called to serve AZ a MESAnary: 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