God is great, (root) beer is good and people are crazy 3/31/14

This week was great and funny. We got in two little car accidents. Fun stuff. Hahaha, but they weren't bad and one involved no other cars.

 

On Wednesday we met this awesome lady named Juana. We went to go see her on Thursday and she had company over, so we just stood outside of her apartment and told her about the General Women's Broadcast. We met her daughter as well, she is so cute and stylish! And they came on Saturday and she brought her other daughter. Turns out, she has a cousin that's a member and they saw each other at the broadcast and her cousin said, "I've been telling you to come for years! How did you get here?" Hahaha. We're meeting with them later on this week and I'm pretty sure it will go really well.

 

Mindi is hands down one of my favorite people ever. This past week we didn't have a lesson because she went to Texas for a wedding. On Saturday we asked if she was planning on coming to the broadcast and she said she would decide after work because she was invited to something else. After that I was talking to Sister Nettleton and said, "I just love Mindi. When I get married I want her to come to my wedding." Well, Mindi came to the broadcast! And she really enjoyed it. Afterward, she and I were talking and she said, "You want to know something funny? When I was at my friend's wedding and thinking about my own wedding I thought of the people I would want there and I thought of you." AW! She loves me too! Hahaha. This week is transfers and we told her there is  a possibility of me leaving and her face fell. Thankfully I'm staying. I need the six more weeks with Mindi :)

 

Also on Saturday. We went to go visit a referral and we taught her the first lesson and made a return appointment. So that's great. And then, we tracted in apartments near the referral and met this dime of a couple. He answered the door and seemed so indifferent, but of course, after talking for a while he seemed to warm up a bit. Then he told his girlfriend to come out and talk to us. She came out and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and totally felt the Spirit! It was such an awesome contact. They promised to come to church next week and we're meeting them on Tuesday. Pray for them! They are so nice and so cool!

 

Anway, this week had a lot of miracles and a lot of things that some people would freak out over, but we kept our cool and were just happy. It was so nice. Loving the work, glad I'm staying until Mother's Day. Maybe we'll Skype and y'all can meet Mindi :)... Maybe. That's in more than a month, but still.

 

Love y'all

Sister Jocelyn Smith

Crazy Fast Week 3/24/14

This week was good. I had a lot of really good and Spiritual studies and I think that was a nice highlight to my days. Every morning is amazing, but this week I feel like I got a lot out of the scriptures. That and Sister Nettleton and I just finished reading Ether in our companionship studies and the last 5 chapters are awesome! I felt like I was watching a movie every morning because of how cool those last few chapters are. I know some people think the war chapters are boring, but I must say, I find them surprisingly entertaining and gripping. So there Dad, you can be proud of me ;). 

This week was funny because the previous week when we weekly planned I thought we did such a good job of it. Normally our plans are planned, but vague at most, but last week we got down to the nitty gritty and REALLY planned. Well, turns out if we had five lessons planned out in a day, at least two to three would cancel that morning. Hahaha. So that is my testimony in planning.... Just kidding, I plan on continuing planning (wow, so much....planning) more effeciently like we did last week, it makes the week seem less stressful and put together. In all reality, I really have gained a testimony in planning, despite all the setbacks on people's free agency ;). 

We met with Janet and FINALLY got through a lesson! We told her that we were there to teach her the lessons, I love visiting with her, I do, but as a missionary, that's not my purpose, I can do that on Facebook when I get home. Plus, as you teach you get to know a better, deeper side of people that you wouldn't just get out of visiting them. It's fun being a full-time "teacher," I learn so much. But she had a lot of questions about the judgement of God and the Atonement and other, really sincere questions that she worries about since she's getting pretty old. 

Our lesson with Mindy was really good too. We were able to answer a lot of questions. It is a good sign that she's asking so many questions, and most of them are about the lifestyle and baptisms. She feels like baptism is so important that it should be done in the temple, so she's understanding the importance of it, but we taught her about how everyone is welcome to a baptism and all that jazz. She's great. I love her.

On Friday night we were coming home to work on our map and this dog came running after us toward the front gate. So I grabbed it as fast as I could and I looked at its collar and it didn't have a number and address for the owner, but it did have a company "petwatch" number and id so we could eventually track down the owner. We brought the dog inside, who I called Fido while he was in our aparmtment. He was so cute! He was a little Jack Russell Terrior, it was kind of fun to have a dog in the aparmtment for at least a half hour. Well, we finally got in contact with the owner, who was at work, but her mother and son were at the apartment so she told us to take him there. We went and met the mother and set up an appointment with her. We went over on Saturday and the grandson was there, he is eleven years old and very promising. He took notes while we taught about the Book of Mormon and he took our committments very seriously. We invited them to church, but he somehow called a different number and wanted to come, but he didn't know how to get a hold of us. We called him and he told us he wanted to go. We told him to ask his mom if that's okay if he came, she said no. I don't think we will be able to teach him, but I think, if the Spirit spoke to him like it normally does, that sometime in the future, he will remember that missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him. I have faith that will happen. I guess time can only tell.

