Christmas get together 2014 in GA

Sisters Andrus, Garcia, Smith @ Christmas get together

Happy New Year (Almost)

Happy New Year this week!

Had a wonderful Christmas. Sadly, there's not much to report on because everyone is telling us to get back to them after the holidays... Fun. 

On Friday the Cornelia Elders got permission to call and we talked a good while about Barry and his move and baptism. It felt good being able to discuss which members would be best for him to meet and how we'll help  him feel welcomed in the ward. It was reassuring and thankfully one of the Elders feels obligated to make sure that they retain Barry and that he'll adjust well. It was cool too because Brother Prichard told us that Barry gave some great contributions to the discussion on Sunday during Elder's Quorum or something. He's making progress and doing well.

Also, our ward mission leader and his family dropped off a box of gifts to Barry and his daughter. It made Barry's daughter feel bad because she's never really had anyone be so nice to them. It's been really amazing to see the ward come together and help Barry and his daughter out. It's truly inspiring and I wish every ward was like this one. A lot of willing and helping hands. 

Lanay was sick with the flu so she couldn't come to church, but she still wants to meet with us this week when she's feeling better. 

We met this awesome lady on Saturday. We knocked and got talking to her, and it was easy to strike up a conversation with her because she went to Harvard. She went for her Bachelors all the way to her Phd. Impressive. And she had two of her three kids all while still in school. She now teaches at a small Baptist college so we talked to her about the concerns that they have for the future generations and such. We had a really good discussion with her, and ended it by showing her the He is the Gift and then directing her to the beta.mormon.org website. She seemed to be surprised by how well organized the site and the Church seemed to be. I think it sparked her interest. We left her a Book of Mormon, but she didn't want to meet with us until she read some more. Which is sad because that could mean she'll get into anti, but if not, then she's elect. 

Everything's good. Don't know what else to report on.... Sister Kafoa is doing well, she's talking more and coming out of her shell. She's a quite one, but  hopefully by the time I leave she'll be out of her shell. She is enjoying the work even more. It's great.

Love you all!

Sister Smith

Highs & Lows of Mission Life

Highs:

Wednesday we had meant to stop by some less actives and such, and we picked some streets that we thought were close to those less actives to tract at. When we were going to tract and began driving toward said street, it was farther than anticipated. But, I just kept on driving deciding that I was too lazy to try and pick somewhere else to tract. Just kidding, I just felt like we should go with what we had planned so I didn't say anything. We get out and begin tracting. To me it's a typical session of tracting, some pretty good contacts, no one entirely interested, eventually one will come, so we move on. We keep going and determine where we will end. After we're finished we start heading back and suddenly Sister Kafoa says, "Sister Smith?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we just do one more door?"

Earlier she and I had been discussing spiritual promptings and acting on them, so naturally I said, "Sure." Not really thinking it was an actual spiritual prompting. Go me. 

We knock on the door and this cute red headed lady answers and tells us to come in... ! Don't mind if we do. We get to talking to her and she informs us that her sister is actually a member of the Church. In fact, she grew up in Arizona and she knows that most of the stuff out there is fake. She then proceeded to tell us that she and her husband were recently talking about how she wants to find a church and the one she's interested in is "Mormon Church." She had actually met a couple of Elder a while back, but she couldn't find their card and wanted to give them a call. Instead, we showed up. :) We set up a lesson with her and it went really well! She came to church and she's already excited to come next week and she's going to bring her husband with her. We can't meet with her this week :(, but we'll keep texting her and making sure she's still reading and such. Oh and after our lesson with her she was surprised with the entire lesson. I don't think she expected it to make as much sense as it did. It was kind of cool. 

Other High: Temple Trip :D and Christmas party all day. Woot woot! So much fun, I sent a couple of pictures. I took none with my camera since mine dies after taking like two photos, so I have to wait until other Sisters send me the pictures they took. 

Low:

Friday I woke up sick, I was able to go to a lesson and we helped make cookies to give to our investigators. I got a fever, and it was horrible! So Saturday I was basically recuperating. I had absolutely no energy. I only had enough so that we could do a church tour, and we came back for lunch and I was out. I slept basically all day and I slept through the entire night. No bueno. Yesterday I began feeling better. My voice sounds hideous, so I didn't get to sing yesterday as planned, but that's fine. And now all I really have is a cough which I'm hoping will go away sooner than the mission nurse said it would. 

Barry is sick too :(. But we'll be seeing him and his daughter on Christmas Eve and Christmas. 

Love y'all,

Merry Christmas!

Sister Smith

More pics with Jocey and Kafoa

 Good to see that girl laughing...

Pics for Jocey in GA

 #sharethegift

 Sister Kafoa made me a Lei

New companion: Aloha...She's from Tonga, Fiji, Hawaii

My new companion is Sister Latai Kafoa. She was born in Tonga, at the age of two her family moved to Fiji where she was raised, and about 8 months ago her family moved to Hawaii. She used to work at the Polynesian Cultural Center and was a dancer. She's awesome.

Monday-Tuesday consisted of preparing the place for Sister Kafoa and getting Sister Winegar ready to go. Wednesday morning we went to the Mission Office where I dropped off Sister W. and stayed for some meetings and met Sister Kafoa. On the way home I asked Sister Kafoa about her feelings on obedience and she said in her Fijian accent, "Can we say 'exact obedience?'" Why yes. Yes we can. That makes it easy! She's totally fine when I need to correct or remind her about obedience things and doesn't get upset, she just tells me "Oh, thank you for telling me." And does the right thing. It's great. 

She working on opening her mouth and talking. She gets lost and/or nervous in the middle of talking to people. Which is fine, her barriers will break down by the time I'm gone, so it's fine with me. We've been practicing teaching like crazy. Every single companionship study I try to have her role play teaching me what she just learned from Preach My Gospel. When we practice with the members she bears a solid testimony! Her Spirit is very strong. She could probably say the completely wrong thing, but so long as she ends by bearing testimony, the Spirit just comes in. So I keep telling her that that's her strength, if she doesn't know what to say, just bear your testimony. Sometimes she gets a little nervous doing that as well, but when she does it it's powerful, so I'm trying to use that to her advantage. She studies the lessons in Preach My Gospel in her spare time even. She's determined to get it down. It's been really cool to watch her. It's only been a few days, but I think she's got a great mission ahead of her. 

Saturday one of the most spiritual experiences happened. This week we've set up two lessons with Barry, had a team up for both, and he hasn't been home. I was getting a little nervous. Wondering if he'd been trying to avoid us, but the hard thing is that he doesn't have a phone, so we just have to show up at his house and hope for the best. I had been praying all week for him, to know how to help him be prepared to make a covenant with God. I came across a scripture in Alma 7:14-15 and felt like we needed to be bold and just tell him he needs to be baptized.  Sister Kafoa had also found a scripture in Mosiah that relates to baptism, and she agreed that we should do that as well.  

We showed up at his house and he's home! He informed us that he would be moving to Cornelia at the end of the month. While he was telling us, I kept feeling like we should commit him to baptism. When we discussed it later, Sister Kafoa said she was getting the same feeling. We read the scripture to him, and after we read it, I looked up and Barry had tears in his eyes. I swear the Spirit spoke through me, and so quietly I said, "Barry, you need to be cleansed." We sat for a moment, all just soaking in the Spirit. It felt like a long time before we said anything else. He nodded and said, "That's exactly what I needed to hear."

