Sorry, no recording this week. I will be typing today. We have had such an awesome week. Cheyenne was baptized this last Saturday. I baptized her. It was my first in in the water. She is converted to the church and is loved and watched over so well in the single's ward. She bore her testimony the week after her first lesson and made such an impact on a lot of people. She bore her testimony this Sunday, the week after her baptism, she talked about the change the gospel of Jesus Christ has had on her. That it has been a totally mind-blowing. It is truly amazing. Her mom was a less active member since she was just 6 or 7 years old. And now she is coming back to church regularly. So many cool things are happening. I am truly blessed to be here, to be part of it, and to witness it.
So again like always, a lot of cool things have happened this week; so much, I don’t even think I’ll be able to get it all recorded. We had an amazing Zone Conference this week, I got a lot of information! On our P-Day, we thought it would be fun to go to Bass Pro Shop. But going to Bass Pro Shop isn’t so fun, when you know you can’t go out and do all those sorts of things. It was a bit lame.
Anyway, I want to share an analogy I thought of about prayer. So, I’m all about Science. I remember going to the Science Museum in London as a family, and I loved it when someone would see something, get interested in it, then ask me how it works, or why. There was always so much I wanted to share with people, but instead of shoving it down their throats, I learned to wait until people asked. But I was always so excited when they finally would ask so that I could share the things that I know with them. I think that’s a bit like our Heavenly Father. He’s just waiting there and wants to share with us and bless us, and he’s just waiting for us to ask. As a missionary, our purpose is to invite people to come unto Christ, we can’t MAKE them. But when we invite it gives them the opportunity to act. Like knocking, they can answer or not. At Zone conference a Psychologist came in, and he talked about how we often compare our worst to someone’s best. It doesn’t matter to an investigator whether your a Zone Leader, or an AP, they just know you’re a missionary, like Christ. We don’t need to aspire to leadership positions. At Amanda’s Baptism I heard a talk, the only difference between a stumbling block or a stepping stone is how we use them. Whether we use them to elevate ourself or kick us off our feet. We need to look at our hard times, almost as a blessing. I’ve been trying to do this too. The Lord allows us to go through hard experiences to get stronger. Weird ways I’ve changed: I enjoy a salad without dressing (like Dad) go figure. I have like 8 purple ties, wouldn't have been caught dead in one back in Texas. I sang a solo in public; I Feel My Savior’s Love. That made me so nervous. It went well, I think I did alright. We got messy sundae’s they were awesome. I ate the whole thing. We had to go to a dinner appointment after, and my stomach was hurting so bad. The Lord blessed us at that dinner with some good vegetables that made my stomach feel much better. Garland we’re going to see today. He’s going to help us detail our mission car. He’s doing very well. Still dealing with a lot of troubles with his x-girlfriend, but I think he’s going to make it. Cheyenne is progressing so well. It seems like every time I don’t think I can get blessed more, I do. It is absolutely amazing out here and to see the Lord’s hand in this work, in HIS work. I’ll send some pictures, I love you! -Elder Tucker Elder Tucker sent Jaxon a cute Las Vegas T-shirt, a missionary planner, and one of his real name tags! Jason LOVED it all! This is what he wore to church the very next Sunday! A bit of swagger with that tag, as usual! We love getting packages from A.J.!
