So sad...Sister Jones is getting transferred...more pics

Pics of Jocey holding a Snake...what?

Hi Smith Family!

We are the Dustin Family, from the Cornelia Ward where your daughter is serving.  Our sisters are such awesome girls, and we love them.  We've loved having her and her companion over for dinners. They were over this afternoon, and Sister Jones asked to hold one of our family's pet snakes.  Last week, Sister Smith couldn't be in the same room as the snake's cage, but this week, she stayed in the room, and surprised us all when she asked to hold our little Mole Kingsnake.  She was just too cute, and I had to snap some pictures to document her bravery ;)  She said to tell you that she's even okay with you sharing them on Facebook, lol!

Drive all Day and All Night...Wreck the car again

This week was a random week filled with hours in the car and many miracles.

Last Monday we had a lesson with a family in the ward and they're all from Southern California, we spent quite some time discussing how wonderful California is, it was fun. 

Wednesday we drove for daysss to go to Lilburn and get a new car due to the damage made to our other car. It's always so much fun to see the senior couples in the office, they're all so nice and hilarious. We got a new car, drove home and Sister Jones ran it into the wall... Awkward. So we need to take a picture of it and send it to Elder Residori, we're probably not going to get another car for a while Hahaha. 

Thursday we had some good lessons. Throughout the entire week we were calling and calling and calling for people to come out with us on Saturday for a lesson. This lesson lives about 50-60 miles away from us, and we do not have enough miles to go there on our own, so we need to depend on the members. Sadly enough, not too many people have three hours to spare hahaha but seriously. So that was on our mind all week. 

Friday we had dinner basically at the South Carolina border... So about 50 miles away. We did not even realize this because GPS was stolen as well so we've been calling the Elders and writing down the directions for everywhere we go. Well, we did weekly planning, service at the library and were going to tract for two hours on the way to dinner, so we called the Elders and asked them to give us directions to our dinner. Turns out, they live about an hour and ten minutes away... Great. And without a GPS, we need to account for more time being lost and wasting miles. Well, that's exactly what happened, we finally arrived at our dinner, got out in time, and headed home. Wow. The dinner was awesome though because the hosts had their grandkids over and they all reminded me of Sofia, Olivia, Lia, Frankie, Rock, etc. They were all good looking and hilarious and cute, therefore, they reminded me of my nieces and nephews... Tender mercy.  ;)

On Friday, our ward mission leader, Brother Smith, informed us that him and his wife could drive us to our forever away appointment #miracle. It takes an hour to get there. We go to our lesson. It was great because Sister Jones and I both studied the Gospel of Jesus Christ completely by accident. Typically we would teach the Plan of Salvation, but during our personal studies we both felt like we should teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So during comp study we were talking about what we should teach her and I said, "Well, I studied about the Doctrine of Christ.." Turns out, she did too. 

We taught the lesson, Spirit was felt, many scriptures were read and testimony was born. We committed her to come to church the next day and to read 2 Nephi 31-32. 

Then the Smith's offer to take us to eat and we drive home. We were in the car so much this week it was crazy!

Sunday we waited for Bonnie, our investigator to come and SHE CAME! She came late, but she came. We're the first Sisters in this area to have had investigators at church. Woot woot!

 Being consecrated brings miracles! That's all I can say. 

Love you all so much,

Sister Smith

From a Member Sister Dustin in GA pics

Having these gorgeous Sisters around, sharing their lovely examples, sweet smiles, and beautiful spirits around our kids has been such a great thing for my kids, especially my 3 daughters!  Thank you for sharing them with us here in Georgia!

Love Sister Dustin

...The One that Got Away...Are you kidding?

Some missionaries would choose not to tell their families the full account of what happened, but you're my family so I'll tell y'all everything.

First off, I hope my card was cancelled. 

Second, don't be mad when you read how I reacted. It's called adrenaline. 

