Blessings Overflow!

January 26, 2010

Dear Family:

and Sister Gundersen makes three. . .



Oh my goodness! I am so happy! I have been spoiled rotten in blessings! I can’t even help but smile!

So good news! I’m not getting transferred! Even better, Sister Thacker isn’t getting transferred! And the best! We get a greenie! Sister Thacker is training Sister Gundersen and we get to be in a three-some. When I first got on my mission I NEVER wanted to be in a three-some, but last week Sister T. and I were trying to figure out how we both could possibly stay in West Chester (because neither of us wanted to leave!). Since there were only six English sisters out and we were getting two new ones we couldn’t figure out how we both could possibly stay then Sister T. realized that they could have two three-somes and keep us here! So that was what we were praying for… and it worked!

Anyway, we’re happy. Even though Sister T. and I realized we’ll have been together 7 ½ months out of the nine months I’ve been here by the end of this transfer. Good thing we get along.

AND! Ernest has a baptism date officially! Wahoo! Ernest is wonderful (another Ghanaian)! The sisters have been working with him for a long time and we’re excited about his date!

AND! We had a huge tender mercy with our good friend Adrienne (from Fairfield) this week! I wish I could tell you all about it, it definitely was one of those incredible tender mercies! Plus, I just love her.

ALSO we had such a neat experience this morning! After transfers we drove to Walmart to do our shopping and while we were there this Ghanaian woman stopped me and asked me a question. It quickly became apparent that she needed some help. She was trying to find approved foods for her assistance and she was getting really confused and frustrated. So we helped her get it all straightened out. Afterward, she was so relieved. She told us she had said a prayer asking for help and that we were an answer to that prayer. It was so sweet. In turn we explained to her that we have been sent here as God’s messengers to answer prayers. :) We talked about the Book of Mormon a little bit and about how God loves her and wants her to be happy even in a strangle land, with strange people, and strange ways of collecting food stamps. She started crying. It was a very tender experience! (I LOVE those moments!) She lives in the Elders apartment complex so we told her we would send them to her. (YAY!)

I wish I had time to tell you about every single investigator… but I don’t. I love this work SO much! It brings such a peace and happiness into my life that I haven’t felt in a long time. I love, love, love it!

And I love, love, love you!

Sister Painter

PS! Happy Birthday Dani! Ha ha… I’m glad you noticed the high school musical girls had modest dresses after Sister Thacker and I took a sharpie to your card! Ha ha! Only your sister missionary sister can do that! I love you!

PPS! Tell Michael congrats! He’ll love it! I’ll pray for his Korean! Ha ha



Some of my Ohio Families. . .

Some of my Cincinnati Family!

The first picture is Rosemary. She's was baptized last May because of Kate. I love them! I love my Ghanaian family! Dad, we're going to go visit some day! I already told Kate when I get home from my mission she has to come visit us in Utah. We've been going over the lessons again with Rosemary and with her 7 year old niece Estella. She's adorable! Kids have the simplest, most profound faith.



The second picture is with our little Chinese family. Michelle, Andy, and Daniel. They told us they are moving soon and going back to China. We don't want them to go! But I know the Lord is planting seeds. We finished 1 Nephi 1 and Andy agrees with me that the BOM is better than Harry Potter. :)



The third picture is of our Micronesian family. Gina is 17, Calvin is 5, and Max is 24. We watched the Testaments with them the other day and Max was so excited during the whole thing. It was like watching a kid open Christmas presents, but about the gospel! It was great!

Amazing things are happening!

Dear Family:

Due to unfortunate circumstances I don’t have time right now but…

Guess what! We had six investigators at church yesterday! Plus, a few potential investigators! Plus, some less-actives! Plus, WONDERFUL members who took care of them all! Oh it was fabulous! AND we got our 20 lessons this week! Yes, it was definitely a good week! We’ve been blessed!

I know that there is a God. I know that He truly is our loving Heavenly Father and He wants us to come to Him, to get to know Him, and to do His work. It’s not always easy, but it is definitely worth it. I just want you to know that I love Him, dearly. And I’m grateful that I’ve been given this opportunity to “jump start” my personal missionary efforts for the rest of my life.

I was reading through 2 Nephi 4 today and I feel so much like Nephi.

My soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins…

Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions… Oh Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever.

This week, look for the ways the Lord’s blessed our family, especially in the little ways. (Like 6 investigators at church!)

I love you!
Sister Painter

A Good Start to 2010!

This is what happens when we get "grounded" and can't drive in the snow. I put on my polka dot rubber boots and get to work. ha ha



Hello Family!

Well first things first…

YAY!!! I’M GOING TO BE AN AUNT… (well as close as I’m going to be for a LONG time!) I got Russ’s letter this week and I got up and started dancing. Sister Thacker as my witness! Congrat's Russ and Lezlie-Anne! I’m SUPER Excited!

