#LIGHTtheWORLD and our apartment...

So we got home last night, and the storm that came through knocked our
power out for a couple of hours. We made a joke about how we have been
telling people about the church's Christmas initiative of
#LIGHTtheWORLD and we don't even have light in our apartment. There
were other jokes made, like how we we wandering in darkness and stuff.
Only something missionaries would do... haha

But this week was pretty good. We had transfers, so I am now with
Sister Csolity. We have gotten along pretty well so far this week. It
is weird being in charge of the area for right now since Sis Csolity
doesn't know it. It is definitely a learning and growing experience.

Besides transfers, it was Thanksgiving. To start, we volunteered at
the Mesa Turkey Trot. I think most missionaries helped give runners
water. It was my first time being on that side of it. I made the joke
that since it was the missionaries handing out the water that it was
holy water. The other missionaries thought it was funny. Later that
day, we went to a YSA member's home and had dinner with him and his
family. There was plenty of food, and we even had homemade ice cream!

On Friday, we had car troubles. Our battery died. We went to go to a
lesson, and the car wouldn't start and we just heard the clicking,
which is an obvious sign for a dead battery. As we went to get out
though, tiwi told us, "Warning. Battery may be low." As missionaries,
we are often sarcastic with tiwi, so we were just like, "Thanks for
letting us know now tiwi. It would have been more useful last
night..." Luckily we were able to borrow our roommates car to go to
that lesson. We got back, and tried jumping our car, but we just
couldn't get it to start. Long story short, we were on foot for the
night. We stayed in a relatively small area near our apartment. There
were lots of people out, but that's because they were all headed to
Christmas Lights since they started that night.

Saturday, we had our first shift at Christmas Lights. I have never had
to try to talk to so many people in my life than this past week.
Between being the one to start lessons and stuff and then Christmas
Lights, I talked a lot. Christmas Lights are good though because it
makes me push myself to talk to people, even when I don't really want
to. It is also teaching me how to make small talk and then relate it
to the gospel or find a way to bridge it to encourage people to go
inside the VC, since those are mostly our main purposes as
missionaries working outside.

Sunday was a fun day. Our lesson at 7pm was outside, but then the
temperature started dropping pretty quickly and at the beginning of
the lesson, it started getting really windy and started to rain a
little bit. I was not dressed for this weather. We ended up driving
over to the church building. Funny story about this lesson. Prior to
this, Sis Csolity and I were talking about football for some reason
and it was brought up about somehow relating it to the gospel. I said
if I thought about it for a moment I probably could. Well, during this
lesson, the member present started relating what we were talking about
to football. We had a pretty good analogy going. But when we got home
after this lesson, I guess the storm knocked our power out, so we had
no power. At least we had our iPads for light.

I do know that Christ is the light of the world, and each one of us
can spread the light of Christ, especially this Christmas season. I
love the church's initiative of #LIGHTtheWORLD and I would invite all
y'all to check out the video and think of ways you can #LIGHTtheWORLD.

Much love!
Sister Smith

Last pic of Sis Leavitt and I as companions

First pic of Sis Csolity and I as companions

Runners and Volunteers at the Mesa Turkey Trot

Dinner with Anthony Butler and his family

Churning some homemade  ice cream
(Her Grandpa Brink would be proud)

Dogs 😊

We wanted the alliteration...

Planning in the dark

We had a Twinkie fun run today. It was a relay where each leg ran a mile. This was our prize for coming haha. I actually ran the whole mile. But my team finished last. But the first shall be last and the last shall be the first, right?

Inhaler in one hand, Twinkie baton in the other.  Oh, the irony...