Barry is on date to be baptized! However, the Bishop was worried he could go less active if he's baptized here, moves away, and is in a whole new ward with a whole new group of people. We talked with Barry about it, and he promised that he would be baptized on January 10th in Cornelia, so long as Brother Wernli and us could come to the baptism. It felt right, the original date was this Saturday, but that didn't quite sit with all of us. Typically I would be nervous to postpone the date, but we want him to transition into membership smoothly and for him to have fellowship in Cornelia. 

I'm so excited. The Spirit was SO strong when we met with him, it was amazing! Probably one of the most memorable experiences on the mission. Crazy how that can keep happening. 

Love it. Love y'all,

Sister Smith

#sharethegift

Sister Fabulous with her new companion and #sharethegift

pics from Jocey

 We have Santa holding a Book of Mormon for all us sisters at the mall for our Christmas photo....

 A nice member who took us hiking....Sister Waldron

 Sister Jocey with Sister Winegar

 ​Allison, on the left, is an RM and she comes out with us. She's awesome! (she's also going to BYU I for Spring... YAY!)​        There's this family that has the funniest dog ever that I'm obsessed with!

I'm expecting.....

I'm PREGNANT! Hahaha just kidding. I'm training a brand-new missionary for my last two transfers. I didn't think I would because they typically make trainer calls on Wednesday for the trainer meeting on Thursday, but this week they called us Thursday for our meeting on Saturday. I was surprised, but here I am. I'm going to be a mom :)

This week was great. Sunday was the first Sunday in five weeks we didn't have an investigator at church and that made me sad, but it was nice to see how consistently we've had investigators coming to church and progressing. Truly, it's been such a blessing. The new missionary is coming to an amazing area to start in and I'm in a great area to end it. It couldn't get any better. 

Thursday we had a lesson with Wyatt, the 14 year old. Finally! We haven't been able to meet with him yet for a myriad of reasons and he's come to church and young mens, just hasn't had a lesson. But on Thursday we finally met with him and it was so spiritual. He was a little confused over the Restoration, so we're going to break it down even more. But we asked him how he's been liking church and he said, "After that first Sunday I came home and a couple tears came out of my eyes. I actually cried a little. The songs were about family and I realized just how important my family has been for me." His first Sunday was the primary program and the entire program was focused on eternal families. He said that the first time he walked into the church it felt like a sanctuary. He wants to learn more and he said, "I think I'll stick with being Mormon." Hahah! He's not even baptized yet. We invited him to be baptized and he said he will. We'll probably present him with a date this week and show him a baptismal calendar. That will be interesting to show my new missionary.

Barry is doing well. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he cut out drinking tea and coffee. He actually isn't supposed to drink either one of those anyway because of his health, so this is more motivation. He didn't come to church on Sunday and when we stopped by his place he wasn't there. We're planning on seeing him tomorrow and seeing what's up. Also, his daughter actually talked to us and didn't leave and freak out when we came. One step at a time. I think she's seeing how much the people in the Church have been blessing her and her dad. It's been great. 

It's been great. Sister Winegar received some really good advice last night from a member that I aspire to be like. He told her, "I don't like the whole 'getting back to normal thing.' If something, like a movie, or a place, makes you feel uncomfortable, there's a reason it's making you feel uncomfortable." He said a few more things that were well put. It's a good ward to end in because the members here are stellar, it's a great way to see the type of person I hope to become someday. 

Anyway, love y'all. 

Sister Smith

Sister Jocey Fabulous with Sister Winegar

 Sister Winegar & Sister Smith in Buford GA

Lucky sisters... Thanksgiving treat made for members

The Spirit Works!!

Good, great, wonderful Week.

Merry Christmas y'all! 

Update on Barry:

On Friday we brought a wonderful team up with us, Sister Sheridan, and went over to Barry's. He answers the door and says, "Sorry guys, we won't be able to have a lesson today. My sink is broken and I've been working on it all morning." To which we reply, "Don't worry, there has to be someone we know who can help fix it." With a few phone calls we get a hold of the handy man of the ward who talks to Barry and they arrange a time to fix the sink. Perfect. Then he's calmed down and feels ready to have a lesson. We read 2 Nephi 31 with him and discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so easy to teach him because he's already learned all of the doctrine from the Holy Ghost. He understands the importance of Faith, Repentence, Baptism, etc. We had a beautiful discussion. He just gets it. Afterward when we were talking to Sister Sheridan she was saying, "He's a really good investigator. He grasps everything so well. And the gospel will change his life. When he sees and comes to know that he is a son of God, then he will see how much he deserves in this life." She says that because he lives in very humble circumstances, life seems to have gone wrong at some point in his life, and it has all prepared him for this time to find something that will uplift and change him. Truly, he's an amazing person to teach. 

We thought it was funny that we were happy that his sink was more broken than anticipated, so the handy man in the ward apparently is going back today to continue helping him. I think that will be a great influence and help, for members to feel the spirit of serving another in need, and for Barry to feel the love that comes from the members. 

Then, on Friday we found out that Barry's daughter has taken an interest in the violin. Which is crazy because Sister Wernli-- the wife of the couple who has fellow shipped Barry-- plays and teaches violin. Yesterday we set up an impromtu lesson with Sister Wernli to come over to Barry's with us and bring her violin. Barry's daughter, Faith, does not like us at all. She's 14 and has been through a lot in her life and she is not interested. But, Sister Wernli played "Nearer my God to Thee" and Barry invited Faith to come out. After some coaxing, she and Sister Wernli connected. Sister Wernli showed her how to hold a violin and told her what the proper size of violin would be for her. Afterward Sister Wernli told us that she and her husband want to get them a violin for Christmas and teach Faith. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that Sister Wernli was literally just called as the Sunday school teacher for Faith's age group. Brother Wernli calls those types of "coincidences" "architectural moments."

Saturday we set up a lesson with Gabe, the 16 year old, and Mallory, the girl that referred him. There was a baptism going on for an 8 year old girl, so we planned on having him come to the baptism and then have a lesson afterward. It went really well. We went over the first part of the Plan of Salvation and focused on the Atonement. We showed him the "He is the Gift" and "Because of Him." We're teaching him in more segments because that's to his level and it's been really cool. It was interesting teaching about the Restoration to someone who really has never learned about how he can truly rely on Christ's Atonement daily. Most of the time, down here in the South, people get that, but Gabe wasn't raised with a religion. It's been pretty neat. 

That's about all that's super exciting. Everything has been good, we had a good Thanksgiving and our landlord and her husband made us potato pancakes the next day out of the leftover mash potatoes. That was a first. Pretty good thought :)

Love y'all,

Sister Smith

Follow the Spirit

Happy Thanksgiving this week!

We had an amazing week. Especially on Thursday.

