So FRICK-in’ happy

So Caleb Frick (my recent convert from my first area) was married and sealed to Whitney (his girlfriend at the time who introduced him to the gospel) on Saturday! I got permission to go, and it was so amazing, and it made me sooo happy and joyful to see them be sealed. The Spirit was so strong during the sealing, and it testified to me of the importance of making temple covenants, especially being sealed as a family. It was a little weird being outside of mission boundaries, since it was at the Gilbert temple, but it was fun. We also had to wait awhile at the temple because the person we got a ride with was going to another sealing not too long after the one we went to, but it ran late. Being on temple grounds was good though. I’m just still smiling about them getting sealed.

Some background for some of the pics though—Whitney’s dad told the photographer that I was the missionary who taught and baptized Caleb to make sure she got some pics of me with them. Because of that, she also got some pics of just Caleb and I together, and I think that’s why she had us do a laughing pic

We had zone conference this past week, and I had to give a departing testimony, which was weird. Sister Townsend made the comment that when the sisters get up she feels like we just got here, and I feel the same way. People tend to make the comment in their departing testimonies that they felt like this day would never come, and I always thought it was kinda cheesy, but it actually is pretty true. All the sudden, you are the missionary up there giving your departing testimony. It really makes you reflect on your mission.

This week we were able to have a few good lessons with some members that we dropped by, and we were even able to contact some less actives that we haven’t been able to contact in awhile. One of them was a less active that Sister Talbot and I tried to contact multiple times with no luck back in August/September. I kinda put that person aside, but I suddenly had her name come to mind a couple of times, so I knew we needed to go and try her. Well, we went by, and she answered and was super nice and set a return appointment! It was seriously a miracle. 

Also, we had dinner with someone who lived in Texas for a bit since their husband was going to school at Texas Tech, and for dessert they pulled out Blue Bell Cookie Two Step ice cream.  Needless to say, this Texan was very excited and happy about that. #miracles

We were able to have a pretty decent with Maria for the first time in awhile since Larry isn’t always all there and completely coherent during most lessons. It went downhill just the last few minutes when Larry started letting out some anger from something that happened in the past. Besides that, we were talking about God’s love for us since He is our Heavenly Father. My testimony was strengthened during this lesson, and I know He loves is so much. He has a plan for us. He gives us so many blessings, even when we don’t recognize them. 

I hope y’all each have a great week! Love you guys!

Sister Smith

Weekly dog pic! Look how cute the puppy is 😍

Add captionWedding pic

Caleb and I normal

Photographer: “okay, now I want you to look at each other and laugh.” Us: *awkwardness*

Us laughing at the awkwardness

Whitney and I

Sister Heaps and I in front of the Gilbert Temple

When you pull out your jeans while going through your clothes and they still fit 👍🏼

I learned to ride a hover board

“Diet Coke fixes everything”

So I’m really running out of steam on puns, so this quote will have to do. I basically had no voice Thursday-Saturday, and I was talking on the phone with Sister Jensen on Friday, and she asked if I was sick. She then told me I could come by her house to get Diet Coke, because “Diet Coke fixes everything.” I’m sure my mom would approve of that statement. 

Anyways, thinking back on the week, it seems like it was forever long. But it was pretty good. Really, nothing out of the ordinary. More finding. A little teaching, mostly to the same people we normally teach each week. We had Stake Conference yesterday, so we weren’t at the church building for 10 hours, which was nice. And Stake Conference was super great. The theme was “Jesus, the very thought of thee.” As we think of Christ, we can love in His way and we can live in His way, and we can help those around us.

We did have a good lesson with Nadia this week. She just continues to be so excited for everything. She was telling us how she went to the temple with the youth, and she did baptisms again for more family names, and she talked about how awesome it was seeing some of the priests performing the baptisms for the first time (even if they dunked some of the girls way too hard into the water). It’s just cool to see her continue to grow and learn. It’s been fun to be around her the last 6 months. She even told me in our lesson that she has seen me change so much the past 6 months too. It’s a growing and learning process for all of us, and it never stops.

We had another lesson with someone else. It’s hard because they know what is right, and they have a strong testimony of the gospel. They just have had some experiences in their life that they can’t let go and still hold onto a lot of anger. I was thinking about this last night, and I just couldn’t help but think that Christ has infinite power. He can do anything. He can repair any hurt or wound. He can fix whatever is broken. So why not him? Why not you? Why not me? He can. It’s up to us to trust Him, to turn to Him. 

I hope y’all all have good weeks! Love you!

