So this week was good. We had transfers, so Tuesday I got my companion, Sister Marcos, and a car. I was not shy about telling people in the ward and even some of our investigators that we got a car, and I loved seeing people's reactions when they realize we got a car. They were all excited for us.
Nothing too exciting though happened this week besides transfers. We mostly just met with members to try to help Sister Marcos get to know the ward and the area a little bit.
I got new roommates. I'm with Sister Colbert and Clark, and that's a lot of fun. But yeah, not too much else has gone on.
Just a thought that we talked about in relief society in one of our wards is that we cannot forgot our divine nature. We truly are children of our Heavenly Father, and He loves us so much. Never forget that!
Love y'all! Sister Smith
Look closely, and you can see what has been used as a dryer knobfor who knows how long #missionarylife
So this week, it got a little warm, like 108° warm. My companion pulled out a pamphlet to use it as a fan, and she pulled out one and didn't want it. Then she pulled out the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and used that one, so I nicknamed it the Fan of Salvation.
To begin, we got transfer news and I'm getting car! I'm staying in the area and getting a new companion. I'm trading one small Filipina for and even smaller Filipina haha
So miracles this week: Members are amazing here. Even though it was hot outside, members were giving us plenty of water and A/C, so that was awesome. We got a referral from a member! This member was prompted to talk to her friend, and she did, and the friend said she wouldn't mind meeting with us! We also ran into another member who lives in our ward boundaries but her records aren't in our ward, but she gave us a referral as well! Like, it was perfect. We are still trying to follow up on those referrals, but member missionary work is starting to get going a little more in this area! We also just had some solid lessons/meetings with members this week. Another miracle is that this week I had multiple things on my shopping list for this week, but most of them have been given to me by others. Most of the things have come from my roommate who is going home tomorrow, so she is getting rid of some things. It's just perfect. Like, sometimes the Lord really does work miracles, even if they are things like this. We also had 4 investigators at church this week! Which seriously is pretty awesome for our area right now. One of these investigators, we finally figured out where she actually lived because we had taught her at a member's home and didn't know where she lived. But we were able to contact her at her house, and this week we should have a lesson not only with her, but with her mom also! Another investigator was invited over for dinner by members when they were also feeding us. We ended up having a nice discussion afterwards where we mostly just talked about the power of the Book of Mormon, and the members were able to bear their testimonies naturally, and I thought it was pretty powerful.
So yeah, it was a pretty good week. I don't think there is really anything else noteworthy to write...
Love y'all! Sister Smith
District!
Wore this to church on Sunday. A lot of people liked it (shoutout to Sister Sio)
Or Jesus, Take the Handle Bars when you are on bike. I say this because at one of my Ward's activity, they had karaoke, and as a missionary you are really limited as to what you can sing. I decided to sing that song. I didn't sound very good, but I definitely wasn't the worst one.
Also, can I just say, April went by wayyy too fast. I feel like just the other day I was changing my calendar to April, and now I have to change it to May already!
So this week, we did lots of service. After cleaning a couple different houses, I am grateful for a home that was kept clean. One house, we began to clean the floor of one little room, and dirt was just caked on. Another house was just covered in dust and dog/cat hair. My job was dust all the walls and vacuum dust and dirt off of shelves and things. The other house had been sprayed for roaches, so we were cleaning up dead roaches along with killing some roaches that were still alive. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger I guess...
We also had a progressing investigator move into our area from another area, so we had a lesson with her, and she came to church on Sunday. We are really excited and thankful for this. Over the past few weeks though, we have seen our wards slowly become more involved in missionary work, so we are hoping things get rolling quicker here sometime pretty soon.
We also had more bike problems this week... We are both currently using members' bikes because we don't want to get the other ones fixed. And then I actually had a problem with the member's bike... Biking isn't so bad until you keep having bike problems. Hopefully transfer news this week is good news haha
Oh, and it was my 21st birthday. Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I celebrated with extra sugar and a black light party (see pics for explanation haha).
This morning, we also went to a member's home and played wally ball as a district. It's like volleyball, but you can play off the walls. It was a lot of fun, and my team was the champion. We never lost a game. This member also had a gym in their home, and I did squats for the first time in forever. (FYI the Wally ball was played on a racquetball court in their home).
