called to serve AZ a MESAnary: But wait...

Idk if I used this joke last year or not, but I’m using it again if I did.

How did the wisemen present their gifts? We’ve got gold, frankincense, but wait! There’s myrrh!

Anyways, hope y’all all had a good Christmas!

This week seemed kinda long, but that’s probably just because pday is on Tuesday instead of Monday. But we were pretty busy and all over the place this week. We had 3 exchanges, and we had another sister join us for Christmas Lights Tuesday night because her companion was sick. So basically, Sister Clark and I had all kinds of different companions this week.

From Monday night to Tuesday night before Christmas Lights, I was on exchanges. Then, we picked up the other sister whose companion was sick. Tuesday night at Christmas Lights was fun in a trio because we felt a little more obligated to talk to people on our own because it’s a little intimidating to have not only 2, but 3 sisters come up to you and start talking, so we just kinda divided and conquered (within the rules though). So we talked to lots of people, and the Visitors’ Center got 102 referrals that night! That was crazy to get that many referrals for a Tuesday night.

Wednesday, I got to go into a Spanish area again. I think the hardest part for me with that is I can understand what the people are saying, but I just don’t know enough (and am not confident enough) to respond back or make comments. Most people are nice enough to help you though when they know you don’t know much or are learning Spanish. Also, we tipped a trailer up in the air on accident at dinner that night. Long story short, Sister Shumway and I were having dinner with a family, and so were the elders in the other part of the Spanish area. Because of something, we ended up eating part of our dinner outside on the back of a trailer. As we went to get off, 3 of us were all at the back, and it was just like a seesaw. Luckily, all the food had been taken off, so everything was okay.

Thursday, we went caroling as a district to some people from our different areas. It’s always fun and rewarding to see the people’s faces light up with joy as you begin to carol to them. We also had dinner with the Jensen family, where we got to decorate some cookies. And mine turned out pretty great considering my artistic skills. The daughter even wanted to copy one of mine. We also got to go to Christmas Lights again, and I was finally able to actually get a few referrals myself.

Friday and Saturday were basically all finding. We did day exchanges on Saturday with some sisters because it’s impossible to do a 24 hour exchange with them with Christmas Lights. We had a great conversation with one guy on exchanges, and we offered him a copy of The Book of Mormon 3 times in the course of this conversation, but he turned it down all 3 times. Friday night, I also ate some spicy Thai food. It was great, but my companion and the member who took us out for dinner couldn’t handle the heat when they tried a little bit of my food. They all thought I took it like a champ (although my lips burned sooo bad from the spice level).

Christmas Eve was great. It was weird only having sacrament meeting in all three wards, but it was nice because I felt like we didn’t have to rush off somewhere. One of our wards did a super beautiful and awesome musical program, which included four cellos being played. It was great!

We were also fasting because our zone and district have been struggling with finding new investigators, so each companionship took a day to fast, and ours was Christmas Eve. I almost accidentally broke my fast early because we went to a member’s, and they offered us a treat, and it sounded and looked good, so I grabbed one without thinking. Luckily, Sister Clark said, “Don’t do it! Don’t eat it!” and I was able to remember that I was fasting, and I slipped the treat into my bag to eat later. Sometimes, Satan is sneaky though. That night, we went to the Hewitt’s for dinner, where we ate way too much Chinese food and had a great time. And we were also sent home with all the leftovers. We now have rice for days. But a miracle happened that night! We got a call from a member in another ward with a referral for us! It was an answer to our fasting and praying. And the referral even called us back this morning, and we are going over there tonight!

Christmas was also a little more relaxed. We woke up, opened our presents, got ready, studied, and then called home. After, we went to a part member family’s home for lunch (the Abelings—they had us over for Thanksgiving too). We tried to contact the referral we got, but no luck. We then went over to one of our bishops’ houses, where we mostly played some games with them, especially the youngest daughter. We had to eat dinner really fast though because we were supposed to be at the temple at 5:45/6ish to get ready for the concert, but dinner wasn’t ready until 5:30. I don’t think I have ever gotten to the temple so quickly as I did last night. I was really pushing tiwi (a box that monitors our driving and will only let us go up to 7 mph over the speed limit before a red light comes on and tells us to “check your speed”). I was on cruise control and there were a few times when the red light blinked on for a moment but tiwi didn’t say anything. We got there just on time. Then, we had the concert, which was fun, but it was a little crowded on the stands. After, we had hot chocolate with a family, and they had lots of ingredients to make all kinds of different flavored hot chocolate. To end the night, we came home, and the daughter of the member that we live with was over, and she has a German Shepherd. So that was a good way to end Christmas.

I do love the Christmas season though and being able to focus on our Savior. I know Jesus Christ loves us and performed the Atonement for us. I know He gives us light wherever we may be at, just like the symbol of His birth was light both where He was born as well in the Americas. He provides peace and joy in our lives.

I love y’all!

Sister Smith