Today was really good, we got a lot don, it started slow but as it progressed it got better and better. Kind of the turning point was with Cheyenne today when things really picked up; this is a referral we got from the sister missionaries. She came to church one day with Mackenzie, a friend in the ward. She set up a time where we could teach her. When she was a little girl she came to church a few times as her mom was a member but less active. She wants to draw closer to God. She came Sunday, and she said she had really good feelings about it and that this is what she needed and wanted. As we taught her the first lesson, it was just amazing. It was such a spiritual experience for all of us; I’m super grateful for that. Then right after that we got a text from Garland, we’ve been working with from the YSA ward that all Hell had broken loose. His girlfriend, who he dumped because he was trying to change his life and she wasn’t interested, has been really trying to ruin him. She’s made up things about him and put a restraining order on him. We just felt like we needed to go over there and be there for him. We went over there and his mom was there. He was a bit steamed at first, but we were really able to connect with him. We were able to be there for him when he needed us, and it was purely due to the direction of the spirit. It was definitely a strong prompting; you need to go over and visit Garland. His mother talked to us and talked about the change she’s seen in his life, because of the missionaries, the person he’s become and the person he wants to become, she was just in tears, thanking us for coming over and for the change in him; for the help in getting his girlfriend out and the help in getting him to quit smoking and drinking, the completely changed person that he is. He’s such a loving character, he’s completely adopted these things, and he doesn’t miss smoking or drinking in the least. In fact, he says ne never ever wants to get anywhere near the stuff. Garland is such a great person, he’s going through such a hard thing and it is just crazy what this lady is doing to him. The tears in his mother’s eyes were more thanks than I could comprehend, and it wasn’t meant for me, it was meant for the Lord. It was just purely, spiritually amazing to witness. As we were leaving there we finished our day with Amanda’s baptismal interview. Amanda got in a car accident and has been recovering. She’s just an amazing person. After our first or second lesson with her, she says, ‘I just want to be a woman of God!” She’s definitely changed her life around. She’s excited about every commitment we’ve given her. Excited to join the church, excited to change, and excited to call herself a disciple of Christ. She’s a spiritual giant, and it is amazing, again, to watch the change and to watch the help that she is understanding that the Lord can give her. It is a great time to be a missionary where I am. To see these amazing things that are in place that we can teach. … And I think we have about five people set for baptism. These are the three that are going at it the strongest that we met up with just today. It is great to be a missionary! I am super grateful just to be able watch these things unfold. The Lord is a loving Heavenly Father. My testimony is growing from a personal testimony to a personal testimony of the Lord helping others, and I am truly grateful and would not trade it for anything. A letter to Elder Tucker From his Dad...Elder Tucker, Loved your recording last week. Was awesome. Really like hearing about what you are learning during scripture study and loved hearing about the people you are working with. It also sounds like you have some great members in your area. It is amazing about the books. Just a great bit of history that very few people get to see and feel the way you did. So your new companion can you tell us a little about him. Are you getting along better than you last comp. Is he from Utah or Russia. Things are great here. You where correct about Dallin, and we are working with him and he is getting much better about electronics time. We got him a bike and he is riding all over. So that is a huge improvement. He is also doing better at his school work and his grades are up. Thanks for your help. Everyone else is busy and doing fine. Since we do not have early morning seminary we have our family prayer and scripture study together in the morning at the same time we have breakfast. It has been going very well. We are currently in the part of Alma where we read about the 2000 stripling warriors. Great stuff. The stake has a missionary prep class starting Sunday mornings, Janae will go at 7:30am every Sunday but fast Sunday. Should be really good for her, you should encourage her if you get the chance. This week I was noticing how many blessing we have in our family right now. You are not home so you do not get to see it, but things are amazing for the Tucker at this point. Both of your sisters are A students. Dallin I already talked about. Jaxon is making huge progress at school and is growing and improving everyday. Your Mom and I are super busy but love it and are getting along great. I tell you this because as I have been praying and thanking my Heavenly Father i have felt that many of these blessings are being given to us because of your service as a missionary. You are not just blessing the people of Las Vegas, but your family as well. Just wanted you to know. I also got a letter from Sandra Grant this week. She is doing great and started to attend the Temple this year. Is that not amazing. Love you and thank you. Work hard. All the best, Dad P.S. Please do let us know if you need anything Elder Tucker's Response...Leah Falkner emails me from time to time. I told her to give Sandra a big hug for me. She said she did and it was a great experience for both of them. I love Sandra Grant. But, no no no! I have been blessed more and more and more! Five people with a baptism date and one new investigator that just fell into our laps again today. And a new return missionary volunteered to help us teach any lesson any time. I fear I am not grateful enough! Too many blessings. Ha, ha, ha. I love it. And I am super grateful.