So Thursday:

It started off with Zone Conference which is always good. It was especially interesting because of some of things that were covered are things that Sister W. and I have already been doing/changing. For example, President gave a little speel on planning and confirming with the Lord, etc, when last Friday before Zone Conference Sister W. and I tried to improve our planning. As a result, we felt that more of our week was going well and we were able to handle everything that would happen throughout the day. Then President talked about how we can go on lds.org under "Gospel Topics" and look up information on polygamy, Book of Mormon and DNA, Race and the Priesthood, Becoming  Like God, etc. and how we should look at those to make sure that we can respond positively to people who have questions about it. Well, last Monday Sister W. and I looked almost all of those up on "Gospel Topics" and printed them out so we could study them this week. There were also a lot in Zone Conference that inspired me to push myself more and "try a little harder to be a little better." It was an excellent Zone Conference. I definitely felt the Spirit. 

We had to leave Zone Conf. a little early, during the testimonies, because we had a lot of appointments set up for the night. The first one was at 3:30 with Barry and Brother Wernli as our team up. We didn't have a way to contact Barry to let him know that we would be coming, but Bro. Wernli already said he could come, so we had the lesson as an act of faith. As fate would have it, Barry was home and we were able to have a wonderful lesson with him. It was amazing because Bro. Wernli talked to us afterward and said that him and his wife have been praying for an opportunity to help someone out with the same things that Barry needs help. It's amazing how the Spirit works for finding the right team ups and stuff. 

Then we had an appointment for 4:30, so we left right on time to get to our next appointment promptly, only to see a man in a wheel chair that looked stuck. Sister W. turned the car around, we parked and went to go see if he was okay. Turns out that his wheelchair had run out of energy, apparently when it's colder the battery needs more charging for which he didn't account. There was a little store right there, and he asked if we could go in and see if they had an extension cord so that we could charge his wheelchair. We ran into the store, the lady responded quickly and came out to help us. We devised a plan to roll him onto the porch while she went to go get an extension cord. We rolled him up, there was an outlet on the porch, and got him all charged up. In the meantime we were talking to them and told them about who we are and what we do. Unfortunately the man wasn't too interested, but he took our card and was thankful. The lady was open and very nice, she doesn't personally know very many members, but she's into scrapbooking and knows a lot of Mormon women on the internet as a result. She talked to us for a while and asked about our missions and such, she informed us that she wasn't intersted in our message, but we gave her our card and hoped for the best. 

Finally, 15 minutes past the original time for the appointment, we rush to our next lesson. We're teaching a little girl who's mom is very less active. I only say very because she doesn't know a lot of things that a typical less active would know. We got to the appointment at 5 and taught her daughter. It was good because the next day we went and saw the Primary President who told us that she met the mom at a school things and the Primary Pres. does not think it was coincidental that they met. She said that it felt like it was fate that had them meet and talk about the church and stuff together. Hopefully we make some good headway with that!

Then we had a delicious dinner, omletes, with an awesome family. Then we had an appointment with members and did a practice lesson. Then we had a team up take us to an appointment with our 14 year old investigator. He wasn't home, or was asleep or something, but I had this prompting that we should go see this other lady we tracted into in that same neighborhood. We knocked and she answered. We talked to her for a bit, shared a scripture and got her phone number, she said that she did actually want us to come back, just after Thanksgiving. She was sincere. It was cool because the first time we met her she wasn't interested and she didn't give us her number, but this time she was open and willing. It's amazing to see to witness the workings of the Spirit on people's hearts. 

Needless to say, we were happy and exhausted to have such a wonderful day. Barry came to church on Sunday, which was stake conference, which they hold at a Junior College campus because the stake is so big. Barry told Bro. Wernlie that he felt that all of the talks were directed to him and that this was something he's been looking for his entire life, and he can't believe he found it. It was amazing! Nothing could come together more smoothly. Though it hasn't been super smooth, he met opposition from the first time we had a lesson with him, but still, he's pushed through all of it!!

I love being a missionary. I love having the chance to truly follow the Spirit, even though sometimes it doesn't always make sense to do what the Spirit is directing, the Lord is ALWAYS right.

Love y'all 

Sister Smith

New Dog Named Jewel

Dear Family and Friends!

This week has been good. 

On Tuesday we had Zone Meeting and I got a lot out of it. The Zone Leaders are in our ward and they asked a member to come and talk to us about planning by the Spirit. Well, the guest speaker didn't even bring up planning, but he did focus on receiving revelation by the Spirit. Something quick and cool that he pointed out was emphasis on "return and report." He said that in his studies, as he is seeking and receiving inspiration, he returns and reports to the Lord and asks if there is more. Typically, there is still more to be learned. It was cool because that's obviously something we learn about, but I think I've always just assumed the Lord knows what I did and that's it. But the idea of return and report is a chance for us to receive even more from the Lord than we were originally expecting. I don't know if I pointed that out well enough, but I hope y'all get the picture kind of. As a result, after we do things or after my studies I've made it a point to tell the Lord what I've done and then to ask if there is more to be done. Thus far, it's been pretty cool, and I can see how this will not only help me now as a missionary, but later in life as well. 

We had exchanges after Zone Meeting and Sister Nelson came with me to our area. We first went to do a practice lesson with the guest speaker because we asked him and his wife to be our team ups for a church tour the next day. Can I just say we basically know who a future prophet will be? Just kidding, but this man was a bishop, in Utah, where there are many a Mormon, when he was in his TWENTIES! That's not normal. He's sooooooooooo spiritually strong and intelligent. 

But anyway, Wednesday morning, we're still on exchanges and our investigator, Barry comes to church to have a tour. We show him around and end in the chapel. There we planned on talking about the Restoration, which we did, but we also somehow basically touched all parts of the first three lessons in thirty minutes. Don't ask how it happened and how it went so smoothly. It's simply because of the Spirit. Barry expressed different things that he has come to know and learn in his years, and a lot of them touched with the doctrine that we teach. The Spirit has been preparing him to learn these things, so that finally, when the time came, he could participate in sacred, saving ordinances to help him progress and make covenants with his Heavenly Father. The Spirit was so clear and so real during the lesson. He said that he was excited to come to church on Sunday. 

Unfortunately, potentially due to nervousness, Barry didn't come to church. However, Wyatt did, he's the teenage kid that we're supposed to be teaching but haven't had the chance to, but he's been coming to church and young mens pretty consistently. It's a good step in the right direction, but we do need to teach him the lessons hahaha. Also, the kid Gabe that we're teaching wasn't able to come to church either, but he informed us of that ahead of time. His friend who referred him told us that we just need to take it slow since he's never had any exposure with religion, so we're going to break up the lessons and teach them more like a class because that's how he learns best. 

Everything's been going well. We're still searching and practicing lessons and doing the best we can. We're hoping to find a family. We'll take all the prayers we can get :)

Love!

Sister Smith

 

PS

Also, the title of the subject is because the people who's home we live in got a dog that they're fostering for a time that ran down into our apartment and jumped on Sister Winegar's bed and took her mittens. I was dying I was laughing so hard! I was safe from all the mess. But this morning when we went up to do the laundry the dog ran down the stairs and we were basically the fighting the dog to get it back upstairs and not let it in our apartment. It's been an interesting experience. 

More Pics from Jocey in GA

 

 

Sister Jocelyn with Sister Winegar selfie

Hello Family and Friends!

