One accord

So we had zone conference this week. The Elder who is over the cars was talking to us about our cars and stuff. To end he said that he didn't have any scriptures about cars, but he did hear that Christ and His apostles left in one accord. 

Anyways, this week was a good week. Larry and Maria got married on Tuesday!! Bishop Lopez married them. It was a very simple and short wedding done in the bishop's office. It was really awesome. Bishop Lopez talked a little bit about The Family Proclamation, and it is so true that families are so important here on this earth, but also after this life as well. It was also an extra missionary opportunity because Maria had her daughter there, and her daughter also brought her boyfriend. Maria also loves the iron rod analogy and how we have to cling to it. She mentioned it during the wedding service, and Bishop Lopez made the joke about holding to the rod we use to whip our spouse into shape haha. But we got to explain what it meant to hold to the iron rod to Maria's daughter since she had no idea about it. Also, Maria's daughter looked a little shocked and surprised when Bishop Lopez mentioned this being a great step in leading Maria to baptism. But it was good.

Also, Nadia is on date for baptism now! She has been investigating for awhile now, and she knows that she wants to be baptized (it is a slightly long and complicated story to tell why she isn't baptized yet), but she texted us Wednesday morning saying she has decided to be baptized on November 11th! We are so happy that she has set a date now! 

Thursday we had zone conference. It was good, as they always are. Setting goals and making plans was re emphasized once again, but it is so true that we can't progress, or at least not as fast as we would like to, if we don't set goals and then make plans. We also talked about using The Book of Mormon some more. I mean, The Book of Mormon is one of the most important things we can read and use in our own conversion as well in helping others be converted.

I went on exchanges from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. I went to a

Spanish area for the first time. I understood maybe 50-75% of what was being said, but I didn't say a whole lot when teaching. We also met a lady (I think she was a potential investigator in the Spanish area) who was annoyed that I didn't speak Spanish, and then she didn't believe and was bothered by the fact that my last name was Smith. She then proceeded to get mad at us for about 10 minutes and basically told us not to come back (I didn't completely understand the conversation, but I could tell she was not happy). 

A cool story from exchanges though was we went to this door of an apartment type home, and as we were walking up, there were some kids coming down stairs. I can't remember the name of the person we were looking for, but we asked the kid the name of the person who was living there (since they said that the person there was their grandma or something). The name the kid told us didn't match the name we were looking for, and we told her who we were looking for. Well, this kid's name happened to be the same as the person we were looking for. Long story short, we asked to speak to the kid's mom. She took us up, met the mom, taught her some, and we were able to set a return appointment. Even though we didn't find the person we were looking for, we found someone else. So that was great!

Saturday, it was the beginning of General Conference! It seems so weird that it is General Conference again because I feel like we just had it. How time flies! Throughout it all, I think the biggest point that was discussed was that we can't forget that we have divine worth and potential. We are children of God. How great is that?! 

Yesterday was good. It was super long though with 3 wards and 3 ward councils. We started at 7:30am and didn't finish until 5:30pm (with a 30 minute lunch break in there). On the bright side, it was the Primary Program for all 3 wards. I love the Primary Program because even kids can testify son strongly of simple gospel truths. And they are super cute, too! Last night, we also went to a Bishop's Fireside for the youth at Bishop Lopez's home. It was really fun. What they did was they had a competition to see who could build the highest tower out of a select few items. After all that, they had to go through the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet and relate at least 3 of those topics to the activity we just did (btw, I was able to relate all of them to the activity). They went around to each group and and had them say the topic and how it related. I think my favorite was a girl stood up and said dating because it talks about how a date should be planned, and if not, it could be a disaster like some of the structures that were built. The point in this activity though was that all things can be related back to the gospel somehow. This is very true. We can take anything, and find some gospel principle to talk about. We just have to be aware of the things around us.

Also, this morning we played sand volleyball at a park. It was really fun, but it was like the worst sand ever. It was basically rocks ground up, and it wasn't very fine. We even found lots of rocks in the sand. On the bright side though, my feet are nice and smooth from all the exfoliation they got from that sand. 

Anyways, I love y'all!

Sister Smith

Wedding! 

Wedding!

Weekly dog pics

Weekly dog pics

Sand volleyball crew

"I feel so high!"

