Because I have been given SO SO SO MUCH :) :) :)

 Because I have been given much.....

I too must give!

But for real! 

The mission has given me so much!

-So much love for others

-So much love for the scriptures

-So much gospel knowledge

-So much peace

It is crazy that I will hit 1/2 way this week! I am kinda sad (because it has gone so fast), but I feel really accomplished and happy and satisfied and excited!

This is what has been going on this past week:

Monday:

The Spirit is an amazing tool that we have as Children of our Heavenly Father. We were able to teach Jacob about the Spirit. I love the analogy we used. We gave him an empty water bottle and asked him to crush it. He did! Then we gave him a full water bottle and asked him to crush it. He couldn't! We explained that when we are filled with the Spirit we can withstand the pressures of the world and the adversary! I am so grateful for the Spirit! I also know that the Book of Mormon answers every question we have! We had an amazing experience with our investigator, Matt. We asked him to write a question that he had down on a note card, then we read in the Book of Mormon where he was reading! We read 1 Nephi 9-10 and everyone in the room had their questions answered! It was powerful! My question was about hope!

Tuesday:

We taught Matt the 1-5 Commandments of the 10 Commandments, we focused on the Sabbath day. Matt truly wants to live as Christ would have him live! He is such an example! Later, we were able to have a prayer with John! He is in his 60's, retired, paints, and loves golf. He told us that when he was young he thought that he was God's gift to women, but now he realizes that he has made lots of mistakes. He hasn't been able to feel forgiven of those choices. He told us that he doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. He is practically Mormon already!!!! He lives alone and is very lonely! He really felt the Lord's love while we were there though! Before heading home for the night we taught the Genobaga family about faith! The parents loved our lesson! They were so excited! We are hoping to be able to help then get back to church!

Wednesday:

We taught the Plan of Salvation to Dustin and Maddie! Dustin had lots of great, thoughtful questions! He wished he had heard these things sooner! The Spirit really touched him and he committed to prepare to be baptized in February! Maddie was so excited!! We then taught Matt Commandments 6-10, focusing on the Law of Chastity! We were really nervous, because Matt live in a 3 bedroom apartment with 5 random people. He really understood and valued the commandment and wants to live a chaste life! 

Thursday: 

We had a really great district meeting!!!! We learned about teaching lessons simply without fluff! It inspired us! We met the nicest lady named Maryan! She is the wife of a less active in our ward. She is letting us give her service this week! We are so stoked! We met with Matt and Chermayne! It was great to see them both in one day! Chermayne has lots of great questions but most of them are about Revelations.....yikes! We are a little scared! Pray for those lessons!

Friday:

We went to try and contact a less active, but he had moved, and we met a lady named, Suzi, she was a convert and has been less active for a long time. She asked us how we found her, and we told her Heavenly Father knew where she was. We are going to go over and teach her next week! We then went to an apartment complex that we had never been in, because we don't know anyone that lives there. We chose a few apartments that we were just going to knock and contact the people, but no one answered... We talked to a few people on our way around the apartments, with no real luck or interest. Then we saw a man smoking on his 2nd floor balcony! So we introduced ourselves awkwardly from the ground. ( lots of things about missionary work are awkward) He let us come up to give him a Mormon.org card. He is working on creating a tv series.  We told him the Killers, lead singer is Brandon Flowers and he has a video on there and he was super excited to check it out! It was great! After dinner we  taught Matt about the Word of Wisdom. He was accepting of it, because he believes in modern revelation, but has some challenges to overcome! We had Tyler and Justin there, and they shared powerful personal experiences about overcoming their challenges! I know that Matt will be able to overcome these things with the Lord's help! Tyler and Justin gave Matt a priesthood blessing. It was so powerful! I haven't felt the Spirit so strong since I was at the Temple. I know that Matt's mother, father, and brother were there with him!

Saturday:

We took Matt to an awesome baptism! There were some Elders in our zone that were baptizing a 10 year old! The spirit was super, super strong. It made Matt really excited for his own baptism! We had a lesson with Jacob! We talked about the Godhead and we focused on the role of our Heavenly Father. It is cool to watch how much he has changed since we first met him and invited him back to church! We had dinner with Sister Chacon! She speaks more Spanish than English so it was really really fun! She fed us enchiladas which are my favorite! (yum yum yum!)

Sunday:

WELL....this was churchy day (as Gavin would say). We had a wonderful lesson with MATT!!!!AND HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!! He is progressing so well! We saw him every single day last week! We met at Tyler's house!!! We watched the mormon message "Mountains to Climb." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdN8rfwW3SI It was so awesome! It really brought the spirit! If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it! We had a delicious dinner with the Klabacka family! It was ribs and potatoes and asparagus! It was super good! They have a son on mission named Bryce! They also have a freshman in High School that is exactly like my brother Bryce! They are so neat! Brother Klabacka was telling us all about his quail hunting!!!! Sadly he hasn't caught anything yet! We suggested that he order a quail costume and just attract the quails to himself! It was the funniest dinner I have ever had :) We met with Maddie and Dustin!!!! They rock!!!! They want to meet with us every single day! AND WE HAVE GOT PLENTY OF TIME FOR THAT!!!! We are super stoked to help them learn the lessons and read The Book of Mormon.

Sister Davis and I are finding lots of success! We've been using an analogy to help our investigators want to meet with us every day! We explain that... "Going to the gym brings physical strength and will help you endure the physical challenges you meet in life... but if you only go to the gym every other week, your progression will be very slow. This is the same with spiritual strength. We gain spiritual strength to help us endure life's trials. If you only cardio once in a while, you won't progress.. If you only meet with Sister Davis and I once a week you will not gain as much spiritual strength.. We would like to come by every day for 15mins to help you gain more spiritual strength... Will you allow us to come by everyday?" They have all said YES!

We have also had so many members come out with us! This week we had 21 members come with us to find and teach! It was amazing! It has been hard to get members out with us, but FINALLY in the last month we have had so much success with member work! 

I love you all soooo much! Pray for Matt and that he will be able to meet his baptismal date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YALL!!!

Love,

Sister Justine Tucker

 

 We gave all of our hot cocoa to MATT :) :) :) He loved it! He decided to drink hot cocoa and not coffee! AWESOME

 At the "chicken car wash" :)
We had a little too much fun!!!!

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  SISTER DAVIS CUT MY HAIR THIS WEEK! She cut off about 5 inches :)
  
  
  
  We  found the other SISTERS at the gas station!
  
  
    We went to our favorite place!!!!! ZUPAS!!!!!
  
  
  
  
  
    This is a card from sweet Sister Honeycutt