Sister Smith

Weekly dog pic. Only pics from this week

Captivating Decapitating story

So we were helping the Johnson’s paint their house, and Brother Johnson was telling a story about how he learned to decapitate a chicken. It was very captivating, so captivating that I accidentally painted on their sink faucet. So we named it the captivating decapitating story.

Anyways, this week was good, just a normal week. We did get transfer news, and I will be staying in the area for my final transfer, but I will no longer be a STL.

We were able to have an AMAZING lesson filled so strongly with Larry and Maria last night. It was so perfect, and our member present, Brother Carter, was able to extend a fantastic invitation to Larry to receive a priesthood blessing, and it was so powerful. The priesthood is real y’all! 

Other than that, I can’t think of much else from this week. And I don’t have much time left anyways

Only one more transfer to go. Can you believe it?! 

Anyways, love y’all!

Sister Smith

 Safety first= safety glasses

Jensen’s

Jensen’s

 Last pic with Sister Clark

Temple Trip Tuesday

It’s not a pun, but it’s a nice alliteration.

Anyways, the week always seems long when pday is on a Tuesday, but this week will seem shorter, so I guess it all balances out. 

This past week, it was mostly just like any other week. I was kinda sick on Wednesday, so that wasn’t fun, and then my comp wasn’t feeling good the rest of the week. It’s just that time of year, and we have gone to so many people's homes this past week where they have been sick, and it’s not just the, “I’m sick” excuse people use to get us to go away. 

We did have a lesson with a part member family about why we go to church and stuff, and we brought a member with us. We asked the member to share the blessings of going to church and how it helps him. Well, he starts talking about how hard Church really is when you have young children and talked about how it’s the hardest 3 hours of his week and what not. He even said that, “church is harder than hell.” We were getting a little nervous, but he eventually tied everything back together and said that despite the difficulties, he sees how it makes his week better and how he has learned to cherish seeing all his girls dressed up in the backseat of their car and everything. I think it helped the family to have someone give them some real talk though.

We also got a referral for a member who has been inactive for awhile who requested a copy of The Book of Mormon from online. We didn’t even have her records in our ward. We were able to contact this referral within 20 minutes of her requesting The Book of Mormon, and she let us right in. Apparently, her 6 year old has been a little curious since they went to church a little bit ago with the grandparents, so the mom decided that if her daughter wants to go, they will go. And they came to church on Sunday! Interestingly enough, our ward mission leader knows them a little bit and had been feeling like they needed to invite her to things. And last night, there is a group FHE put on for the missionaries to bring people to once a month now by one of the high councilors, and she came with our ward mission leader’s family. So that is exciting.

I also learned that the mission president looks at how much money is on all the missionaries mission cards, and if you start accumulating too much money, you get a phone call from him. This may or may not have happened to me this week... But the reason I have more money than usual on my card is because I haven’t had to buy too much with members giving us stuff and then a member payed for our groceries last week. So we just have great members, and it is a blessing. 

It was a little sad to hear about President Monson’s passing, but it has been a great time to reflect on those things he exemplified and those things he has taught us. It gave me the opportunity to think about what he taught me and some of the things he has said. Two of my favorite quotes from him are, “may we ever choose the harder right than the easier wrong,” and “never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”

Anyways, love y’all!

Sister Smith 

Gotta stay hydrated when you are sick

Found this this week 😂

Pizza with Jared (Brother in law) last Monday night

Juan on Juan

What do you call Spanish basketball? Juan on Juan. 

These are the jokes that come from missionaries haha

Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This week was filled with a lot of great things, a lot of miracles for the mission. To start, our zone and district were really struggling to find people to teach, so we did a fast. Last week, our whole zone only found 4 people, but this week, just our district set a goal to find 20 new investigators, and we reached that goal! Also, the visitors center set a goal of about 2,200 referrals this year at Christmas Lights (which is doubled from last year), and last night they had to get 200 referrals to reach it. That’s a crazy goal, especially because Christmas Eve had 151 referrals, which was the highest ever. Well, with the help of the Lord, they got 220 referrals last night. We all ended the year on a good note.

Sister Clark and I, even though we didn’t reach our companionship finding goal, we were blessed with a few more referrals, plus meeting and being able to talk with a few other people who showed some interest. This will hopefully help us in our finding goals in the next few weeks. We also have been in contact with a few investigators who we have had a hard time contacting, and it was nice because during weekly planning, we had a few more people to talk about and plan for. 

