Visiting Mr. Sparkman aka Sparky

This man's name is Paul Sparkman, but we call him Sparky. We go visit him at the nursing home. He loves music! He used to be in choirs and played the piano. He sang at the temple dedication, back when the Atlanta temple was first dedicated and when his voice was younger. We always went and sang to him. We sang him the song we sang in sacrament meeting and he almost cried and said, "I am upset that they're breaking up something so beautiful. If someone put you two in different rooms and put a blindfold on, they'd swear it was the same voice." He's was really upset the rest of the time because he was sad to see Sister Andrus go and now I'd be a lone singer. He's the best. Sidenote, he has these glasses that have lenses on them like the dentist has. You know the ones that stick out and look like built in binoculars. I was laughing so hard when he put them on and then looked at me. I was crying, legit crying, because I couldn't make a sound. I didn't want to embarrass him. Honestly, my face and stomach hurt so bad for how hard I was laughing and keeping it all in. The most self control!

Hello Hello, I have a new companion in Roswell

This week was awesome and sad all the same. 

Sister Andrus is in Peach Tree Corners now. Which is literally like 0.2 miles away from where we live in Roswell. Hahah. She didn't move much. 

I have Sister Nettleton as a companion. She's from, of all places... Utah. The Factory. Who isn't right? Hahah just kidding. Anyway. 

So Wednesday we had a lesson with Shahrad... HE'S ON DATE! He said he's made the decision a while ago, but he wanted to make sure it all felt right. Happiness for days.

Then on Thursday we had a lesson with Mindy. Her story is awesome, I have to admit, I super thankful for the Spirit and its guidance on this one. So Sister Andrus and I tracted this area about three to four week ago and the neighborhood was awful. We tracted for an hour and didn't have any meaningful contacts with anyone. Well, we almost decided to switch neighborhoods, but then we thought we'd do a couple more and then leave. This lady answers the door wearing an adorable scarf that both Sister Andrus and I compliment. Then we talked about clothes for a couple minutes (Ann Taylor Loft, Anthro, etc.) and then we got to talking about the gospel. We asked her if she had a belief in Jesus Christ, and shockingly, she said she didn't.... Hmmm. Most people here do, so that was interesting. But then she stopped herself and said she didn't used to believe in Christ, but recently she's been in contact with special people in her life that have caused her to actually seriously contemplate Christ and His existence. She even said that the fact we were there increased her new found faith. So we set up an appointment with her and went on our way. (Mind you, the rest of the day was poop and Sister Andrus and I just kept repeating her name to ourselves because we felt that something was different with her... One golden person helps carry me through). 

Then after cancelled appointments and rescheduling we finally had a lesson with her. We brought this wonderful lady in the ward, Sister Varney, and their stories are scary similar. Mindy is a single mom with two sons and she's dating this man with six children and he's extremely religious and his sons can't get their license until they have their Eagles. Mindy didn't know what religion he was, she just knew he was really devoted. As soon as we left the lesson I had it in my head that her boyfriend was  Mormon. Sister Andrus wasn't sure, she thought maybe, and Sister Varney did not think he was Mormon. During the snowstorm we were texting her and she told us she had some exciting news to tell us, but not until we had another lesson with her. Finally, we had one this past Thursday.

Here's how her side of the story goes. After our first lesson with her she took a picture of The Book of Mormon we left her and she sent it to her mom and her boyfriend. Her mom was upset and her boyfriend text back, "call me." So, she called and he started asking a bunch of questions. Then she stopped him and said, "Why are you so curious?" And he replied, "The thing is... That's the church I attend." !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know God is watching out for her. I know we were supposed to knock on her door and her door only. She needed this message and God placed the best person in her path. I could not stop smiling when she told us that. She said she almost called us, but then she decided to tell us in person. Oh, another weird thing, he's living in Peach Tree Corners, where Sister Andrus is serving. We're both going to keep an eye out for her in both areas. SO AWESOME! Divine. That's all I can say about this work. Divine. 

That was the best thing thus far... Not much else to report on. 

