Jocelyn is getting transferred Nov 27th 2013

Nov 25, 2013

Hello hello!

 

I'm getting transferred! I will be serving in the Roswell zone with Sister Andrus. I think we're in the Roswell ward? The assitants forgot to tell me which ward I'm in. I'm stoked. It's a nice area. I'm afraid that tracting will be hard because the area is really nice and everyone may or may not be snobs. The nice things is that they have a Trader Joe's :)!

 

This week was quite slow because Sister Beck is still sick. And not only is she just sick, she has bronchitis. So sad. But on Wednesday we had the sisters' day with Sister Wolfert and it was awesome! I absolutely loved it. I had the opportunity to teach yoga, which was just the best. I got up extra early to figure out a flow and all that jazz, so it was great. And then we had some breakfast and then we had trainings on make up and hair and nutrition. Finally, we ended it whilst sitting in a circle and talking about our concerns and feelings about the mission. I realize this is probably such a sister missionary thing to happen. But it's great and I loved it. Sister Wolfert just felt like the sisters needed a girls day and I think she'll be doing this every few months or so, just to let the sisters bond and stuff. That was definitely one of my favorite days this week.

 

Then we did service for that one lady that has the gift shop. She had us make really elaborate and decorative bows. That did not feel like service, it was just an extension of girls day ahahah. She gave us these pack of Christmas cards for free and I will be sending out some letters soon! They're really pretty handmade cards.

Thursday we did tables again. Both Sister Beck and Sister Madsen were not feeling good so I was the only one contacting. I did not get that many contacts, but they were really longggggg contacts! A majority of them were 20 to 30 minutes long. Goodness. I was pretty tired on Wednesday. But it was a good tired so I did not mind.

 

We had another lesson with that less active kid. It was great. Lessons with him make me sad though because he does not see his potential. Ugh. I just wish he could see how much happier he would be if he would just give in to the Lord's will! He knows it will make him happier, that's the whole reason why he asked us to meet. But still, he doesn't completely understand, and it's so hard to try and build someone's self worth when they don't belive you. He's such a gem too. Everyone in the branch loves him, he's amazing at playing piano and just a really sweet, kind guy. Hopefully it all works out.

 

We had the chance to teach Isabella, she's the one who stopped the elders while she was running. She's so cute. She hasn't been in a religion for 7 years or so! But she's so open to learning everything. She loves Mormons and they have been a good influence in her life in the past so she really does want to be a part of it. Oh she's from Colombia and her parents raised her in the Jehovah's Witness church. I don't know much about their beliefs, but she does not have good memories of that church, that's all I can say. I know she will be baptized, she's so ready.

 

We met with Brannon. He is not ready to be baptized, but he knows he will be baptized. Being out of a divorce, and he's moving to Woodstock and he's changing jobs, he is kind of scared to jump into another big change. He's been talking to other members and wants them to help him get acclimated to the church. He's another one that I know he'll be baptized. He's just taking his sweet time.

 

We really just hung around the apartment yesterday and saturday. Friday we were at the doctors for three hours for Sister Beck. They even did an xray. And since we don't have our tiwi cards and sister Beck is on cough syrup, we couldn't really go anywhere and the doctor told her to rest. Hopefully she'll be better by Wednesday when we transfer.

 

Love y'all!

 

Sister Smith

Jocelyn's email Nov 18th 2013

Hello all!

This week went by super super fast! I can't believe it. Sister Beck is still sick, but she did get a blessing today and she says she already feels better. Power of the priesthood folks. Anyway, we had that lesson with that less active guy and it was really good! He doesn't feel like he has a testimony, but you can tell he really really wants one. He wants to know that this is all true. The only thing holding him back is self worth. He doesn't believe that he is worthy of forgiveness. 

For goodness sakes, God loves everyone! And He wants everyone to be forgiven of their sins, just go unto Him and he will relieve you. Matthew 11:18-20, definitely one of my favorites. 