So on Friday night we went tracting for the last couple hours of the night. We've been doing it later in the evening to avoid the heat and talk to more people when they're home from work. We parked our care along the highway, there are no neighborhoods here, and when there are there is no room for parking, so we park along the highway when we tract and we go walk. We started to head back to our car because the night was coming to a close and we needed to get home on time. We come around the bend of the highway and Sister Jones and I see another car that's parked next to our car. She asks me, "Did you lock the door?" I reply, "Yes..." And the back door of our car is open. I left my purse in there because we're in the country, no one goes by and no one's going to get anything out of it right? I mean, in all the other areas I've served in I always had my purse on me, there's no way I would ever leave it in the car. Well, I begin to walk faster into a jog and Sister Jones says, "No." Then I don't even look back, my eyes are fixed on the two cars ahead and I say, "My stuff is in there!" And I take off. Mind you, I'm wearing all black (thank goodness, made me feel more powerful) and my boots because it had rained earlier that day. I'm bolting, running as fast as I can. The passenger in his car sees me and starts to say something to the thief. I start yelling, "Hey! Stop!" He runs back to his car. I am close enough that as soon as he shuts his door I get to his car, open his door and yell "GET OUT OF THE CAR!" Sister Jones said it was done in my best cop voice. He slams the door shut, stronger than I had strength to resist, and takes off. I'm out of a license, my cards, my camera (which I didn't realize until we got home that night), and most of all, the Lindor truffles Sister Jones and I were sharing ;). 

I wasn't really thinking when I ran toward him. I understand that that was a very risky move, and thank goodness that I'm safe. I will say that I don't regret running because my blood got pumping as soon as I realized what he was doing. To be honest I don't even really remember yelling, but Sister  Jones heard and saw everything so I'm taking her word for it. Needless to say, this weekend has been taking some recuperating. It would be different had we come to the car, window broken, purse stolen and no one in site. But we interacted with him. We saw him and he definitely saw us. It keeps running through my mind and I still can't believe that it happened, and it all happened so quick. What gets me is that everyone that talks to Sister Jones and me acts like we were in the right mind to methodically think and really check his tag numbers. Next time anything happens I now know what to do, but for a first time, I can't imagine my mind actually thinking straight. Adrenaline is a funny thing. Anyway, so that was one big event. 

I will say, when the officer was writing the report I had to laugh because it went like this, "Smith ran toward the car. Jones walked and try to press the car alarm. Smith opened the door etc. etc." Sounds fake. Smith and Jones. We joke about that a lot. We want to get a Sister self defense thing going because I don't think enough Sisters know what to do in situations where they're in contact with the culprit. Hopefully we can get something started because it needs to be done, I don't know why no one has really come up with that yet... And it needs to be done frequently, maybe quarterly or something. 

Well. The WONDERFUL news is that we have someone on date! That's a real miracle! No one has baptized here in Cleveland in a year, and it was the Elders that baptized last. We're going to be the first Sisters to baptize up here. Wooot wooot. Keep our investigator in your prayers that she will continue to be prepared. She believes in Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Restoration of Jesus Christ's church and she believe in the Book of Mormon. Anyway, that was wonderful and we had our lesson with her the day after this whole fiasco happened, so #blessed. ;)

Also, on Tuesday Sister Jones and I sang this song, "My Unknown Brother" on Tuesday at Zone Meeting. We changed the chorus and its harmonies and the pianist learned the song an hour before zone meeting, so that was another blessing. 

Love you all!

Sister Smith

 

SISTER JONE'S VERSION OF THE SAME EVENT:

 

Hello everyone. Man things here in Cleveland are just nuts. Hopefully this week will slow down a bit.

Well I will start at Friday night. Its just a typical night in Cleveland. We just finished tracting, because we are obedient missionaries and were walking back to our car. We see another car parked near ours. My first thought was someone was just looking to see if it was an abandoned car. We get that a lot because we leave our car and go and tract for hours upon hours. Then we see our door opened. "Did you lock the car Sister Smith?" She replied "yes." We then proceed to see another car parked right next to ours and a man violating our beautiful 2011 gold corolla. At that point my companion turns into an FBI agent and runs after the thief; and yes she was wearing all black. Once he realizes that he has been caught and that my companion could probably mess him up #thankyouhotyoga, he gets into he car. At that point in time Sister Smith aka officer Smith is at his car door. She then with great force opens his car door and in her most terrifying voice, screams "GET OUT OF THE CAR!" I wish I could end the story with he did and he got on the ground. But he didn't; he drove away and stole Sister Smiths purse. On the bright side we have a great story to tell, and most importantly we are safe.

