Well, tomorrow is the day I return home and finish my mission. It’s been real here in the Arizona Mesa Mission these last 18 months. I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve, to love, and to grow.
This past week has been kinda bitter sweet. It’s been fun to see so many people that I have grown to love before I leave, but it has also been sad to say bye to them. Luckily, technology makes it easier to stay connected with everyone.
Anyways, I’m going to make this short since I’m short on time with all the packing and everything today I’m short on time. But yesterday it was great to be able to speak in all 3 wards that I have been serving in for the past 7 months (it was a little stressful though...). My favorite was the First Vision talk that I gave. The Spirit testified so strongly to me that this message is true. Many people in the congregation had tears in their eyes, and I know that it was from the Spirit that we all felt. It was great to be able to testify of it one last time before I take off my missionary tag.
Now that that song is stuck in your head, this week was pretty good. Getting down to the end, and people in my area know it, so I keep getting asked how much longer I have. There’s even people I don’t even remember telling, but somehow lots of people know. I have loved this area though.
This week, as in all weeks as a missionary, there were some great ups, but there were also a few downs.
One of the downs was that we get a text from Sister Wolf saying that visits to her and her kids are going to have to stop since the kids’ father is coming back into the picture (and he doesn’t really like the church...). I wanted to cry. I was so sad when I read that text.
On a better note, we had a couple of good lessons with the Waters where Larry was more coherent and with it than he has been for awhile. So those were some awesome lessons, and I’m really hoping Larry starts to turn around a little more real soon.
I had a funny story with flowers on Valentine’s Day. So my mom sent me flowers via a member, Sister Jensen. So Sister Jensen tricked us to coming to her house so that I could get the flowers we thought were for me. As I opened them and read the note, the note started, “To my favorite Jensen family in Arizona”... Turns out Sister Jensen’s parents had sent her flowers, too. I thought about just playing it off, but I decided it would be more awkward if my flowers came later. We all got a good laugh out of it (and I also got a Diet Coke, so that was a bonus).
We also went on exchanges. I went to Sister McEwen’s area, and a cool experience that I had was we were just reading from The Book of Mormon was a convert, and I started asking some questions to help this person try to apply the scriptures to himself, and I was trying to get at that our “promised land” should be eternal life. Well, later on, Sister McEwen was talking to me about the lesson, and apparently a member had told her and her companion that they should probably review eternal life with him. And then there I was directing the conversation towards eternal life without even knowing the member had told them that. The Spirit is real y’all! I feel like often times I follow the Spirit with our really knowing it.
I hope everyone is doing well, and I will be seeing y’all real soon!
So one of the ward members got new contacts, and she was having a really hard time seeing with them, so I made the comment in gospel principles class as she was talking about it that she just couldn’t see the point in wearing them.
Anyways, this week was great! It went by wayyy too fast though!
On Saturday, we had a special mission conference with Elder Uceda and Elder Cook! It was soooo awesome! The Spirit was so strong as Elder Cook, and apostle of the Lord, spoke and bore his testimony. Even though the conference was only 2 hours, I learned so much! It was really cool too because he talked about the choosing and setting apart of President Nelson as the prophet. The Spirit hardcore testified to me that President Nelson is truly a prophet. Time sure does fly though because I remember it like it was yesterday that President Townsend told us not to expect to have another mission conference at our last one, and that was 10 months ago! It’s crazy!
We also had some miracles this week when it came to contacting some less actives. We were able to catch a couple of them home, and they let us in, and we were able to share a message with them! We were definitely blessed in that aspect. And we were able to meet with 2 different part member families this week (because they both love the missionaries and now it’s just chippin’ away little by little until they finally decide to be baptized).
Also, today we found out that here in Mesa, the bowling alleys are filled in the afternoon by all the snowbirds... So no bowling for our zone, but we did go to Krazy Air, so that was fun as always.
So my whole mission, I have served along Southern Ave here in Mesa. I was thinking about that last week, and I came to the conclusion that it’s just because I truly am a southern girl haha I also unintentionally made a pun (but no one realized except for me). At dinner, I made some whipped cream, and it took forever. We shared a dinner message on patience, and I said, “Sometimes, the Lord just wants to ‘whip’ us into shape.” Like I said, I was the only one noticed, so it wasn’t that great I guess...
Anyways, this week was pretty good. It was about normal. We had a few good contacts with some people that needed to be contacted (like a PMF and some less actives and stuff). One experience was really cool. There’s a convert in one of our wards of about 2 years. We found out a couple of weeks ago that she has never actually read through The Book of Mormon all the way through yet. It was Monday night, and we didn’t have much planned, so we texted her to see if we could come read with her. As we were reading her, she told us that she was feeling a little guilty about missing church the day before since she was sick, but she decided she would read from The Book of Mormon (I think just a chapter a week). And then we showed up to read with her! We also invited her to an FHE last night, and it was the first time she had ever had or been to an FHE, so that was also great.
One of the things I love about being a missionary is seeing people change, even if it is just in their attitude from the time we get to their house to the time that we leave. We had a lesson with another convert who is working on coming back to church and receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood. When we first got there, he wasn’t in the best mood, but as he answered his questions, he could feel the Spirit, and he was in such a good mood after. And he even said, “Well, that definitely wasn’t a waste of my time!” Which is always good to hear about a lesson haha
We had another awesome lesson with Nadia. She really just is great, and she is already so involved in missionary work, and it’s just so natural for her.
We had another 10 Sunday at the church building, but I loved the sacrament hymn we sang in one of the wards. The fourth verse has a line that says, “I have loved thee as thy friend, With a love that cannot end.” I love this so much because Christ really is our friend, and He loves us so much, and it really does never end.
Anyways, I hope each of you guys had a great week! Love y’all!
Sister Smith
Ice Cream and Book of Mormon reading with Sister Murrane
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 👍🏼
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.
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?!
