There’s always s’more room

We went to a member’s home to pick up something Wednesday night, and they had family over and they were making s’mores. I was stuffed from dinner, but I made the comment, “there’s always s’more room.” The member painfully laughed.

Another funny from this week was we went to Primary in one of the wards yesterday to help with sharing time, and the Primary President read D&C 84:62 and asked what missionaries need to take with them. She gave them a hint by saying it starts with a ‘t’. One kid’s answer was a tablet 😂 The primary president responded saying that some missionaries need a tablet. But the real answer was a testimony.

On the note of tablets, this week, Sister Clark and I got a smartphone! It was kinda weird at first and part of me still wants to pick up the old brick to send texts. But it’s great because we can finally see all the emojis people have been sending us, and we can be a part of group texts! It’s an exciting time haha

One of the biggest things this week was Thanksgiving. We helped at the registration table for the Mesa Turkey Trot in the morning and then did our regular studies. We then went to a part member family’s home for our first Thanksgiving dinner. We were expecting to help a lot more when it came to preparing the food than we actually did, so there was some down time while at that home between the time we got there and the time we actually ate. After we ate there, we were able to go over to an investigator’s home, where we just ate some dessert. But it was a miracle that we were able to meet with her because we haven’t been able to get into touch with her for awhile, and she finally texted us Wednesday night and invited us over for Thanksgiving. So that was a miracle! Then, we had another dinner at a member’s home, and they had friends who weren’t members over as well. It was really awesome because one of the friends started asking some questions about the church and boundaries and stuff (because I had said something about something being outside of my boundaries), and this led to a solid gospel conversation, and the members were engaged and asking questions and bearing testimony. We ended up giving the friend a copy of The Book of Mormon, and the member bore a simple but powerful testimony that, “that book changed my life.” (The members are converts). It was just really cool to see members bear testimony so naturally to their friends and be excited to answer questions. 

Also, on Thanksgiving, I studied scriptures about giving thanks, and it was a good reminder that we should always be giving thanks, and I love Alma 7:23 about how we need to give thanks for what we do receive. We may not receive everything that we ask for, but we need to recognize what our Heavenly Father blesses us with.

The other big thing that happened this week was that Maria was confirmed yesterday, so now it is official haha. It was also awesome because her husband wanted to leave after sacrament meeting (not awesome), so she took him home. But, instead of staying at home once dropping him off, she came back so she could go to the rest of church! Like, that shows how dedicated and strong she is. She really does want to do the right things.

Last night, we also had our first shift at Christmas Lights. It was fun, but I wish it was a little cooler so it would feel a little more like Christmas time. I’m excited to continue to be able to help out at Christmas Lights though and be able to talk with people. 

Hope y’all all had a good Thanksgiving!

Love y’all!

Sister Smith

 Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day

More Thanksgiving day

I put eyes on my iPad (they have both fallen off now )

Another pun (notice the toast left on the half wall)

In N Out for Sister Wade’s 2 year mark as a convert

Baptism of Waters or Waters of Baptism

So Maria was baptized yesterday! And her last name is Waters. So yeah,

there was someone who entered into the waters of baptism, and there

was a baptism of Waters.

Maria's baptism was good though. It was "fourth hour" for Skyline Ward

since her baptism happened right after church. She gave a good

testimony, and everything was just very simple. Her daughter even came

to the baptism as well. And Sister Clark and I sang "Beautiful

Savior." It wasn't my best performance ever, but Maria's daughter did

tell me that I had a really beautiful singing voice (which I would

have never imagined anyone ever telling me that in my life).

I did go on exchanges with Sister Harkleroad in her area this week. It

was kinda weird because it's right next to my old area, and she lives

with the Sisters that are now in my old area. It just brought back

some memories. It was kinda cool because I was able to look at all the

people the sisters in my old area are working with, and they are still

working with a lot of the same people I was working with, and quite a

few of them have progressed even more since I left. Sometimes, we get

to see the fruits of our efforts in our areas, and sometimes we don't,

but it is always nice to be able to see what has happened since

leaving an area.

I guess a miracle that happened this week was we were just visiting

some members trying to get to know about some of their neighbors who

are former investigators. We came to one member's home, and we set up

a time to get to know this family a little better. Turns out that the

wife's mom who is living with them is not a member. We talked some,

and they actually set up a return appointment with us so that we can

come back and share The Restoration video with her and talk about it.

It's always nice when members help out, but it also shows that we have

to get to know the members before anything happens often times.

Also, this past week, we had to clean our car seat because there were

some stains. We had a member's help us with it, and then we had to

drive home. Since the seat was still wet, my companion sat in the back

seat. It was the weirdest feeling driving without anyone in the

passenger seat since I haven't done it in over a year. It's almost

like I felt empty, even though she was still in the car.

We also had an interesting contact that could have turned out a lot

more interesting than it actually did. So we go and knock of this door

of a neighbor that a member told us to stop by. She answers the door.