This week, I studied a lot on obedience. Something that was said in a meeting was that "exact obedience is an attitude." As I studied obedience more, I have come to realize that this is true. Ultimately, our obedience should be out of love. Part of obedience is to develop and build certain character traits to help us become more like God. Something I read was that, "God made man free—and then gave him the Commandments to keep him free." When we are obedient, we really are more free and can receive the blessing that come from being obedient. Along with that last quote, there was a question in one of the church manuals that said: "As man has come to understand and obey physical laws, have those laws limited his freedom or increased it?" A great question to think about.
Anyways, I love all of you! Hope everyone has a fantastic week! Sister Smith
Check out the lights on the member's bike
What's a birthday without Blue Bell ice cream (yes, they sell it here in AZ!! )
Unfortunately, we couldn't light the candles...
Our dinner appointment knew it was my birthday, so she decorated
Black light party = scorpion hunting. With black lights, they glow lime green (one of the few lime green thing I don't like lol)
PUPPY!
Filipino food party!
Mostly took this pic with Sister Sio to show off my new outfit haha.
Now that you have that song stuck in your head, on Thursday I was able to go to the temple, have Canes for dinner, and pet a German shepherd and a German shepherd puppy. So I was happy because these are a few of my favorite things haha
Something that was funny was I went to the church service at the care center in our area, and I was taking one of the women back to her room and I asked her what her favorite part of the service was. Her response was, "Probably the nap I took in the middle of it."
Anyways, nothing overly exciting happened this week. We did find out that one of our new investigators lives in our area. We weren't 100% sure that she did, but we talked to her again this week, and we were able to get a better idea of where she lives, so we are excited about that.
Last Monday, my companion hurt her ankle. You're probably all shocked that it wasn't me. But with that, we had to adjust some of our plans because she couldn't ride her bike. And then her bike had another problem, so we were without bikes for a bit this week. But we made it work, and members who are willing to help are a blessing.
I also gave a training in our district meeting, and I was able to use a principle in chemical engineering and apply it to missionary work #nerdlife But someone said it made a lot of sense to them and really helped them, so at least someone besides myself benefited from it. Other than that, not much else happened.
I just want to share something from my personal study. I may have
shared this before, but I absolutely love it. In 1 Nephi 11, Nephi is receiving an interpretation of his father's dream. I love verses 16 and 17: "...Knowest thou the condescension of God? 17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." Nephi didn't know everything, but he know that God loves His children. Then in verse 26 it says: "Look and behold the condescension of God," and Nephi sees Christ life. Cross referencing these verses with John3:16, we can see that God really does love us because He gave us Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a symbol of God's love, and we know that Christ loves us. We should emulate that love for everyone around us.
I love you guys!
Sister Smith
Baby hedgehog (whose name unfortunately isn't Sonic)
Sometimes, candy stays intact in the mail. Sometimes, it doesn't...
Sister Brown and I. We have a joke when we are together that it is "Sister Smith and Sister Brown" because they are super basic names
4 people and 2 seats turn into this
Comparison of Sister Leavitt and I my first transfer....
So I may or may not have put on an Easter bunny suit to help out with an activity Saturday morning... and I may or may not have taken a video of me hopping around in it lol
This week was pretty good. We went to the Easter Pageant 3 more times this week, and one night we even had front row seats because we brought an investigator who has a daughter who is deaf, so we got to sit in front with them so they could see the ASL translation.
We also found 2 new investigators this week, one of which is really solid and golden. Her name is Emily and she is 11 years old. She has been to church a handful of times already with her friend. At first, her mom didn't want her to be taught by the missionaries and stuff, but now she can. Our first lesson with her was last Monday night at the members' home that she is friends with. She was telling us how lately she has felt a stronger need to go to church and everything! She even asked some awesome questions during the lesson, and she already knew how to pray. It was kinda funny because we asked her what the first step to pray is and she said, "Dear Heavenly Father" and then we asked her what the second step is, and she said, "Thank you for this day." It's just funny that she has picked that line up from hearing people say that because so many of us do say that haha. She even asked us if we wanted her to say the closing prayer. Like, how many investigators do that? So yeah, it was awesome.
Another funny moment from this week was we were eating at a member's home, and the mom pulled out ranch dressing for the salad, and one of her daughters said, pointing to the ranch, "and this is for pizza." The mom said that clearly they don't eat enough salad in their home haha.