Love y'all

Jocelyn

Sister Andrus, Sister Jocelyn, Sister Varney from Roswell (her son is in our area as a missionary), and two other Sister Missionaries out to lunch with Sister Varney

Sister Andrus, Katie Nielson who has awesome piano skills, & Sister Jocelyn. They practiced with Katie and performed a couple of musical numbers during the week.

Sister Nettleton, Jocey's new companion & two other girls from Georgia

Sister's Valentines Breakfast 

Sister Jocey, Sharad, and Sister Andrus.  Sharad  speaks Farsi & a little English.  He is their Persian investigator who is getting baptized soon.  

Jocelyn and companion get frozen in their apartment and decide to make cookies for all the other people in the complex that are home on Valentines.  Nothing like a spectacular plate of cookies to open the door.  

Another week in Roswell GA the frozen South

This week was awesome. So we were basically stuck inside Tuesday through Thursday because of the snowstorm. Which, the snowstorm wasn't even that bad, Georgians are crazy. You shoulda seen the grocery store last week. THE MOST PEOPLE! 

On Tuesday we walked to a members house....It took us two hours to walk there and it was misty and cold. But I actually kind of liked it,I just love walking so it wasn't that bad. Then we did service and helped Heidi clean out underneath her house in this basement ish thing.

Wednesday we couldn't go anywhere. Too much ice on the sidewalks and streets so we weren't allowed to leave. So we went over to the Spanish Sisters aparment since it's in our complex and we had lunch and then we basically did nothing...It was so sad. But before dinner we all worked out together then we played Clue.  I forgot how much I like that game. Then we put our mattresses in the living room and had a sleepover with the Sisters. Any other day that wouldn't happen, but we basically knew we wouldn't be able to do anything on Thursday so....There you go. It was a lot of fun! 

Thursday we worked, even though we were inside. We cleaned our apartment and weekly planned so we could spend all of Friday and Saturday contacting instead of being inside Friday to weekly plan. And we did the most genius thing ever. We made heart shaped sugar cookies and frosted them pink and red. We don't know any of our neighbors and I like being able to say hi to my neighbors wherever I live, so that's why we bought and made the cook mix. So on Valentine's Day we put them in these super cute baggies and taped a mormon.org card to them and went and gave them to our neighbors... People like you much better when you have cookies. We only had one person be mean to us. Everyone was really nice and we told them why we put our card on their and what we do as missionaries, etc. It was really cool. Really awesome finding tool. Doing that for every holiday now for sure. 

That made Valentine's Day really good. Typically we talk to about 11 people in a day about the gospel, but on Valentine's Day we talked to 28 people! And Heidi made us a Valentine's breakfast with heart shaped, pink pancakes and she bought us our favorite flowers with dark chocolate. So cute! She loves us. We love her too! :)

Saturday Sister Andrus and I were asked to sing at the Zone Leaders' baptism, and we sang in Sacrament meeting yesterday, so we went over to Katie Nielson's to practice for a couple hours. We did "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Homeward Bound," way prettier than the original! It sounded really cool and it was fun to sing. Then yesterday we sang "Write Thy Name Upon My Heart," by Sally Deford. It went really well. We wished we could have recorded it because we sang with the Spirit the most when we performed it rather than when we were practicing.  (That's why my subject line is what it is because those are all instruments that I found in Daniel and we did a lot of music so I thought it was appropriate). (Also, a sackbut is a triangular instrument with strings. Thought y'all ought to know right?). 

The baptism we sang at was awesome. Shahrad, our Persian, came and he really enjoyed it. We told him that Sister Andrus was leaving and he wrote her a note because he had a hard time saying it in English: "I love you because you have been my guide. I will not ever forget you-- SHAHRAD." Then he pointed at the program for the baptism and said, "Baptismal service for me... Next month." !!!!!! Shahrad is getting baptized! He's the most cool person ever.  His entire journey in the gospel has been by the Spirit. He came for a month before we could find a member that spoke farsi! We rarely meet people that speak English that are as devoted as he is. He's inspiring and hopefully he's slowly opening up a door to more farsi resources and stuff. 

Well, those were the highlights of the week. Our sacrament meeting was really good yesterday because 5 new members were confirmed. It's nice to have spiritually enriching sacrament meetings :)

Love y'all so much!

