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| Celebrating July 4th in South Carolina Sister Smith and Sister Hendrix and friends |
Monday, July 21, 2014
I be happy
Little did y'all know that a few mere minutes after I sent the last email would my life be in danger! We got in a car accident leaving the library last Monday....
suspenseful pause
...okay it wasnt' so much of a car accident as it was a car misunderstanding resulting in the loss of my mirror. We had just backed out of our parking stall, and I was chuckling to myself about the precious old lady in the car next to us that was blasting Footloose music. I had stopped so sis hendrix could get in, and to my left I see that same lady slowly backing toward us. When I say it all happened in slow motion I'm not exaggerating. I started honking the horn, hoping to stop her. no response, I kept honking but could tell that she wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I literally just sat there while she crunched right through the driver's side mirror and bumped into the door before she finally stopped and pulled forward. We figured it all out with the cops, no tickets were given. This poor 87 yr old woman was consoled and sadly none of the parties involved were interested in hearing more about the restored gospel (except for Hendrix and I of course).
here's bits from the rest of the week:)
We had a great DDM this morning. It started off with Elder’s hawkes and goesch giving us each a jelly bean, I ate it apprehensively and then they asked…
“do you feel it?”
Then I felt it. Haha, they had given us, habanero jelly beans, so that we could become “fire in the belly” missionaries. Good one elders. I was also impressed by the follow-up cupcakes they also provided.
We FINALLY got to meet with Alisha this morning, she’s been working a ton because of inventory at her store this week.meh. I remember back when she first got the job how excited she was and that they had told her she’d probably only be working about 10hrs a week-I think Satan had a different idea. She works at least 30-40 a week it seems. We make it work though by stopping by her store and visiting with her there. The lesson we had this morning was really good though. We retaught the Word of Wisdom and helped her see how this could bring her closer to Christ. We shared how our bodies are an instrument for our spirits and she totally agreed. I asked her why Heavenly Father would require certain things of us (living the word of wisdom) to have the spirit? And she responded that she believes God wants us to be the ones in charge not the temporal things. By the end of the lesson we committed her to quit smoking and she readily accepted, and was quite excited about the cinnamon kit we gave her.
I love to ride my bicycle! On exchanges, Sis Prior asked me this morning if I was down with riding bikes today…ummm…YES! I was so excited, my entire mission I’ve been wanting to ride bikes and I finally got my opportunity. I only rode for about 40min total, which is nothing compared to what most missionaries experience with bikes, but it was a good time. While biking I looked down at my shadow and realized I looked like the mean lady in the beginning of the Wizard of Oz who rides a bike in her dress. Then I remembered there were some very significant differences. We’re real nice, we have the teachings that open the door to salvation and we wear helmets! Overall it was a good time, there were no malfunctions or issues with wearing a skirt and it was a pretty cool day for the middle of July in SC.
We were headed toward Belton, when I remembered that we were going to swing by the recycling place first to drop off our paper, plastic and cardboard. That’s right, not only are sis Hendrix and I out here working to save souls, but we’re also saving the planet; one water bottle at a time. Anywho the recycle place was a little out of our way, but we felt it needful to get rid of all the junk in our trunk so we recalculated our route. Miracle garbage moment of the day! We pulled in and right in front of us was our golden investigator KENYA! Our favorite 400+ lb football coach, with a big black booming southern voice hollered at us. We went over and got to talk with him for a bit, he’s still really busy which is why he hadn’t gotten back with us, but still wanted to. Moral of the story? Recycle to save souls.
There was just way too many great things to cut and paste from my journal this week, but I'll leave it as is.
Hope y'all have a miraculous week ahead of you!
much much much love,
Sister Lindsay Smith
suspenseful pause
...okay it wasnt' so much of a car accident as it was a car misunderstanding resulting in the loss of my mirror. We had just backed out of our parking stall, and I was chuckling to myself about the precious old lady in the car next to us that was blasting Footloose music. I had stopped so sis hendrix could get in, and to my left I see that same lady slowly backing toward us. When I say it all happened in slow motion I'm not exaggerating. I started honking the horn, hoping to stop her. no response, I kept honking but could tell that she wasn't going to stop anytime soon. I literally just sat there while she crunched right through the driver's side mirror and bumped into the door before she finally stopped and pulled forward. We figured it all out with the cops, no tickets were given. This poor 87 yr old woman was consoled and sadly none of the parties involved were interested in hearing more about the restored gospel (except for Hendrix and I of course).
here's bits from the rest of the week:)
We had a great DDM this morning. It started off with Elder’s hawkes and goesch giving us each a jelly bean, I ate it apprehensively and then they asked…
“do you feel it?”
