Into A New Transfer

Dear Family and Friends! 

Sister Pulsipher is going home today :( so if am in Statesboro GA till Tuesday once I get me new companion in Macon. Then it is back to Beaufort! I really love Beaufort and I am so glad that I am staying. 

We have so many lessons this past week! We taught Jeanette and Jeanetta three times! Jeanette is doing great! When we taught her about the WOW and the Law of Chasity she was so funny! She was like "WHAAAAT!?!? I got to give up my sweet tea and now my men too?!?" haha! But she committed and is staying strong because she wants to receive those blessings. She really liked learning about the Temple and would love to go there one day! Hopefully her heart will be soften enough so she will accept baptism by the proper authority. :) Remember Coco? Well she has been there whenever we teach but hides from us. Until we started talking about the Law of Chasity. She came out and stated agreeing with us and really liked the idea of having respect from men when you respect yourself. Since then she has been very nice to us and her while demeanor changed! We found out that 3 years ago she was being taught by Elders and when she was ready to be baptized she couldn't because she wasn't keeping commitments, so she got offended and that is how she became anti. But by showing her love and that she can make a better life for herself, her heart has softened. :) This Gospel can do anything! 

We met this girl named Tyler and she wants to get baptized! woot! She is working on quitting smoking and she choose March 15 to be baptized! We are very excite for her and are working with her to help her stop!  :)

I have had a wonderful experience this past week where I have been an answer to someone’s prayers/questions. A member told us her amazing conversion story and how it took over 10 years for her husband to agree to let her join. She is so incredible and I love her very much! :)  She has always wondered how do we give God 100%. When she started asking us this I had a stream of thoughts and personal experiences come into my head and I felt like I needed to share them with her... so of course I shared them with her cause that is what the spirit is telling me to do. :) I told her about making our will, God's will. And how it is a choice of our agency to do that and by doing that it makes us more free and happy. I than told her the WHOLE story about how and why I chose to serve a mission. She was deeply touched and so excited to learn more! :) She told me that in 40 years no one has been able to answer her question. I felt deeply honored and blessed to be the one who was able to. (through the spirit though!)

Well I hope you are all doing great and always smiling! :) I love you lots! :)

~ Sister Tara Willie

 We heart attacked the Elders apartment on Valentine's Day!!

 Bundled up and pretending to climb the White's shrimp boat (we cannot be on boats) :)

Last pic with Sister Pulsipher! I'm going to miss her! We worked really hard these last few weeks! :)

A week of many Promptings!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this past week has been wonderful. We have started teaching Byron. He is a really big black man. I thought he had to be a basketball player when he was younger, so I asked him. Found out that he used to be on Beufort's most wanted list and spent time in jail, so he did not. He has changed his life around a lot since getting out of jail (it was about 15 years ago) and he heard of the Book of Mormon while there. He really enjoyed going to the classes and he learned things about our church, but not a lot. He actually converted to Islam when he was in jail. We teach him at Miss. Mullen's house because he is her friend and it is safer for us anyways (We don't really want to drive all the way out to St. Helena and plus it is the Elders area.) When we met him, I kept getting this overwhelming feeling that we need to teach him! We are going to teach him! (Sister Pulsipher had the same feelings!) And then he started asking us questions and then he said he would like to be there when we come back! It was awesome!!! The spirit was so strong and Miss. Mullen bore her testimony to him! She knows the gospel is true, that the BOM is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet (she had struggled with that). It was so amazing and powerful! The only thing keeping her form getting baptized is leaving her church. She has been going there almost her whole life! So we have been having very good lessons with Miss. Mullen and Byron. 

We have started singing in all of our lessons! It has made a huge difference! We sing right before we pray and it brings the spirit in so strongly! Now many of our investigators request us to sing whenever they have friends over. lol :) We have been teaching many of the children "I am a child of God" and they love it! 