Well now that I got that out of the way, I can tell you about my week. It was wonderful! except we got “grounded.” ha ha. Sister T. gets the biggest kick out of saying that. It just means our cars were deemed “undriveable” due to the snow. It really wasn’t that bad, except Cincinnatian's can’t handle snow. Thankfully we bought some cheap rubber boots at Target and we were ready to go out walking. The only boots they had left were ones with poka dots, but we didn’t complain. :) We got a kick out of them (no pun intended).

Our investigators are all doing really well. I don’t have much time today to tell you about them, but they rock! We’ve just been blessed with amazing people to teach. Yesterday, Elder and Sister Walker introduced us to a family that they found and have been working with. The Walkers are the senior couple that has been assigned to track down the hundreds of young single adults in this area that are unaccounted for.

One they just contacted got married this summer to the cutest girl who isn’t a member and they are living with his less-active parents. They whole family is contemplating coming back to church and the daughter-in-law is willing to take the lessons. I love realizing that as missionaries there are certain people that God puts in our paths because yours is the testimony they needed to hear. That was definitely the case with Elder and Sister Walker because this family has been in the ward for 10 years and didn’t want any contact. Neat huh!

We had another neat experience knocking on doors this week. We met a woman named Lorie. She was luke-warm towards us at first but she quickly opened up and told us that her sister is a member but that her father just passed away in November. The Elders had been helping him around the house and teaching him a little bit before he passed away. When Lorie and her siblings were going through their parents things she asked if she could take her father’s Book of Mormon and read it. What do you know a few days later we show up at her door. We gave her a reading assignment and she said she’d start it. I love that!

Anyway, the Lord is working miracles in West Chester. They are small ones… but a miracle is a miracle! And we are so grateful! It’s amazing how when we just open our eyes we can truly see God’s hand in our lives! So will you keep your eyes open this week for how the Lord’s hand is blessing our family? Because I know he is! Let me know this week what you found!

I sure love you lots and lots!

Sister Painter

Happy New Year

Dear Family:

So I was filling out an application for a library card today. It asked for my first name. I wrote “Sister.” Ha ha… no joke. I guess that means I have officially been out on my mission for long enough to forget who I am. I don’t think that is what President Hinckley’s dad had in mind when he said, “Forget yourself and get to work.” But I guess it worked. It still makes me laugh.

I hope everyone is feeling better! Kaden got the whole family sick! Ha ha. How sad! 31 out of 33 people is pretty bad odds. How are Dad and Grandma? Have they gotten over it yet?

Oh… and Happy New Year! 2010! We were in by 6:00pm to do weekly planning, went to bed at 10:30, got a full 8 hours of sleep, and 6:30am the next morning we both said, “Happy New Year!” That was how we do it missionary style.

This week was wonderful. We had some really great lessons and half of them were with members present! We love that! It’s like the cream off the top of the lesson pail. The West Chester ward is fabulous! I think I write that in my journal every night. Last night Sister Bludorn came with us to visit Michelle, Andy, and Daniel, our little Chinese family. It was so much fun. We were telling Sister Bludorn how Andy (9) never says “yes” he always says “I guess so.” So when Sister Thacker asked Andy if he wanted to start with a song and a prayer he said, “I guess.” We all chuckled. This little kid is amazing though! I love him! He read the first page of the Book of Mormon and said he didn’t understand it so we read it through with them and talked about prophets. At the end I told him, “See I told you the Book of Mormon is better than Harry Potter!” He smiled and said, “I guess so.” But they are moving back to China in a few months! We are super bummed! However, I definitely have learned that the Lord can work fast when he needs to. :)

Our other bummer… it got COLD this week! I laughed when the temperature was 13 degrees and asked Sister Thacker if she had ever seen that number. She said no. So mom, if you get a chance could you send me my underarmor pants? That would be very advantageous and if you could track down any of my black soccer socks that would be good too. :) We were laughing the other day when I left my gloves at Rosemary’s so Sister T. lent me her extra pair and I ended up leaving them at Kristen’s. I guess we’re in for a long winter. Good thing you sent some extra gloves for Christmas mom!

All of our investigators are doing so well! I just love them! And I love the diversity of people and backgrounds we are teaching. (I guess that is why I’m a psychology major. Ha ha.)

We had some wonderful lessons with Gina and her family. They are the ones from Micronesia. I’ve never seen a 17 year old so intent on learning what God’s commandments are. I love her! She’s teaching us Pinglepse. Did I mention that already? We can say hello, good bye, thank you, and good night. Pwong Muahu! We’re still teaching Ernest, and Dennis and his wife. They are all from Ghana. I love them so much! I think Africans have a greater capacity for faith! It is inspiring to me.