We had one more exchange this week, and it was kinda nice to go to another area and not have to worry as much about planning for the day. It was also nice because I went on exchanges with Sister Caswell, and she goes home when I go home, and so we are in the same boat and understand each other on certain things. On this exchange though, we had one lesson where it was just natural to teach and testify of the plan of salvation. We stopped by a former investigator’s home, and they let us in. We really didn’t have a plan. We started talking to her, and by the end, we taught almost the whole plan of salvation. It was nice because I didn’t feel rote or like I had to teach the Plan of salvation because it was what we planned, but it really was by the Spirit and from the heart. I could feel the Spirit testify of the truthfulness of it to me. 

I just can’t emphasize enough how much the Lord blessed us this week. It was a great week to end the year. Even church yesterday, even though it was super long for us, I really felt uplifted and ready to begin this new year. We also were able to help someone move into their apartment last night. Of course, they were moving to the third floor, and my body hurt after going up and down the stairs with stuff for about 45 min, but it was totally worth it to help someone out. You could tell that they really appreciated the help.

To start the year, the mission had a big activity for all the missionaries where we could play various sports from 8:30am-12pm and then eat lunch. It was so much fun, and I played about 2 hours or so of soccer. Needless to say, I am sore, and I will probably feel it even more tomorrow morning. I also played a little bit of softball. It’s just great to be around other missionaries who want to have fun and just play sports and everything be pretty positive the whole time while playing.

I love y’all! Have a great first week of the year!

Sister Smith

Zone pic

MLC

Matt and Oakley 😍

Video of Matt trying to surprise me. 

Definitely went for Oakley before Matt lol

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

Opening presents a member gave us last week

District pic

My decorated cookies

When you wear an orange skirt, and all you have is an orange jacket #trafficcone

Weekly dog pic part one

When Elder Smith’s screen freezes 😂

Christmas with Claire Cederstrom an her family

Dog pic part 2

Matching pj's thanks to my mom


Christmas morning exercise/showing of the presents received

Why do Mexicans make tamales at Christmas?

So Maria told us this joke the other night (btw, she is Mexican). The answer is: so they can have something to unwrap

This week, not much happened within our area. We are continuing to find more people to teach since our investigator pool is pretty vacant. I have been studying Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel on finding, and I realized that I could be much more effective during the first contact I have with most of the people I talk to. 

We got to help out at Christmas Lights a couple of times this week. We were able to have a few good conversations with some people there. We didn’t get any referrals (that is one of our roles when we are there), but hopefully we helped at least a few people feel the Spirit while there. I just always love being there because the lights are beautiful, but also to just be on temple grounds for a couple of hours is nice. It is exhausting though.

On Wednesday night, we went to mutual so we could talk to some of the young men about how to study and what to study to prepare for a lesson as a missionary. It was good. We started off by asking some questions, mostly about mission lingo. One of the questions was, “what does it mean to have a baby?” The answer is to be a trainer, but one of the young men responded with, “to be sent home early.” We all got a good laugh out of that one. After, we played chair soccer with them. Chair soccer is a lot more difficult in a skirt and with only socks on...

Thursday, we had zone conference. We got to do a nativity, and I was Mary. It was funny at one part though because they talked about how Mary was with a child, and elder named Elder Child, who was also up front at the time, waved his hand at that part. 

Yesterday at church, the fire alarm went off during sacrament meeting. I thought it was kinda ironic though because the person speaking was speaking about obedience and how the people should have just gotten on the ark, looked at the serpent, and how we just need to do the simple things. When the fire alarm went off, people kinda hesitated if they should leave or not. I wanted to go up to the person who was giving the talk and tell him to make the analogy that we just needed to leave the building. I was disappointed when we finally all went back inside and he gave the last little bit of his talk that he didn’t tie in the fire alarm. 

My companion made a good point though about how if we don’t treat the fire alarm as a real thing, even when things seem to be perfectly fine, we will never treat a fire alarm as a real thing. It made me think about following the promptings of the Spirit. If we don’t follow the first one, or don’t follow it because everything seems to be okay, then we never follow the Spirit and take the promptings seriously.

We also had the opportunity to speak in church in one of our wards. We were asked to speak on experiences that helped us know that the Savior and His Atonement are real. I love this topic, so I was excited to talk about it. No matter when, when Jesus Christ and His Atonement are talked about, I can always feel the Spirit.

Love y’all!

Have a merry Christmas! 🎄 

Sister Smith

Christmas Lights

Zone Conference nativity. I was Mary

Zone Pic

Went to lunch with these Sisters on Friday to discuss with them
 some of their struggles in their area

The fire truck at the church building

Found these this morning in the gym at the church. 

Whether they were blind, we know not