Then I felt it. Haha, they had given us, habanero jelly beans, so that we could become “fire in the belly” missionaries. Good one elders. I was also impressed by the follow-up cupcakes they also provided.
We FINALLY got to meet with Alisha this morning, she’s been working a ton because of inventory at her store this week.meh. I remember back when she first got the job how excited she was and that they had told her she’d probably only be working about 10hrs a week-I think Satan had a different idea. She works at least 30-40 a week it seems. We make it work though by stopping by her store and visiting with her there. The lesson we had this morning was really good though. We retaught the Word of Wisdom and helped her see how this could bring her closer to Christ. We shared how our bodies are an instrument for our spirits and she totally agreed. I asked her why Heavenly Father would require certain things of us (living the word of wisdom) to have the spirit? And she responded that she believes God wants us to be the ones in charge not the temporal things. By the end of the lesson we committed her to quit smoking and she readily accepted, and was quite excited about the cinnamon kit we gave her.
I love to ride my bicycle! On exchanges, Sis Prior asked me this morning if I was down with riding bikes today…ummm…YES! I was so excited, my entire mission I’ve been wanting to ride bikes and I finally got my opportunity. I only rode for about 40min total, which is nothing compared to what most missionaries experience with bikes, but it was a good time. While biking I looked down at my shadow and realized I looked like the mean lady in the beginning of the Wizard of Oz who rides a bike in her dress. Then I remembered there were some very significant differences. We’re real nice, we have the teachings that open the door to salvation and we wear helmets! Overall it was a good time, there were no malfunctions or issues with wearing a skirt and it was a pretty cool day for the middle of July in SC.
We were headed toward Belton, when I remembered that we were going to swing by the recycling place first to drop off our paper, plastic and cardboard. That’s right, not only are sis Hendrix and I out here working to save souls, but we’re also saving the planet; one water bottle at a time. Anywho the recycle place was a little out of our way, but we felt it needful to get rid of all the junk in our trunk so we recalculated our route. Miracle garbage moment of the day! We pulled in and right in front of us was our golden investigator KENYA! Our favorite 400+ lb football coach, with a big black booming southern voice hollered at us. We went over and got to talk with him for a bit, he’s still really busy which is why he hadn’t gotten back with us, but still wanted to. Moral of the story? Recycle to save souls.
There was just way too many great things to cut and paste from my journal this week, but I'll leave it as is.
Hope y'all have a miraculous week ahead of you!
much much much love,
Sister Lindsay Smith
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
"would y'all keep me in your prayers tonight?"
"would y'all keep me in your prayers tonight?"
We have a friendly borderline creepy neighbor, who will watch out his window and pop his head out his door whenever we come in for the night, or leave. This morning as we were stretching in the parking lot after our run there was his silhouette in the window. He's harmless though, and occasionally gives us cucumbers.
well, here's the week!
The work continues to hasten! At ZTM yesterday the Zone Leaders informed us of some new changes to missionary work. Lucky for us though, nothing new happens w/o the Addison’s first finding out about it. They let us know it all last week, here’s what’s changed..
-we now have to teach lesson 5 BEFORE baptism, instead of just after
-missionaries are in charge of doing the new member lessons instead of the ward council
-missionaries should stay in CLOSE contact with new members for 3 months after baptism, and then remain in contact for 1yr and hopefully forever.
-annnnd, IPADS ARE COMING! Sorta…the church announced that for all missionaries coming to the USA, Canada, Japan and western Europe they will be encouraged to purchase a preconfigured mini ipad from the church, costing $400. If they can’t afford that, the church can assist. The mini ipads will replace planners, PMG, scriptures, area maps and will be able to be used for teaching with videos and such. However they didn’t announce anything about missionaries who are already here. I really want to know if we’re going to be required to get one, will they even make it here before I leave? It’s so cool to be a part of so many new changes in missionary work. The age change and now ipads-it’s so awesome!