This week was great. I might not type a ton today. We're emailing early because a lady is taking us to Amecelola Falls (I have no idea how I'm supposed to spell that). We'll be finishing our studies and stuff later.

But anyway. This week. 

Last Sunday Sister W. and I were tracting and met this 14 year old boy who gave us his number and we invited him to mutual that week. Monday night we text him reminding him about the activity and he said he would come. Tuesday we go to mutual, they were combined and did a talent (someone did the EW! Skit and I died.... Love Jimmy Fallon) and he liked it. We met his dad, who is super nice and probably would come to church but he's a truck driver and is gone all the time. But he came to church yesterday and enoyed it and we had the chance to meet his mom who will be coming to the Relief Society Activity this week. Hopefully she likes it and we'll be able to teach his family. He has awesome parents. He's pretty shy and awkward, but we're excited for him. Our Ward Mission Leader said that teaching the youth is so special because if they're baptized now that means that they could serve a mission, get married in the temple and have an eternal family. 

It's also cool because last Sunday we taught a member's friend during church. He has a hard time meeting with us throughout the week, he's 16, so he's busy. Yesterday we had the opportunity to teach him. It was good because he's never really grown up with any religion so we had him pray and we knew he felt slightly awkward, but since his friend is our team up, she encouraged him and he felt comfortable enough to do it. I will say, it is a beautiful thing to listen to someone's prayer when it's probably their first one to their Heavenly Father. I love that we have the chance to see and experience that. We do have the chance to teach him this week because next Sunday he won't be in town. Those two are our most promising investigators right now, and I'm excited to see how the gospel will change their entire lives, their future especially. It's going to be wonderful.

We also have that one gentleman who was in the humble circumstances who called us and said that his life is feeling lost. He was supposed to come to church yesterday, thankfully we stopped in on him on Saturday to arrange the ride and stuff. He informed us that he wouldn't be able to come, but he did say that he would love to have a church tour. So we set up a time to have a church tour with him this week and we have a GREAT team up lined up. That will be nice. 

We also followed up on a potential with whom we had an appointment but she had an emergency. Well, we met her roommate, turns out that she's in the air force so she's gone a lot as well, but that she really did have an emergency and that she is interested in learning more. Her roommate sounded sincere and said that she would make sure her friend would call us. This lady also was taught a while back because she talked about meeting with the Elders and how she has a Book of Mormon. I believe that she's been prepared, but she is just busy. Hopefully we'll get in at the right moment!

This week was good, continually working and striving to find the elect. 

Love you all!

Sister Smith

It's Chilly

Last week was just great for appointments. We had seven lessons with investigators lined up. Six out of the seven we had team ups ready and prepared to come out with us. Six out of the seven were cancelled the day of and one out of the seven was cancelled the day before... Needless to say, we tried to keep the faith. All seven were scheduled for the first four days of the week as well, and we thought "What an awesome way to start the week!" Then they all cancelled. Thankfully we were not too discouraged. I had read Monday morning in Preach My Gospel about not getting discouraged so that we can feel the Spirit, which at the time didn't seem applicable, then the next three days happened and I realized that the Lord was prepping me. But that's perfect, I was slightly forewarned, without knowing it, and Sister Winegar and I just kept working.

We did have a miracle though. WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR AT CHURCH!!! It's been a while now. On Wednesday we were supposed to have a lesson with this guy named Gabe whose friend, Mallory, is a member. She invited him over for a "bon fire" lesson and asked us if we could come over and teach him. When we got there they informed us that he couldn't make it, his mom had just called right before we got there and said he wouldn't be able to go. Thankfully, his parents didn't mind him coming to church yesterday and we were able to teach him a lesson yesterday during third hour. We're having him and Mallory do the assignment together and then next Sunday we'll do another lesson. Also, next Sunday is primary program. I'm stoked! FYI, his parents are completely fine with him meeting with us and such, just so long as they don't have to attend church and stuff. 

Thursday we did a practice lesson with a family who felt like they have friends they should share the gospel with. Apparently they had this family over for dinner and the wife said that she noticed something different with the members' family. The way they interacted with each other was more loving and seemed right. Thus, we told them to set up an FHE and dinner, so next Monday we're having an FHE with the members' and their friends and we're going to share a message and stuff. Also, we have another FHE planned tonight with another family whose friend they invited. Thankfully all those are happening!!! So that's good. 

Friday we also had a lesson and it was forever long! This man we had tracted into invited us to come over the next day. We went over and this man basically told why what we believe in isn't true. It's sad because this man does not believe that praying and feeling the Holy Ghost is a valid way to come to know truth. He believes that it's all just feeling. That one must go based off of facts. He was very well versed in the Bible, but also quite bias. He only payed attention to specific parts and completely seemed to disregard all of the scriptures that mention the role of the Holy Ghost and ask God for faith and such. As a result I studied receiving revelation and learning by the Spirit the next day and my testimony was strengthened. I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and that through him, Jesus Christ restored His church onto the earth. The only way I know this is through the same way that I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. From the Bible we know that the Spirit testifies of Jesus Christ. Thus, it is only through the Spirit that we can learn God's wisdom. 1 Cor. 2 perfectly describes my feelings on this subject. I know that there are different accounts of the First Vision. Because of the opportunity I've had to serve in the South, I believe that we become more aware of the anti information that is out there. Thankfully, I rely heavily on the facts that God can give me, rather than the shifting philosophies of men, that are ever-changing. It was an interesting experience and one that has made me thankful to serve where there is so much opposition against the church. It helps me realize just a smidgen of what the Lord endured when He was on the earth. It helps me check and make sure that I truly do believe in these things. I think people expect us to believe in it because we're brought up in it, if that is the case, then everyone would live a half-hearted lie. With the trials that come from being a disciple of Christ, it is not worth it to only rely on the testimonies of those before you, in order to create a rock solid foundation, one must seek truth for herself. That is what I've done. I do not rely on others' testimonies. This is my testimony. 

Anyway, sorry for the bold rant. But it's true. That's how I feel. 

Love you all,

Sister Smith

Sisters Jocey and Winegar planning

 Sometimes I don't enjoy planning. 

OK, now I'm good with planning

Sister Jocelyn and Winegar basement kitchen and dock

 This is our kitchen.  Its in a basement

 

We will sometimes eat our lunch from off the dock over looking this lake.  Just a hop from our current basement apartment.  This may be my favorite area.

Effective Tracting. Who Knew?

This week was good. We did a lot of tracting again. We're still practicing the lessons with members, but we're still trying to make sure that we balance everything out.

We were tracting on Thursday and first I had to use the restroom really badly, so we began walking in the opposite direction to a members' home whose bathroom I could use. We're walking and a lady with her son is out front, I'm working on talking to everyone, so of course, I open my mouth. We talk to her for a bit and then she said, "I'm Mormon. I actually grew up Mormon. I guess you'd say I'm less active now!" And so we try to figure out a little bit more about her and turns out she has a daughter who would like to be baptized. Her daughter is 8, so technically she doesn't need the lessons; however, we figured that we should teach her anyway because then her mom could listen in. Thankfully, we spoke with a lady that same night that told us that's how her dad was reactivated. And on Friday this lady showed up at our Fall Festival, she only made it to the end, but that's a great sign. And she said that we showed up at the perfect time she had recently been talking about getting back into the swing of things. We'll see how it all works out! (oh, and don't worry, she let me use her restroom) ;)

After that we continued tracting and we met this lady named Kaly. She answered and was so sweet and nice we talked to her about coming to closer to Christ by studying and praying everyday and using the Atonement. She was extremely receptive, so we transitioned into the Restoration. We taught her the entire lesson and as we were introducing the Book of Mormon she said, "Yeah!" And we're like, "Will you read it?" She was completely willing to try it out. We made sure she knew that the adversary would try and stop her, but that we would bring her one next week. We set up another appointment and off we went. We can't see her until Thursday :/, but we're praying that it will all work out! Wish us luck!