Elder Tucker hefts a first edition King James BibleWe had a service project Saturday. After we got done we had a bunch of wheelbarrows broken up into groups. We decided to get together with a bunch of the youth and decided to have an actual wheelbarrow race. Honestly, I've heard good things come from it this past Sunday and today as well. Then we were planting onions and that was easy and fun. A rototiller is a great tool. Grandpa Tucker, if you don't buy a rototiller to do your dirt, I will, because it is fun!
One of our investigators that we've been working with for a little while, Garland, has been kind of flakey and sees the church as if he's going to do a church then this is the one he will pursue but he doesn't pursue it very much. We told him we want him to be active and want him to come to church and be a fully active member. He went to institute and is coming to church today. He's come to family home evening multiple times and to church before he got passed off to us, but I think he's doing a lot better now. We also went to see Danielle Hoffman, an investigator who dropped away for about a year. We tried to meet with her twice but she was really sick, she could barely see straight. We had the first discussion with her today. She saw us and wants to pursue this now. We went over the first lesson again with her today. She was in tears the whole time. I was able to give her a blessing and as we were driving away, I got a text from her and she said, "thank you again, the church is true". You could tell she knew the spirit was touching her and she knew these things were true. I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Peterson. He’s a younger missionary like me. He just moved here to my area, so I think we’ll work out well. We’ll work hard. Let me tell you about those old books that I was holding in the pictures I sent. The guy we visited is one of the biggest Mormon collectors in the United States. This bible I held was one of the 100 bibles used by court created by King James. They printed 100 in English - they revised them for about one year. They came back and argued about the revisions in the Council of Nicaea. This book I held was one of those. The book's binding was about 6” thick and was made of wood and leather. It weighed about 15 pounds. Its pages are older than the U.S. He trusted us, and let us actually hold them and thumb through them. You usually only see things like that behind glass and protected really well. We also had the little one with a seal on it. This was King James personal bible. We noticed the size reduction had dramatically changed, and after that they started printing a few more. His personal seal was so guarded that anyone touching it would be executed instantly because that was the way of knowing it was the King’s. The artwork was changed a bit because he didn't like it. The little book that looks like it is falling to pieces is said to be the hymnal Emma Smith used to write the first Mormon Hymnal. This was like holding glass, it was falling apart but he said, “Hold it, look through it.” Crazy, the pages were almost falling out and I was almost afraid to hold it. The other hymnal I got was of the first editions printed. I held 2 books of Mormon; one of them was one that Joseph Smith gave out on the ferryboat. These are two first editions that are in the best condition out there and they were super cool. All of these books, by the way, have a bigger book kind of box called a clamshell. They all go in them to protect them. He’s the one with the Tesla, Dad. What else happened this week? They have this little Mexican Shop called Frijoles down here. I don't know if they have them anywhere else, but they have these Marchadas stuff you get with a pineapple drink, it was really good. I've had so many burritos since I've been on my mission I think by the time I finish it wouldn't surprise me if I had about 600, because I probably get 1 or 2 a week. I LOVE Mexican food, I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. Ben and Scarlett starting the Stop Smoking Program and made it 2 1/2 days and are anxious to start again. They did well. Ben was a bit hesitant. Scarlett is now pregnant, by the way, so that's a big motivator for her. Ben is in it to help her and knows it will be good for him as well. He previously quit and that's kind of an iffy part of it. Amanda has been set to be baptized for the 21st for a while, but we may have to set that back to the 28th, as a result of her not being able to attend church last Sunday. We heard a bit about her family situation, which isn't the best at the moment. Not even remotely good, so that's why she's been living with the Bertogo's, the family that's been fellowshipping her. She quit her job at Starbucks and got a new job so she wouldn't have to work on Sundays. She is what the missionaries call a golden investigator. Just an absolutely wonderful person to be around, and anxious to learn. She latches onto everything we teach her, and really knows the church is true. It is an amazing testimony builder to me to see her progress, I know she'll get baptized, although she may be experiencing quite a bit of hell at this moment in time. I know that Heavenly Father is there for her and I'm grateful to be able to teach her and be His hands, and help her out. So many crazy things have happened; so many fun missionary experiences. I carved the angel Moroni onto the back of my ukulele and finished my case for it. That was fun. Love you all, Elder Tucker Elder Tucker Shares some Thoughts from his Personal Scripture Studies...In my studies in Alma 7:27 it says, “And now may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands, and upon your flocks and herds, and all that you possess, your women and your children, according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. Thus I have spoken, Amen.” I've talked in the past about Hell and now I'd like to talk about heaven and how we can experience a bit of it on this earth. I have heard talks from prophets about how they have seen heaven. How about when something really spiritual happens how heaven exists on earth. How we can experience heaven. In this scripture, as I understand, the peace of God as it says, I would describe to be Heaven. Now I've been in situations where things aren’t good. Where there are conflicts and arguments and I've had peace and I've been happy even though somebody might be yelling at me. And that comes from a few things.