She was super friendly and told us that it wasn't a good time because

she was entertaining some guests. We look behind her, and we see

sitting on her couch 2 nuns and a catholic priest. She ended up having

us come in so she could give us some water (which we actually said we

were fine at the door) and she introduced us as "their Mormon

friends." We just introduced ourselves, got the water, and left. It

was a little weird, but like I said us coming in could have turned out

a lot different than it did.

Anyways, something that really stood out to me as I was studying this

week was 1 Nephi 14:14- "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the

power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the

church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were

scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with

righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." I love this

because there are a lot of things that go on in our lives and the

adversary is trying to tempt us and lead us away in so many ways, but

the Lord strengthens us and gives us power to overcome those things so

that we can build up His kingdom and return to live with Him. But, we

have to keep our covenants and be apart of that "covenant people" to

receive those blessings.

I love y'all!

Sister Smith

Awkward family district pic (including matching shirts courtesy of Sister Clark's mom)

Another pic from Nadia's baptism because it's a great pic and much
better than iPad quality

Looked up this word, and definition 2 stood out to me. #nerdlife #ChemE

Weekly dog pic

Empty seat...

MARIA'S BAPTISM!

Maria

"Chunky dunk in the Jesus tank"

Those words spoken by Sister Nadia Carey in her testimony after she

was baptized 😂 She was talking about a story and how things could

have been different and how she could could have been doing other

things, but instead she "took a chunky dunk in the Jesus tank."

Another funny thing was that Sister Clark and I were called

"fish-onaries" by a little girl. Of course, I thought it was fitting

because we are fishers of men lol

Anyways, this week was good. NADIA WAS BAPTIZED on Saturday! Wahoo!

And her baptismal service was so good. We actually had to go to the

chapel for everything else besides the baptism because there were so

many people who came. And her testimony was super strong and powerful.

It was just super exciting and fantastic. Everything was just so good

and went pretty well.

We had a couple of exchanges this week. I stayed in my area for both.

Sister Clark and I almost felt like we did an exchange with ourselves

between the other 2 because we were gone for 24 hours, together 24

hours, and gone for 24 hours. I was exhausted by the end of the second

exchange though because it was basically a lot of finding since our

teaching pool is kinda winding down, and I was the one who had to lead

the area on exchanges and put in all the areas/names for finding. It

was a relief on Friday to not have to plan nearly as much because we

had weekly planning and a Christmas Lights meeting. On the exchange on

Thursday it was really awesome though because we got some referrals

from members that we went and visited. We went to some members to ask

about neighbors that are in our area book as formers, and by doing

that, they started talking about their other neighbors as well. So we

now have a new tactic and strategy that we are really going to try to

approach and use this week.

It was also crazy because Saturday night we got a referral from some

Gilbert elders about an investigator who moved into our area. We were

right around the corner from where that family moved in, so we stopped

by. Turns out that it was a family that is friends with Nadia's

family, and Nadia's daughter and this other family's daughter are

really good friends, so the daughter came to Nadia's baptism!

This week was also fun because Sister Talbot came back down for the

baptism. She actually came to see Larry and Maria while we were having

a lesson with them. She waited in her car for about 20 minutes because

she saw that we were there and didn't want to interrupt, but then

Larry went out front to do what he calls, "exercising his agency"

(smoking), and I guess he saw her and invited her in. It was kinda

weird because we continued the lesson, and Sister Talbot just taught

like normal. It's like she was companion again, but she wasn't. It was

fun though. We also both had dinner at Nadia's last night since her

and her family were doing an early Thanksgiving with the family that

was in town. She smoked the turkey, and it was soo good.

Also, it looks like Maria will be getting baptized on Sunday after

church. She has her baptismal interview tonight, so we are hoping

everything goes well!

Anyways, I love y'all! Have a great week!

Sister Smith

These are the texts I like to get from investigators (now recent convert)

Baptism

Baptism

Baptism

Weekly dog pic

Post dinner pic

Something fishy

I was on exchanges with Hermana Zundel in her area on Saturday, and I
was looking through a Spanish workbook from the MTC, I saw the word
for sin, which is el pecado. I thought it was close to the word for
fish, so I asked Hermana Zundel. The word for fish is el pescado. We
had a short discussion, and at the end I said, "it still seems a
little fishy to me."

