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. 

Pics of Jocey in GA with Companions

 

Sister Kafoa from Tonga & Sister Fabulous Jocey

 

After some Beach Volleyball in GA

She likes that her Tongan Sister gets it when she talks about the Beach and Sand.......

 Selfie after Beach Volleyball in GA

Following the Spirit Works Guys!

Hey. I'll just give y'all a really cool story about what happened to us.

Monday Sister Kafoa and I were planning and had the thought to look over our potential investigators. We looked back at some pretty old ones that haven't been followed up. We saw a few names on a street called Candlewyk and felt impressed to go see those people. 

The next day, as is usual, our plans ended up changing and we weren't really anywhere near that area we had picked to follow up on potentials. We prayed and still felt like we should drive there and just see. We get there and follow up with them.  No one really. A girl did answer let us in and we taught her the Restoration and set up another appointment. That was good. Then we decided to knock some doors and the second door we knock on a lady answers and excitedly lets us in. We talk to her for a bit and she says, "God sent me the Book of Mormon already! I have one! One day I saw a bag of chips and two sodas and it looked like it was placed there for someone, but the next day I went back and there was a book of  Mormon and I feel like God sent it to me. I feel like you two angels were sent to me!"

We set up an appointment with her and she came to church with us on Sunday. She doesn't get that we were sent from God to show her the Restored Gospel, but she's reading the Book of Mormon and really enjoyed church. She'll get it over time. 

Lanay is doing well. She couldn't come to church on Sunday because of work, but we're meeting with her today. 

Also, pday is today because President likes us to proselyte on Holidays, thus we had pday today. 

Love you all,

Sister Smith :)

Barry pic...He gets baptized

​That's Brother Wernli next to me and Barry is next to Sister Kafoa

Mini mission for the Youth

 Tuesday night we were invited to mutual because they combined all the classes and made a mock MTC. The youth all got call letters sent to them in the mail and they were called to various missions and were to report to the Sugar Hill MTC to begin their 1 and 1/2 to 2 hour mission. When they arrived at the Sugar Hill MTC they received nametags with the dork dots and took pictures with their parents outside of the chapel doors. Eventually, they were all seperated to their respective mission and the teachers were the leaders that had served in said mission. They talked about the culture of their mission and the language, geography, food, etc. Then we role played contacting someone and teaching them about the Book of Mormon. It was pretty neat, all the kids who want to go on missions really enjoyed it and it brought back a lot of great memories of the MTC for me. 

As a follow up, the leader that put it together called our mission President and asked if he'd do a fireside with the youth. Last night President and Sister Bennion came and had us missionaries in the ward talk about how we can prepare for a mission now and what to expect on the mission and  how hard it is, but rewarding, etc. It was pretty cool. One of the Laurels drove us to it so one the way home we talked about it with her and she really liked it. Some other kids kind of freaked out because President Bennion told them to start talking to people in person, put away the video games, texting frequently, and begin reading real books. Basically, telling them how they will need to function in real life, he just came off pretty passionately. It think it's because a lot of missionaries come out and they can't cope with the stress correctly. Before they would cope with stress through video games, or just pure entertainment. But now, they have to cope with stress by reading and praying? That's hard. It was interesting for me because I personally don't think I prepared enough for the mission, but I got lucky because I am stubborn and proud enough to work my hardest and not waste my time, so eventually, everything came together for me. But that's me. 

Anyway, food for thought to see if y'al want to try that there.