Trust Yourself and Do It!!!

Hello Family!!

Looks like winter is here! Is it still snowing in Utah? It snowed just a little this last week, but then it got warm. There's been lots of storms lately, someone told me there were tornado warnings, but who knows?

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! I got the package with the coats and boots! THANK YOU!! I felt so special with the package :) Sister fisher says thank you for the Halloween candy you sent her! You are all just awesome!

Dad, Thank you for your letter! I love you lots!!! Glad you had fun on your trip!!

WOW! Crazy thing in the Phillipines! I'm glad the missionaries are safe! I will keep the mission in my prayers! Sis. Fisher has some friends there and told me a lot of crazy things have happened there! I know that the people will be blessed for their work and faith! 

So this week we had a good meeting with President Gerber. We talked about different skills we can have to help us serve better. We are using the pictures from the pamphlets to teach, which is a new way I hadn't thought of. It's pretty cool.  

So the highlight of this week, was probably last night! A couple in our ward had taken our challenge of asking a friend to hear the discussion, they prayed about it and asked many people and finally one accepted! So we had dinner with them last night and a lady he went to school with. She was raised in Albania and then her family moved here to Detroit. She was not able to practice any kind of religion. If someone was found with a Bible it was burned and they were severely punished, maybe even killed. It is a crazy place! So it was very different to start teaching someone who hadn't grown up believing in God or in Jesus Christ. I realized I was greatly blessed with being raised in a wonderful country allowing us to practice religion! I've been lucky enough to have that peace always with me, knowing Heavenly Father loves me!! She was telling me that all of her friends that have religion in her life are able to cope with their trials so much better. She remembers the friends she has met who were members of our church. She told me they are just great wholesome families. She said the men are just great fathers and husbands and everyone seems so happy. She wants that in her life! We taught about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and we gave her some material to study. Even if she does not continue to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am so grateful that she has had great examples around her, showing what the gospel brings! We never know who is watching us so we need to CONSTANTLY be trying to be like our Savior. We never know who we will affect in the future.

This week Sister Fisher and I taught about obedience in Gospel Principles (which I just bought this book, so hopefully I will get it soon, so we don't have to borrow one every time we teach). I shared the story of Jet getting hit by the car. And how we have consequences of our disobedience as well as our obedience. This week I was able to see a small example of disobedience. We had an investigator drink a little bit of tea and they felt sooooo guilty!!!! They knew what the commandment was and just straight up disobeyed. At first I was shocked at how guilty they felt over just a sip of tea, but after we taught how obedience is how we show our love for our Heavenly Father, I could understand their guilt. We should not feel good after we disobey, even if we don't understand the reason behind the commandments. So before you decide to give a little lie or treat others badly, we should remember Obedience is how we show our love! Joseph Smith says this great quote "So I make this my rule, when the Lord commands it, Do it!" I think we could be a lot better and not questioning the things we do, but just Do It!

Last thing as I was reading in Ether, I was reading of my favorite example, The Brother of Jared, I just LOVE him!! I think I've shared this with you before, but repetition is good :) In the first few chapters there is a great example of how the Lord answers our prayers. Sometimes the Lord is with us every step of the way, telling us what we need to do, like in Ether 2: 6. The Lord helps the brother of Jared build barges by "directing him continually". Even when their was no air in the barges, the brother of Jared asked how they were going to breathe. And the Lord told him what he needed to do. But when the brother of Jared asked how they could have light, the Lord said (Ether 2: 23) "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" The brother of Jared then came up with a way to for them to have light by making 16 stones, and then asked for the Lord's help in touching the stones and letting them shine. Most times we want the Lord to just help us do everything and tell us how and what to do. I know as I serve, everyday I just want the people who are ready to accept the gospel to have a giant strobe light above their heads. Wouldn't that be awesome?!! But we see how it is not always that easy. The Lord trusts us and wants us to be able to just go and do, and not if but when we need the Lord's help, he will help us! As a missionary I have been set apart and have the power to be able to find and teach! As members of the church, Heavenly Father trusts us and we need to now just trust ourselves. Heavenly Father won't let us mess up too bad :)

I love you all lots!

Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Tracy :)

Already November!!!

Dear Family,

Good to hear Halloween was FUN!! Kimball and Hope, you both look AWESOME!! And Conner, your pumpkin is pretty sweet too :) My Halloween consisted of driving in the rain for like 9 hours and McDonalds and Preach my Gospel studying! After missionaries have been out for a year, they have a one year temple trip with all of the missionaries they came out with. So Sister Williams went to that on Halloween and we took her companion, so we drove for an hour and a half in traffic to get her, drove back, got yelled at by a less-active to tell us to stop coming back, and then drove back and dropped off her companion, and then drove back home. So I'm getting very good at Driving :) Haha but it was fun!

The work has been a little slow this week. It seems like EVERYONE is sick here! I'm thinking something must be in the water here or in the air... And I'm seeing when it's cold not many people open their doors, and people are not as friendly. I don't know why though! I LOVE THE FALL AND WINTER! I love November and having Thanksgiving! We have so much to be grateful for! And I love Christmas! It makes everyone remember and think about Christ! I hope you are all remembering our Savior and what he has done for us! I've been reading in 3 Nephi when Christ comes to the people in the Americas. My favorite line he says is Come unto me! He wants EVERY SINGLE one of his children to come unto him! He loves us all and wants us to receive the best joy we can possibly have!