On Tuesday we went to the community center and stuff to find more service in the area, when we were finished we looked over our list and our gps to see who we should visit. This one lady's name kept popping out to me so we decided to go there. We get to this little, old house and there's a FOR SALE sign with a man's name on it. For a second we though, "Nah, she probably doesn't even live here anymore." Then we thought about it and said, "Maybe she's renting from the owner." So we knock. We man answers and he's definitely not the owner or the lady. In fact, he's renting from the lady, who part owns it with her uncle who's name was on the sign. He informs us that he's moving soon and that he's not interested, his dad grew up Mormon. We give him our card and tell him to call us if he needs help moving. That night, while we were at dinner, we received a voicemail from an unknown number. It was the man we had met and he said, "Hey you stopped by my house earlier. Would we be able to meet? I've actually been feeling really lost and I need some blessings in my life." !! YES! We set up the appointment for the next night because we didn't have any time that night. Unfortunately he called us the next day and apologized because him and his daughter had fevers and we'd have to come back another night. He sounded legitimately sincere, in comparison to 90% of the other people we talk to. That was nice. We role played with the couple we were going to bring as our team up and it went really well. They set a deadline for themselves to give some of their friends a copy of the Book of Mormon in three weeks. It's people that they've prayed about and really felt like would be interested in reading it.

Also, this couple is related to us. Well, the husband is. He's from William Wood's line! And he introduced me to his dad, who on Sunday asked if I wanted to take a name to the temple when we go next. Her name is Rachel Hassett Wood. She is from England and he got her record from England because some of his work is there. Also, the husband of the younger couple served in Japan and come to find out that William Wood may have been one of the first members in Japan just like he was in Arica, Chile. It was cool because I was like, "whoa! That happened to my brother when he was in Chile." His dad sent him William Wood's account when he was in Japan just like my dad sent Davis William Wood's account in Chile. Cool huh? Small world. Hope that made some semblance of sense.

We had our Fall Fest on Friday and it went really well! So many people invited their friends and we had the chance to meet most of them and it was really cool. Hopefully we'll start increasing our teaching pool. Sister Winegar and I have been focusing a lot on relying solely on the Lord. We pray earnestly for inspiration and guidance for the things that we need to do. It's been really cool to see how much the Spirit has in fact been guiding us. It strengthens my testimony on the care God has for his children. 

Love y'all,

Sister Smith

FINDING FINDING MORE FINDING

We did a LOT of tracting this week. But it was good. We're in the finding stages and we'll find someone prepared to accept the Restored gospel.

Honestly, this week blends. I almost can't remember anything super amazing. We did tract into a lady who really likes us and is slightly ADD so it took FOREVER to teach her. Thankfully, we have a better game plan for the next time we teach her and hopefully everything will soak in. 

We also have a lot pending. We have an FHE tonight with a family that's inviting their neighbors and we've invited a few potential investigators to. Please pray that the FHE will turn out! This couple is AWESOME and they want to start a tradition for once a month to help bring people to the gospel. We also have an activity this Friday that another family wants to bring their friends to and have us teach them. And there's a girl who gave a Book of Mormon to her friend and we were supposed to have a lesson with them on Friday, but he's grounded hahaha. Such is life when you're younger. But we have a lot of potential through the members. We're just patiently waiting for the next two weeks to pick them up. In the meantime we've been tracting and trying to think of more effective ways to find. It's been fun to try and figure out new ways. Nothing super great has come to mind yet, but we're determined to improve our contacting so that's it's more effective. Anyway. Everything is pending. 

President and Sister Bennion came to our ward yesterday and that was awesome. They told the same stories they told us when they first got here, but their stories are excellent so I enjoyed it. They also brought their daughter who has cerebral palsy and the ward really loved her. 

Anyway, it was a good week. I really love this ward, it's going to be great to bring investigators to fellowship with the members. It's a great area, we're just diligently working to find the elect. Sorry this email is short and kind of lame. It's mostly because I'm just excited to read y'alls emails. Not in the mood to type I guess. Hahaha I'm just selfish. ;)

Love y'all!

Sister Smith

Scheduling Mishaps, Mayhem and Miracles

This week was an amazing week! Truly, the Lord was using us as His instruments

On Tuesday we had an appointment scheduled with a family for 8 pm. The husband called us last Sunday and asked if we could come at 7 instead and wondered if we were bringing an investigator. We said that 7 worked and that we would not have an investigator with us (though, of course, we'd love it if we did!). Tuesday we show up and the house looks dark... Hmmm that's funny. Then we go up, there's no cars on the driveway. Okay. Then we knock on the door and it sounds like the knock reverberates through the entire front end of the house, like there's no furniture or anything in there. So we decide to call the family, ask if maybe they've changed addresses. We call and he laughs. He says, "Oh no. We moved to the Lawrenceville ward recently. I thought you might be the Sisters in our old ward. Well, maybe the Lord needs you in that neighborhood." That got me thinking that we should tract there just in case. We decided to just tract for 30 minutes. And thus we begin our door knocking. It's been about 30 minutes, no one really promising, but we've got two more houses left on the street and say, "What the heck? We'll just finish the street, there's just two more houses." At the last door we decided to knock on, a young high school aged kid answers. He says that his family would be interested and that his mom would be back in 30 minutes and we could come by then. We say thank you, visit a member in the neighborhood for a short bit and return. His mom answers and asks where the church is. We inform her and she got excited saying that she's sure the Lord sent us. They just moved from Ohio and they've been looking for a home church. When we told her that we were on missions for 18 months and we're from out West she got the chills. It was so amazing! She promised that she and her son would come to church on Sunday. I was on cloud 9 the entire night!

Wednesday something similar happened. Our dinner forgot she was feeding us, but beforehand we had gone tracting and met a lady who was shockingly open! She said that we could come back on Saturday. 

Unfortunately neither one of them followed through. I have come to learn that God does in fact love His children. As His servants, He tries to reach out to them through us, but they have the decision to either accept the message we share or reject. It's sad because usually if we're in the right place at the right time, the person feels the Spirit and knows we're messengers of the Lord. But life gets in the way and the adversary subtly stops their Spiritual progression. 