Then on Saturday the heavens were opened and the Cleveland sisters are going to baptize! Hallelujah!! This will be the first ever baptism for the Cleveland sister since the area has been opened. Can I get another HALLELUJAH?!? I don't think that I will be here for the baptism but that doesn't matter. What matters is that another one of Heavenly Fathers daughters is going to enter into a covenant with Him. I love missionary work!

Keep us in your prayers, we need them. And thank you for all of those that have been said in our behalf.

I love you and miss all y'all.

Have a great week!

Sending you much love from Cleveland,

Sister Jones

 

 

My Feet Are Tired

This week was probably one of the top hardest weeks of my mission, but mostly because of how hard we worked. In Roswell it was sooooo easy to get 70 contacts in a week... In Cleveland it's a whole different story! And last week Sister Jones and I made the goal to truly get 70 contacts this week.

We planned in a lot of tracting time and made sure we would get the 70. The days were hotter than heck. The humidity was just plain nasty. My feet hurt by the end of the day. My legs were tired. And I would crash into bed so quick. And we didn't get 70. We feel satisfied, however, because we know we did our best. We did not waste any time, we were out working and finding and walking and teaching all day. 

We are experiencing a lot of blessings as a result of our consecration. Almost every person we would talk to was at least kind and courteous to us, that's not always too common. On Thursday we had an hour or so before we went home, and so we drove toward home and picked somewhere to tract. Sister Jones told me to turn left on the next turn and we did. We went down this older road with lots of trees on the side-- though that's everywhere here let's be honest-- and a dead end. We parked, got out and climbed/hiked up this extremely steep hill. (I better have fantastic legs from all the mile long driveways everyone has!) We get to this magnificent house and knock on the door. This lady answers and just lets us in. Turns out, her husband is a member. He grew up in Idaho, his sister is actually the lady that text mom that picture my first Sunday here, and he's been less active for a long time. They told us we're the first missionaries they've ever let into their home. They really liked us because we weren't judgmental of them and were just normal around them. They have a daughter who is an uber talented artist and looks like Zoey Deschenal. We talked to them until we needed to start driving home and they even drove us to our car because it was raining cats and dogs by that point. It was a really awesome experience. I wish I could relay how cool it felt to truly be used by the Lord to show someone that we actually care about who they are, and they're not just another person we want baptized or reactivated. Amazing. 

Then on Friday we planned appointments all through the night so we wouldn't be getting a dinner. Which, typically we give ourselves that time for dinner, but a less active lady is getting surgery tomorrow and we wanted her to receive a priesthood blessing. Well, our first appointment for the evening ended up being a dinner appointment. They made really delicious fajitas (with chicken not ground beef) and we had a dinner. It was awesome. Definitely a blessing. 

Oh, also, on Tuesday we went tracting in a trailer park and this lady comes to the door. She spoke a little differently and told us that she is hard of hearing. Guess what! I got to use sign language and talk to her! It was really cool. I couldn't tell her everything because I can't remember everything. But we got enough out to teach her about the Book of Mormon and leave one with her. It was really awesome. 

Anyway. I'm super tired, but it's a really good tired. I love it and I love being a missionary.

Love you all so much!

Sister Smith

Its Humid in Cleveland GA

Well, this week was a great week. It went by really fast, but it was good nonetheless.

First off, it's super humid. We've been going running in the mornings some days and man.... Humidity has a profound affect on the lungs. I feel like they're drinking the air I'm trying to breath. It makes me think I'm out of shape hahaha. Also, our air conditioner broke and our apartment is HOT by the time we get home at night. I have not had a good night's rest the past couple of nights because of how grossly warm our apartment is. Hopefully that all gets fixed this week. 

On a good note, Sister Jones and I officially decided to be fully consecrated missionaries. Which, we're both hard workers and we both were striving for obedience, but now we're trying to be exactly obedient. It's actually kind of fun. My goal, however, is to make sure that I am exactly obedient and remember Christ is all that we do. I have seen many missionaries who are exactly obedient to the T, but they seem to miss the whole picture. They can sometimes get caught up in loving how awesome they are and how great they are because they're so perfect at being obedient. No, I want to just serve the Lord humbly and try to think of Him and why I'm being exactly obedient. We know it brings miracles, and that's the goal. This area needs a miracle and we're going to try our hardest to make this place great, and that can only be done by missionaries willing to be exactly obedient. It's mostly been fun because we're both cool, we're still normal and still ourselves, but we're helping each other out in becoming better. We're trying to perfect the little things, and though there be mistakes, that's what daily repentance is for, and learning. So it's actually been great so far. 