We studied a lot about the spirit this week. As a missionary it is impossible to teach without the spirit! I have seen a few times where there might be tension between my companion and I, and we are not able to teach with the spirit until we resolve our conflicts. I know that what I say in lessons is not nearly as important as the spirit that I bring when testifying. In our District Meeting this week we went through questions we get asked often like "Why do I have to get baptized again?" Or "Why do I have to repent if Jesus already died for me?" or even "If Jesus drank wine, why can't I?" and probably the most asked question "Why do you believe in Polygamy?"  I could go on and on about the questions we get asked and some of them are very easy to answer, like "No, we don't believe in polygamy." But others can be more difficult. What I have learned though, is that as missionaries we have to just tell them what is most important. We have to TESTIFY with the SPIRIT! And one of the best ways is to use the Book of Mormon! I know that what the introduction says about praying to ask for ourselves is the ONLY way we can know for ourselves if these things are true. On Sunday one of our members brought their nephew to church for the first time. He had asked for a bible so we gave him one. When I asked if he wanted a Book of Mormon he immediately said he doesn't believe it is true because only the bible can give him answers. I simply testified that I KNEW that the Book of Mormon was true because I have read it and I have prayed and asked Heavenly Father to know if it is true and I know that it is! I told him if he ever wants to know for himself too, we always are willing to give him a free copy. He replied with I'll read my bible to know if the Book of Mormon was true. I could have started arguing saying "No you can't read the bible to know if the Book of Mormon is true, that's like eating pie to see if you like cake?? It just doesn't make sense." But instead I just told him the Book of Mormon has blessed my life and brought me SO MUCH HAPPINESS :) There was a lot of tension and there were a lot of members that saw me get rejected but I felt good because I know the happiness that the Book of Mormon has brought me and I shared my testimony with him. That is all we can do and then it is up to them. So we should always do our part, Testify to everyone we see! So they KNOW that we KNOW these things are true! And the spirit will touch their hearts :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Thank you for your support and for reading these letters! I hope I don't sound to crazy :) I really do hope you learn something from what I write and that you are all trying to become more like our Savior everyday! Stay safe and warm :)

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy

Happy Halloween :)

What are everyone's plans for Halloween? I love Holidays! So apparently we aren't allowed to go trick or treating though, so that was a shock! We have to be in by 6pm, just because it's not super productive to be out and it could possibly be dangerous. I know the missionaries that serve in the actual inner city Detroit have to be in all day Wednesday and Thursday. But I'm a lot safer, so no need to worry :)

Any pictures of Conner as Peter Pan? Did you wear tights?!?! :) Hope you don't even need to dress up to be a Ninja cause you already are one!! Kimball you'll be an awesome Robin Hood too! Oh and wait to go Hope for winning a soccer game, I bet Mitchell didn't think she would say it, did he?! :)

So like I sent in my last email, I have a new companion :) Her name is Sister Fisher and she is from Canada, she's from British Columbia, near Vancouver. I really like her, we have fun together so far! So Monday Sis. Williams said goodbye to everyone, including Nancie, which was SUPER hard! I am not looking forward to the day I have to say goodbye to her :( Tuesday was transfers! I love getting to see everyone again...especially Sister Graham!

So this week we had a couple things happen which slowed the work a little bit... #1 Our phone stopped working, so we had to go to a sprint store to see what was going on.. I don't know how missionaries did anything without phones, We save soooo much time by having phones! #2 When I was backing out of a chopped up parking spot, I took off the right side of our bumper :( Sister Fisher came over and was like "You just took off the whole front of the car," I thought she was joking, so I was just laughing, and apparently she was telling the truth. I would be the one who hurts the car my first week of driving! Anyways we drove around trying to find someone who could help us put it back in and one of our Less-Active's sons was able to. So I'm pretty sure Sister Fisher is probably telling her family right now she has a CRAZY companion who breaks everything she touches :) Just Kidding, everything's good now, just some random stuff :)