We had a really good experience tracting. There was not anyone in particular that seemed elect, but the spirit was with us the entire time and we were certainly lead to specific people to plant a seed if nothing else. It's funny that something like tracting can create a more spiritual environment. I love it though. It has been getting pretty cold. Those sweaters and jacket were amazing! Thank you mom! I love packages, they truly are the best. And I'm wearing that grey one right now :).

Oh a cool story, this one girl came up to us at tables and said she had a Book of Mormon. So I approached her and asked her what she thought of it. She said she loved all of the values taught in it, but she didn't really know the historical background. So I took that opportunity to ask her if she would want to meet with us the next day and we could teach it to her. She said yes. We arrive at her apartment and she said she made us food! She is so cute! She made us hot chocolate, or herbal tea, and raviolis. We have never had an investigator do that. But she said she loves missionaries and she wants to feed them. She typically has Christian missionaries over I guess. And we taught her the first lesson. It was really good and we committed her to read the testimony of Joseph Smith and Moroni 10:3-5. She was really touched by Joseph Smith and the First Vision. We are meeting with her this Friday. Wish us luck!

Yesterday an investigator we hadn't actually met with came to church! Here's her story: She was running and the elders were on their bikes and she ran past them and then she turned around and ran up to them and stopped them. She said she wanted to go to one of our churches and they gave her our number. Well, she called us last week and told us she could go to church, she was busy with work all week so we couldn't actually meet up with her. So we meet her and she is elect! She's super cute and Colombian and she said we are the only church that seems to practice its values and principles. She does work over in Salt Lake and she dated a Mormon a few years ago, so she's been surrounded by them for a while. She has definitely been prepared. We are meeting with her on tomorrow. I know that she will be baptized someday. I can feel it. 

Anyway, sorry this email is dry. I'm trying to remember all that went on last week and it's all slipping my mind. Oh but the best thing was last night. Hahah!

So Sister Madsen hates Christmas anything before Thanksgiving. Well, there are these old Christmas decorations in our apartment and Sister Madsen went to bed last night at like 9:45. So Sister Beck and I get out the decorations and decorate the apartment. There's even a fake Christmas tree and a bajillion strings of lights and Christmas stockings, the whole bit. And at 10:28 we wake up sister Madsen and tell her we want to show her something. She comes out and we say "Santa's here!" And she just groans, "I woke up for this?" And we just busted up laughing! I loved it. Now our apartment looks so cheery. I'm glad we did it :)

Can't remember what else I wanted to say.... 

Love y'all ;)

Jocelyn 

p.s. I tried so hard not to be a poser and say "y'all," I broke last week. It's so easy to say and like the white handbook says, I am supposed to use the culture's form of "you" properly. Hahah :P

Jocelyn's post on Veterans Day Nov. 11 2013

On Nov 12, 2013, at 12:27 PM, Jocelyn Smith <jocelyn.smith@myldsmail.net> wrote:

