January 23, 2017 - Transfer to Benicia

Hello, Hello, Hello!

So this has been such an awesome 6 weeks. I've learned so much  and feel that I've never grown so much. I don't know where the time went today and I promise I will share my thoughts about these last 6 weeks next week, but I've attached some photos. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so wow ,you guys are lucky. So many words!

This week were transfers and I'm getting transferred tomorrow. I will be going to my new area, Benicia with my new companion Sister Irvine! I am really excited! We had to say goodbye to some of the elders and it was so sad it made me realize how fast the mission goes. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve my Lord. He is real. He lives and His atonement has changed my life. 

Love you all so much. 

God is good. Life is good. 

Godspeed always,

Sister thurgood 

Here is 7 thousand words if you know what I mean. hahah

01/16/2017 - Love You Always

Family, family, family, :) because let's be honest, you are family to me!

I am so sorry for my late email and it's going to be short, but I love you all and you guys are the best. 

We had a good week over here. I can't believe it's the last week before transfers. They went too fast. It's one of the elders final weeks of his mission and we had to have a good ole pday for him. Dang it's crazy because you think the hardest part of a mission is saying bye to home and trust me that's hard, but it's saying goodbye to the friendships you make out on the mission that are harder. I'm really grateful for the opportunity I have had to make life long friends out on the mission. 

One of the coolest things that happened this week was yesterday at church. We walked into church and saw an unfamiliar face that we didn't know. I went over to introduce myself to her and asked her if we could sit by her. We sat down and asked her how she was and she immediately started crying. It was so sad. She said that she is going through a lot and that after 22 years of marriage, her husband left her for another woman. She just lost her home and all her kids have left home and are off in their various places and don't need their mom. She told us that she hasn't been to church in one year but that she decided to come. We told her how grateful we were that she was here and that God was with her. Half way during the meeting, she got up and left. A few minutes later I decided that we should go out and see if she had really left. We walked around the church and found her in a corner crying. We sat and talked with her as she cried. She told us that she felt so abandoned. I testified to her that she is never alone. One of my favorite things is testifying to people that they are loved. One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Nephi 11:17 and says (don't quote me) "And I said unto him I don't know the meaning of all things, nevertheless I know that He loveth His children." I don't know why bad things happen to good people; it's just a part of life, but I know that God loves us. He will never abandon us and he never abandoned that lady although she felt as if He did. At the perfect moment, the Bishop of the other ward walked in and gave her a blessing. It was SO powerful. I started to cry. It's amazing the power that comes from God.  After the blessing, she told us that she is going to start coming to church again. She hugged us and through her tears she said, "thank you, sisters, thank you."

These are the moments i live for. I am glad God has allowed me to be an instrument in His hands. 

This week, summed up in an "I learned" statement can be I learned a lot about time. I learned that 9 months goes a lot faster than we think. I learned that there are good, better, and best ways to spend the Lord's time. I learned that some people need more time to accept the gospel. I learned that the best time for the Lord to work miracles through you in the Middletown Ward is 10 minutes before sacrament meeting as you introduce yourself to unfamiliar faces. 

The mission is good. It's the best thing I've ever done, and although not all days are easy, it's worth it. 

Love you guys so much.

Godspeed always,

Sister Thurgood 

01/09/2016 - miracles on miracles on miracles can i get a hallelujah?

To all my friends and family :) love you so much it hurts

some weeks I have nothing to share and then other weeks I feel like I have everything plus more to share. These are one of those weeks where I feel like I have everything plus more to share.

I've decided to tone it down to 2 crazy cool miracles that happened this week in the life of sister thurgood and sister free.

miracle 1:

So we decided that we needed to show God that we were using every available resource given to us to find those that are ready to hear the truth. we have been working with less actives and potentials and have been seeing some success, but we are in a place where we need to use other ideas. So we decided that we would try out the bus system. We get on the Bus, and its me and sister frees first time and we really dont know what we are doing but we decide hey. Before we got on the bus, we prayed that someone that needed the gospel and was ready for it would be on the bus or we would cross paths and we would be able to have the faith to talk to them. we get on the bus and there is a whopping 5 people on it.. we tried starting conversation with the person next to us but it didnt go very well and he wasnt really interested. we got off the bus and thought dang, i hope this wasnt a waste of our time. When we walked off the bus, one of the ladies on the bus approached me and asked me "I saw you carrying a book when you got on the bus and I heard you talking with that man. could i have a copy of the Book of Mormon?" WHAT? umm yess mamm you can have a book of mormon. We gave her a book  of mormon and she said she has met missionaries before and she wants to see them again. It was so cool. I bore testimony of the book of mormon to her and walked back to my companion who was trying to talk to another person on the bus about the book of mormon. (my companion is so awesome). Something that i realized looking back is that as I was talking to this lady, my companion was talking to another man, because she had the faith that someone on the bus was ready to hear the truth even though she wasn't having much success. Go Sister Free!

