One Day More

 ALOHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Monday :)

It is finally here. "One Day More."

But....I'm okay with that! I knew that my mission would come to a close. Now I have learned the tools to be a lifelong missionary, and that is much more important than staying here. I am excited to go because I know that my family is excited. I know that Heavenly Father is pleased with my offering, and I know this because of the miracles he blessed me with this week.

Miracle #1 Carlos

Carlos is an amazing kid. He has had such a hard life. He was born and raised in El Salvador which is a very dangerous country right now. He came to the USA at the beginning of this summer. His sister picked him up, adopted him, and brought him over because their mother and father died at the beginning of the year. His new adopted mom, Mirian, is 21...and I am also 21...and I really cannot imagine having to go through what they are going through. Mirian is the sole provider for Carlos and her own two sons, Andres and Christopher...which are the cutest boys. Christopher is like a little minion :) Andres is so smart and loving. Carlos' English has improved through the roof. When Sister Nichols and I first met them we had receive a referral from Hawaii telling us that this family need the gospel in their lives. We contacted them and their home was chaos. They had never had the principles of the gospel in their small little family. We began to teach them and  when we asked them if we could all kneel down and say a prayer the kids became very reverent and obedient. You could just feel the spirit working on each one of us. We asked Mirian if she would be willing to say the prayer. (she was raised in the church but had fallen away as a teenager) As she prayed we all could feel something different. She was crying and her words were sincere. Carlos had been raised Catholic and he was very open to learning. After a few lessons you could feel a different spirit in their home. THEN I WAS TRANSFERRED!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!! But the Sisters were diligent and loving and Miran, Carlos, Andres, and Christopher started coming to church. Sister Cornia told me that they love primary so much. Last week the Sisters called me and asked if I would be willing to lead the music at Carlos' baptism. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had specifically asked that I would be there and lead the hymns "Families Can Be Together Forever" and " I am a Child of God." I was ecstatic!!!! When I got to the baptism the boys all gave me a big hug! The spirit throughout the whole service was wonderful. I know that the Lord was answering my prayers for this family. He is so good to his children!

Miracle #2 Xochiltz & Dorian

The next miracle is probably my most favorite of all. :) :) :) So last week Sister Decoster and I were doing our weekly planning and as you well know "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." End of story....well not really :) There is more to this story! thank goodness!!! So as we were planning we planned for miracles. We asked the Lord "How many baptisms should we plan for this week?" The answer that we felt was "Two." So this is what we set our goal as. As we were trying to put names to our goal our minds kept going back to Xochiltz and Dorian. They had been taking the lessons for a while and they had almost been taught everything. The one thing that was holding them back was Xochiltz's husband. He works out of state and she wanted him to be there for her baptism. So she and her 8 year-old son were set to be baptized in late November. We put our faith in them that Xochiltz would have a change of heart and that she would decide to get baptized sooner. Well Monday afternoon rolls around and we are on our way home from Wal-Mart and then we get the most amazing text message of my life from Xochiltz that said (and now i am crying just typing about it) "I have to tell you something...We are getting baptized this Saturday!!!! Please schedule it and talk to Bishop Davis...he knows we are going to do it :)" WE LITERALLY SCREAMED AND LAUGHED AND CRIED!!!! It was so exciting!!!! :) We called and talked to her and she said that she had gone to the Bishop to pay her tithing during church (you know you have a solid investigator when they are paying tithing before their baptism:)) and when she got home she realized that she had forgot to put the check in the envelope. She was super embarrassed and rushed to the church building to correct her mistake. When she got there Bishop Davis asked if he could meet with her in his office. He asked her why she had not been baptized yet and she explained the whole situation. He told her that she could get baptized this Saturday and she was like "Really?" and he said "Of Course!!!" And she was like "Okay!!!! Let's do it!!!!" And thank goodness for inspired priesthood leaders!!!! Bishop Davis is wonderful! Well after that we were working like mad to get every together!!!! We had to teach them a few times but it was worth the effort :) Their baptism day was so wonderful!!! So many people came out and supported them!!!!! We all got chocked up :) I felt like the sisters from "The District 2" when they baptized the Robles family!!! We were all hugging each other and smiling so much!!!! They are so happy now!

Miracle #3 21 Member Present Lessons

So my entire mission i have wanted to exceed 20 member present lessons. I have worked hard but I have never been quite able to make it. It is hard when the lessons depend on others agency to decide if they want to listen to you...and sometimes things just come up. Anyway... there have been weeks when i have been super close to my goal but not until this week did I ever reach it. Our reporting goes from Monday to Sunday so on Saturday we were at 15 lessons and we only had 2 planned for Sunday. BUT!!!!!!! WE WERE ABLE TO HAVE 6 LESSON ALL ON SUNDAY NIGHT!!!!  It was amazing! everyone was so receptive and willing to listen!!! It was one of the best weekends of my mission.

Welll....I will have to email next week and tell you all about the joy of seeing my beautiful family. I love them so much. They were my first missionaries and I will always be grateful for their love and support as I have been sharing the gospel in Vegas. I hope that I always remember to remember and you better believe that I will forever read my Book of Mormon everyday :) It brings me so much peace. Peace from the Prince of Peace :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!

Love,

Sister Tucker

p.s. funny story...so in church on sunday a member in the ward was leading the music behind where the bishopric sits and as he began he pulled our a harry potter wand and started conducting!!! it was the best thing of my life!!!!

p.p.s our mission now has mission sister training leaders....aka sister AP's!!!!