> Yeah, the library was closed yesterday so we have the chance to email today! Wow. Our pday yesterday was phenomenal though! We started it off by cleaning and then we went to this vintage store and I talked to this old lady about God and Jesus and stuff and then I gave her a Mormon.org card and that was fun. And then we ate at the hip burger place that reminded me of California. It was surprising to see out here in Georgia, it's not really all the southern, and therefore I really like it ;). Anyway, so we're driving and we decide to stop at this little gift shop called "Eclectic." The cool thing out here is that a lot of little stores and salons and even some dentist offices and the such, are in old houses. It's super cute and very unique, at least to my realm of experience. And the stuff inside is all stuff that is most likely sold in Roger's Garden, it's all so pretty and just mmmm. I loved it! And the owner started talking to me for a little bit and then she mentioned she was LDS, but it sounded like she was inactive. Well, we all started talking to her about her store and what she sells and decorating, etc. And then we offer to help her decorate the store for Christmas and such. Finally, she said she almost didn't want to talk to us, but when she saw us she knew that she needed to go back to church. She has a daughter who is a crack addict and she's so weighed down by the troubles in her house from it that she knows she's been needing some pick-me-ups from church. Needless to say, it was really awesome and we're going to her store next week to help her.
>
> Then we go to the number one selling pet store in the nation, (crazy right?! In Kennesaw!) because Sister Madsen is animal crazy and you can hold the puppies while you walk around and she was having a bad day (her grandpa passed away on Sunday), and the puppies are adorable. Well this guy that works there calls us "sisters," so we know he's Mormon and we ask what ward he's in... He's in our branch! He's a less active that is on our 5-5 list and we had no idea he worked there. Well, we didn't talk all that much about church with him, but we did talk about his job and such. When we were getting ready to leave he asked us if he could have a lesson with us! THat is the trick my friends, making them think it's their idea. And it was. To be honest, it was perfect because we legit cared about him and we didn't push anything on him, we just talked to him and since we're missionaries he knows he can have a lesson with us so he asks! So cool!
>
> Last week the work was slow slow slow slow slow. Sister Beck has been really sick. She's in denial too hahaha. She's coughing up her lungs at least once an hour and then she's super fatigued. She only tells people she has a cough... Seriously. Anyway, she is feeling a lot better though so we're getting back in the swing of things. It's strange finding that balance between not feeling guilty because she's sick and feeling guilty because our work is so slow. It's something that I think every missionary has gone through and I don't like being in that strange balance. I mean, I can't really be upset, but I just want to work.
>
> One really great thing that we had last week was zone conference and that was awesome. I felt the spirit for most of the meeting and I just admire President and Sister Wolfert so much. Sister Wolfert is like the epitome of what I want to be when I am her age. She is so spiritual and classy and beautiful. She's everything. (so are you mom don't worry! I may be biased, but I always think that you are probably the best mom in comparison to my companions' moms hahah!) Lot's of new insight and perspective that I hope to apply to the work.
>
> Oh I almost forgot! Andrew. He's a member referral and he's amazing! He's the one that hears the spirit through music and such. Anyway, we finally got to teaching him about the Restoration. We taught him in the cube that the lds student assoc. has on campus, and we found out they have a copy of the Restoration video, so we taught him the first lesson pretty quickly and were already feeling the spirit and then we watched the movie... wow. If nothing, I felt the spirit like a ton of bricks! It's so beautiful, because none of us are caught in any weird emotions or anything, we're just watching a movie on Joseph Smith and bam! The spirit just enters into the heart and testifies like no tomorrow. Well, that increased my faith and Andrew prayed about it and he says he knows it's true. He afraid to get baptized so quickly because of bad experiences in Catholic school growing up, but I know he will eventually. He also said that he didn't realize it, but he felt like he needed to see that movie that day. It was probably the best first lesson I've gone through so far.
>
> There aren't really anymore stories to relay... I will be picking up my package today! I couldn't get it because it didn't fit in the locker thing and it came on Saturday, and since yesterday was veterans day we couldn't get it. So hopefully we have some time to pick it up. Hahah in all reality, I might have to get it tomorrow :P. It is really cold today! The wind is so so so so chilly! It looks all nice and beautiful outside and the wind just chills. Man. The leaves falling are gorgeous and we drove through a rainfall of leaves this morning.
>
> Happy Birthday Ashley on Thursday! Love you tons! Mmmmm. I wish I could have some Oak Glen Apple cider. So delicious!
>
> Love you all like crazy,
> Jocelyn

Sister Fabulous Jocelyn in front of the Atlanta GA Temple

Sister Madsen & Sister Jocelyn

Sister Madsen & Sister Smith Kennesaw GA

Sister Beck & Sister Smith in Kennesaw GA

Jocelyn 11/4/13

Thank you for your email dad, that was a good one. 

