone else to do the same.

I LOVE the Book of Mormon! I know that it is inspired of God. One of my favorite quotes from Elder Holland is that, “A wicked man couldn’t have written it and a good man wouldn’t have unless he was inspired by God to do it.” And it’s true. I’m continually blown away at the beauty of it. Eternal truths are intricately woven into a complex narrative of God’s chosen people, and yet even the simplest minds can read it and “grow closer to God” (Intro to the Book of Mormon). It truly is a literary masterpiece! And there is no way Joseph Smith could have written it on his own accord in the 82 days (ish) that it took him to translate it. What’s even more profound to me is that those promises recorded to ancient Book of Mormon prophets are for us today! They were writing to US! I remember last year when Elder Holland spoke at a CES Fireside and declared that, “Heavenly promises are always kept.” I’ve considered that statement time and time again as I read the Book of Mormon.

I’m so excited for our family to read it again! There is a power in the Book of Mormon to perfect us and protect us! Our family needs those blessings! The whole world needs those blessings! Just like President Monson told Sister Dibb: Those promises “are everything!”

I rededicated myself this weekend to not be afraid to boldly declare my testimony to the world!

Anyway, there I go again just rambling. So this week! We had a wonderful week! Zone Conference was on Wednesday. (How spoiled am I!) It was great! Sister Winters turned 81yrs old so we brought her balloons and watermelon (her favorite). We’ve had several new investigators. Martin and Suzzy are both progressing again. I told you how they both said they would get baptized, just not yet. ha ha. We’re working on it. I love them both dearly! We’re spoiled with a wonderful ward! They are more than willing to help us! We’re just trying to turn the tables. We are more than willing to help them. Missionary work is so much more effective when the members do the finding and the missionaries do the teachings.

Speaking of which there is a fabulous article in the Ensign this month about Members doing Missionary Work. I’m going to challenge you all to read it! And apply something you learn. Return and report to me next week! ha ha

I have to go but I love you lots!
Sister Painter

Frisby, New Elder's and Wonderful Friends. . .

I can't play Ultimate, but I can still support it! :)



The new Elders in our ward. Do you like their serving sizes! ha ha



Carlee & Suzzy. . .


Carlee & Kate. . .

Rain and Smiles. . .

We had so much rain this week! Ha Ha! It felt like spring! But it’s not. Sister Thacker (being from Arizona) has never experienced autumn so we are anxiously awaiting it. I can’t wait to see the leaves change, especially with so many trees here! But we’ve heard it won’t be until the middle of October. We’ll be patient and wait a few more weeks. Thanks for the beautiful fall flowers Mom!

We had some sweet experiences this week finding new investigators!

We met Candice and her family a few weeks ago. She’s a single mom with five kids! Ah! Her kids are adorable though and while Sister Thacker was talking to Candice I sat on the steps with the kids and basically gave them the Plan of Salvation lesson. Ha ha. It was fabulous! Kids are so smart! They know more than we think. We went back this week and taught the Restoration. When we told Candice there was a prophet on Earth today she was really surprised. “What! Really! That’s weird, I mean it’s good. I had never thought about it before.” We told her about General Conference coming up and she got excited. We discussed the stability it brings into this crazy world knowing that a prophet of God is on the Earth today. She felt like she really needs that. We all do. We’re so blessed to be able to hear President Monson speak this week! Can you believe we have a prophet on Earth today! Mom and Dad, if there is one thing I want for our family it’s to always follow the prophet.

I know I always say this, but my testimony increases everyday when we are led by the Lord to find someone. He loves us, and He is aware of each of us. We got a Headquarter Referral this week (someone who calls in for a free DVD or BOM) for someone who lives on this obscure street we had never heard off. We went to find her but got there and realized we didn’t have an apt # and it was a huge apartment complex! Sister Thacker and I looked at each other, laughed, and started knocking doors. The very first woman we talked to invited us in. She was closed at first, but we started discussing in conversation the Lord’s plan for us and ended up having one of the most powerful lessons I’ve had yet on my mission. I love the Spirit! I love knowing the Lord will send witnesses of the truth to those who are seeking it! And I love knowing that we would never have knocked those doors if we hadn't had that headquarter referral.

I know the Lord is preparing the world for something great. We were at a less-actives home and caught a little of Pres. Obama’s speech. I don’t know what is going on in the world right now, but what I do know is that the Lord is preparing us for great things ahead. We just have to put our trust in Him. I read this quote this week; it was in my journal so I thought I would share!

"Let us not take counsel from our fears. May we remember always to be of good cheer, put our faith in God, and live worthy for Him to direct us. We are each entitled to receive personal inspiration to guide us through our mortal probation. My we so live that our hearts are open at all times to the whisperings and comfort of the Spirit." –Pres. Faust

I’m so excited for General Conference! What an incredible opportunity to receive personal revelation about how the Lord would have us cope with the world today.

I love you lots and lots! I’ll talk to you next week!

Sister Painter

Feeding the Ducks. . .

We fed the ducks with Sister Winters. So much fun! They almost snipped Sister Thacker's finger off. :)



Our District Last Transfer

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