Jeannette and Jeanetta are doing pretty well. Our lessons are still going well and they both are reading the BOM very fast! We are still working on the baptism by the priesthood authority though. On Saturday we were visiting them and they had their cousin Coco over. After singing and praying we asked J & J what they had read in the BOM. I got the impression to ask Coco if she had ever heard of the BOM. OH boy had she ever! She started going off how she had and that it was the devil and that it was false and just nasty things about it and about the leaders of our church. WOW! I have never gotten angry so fast! How dare she say those untrue things about the BOM and priesthood leaders! I wanted to tell her that what she was saying was false and that she was wrong and not the smartest person.... but I held my tongue and listen to the spirit. When she started saying that the BOM doesn't talk about Christ I wanted to laugh! I then listen to the promptings of the spirit and asked Jeanette if I could see her BOM? She gave it to me and I said "that's funny. Have you never seen what it says on the cover?" and I showed her the cover and it says "Another testament of Jesus Christ" I then explained/bore my testimony to her about the BOM and it being all about Christ, She then scoffed and said "it is not the same Christ as the Bible!" HA! Little does she know! I had a firm reassurance from the spirit that she had no idea what she was talking about and to just leave her alone now, so I didn't say anything and that's when Sister Pulsipher bore a powerful testimony on the BOM! She also asked Jeannette if she is learning about Christ in the BOM. She very strongly said "Yes I have. It is all about him." Then we started getting into the lesson on Prophets and Coco got up and left. It turned out to be one of the best lessons we have had with them! :) I love being assertive and following the spirit! 

Also last night was the missionary fireside! It turned out very well! ......... But no investigators showed up. :( I was a little disappointed but I had the feeling that this was strengthening the ward members and getting them excited for missionary work. It was about hem and their needs. :) After we had many members come up and say they really enjoyed it and they were sad no investigators came but they still thought it was a success! :) Woot! Also my district sang 'behold a royal army' and we now have a senior couple! The Georges from Tulsa Oklahoma!  So that makes 8 missionaries in the Beaufort ward! 

Well I hope you all have a great week! Keep up the hard work and don't forget to smile! :) 

Luv ya!

P.S. next week is transfers! I will be getting a new comp because Sister Pulsipher is going home and I feel pretty sure I will be staying in Beaufort! (I hope so!) 

~ Sister Tara Willie

 With the Morgan Family!! They're awesome :)

Sister Pulsipher, Miss Mullen and I

All 8 Missionaries

Snow in South Carolina!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was such an adventure! We had many lessons and SNOW!!! :) 

On Wednesday it snowed/iced over. As a safety precaution we were told not to leave our apartments unless it was above freezing. President Cottle said it was because the people here don't know how to drive in it. They know majority of the missionaries can, but they wanted to keep us safe. So what did we do all day you ask?!? (because it never got above 32 degrees) Well we were productive, but we went 'sledding'!!! lol :) I mean there really are no hills here so we had to improvise. The Elders used the bridge they live by and we used a slope off of the road... it didn't really work, but it was fun! :) Sister Pulsipher and I also tried to walk on 'frozen' water! I made it pretty far out! But I promise we also did work! It got to 31 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. We had an appointment with Jeanette and we really didn't want to cancel. So we went and taught her anyways... She doesn't live too far away and we didn't have to cross any bridges! :) She really was so grateful that we came! :) It was such a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She understood it very well and the three degrees of glory made sense to her. She told us that she was always confused when she read 1 Corinthians 15 and that now it totally makes sense. She has yet to pray to know if she should be baptized by the proper authority though. We explained to her more about the priesthood and why it is important to be baptized by that authority. We asked her again to pray about it and she said she will. She also has started rereading the BOM!!! She started crying when she told us how much she loves it and that she feels so good when she is reading it. :)

Saturday morning we went back to Jeanette’s and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We empathized more on baptism and asked her if she had prayed about it? She said "sort of" so we got in a discussion of why she wasn't and we came to find out that she really doesn't understand the importance of the priesthood. We had a member with us and she did a beautiful job on why she knows the priesthood is authority from God. We had her pray with us there and we asked her how she was feeling. She told us that she felt good and we talked about the Holy Ghost more.... so slowly but surely she is coming to understand. It is so amazing to see how much she changes as she accepts the gospel. :) The spirit is always very strong when we are teaching her. :) 

