“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.” -2 Timothy 2:1-4,10-11

‘We are all enlisted till the conflict is over, happy are we!’ We are soldiers of Christ who have been called to fight against darkness and evil for truth and righteousness sake! There is nothing as great as being called and set apart by Gods authority to join Him in the work of salvation! I feel blessed and honored beyond words, truly! Each day is filled with growth, learning and love! I so adore waking up and getting into the scriptures. It is a well of wisdom! It is an illuminating light! It is a delicious feast! It is the armor of God that prepares us for the day! I love the scripture in Ephesians that says ‘put on the whole armor of God.’ It has been a huge protection in my life! I really must tribute that protection to my sweet mother who showed me how to love the scriptures, who showed me how to put on that armor. She is an absolute angel and I love her! Yesterday, I was reflecting on the story of the two thousand stripling warriors. It is a wonderful story and I hope you will take a moment to read the verses below:

“Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it. 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. And now behold, it was these my sons, and those men who had been selected to convey the prisoners, to whom we owe this great victory; for it was they who did beat the Lamanites; therefore they were driven back to the city of Manti. But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength.”   -Alma 56, 57

I know that motherhood is a calling from God! I so admire mothers and am preparing now to become the best mother I can be in the DISTANT future. I often think of all my mother has done for me and her incredible example of charity, patience, hard work, selfless service, understanding, faith and knowledge! I feel so grateful to have Sandy Lee Thurgood Folkman as my mom and just as blessed to have Trudy Thurgood and Donna Folkman as my sweet grandmothers and Ruby Spear as my great grandmother and all the other mothers that have guided me to Christ! I love them with my WHOLE SOUL and feel of their constant love and prayers. Those prayers have resulted in incredible miracles this week! I will do a quick update on a few wonderful people the Lord has placed in my life!

Jim- Received the Priesthood this week and is doing awesome! Rocking his cat shirts as always.

Christy and Jada- getting far in the Book of Mormon! They are so sensitive to the spirit and looking forward to baptism! ❤

Phillip- progressing beautifully in his prayers and love of the Savior! He has taught me so much and I love him! We are going to his house after this with the Jenkins (senior missionary couple) to make Norwegian waffles and feast and look through all his film photos in Germany!

VACAS! Doing awesome! We painted a tree of life painting for little Bradly. It was hard to say goodbye.

Eve- This incredible girl we started teaching! She is 17 and her parents are LDS. Her step dad was baptized a year ago and she has been thinking about it ever since and it is her first time meeting with the missionaries for herself, so it is a big step for her! She is learning so quickly and loved church yesterday! She has been through a lot in life, but keeps her faith in God! I loveeeeee Eve!!!!

Pace- Jelly and Angelica are two young teenage girls that were baptized a couple years back and haven’t been back to church in a year or so. When we first got here, they wouldn’t even let us teach them at all and wanted nothing to do with the church. We did a fast for them and now they’ve been welcoming us in their home and really progressing and their mother has started to learn more too! AHHH!!!

That is all for now. I will be going to Albany on Wednesday to serve there. I am heartbroken to leave Sister Thomas and the people here in Carthage, but I know there are incredible people who need the gospel everywhere! I now have eternal friendships and in particular sister Thomas’s. Words cannot describe how incredible sister Thomas is. I aspire to be like her one day! I can’t imagine life without her! I often wonder what life would be like if both sister Thomas and I did not choose to serve. Carthage would likely still be closed, hundred’s of people here could not have heard about the restoration of the truth and more importantly, Jim, Eve, Shelby, Keyshla, Brittany, Drew, Phillip, Nathan, Christy, Jada, Carlos, Rebecca, Dominick, Paul, Acita and Jack would not have tasted of the joy of Christ’s gospel and seen the blessings pour into their lives that they need right NOW. There is a big decrease of missionaries coming into the mission and we are really feeling it. Areas are closing, the mission is shrinking, and fewer people are making covenants with God and are being deprived of the truth. If just ONE more sister would have decided to serve a mission, that would be the difference of an entire area opening and being worked and harvested! It hurts my soul to see this happening and I pray that more of my brothers and sisters will decide to serve the Lord. If you are reading this and thinking of whether or not to serve, just come. Just serve a full time mission! It is the greatest choice you will ever make. Do not do it for you or for anyone else. Yes it is a huge blessing in our lives and greatly benefits us, but we must forget about ourselves and DO IT FOR THE LORD! Because we love Him! If you come out here because you think it could be a good experience for you and you want to develop your testimony and talents, you will be absolutely miserable! We do not fight for our own lives; we fight for the welfare of others, for our spiritual family, for our GOD. I love the lyrics of the song “We are all enlisted” it says, “Come join the ranks! We are waiting NOW for soldiers, who’ll volunteer? Hark! Tis our captain calls you today, lose not a moment, make no delay! Fight for our Savior, come, come away! We are all enlisted till the conflict is or’ happy are we! Happy are we!” COME JOIN THE RANKS! Leave your fears at the feet of the Savior and cling onto faith. I hope to see you join us in the field soon! ‘the harvest is great and the labors are few!’

My invitation to you is to put on the armor of God. Prepare yourselves spiritually for the adversary that is well on its way! Study, pray, worship, serve! Read your scriptures daily! If you do not have a testimony of your own, do that which the prophet councils and ‘do all that is necessary to obtain one.” If we are not reading Gods word daily, we will not spiritually survive in today’s world! It has been fun to be on a military base and see how the soldiers must train and work out on the daily! They are doing the little things to prepare for the battles ahead! I know that if you put on the armor of God by prayerfully studying your scriptures each day, you will conquer your enemies (fears, depression, insecurity, temptation, anger, confusion, jealousy, lust, greed, pain etc.) and in the doing, will show others the way to victory and we will all stand at the day of the Lord and rejoice together! All my love ❤