In the scriptures I read that “according to your faith” and why faith is needed - because when we have faith in Christ, we know we are going to go through these hard things (and we know that that is going to happen sooner or later). So, we go through these hardships, we know why we go through them, and sometimes it might be harder to find out than others, but finding out is one of the best things we can do. Sometimes we might not know for years. It could be for somebody else. Know that Hell is overcome able. It's something that we are allowed to go through for our betterment, to become better people. But Heaven can also be granted in the mist of Hell, the peace of God. As Nephi said; there's not going to be a challenge that we get that we cannot conquer; that He will provide a way through every challenge that He places in our path. As a result of that, we don't need to fear. When fear is gone, peace exists. Peace and fear are opposites. With that peace you can love people and this is Heaven. Heaven can be experienced in the midst of life's turbulent storms, in the darkest hours of night when the morning is closest, the dawn is coming. Also at the darkest time of night, the stars that have been placed for us are at their brightest. When the moon is bright enough to make shadows and illuminate the blades of grass when all lights are out there is always light, there is always joy and a way to experience heaven, or peace. Knowing that we can have heaven and hell does not excuse us from experiencing the hard times. I'd like to talk about this in the eternal perspective. Can you imagine the best golf course you've ever seen? Absolutely beautiful, peaceful, calm. I want you to imagine practicing on that golf course for eternity and never, ever getting better than you are for eternity. Never getting better than you are currently. Your average will stay the same for eternity. When progression stops, that's also hell and that's what we want to help others avoid. To have progression, to have joy, to create, to make, to learn, to love, and all these come from progression. So, that's what I studied today. To know that when hard times come, you can still experience heaven on earth. There is a song that came to mind as I was sharing this with you. Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth Home can be a Heaven on Earth when we are filled with love, Bringing happiness and joy, rich blessings from above. Warmth and kindness, charity, safety and security, Making home a part of heaven, where we want to be. Drawing family near each week, we'll keep love burning bright, Serving him with cheerful hearts, we'll grow in truth and light. Parents teach and lead the way, children honor and obey, Reaching for our home in heaven, where we want to stay. Praying daily in our home, we'll feel his love divine. Searching scriptures faithfully, we'll nourish heart and mind. Singing hymn of thanks, we’ll say, "Father, help us find the way Leading to our home in heaven, where we long to stay." We have been teaching this one girl and we went over to this one family for dinner and as we were walking out her daughter or granddaughter walks in with her friend - without even us saying anything she said, "these are missionaries and looking for someone to teach, think you'd be interested?", her friend was like - full on "yea!", and we've been teaching her! We taught her about the restoration, about the Book of Mormon and we're on the Plan of Salvation. Last night, when we were teaching, we were getting near the baptism question, we were about to ask her, we thought the 21st was a good date and as soon as we were getting close,she said, "yes. I want to", and we said "you want to what?", "I want to get baptized", sweet! And we committed her to the 21st. She's super awesome, loves the church. Apparently the person she went on a date with wasn't good and she just wants to be a woman of God which is what she told the people we had dinner with. Super family, awesome lessons come out of there. It was an awesome place to have them. She is just perfect. It's definitely not us, it's all her. It's Awesome to be in this situation and to watch it!