So Highlight of the week.... We had a general authority come to our mission! Elder Carlson and his wife are really sweet people! So you got the pictures? No we didn't get to go to the temple, but the stake center is right next to the temple, so I get to see it every time we have meetings!! Anyways our meeting was focused on what we can do to become more Consecrated missionaries! It was really great to be instructed from Elder Carlson! I know that he is called of God, and his wife is pretty great as well! We discussed how being consecrated is a process and not just one step! It involves us not just doing good but to GIVE our HEARTS! We all had to prepare a 2 minute talk and then he chose a couple to speak. One sister straight up told us she didn't prepare one because she didn't think she would be called. It made me start to think about being called upon. We need to ALWAYS be prepared because we never know when the Lord will call upon us! I know that I have been called of God to be a missionary here in Detroit, Michigan! And every single thing I have learned before I came out here has prepared me for this calling! So if we looked at our callings kind of like be called on to give a talk, if we KNOW we are going to be called on WE WILL PREPARE! Well, we are all called on everyday to help build the kingdom of God! It may be a specific ward calling, it may be an act of service, or it may be sharing the gospel, but we all have been called! So as I'm thinking about this, President Gerber then says they are going to call a few missionaries up to bare their testimonies, and guess who gets called?! Yep, I do! It's funny how as a missionary I bare my testimony EVERY DAY! But when it comes to baring my testimony in front of All the missionaries, and President and Sister Gerber, and then on top of that a General Authority, the sweat starts to come! It was a great experience for me though and I had been feeling the spirit very strong, so I was glad I could share my feelings with everyone! In the talk I had prepared I had thought about sharing Omni 1:26. In this verse we are asked to offer our whole souls as an offering to the Lord. I had started thinking of what I have sacrificed to be on a mission, and there are things I have given up but really EVERYTHING that we have is really the Lord's! Everything except our will and our heart and that is what we are to offer to him! We can go and do what we are told to do but to really consecrate ourselves we have offer our whole souls! We have to offer our hearts and our will! We discussed Matthew 25, and the parable of the sheeps and goats. But we mainly focused on what the King had told the righteous. He shares how much charity was given and the righteous respond with questions of when they had showed this charity. Their nature had truly been changed that they hadn't even noticed their actions, it was just a part of who they were! I know as we try to change our hearts and our will and our nature, that the Lord will be pleased with us! Elder Oaks tells us we need to ACT and THINK as to become converted! Sometimes I feel like I'm slowly progressing but it's great to know that as long as we try better each week, the Lord is proud of us!

I Love you all so much! Thank you for your letters and prayers! They always make me smile! :) Stay safe and have a fun Halloween!

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy :)

Picking Apples :)

PICTURES!!! :)

Sometimes when we get home at the end of the night, this is what we do!

We were so excited we got the bike rack on by ourselves :)

We Love our bikes!

 

Cider Mill pictures....

Cedar Mills.... 

Picking Raspberries at the Cider Mill, YUMMY :)

St. Clair Lake, I loved being close to water :)

And this is just a cool snail I carried around with me, because I was so fascinated by it!!

The night we went to "I'm a Mormon" devotional and I saw Sister Graham :)

This is Sis. Williams and I in our morning study at the dock we love :)

Sis. Preiss....we went to the park for lunch and it was lots of fun!

Doing service for our member, we pulled these out of the ground, but they thought I was really strong and made me take a picture :)

And yep I'm a sinner ;)

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We should build a tree house!!!

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Sister Sorenson, Me, and Sister Frost on exchanges!

My District and...

one of the cakes we made!

Sister Williams and I with Nancie and her awesome shirt :)

Sister Williams one year mark

Us with Sister Lamers, our recent convert, the night we went to I'm a Mormon devotional and I saw Sister Graham :)

Our cute Senior Couple from Idaho the Croffs, who went home :( We'll miss them a lot!

We went to Bloomfield last Monday to visit the Mayo's and we spent some time with the Bloomfield Sisters who I just LOVE! Me, Sister Merrill and Sister Lundgren, and Sister Williams :) 

Brother and Sister Mayo, two of my favorite people

Clothing DRIVE!!!!!

Davis Family in the ward

Transfer #3!!!

Hello Family!

Sounds like a fantastic weekend you all had!! Send me some pictures if you took any!!

Yep, I'm staying another transfer here in North Shores!! Sister Williams is leaving so I will be getting another companion tomorrow... I'm actually SUPER EXCITED! I love getting to serve with different sisters and learning new things. President asked me if I will be the senior companion, so I hope I know what I'm doing :) Just kidding, it will be great! Real quick though, please send packages to the mission office which is: 

33505 State St. Suite 101

Farmington, MI 48335 

Just because our mail gets here at 12:30 and we aren't home and then it just sits outside our door, and I don't really trust our neighbors. So yeah thank you! THANKS SO MUCH for the package!!!!!!! I REALLY LOVED IT!!!!! I promise I will be using everything in it! 

Monday we saw the Mayo's. Their house is seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen! I will have to bring you here and show you sometime! She is the most creative person ever! Her house seriously could come straight out of a magazine!  Nancie was able to come to a baptism on Sunday and she cried through the whole thing! She loved it and felt the spirit so strong! She loved how personal it was, unlike hers in the Penacostle Church where people just lined up to get baptized one after another. Afterwards we all told her how excited we are for when she will have this experience and she just nodded and agreed! I don't know when but she is going to get baptized! I feel a little impatient but I just want her to receive the blessings that come so bad! You will all HAVE to meet her someday! I promise she will change your life because I know she's changed mine!!!! 

Nicolle came to church for the first time! We got her a couple skirts from the clothing drive so she had no excuse to not come :) She is progressing so much and her dad keeps telling us how he loves the great example we are to her! Now we just need to spread our example to him a little bit :)

Thursday we had exchanges and I went down to Belle Isle again! I LOVE it there! Let's face it I LOVE It everywhere!! 

Friday and Saturday we had the clothing Drive and there were SOOOO many clothes! It was so amazing to see so many people in need come in and just get free clothes. I know we helped hundreds of families!! People were so happy and grateful for all that we were giving them! Many of these people are homeless, or women and children who are abused, families with no jobs and needing winter coats and boots for their little children. My heart was so soft towards these people and I was able to share my testimony of how the gospel REALLY brings Happiness and peace in my life! We have never taught so many lessons. I LOVE SERVICE and I love showing others how they can find happiness! Nothing makes you feel better than helping others! 