On Saturday we had a lesson with Lauren that was probably one of the most powerful ones I've had on the mission. We had prayed to know a date that she should prepare to be baptized and we both felt that we should ask her to be baptized on November 1st. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ after giving her a tour of the church. She was open, the spirit was felt, all was well. Then, we told her that we had prayed for her and wanted to know a date that she should be baptized. We asked her if she would like to make a goal to be baptized on November 1st. At first she seemed a little surprised at how soon the date was, then she smiled and said, "Yes. I will prepare for that." Then we asked her if she would kneel with us then and pray to know if that's the right date for her to be baptized. We knelt and she gave the most spiritually sweet prayer. She began pouring a sincerely heartfelt prayer. She asked to be worthy to be baptized on Nov 1st. Then she explained that she wanted to share this message with her family and friends and her FUTURE family! I almost started tearing up a bit. Her future family! That's amazing!!!!!!!! She knows that when she should be baptized. Moments like those are why I'm on a mission. They are so fulfilling and indescribable. It was humbling as well because she actually lives in Roswell, so we had to refer her to the Roswell Sisters. This work is not my work, this is the Lord's work. I don't even care that we had to refer her.  We had three extremely spiritual, uplifting and powerful lessons with her and the other sisters just have to teach the rest and prepare her for baptism. Honestly, I'm just happy that she's found truth and she feels it. Truly elect. She was totally fine with being taught by the other Sisters, which I love because that means she's converted to the doctrine, not the missionaries. So cool. Anyway. I reflected on  her prayer for the rest of the day and the next. 

I love being a missionary. It is extremely rewarding. It was terribly hard, but so worth it. One of our Assistants came to our district meeting yesterday and he gave an amazing training. One of the Apostles created this inverted pyramid of missionaries and their vision. It starts off with their Call, then Routine, then Obedience, then Exact Obedience, then She/He knows that She/He Knows, then Treasure Up. How it's so much more than just being obedient, it's about turning over to the Lord and treasuring up what He's given us.  But you have to do the things on the bottom to be able to achieve greatness, you can't just forget about the foundation of your learning, etc. It was really good, but he talked about how good missionaries have hard missions because they worked hard. So true! But it's such a blessing to do. 

Anyway,

Love y'all. It's Fall Y'all (that's some of the decor down here in Georgia when it's fall)

Sister Smith

Miracles upon Miracles. I'm sure I've used that before, but hey whatever

Since I first got here we've been trying to get in with a family that's active going at different times in the day and never seeming to catch them. Two Mondays ago we finally text the wife and asked if we could stop by real quick before we went in for the night. We visited and introduced ourselves and asked if we could do FHE with them every other Monday and role play the missionary lessons. She said yes and said that she really enjoyed our company and thought we were normal. Here's the cool part, last Wednesday she sends us a text basically saying, "I have a friend who had some questions about the church so I told her about y'all. Can y'all come over tonight for a lesson?" !!! Do you realize just how rare those moments are? Rare as rare can be. We're ALWAYS doing the finding, and this time our member did the finding and we're doing the teaching.

This girls name is Lauren. She is actually engaged to a member in a different ward who's just coming back into activity. She's amazing. She has been to many, many churches. She remebers as a child feeling a very calm, good feeling when she'd go to church, but as she's attended other churches she hasn't been able to replicate that feeling. When we went over the first vision she said that the feeling she got was peaceful. Then, we met with her again on Friday and she said that as she read, even thought she didn't understand everything, she felt good. She watched parts of General Conference, we're going to get her response tonight. I really love teaching her. She's super natural and we have sometimes gone on random tangents on food... I digress. I felt the Spirit SO strongly when recited the First Vision to her, it was so awesome. I was smiling like a total goob the rest of the night! Miracles.

Last night was pretty awesome as well. Our Relief Society President had us over for dinner after General Conference and invited two people we taught in Cornelia. That was awesome. They're on the email list, so hey!! :) 

General Conference was amazing. I can't wait to study the talks. I really liked Elder Christofferson's, very thought provoking. But really, I just liked all of them. Also fun story, I went on exchanges and we visited one of my old YASE counselors mom's and she face timed her daughter and I face timed her for a second. That was really cool. Tender mercy. 

I don't know what else to report on? We're just working on teaching more lessons with members and becoming better teachers, it's already brought the vision into fruition as seen with Lauren. I'm excited to continue working here and I love it. The Lord is in this work and it's so amazing to see. 

Love you all,

Sister Smith

Sister Garcia has a Birthday

We decorated Sister Garcia's car and made her wear the crown and sash.

Sister Winegar (new companion) Sister Smith, & Sister Garcia

Pics from Jocey

From my last area.  But the two ladies go to church with family here in this area.

Movie Preview...lucky me

The highlight of the week was that we got to preview the new Meet the Mormons movie! On Thursday we met as a zone with President Bennion and the assistants and we watched the movie. It's really good! Granted, it's been 13 months since I've watched a real movie, but still, I felt the Spirit. It's perfect because it's not too preachy, so it's nonthreatening and it's centered on Jesus Christ and families and how He has blessed the people's lives. It gives a fresh look on what members of the church are really like and it truly touches the heart, though that may sound chessy it's true. One of my favorite stories was the one about the Candy Bomber, I thought of Jared the whole time, I know it would be one of his favorites. I didn't even realize the candy bomber was Mormon. Anyway, I almost cried a couple times but didn't shed a tear. I was close though. It has a missionary saying goodbye to his family. Man, that was hard to watch for a second. Anyway,  GO SEE IT! Invite your friends! Especially if they have questions or they've heard strange things about the church because this glosses over those concerns and says: "They're all misconceptions!" basically. Once the movie was over there was silence amongst us missionaries and it felt so peaceful. Like the world couldn't come in. The Spirit was powerful. 

Last week we had a lot of awesome tracting miracles, but such is life as a missionary and most of the people we met we haven't been able to get back in with. Again, such is life, and it just takes a while to truly find the elect whom God has prepared. I heard a missionary say once that missionary life would be easy if the only thing we were out here to do is to find the elect and baptize them; we are also here to learn. I liked that. Though our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, we are also learning skills and attributes that wouldn't be learned quite as quickly otherwise. 

We did to a lot of role playing with members and that's been fun. I thought that most members would find it awkward, and some do, but the moms seem to really get into it! And the dads seem to always try to perfect the role play like, "Maybe instead of saying this we could say that," etc. It's kind of funny. But it's cool to do it and feel the Spirit and see how it's supposed to work. It's fun too because we've been letting the members practice inviting their friends to see "Meet the Mormons" and that has gotten hysterical and spiritual all at the same time. We met with this older couple that served a senior mission in Houston and role played with them. It was hilarious because the husband kept going out of character and would say, "Now I just love that! Wow. Good job." Then he would go on to another story about their mission. It was so funny. 

Then we just tract in between meeting members and try to find the people. I feel like it will start to pick up with investigators and stuff within this transfer and many miracles will happen. I'm excited and I love this new area I'm in. I feel extremely comfortable here and we have some stellar members to work with.

Love y'all,

Sister Smith

More pics from Cleveland----my previous area

This is my old district in Cornelia. There are some great people I served around. :) 09/14

Give me more Sugar

I'm currently writing this email from Sugar Hill Georgia. That's my new area and I already love it! I am with Sister Paige Winegar. She's awesome. She just does things how we're supposed to and that's it. She's also really easy to talk to so we're getting along really well. Also, we live in a members basement. That's a whole new experience for me! It's by a lake and it's gorgeous.