Don't know what else to report on... We went contacting at a park that happened to be an equestrian park. Since it was a beautiful Saturday, there were English riding and Western riding competitions and I got to pet the horses for a second :). That was fun. Sister Nettleton doesn't like horses though so she wanted to go contact somewhere else as soon as we could hahah. I enjoyed it. And we contacted this lady who we talked to her for daysssss about the gospel. She's not in our area, but she committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. She's really open minded. 

Well, that's all. I love y'all to the moon and back!

Sister Smith

Pictures at Baptism of Sharad

Blissful Week. Happy St. Patty's Day.

So this week was awesome. We've been meeting with this less active lady who I adore. She's in her sixties and she rock climbs and does hot yoga and goes hiking and everything. I seriously love when we meet with her. She's awesome. She's gone through a lot, so hopefully we are helping. The cool thing is she's friends with one of the sassiest lady's in the ward, who just adores me, so they talk to each other about us missionaries going to her house. It's great.

 

Wednesday we had zone conference and Elder Kopishke from the seventy came and spoke to us. He's an awesome and hilarious teacher! He's got his head on straight. He stared off the meeting saying that questions are good and that the entirety of the Doctrine and Covenants is just answers to questions Joseph Smith had. So, he said we were deciding the agenda of the day because he had nothing planned, and we were open to ask him questions. He taught us so much about being bold and we read some awesome verses. And his wife is a ray of sunshine, so smiley and happy and excited for the work. They're such a stellar couple and I learned SO much from them!

 

Okay okay, onto the best part.... SHAHRAD IS OFFICIALLY A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS! Does it sound like I'm yelling? It should. Well, the lovely Sister Andrus had permission to come and we sang together after Shahrad was dressed. Our investigator Mindy was there and she brought her son, as soon as we started singing she started crying. The Spirit was so powerful and it felt so good to sing with Sister Andrus again. That, and Sister Nettleton and I taught the Restoration while Shahrad was getting dressed, and the zone leaders' investigator came up to us afterward and thanked us for the way we explained it. He said things clicked. Elder Fowers told us that Ashwin, the investigator, turned to him after we taught and said, "I have some praying to do." :)

 

So that was cool.

 

Basically that was the highlight of the week. Sister Andrus and I are going through withdrawls now that we are officially separated :/. But that's okay, new things to learn, new people to meet.

 

Love y'all

Sister Smith

Sister Jocelyn with Sister Andrus (her favorite)

I miss this woman. 

I think she'll be one of my favorite companions. We had a really good companionship, and we needed it because January was extremely hard. 

Pic of Jocelyn with Sister Andrus and two Elders

These are three of some of my favorite people. The two elders were our zone leaders, but Elder Price, on the right, is Lilburn now. Anyway, we were all hilarious and funny so neeedless to say, I miss our little group. They also served in the ward with us.

WORK WORK WORK Sister Jocelyn in Roswell GA

This week was good. Saturday was the best :).

We taught Mindi this week. She really loved church and she wants to bring her son to church. He went to another church for the first time with his dad and he said he expected it to more plain and simple with some songs and prayers. The church he went to had an awesome stage and lights and loud music, etc. Well, Mindy now feels like she can take her son to the LDS church because it is more along the lines of his thinking. So that was cool. And she began reading the Bible with him for thirty minutes every night before he goes to bed and she taught him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. So cool! It's like she's already a member just teaching her children and having family scripture study. I don't even think we asked her to do that, which we should have but obviously forgot! She's great. Oh and I found out that she was a hot yoga instructor and she loves it. Sooooo we bonded over that and I told her I want to be an instructor and she said, "Do it!" So there.

We met with a recent convert, Annie, and her daughter, Victoria on Friday. Annie is from Liberia and she came to the states in the 90s because of the civil war. We asked her her whole story and it was SO cool! So back in southern plantation days, the children who were born by the slaves but were biologically children of the white slave owner, were sent to Liberia. The indigenous Liberians and the "transplant" (I'm going to use this term for lack of a better word, sorry if it sounds strange) ones never saw eye to eye because the transplants bascially took over. Eventually it all boiled over and there we have their civil war. There was a man whose job was to pick people out of the crowd of transplants and kill them. Annie was out with her friends, the men could not leave their homes because they were all killed if they did, but the woman were safer, and a man grabbed her by the arm and said, "I'm going to kill you." She said she was praying and asking God to spare her, but if she was killed then she will consent. She was facing death. She said, "I was bascially a dead person walking." Then, the man that is the head killer saw Annie and said, "I know her. Do not kill her." Took her by the arm, lead her away and told her, "Go." And she left. She said she couldn't talk for three hours because she was in so much shock. She was shaking and her family was asking her what had happened and she couldn't respond. Eventually she came to and that's that. Well, later she saw the killer guy and called out to him, he did not turn around, he did not look at her and he did not respond and a voice came to her and said, "He did not save you. I saved you." She said that God saved her that day. 