I think I have shared this with you before but I have REALLY come to LOVE the strippling warriors! As I was reading about them this week this verse really stood out to me "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith It was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." I love where it says they obeyed with EXACTNESS! As missionaries something we always hear is obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles! I KNOW this is TRUE!! Lots of missionaries take the white handbook and bend it saying "It's flexible". I have heard missionaries doing some crazy things and what it comes down to is what kind of miracles do they want to see. The strippling warriors had an incredible miracle of "not one soul of them falling" Their lives were all spared and they had never even fought before! We all have agency and God is a very just God. We reap what we sow. Elder Holland even shares that we will reap even greater than what we sow. So if that's the case we better sow something great and then in return we will reap something FANTASTIC! I know when we try our best and are obedient to what our Heavenly Father has told us to do we will be incredibly blessed! (Thanks Mom for teaching me!! ) 

I love you all so much! Have a safe week!

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy :) 

3 Months!! Greenie no more :)

Dear Family,

 

Thank you for your emails each week! I always look forward to reading them! It kind of feels like Christmas everytime I get a letter and they make me SMILE :) I'm glad to hear it's been a good week for everyone! Conner, I hope you had a great first date! Remember to always be the gentlemen you are, I sure miss you!!!! Hope, it sounds like you were quite the soccer player! Keep up the hard work, and when I get home you'll probably be so good, you'll be famous!!! Where is Mitchell living? The performance you went to sounds pretty great! You'll have to show me his songs when I get back!

 

So I have almost hit my 3 month mark! That doesn't seem like very long, but I sometimes forget what it's like to not be a missionary! I just love it so much!!! I don't have too long since we are in a hurry today. We are going to Bloomfield (Sister Williams first area) to visit Sis. Mayo (the sister who took us to Greenfield Village). We get to see her every Sunday and she is so Amazing! I'm excited to get to spend our day with her!

 

This week we really tried to Talk to more people. Just like Elder Ballard talked about in his talk, if we want to teach more people, we have to talk to more people. We sometimes find difficulty finding people who are interested but all we can do is invite and show them how happy the gospel makes us!!! While walking this week we had a cop pull us over. He started questioning us, and we showed him our certificates for the church. It was so cool to be able to hold that power of authority in my hands! And just having President Monson's signature in my hands brings so much power as well! So because of the push of member missionary work our ward is doing AMAZING at asking their neighbors and friends. I've started to feel the pressure in being able to show the members I'm working hard too! I realized how much trust the Lord has in me and how much of a desire I have to make him proud! I know that evertime we invite someone to come closer to Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ are proud of us!

 

So Nancie update.. She LOVED Conference and told us she KNOWS the Book of Mormon is True, she KNOWS that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and she KNOWS that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and she told us she KNOWS this is the TRUE CHURCH! Monday she told us she feels like something is missing and she keeps praying about it. I know what she feels is missing is the gift of the holy ghost and can only recieve that gift after she is baptized and confirmed! Anyways in the middle of the night she woke up and said Heavenly Father had answered her prayer, and told her she needed to let go of the past. The first thing she thought of was that she hadn't talked to her pastor and gotten is approval, she told us this and in my head I was like "NO!!!" We talked with her about what she may need to let go of, and how fear is what holds us from moving forward. We bore our testimonies of how with the gift of the Holy Ghost, there is no need to fear, because TRUE JOY lies ahead of her! She was able to talk to President Gerber and at church she just said, I HAVE to get baptized! So I guess we'll see when she will! She just needs to let go of her fear. I've really had to exercise patience, I know everything is on God's timing, but sometimes I just want things to happen NOW. I guess that is just my imperfection showing. I just know how happy the gospel of Jesus Christ can make EVERYONE and I just feel like Lehi beckoning his loved ones to partake of the fruit, but he sees those (like Laman and Lemuel) go elsewhere. He knows it will make them happy but they chose against it. I'm sure Heavenly Father feels the same way sometimes, he knows what will make us happy but we often go the opposite way.

 

We had interviews with President Gerber this week and I really just love him so much! It's such a comforting feeling when you can feel someone's love for you just through their handshake! He is a great leader and Sister Gerber as well is on the most amazing women I've ever met! Just know that the missionaries here are in good hands!

 

I have truly come to love this area I am in!! All of the members, less-actives, investigators, and strangers I meet on the street I JUST LOVE THEM! This is the last week of the trasfer so I'll find out Saturday night, whether I will continue to serve here or not. No matter what happens I will go where the Lord wants me to go, but I truly will ALWAYS Love the people here!

 

One last quick thought. I've been reading Alma with all of the wars going on. I really LOVE Moroni! He is such a great leader for his people!! As Amalikiah leads the Lamanites to attack, they get there and they see how strong their people have become. Then Amalikiah says, ok let's attack the weak land that they have, but when they get there, they see that it is not weak any longer but actually REALLY STRONG! Before the Lamanites had come, Moroni had been making preparations. He had his people put on their armor and fortify their land. I love how he especially makes the weak areas the strongest! In our lives we need to CONSTANTLY be  preparing ourselves and become spiritually STRONG! If we don't we will not be able to fight against the trials that come our way! Make sure you are putting your armor on and finding out what your weaknesses are, so you can make them strong, because that is where satan will want to target! He knows our weaknesses too but we don't have to let our weaknesses stay weak forever!