Out in Sheldon, (a tiny town inland) there is this beautiful abandoned church that was built in the 1750's. A member who lives out there was having us over for dinner, so she drove us over there and it was like a kid in a candy shop!!! :) hehe! Sister Pulsipher and Sister Cook (the member) were laughing at how giddy and excited I got over the stones and the graves. :) It was a lot of fun and really cool to see some prerevolutionary history. :) 

This coming Sunday we are putting on a fireside for missionary work! We are trying to get the ward excited to do missionary work and also to come out with us. We are having about 6 people from the ward tell their conversion stories and about 4 musical numbers to mix it up a bit. My district and I will be singing! I am pretty excited for this and so are many of the members! :) 

I hope things are going well for you at home. I love you all and I am so grateful for all of your love and support! Keep up the hard work and give a referral to the missionaries serving in your area! It will make there day! :) 

~ Sister Tara Willie

 Trying to sled in the snow lol

At the Old Sheldon Church!! :)

Tender Mercies and Little Miracles.....Oh I just love my Heavenly Father!! :)

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has had its ups and downs, busy day and slow days. I feel like I am learning and growing a lot.. and it is not always comfortable. But with the Lord anything and everything is possible and eventually it will pass.

Tuesday was our zone conference! It was pretty awesome learning from President Cottle. He is a fantastic teacher and knows the Gospel very well! :) He taught us about the "Trust Box" and how in relationships, trust is more vital than love. When we are obedient we will stay in the box, as missionaries the white hand book and Preach my Gospel are what helps us stay within the box. We are more free when we are being obedient, even to the rules that are small and seem silly. Sister Pulsipher and I have committed ourselves to being exactly obedient, even to the small rules... I have noticed so many more blessings even though we were not being disobedient before. :) Later he taught us more about the Temple recommend questions. He explained all of them to us. :) I was so wonderful hearing those questions again and being to fully understand them.  

I went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. I went to Rincon Georgia again, but this time I was with Sister Woodbury! She is so awesome and a great missionary!!! She has only been out one more transfer than me, so we had a good time working hard and keeping busy and talking with everyone! I loved it SO much!!! We both where in missionary heaven! :) (Her companion is also at the tail end of her mission.)  We taught this lady out on her porch at 8:45 pm. the lesson on the restoration went so well! She had questions and understood majority of what we presented to her. She got excited about the Book of Mormon and asked us to come back the next day! We did leave till 9:25 pm! I will have to ask Sister Woodbury how it went the next day. :) 

On Saturday we went and visited Jeanette. She is a friend of an inactive member of the ward. She received a BOM and was reading it. She asked to meet with us. When we met up with her she had finished the BOM and was reading in the index because she wanted to read everything!!! She told us that she had already prayed to know if it is true and she knows it is, because of the dreams she had! It was so neat! :) We talked with her about the restoration, Joseph Smith and the priesthood power. We invited her to be baptized but she doesn't believe in being baptized more than once. (She was baptized as a girl into a Baptist church) We then explained more about the priesthood authority and she really understood and believed it, but was still a little hesitant. (which is perfectly normal) We then committed her to pray if she should be baptized or not. :) We also committed her to come to church and guess what?!?!? She came!!! It was a regional stake conference, being broad cast from Orlando Florida. Elder Russell M. Nelson was there! :) Jeanette LOVED all of the speakers and their messages! (Elder Gay and Elder Kopischke of the 70 and also Sister Carol McConkie of the YW presidency.) Elder Nelson spoke on the doctrine of the Gospel. I love it so much! He made it so simple that Jeanette said she learned a lot. :) 

Also in the Saturday night adult session my zone sang a song and also the stake president invited everyone to fast this coming week for more missionary opportunities! We are all very excited for this! :) 

I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers!  

~ Sister Tara Willie

 With Sister Woodbury

 At a members house, her bird kept landing on my head lol :)

With my zone after singing!!

A Whirlwind Of A Week!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

So this past week has been super weird and busy and sad and just... crazy! Sister Snow past away Tuesday morning. Her memorial service was Friday afternoon. It was very nice and sort. The missionaries were asked to participate in the program. :) She will be missed very much, but it is very nice to know she is no longer in pain and in a better place.