Yesterday Daniel (also from Ghana) came to visit the West Chester Ward. (Daniel was the one that got baptized the same day as Martin.) He got up and bore his testimony and it was powerful! I loved it! He pointed at us and said, “When the missionaries come teach you, PAY ATTENTION!” Yeah Daniel! Thanks for the plug! Ha ha.

Well all is well! Thanks for all the love and support! I love and appreciate you so much! Kaselil! (BYE!)

Sister Painter

More Christmas Cheer

Dear Family:

Well… Merry Christmas!

It was so much fun talking to everyone! I forgot how crazy my family is. To answer your question Mom, we did stay at the Peace’s home for Christmas dinner. They invited a few families from the ward over for a little get together so it was really nice. We’re teaching Brother Peace right now. I guess he’s had the missionaries on and off for 20ish years. But maybe he’s ready now?

Sister Thacker and I had a wonderful Christmas! We are so spoiled… I mean blessed! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For all of those Christmas notes and testimonies from friends and family! Oh my goodness! That was the highlight of my Christmas! I would open a couple every day and read them, then Christmas Day I read them all through AGAIN cause I loved them so much! What a priceless gift!

Zone Conference this week was amazing! My favorite part was when we watched several minutes of a slideshow President put together of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope along with some scriptures from Moses 1. Those photos were amazing! While we watched them I couldn’t help but just be in awe of the beauty of the Lord’s creations! Moses even saw His “worlds without end.” They are absolutely stunning! Galaxy formations, stars and Planets. The impression that came to my mind was how blessed we are to live in the “beauty” of the gospel. There is so much ugliness in the world, but because of the gospel we can be lifted out of that and into a world where we have purpose, and joy, and contentment, and peace, and beauty. Isn’t that amazing! It makes me want to have a higher quality life… in thought and in action.

Anyway…
Last night I finally got to meet Michelle, Andie, and Daniel. They are from China. When the Sisters knocked on their door Michelle let them in and asked Andie (9) and Daniel (4) if they wanted to learn about God. They both said yes so the Sisters started teaching them. Oh man! They are amazing! They know very little about God but Andie picks it up so fast! One of the first things the Sisters committed them to do was have family prayer together every night. We asked Andie how that was going and he told us they were doing it. Then he told us the story about how he lost his Harry Potter book. He looked everywhere but he couldn’t find it. He decided he would say a prayer to be able to find it and after he prayed he flipped up the bed cover and it was right there. I love that! He has the sweetest faith. We talked more about faith and how miracles happen if we would just believe. He really liked the scripture how the Brother of Jared moved a mountain with his faith. 9 year old boys...

I know coming on a mission was for me. Seriously. I needed all of these lessons! I was pondering Andie’s faith last night and I recognized why the Savior asks us to become “as little children.” They just get it. They don’t have to see it to believe. How come we even question it sometimes? Our God is the God that made those galaxies, and stars, and planets, and yet sometimes we doubt. Well I would just like you to know I’m not going to doubt anymore. :)

What a blessing it was to be on my mission during the Christmas season. I definitely have a better understanding now of the “Spirit of Christmas.” It’s the Spirit of Christ. We just have to keep it with us the rest of the 364 days of the year! Now family, I’m going to hold you to the list of “gifts back to Christ” you decided on this year… so don’t think you are getting out of it!

I love you lots!

Sister Painter

Merry Christmas!

Family!

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it is the holidays already! I can tell Mom would rather them be in a couple of weeks. Oh well. Just remember the reason for the season. He came to the Earth to bring PEACE so we might as well enjoy it now. Ha ha.

I love West Chester! The ward is phenomenal! The Sisters before did a wonderful job finding investigators so we have a good teaching pool. Sister Thacker still isn’t quite used to the snow, especially tracting in it!

We’re teaching some more Ghanaians! I love them! Kate’s good friend, Rosemary, was baptized earlier this year. And we are teaching Ernest, a friend of Kate and Martins, who hopefully will be baptized the beginning of the year. We had a lesson with him yesterday afternoon. He is reading the children’s Book of Mormon and he had some of the best questions! It’s amazing to be to see the fire of the Spirit touch the heart of those willing to hear our message. We’re also teaching Dennis, another Ghanaian, in his barbershop! Ha ha. You never know the experiences you’ll get.

The Holidays are such a special time of year. There is definitely a different Spirit in the air. I love how we go tracting and complete strangers will send us home with a bag full of Christmas treats! Mom, to answer your questions: We get a partial preparation day today and the other half on Christmas. We’ll be out working the rest of the week. The two of us are going to go around singing Christmas Carols and sharing a message about Jesus Christ. :) And I get to call you on Christmas! We’re planning on going over to the Peace’s at around 2. One of us will probably call at 2:00 and the other will call at 3:00. So it will be sometime in between 12:00-1:00 your time. Okay?