So on Tuesday, I drove a Nissan Rogue that was assigned to Sister Godfrey's area in the mission because it needed to get the tires checked, and Sister Godfrey can't drive. It was really weird to drive though because I have driven smaller cars since I started my mission. I turned to Sister Godfrey and said, "I feel so weird. I feel so high!" Out of context, it could be really bad haha

And then today during zone sports, we were playing chair soccer. The ball hit the tables, and the tables leaning up against the wall fell over, and someone else got the ball. Thus, I said, "the tables have turned." At least Hermana Young laughed and said that she misses those jokes (since she was my roommate last transfer). 

Anyways, this week was crazy and weird in a way. Sister Talbot went home, and so I was companions with Sister Godfrey for about 24 hours (and this is my fourth time thus far to be companions with her without being on an exchange with an STL or something). It was good though because we were able to make plans on how we wanted to transition Saprina from my area to her area (since she covers the YSA ward). We also went finding in a part of her area Monday night, and it reminded me of my first area, which I am glad I don't serve in anymore. I guess I just got used to going into areas and neighborhoods like the ones we went into Monday night, but now I am not used to it. 

Tuesday, I got Sister Clark. Then, we had dinner. Dinner got pushed back a little because the members we were eating with invited their neighbor to also come and have dinner, but she couldn't make it until 5:30. Needless to say, we waited for the neighbor. Tuesday night, I learned Apple is the forbidden fruit. I was showing the 20 min Restoration video. We were using Apple TV, and it just didn't want to work properly. We got it to at least start playing, but couldn't get it full screen. Then, when it was time for the First Vision, it started cutting the sound in and out. Therefore, Apple is of the devil lol. 

When we went home Tuesday night, it was weird to walk into our apartment and not have anyone else there since I have always had roommates while on my mission. It's kinda lonely in a way, but it is also nice to have my own bathroom and closet. Pros and cons to everything. 

Another exciting thing that happened this week is we got locked out of the church building. For some reason, our key no longer works. This presented a problem when we wanted to have a lesson on Friday in the church, and our key was not working (which we found out right before the lesson). Our investigator was already in a bad mood, and this didn't help. This lesson ended up with the investigator yelling at me and the member who brought her and then storming off to walk home. We had a drop lesson the next day...

On the bright side, we had 10 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH this week!! The Cannan family came for the first time, plus a friend of the wolf family who wants to take the missionary lessons and be baptized. And then we had some others who come pretty regularly. Also, Christian and Aaron received the priesthood this week, so that was awesome!

So yeah. Just another week of missionary work!

I love y'all!

Sister Smith

When this is your face in the first pic with your new companion (it was jokingly because she accidentally hit my bun)

Space Team reunite! (It's a joke we have from our last apt when we lived together. Now the companionships are mixed up)

Look! I killed my breakfast in my bathroom 

I finally found faith! 

Weekly dog pic

Butterfly

So our roommate, Hermana Young, will always say "Mariposa!" every time

we see a butterfly (since that is butterfly in Spanish). We found one

on the ground that was mostly dead, so we brought it in and put it on

her desk. We left a note that said, "it BUTTER not FLY away." And then

later I added, "now that it's dead, it's probably not in a very merry

pose." (So I made a pun using English and Spanish.)

Anyways, this week was good! Christian, Aaron, and Carson were all

baptized on Saturday! It was such a good baptism! Aaron is autistic,

but he is super sweet and he definitely added some humor to the

baptismal service. After he was baptized and changed, he walked out

and said "I'm here! That wasn't so bad." The Spirit was so strong. As

missionaries, we always do a presentation, usually on the Restoration.

President Townsend was there, and apparently our Restoration

presentation was one of the best because he went home and told Sister

Townsend that who then told us last night. So that gave us a

confidence boost.

Also, Sister Talbot and I sang in sacrament meeting for one of our

wards, so that was nerve wrecking. But I made it through. We did a lot

of running around and stuff this week to eat dinners with people from

Sister Talbot's old areas. But it was fun.

Also, Saprina had an awesome experience. We invited her to pray about

a baptismal date, and she did! And, she described her experience like

this, "I was praying about it, and it was so clear. It was all white,

and in black letters October 22 appeared." Needless to say, she is on

date now. This is an excellent example of how we can and will receive

answers to our prayers when we are sincere.