Jocelyn

Jocelyn with her Santa Bag at the Grocery Store

Bring your bag or buy your bag....Jocey saves the enviroment in GA by re-using her Santa Bag

Sister Fabulous and Sister Andrus in the Ice & Snow Roswell GA 2014

 

After 2 Hrs Tracting; Froze Nose, Froze Toes, Froze hair, Don't Care

Jocelyn Flops her beautiful locks onto the painted wall

Service Project gone hairy

Sister Jocey washes her hair after paint mishap

Twas a Wonderful Week 2/10/14

This week was awesome. We worked way hard! I even got sick and we were in for a day and a half and then we still worked hard all the other days. It makes me feel accomplished :)

On Tuesday I contacted this guy and it was amazing. Most spiritual contact ever. So we've discovered bus stops. And so, we had nothing else to do before we went in and we went to the bus stop to contact. There was this really nice African American man standing there and I approached him while Sister Andrus approached another person. He began talking about how it's sad people use religion as a barrier. They allow it to seperate themselves from other people, etc. And he said that it's just confusing. So, I began talking about the apostasy and Joseph Smith. I've never felt the spirit so strongly while reciting the first vision. And I didn't even have to ask him how he felt or anything, he just looked and he said, "That's real stuff. No gimmicks. That was real. I could see it in your eyes. I felt the spirit." ! He knows what the spirit is! Then I felt like I could just shove the Book of Mormon in his hands right then and just scream I was so excited. Of course, I remained calm and described the background of the Book of Mormon and then gave it to him. He wanted me to put my name it saying from: Sister Smith, To: James. I even dated it just in case. It was really cool. 

Then on Wednesday we taught a lady who is a single mom with two sons. She's super tiny, like Ashley's size and really sweet. We brought this wonderful woman with us and it went really well! There's more to her story, but once we get all of the information on Thursday I'll email more about her next week. 

We had dinner with a family that is active but they're really struggling with their testimony. I connect with the wife a lot and it's awesome. So we'll be having dinner there this week and have another lesson. I love this family, I feel really comfortable and myself when I'm with them. And they have a 16 year old daughter that is hilarious! she reminds me of the teenage girl in Dan in Real Life. 

Don't know what else to comment on. Shahrad's lesson was really good this week. He's solid. He'll be baptized. He's probably the most committed person and he doesn't even speak English. We absolutely love him and he loves us so it's awesome. 

Love y'all

Sister Smith 

Deep Freeze in the Deep South 2/3/14 Roswell GA

This week went by so fast! I don't even know what happened.

So Tuesday was cool. We all got a call from President telling us that we cannot drive after noon because a snow storm was coming in around then. So we had district meeting early and then went to lunch a little earlier than usual. After that we parked our car at the apartment and were on foot. So we tracted while is was snowing. My hair was froze, that's fine. And my toes were froze. But it was fun. I seriously love the snow. I know everyone else moans and complains about it, but California probs includes just loving the snow. AH it's so pretty! And white and clean, I just loved tracting in it. 

Anyway, basically when we got to the last house on the street we got a call that we all had to be inside and not walk anywhere. So we went inside and I tried updating my journal... so boring! But I'm basically caught up so that's good. Then we met up with the Spanish sisters at the gym. That felt so good! To just be at the gym longer than an hour and sweat. Happiness. Then the sisters came over and we just talked. I love the Spanish sisters. The four of us sisters in the district all just get along and we can talk about anything it's great.

Then on Wednesday we couldn't drive again because the streets were pretty much ice, especially in and out of neighborhoods. People were in gridlock traffic for 5 to 13, sometimes 15 hours! So crazy! People slept in Target, Home Depot, Nursing homes, you name it. It was cool though because the next day it felt like we lived in an apocalypse. There were stranded cars, some were against another car because they hit. It was so cool. Then everyone was just walking around to the different stores and stuff or to their houses because they left their cars on the freeway and walked home. So interesting. And it was awesome because we doubled our daily contact that day because it was so easy to just talk to people and everyone was just so nice. 

Finally we were back on the road on Thursday. We had a lesson with that one girl Elisabeth and it was really good. Felt the spirit. Brought and awesome team up that got along with her really well and we had a church tour with her on Saturday. 

