Sister Kafoa, Lanay (just baptized) and Dear Sister Smith (charming & happy)

Sister Kafoa, Lanay, Sister Smith

Pics of Jocey

sister Jocey with some of her other Sister missionaries

Lanay Was Baptized!

This week consisted of lots of planning, phone calls and the likes all for Lanay's baptism. It went really well to say the least. 

We had her new visiting teacher speak on baptism and she did a really good object lesson. Then she was baptized. Got dressed in half a second (she was in the military and things like that shows that she was), had a musical number, a talk on the Holy Ghost, she was confirmed and impromptu she shared her testimony/story about getting in contact with the missionaries. 

First it starts with she being raised in a tiny town somewhere in Arizona where there happens to be a lot of Mormons. Her dad would tell her some things about the Mormons, nothing bad, not necessarily true, but he wasn't not resentful toward Mormons so she just knew that they were different from her. At her ten year reunion she realized that most of the guys she had had crushes on were Mormon. She recognized that they had a good focus on family values, were a strong community and seemed to have something different than she. Fast forward to last year in the Fall, a couple of Elders knocked on her door. Bad timing. Her baby, who has multiple medical conditions, was throwing up, she was upset, stressed out, and her daughter was yelling in the back ground. Needless to say, as she half-listened to the Elders she told them, "Another time would be best." Then weeks later, she was upset. She kept wondering, "Did I miss my chance? Did I really miss my chance?" 

Then in clinicals for nursing school, one of the students ended up saying she was Mormon. Lanay and she went out to lunch with another gentleman and during the entire lunch they discussed Mormons. Later, at the end of the day, Lanay told said student that she would like to see her after class. This student, Jamie, thought Lanay was going to pay her back for lunch, so she thought it best not to return simply because she didn't want Lanay to pay her back. Lanay did not see Jamie the rest of the semester. Again she wondered, "Did I miss my chance?"

As luck, or the Spirit, would have it. Sister Kafoa and I were tracting one day, not having much success. Sister Kafoa had only been out about 7 days at this point. We decided to go try another area, and began to turn around. Then Sister Kafoa piped up and said timidly, "Sister Smith?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if we just try one more door?"

"Sure."

So we go. I didn't really think much of it, but trying to have Sister Kafoa have good experiences following the Spirit, I was fine with following her suggestions. We knock and Lanay immediately let us in. At her baptismal service she said that as soon as she saw us she thought, "I'm not letting them leave this time!" 

Third time's the charm. 

We met quickly, left her with some material and set up an appointment. Two days later we returned and had a wonderful lesson with her that began her journey learning about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now she is a baptized and confirmed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

All thanks to good examples around her in her youth, and for Sister Kafoa following the Spirit.

The baptism was beautiful and she's already preparing to go to the temple to do baptisms there. 

Love y'all, 

Sister Smith

Gus the Rooster is Upstairs

Monday was crazy, everything got pushed down, moved around and switched. We didn't even have time to get groceries. While discussing this, Sister Kafoa and I decided to just have faith and see if we could get by. Let's just say, creativity was at it's finest this week with our breakfast and lunch menus. It was kind of fun though. 

Lanay is still doing really well. 

I almost don't remember what happened this week. It is all a blur. We were busy almost every single day. We had a lot of lessons, which was a blessing, and got a lot accomplished this week. 

Thursday we had Zone Conference and, as usual, it was just what I needed. There were a lot of things about being simple and bold in our teaching. Basically just taking our teaching up a notch. We began implementing it immediately and the whole zone has already seen results. It's been really amazing. 

We had exchanges after Zone Conference, I got to go to Coal Mountain with one of my old STL's and Sister Kafoa stayed in Sugar Hill. They had a really neat experience. We had planned on them going to go see some less actives, some of which we haven't met yet. Well, in their search they couldn't find the house number that was written down. Mind you, this was in a trailer park so their house numbers are all switched around, backward and messed up. They were about to go back to the car when they thought to knock on a door and see if they knew who this family was. They knocked, a lady saw them in the freezing cold and let them in. Upon discussion they found out that Sister Childs had taught and baptized her uncle in one of her old areas! Totally not coincidence. So the next day Sister Kafoa and I went their and implemented our new teaching skills and got her on date for March 7th! Don't know for sure if she'll be prepared, but at least it's got her thinking about baptism. 

Then on Saturday we did a church tour with a part member family. It went really well and the husband, who is the nonmember, is praying about being baptized on March 14th. He was like, "I'm fine with gettin' baptized... But will that mean I'm a Mormon?".... Yes. Yes it does. Hahah. Such is life.

oh and on Monday, the part member came to the fhe and it was really successful! But after we got home we realized we left our phone there so we went upstairs to ask if we could use the Prichard's phone to contact the Wernli's. We get up there and they want us to look at Sister Prichard's birthday present. We couldn't see it, then suddenly I look down and inside their dogs cage is a rooster. A real live rooster. He bought her a rooster for her birthday. Well, this week they went to Disney World with their family and we had to feed it and lay down newspaper. Needless to say, I'm never going to own a rooster, especially one in a dog cage. 