Mhmm. What else. Oh yeah, transfer news. So I knew I would be getting

a new companion since Sister Talbot is going home. So I'm staying in

my area and will be companions with Sister Clark.

Love y'all!

Me while driving, "Look, Blue Bell truck! Sister Talbot, take a picture!"

We have a normal district I promise

Smith Family. They are so much fun!

Larry and Maria

Wolf family baptism!

Weekly dog pic (we also washed her for service)

Sister Glynn

Bye Sister Talbot 

Foiling my plan

So I had leftover food I was going to put foil over, so I pull out the

foil and start getting it. Then the whole roll come out of the box and

fell on the floor. I immediately remarked, "well, that foiled my

plan!"

Anyways, this week has been pretty fantastic! The Lord has blessed us

in so many ways! We had many great lessons. We are helping prepare the

Wolf boys for their baptism this Saturday! We are so excited for it.

We finished the lessons, and they have their interviews this week!

Well, the oldest son Christian is really the only one who has to be

interviewed by the district leader. So yeah. It's fun and crazy and

everything all at the same time.

We also went and got facials as a way to meet with a less active

member since she does facials and we haven't met with her for awhile.

So a member came up with the idea, and then she payed for us and

herself a facial. It was relaxing and I definitely want another facial

now. But it was really good since we had about 2.5 hours with her.

An awesome experience we had was last week we contacted a referral we

got from the elders since they helped her move in, and this week we

had our first discussion with that family. It is a mom with 4 of her 5

kids that live with her. We walk in, and they were making us

breakfast/lunch (it was 11am and they made pancakes). Her reasoning

for making us food was, "What kind of mom would I be if I didn't feed

you?" But the best part was that the Spirit was so strong and when we

asked them what it would mean to them if this message was true and if

Joseph Smith was a prophet, the mom said that they are pretty sure

that they know that Jospeh Smith was a prophet by all that came from

it and how many people have had better lives by joining this church.

She even said, "if I had to give you a percentage, we are 89% sure

about it." Like, it was super awesome, and they want to read the Book

of Mormon.

There is also an investigator named Saprina. It's an interesting

situation. She was taught the first two lesson by missionaries in the

Gilbert mission because that is where her friend lives (who is trying

to be more active). But we got a referral from her boss. But she is

actually YSA age, so we technically shouldn't be teaching her. But

counseling with the other two sets of missionaries, we came to the

consensus that we would teach her until they decide to transition to

the YSA ward, and she can just got to church in the other ward for now

since that is how she is progressing the most since Sister Talbot and

I have had the most luck with meeting with her and her friend. Funny

story I forget to tell was a couple weeks ago we had a lesson set up

with her, and when we got there, the YSA missionaries were there since

they had gotten a different referral from somewhere else for Saprina

and just happened to show up right before us to try to contact her

lol. So we had a lesson with four missionaries. Anyways, now that we

have an extended edition of her background, she is super awesome!

Like, her and her friend are now in 2 Nephi 6 in the Book of Mormon,

and they always have questions for us us about what they have been

reading, and they are always really good questions. And this week, she

told us about a spiritual experience she has, and we can tell she is

starting to recognize the truth of things, and it is so great! I just

love meeting with her, and in the past week or two, her brother and

friend have also been sitting in on the discussions as well. Ahhh,

it's just so great!

I just really love this area. The Lord has blessed this area so much.

The Lord has been blessing our whole mission. Last month, we set a

finding goal of 680 and baptism goal of 30, which was far reaching a

little bit for our mission. Well, we knocked the finding goal out of

the park by finding about 850 (we don't know the exact number yet) and

we reached 30 baptisms (which I think I may have mentioned last

week... if I did, oh well). It was so awesome. Sister Talbot and I

even reached all of our companionship goals for our key indicators

this week. Like, I can't even describe how I feel about this past

week. It has just been so awesome!!

Also, we went to the ghost town again and went into "the mystery

shack". It was trippy the way gravity was in there. It kinda made me

sick. But we were able to get the person who runs the place to give us

a buy one get one free admission, so that was nice 

Anyways, I love y'all!

Sister Smith

Weekly dog pic

FACIAL!

When an elder doesn't feel good and you have soup in your fridge 

Y'all, gravity was messed up in this place. Leaning forward with no effort

And backwards

We so cute

Enjoy the video of us trying to get of this chair with gravity messed up