It's been kind of frustrating the past week or two. Because we need to have so many members present to serve missions as a goal, we're supposed to have 8 a week and we don't get very much. It takes a lot of time to set them up and the next day they fall apart. Every night it's been like that this past week, so that isn't fun. We haven't been having much success. But that was just a perfect lesson. I'm feeling justified, I'm feeling happy. Ben and Scarlet are still doing well. She's still progressing. We taught them the Word of Wisdom. These guys are both coming from not the best situation. That's why they are pursuing it and are looking forward to make a change. We went over the five things the word of wisdom contains: no smoking, drinking, tea, coffee and other illegal drugs, and she just puts her head in her hands and said "I have a problem with all five of those". She's trying to stop but her boyfriend wasn't pushing for it. So, now we're referring them to the quit smoking program that we have to work with that is super awesome and helpful with things like that. It was so sad to see her put her head in her hands and say she had a problem with all of that. Next week will be a fun week for us to teach them. She is pregnant and they are not married. They live together. After we go over the quit smoking and all of those things, we have to teach them the law of chastity. That should go over well. Honestly, she's preparing, she's trying. Honestly, she can do it. She's working on it. It's awesome. She's super legit about it. We had Marcus set up with a baptismal date but then he stopped wanting to meet with us this week for the 3rd time in a row. But every time we meet with him he says "I don't want to meet with you guys anymore." He's the one that can feel the spirit and tells us that an angel has sent us to teach. You wish you could help people more, but I'm super stoked about this week and everything that has been happening. So, that's cool that you and Jocelyn sang together. When you told me in the email that you were going to go there, that is what I was thinking about. I got the letter the other day from the office. That was awesome. Week 25: When it comes down to it, we are all equal when it comes to learning gospel truths1/5/2015 I kind of wanted to go over some of the things I’ve experienced the last few days with you. We’ve been teaching Ben and Scarlet, they want to change. After our first lesson they’re trying to give up hard liquor and Scarlet’s trying to give up smoking. It’s pretty cool because she was starting to wig out, everything was stressing her out, she wants to change. It was kind of getting hard to teach her because she was getting so stressed out. So as soon as we started to teach her, she began saying a prayer for herself and asked to be calm. And apparently, she’s been calmer ever since. I was teaching her and we were teaching the plan of salvation. We got to the kingdoms of Glory, and she said, “I think I’ll settle for the middle one.” She was kind of still wigging out a bit. I said, “Hey, look at me!” She was kind of looking down. I had her look me in the eye. This is the first time I’ve ever done this. I said, “Hey, I know, that you can make it to the Celestial Kingdom. And that the Lord knows you can make it there. And it’s not going to be crazy. And that’s where you will be the most happy.”
After I said that, it was quiet for a couple of minutes, and she kind of nodded and agreed that she can. Then her boyfriend, from across the room, who has been participating in the lessons and is a less-active member of the church, was kind of blown away by it all and said, “Man, you are one cool dude. “ And that’s a first too. It was such a spiritual moment when we were teaching. It was awesome, not gonna lie, Super sick! She’s been so happy and grateful that we’ve just been teaching her. We’ve also been teaching John-Marcus. I don’t know if he has some mental handicap or if he’s just not all there, but it’s super fun to talk to him. And he’s changing and doing better, and ya know, it’s awesome. And because my problems with dyslexia, I can relate to him, as well. And it’s so great. It’s amazing; my dyslexia was not given just for me. It’s actually been a blessing to me here on my mission. During my personal study this morning, I was reading the scriptures and came across Hell. It got me thinking, hm, what is Hell if God can send it. Then it’s not so much a place if it can be on this earth. So I was kind of looking at, what is Hell, and in the Bible Dictionary it talks about Hell being a place of torment. School (get that mom)? However, for me, Hell was school==a place of torment. The Lord allows us to go through hard things (Hell) in order for us to grow. Hell is not a punishment, but allowed. If we do not repent, if we don’t do well, or if we need to grow. For me, it wasn’t that I needed to repent, it was a place that I would learn and grow and become better. It’s also the reason you guys had me go to school, even though it was hell for me. Because it was good for me. So, that kind of opened my eyes a bit. Hell can be