Sister Jocelyn Smith loving life in front of the Provo Temple

Sister Bone, Sister Smith, Elder Preston Taylor, Elder??

My District in the MTC in front of the Provo Temple

FROM JOCELYN IN THE MTC AUG 30 2013

Aug 30 2013 

Hello all;                 my email is: jocelyn.smith@myldsmail.com          Please write !

This week has been great! I had one of the most spiritual experiences ever. On Tuesday our teacher, Brother Rasmussen, showed us how the brother of Jared prayed in Ether 4, where we declare our faith to the lord. So not only do we thank Him and ask Him for blessings, but we bare our testimonies to him and for the faith that we lack, we ask him to "rend the veil of unbelief." It's almost like we declare our faith, but in humility realize that we do not have enough and we need the Lord to help us gain more faith. So we all knelt in a circle and went around praying only by declaring our faith and asking for a change of heart. My chest was just full. I have never felt like that before. The spirit was so powerful and so strong in the room, I cannot deny that the Lord was listening our prayers. And my companion gave the best prayer in the entire group! She sounded like she was just talking to God, it was insane. Everyone else felt it and it was just beautiful. 

There's a sister in my district who has been having shoulder problems, so she and her companion have been missing a lot of classes to go to the hospital. On Wednesday, Sister Cooper asked me to go with her so her companion would not have to miss more classes. It was cool being able to leave the MTC for a bit. And I have a picture of her doing something shoulder exercises. It's great. She's awesome. Although, sadly, she found out that she cannot leave with us and she'll be in the MTC for about another 3 weeks so she can get stuff done on her shoulder. 

Last night we had a really sweet spiritual experience. Sister Bone, my companion, Sister Cooper and Sister Marshall and I all went outside to just be outside when these two elders came up to us and asked if they could bare their testimonies. The first one was from Ecuador and had never spoken English until he came to the MTC, which was 4 weeks ago! You could tell he was so nervous! But the crazy thing was that because his english was was so simple, his testimony was so strong!! As lame as it sounds, with both of their testimonies, the spirit just sweetly entered into us and it was beautiful. The other elder was from Hong Kong and was just so sweet and happy, he's going to the Vancouver, Canada mission. 

The pictures I am sending are from last Sunday when we went to the temple..... I got a picture with Preston, that was cool to seem him. 

We went to the temple as a district this morning which was great! And the Provo temple is not as ugly as I seemed to think it was. It is actually quite beautiful. 

Mom: I need a simple black shirt... That's all I need! I decided to mail my cookbooks and blender to the mission because they're so heavy, so hopefully my luggage is lighter!! . 

Also, if you want to talk to me on Tuesday, it will be around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. ... I may not have the chance to talk to you :'(. You also could send me some yummy raw nuts and other hearty things. NO CANDY!...  You can suggest people send me packages or mail. The dearelders I get from Sarah are golden!! There are two elders in my district who get at least five dear elders everyday and at least one package. It's crazy and we're all pretty jealous of them to say the least. 

Anyway, not sure what else I should tell you... But I'll send pictures in a minute!

Hope you like the pictures this week. I love my district! Everyone contributes to the group so well. We're getting better and better at all teaching together. I had heard about his appendicitis, but I didn't know he (Preston) was leaving the same day as me. That's exciting!! Please don't forget about the shirt, it works with everything and I it's just nice altogether. Thank you so much!!! I love you all. Tell the family I say hi. Tell Jared to pray that when he goes to the MTC that he gets an awesome district and teachers. It makes all the difference, the other district in our zone does not seem to love the MTC as much as we do.

Love lots

Hugs and kisses

Sister Jocelyn

p.s. the video and pictures of the nieces and nephew killed me! They are so cute and fun to see!

Aug 23 2013  First Letter from the MTC PROVO

I'm loving the MTC. The elders and sisters in my district are amazing! They are so good at keeping the subject on track, but they don't mind a little bit of a tangent here and there. Everyone just works together so well and I feel so blessed to have all of them in my district. My companion is Sister Bone, she is from Palmyra, New York. We work together really well! She has a really refreshing point of view and it is extremely similar to mind, which is somewhat/REALLY hard to find here. Today with one of our "investigators," he said that we did the best in sticking to the doctrine and welcoming the Spirit; however, we had a prompting to invite him to get baptized and neither one of us did it! I will say that we felt a little bummed we didn't follow it, but mainly we just laughed at ourselves. 

One of my teachers was a young ambassador!! Whahhhaaaaaaattttt? Anyway, I walked in and I recognized that he was brother of one of my counselors from my first year. That was so awesome to find out, and to be able to talk to him about singing real quick. He's just like Brother Briggs, he compliments everyone and what they say and acts like what everyone says is inspiration, yet it doesn't feel phony so it's awesome.  

It truly is awesome being able to talk about the gospel everyday here. It's like "finally, let's talk about something that actually applies to our lives!" You know what I mean? 

Mom: My blanket from Target is AMAZING! It's not quite like my comforter, but the knitting is so comfy and I'm so glad that I picked that one out because it's heaven. My hamper on the other hand is a completely different story.... We should have gone with the bag. But that's okay, I'll deal with that in Georgia. Also, guess who I saw today?! I saw Preston! Oh my goodness. I had no idea he was here in the MTC the same time as me! And he didn't know I was serving a mission! Ha! Go figure. Anyway, we luckily saw each other at breakfast and we're hoping to see each other again when we have cameras so we can take a picture together. It was really awesome seeing a familiar face. He says hi to the family. 

Dad: I'm not one for waterworks either, so I completely understand where you are coming from. 

The days are long, but I love it! There's just so much to do and learn and I love the people in my district, which makes it so much easiy I'll send you pictures next week, I don't have that many right now and we're taking some on Sunday at the temple and you can see all who is in my district. 

Out of time, gotta go!

Much love,

Sister Jocelyn