Again, it's still a little different up here. We tracted for an hour the other day and only talked to one person. We can't just park wherever and tract at houses that are only a few hundred feet apart. No, these houses are about a 1/4 of a mile apart from one another, and we have to park along the highway. It's not bad, I actually love how much we're walking, but numbers-wise it's not really all that helpful... This week, though, we've planned on for sure reaching our Mission Standard of contacts this week! We're going to do it! You'll see!

I'm glad to have a companion that's as driven and motivated as me. It's so much easier when you both have the same goal, and we both really do. I'm seeing just how much I need to change in myself as a person, and as a missionary because she raises me up to a higher standard. Not that my other companions didn't help, I appreciate them fully! However, I love challenges and I love improving, it's like working out so I'm all for it. 

The people here however are not quite as driven... Things run a little slower up here, but hopefully we're making strides to improve the area. 

We're working with a lot of less actives. The thing is, most of them are quite miserable. Almost none of them are happy. I'd even be so bold to say that they're all unhappy. And they tell us they know what to do to be happy, but they don't want to stop such-and-such habit, and they are too lazy to try and find a ride to church, and they don't really care to do this or that. But they're bored, unhappy, and want peace in their lives. It's funny because they seem to know, but they're not wise enough to make a real change in their life. Many rants come out of me (not in front of them) at my frustration, mostly because they all can be so much better and be much happier, and yet they still choose to be stuck. I have a learned a TON on the type of person I always want to be. Consistent, driven, motivated, and always moving forward. Being stuck is just plain sad, and it's very evident in some of the lives that we enter. Hopefully the Spirit will kick some people in to gear!

Well, love you all!

Sister Smith

sister Jocey being weird with Sister Madsen

Memorial Day

We couldn't email on Monday because the library was closed. And we couldn't email yesterday because we had zone conference an hour away so we didn't have any time to attempt to email.

Well, I can hardly remember the week previous, but we taught a ton of lessons and we made our goals, that felt really good! 

We had zone conference yesterday and it was really amazing. Sister Wolfert gave an incredible training and I felt the Spirit so strongly. She read this poem that a missionary in Houston, Texas wrote. The poem conveys many of the feelings missionaries have. Or at least, many of the feelings that I have had, thus I was touched by the power and simplicity of the poem. I can't remember the name of the poem, but it's really good. Sorry!

President also wants us to become consecrated. He wants us to fully dedicate ourselves and turn away from anything that could be holding us back from being more powerful.. It's nice to get that motivation because Sister Jones is really good at being obedient and it makes our job a lot easier! There's definitely a Spirit being a missionary, but there's a really strong Spirit when your an obedient missionary. Of that I can testify. I was so pumped up from Zone Conference it made me want to just get out and teach some people hahaha. 

It was also really nice to see some more missionaries, since we're out in the boonies we hardly see anyone. Whenever I see other missionaries I get so excited for the work because there's a unity. We're all doing this together and we're all teaching God's children the restored gospel. It's an awesome experience. I wore the dress mom got me and I got a lot of compliments. A lot of sisters asked where it was from and I just said, "My mom." So thank you! 

Oh, last week we had a really powerful lesson with a lady named Darlene. She's a lonely lady whose husband died somewhat recently. She has a terrible addiction to smoking and drinking. She'll smoke a pack and a half a day (not even kidding! That's a LOT!) and about 8 beers every day. Okay, even if you're not a member of the church, that's SO BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH! For reals people! It's so sad to see how binding addictions can be. They really don't have any self control, it's all been lost. It's sad. And I'm not writing any of this to be judgmental, I'm writing this to be honest because the effects of addictions are tragic. Honestly, strongest testimony of just not starting down on that road. Thankfully, there are people who can come out of it, through the Atonement, proffesional help, stopping before any addiction occurs, etc. but to step into the homes and lives of people who started off so innocently when they were young, and see the nasty lifestyle and conditions that they live in now, only solidifies my testimony on the benefits of treating our bodies like they actually matter. 

Anyway. Learning a lot about addiction recovery and it's fascinating. Hopefully the Atonement, coupled with her will, will help her overcome it in order for her to become a free agent of her own.

Love this gospel. Love this work. Love being a missionary.

Until next week,

Sister Smith