She came to the US and has been here ever since. Two elders met her a while ago and she did not have any interest in becoming Mormon. But they were persistent. Then, in a lesson, one of the Elders asked her to pray right then and there if she needed to be baptized. As she was praying, her phone went off, a construction man started his machine and all sorts of noise, and she finished and said she would be baptized. She said that God's presence was so clear to her, that this is where He needed her to go. She also said that before she even asked God the question, so right as she began praying, that His presence was filling her. It's so cool because she rolls her eyes and laughs when she says she's Mormon. She never thought she would be, but she knows it's true and that's all that matters to her. So we've been working with her and teaching her some lessons and it's really cool. Annie is awesome. 

We met with a less active woman this week. I feel like I felt a fraction of what Bishops feel when they learn more about people and their concerns. I could not stop thinking about her and her situation for days. I would just sit there and be lost in thought thinking about her choices, family, life, etc. And I'm concerned over how we can help. It's so strange to me. Anyway, I felt like a Bishop hahaha. (Kind of, I'm sure they think of 300+ people). 

Saturday Elder Cook came and spoke to us. It was so good! I now know what they mean when they talk about a "burning in the bosom." I typically know the Spirit is present because of the calmness in my heart and mind, and serenity, but I felt it like a fire on Saturday and that was cool! He spoke to us about inviting people and how we're successful no matter the outcome. But as he was finished he began to say, "As an apostle, I am a speciall witness of Jesus Christ." I feel like he had everyone's undivided attention. The room seemed to go silent. He bore a powerful testimony and then said,  "As an apostle I have the privilege to leave a blessing with you." I was expecting a blessing on our work and other things, but instead he said, "Some of you may have family that you worry about. It might be a brother or sister, your parents might be going through a divorce," and the such, "I want to bless you with the understanding that you are where you ought to be. Your mission will bless your family at home and your family in the future. I bless you to understand how supernal your mission is to your life in eternity and to the Lord." SO GOOD! I was sitting next to Sister Andrus and agh! It was so awesome. I might have cried. I did not sob or anything, I actually didn't really realize I cried until I felt a tear on my cheek. It was extremely humble, soft spoken and powerful. The apostles are such humble men of the Lord and it's inspiring because other men would be pompous, loud and arrogant, but they are human, humble and peaceful. It's beautiful.

That was my week, hope all of yours were fantastic,

Love you,

Sister Jocelyn Smith

p.s. He told us a little more about how they call missionaries. He said that the picture comes up and they get different feelings depending on the person. Some they feel that they need to send them to a specific mission president, if they do then  that missionary will grow immensely with that specific president. Some they feel they need to be among a certain people, whether it's Filipino, Latins, Southerners ;), etc. Every once in a while they feel that if the missionary is sent to a certain area, they will have a great impact on the church. And rarely, but sometimes, they make a call, and they move on, but feel like they made the wrong call, so they go back and recall that person. Really cool, fun insight, thought y'all would like to know :) 

Work Work Work 3/3/14 Roswell GA

This week was good. Busy and filled with work but rewarding nonetheless.

 

On Wednesday we did a church tour with Mindy and that was cool. She said that she's gone to all sorts of churches but she's felt uncomfortable. She informed us that she was surprised that she felt so comfortable. She especially loved the chapel because it wasn't ostentacious. She liked the simplicity of it. She text us later that day telling us she watched some videoes on the Gospel Library App and she teared up a bit. Then she told us her new destination dream is Temple Square. She's so elect it's crazy.

 

And on Thursday we had a lesson with her with Sister Varney and it went really well. She said that everything made sense. And she told us that all the people who kind of freak out when she tells them she's meeting with Mormons kind of surprise her. She said that the good feelings and the clarity she has with us makes sense and she doesn't understand why people freak out so much.

 

Tuesday we had a lesson with this older lady that is a client of a gentleman in our ward. She's a family history buff. She eat, sleeps and breaths family history. She has said that she knows that the people on the other side want to be found and known. So then we taught her about the temple work and baptisms and the like. It was cool and she's interested in taking the lessons. She took the lessons YEARS ago, but she didn't get baptized because she couldn't stop smoking. Hahaha. We'll see. We are seeing her on Thurdsday. Which reminds me, would you (Mom and Dad) possibly be able to send me some cool family history stories??

 

We did exchanges and that was fun. The Sister Training Leader that came with me in our area is from California and she was in my MTC zone. Needless to say it was a great exchange. She's so nice and cool so we got along really well.

 

Otherwise the week was just filled with contacting, appointments and happiness. It's been a good couple weeks and everything is really promising. I love being here and seeing all the things that I have learned thus far.

 

Love you,

Sister Jocelyn Smith