We couldn't meet with Shahrad this week because of the ice. :/

Then we had a lesson with the Mayes family...! The husband has totally changed!! He wants to come to church every Sunday and their family has already come twice now! And yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, Elder Scott's brother got up and spoke about eternal families and temple marriages, etc because of his wife's death and it was sooooo good! Definitely felt the spirit. So then everyone else testified of eternal families and the temples and Danielle Mayes told us that she teared up a little bit during some of the testimonies. She said it's good to be back. They are so cool, they're from Detroit so they've got the BEST accents! I can't even imitate them because they're so cool. I love that family. They have the most adorable kids as well. Seriously, they're amazing and the coolest. Everything just lined up for them. God loves them. He loves everyone. 

Then on Saturday we had a lesson with another less active family and Sister Andrus was totally inspired! The wife has been coming to church and all. I just love her, she's super classy and has the classiest southern accent. So cute. But her husband hasn't been in years. And Sister Andrus read from Alma 5: verse 26 I believe and she asked them,"When was the first time y'all felt the Spirit." And her husband answered first and told us his whole conversion story. Then we offered to say the closing prayer! Leaps and bounds my friends. Leaps and bounds. 

I feel like we work with less actives really well! They've grown so much and it's amazing to see their testimonies restore and light up and they really do change. It's legit and I can't get enough of it. I love the people we work with that are prepared by the Lord. He knows all and it's amazing to reflect on that. 

There were definitely some hard points this week, but we were totally blessed. I love it. I love being here and I love the people we connect with.

Love y'all tons, love all the pictures. Tegan and her family look as good as ever. It was weird seeing a picture of Tegan and Benji, I'm so used to seeing all the kids every week. 

So much love. The most love

Sister Smith

Working Hard in Roswell 1/27/14

This week was good. Nothing fantastic, but nothing too horrible. I like those weeks, they're consistent and don't freak my emotions out too much. Which reminds me, we had interviews this week and President talked about a quote from Spencer W. Kimball or something (I'm probably totally wrong, it could be someone else...) which says something kind of like that consistent, steady work is better than overworking in a frenzy and then crashing. So true! It's just like working out. It's better to at least work out everyday for just 30 minutes than to work out for 2 to 3 hours one day a week because that won't get you anywhere.

Tuesday we had a lesson with a less active family. The Spanish sisters were tracting in their apartment complex and they knocked on this family's door and let them in and even fed the Sisters food. So the Sisters told  us to contact them. We tried and no one answered their door, so we figured we'd try again. Well, the next day we get a call from a lady in Primary asking about that very same family...! Weird. And she said she had spoken with the wife and gave us her address, which was different than the one in our area book. Finally, we make it over to their house and talk with the mom for a good while, just to know a little bit about her background and such. She and her husband are converts of about 2-3 years. The missionaries knocked on their door and that was that. They became really close to Isiah, the guy who introduced us to Dayjah. 

Well, so finally it's Tuesday and we have an official lesson with them. We brought Isiah's brother with us because we figured he'd be a good team up and went with that... The husband has quite a few things he needs to work on in order to get to church hahaha. He's holding a LOT of grudges and can't get past the fact that people within the church are in fact imperfect... who knew?! So we taught him, and I feel like we actually made some headway.  

They told us they would possibly come to church, which it was stake conference weekend so we made sure they knew time and everything. THEY CAME! WHOOOO HOOOO! Honestly, I was nervous, I didn't think they would come. So that was awesome. 

We taught Shahrad, he's our Persian, and we got through an entire lesson! Most of the time we end up answering his questions, because he has a lot. He wanted to tell us more about himself this week and that was way cool. Turns out, he went to a university that's basically equal to MIT in Iran, and by his junior year when the Islamic government took over after the Shah (so this was back in like '79 or 80 or something) they began forcing the students to have religious classes. Shahrad refused to take the classes and by his senior year he could not graduate with a degree because he didn't take those religion classes. He really sticks to what he believes in. That's why he has so many questions, he wants to ensure that it's nothing like the Islam he experienced in Iran. (That's not to say I'm dissing on it, I really like the Muslim religion and what I have learned from it, but he just didn't like what he saw back at home, which makes a lot sense). So he's cool. 

