The Rains came down and the Floods came up!

They were Baptized!!! Tracey Kimberly and Samantha got baptized last Thursday, it was totally awesome! I will send some pictures.=20

So, I have had a couple of close calls this last week with all the rain that we have been getting. We have gotten over 8 inches of rain in the past 3-4 days. I have never seen so much rain in all my life!=20

The next two stories have material that might scare the mother and mother-in-law... or any grandmothers. This may need to be sensored for older people with heart problems. : )

Miracle 1: So anyway, we were on an exchange with a couple in the ward. It was night time and we came to a large hill that intersected with a major road at the end. As we started decending towards the stop sign, the Spirit told me, even before the driver had started braking that we were not going to be able to stop. I got a little scared and said a quick prayer in my heart that there wouldn't be any cars coming on the major road so we could stop without hurting someone else. The driver started to brake and sure enough we started to hydroplane. We ran the stop sign and as we did I looked both ways for any cars. God had answered my prayers! There were none. The car luckily came to a stop before we could run off into the ditch. I know we would have been greatly injured had we not stopped at that exact moment.=20

Miracle 2: The next morning we went down to a little town called "Irving College." This is real country. The road that we were driving on ran along side a river. Well, because of all the rain, there were portions of the road that were under water. We came to a point where we couldn't see how deep the water was. I figured that it couldn't be more than a foot deep so
I told Sister Dickson to proceed. Well, it was more than a foot deep. In fact, it started coming over the hood of our car! We both started screaming and Sister Dickson started taking her foot off the accelerator. I yelled at her and told her to keep going because that was the deepest point.
So she pushed on the gas and we slowly started moving again. There was a
little island of road that we pulled to stop on. The car died. We were both shaking.

A large truck came up behind us and told us that it was only going to get worse. We tried starting our car again and a whole bunch of steam billowed out of the exhaust pipe. We let the car run for a few minutes as we tried to gather enough strength and guts to go through it again. We said a prayer, well, I never really stopped praying... and turned around. The Lord answered our prayers again. The water was not as deep when we went thru the second time. I will send some pictures of what we went through. Pretty crazy, and outright stupid... but I learned my lesson.

Well my friends, I will talk to yall next week, if I don't get washed away.=
I haven't checked to make sure our apartment has been built on a sturdy=
foundation.

Love,
The very wet,
Sister Thacker

Dear family-

What a week this has been! It has been so great seeing the hand of the Lord in the work and I know that He has blessed us abundantly in answering my prayers and bestowing His tender mercies upon us.

We witnessed a miracle this last week. The power of the priesthood is real. The girls are still getting baptized on Thursday. Any prayer that yall could offer in their behalf would be very appreciated. I have grown to love this sweet little family. It is a single mother with two girls. One is 13 and the other is 9. The 9-year-old fractured her ankle last week and will be seeing a specialist today. The mother quit smoking last week and has been going strong for a few days now. Pray for them.

We did a day of service in the community on saturday. A couple of our missionaries even got in the news paper. I am going to try to pick up a copy of it so we can save it for the scrapbook. Any good publicity for the church is greatly appreciated in the south for members. It is crazy what people hear about us. We cleaned up a historical landmark for the community called Egypt Alley. It became a dumping grounds and let me tell you it was just that. There was one area that I worked on for probably an hour that was 5-6 levels deep of beer bottles. They were all from the 50's. We did a lot of damage and it was really fun getting out and working in the sun.

Speaking of sun, it is so hot here already, just this morning as we were driving to the library, our thermometer said it was 80 degrees already. Summer seems to already be upon us here in Tennessee.

Can I just say it again!?! I LOVE being a missionary. I was thinking about how much time has flown by and it makes me a little sick. I don't want it to end. Sister Dickson and I are getting along just swimmingly. We have been working and growning together.

I love McMinnville (or as locals say 'MacMinnvll'.) Oh, and BTW: I have offically milked my first cow!

I love yall so much! Keep praying for me. God hears your prayers.

Love,

Sister Thacker

Re:

Sorry this will be really short. I have been taking care of some things and it took most of my time. Know that I love you and pray for you. Thank you for your love and prayers in my behalf. I promise a nice juicy letter next week! oh, pray for Tracey, Kimmy and Sammy Howell. They are supposed to be getting baptized next tuesday the 28th!
Love,
Sister Cassie Thacker

Hi family-
Sorry this is going to be short. I am fine. The Tornados were a little scary but all is well. 9 touched down around us but we were protected. The new area is great. I have to go. Love you all!

-Sister Thacker

Pics of your girls (from Janet)

Thank you Janet for all you have done for the girls! We've been so blessed to have you there keeping us up to date and informed! I know the Lord will bless you for all your loving kindness!