I went to Target shopping  because I need a thicker, fuzzy blanket on my bed, it's getting really cold at night here. Plus, my alarm broke. Hahah it was terrible! It was about three in the morning, I'm using this old elders fitted bed sheet that does not go all the way around my bed and so I'm basically sleeping on bare mattress (which is disgusting because elders used to sleep on it) and I'm tangled in my mess of sheets and my clock is beeping every two minutes. I was so tiredly angry and I kept hitting it and it did not work so finally I got up and put it in another room in my desk drawer. The next morning I looked at it and it's completely broken. So today I had to get a new alarm, a fitted bed sheet that actually fits my bed, a blanket and my deoderant broke last week so I had to get that. I needed a lot of things today! 

 

Anyway, this week was good. It went by pretty dang fast! Except for yesterday hahaha. Our mission president wants us to use institute and get investigators going there so that's been kind of a cool experience. We only go if we have open time, but we went last Tuesday and our investigator, Brannon, came and I think he really benefitted from it. The teacher is a sealer in the temple so he talked a lot about the temple because we were reading from Deuteronomy and he talked about how the veil is thin there, etc. And that made Brannon realize that God has always been here. We are the ones that make the "veil" thicker and God is always ready to give us revelation, so long as we have a sufficient amount of faith to recieve it. It has been so cool to see his mind open and to realize that God is over all of us and He cares about us, we just need to have the faith and use it. Brannon also writes his prayers down, and as he recieves revaltion he writes that down. His writings are so poetic and really cool to see, he basically knows he needs to get baptized. However, he's scared to commit. There's one side of him that knows if he chooses God's way he'll be happier in the long run. On the other hand, he's tempted by quick vices that he's slowing himself down from being baptized. It's both really cool and really frustrating. It's a struggle mankind has dealt with since the fall... 

Will got the priesthood yesterday and I haven't seen him so genuinely happy before. When he was baptized he was happy, but he was crying, but yesterday he just radiated happiness. He's been an awesome investigator. Honestly, the coolest part about him is that we got to see him from lesson one all the way down to baptism. I don't know if I'll ever get that chance again. Not too many people are that faithful from the beginning.

On Halloween we had to be home by 6, that was nice though because we could just chill out and relax. I just flipped through Ensign magazines and read Jesus the Christ. That book is fantastic, every member of the church needs to read that book. It details everything so perfectly and puts it all in one place.

We did exchanges on Wednesday and I was in an area called Woodstock and it's a really pretty area. Actually I'm in Woodstock right now because that's where the library is hahah. But Sister Gibb is a sister training leader and I was with her for the day and she's from Washington, but get this... She is related to Gibb's in Canada! She doesn't know any of them, but her grandpa is from there and he told her any Gibb from Canada would most likely be related to her. We tracted forever in her area because all her appointments fell through. That was a neat experience, it actually went by faster than you'd think. The great part is that she's training for a half marathon so we got up earlier and ran four miles. Oh my goodness. That was pure heaven. After not running on real pavement for the past two months made that run so amazing! I was first off proud of myself for running four miles, I've only run on a treadmill a couple times since I've been out here plus I was barely even sore, a little tight, but not banged up.

We did the food pantry again on Saturday, that is definitely one of my favorite things to do. We also had a chance to go to the park and do service there, and it happened to be on the most perfect day. I actually had the chance to talk to this really nice less active lady. It was completely by design. She was there with her husband and step son and their dog and she called us "sisters" when her dog came up to my companions, and I knew she had to be a member. Turned out she was a less active and we talked for a bit.  I didn't really talk about church with her, except for when she complimented my outfit and I talked about the age change (which she didn't know about).  Which then let my talk about my decision for coming out here. So that was cool, with people like that I just want to be good influence and not a pushy person.

Anyway, it's been really great. I love it out here. I'm scared/ excited for transfers. Which sadly are the day before Thanksgiving. I'm conflicted with whether or not I would want to stay in Big Shanty, or move to a family ward. Not that it's my decision, I'm down for both, but I'm just curious about what I'm feeling. I love the fall here. Mom would love the fall here, it feels so cold and crisp.

Love you all tons and tons!

Jocelyn