We met this girl this week that is really awesome. She struggles with a lot and we taught her on Thursday. She cried during our lesson because she felt like some of  the answers she's been looking for for  years were answered. It was really spiritual and really cool. We have a lot to work on with her on a many levels, but she's a gem. (Also, fun fact: her boyfriend is the zombie that bites off Hershel's leg in the Walking Dead). 

The stake conference broadcast was awesome. Very inspiring and lots of notes. I seriously love Elder Russell M. Nelson! He spoke last, of course, and he was hilarious! He made so many jokes, pretty sure I was the only one laughing most of the time, but it was great. But he focused on the nine doctrine that members need to concentrate on and it was such a sound talk. Nothing too crazy, just right. He said that for fun he wanted to count the number of times doctrine and doctrines is used in the scriptures. During this search he discovered that the non plural "doctrine" in the scriptures applies to the Doctrine of God, or the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, etc. And that the plural "doctrines" was negatively associated with the doctrines of man, the doctrines of the devil and so forth. Though he said he didn't want us to freak out over one letter or the plurality or singularity of either, he just wanted to point that out. Then he discussed the facets of the Doctrine of God. Super good. Overall, I received a lot of inspiration and have a little bit stronger of a testimony. 

Well, can't think of more. 

Love y'all

Jocelyn

Roswell 1/20/14

So this week was fantastic! It started off with tons of drive from Sister Andrus and I because the previous two weeks were rough. We even had 5 contacts on a Monday, which rarely happens. But the best day was yesterday. I'll take most of my time explaining yesterday and its miracle.

We met some awesome people. I love Hindus. I always leave contacts with Hindus so peaceful. If that's what people feel when they meet us because of the Spirit, then we're doing something right. Either they live up to their spirituality, or culturally they just emanate peace, but I just feel to so calm every time we talk to Hindus. They're so cool, and typically really nice. Increased love for so many cultures on the mission. I feel like that's why I'm in Georgia. It's SUCH a melting pot of cultures, and God knows how much I love people and learning about them, and He knew that I would just soak these people in.  It's just amazing. God would want us to all to worship and love together. I think He loves seeing all the different races come together and live among each other. 

So yesterday. We had a referral the Elders gave us from last week and we've been trying to contact them, and we said, "okay, if they don't answer their door today we're just going to drop the referral." And we went, and an older lady answered, and I knew that she wasn't the contact we needed, and it turns out that the contact actually lived next door. We had been going to the wrong address. Well, we go over, meet the lady for two seconds, she told us to come back in 10 minutes because she had literally just gotten out of the shower (she was still in a towel! Hahaha!). So we went back ten minutes later and she answered. She was with her fiance and they were about to go out to eat. We just talked to her for about 15 minutes and set up a return appointment for tonight. 

Then we called a lady that was a referral and set up another appointment to have with her tonight. Then, we went tracting and we tracted into this wonderful single mom of a 14 year old girl. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was so intently listening! She said that she grew up Christian, but only in the last 1 and a half did she come back to Jesus. She said she just wants to follow Christ. She would only need her daughter and Christ, nothing material. And we told her that we can help her learn more. And we set up an appointment with her to have tonight. So the cool thing is that last week we made a goal to get three new investigators and we did not make the goal at all throughout the week. We honestly tried so hard to ask people if they could meet with us again and set up a time, and everyone had all these excuses or just said to text them, etc etc. And then last night we got three new in one hour! How does that even happen?! #blessed. 

So we're super thankful. And then we had a lesson with Dayjah last night. Isaiah came into town for the weekend because his older brother was being endowed. Remind me to tell y'all their story, it's so inspiring it should be in the Ensign or something. And we had this awesome lesson with Dayjah. I don't think I'll ever forget that lesson. The Spirit was so strong and I felt like I was with family, with people I just knew and we could all understand and uplift each other. It was such a peaceful feeling. And we just taught her about faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. We extended a date to her and she said yes, if she feels prepared. That lesson was definitely led by the Spirit, no doubt. 

Love the work. These weeks are the ones that get me through the hard ones, and it's all worth it. 

Love y'all!

Jocelyn