Also side note but I know you will get a kick out of it haha when we got off the bus we thought it was a loop.... but it wasnt... and we got stranded at the casino.......  HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA what is our life. we are miles from home. but hey tender mercy, as we waiting to figure out what to do and who could pick us up, a guy walked out of the casino, sat right next to us and we taught him about the book of mormon and that the gospel has been restored. It was seriously the best day! Its amazing to me that if we just open our mouth and believe there are people ready to receive us. After our lesson with our new friend named Zeb, we walked a mile or 2 back to the middletown library where our favorite old german lady picked us up.

The phone call when I called Sister Van Der Boon to come pick us up was so funny. It went like this.

Me: "sister vanderboon how are youuuu? well you see we have a bit of a favor to ask you?
Her: yes...
Me: well we got stranded at the casino and now we are at the library and need a ride.
Her:  oh my goodness the casino. I dont even know what to say. what were my girls doing at the casino. oh good heavens, i'll be there in 10 minutes

hahahhahahhah

I was laughing the whole time. I kept on saying, sister free what is our life, just two sister missionaries, on the side of the highway just trying to go home hahaha

miracle 2: 

Sister free had to go the bathroom so we were looking around trying to find one. we decided to stop by this grocery store where there was a bathroom. except the bathroom he let us use, was a few buildings over which he gave us a key. As sister free was using the bathroom, i saw these 2 kids trying to stay dry over a balcony. I felt like we should talk to them. Then i used the bathroom and started walking back to our car. sister free starts talking to them, and they tell us that they are having a rough day. We gave them a book of mormon and started talking to them about the gospel. His eyes lit up when we talked about Christ. It ignited something in me and I grew so much love for him. I felt like for a second I saw him in a way Christ would look at Him. As our conversation was starting to end, I felt inspired to give him one of our umbrellas. They wouldn't accept it but I said, we have two please. They accepted the umbrella and that was it.

Pause on that story. Later that week or day (i dont even remember it all goes together) we went to go see a less active. He was there with his friend who was bringing him food. he said he was busy but to come back later. we went to car to figure out what to do next when the friend knocks on our window and ASKS for a book of mormon. AGAIN I SAY WHATTTT???? we are like oh yes please how many do you want. we thought that was a miracle enough. 30 minutes later as we went around the street to knock some doors before our next appointment, the friend drives by and yells at us to come talk to him. he said hey, i think i met you before when you up by my house, i want to be a member of your church. will you come teach me? AGAIN WHATTTT  WHAT IS ME AND SISTER FREES LIFE.  again we said oh yes and told him we would stop by on friday.

Now this is when the story gets crazy.

we stop by on friday and ring the doorbell, and a girl answers the door, we asked for her dad and she said yea...wait i know you guys. we were like uhh really? and she says "you two are the ones that gave me and my brother the umbrella" I felt like I could cry right there. We went in there and met the family. As we talking with the family, he said that his kids had told him two mormon missionaries had given them an umbrella and then we meet him at our less actives house, he felt that it was a sign that he needed to be apart of whatever we were. we taught the restoration to him and his kids and the spirit was so strong. They want to keep on meeting with us until they can come to know its true. I couldn't even believe it. Im still in shock. God fortifies our actions. Who knew that stopping and talking to those kids and giving them an umbrella would be the answer.

moral of the story: always carry 2 umbrellas haha

This week has been such an awesome week so so so busy. We had zone conference and ALSO i almost forgot, our little community we live in got hit so hard with rain and it FLOODED SO BAD. we spent a majority of yesterday helping people with sand bags. there was TONS of rock slides and there were boulders the size of basketballs on the road. CRAZY. but all is good now.