 

I'm so grateful for all of you and the examples that you are to me! I know you are strong and continue to stay strong by doing the fundamentals that keep us safe! Never miss a prayer!! Always read scriptures together as a family and as individuals! And try your hardest to never miss church (all of your meetings)!  I love you all so much and have a fantastic week!!

 

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy

October 7, 2013

Family!!!

WOW!! Conner is going on a date!! That is so crazy to me! Conner make sure she's a good one and that she knows her own individual worth :) And take lots of pictures for me :) 

Didn't you just Love General Conference!!! I love our prophets and church leaders! They are truly amazing men and women and are truly inspired in the things they say! It was neat, all of the questions I wanted answered for myself and for people in my area WERE answered! I think it is important to always remember these talks that were given to us! I was reading a talk by Pres. Uchtdorf and this is the story he shared. 

"A fine member of the Church was talking with a neighbor who was not of our faith. When the topic of discussion turned to general conference, the neighbor asked, “You say you have prophets and apostles? And twice a year in a worldwide conference they reveal the word of God?”
“Absolutely,” the member replied with confidence.
The neighbor thought about that for a moment. He seemed genuinely interested and then asked, “What did they say in the last general conference?”
At this point the good member of the Church went from feeling excited about sharing the gospel to feeling embarrassed. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of the details of a single talk.
His friend found this troubling and said, “You mean to tell me that God speaks to man in our day and you can’t remember what He said?” 

I thought this was a great story to remind us of how important the general conference talks are! The words that are said are truly the word of God and just like Elder Hales shared in his talk on Sat. Morning. most of the things we learn from conference are after the conference is finished. I'm excited to study the talks even deeper!!! (So maybe you could order another Ensign next month and send it to me!) I would love to have these talks, we can only print so much paper and are limited on our computer time.  Conference was definitely the highlight of our week, but I did have some other great things happen this week! 

This week we had a less active find out she didn't have cancer, so YAY for her!! We were able to have our 2 most solid investigators both watch General Conference, so Yay again!! We actually had a really great lesson with Nancie before conference about prophets. We watched "On the Lord's errand" Which is a great movie on Thomas S. Monson! The spirit was so strong in the room and she told us how she felt chills so strongly when he was praying! She told us she Knew she would recieve her answer of when she was to be baptized at General Conference. Then when we watched Conference with her on Sunday morning she was crying as President Monson stood up to the pulpit and spoke! I could see the excitement in her eyes as she realized that this man is a prophet of God and how much love he has for each and every one of us! IT WAS SO COOL! 

Tuesday we had exchanges and Sister Decker came to North Shores with me :) It was fun!! We had Lunch with Sister Preiss by the Lake! There are a lot of trees here and especially being so close to the lake makes the leaves just look so Beautiful!!! I Love it! I love Sis. Decker too! She's so crazy busy being Sister Training leader! We have 47 sisters, I think, and only 4 Sister Training Leaders. So she is pretty busy! Seeing all of the things she has to do, made me then think of the other leaders like our Zone Leaders, Assistants, President and Sister Gerber, and then Bishops and Stake Presidencies and even more the Apostles, and Prophet! They have such a huge responsibility and are probably SO overwhelmed with the things they have to do! Seeing these leaders accomplish their work is a testimony to me that the Lord is on their side! But we ALL have different responsibilities and life can seem like too much sometimes! No matter how much we have to do and how overwhelmed we are, it can and WILL be done when we Trust in the Lord!!! I have come to LOVE this scripture "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever," Alma 26:12.  We are completely weak and we need to recognize that everything we do is because of the strength of the Lord! I have learned how I think I can do it all but especially after conference, I've had to humble myself, become meek, and remember to put my trust completely in the Lord! What a great feeling to know we can do ANYTHING with the lord on our side! But that when we forget to exercise our faith, we can't progress (Alma 37:41, Look it up :)) Don't forget to exercise our faith and Trust in the Lord, because I know that when I have, miracles have ceased, and I stop progressing!  

I love you lots! Sorry for the rants, I just really love the Gospel and am learning so much as I study and pray EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I LOVE YOU!! 

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy :)
P.S. Grandpa, Happy BIrthday!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!

Dear Family,

This week was a good one!! We went to visit a less-active and talked to his wife, who is not a member of the church. She actually seems really interested and doesn't know very much. She told us she will start to read the Book of Mormon and we set up a time to come see her this week! She's from Mexico and gave us lots of different Mexican candies. The flavors they put together are so strange, spicy and sweet and salty all in one candy.... Kinda strange. (Mitchell did you like Brazilian candy? Was it similar to what mexican candy is like?)