Life is Great. 

Love you all,

Sister Smith

Jocelyn's HomeComing (for all her fans)

Jocelyn arrives home on the evening of March 5th.

Her Homecoming will be at the Heil Building 5402 Heil Ave. Huntington Beach
on March 8th at 9:00 AM .  

You are all welcome to attend

Sister Smith's New Mission Vehicle

they want the Sisters to have more success with the Retirees in Buford

Practice Lessons from Heaven

Hello Family and Friends!

This week was great.

Thursday night Sister Kafoa and I went over to a member's home. Her name is Lily, she just moved from New Jersey but was baptized in the Sugar Hill ward in 2010. Her daughter Grace, who is 12 now, was also baptized. In 2012 she married a non-member, David, and they moved to New Jersey. Sister Kafoa and I went and visited her a couple weeks ago before her husband came in town, we did a practice lesson and the Spirit was really strong. This past Thursday we went over, planning to do another practice lesson, and her husband answers the door. He's a big black guy with a REALLY deep voice, the kind that could easily put you to sleep (in a good way). They let us in and we begin teaching about the Restoration. Grace and Lily bore their testimonies throughout the lesson and then, somehow, it shifted to us inviting David to read the Book of Mormon and to be baptized. Not sure what changed, pretty sure the Spirit interjected and took hold of the lesson, but he said yes to both and said he might come to church on Sunday. 

Well, we didn't see them during sacrament meeting, so we assumed they didn't come. Then we get to Gospel Principles and they walk in! I asked, "Were y'all here during sacrament?" Lilly replied, "Yeah, but we were just sitting out in the foyer because we were a little late." Throughout the rest of class and then when we showed him to Elder's Quorum, he seemed very comfortable and welcomed. Tonight they promised to come to Tyler and Valentina's FHE so that should be good. 

Oh and last Monday's FHE was a bust :/ the people who said they could come cancelled about 1-2 hours before the fhe and that was really sad. Thankfully, we all discussed the importance of faith and patience, so we decided to hold another one this week and felt that the Lord would provide people to come!

Lanay is doing well. Still preparing for baptism. She met with the Bishop  yesterday, and we were able to go and that was good, he could get a feel for who she is and officially meet her. She's holding her own FHE tonight and we'll be presenting the lesson. 

Everything is doing great. The awesome couple we met probably got into some anti because they have been kind of avoiding us :(. But that's okay. Faith and patience. 

Love y'all!

Sister Smith

Jocey and Kafoa on dock

Sister Kafoa & Sister Jocey 

So Unbelievably Blessed!

Lanay is being baptized on the 21st now instead of this weekend. She works three 12 hour shifts these next two weeks and it would have been impossible to properly prepare her before baptism. She's doing great though. Our lesson on Tuesday went really well because she got into a lot of anti and we discussed her concerns. She loved that we knew about it, acknowledged it even, yet didn't let it deter our testimonies in Christ's restored church. She left soothed and still ready to be baptized. 

Thursday we had a lesson with Isabella, a child of record, and we had time to kill so we knocked a few doors. We get to one house that we almost didn't tract because it wasn't really a part of the street, but we did it anyway. This lady holding a tiny baby answers the door and we talk to her for a bit. Her baby is 4 weeks and is the cutest thing ever. She lets us in. Tells us a little bit about herself and asks us a few questions. We discussed a little bit about the Restoration and asksed if we could come back on Saturday. She gave us her number and said that we could return. 

Saturday morning we left her a message asking when would be a good time for us to stop by. Later, after our lesson with Lanay, we felt like we should just stop by. We knocked and she waved to us through the glass in the door. She opened the door and let us in. Her husband was there as well. Sometimes that makes me nervous if we haven't met the spouse yet because usually one is a little more apprehensive than the other. He greeted us cordially and we sat down and began getting to know a little bit about them. 

I cannot recount everything that was said, but that lesson was one of the most beautiful lessons that I've ever had. I felt so peaceful and calm the entire time. Everything felt like it was falling into place. It was so strange, but good. The husband was extremely receptive. He was so into everything we talked about. He basically talked about the plan of salvation without us saying anything and somehow we tied it all into the Restoration. Honestly, so good. 

Sister Kafoa and I were on cloud 9 the rest of the day. We probably looked so stupid. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but she did and she brought their precious baby. Tonight the Wernli's are doing an FHE and they're coming. We're so excited!!!

Everything is great. Loving the work. Love being a missionary.

Love y'all

Sister Smith

PS

Also, the girl who went to BYUI but is home this semester went to Big Shanty yesterday and was telling us about it during dinner. I told her that that was my first area and if she met an Alex Coleman. She said, "Yes! He got up today and bore his testimony about missionary work and how he was thankful the Lord sent the Sisters to him and reactivated him." How cool is that! He had been inactive for 7-11 years, and we met him on campus and he came back to church. He attended institute 100%, the only one in the entire branch. Then she thought it was cool because she didn't think it was coincidence that she went there on the fast Sunday that he got up, talked about us, and I was at her home for dinner that same night. God is in the details.