We did service for sister Summerall (the kinda crazy, less active) On Saturday. She is so sweet, I really like her. :) We helped her go grocery Shopping (she has a fear of leaving the house.) and we also helped organized her house. She is super intellectual and enjoys learning about other cultures and religion. So we had a lot to talk about. :) She also was very sweet and took us out to dinner! (which was awesome cause our appointment cancelled on us.) She is really fun to talk to, but sometimes you can see the "crazy" come out. lol :) She apparently has a fiance living in Egypt... She even showed us his picture on Facebook and another weird thing is, he is 28 and she is 56. She is pretty cool, even tho she is a bit weird! :) 

We did a lot of tracking this week! But not to many takers. :( But we went back to a family that we had tracked into a few weeks ago and they were home and invited us in!!! We got to teach them the first lesson and they invited us back! :) They have 4 daughters and 2 nieces living them, so taught 7 little girls and they all were very attentive and asked good questions. the mom and grandma were standing off in the back but they were listening. :) the 16 year is very excited about it! Her name is Keirra. She has committed to read the Book of Mormon! We are going back later this week to see how she is doing on that. 

So some random things. First tomorrow is Zone Conference in Savannah! This weekend is Stake Conference and they have asked all the missionaries in our zone to sing during the Saturday night adult session. (I will go were you want me to go.) Also our meal calendar is filled for the next 4 weeks!!! Every day! We are pretty excited! lol! :) The Elders are a little jealous... I don't blame them. (The ward is a little particle to sisters right now. Kinda makes me feel bad for the Elders sometimes, but the ward still loves them, they just aren't spoiled.) 

I love you all very much! Thanks for your love and support! Share the gospel where ever you are!

~ Sister Tara Willie

 I saw an Alligator ;) hehe

A boat in the middle of the woods....it's a mile or two from the coast. I thought it was random 

 Some yummy meat stuff in the grocery store....SICK!!!

 With Elder Brimacombe, we are being goofs at a dinner :)

 Us before Sister Snow's Memorial Service!

Lobsters at the Store!

Families Are Forever!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

Today marks being out 2 months... WOW! I cannot believe it’s been that long already! So this week has been pretty busy!!! :) From having a Tornado watch on Saturday (yep the tornadoes are following me!), to being in the Hospital for a couple of hours this weekend  and today to tracking in record low temperatures this week has been a pretty unreal and busy week!

So with the Hospital business. Remember Sister Snow? Well she has Hepatitis C (She has known this for a long time) and this, plus other issues have led to her liver to die. She was doing alright on Saturday when we visited her, but Sunday she took a turn for the worst. Her kidneys are failing. :( So she is in the process of dying. :( The family asked all 6 of us missionaries to come and stay with them at the hospital for as long as we could. So we were there for about 3 hours yesterday and we are going back tonight. The doctors say she doesn't have much longer to live. :( I take such comfort in knowing that we can be sealed to our families, that there is a life after this one and we will have no pains or afflictions. 

We started teaching Kelly last week! She is a single mom with one daughter. She is pretty cool and has many questions. We started teaching her about the restoration, but we only got as far as "the gospel blesses individuals and families." She LOVES that we are family oriented and that we sit together as families in sacrament meeting. (That’s not the norm out here for other churches.) She told us a lot of her past and how she wants to raise her daughter in a strong united household and that it is hard to do when there is only one parent. She wants her daughter to see men for good and that they are supposed to be the provider and protector. She found out that I had grown up in a single mother house hold. She asked me how I was raised and how my mother was able to teach me about how an untied family was like? I got to bear my testimony to her that it is was because of the Gospel, that families are forever and how wonderful my mother is. :) She likes what we are teaching her, but is a little hesitant. She asked us to come back this Thursday! We are pretty excited to teach her again!    

Tuesday was a record low day her in Beaufort! The high was degrees! (Yes I know it’s a lot colder out west but going from 60 degrees to 28 is killer! lol) Sister Pulsipher and I tracked a lot in the cold weather!!! Because we were diligent and worked hard even though we were freezing we were blessed! :) All but 2 of the houses had people home and a lot of people took our cards and some even asked us to come back! We got 2 new 'gators' and like 6 potentials! We old man was pretty anti at first but we kept talking to him and eventually he calmed down and told us his wife is dead and that he believes in God but not in religion. We started talking to him about the Plan of Salvation and he literally was drinking in everything we said! He didn't want us to come back because he was fearful of what his children would say but he did except a Book of Mormon! :) We are giving him a little bit of time before we try back again. :) (His name is Bunny... pretty cool right?!?)   