So Thursday was a great day! It was Sis. Williams one year mark, so that was fun! We were able to talk about baptism with one of our younger investigators and she told us she wants to be Baptized!! The feeling of having an investigator say they want to be baptized is probably the best feeling anyone could ever feel! (I'm guessing it is even greater when they actually get baptized though) :) 

Anyways our recent convert Sis. Lamers, who I love with all my heart, drove us to our I'm a Mormon Devotional. She is one of my favorite people ever! She could probably go at least 2 hours of talking without taking a breath :) She Loves to treat us! She always sends us home with apples and caramel, or jello, or this time licorice. And she always stressed about us staying safe and giving her calls if we need help. And she loves telling her conversion story. Her mother's financial advisor invited her to a Christmas program, One Night in Bethlehem. She came and in her words "that spirit hit me so hard I bout fell over) She got baptized in July anyways she tells everyone her story and even tells us every time we see her :) She is just the Best! So she drove us to Livonia and also took us to dinner. So we were a few minutes late and the only spot left to sit was in the front, so we get up there and guess who is sitting write in front of me.... Sister Graham!!!!!! It was so hard to concentrate!!!! After we just kept hugging and it was a pretty great reunion! I love her so much! She is doing just awesome!!

This week I finally had my first prayer circle out tracting.. All the missionaries say they have prayer circles all the time, so I was pretty excited to have my first! And we were able to go to a member's home to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast! It was very good!! It made me think about the covenants I have made and how I am keeping those and what I can do to improve! Covenants really are so important and as long as we keep our end, the blessings we are promised are so Great!!!

Yesterday at church we taught on the Word of Wisdom and Nancie was bragging that she hadn't had coffee since we first taught her the WOW. Then 3rd hour was all about missionary work. Our ward mission leader shared his experience of setting a date to have found someone to meet with the missionaries, and how he wanted to be that inspiration for the ward. He shared the success that he had with his coworker and the spirit was really strong. Sis. Williams and I talked about concerns that the members have with inviting people to learn about the gospel. One sister raised her hand and said her concern. She said how she loves the gospel so much and it is so much a part of her, that sharing the gospel with someone and having them reject, would be like them rejecting her. I think that is a concern a lot of members may have. They are afraid of rejection, but we can NOT be afraid. We have to think about how much we love it and how we want to share it with EVERYONE we love. I've never realized how sharing the gospel is a commandment. In D&C 60: 2 "But with some I am not well please, for they will not open their mouths," If anything I'm learning how I need to be a missionary for the rest of my life. I don't want Heavenly Father to not be pleased in me. Anyways I really just love Missionary work and am really passionate about it :) So I hope you are all doing what you should be doing, and making missionary work part of your everyday lives! If you have any neat experiences let me know :)

Oh and I only have one more chapter left of Exodus!!! Slowly but surely I will read the whole old testament, I slacked off before my mission, but no more :)

Well I have to go but I love you lots!! One last thing is when Christ comes to the Americas in 3 Nephi Chapter 17, he tells the people this "Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again." Christ tells the people they need to prepare to hear the words that are going to be said! I know that this is the same thing we have to do with ourselves for General Conference! Make sure you are preparing to hear the words of our prophet and leaders! If we don't prepare ourselves, we will not understand what Heavenly Father wants us to know! Now get excited cause it's one of the best times of the year!!!

I Love you lots, Hope you are all doing well!!!! Love, Sister Tracy

P.S. I'll send Pictures next week :)

Hey family!!!

I'm glad you all had a fun week! Happy Birthday again to Conner and Kimball! I love you both and I hope you got my presents. Sad to hear about BYU losing... Oh well I guess there are more important things in life ;) I always loved this time of year with the kids playing their games! Send me some pictures of Hope and the boys with their teams! (Hope, I know you are probably the best soccer player on the field, Keep it Up ) We have a new YW presidency! That's big news! I know the new presidency will do well. My leaders had a huge impact on me in helping me become who I am today and I Love them to pieces! It's cool how much of an affect the Leaders of the youth have and I was blessed to have some of the best!

So this week we went to a cider mill and it was a lot of fun!! We picked raspberries and got pumpkins. We had a member take us and it we got some homemade cider. It really is good and the orchards are just HUGE!! It's kind of the thing to do here in Michigan. We drink cider, and eat doughnuts, and walk around, and there's music playing. They also have a haunted house, but we apparently aren't allowed to go in those.... Who would have thought? :)

We had some great things happen this week with less-actives. Sometimes it doesn't seem like we are making a difference but we heard some of their testimonies and how by us visiting them they have started to feel that spirit again in their lives that they have been missing. We were able to have a few of them say the prayer with us (which they have always refused to pray). It was really exciting! Prayer shows that we love our heavenly father and trust him and believe in him!