President Bennion has emphasized the importance of member missionary work. Instead of leaving a random dinner thought with families, we're asked to role play with them and have a lesson with them from the Preach My Gospel lessons. It's been truly amazing and extremely uplifting and spiritual. My first night in Sugar Hill we met with a family who already knows someone they want to invite to FHE in a couple weeks and we role played with them and they thanked us for doing that with them. Plus, the wife plays the violin and she played "How Great Thou Art" while I sang, that was cool. She was a music major at BYU, so she's extremely skilled. 

We had another dinner with a family, whose daughter just got back from her mission in Germany. We role played with them and the father role played a friend from work. His friend is agnostic and such, and we went over prayer and receiving revelation to our prayers, etc. After we were finished Bro W. said, "I feel like you two did that really well. You handled my friend and his concerns very well. I almost want you to teach him." !!! That's how it's supposed to work! He doesn't live in our area, or even our mission. But, we're building the trust from the members and that's the whole point. 

That same day we had been tracting and talked to this lady named Denee. She was so sweet and told us to come back after dinner and we could talk to her. Then we knocked a few more houses and talked to another, younger girl named Alyssa and set up a return appointment for the next day. When we went back to Denee's we originally meant to talk to her about the Restoration, but she talked about how her brother died recently and since then she's wondered about the after life and such. She asked question after question. She's been searching for answers her entire life. She couldn't set up another appointment, but she gave us her number and told us to call her a day that we had open and see if we could drop in that evening. After we left we felt really good about the experience. She even has a connection to someone that's LDS.

The next day we had our lesson with Alyssa. She could only do it for 20 minutes but we emphasized prayer. She had never really prayed to her Heavenly Father before. She'd participated in church prayers and the prayer over dinner, but that was about it. We talked to her about how much Heavenly Father wants to hear from us and He cares about EVERYONE, we just have to begin praying to Him to actually know he's there. She prayed by the end of the lesson and we asked her how she felt,  she said that it felt really good. We gave her an assignment from the Book of Mormon on prayer and told her to practice her prayers. We're meeting with her again tomorrow. It's so cool because I don't think she ever realized how important she is to God. Truly it's a blessing to be a part of people's lives in that aspect, helping them discover spiritual things that people don't really talk about. It's beautiful.

Then, on Saturday we were trying to find these two less actives. Their address was recorded 940, but we couldn't find it. The numbers went from 920, 930, 950, 960. 940 was completely skipped. We sat there and laughed for a minute, almost deciding to call it a day and go somewhere else. Then we thought we should knock on 950 and ask them about the address. We knock on the door, a lovely lady with a Liberian accent opens the door. She talks to us, then we ask if "such-and-such and so-and-so" are there. She says, "Yes! This is where they live. They're not here right now, but come on in from the sun." We talk to her and she talks about she loves missionaries and she knows that Joseph Smith is a true prophet because the Spirit of God was in the room when the missionaries taught her about it. Then she said, "I don't know why the missionaries haven't come in a while, but they haven't." I guess it's been a couple years or so since they have come. She also had a 9 year old daughter that is super eager to be baptized. Apparently this is her favorite church and she loves the Book of Mormon even though she really hasn't read it. We set up an appointment with them and we'll be seeing them on Wednesday.

Anyway, I love it here. We have seen so many random miracles and have been so blessed! I'm so thankful to be a missionary and to be able to experience moments like these. At home I would never have the chance to be so immersed in missionary work, and now I get that opportunity. I love it.

Love you all so much!

Sister Smith

 SISTER BURGESS & SISTER SMITH AT AN APPLE ORCHARD

 GOTTA LOVE THE SOUTH AND PRAISE THE LORD.....

 ZONE SISTERS IN CLEVELAND AREA OF GEORGIA

SISTER IKETAU IS BOSS...SHE IS READY TO GO HOME ....MATCHING OUTFITS W

DRIVE , DRIVE DRIVE....

This week was basically us in the car ALL week! Or so it feels!

Tuesday we had Zone Meeting, which was pretty great. We got a new curriculum that I'm super excited for. President wants us to become better teachers. He still wants us to tract, but not have it be a main focus like it used to be, he said that we're pretty good teachers, but we need to be better. Our focus now is to strive to incorporate member missionary work more. To begin by focusing on teaching and role playing with the members, and as the Spirit comes more directly into their homes, then it will spark that missionary fire. I'm extremely excited and we began implementing it ASAP. 

Later that Tuesday we went to Taccoa, and had lessons with some amazing  women in our ward that have recently been reactivated. 

On Wednesday we had two lessons and a team up and both of our appointments cancelled :/. That was sad. And then we decided to teach a lesson to the lady that was going to go out with us. We role played, her being the investigator, and we actually learned quite a bit from it. We based it around an appointment we had later that night. And though we didn't need to use what we learned, it definitely started our day off well with the Spirit. Then Sister Burgess had a doctor's appointment in Ellijay. We were going to drive there ourselves and write off the medical miles, but the lady we did the lesson with offered to give us a ride. That was REALLY nice! That basically took all day because Ellijay is FOREVER away from us and her appointment took a very long time. But we ended the night with a lesson with Karen, the one whose mom is a member. It was a really wonderful lesson. The mother was baptized a while ago with her husband. She thought that she would be able to attend her other daughter's sealing, but she hadn't been baptized for a year. Since then she has had NO desire to go to the temple. It gives her a bad taste in her mouth. Well, this past February her husband passed away. Missionaries didn't come by for a while. Karen moved in. Finally, Sister Burgess and I felt like we should go visit Sister Eggleston and begin teaching her the missionary lessons. Karen said that she would like to join the lessons as well. We've been teaching them, the Spirit's been strong. Karen said that she will be baptized when she knows it's true, etc. Well, this last lesson we brought up the temple, because of the Spirit to be honest, and we found out that Sister Eggleston has suddenly felt a change of heart and would like to possibly go through the temple! That's AMAZING! She asked if she could be sealed to her husband. We affirmed that yes, she could definitely be sealed to her husband. It was to amazing.

We had exchanged this week which was really great. I really needed it. And I loved the Sister I went on exchanges with. She's going to go to BYU-I after the mission and that made me somewhat excited, because basically everyone in our mission is going to go to Utah State. 

Saturday we Stake Conference, which was forever away, but really great. First off, I got to see Sister Andrus and Sister Jones (that was a blessing!) and the talks were wonderful. Someone from the stake compared missionary work to the beach. I will say, that's unfair to talk about in front of a missionary from California. But anyway, he talked about how the waves are like the wave of missionary work. Getting people to make covenants with the Lord and be baptized. And the shore was the temple. The lifeguard is Jesus Christ. It was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last night we went to go visit an investigator and he wasn't home and I'm guessing his wife answered and she was NOT interested. We even had a team up and everything. Then we thought to go visit another pair of investigators we taught a couple weeks ago but haven't been able to get in with them. Well, we were in the same city that a less active family lives in that the entire ward is focusing on basically. As we were driving to the second set of investigators we decided as a back up plan to go see the family. But then as we kept driving Sister Burgess said,  "Should we go see the family first? They're the other way around, but maybe we should go see them." We then made the executive decision to go see the family. When we first got there it was admittedly awkward. For maybe five minutes. "Hey we're here interrupting y'alls night on a school night!" Anyway, but then we taught about the Restoration real briefly and asked the parents about their conversion (they're both converts). The husband didn't want to talk about his conversion because he's less active. Then the wife spoke. I had the distinct feeling that I should ask the husband whether or not he still believed in the teachings of the Church. I asked, almost afraid I might offend him, but he seemed fine that I asked and began discussing his feelings. We fed off of his concerns and I felt a sweet Spirit enter into their home. It was calming, and peaceful. As we got ready to leave he thanked me for asking the question because he's been wanting someone to ask him that for a long time. It felt nice for him to get that off of his chest. It was amazing because when Sister Burgess and our team up and I got in the car, Sister Burgess said she had thought to ask the same question but didn't want to offend him. I love that we come in pairs because any time I'm dumb enough not to follow a prompting Sister Burgess always makes up for it and vice versa. The Lord really knows what he's doing, even when dealing with 19-25 year old missionaries who are blind sometimes.