Can I just tell you… I love being on a mission! I love being able to truly feel the Spirit of Christmas EVERYDAY! Even though life sure can get tough the greatest blessing is knowing we have a Savior who knows how we feel and is there to succor us in our infirmities (Alma 7). It seems like the world is getting darker and darker but the Light of Christ can dispel even the darkest of days. I loved this quote by Elder Holland I read earlier this week:

“I know some of you truly feel at sea, in the most frightening sense of that term… It is not without recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm… Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them. But… he rebukes faithlessness and he deplores pessimism. He expects us to believe!”

Life does get hard, but Heavenly Father didn’t send us here to fail. He didn’t send us here without help. We just have to believe: trust what he says! That is the greatest message Sister Thacker and I share everyday here. He’s there and He cares.
Another Sister we are working with is Betty. Betty Wise was baptized the end of November. I got to meet her this week and I was struck with the perfect understanding she had of the gospel. The Sisters had found her this summer and she quickly accepted the gospel because she recognized the Lord’s hand in it and she felt the Spirit as she studied. What a good example of faith!

One more quote. This one is by President Benson:

"The Lord testified, "I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross"
(3 Nephi).
And so He was. In Gethsemane and on Calvary, He worked out the infinite and eternal atonement. It was the greatest single act of love in recorded history. Thus He became our Redeemer-redeeming all of us from physical death, and redeeming those of us from spiritual death who will obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

What can we possibly give to the Lord? Considering all that He has done and is doing for us, there is something that we might give Him in return. Christ's great gift to us was His life and sacrifice. Should that not then be our small gift to Him-our lives and sacrifices, not only now, but in the future?"

I think we’re given the Christmas season to boost our determination to live this way for the rest of the year! Ha ha.

Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers! I feel them!

I love you! I’ll talk to you soon!

Merry Christmas!

Sister Painter

Saying Goodbye!

These are people I had to say goodbye to:

Mary. . .


Alisha and her little girls who I love!


Sister Stefke and me when she fed us jello with marshmellows because I told them how much our family loves it! ha ha.


Lexy and her family. Lexy is a recent convert (the 16yr old).


Me and Katelynn. . .She is getting baptized on Saturday! wahoo!


Our last district. . .


I sure love this work!

I Got Transferred!

Family!

I got transferred! I moved to the next area over from Fairfield. It’s the West Chester ward. It was a big move! Ha ha. And guess who is my new companion!?! Sister Thacker! We are way excited.

Sister Martineau went home today. I’m glad it’s not my time yet! I love serving as the Lord’s missionary! There is nowhere else I would rather be right now. Saying good-byes to our ward and investigators yesterday reminded me how much I love this work! I’ve never felt so attached to people I’ve known for so short a time.

Mary is doing really well. She is still having a hard time getting the energy and strength to get around, but she is amazing! Our good-bye was hard! I will miss her dearly! Her testimony has inspired my testimony! Each time we talked to her she would reflect on the blessing of understanding the gospel brings into our lives! We are so blessed to have “all the answers.” Mom, I gave her some of the Christmas Nativity pictures you sent me for Christmas. She opened them up and just started crying. They meant the world to her! I just wanted to say thanks for sending them!

We had another neat experience with a woman named Betty. She was a former that Sister Thacker and I had tried to visit months ago, but she wasn’t sure she even wanted to know what we had to say. Well Sister Martineau and I showed up on her doorstep one morning with Sister Haruch and she invited us in to talk to her. She finally opened up to us and explained that she had a terminal illness and she’s been contemplating what is going to happen after she dies. She explained that she had offered a prayer the night before wondering about the church again and “ta dah” here we were on her doorstep! See! The Lord DOES answer prayers! And he gives us every opportunity to accept his message!

I don’t have a lot of time today, but I want you to know I love you! And I want you to know how much I love this work! This truly is the season to remember our Savior’s love and infinite sacrifice for us. Oh how I love him!

Here is my new address: 7441 Timber Dr #9 Cincinnati, OH 45241.

It sounds like things have been CRAZY at the house! Thanks for the pictures! I love seeing what is going on with the family! I printed your email and will reply by mail when I get home!

Oh and mom, I’m not sure about the phone calls yet. We haven’t heard anything. I let you know when I know! Don’t worry! Ha ha.

I love you!

Sister Painter

Enjoying the Christmas Spirit. . .

Us and the Underwood family dressing up as the Nativity scene.
It’s been years since I’ve done that!



Reagan Ladle and I were the angels who sang “Glory to God in the Highest!”



We helped the Jackson family set up their tree. Ashli, the 16yr old, was just baptized this last March so we’ve been working with her quite a bit.