We had a neat experience as we were biking again. We saw this lady out on the porch taking a smoke break, so we went and talked to her. She works at a group home and loves to read. We shared our testimonies of the gospel and we told her she should get the Book of Mormon on her kindle (because she LOVES to read). She told us how her parents both were diagnosed with cancer and her grandmother just passed away. She said when she see's butterfly's it is her grandmother helping her through life. As we were talking, a butterfly flew up and she told us that this was no coincidence, that it had to be a sign. It was really neat! And we will talk with her again soon :)

Tuesday we had Zone Conference which is always great!! We really focused on the WHY behind everything we do. Why do we read our scriptures, why do we pray, why do we go to church? Think about your lives and why we do these things. First of all we are commanded to do these things and the blessings that come are AMAZING!!! There's a newer Mormon message called Daily Bread. It talks about how the people of Israel had to gather manna and how we need daily sustenance. If we don't feed ourselves our bodies will die. It is the same thing with our spirits. They need to be "fed" daily. We need to read our scriptures and pray EVERY day. When we don't we are killing our spirits. We need to remember if we want to be strong we have to think of the necessities, which are these little things that keep us alive, CPR (church, pray, read). We also had a great talk by our Stake President. We talked about how we are afraid to fail. The truth is that if we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and his atonement, There is NO NEED to be AFRAID to FAIL! We know that our Savior has died for us and it is because of his grace and power that we can fail. We will fail and we do fail everyday. But this failure is part of God's plan. When we fail we are able to learn from those failures and become better. The important thing to remember is to LEARN from our failures. We have to LEARN, then APPLY, then LIVE and BECOME! I'm so grateful for my Savior and the opportunity I do have to become like him and our Father in Heaven. Let us NEVER forget the gift we have been given to become!

I Love you all so much!!! Hope you are all doing well! Stay Safe and always do your best! I pray for you and think about how lucky I am to have you in my life :) Talk to you next week!

Love Always, Sister Tracy

Hey there family,

 I can't believe Jet is gone! I'm really sad I didn't say goodbye to him! Nancie's cat got ran over as well this week. Seeing any animal in pain is not a fun thing. I liked how Dad compared the situation to when our Heavenly Father sees us in pain. He is sad when we are hurting, and especially when we are hurting because of a decision we made (like being disobedient). I know our Heavenly Father really loves us and that's why he has given us so much! He wants us to be happy and to be able to "run around". And he tells us what we must do to be happy! " And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." - Mosiah 2: 41. It's so comforting to know where we can find NEVER-ENDING HAPPINESS!! We just have to be faithful and keep the commandments! It sounds so easy and it is! But it does take constant action, we can't give up!

Well at least this week will be happy with Conner and Kimball's Birthdays!!!! Happy Birthday to both of you!!!!!! I love you both so much and am sad I'm missing this day with you but I know that you will have an AWESOME day!! Conner, I can't believe you are 16!!!!! That is so crazy, remember to drive safely :) And I need to approve all girls that you date :) Haha Kimball, you are getting so old as well! Don't grow up too fast! I want you to still be my little brother when I get home :) Let me know how both of your days go!

So this week we can definetly see fall! The leaves are starting to change colors, and their have been some pretty great rain storms here as well! It's getting a little bit chilly, and I'm wishing I would have been a little more prepared :) I guess that is what happens sometimes in life. We don't prepare as well as we need to and then we later regret it and wish we could go back. It reminds of the 10 virgins. The 5 that were not prepared with their oil, had to hurry and go get some, and they missed the bridegroom. In the gospel, with our testimonies, we need to be preparing them now! We can't procrastinate because when the time comes we want to be ready, with a strong and firm testimony of the gospel!! We have to prepare everyday by the things that you are doing now. Like studying scriptures, praying, attending our church meeting, serving, and Loving everyone. We add oil to our lamps everytime we try to be more like Christ!

So our ward mission leader had set a date to have found someone who accepted the missionary discussions for August 30th. And he really did! So on Saturday night we went over to their house to teach them. It was a pretty interesting night. The man is one of his coworkers and then his wife was coming as well. They were 3 hours late though. So we were crunched on time. The lesson didn't go as smoothly as we would have hoped. Anytime someone testified of the truth, the spirit was SO strong!!! However I did notice that our ward mission leader was so excited to tell him EVERYTHING, that things were a little scattered and all over the place. I've come to realize that when we share the gospel, we don't and can't share everything all at once. It's like this example of cake when we share the gospel. If I had a giant cake that was frosted all beautifully, I wouldn't need to explain the molecular structure of the cake for you to enjoy it, right? Sometimes when we share the gospel, we need to just give the very basics or the things that are going to matter most to them. We just need to make sure we are displaying it well and making the "cake" look good (by living what believe and being good examples) and then letting them taste it for themselves (by reading The Book of Mormon and by coming to church.) All of those little details, we have been learning our whole lives! And we can't expect to teach them in so little time! So now go give people some cake :)

This week we had a neat experience! We had stopped by a few houses but no one was home, so we decided to stop by at some members homes. On our way over we felt like we should stop and tract this specific street. So we knocked on a few doors but no one was interested. As we started walking back to our car, we saw this young man walking towards us. We stopped and talked to him and shared our message with him. His mom had just passed away in May and we told him of the comfort that he can find in our gospel and throughout the Book of Mormon. At first, it seemed like everything was going wrong but Heavenly Father led us to this specific street to meet this boy. When we are doing the things we know we should be doing, and putting our faith and trust in the Lord, he will lead us to where we need to be! And often times we get discouraged because it is not what we THINK should be happening, but what our Heavenly Father KNOWS should be happening. I just love experiences like these, they are really humbling. I guess I really don't know everything :)

I love you lots!! Hope school and work is going well! Glad to know football season going pretty good! I pray for you all everyday! That's a whole 2 months of prayers :) 

Love you, Sister Tracy

P.S. Conner and Kimball I sent a package last Wednesday so you should be gettting it soon! 