I love being a missionary. In the car me and sister free were talking and I said "wow i just feel like my heart could burst because I'm so happy all the time"

amen amen. there is joy in the gospel. there is joy in him.

all my love

GODSPEED

sister thurgood 

01/02/2017 - New Year - New Me!

Hello, family and friends :)

I hope you all had the best week ever! Because you know the life of Sister Thurgood and Sister Free is nothing less. Can you believe that it is already 2017; where did the time go? I don't even know, but I am so excited for this new year. Coulson nailed it on the head when he said this year is the year for the Lord. Amen. This year is for Him. I am so grateful that I get to start this new year as a missionary. I'm ready for what the Lord can do through me as I put my trust in Him.

God is so good.

Life is so good.

So I swear that as soon as I start typing I forget everything. I don't even know how that happens, but somehow it does. So in honor of my bad memory and the fact that it's the new year and it's the best time of the year, I have decided to do 17 reasons to be grateful. If 2016 taught me anything it is that I am so grateful. So grateful for what these past 11 months have done to my life.

1. I am grateful for Sister Free. She makes me more brave! Since I have been her companion, I feel that we don't lose any opportunities to share the gospel! She is so awesome. Also being her companion is so fun because she is teaching me to dance and we all know I need it.

2. I am grateful for cruise control and TIWI (a device in our car that monitors our speed). Sometimes I can get a little pedal to the metal so I'm very grateful for devices that keep me obeying the law, BUT sometimes TIWI doesn't work and I may or may not have gotten pulled over for the first time ever in my life and it was the worst thing ever..... why do bad things happen to good people guys... ya know I don't know, but hey it's okay. (Dad I will send you more about this because oops, but stay calm; it's all good).

3. I am grateful for my parents. every time I just mention their names I begin to cry because I feel so grateful for all the sacrifices and prayers they have made on my behalf. I am grateful that they loved me even when I was a little stinker. xoxo Mom and Dad this is a shout out to you.

4. I am grateful for a mission that allows me to use technology. I feel so grateful that I have all these things at my fingertips. ALSO cool story dealing with technology: This week i was on exchanges with a sister. We were driving down from an appointment and witnessed A HORRIBLE CAR CRASH. The car flipped and ran into a tree. It was super dark and so Sister Stenquist and I became traffic control with our Ipads as we were waving them around. Amazingly, the man in the vehicle was alive; definitely a miracle.

5. I am grateful for a little brother who is on a mission. That has been a bigger motivator for me than I ever thought possible. I thought I was going to help him, but I think everyone knew that Coulson was born to be a missionary and I needed all the help I could get.

6. I am grateful for what the simple act of putting a name badge on every morning has done to my life. Putting on that name tag means everything to me.

7. I'm grateful for CHASE AND MAL and the fact that they have been married for almost a year in 3 days. Can I get a wooo wooo? Who doesn't love them? Who doesn't envy them? I'm also extremely grateful that they don't have a baby yet because everyone knows that I need to be there.

8. I am grateful for President and Sister Wright. If you ever want to meet the best people in the world then come to CA.

9. I'm grateful for jackets and coats and scarves and gloves BECAUSE IT SO COLD HERE. I know all you guys are probably shaking your head but it got to like 35 degrees and I thought my life was ending. They said it might snow today and I am so grateful that there is not snow on the ground right now.

10. I'm grateful for my recent convert who texts us scriptures in the morning because he knows that being a missionary can be hard! Who doesn't love Jon?

11. I'm grateful for the Atonement and for the change it has had in my life. 

12. I'm grateful for this family that has agreed to let them teach us!! I am so excited to teach them! The gospel strengthens families and I am excited to see what it can do for their family.

13.I'm grateful for a companion that has a sense of direction because almost 99% of the time, I turn right when we are supposed to turn left, but hey at least I'm trying.

14. I'm grateful for my district leaders who made us these really cool t-shirts that have red wood trees on them. Ten points to them. Everyone needs a new t-shirt.

15. I'm grateful for page 10 in Preach My Gospel. For what it means to be a successful missionary.

16. I'm grateful for my mission; for these last 11 months. My mission is so sacred to me and it means the world to me.

17. I'm grateful for my Savior. I know He lives.

I love you guys all so much! Also-- Spencer, still no email from you, but I'm still waiting and Mom sent me cute pictures of you singing. What a cutieeeeee.

xoxoxo

Godspeed Always,

Sister McKaylee Thurgood