Anyways, this week seemed a little long and out of order, but it was
great. Last Monday night, we got to carve pumpkins with the Jensen
family, and that was a blast. I always appreciate members who treat us
well and trust us (especially when there are knives involved lol).
Tuesday, we got to go to the temple for Halloween night. Nothing like
spending time with the dead on Halloween 😂 It was great though. I got
to participate in sealings to parents for the first time, which was a
fantastic experience. There definitely is power in eternal families.
Wednesday, we went over the final details for Nadia's baptism for this
Saturday. It seems like it will be great and lots of people will be
there.
We had weekly planning on Thursday this week because we had zone
conference on Friday. Zone Conference was really good. We were able to
have a great discussion on having the Spirit more fully when we teach
and are talking with people. Ultimately, it comes down to that you
have to make it personal to them, personal to you, and really make it
meaningful. I also studied on the Spirit teaching people yesterday in
my personal study, and I came up with a good example of why the Spirit
is so necessary. I thought about how as missionaries, we often teach
people about what praying is and the correct way to pray. It's kinda
like the what and how of prayer. But, the Spirit is the one who
confirms to them really why they themselves need to pray. If they
don't feel the Spirit while we are praying with them or when they
pray, they won't continue to do it. I also was studying how to make my
personal prayers more meaningful, and I came up with 3 words based off
of a quote I read. They are: Meditate, Contemplate, Supplicate. In
other words, we really need to think about what we are going to say
and ask for before we pray. This also allows the Spirit to guide our
prays as well.
Friday night to Saturday night, we had exchanges. I went to a Spanish
area again. The Lord showed me a tender mercy though in one of our
lessons. We went to read The Book of Mormon with a family in the ward.
I know enough Spanish to be able to read decently, but I never feel
confident doing it. Well, in this lesson there was a kid who was
struggling a little bit to read in Spanish, so it didn't make me feel
quite so bad about my reading, and it gave me a little bit of a
confidence boost.
So that's basically my week in a nutshell. Hope y'all all are doing well!
Love,
Sister Smith

Pumpkin carving

I don't like the last three digits of the odometer reading for the
end of this day...

When somehow Siri will give you the score of the World Series on
your iPad when most things are blocked.

Weekly dog pic

Chips on your shoulder

So Sister Clark and I were moving out of our apartment, and we were

carrying stuff out to our car. She had a big of chips leaning on her

shoulder. Of course, my response was, "Man, you sure have a lot of

chips on your shoulder."

Anyways, this week was kinda different with everything we had going

on. So we moved on Tuesday, and we moved into a member's home. It's

good, but different. There are definitely pros and cons to it all.

Pro: wifi, which means emailing while laying on a comfy couch. Con:

the thermostat is usually at 80°, but sometimes at 84°... I also feel

like I have 2 strikes right now because I apparently didn't shut the

front door all the way when we left one morning (because it is a

little harder to shut), and then I also put a canned drink in the

freezer and forgot about it and it exploded... So now I am on edge for

strike 3.

Wednesday, we had a Fall Festival for Mountain Vista Ward, which was

great. We had a less active member come, which is the first time she

has come to something in a long time. There were also lots of other

non members there too!

We had MLC on Thursday. We found out that sometime in November, our

mission is supposed to be getting smartphones! We will keep our iPads,

but it will start a transition to all missionaries having smartphones

instead of tablets. We don't know how immediately it will be though

before all missionaries just have smartphones. But I love going to MLC

because it is an extra opportunity to learn and grow. We also had

multiple lessons, and I think we finally figured out the trick to keep

the Wolf family focused and engaged in the lessons (we have had a hard

time the last few weeks focusing everyone).

On Friday, we had an STL meeting in the morning. It started off

talking about how God is always aware of us and knows what we need. It

made me reflect on how many times I have seen God's hand and known

that He is aware of me. I also like a statement that was made. It was:

"If you don't believe that you have a loving Heavenly Father, why

would anything else matter? If you don't believe that He loves you,

why would you want to return to live with Him?" This is so true. If He

doesn't love us and we don't love God, it wouldn't make sense to want

to go back to His presence. This is why as missionaries, the first

point in the first lesson, so the first things we usually teach, is

"God is Our Loving Heavenly Father." That's the basis, and because He

loves us, His Son, Jesus Christ, was sent to earth to atone for our

sins. Because He loves us, He wants us to have this knowledge, the

knowledge of the gospel. Everything is based off of those statements.

On Saturday, we helped with the Salt River Cleanup Project. It seems

like it wasn't too long ago that I was helping with this, but it was a

year ago... But it was fun. It was interesting. Sister Clark and I,

along with 2 other people we were with, went to pick up a blanket that

we thought was trash. As we were pulling it up, we saw a skeleton of

what we think was a dog 😐. So I guess we found someone's dog that had

been buried for some time. Later that night, we had Skyline's Trunk or

Treat. I think Skyline is my favorite ward that I have served in. I

just feel like I am home in that ward. There were lots of people that

came, including non members and investigators. They were playing music

though at the party, but it was kinda disappointing because it was

mostly kids singing the songs. Sister Clark called it, "Unsatisfying

Disobedience." If we were going to listen to music, it should have at

least been the real thing lol

Last night, we had a lesson with Maria where we went over the

baptismal interview questions. It's a good thing we did this though

because we found out there was a misunderstanding about the Word of

Wisdom. Unfortunately, it means we have to push her baptismal date

back a couple of weeks 😒 Everything else seems to be good for her

though. A small miracle was that her baptism wasn't announced over the

pulpit earlier yesterday. We had talked about doing it while in Ward

Council before sacrament meeting, but then when sacrament meeting came

around, it wasn't announced. Thank goodness!

Hope y'all all have a good week!

Love y'all!

Sister Smith

We acquired dry ice while at the fall festival

When it's 80 inside, you male it cooler yourself lol

Mission Leadership Council pic

Salt River Cleanup

Weekly dog pic?

Haha jk--real weekly dog pic

Face painting. Multiple members did a double take
(Sister Clark did this in about 5 minutes) #artdegree



I thought people only did this for Christmas