Hello Everyone :)

Happy Labor Day! I'm glad to here you are all doing well! Sounds like Mom and Dad had a super fun trip! Maybe you flew over my head :) Sad to hear about all the games that were lost. Don't these teams know winning is the only important thing in life! :) Just kidding! Is the whole family doing fantasy football again? Let me know who wins :) How's school? work? life? Also tell the ward I love them and miss them :)

So we had some cool things happen this week! We have 3 new investigators and our less-actives are all super close to coming back to church! On Tuesday we had a new missionary training which was really fun to see Everyone from the MTC! I seriously just love them all soo much! We had some really great training from president and from our assistants. After our training we had so much motivation we decided to go trackting. So it's raining and we are having doors slammed in our faces and we are just smiling because it was just such a good day :) Anyways we knock on this door and this man starts talking to us, I started talking about Joseph Smith and he stops me and tells me that is his name! Yeah crazy... We Found Joseph Smith! Haha But we have an appointment with him on Wednesday to teach him more so that's pretty cool :)

On last Sunday we were visiting a member family and after we asked if there was anything we could do for them, she told us she actually just had a speaker at there Youth Standards Night cancel so she asked us to fill in. So on Wednesday we taught the young women about friends and education. It was fun to spend time with the young women, they are so funny. I hope I was not that immature though.....I probably was :)

So this week we ran out of our car miles, so the last 4 days we were kind of sitting ducks. On Thursday we had a few rides to places but we mostly just walked. Nancie told us that she threw away her coffee pot, she said there is no reason to have it in the house, because we are commanded to not drink coffee. She is seriously like the prime investigator ever! We visited Zanaya (the 12 year old girl we met last week). She was asking all sorts of crazy questions and throwing bible versus at us. Who would have thought the hardest investigator we would have would be 12. We just told her that the only way she can know if what we are teaching her is true is to pray and ask God. I love how strong the spirit is when we testify of prayer. Our Heavenly Father really is listening to our prayers, and he always answers us! That night was pretty crazy. So we had gotten a ride with a less active home and guess who left the phone in their car?! Yep, it was me! I guess I really haven't changed that much :) Haha anyways the elders we supposed to be meeting us. They rode their bikes to us, just to give us blessings in the dark. They left their bikes with us, so we wouldn't have to walk and then called to get a ride home. We have the best elders here! It is so neat to see elders who are so selfless and honor their priesthood. I just love them!!

We visited a less active on her birthday and she started crying and told us how we love her more than her very own family. I've really learned so much about love and how much it really means to people! I will forever LOVE this woman with all my heart!! This week will be week 6 which means transfers are next Tuesday. I really just love this area so much, so I'm guessing I will stay :) There are only 3 sisters coming out (one of them being Sister Graham!!) I want to go to transfers just to see her :)

On Friday Night we got a call from Nancie and she was in tears. She told us she was going to be cancelling the baptism but wouldn't tell us why. We got a ride over there and it got pretty intense. Her husband, who has been pretty supportive for the last 2 months, all of a sudden told her he doesn't want her to get baptized, that if she gets baptized she won't even be his wife. We were just standing in the middle of them, while they were yelling at each other and we weren't quite sure what to say or do. He finally just grabbed some beer and left for a walk. We asked if she wanted a blessing and I've never seen so much fear in someone's eyes. We were scared to leave her alone. We just prayed all night for her safety. It makes me so sad for the women, who are scared of their husbands. She has such a strong testimony and we are still planning for her baptism to be this Saturday at 10 am. But we can't put her in danger either, so that's been kind of tricky. Please keep her in your prayers. She really is truly amazing!!

Riding bikes this week was lots of fun!! The looks we got were priceless :) Also skirts and bikes are not meant to join together.... So one of the highlights of our week could have been being pulled over by a cop on our bikes :) Haha we had seen a member from our ward and he had pulled over to talk to us. The cop came, with back up, just to make sure we were alright. It was pretty funny "Why were you talking to that man?" "How do you know him?" Anyways just know the cops are looking out for us :)

We studied a lot about gratitude this week! When we stop and look at what the Lord gives us everyday, we realize we have SOOO Much! The important thing is to express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father! Everything we have is from our Heavenly Father and he asks us to thank him! In the story of the 10 lepers, let us be the ones who go back and thank our savior for healing us. He is always healing us and giving us strength and it is so important we thank him every single day!!! Look at your blessings, look at the specific details of your life, be grateful for what you have, and stop complaining, Because you are Blessed! Now go express your gratitude to your Heavenly Father!!

I Love you all so much! Study the scriptures, they bring happiness and help in times of trial! Pray always, heavenly father wants to hear from you and he gives us strength. Be grateful and serve always! We are so blessed and we need to be serving others :) Thank you for all you have done for me! I know I would not be where I am without all of you! I pray for you and thank Heavenly Father for blessing me with such amazingfamily and friends!

Love you all more than a vanilla ice cream cone :)

Love, Sister Samantha Tracy

P.S. My ward mission leader was just being funny, so we all took a picture of him :)