Well, dear sisters, I guess this will be the last couple of pictures I'll be sending you. These were taken Sunday evening after the baptism {the most spiritual one I have ever had the blessing to attend!!} Wish we could have bottled the spirit that was felt in the chapel that night - it was amazing and your girls were genuinely mouthpieces for the Lord as they spoke on baptism and the holy ghost {no, I'm not being partial - they did a phenomenal job}!! You can tell by the looks on their faces in these pictures that they were extremely happy...their feet are barely touching the ground.I know you're both aware that today is transfers...Sister Williams is going to my friend, Gaven Ross and his wife's home {amazing people - I have not yet met Sister Ross but I know her husband to be an awesome, strong, kind and spiritual giant of a man - so I know that she is wonderful too} in theFranklin area and Sister Thacker is going to the McMinnville area {I don't know much about that area besides it's in the sticks but I have worked with sisters from that area at Girls camp and they were amazing ladies!}. I know that your daughters will be a blessing to those areas just as they have been to this area. They will bring a sweet spirit into the hearts and homes of all who will let them enter.It was a bitter/sweet farewell this morning at the Gieseke home...my words could never express how blessed I feel to have had these wonderful sisters living here with us. They are truly amazing! They have touched hearts and spirits in this part of the vineyard in ways they will never understand or even have knowledge of. They have blessed the lives of so many with their sweet, strong spirits by their actions, their sincerity, their service, their demeanor and their bearing testimony after testimony of our Heavenly Fathers love for each of us. I don't know how you remember or think of your baby girls but they are divine witnesses of how prayer, service, love, scripture study, remaining close to the spirit & following His promptings will bless our lives, they are truly missionaries in every sense of the word and work!! I will miss catching them on their knees! I pray that they will always stay in touch with our family, that they will know that they blessed us in so many ways, and that they will always hold a special place in our hearts. Thank you sisters and your families for all you did to prepare these amazingwomen to serve our Heavenly Father in this area. We are all eternally grateful for your love and sacrifices!! I hope we will stay in touch too and if there is anything that the Gieseke family can do for you guys, please, let us know.

Love,

Janet G.

P.S. Yes, the tree is still up but the decorations on it have changed to a spring theme...I'm thinking it will stay up all year this year with an occasional face lift as the seasons change...any ideas for summer deco would be appreciated.

Conference, Baptism, and Gospel Music!

What a great week it has been! General Conference was so amazing! I loved all the talks. Do you remember that 84 year old man that proposed to me the first time I was in Mt. Juliet? Well, he came to a session of conference. I had to smile.

The most exciting thing however was that Casey was baptized! It was so great! The Spirit was so strong. Her grandmother came. She hasn't been inside a Mormon church since she was very young. She was a little apprehensive at first but as she talked with Sister Williams and I she became more comfortable. She told us afterward that she had seen us and talked with us that it made her want to come back! It was so amazing! Casey looked so pretty. The young women sang a hymn. It was one of the most Spiritual experiences I have had on my mission.

I am being transferred. By the way: Mt. Juliet has to close because there are not as many sisters coming out as there are leaving. I am going to McMinnville Tennessee. It is in the boonies. I have been told that in McMinnville there are more cows than people, and more people than teeth. I will let you know if that is true. : ) Sister Williams is going to Franklin. I am so sad to be leaving Mt. Juliet. It really does feel like home. I have spent a total of 5.5 months in this area. The ward is so awesome. The members are so faithful.

My new companion's name is Sister Dickson. She came out a transfer after me. She is from Alaska. She was my comp for about a week while Sister Lutz (her companion) was sick and in the mission home. It will be interesting serving with her, we have both changed dramatically. All prayers are certainly appreciated. : )

For a service project in Mt Juliet for the past couple of weeks we have been helping a rest-home choir with piano accompaniment and singing. It has been a great missionary opportunity because we sang some songs from our Hymn book in their Easter Program and many of the workers asked us what church we were from. I LOVE old people. I have forgotten just how much I love them since I lived with Grandpa and had my other grandparents with me. I became especially fond of a little woman name Lorainne. I will send some pictures of her. She is the one with the walker in front of her. (P.S. I know I am wearing robes with crosses on them. I figured it would be ok for 30 minutes with the compared amount of opportunities to share the restored gospel afterwards.)

Well, that is all for now. I love yall so much.

Love,

Sister Thacker

Our God is an Awesome God... : )

This last week was flippin awesome! Casey is still getting baptized on the 5th. Pray for her and her family. There were a lot of Less Active members that we have been working with at church on Sunday! I tell you what, it is almost more exciting when a less-active member darkens the door to the church than when someone comes for the first time.
Lots of missionaries have been working with the Selby Family over the last year. They are the sweetest family I have ever met. The Spirit is very strong in their home even though only the father is a member. He came to church on Sunday and bore his testimony for the first time. Sister Williams and I cried and cried. We were so happy! I love that family so much.
Another man that was baptized a year ago November got up and bore his testimony for the first time. His wife has been a faithful member of the church for 22 years and never dreamed that her husband would join. He grew up Catholic and has Italian blood in him. It was one of the most sincere testimonies that I have ever heard. He got up and said that he would never say anything or testify of anything that he didn't know was true. In his testimony he thanked the ward for all that they have done for his family over the last several years. He said that he didn't have a testimony of many things in the church, but he knew that we were the most Christ like people that he had ever known. Of course we cried.
The South has been so good for me. It is interesting how every mission varies. There is difficulty in every form in the varying missions around the world. In the South, you have to KNOW the gospel: both in your heart and in your head. Every little piece that we teach is picked apart by the scholars and Christians that I run into daily. It is teaching me to know my religion. I have a much firmer testimony of the things that I knew in my heart before I came. I know that all the truth was restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith in the 1800s. I know that this is Christ's Church just as he set it up on the earth! We have the fullness. I am pretty sure that I will be crying again at General Conference this weekend. It is so great to see so many that I know believe the same things that we teach everyday. There is so much strength, the Spirit is so strong. I never knew what I had; funny how that is always the way.
I love yall!
-Sister Thacker