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have fasted last week. So many blessings and miracles have happened in the past week because we fasted to find more people, to have motivation and to work hard! It is so wonderful to see the small and simple blessings come of it! :) I am so grateful to be part of these miracles! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Luv ya! :)

~ Sister Tara Willie

 With Amy and Roshanda

A Super fat cat we saw while tracking

Sister Fife took us out for Sushi! And we are dorks! :)

Transfer Week

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has gone by relatively quickly. It is also transfers week... I've been out in the field for 6 weeks now!?! Wow that went by fast! It doesn't feel like 6 weeks, maybe 3. The days are long, but the weeks seem to fly by. (Weird!)

For New Year’s Eve we had lock down at 6 pm. During that time we had a zone conference call to discuss our goals and how we can be better. We talked a lot on obedience and how we can always improve. I have made Exact Obedience, and improving my Personal study time my New Year’s resolutions! :) I'm pretty excited about them! 

It has been raining here a lot this past week. So we have has the opportunity to tract in the rain! (I really do love tracking!) Every door was a no or a bad timing, but it still was awesome! We were pretty wet and cold after tracking in this one neighborhood for an hour and a half. We also had a lesson with Roshanda. She is not really progressing and doesn't keep any of the commitments we have given her. We are very sad and frustrated with this. Our lesson with her was going really well! It was on the plan of salvation. We had decided to simplify our lessons and go over them again with her. Well in the middle of our lesson she notices someone pulling up to her trailer and says "excuse me for a minute while I figure out who this is." The she opens the front door and yell at this women sitting out in the car. (Just imagine this enormous black women yelling at you, demanding what you want... She kind of scares me. lol) :) The she leaves the trailer and heads for the car, leaving us alone inside. The next thing we know she is sitting in that random car and leaving us... yep that was weird. We were really confused and not sure what to do, but we decided to leave her the pamphlet with the time we planned on coming back. Ya that was an interesting experience but when we went back she asked us to reschedule but she will try and read the pamphlet herself... We will see what happens when we go back tomorrow! (She won't tell us, but we don't think she knows how to read... it’s hard to help her if she won’t let us address the problem.) 

On Friday we did service!!! All 6 of us missionaries went and helped Sister Cline deep clean and paint this disgusting old house so she can rent it out again. The last person who lived there trashed it! It was SO gross! Food was on the ceiling and walls, along with other unknown stains. So we had a good time cleaning everything and then painting over the walls and trim. It was a lot of fun doing service. We were there for almost 4 hours!  but we love Sister Cline and plus it was a good time being together as a district before two of the Elders get transferred tomorrow. :) We try and do some type of service each week! :)

I really love the ward I am serving in! Fast and testimony was so wonderful and pretty much focused on missionary work. About haft of the congregation are converts and hearing their testimonies of how grateful they are for the two missionaries who walked down that dirt road to find them. They also encouraged the ward to come out with us a lot more and to be bold sand brave about inviting their friends to Church/activities, etc. The spirit was so strong! I love sacrament meeting! :) That evening we (all 6 of us missionaries) held a Preach My Gospel class for anyone who wanted to come. We invited all ages because the Prophet and Apostles have asked us to study PMG in our families to help every member be a missionary. We had 5 young men and a single sister in her 30 come. It was a great class! (but I have forgotten how rowdy teenage boys can be.) We discussed how to keep commitments and then to extent and follow up on commitments. We also did lots of role play! Cause as missionaries we always are role playing to help us become more comfortable with teaching! :) 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support and love! :) Remember to study Preach My Gospel this year and if you don't have one they are only 4 to 6 dollars! No excuses! :) You and your family will be blessed because of your dedication to studying PMG, I can promise you this! :)

~ Sister Tara Willie

In front of the House!

 All of us inside of the Bathroom doing service....ya it was pretty fun :)

All the rain flooded our driveway!