something on the earth, it can be something that we experience within our lives, the only difference is, after this life (depending on if we accept Christ and do our best), we can escape it. And it makes me so sad for those that do not accept Christ. That they will endure an endless state of misery instead of peace. I’ve also come to the conclusion, that the Lord makes some things purposely not make sense. Although He is a perfect God, and His house is a house of order, some things are incomprehendable to us at this point in time. And should not make perfect sense to us. Because if it made perfect sense to us, it would be in favor for those who learn easily, are smart, studied, and wise. And if that is true, then they have an advantage over the people who are not learned, or have various learning disabilities, or fewer opportunities. Thereby, the Lord has given us faith. I think he purposely made some thing challenging to understand, to test people’s faith. The test of faith can be hard for those that have learned much, because they rely so much on their knowledge. And the reason it’s so hard is because the Lord is trying their faith, the reason He tries it so hard is because if we can attain faith when it’s hard, than it’s harder to loose faith later on. And that’s one of the conclusions I’ve come to. When it comes down to it, we are all equal when it comes to learning gospel truths. There are several ways we can learn and know. Through scripture study, prayer, and listening for the Holy Ghost, for he DOES testify of truth, that is his job. That’s it, that’s part of my personal scripture study today and how it’s gone. I learned a crazy amount! I’ve gotten better at marking my scriptures, my writing is still awful, and my reading is still awful. We had a breakfast today at someone’s home for all the missionaries in our zone, it was super cool! The member’s home where we are living, they left town, and over the past three days their house alarm has been going off. That woke me up a few times in the night. But New Year’s Eve, we had to be in by 6pm. And New Year’s Day was a no proselytizing day, so that was like a massive P-Day (preparation day), so that was super fun. There was a basketball hoop hanging off the ground, I was able to run up the wall and jump up to it and grab it, it was so fun. The weather is awesome! Palm trees swaying, Man, I’m happy to be in America! I do miss England though. New Year’s Eve was weird; It was weird to think, just a year ago, I was hanging out a balcony window watching the fireworks at the London Eye and on New Year’s Day I was at a parade in London with Cody. Crazy. Random Last Thoughts: The heating is out in garage apartment. Locals thought it was cold here, it wasn’t. I fixed the clasps of my leather bag from Crete with carabineers The nerf guns from the Sharps are awesome, tell them thanks. Grandma, I love you, and Aunt Darcy, and I love the painted plate and bowl you sent me, but I’m too worried I’m going to break them during moves. I’d rather use those after my mission, and I can’t wait to have them waiting for me when I go home. Last time I moved, I had just way too much stuff, so I need to send some things home I think. Thanks Grandma/pa Nead for the gift card, and Grandma/pa Tucker! Dubois sent me a card, Chaydon has changed a lot. Tell dad to drain the water from my car too! Had a crazy dream last night, Dallin and Jaxon were riding my petrol skateboard. Don’t Everything’s going great! I’ll talk to you guys later, Love you! BYE. This week was super fun. Turns out we have been street contacting on "The Blade." The Blade is a street in Vegas where prostitutes carry straight edge blades. Lots of crazy people and some of the most awesome people. WOW! The other day, we saw some skaters, as we walked down this rough asphalt they said that it was too rough for them to ride on but a little way out it got better. So they picked up their boards and walked with us. We had an awesome conversation right there. One guy, he looked like a punk. Someone who would not want to hear what we had to share. But he wasn't. We saw a man with a yellow beanie on, and chains, he looked like he was high, or just crazy. I asked if he celebrated Christmas, he said yes! We talked. I gave him one of those: He is the Gift cards #sharethegift, and asked him if he's talked to Mormons before. He said no. I asked if he would like to meet sometime. He said he thought it was weird how some Christians believe that a man can go his whole life and be awful to people, and say that He Believes in Christ on his deathbed, and be fine. Or how a good person can go to hell for eternity because he didn't. We told him a little bit about the kingdoms of glory and how we are a bit different from that. He thought what we said made sense, and gave us a phone number to teach a lesson. He wasn't crazy, or high, jus looked like it at first. But , some people are just jerks. And really, I could care less if they are rude to me, I'm trying to help and I'm happy to do it. It's lots of fun. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2016
Categories |