Also, I've learned this week just how much I sincerely love reading the Book of Mormon. There is a feeling of peace and clarity that comes to me when I read it. The ending of the Book of Mormon is so beautiful and significant. I love that book. I don't think I ever realized how much I would truly thirst from the revelation that I receive from reading the Book of Mormon. 

Anyway, it's amazing. Read it. Study it. And seriously pray about.. 

Love y'all ,

Sister Smith

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

This week was pretty good. We had more lessons with investigators in this area than we've had in a long time and that was truly a blessing. There's a lady, I think I talked about her last week, I'll call her Mary. Anyway, she is the daughter of a member and just moved in with her mom recently. We taught them twice this last week and the Spirit was extremely powerful both times. For our second lesson we watched the Restoration DVD and it was beautiful. As missionaries, we see that movie a LOT, but I consistently learn or realize something new every time. I feel the Spirit so strongly during the part when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith. This last time I had more of a realization that God's work does not stop. It is almost unfathomable to imagine a church, as persecuted and peculiar as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that has thrived and grown since its Restoration. That is just astounding to me. There's a quote by Joseph Smith that we memorize in the mission: "The Standard of truth has been erected, no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing: persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldy nobly and independent." There's more to it, but I love quoting it because it's so powerful and so true. His work keeps going, nothing can stop it. And the only reason it works is because it's of God. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here and no one would feel the Spirit. 

We had a lesson with a kid that is 15. His living situation is extremely poor. His parents don't really seem too involved in his life and he can kind of do whatever he wants. It was a very eye opening experience. It kept reflecting on why I was blessed to have been born into the family I was born into. My parents were smart enough to want me to be more. They didn't let me just float by doing whatever I want. Which, at the time, isn't always appreciated, but now I see. I wondered how I would have turned out if my parents hadn't been like how they were. Where would I be? Who would I be? Would I make positive choices in my life? Or would I just give in to my appetites? Then I wondered about why all of us are born into such different circumstances. Really, it all boils down to decisions. His parents decisions definitely are affecting his outcome, thus far. I think about mothers that drink while their pregnant, that's an innocent child, and it's very life is completely changed and affected by the mother's poor decision. And still, we're all God's children. I feel as if the Atonement covers more than I can imagine. When I think about people born into situations where they don't have much of a chance against the world, I wonder how it will all be in end. How much will Christ's atonement cover those circumstances? It's true, be the change you wish to see in the world. Nothing will be perfect, there are people making poor decisions everyday. We see it everyday. We go into their homes and see their living conditions, but we're there to help them. We're there to find the one. The one out of the ninety and nine. The atonement can in fact change their lives. It's sad because I think even members forget just how powerful Jesus Christ's Atonement was. If we focused on faith in Jesus Christ and how it can truly change people's natures, then we would be able to strengthen those on the path of forgiveness and healing. 

Anyway, that's my rant. I don't even know what else to comment on. 

Love you all,

Sister Smith

It was Labor Day....Hey there hey. I'm ALIVE!

Sorry. We couldn't email yesterday because we had appointment after appointment and we had team ups for all of them so we needed to take advantage of that. However, Wednesday mornings we're usually scrambling for something effective to do, and this week it had to be our emailing time due to Labor Day.

Last week... It was good. I can hardly remember it by now!

Tuesday was really cool. District Meeting really pumped Sister Burgess and I and we went tracting afterward. We did exactly our two hours and it went by faster than normal. We had extremely meaningful contacts and lessons with people and got five new investigators. That's the standard for the whole week and we got it in two hours! That was really cool. 

There are two less active ladies who just started coming back to church. We asked if they want us to start teaching them the missionary lessons so they can get their feet wet and feel comfortable with the basic doctrine. Both of them said yes and they live in a city that's 30 miles away from us, so naturally we normally don't find ourselves in that city. But we've been teaching them and I truly love them. They're both so ready to come back to church and they're doing all of the assignments we give them and they're learning so much from their studies. And they're better missionaries than most active members are! They're both planning on inviting friends to be taught the gospel and to come to church! I'm so excited for them. I feel like there is going to be a lot of miracles from teaching them. 

Thursday I had real Cajun food. There's a lady from Louisiana in the ward and she fed us lunch. It was really delicious! Then we had a lesson that night with two girls we met while tracting. We thought they were friends or sisters by adoption or something. They're actually dating. The lesson we had was SO spiritual and they truly felt it. We discussed it with our district and one of the Elders suggested that we remind them of who they are and their potential. If we remind them that they are daughters of God and he has a plan for them, and we teach them the "why" of the gospel, hopefully the Spirit will make a change. It's taking a LOT of faith, but it will be an amazing experience if it al works out. If not, then at least they have felt the Spirit and they know that God loves them. We talked a lot about that for the lesson and focused on Joseph Smith and the Restoration. 

Church was really awesome. All the missionaries were assigned to speak, but an Area Seventy came so we all had to shorten our talks. But his talk was really good and he touched on the Atonement and Grace and it was really inspiring. I have such a strong testimony of the enabling power of the atonement. I love Elder Bednar's talk about that. 

Monday we had dinner and a lesson that was so spiritual! There's an older lady who's husband just passed away and her daughter from Colorado just moved in with her permanently. We invited the lady, who's a member, to have us teach her the lessons. Turns out, her daughter's not a member and she would like to take them too! So Monday was the first lesson we had with them. We felt prompted to teach the Plan of Salvation instead of the Restoration. Also, they read their assignment, Alma 32 and to make this faith cycle thing. During the lesson, we got to the Atonement and focused all of our lesson on that basically. We talked about how the atonement can effect ALL aspects of our lives. It is something that can strengthen us daily. Well the mother had never thought of the atonement like that before. We read Alma 7 and discussed how the Atonement can help us even in times of suffering and heartache. We asked if they felt the Spirit and both of them did. We felt prompted to end the lesson there and we'll pick up next time. I keep reflecting on the power in that lesson and it's truly beautiful to know that God is watching over us. He cares about our struggles. I love it! 

Yesterday was great. Many, many appointments. The day went by REALLY fast! I love it. I love being a missionary. Sometimes I think about the day I'll speak at my homecoming and I think about all the feelings I have toward my mission and they're all very positive. I love that Christ's gospel has changed me so much. 

Love you all!

Sister Smith