We also had exchanges this week, and I went with Sister Crookston into her area, which meant I was in a car for a day. It was kinda refreshing to be in a car and in a different area. It was cool though because all in that day, we taught someone from Kenya, someone from China, and someone from Vietnam. So much variety, but it was just a good reminder that this gospel really is for everyone.
We also did service at a food bank. It was a lot of fun, especially because it was a smaller food bank and so it wasn't chaotic. We just helped prepare the boxes for people to pick up later that day. They did a little drawing to win a prize in the morning. My companion was the one to draw the name out of the container, and right before she did, I told her she better draw my name. And then she did. I thought it was a joke when she said my name at first, but it wasn't. So I came home with some protein powder haha
Easter Sunday was pretty great. The Sunny Mesa Ward has an amazing ward choir, and so it was awesome for Easter. We had some members who even brought friends to church on Easter, too. I just loved being able to reflect on Jesus Christ and His life, His Atonement, and His resurrection. I know that He lives and loves us. Without Jesus Christ, I don't know where I would be right now. I have found peace and comfort through Him. I have been given strength through Him. Christ is the Savior of the world. I know this.
I love y'all and hope this week is great! Sister Smith
Sister Smith or the Easter Bunny??
Just had to get a pic of my 'Easter outfit" even though it's a bad pic
So we were playing with Helium the other day (see video), but I don't think people got my joke #nerdlife
This week was pretty busy, but we didn't spend a lot of time in our area. We had 2 different service projects and we also had an entire Mission Conference. The Mission Conference was a once in a lifetime thing, and we had it because Elder Nielsen, who is the Executive Director of the Missionary Department, was in Mesa for the Easter Pageant and wanted to have the conference. It was an awesome conference! The Spirit was so strong, and the biggest thing that stood out to me is that the work is not over. There is so much of God's work that still needs to be done! Also, we went through the difference between the redeeming and the enabling power of the Atonement. We are saved by the redeeming power, but changed by the enabling power. We all must rely on Jesus Christ to become better and better each day.
Also, the Easter Pageant was so good! We went Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night. I love it because the Spirit is so strong, and it really testifies to me that Jesus Christ lives. He loves us so much!
We found some potential investigators, and so hopefully this week we can start teaching them. We even found one while out with members, and the members are even planning on going back on their own to try to teach him too!
Also, I got asked yesterday at church if I was from Sweden... I mean, I have blonde hair and it was in a braid, so I guess I could pass for a person from Sweden
Anyways, I love y'all! Sister Smith
Helium Fun
Family picture haha
Most Texan meal thus far (and there is Dr Pepper in the cup)
So this week, I have lots of puns.
1. Orange you glad you have missionaries to help: we did a service for
a member to pick oranges from her trees, and we have been drinking
lots of fresh orange juice. So good!
2. Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts. I got screwed: haha the nut that
holds my left pedal on my bike fell off, so our plans had to be
rearranged.
3. Pedal to the metal (or the concrete): to go with #2, my pedal
basically fell off while riding
4. Something really grinding my gears: literally, my gears on my bike
were grinding because my back axle on my bike was also loose. So my
gears grinding was grinding my gears
5. Sister Smith riding Sister Smith's bike: along with my bike
problems, we had a member, Sister Smith, who let me borrow her bike
Anyways, this week was pretty good. We stayed busy and did lots of
service. One day, we even did service for 3 different people! We had
some great lessons with members. We are still struggling to find
people to teach consistently in our area, and we are really trying to
get members involved. We are hoping the Easter Pageant that starts
this week helps members get involved and brings in referrals. And this
week will be crazy busy with everything going on in the mission, but
I'm so excited for it all.
For this past week though, we also had 3 lunches in a row where
members fed us! #blessed
And we also had like 5 families offer to feed us dinner this month,
and one of them is a part member family, so we are really looking
forward to that.
Spiritually, this week was great! The Easter initiative video came
out! #PrinceofPeace If you haven't watched it, go watch it and share
it. Christ really does provide peace!
Then, General Conference. I just loved it. I felt like there was a
strong emphasis on gaining and growing faith as well as being able to
recognize and follow the Spirit. I'm definitely excited to go back and
study the talks again.
Love you!
Sister Smith
Packing 101: Empty container? Fill it with something
Conference is always great with Panda Express (s/o to Sis Faasavalu for the food)
Helping with an April Fools joke. Some women decorated their husband's cars while in the Priesthood Session.
How do you know it's the Priesthood Session? Trucks everywhere in the parking lot. lol
