This week was a good week.
Tuesday we had district meeting and all us sisters wanted to go down Canton street for lunch. It's in Old Roswell, it's downtown and the little shops and restaurants are so cute and we just thought we need to eat at local places that are unique. Well, since I'm a real foodie I found this little tiny place called the Artisan Bakery (those of you at home, look it up, I believe it was featured in Bon Appetite once) and we had the BEST food ever! I felt like I was home! I got this warm goat cheese salad that was to die for. I know, I'm talking about food. But seriously, it's the small things in life that spices things up. And then they had this applesauce.... It's thick, kinda like ice cream, but it has chunks of apples in it and then I'm pretty sure there's a little bit of lemon and pumpkin pie spice in it... Mmmmmm. Family, when I bring y'all to Georgia, I'm bringing you to this place. It's superb.
Then we tracted all day before dinner and that was good. We had dinner at a fellow Canadian's home :), I love eating with them. They just bought some chicks and I got to hold them, they're still in their cute stage. And we visited this lady in the ward that has health issues so she can't always come for church for all three hours, but she loves us so we stopped by and she told us her conversion story and this lady that she's helping come into the gospel down in south Georgia.
Wednesday we tracted, did service at this community center and then tracted some more. SO FUN. Actually, it was fun. We did run into this highschool kid that remembers a sister that was Sister Andrus's old companion and we talked to him about the Gospel and stuff. He's not entirely ready, but we're pretty sure the Lord will be preparing him.
Thursday we had a lesson with Mindi. On Monday after I wrote my awesome email and we were playing volley ball, she text us that she feels like she's still not sure if she's ready. I was so sad! I kicked a water bottle while we were tracting and made some classic Nalder sounds in my anger. I needed to get it out somehow! And I thought, "crap! I feel like I was sent here to meet her and see her the whole way through and now I'm totally wrong." etc. etc. Well, we had our lesson and all is well! She received multiple answers throughout the week realizing that she's still probably ready. I left that appointment calmed and satisfied.
Then we had three lesson planned out for after dinner. We really made our schedule tight! And our first lesson was with this girl Sierra whom we just met and this would be the first time teaching her, then the Mayes family, then Juana and children. Well, Danielle Mayes text us saying that she had appointments (she's a hairdresser) and she couldn't have us over at 7 and that we could come on Sunday and her husband would make us dinner. Fine by us! Then Juana text us saying she had a lot of stuff she needed to get resolved (we even had a team up and everything!) but she couldn't meet with us. Then Sierra text us asking if we could have the lesson at 6:40 instead of 6. Well, since the Mayes cancelled we had time! Then when we were trying to think of what we should do in place of Juana, we realized that I needed to practice a song. Elder Fowers, our zone leader, asked if I would sing at their investigator's baptism on Saturday (he asked me Thursday morning mind you....) and of course I agreed. So we used the Spanish sister, Sister Garcia, for the piano and we met up after Sierra's lesson and practiced.
But, I need to tell y'all about Sierra's awesome lesson. Her mom met us and she had to go to a church thing so she didn't have time to stay, but she was totally fine with her daughter meeting with Mormon missionaries and learning from us. We taught the lesson, everything was flowing real well and Sister Nettleton recites the First Vision. The Spirit was so strong! And I turned to Sierra and asked her what her thoughts and feelings were. She looked down for a solid two to three minutes, which is forever sometimes, and finally she looked up at us. She had tears in her eyes and said, "Sorry, I was having a moment... When you said that I had this feeling... I can't even explain what happened." We invited her to be baptized, she said she'd have to learn more but she'll seriously consider it.
Friday was AWESOME! We went to a Sikh temple. It's a branch from Hinduism (they're not the same, but it's a middle eastern religion that branched from Hinduism in the 1700s). It was so cool! We showed up and you can't wear shoes in the temple, so we left our shoes at the door. We met this lady and she said, "Oh you need to cover your heads." They don't have to completely cover all of their hair or anything, they all have these gorgeous scarves that they just place over their heads. We just have temporary bandanas to borrow, but we're going to go next week and come prepared :). But it was an awesome experience. Very eye opening. I do really love other fellow Christian faiths, however, the people we've interacted with that are Hindu or Sikh or whatever, actually live most of what they believe. They have this sense of calm about them and life is just good. They all seem so focused on what's really important, rather than being hung up on the smallest things. I'll tell y'all more about it because my fingers are tired and Saturday was good too. Oh, Davis and Jared, y'all should find a Sikh temple and go, it's a part of their culture to have food after all their services :) and they'll let you help make the food (that was one of my favorite parts!)
Saturday was the Zone Leaders' baptism and it was a really good service. Sierra came and really enjoyed it. I had the chance to sing and Gloria, the lady that was baptized, started crying while I sang. I actually didn't notice, but Elder Fowers said that she did, so that was cool.
Then Sister Nettleton and I were going to go tracting and I saw a road closed down with all sorts of booths and this sign that said, "Alpharetta Fesitval of Arts." I asked Sister Nettleton how she'd feel if I wanted to go contacting there. Hahah she was nervous going to the Sikh temple and I convinced her that she would enjoy it. I was totally right. So I used that again, I said, "Come on, it's WAY more fun to contact at an art festival rather than knock on doors. Missionary work is supposed to be fun not horrific." She also thought I might be distracted looking at the art hahahah, but I contact better when I can really connect with them. Thank goodness, my rhetoric worked and we went. We met this AWESOME girl that we have an appointment with tonight. Needless to say, Sister Nettleton was thankful I convinced her to let us go contact there instead. Hopefully it all goes well! Pray for us :)
Love y'all
Sister Smith
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