08-01-2016

Hello to all my favorite people :)

It's been 6 months minus 2 days since I stepped onto the airport. I
can't believe how fast time has passed. 1/3 done of my mission. Can
you believe it? 1 year left crazy crazy crazy

This week has been an awesome week! It has been some of the best 5
weeks, I pray and pray that I don't get transferred. I love this area
so much and all the people here and I love sister Morrison. She is my
long lost best friend.

SIster Morrison keeps me laughing. I did a Kayla Itsine with her the
other morning and she is so sore. I feel so bad. I am pretty sure she
hated every minute of it but she is too nice to say no hahah she
couldn't walk without a limp for awhile. HAHA

 When we go out tracting and walking we play this game where we say a
random phobia and then the other person has to guess what it might be.
It sounds silly but it is so funny like laugh out loud funny. For
example "sealastyphobia" is a phobia of seals eating styrofoam haha
The game is inspired by a 14 year old boy in our Ward who actually
knows every single phobia. It is so entertaining to go over to their
house.

We have been meeting with this lady and her daughter. I love them so
much. She has a really hard living situation and we always go to the
local park and have a lesson. It's been so fun. The little girl loves
us and she waits at the door for us to come and then holds both of our
hands to the park. We had a really awesome lesson at the park. They
don't have a whole lot so we got some chalk for her to play with. It
was a hit and before you know it I was laying on the ground getting
traced by her. I love being a missionary. I attached a photo of us
with our chalk drawings.

This week we did some painting for a lady. She had us paint her
bathroom. We had painted the whole bathroom except this one part which
we couldn't reach. She didn't have a ladder but we didn't want to
leave it for her to do later, so I went on all fours and stretched my
back up as far as I could and Sister Morrison stood on top of me with
the paint bucket haha don't worry we didn't even spill and the
bathroom looks top notch Missionary or painter? Who knows haha

This week was ricks birthday! We had a little party for him at our
lesson. Rick is awesome. He is very very sick though  and I just hope
that he will be able to get better. It seems that his life choices are
finally catching up to him. I hope and hope the doctors can figure out
what is wrong. Rick is my favorite and if anything happens to him, it
will break my heart.

A really cool thing happened this week, we went to go visit an
inactive family that haven't been to church in a really long time.
They let us in and we started talking and before we knew it we were
laughing so hard we were crying. It was so awesome. Our conversation
switched towards the gospel and before we knew it, the spirit was so
strong that the family we were with began to cry. It's so amazing that
the spirit has the ability to touch our hearts and remind us that the
Savior is still waiting with arms out stretched. I don't think I will
ever get over this part of a missionary.

At church yesterday, we were having a combined meeting in the chapel
with all the adults. The meeting was almost done when our
investigator, Mel, raises his hand. The Bishop calls on him and he
says "I would like to say something" the bishop was like okay what do
you want to say. We thought he was going to speak from his seat but he
stands up and walks to the pulpit. He says "so I hear I am an
investigator of your church haha" Classic Mel haha He shared his
testimony of this gospel and of the love he feels directly from God
through the people of this area. He began to talk about his wife and
expressed that he knew that he would see her again. It was one of the
coolest experiences. The spirit was so strong. The Lord has been
working on Mel and he is getting so close to baptism. It's been such a
blessing and I feel so grateful to be apart of Mel's journey.

I love this area so much and I don't want to leave. This is the
hardest part about being a missionary just kidding everything is hard,
but that's why it is so great. Because you get to love people and be
apart of their life in ways that you never thought possible. As a
missionary, I get to be an instrument in the Lords hand and see
miracles right before my eyes. It is so humbling to know how much God
is willing to do for us because he loves us.

I love being on a mission. It is the best thing ever and I have
absolutely loved this transfer. Fairfield will be my favorite
foreverrrr.

For 18 months I get to serve the Lord, I just hope I make Him proud. I
hope that in a year I can look back and know that I put in every bit
of effort I could to help build God's kingdom. I've got once chance to
serve a mission as Sister Thurgood and oh boy I want to make sure I
give it all I got. I get to give my all back to Him.

I know He lives. I am so grateful for the gospel, for the knowledge
that imperfect things can be made perfect through Him who gave
everything for us. We are lifted up unto life because He was lifted up
unto death.

I love you guys more than I can express.

Godspeed

Sister Thurgood