Today we also got to have an awesome lesson with less active, Sis McCoy and her sister Sheila at the library. Guess what room we held our lesson in? The genealogy room-who knew that the public library has this huge section in the back centered on doing genealogy work. Granted it was the most deserted place, which is why we picked it-sis McCoy said she just doesn’t know how to behave in libraries. Nevertheless, the lesson was great and I got to witness further evidence of the promise that the hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers.
We were a little nervous about going over to Melanie’s. We asked her about an apt and she’d told us that she’d call us, after a few appts cancelled and missing church we didn’t want to be too overbearing by just showing up. We prayed about it and both felt strongly about visiting tina first. Tina wasn’t home but we had a quick lesson with her mom Earline. During the prayer, which was a really sweet prayer, Earline was tearfully asking for guidance to know if she should be baptized again. Satan came in the form of a cockroach to distract me. I felt a little tickle on my calf and rubbed my other leg against it to itch it, at that point I felt a distinctive crunch. After the “amen”, I looked down and right below me was a calf-squashed cockroach. On the Brightside, I’m just glad I caught him before her ventured any farther-miracle moment! Oh yeah, but the real miracle moment was that after Tina’s we both felt better about venturing out to Melanie’s. It juuuuust so happens that she’d just pulled in before we arrived. She was thrilled to see us, and told us how relieved she and Tim were when they found out they were still welcome to come to church, even if they weren’t ready to give up tea or coffee yet. She said they still want that eternal marriage, it’s just with everything going on they don’t want to add quitting tea and coffee to it. That’s a concern we’ll continue to work with, but for now I’m just overjoyed we haven’t lost Melanie and Tim:)
Love y'all!
Sis smith
We have a friendly borderline creepy neighbor, who will watch out his window and pop his head out his door whenever we come in for the night, or leave. This morning as we were stretching in the parking lot after our run there was his silhouette in the window. He's harmless though, and occasionally gives us cucumbers.
well, here's the week!
The work continues to hasten! At ZTM yesterday the Zone Leaders informed us of some new changes to missionary work. Lucky for us though, nothing new happens w/o the Addison’s first finding out about it. They let us know it all last week, here’s what’s changed..
-we now have to teach lesson 5 BEFORE baptism, instead of just after
-missionaries are in charge of doing the new member lessons instead of the ward council
-missionaries should stay in CLOSE contact with new members for 3 months after baptism, and then remain in contact for 1yr and hopefully forever.
-annnnd, IPADS ARE COMING! Sorta…the church announced that for all missionaries coming to the USA, Canada, Japan and western Europe they will be encouraged to purchase a preconfigured mini ipad from the church, costing $400. If they can’t afford that, the church can assist. The mini ipads will replace planners, PMG, scriptures, area maps and will be able to be used for teaching with videos and such. However they didn’t announce anything about missionaries who are already here. I really want to know if we’re going to be required to get one, will they even make it here before I leave? It’s so cool to be a part of so many new changes in missionary work. The age change and now ipads-it’s so awesome!
Today we also got to have an awesome lesson with less active, Sis McCoy and her sister Sheila at the library. Guess what room we held our lesson in? The genealogy room-who knew that the public library has this huge section in the back centered on doing genealogy work. Granted it was the most deserted place, which is why we picked it-sis McCoy said she just doesn’t know how to behave in libraries. Nevertheless, the lesson was great and I got to witness further evidence of the promise that the hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers.
We were a little nervous about going over to Melanie’s. We asked her about an apt and she’d told us that she’d call us, after a few appts cancelled and missing church we didn’t want to be too overbearing by just showing up. We prayed about it and both felt strongly about visiting tina first. Tina wasn’t home but we had a quick lesson with her mom Earline. During the prayer, which was a really sweet prayer, Earline was tearfully asking for guidance to know if she should be baptized again. Satan came in the form of a cockroach to distract me. I felt a little tickle on my calf and rubbed my other leg against it to itch it, at that point I felt a distinctive crunch. After the “amen”, I looked down and right below me was a calf-squashed cockroach. On the Brightside, I’m just glad I caught him before her ventured any farther-miracle moment! Oh yeah, but the real miracle moment was that after Tina’s we both felt better about venturing out to Melanie’s. It juuuuust so happens that she’d just pulled in before we arrived. She was thrilled to see us, and told us how relieved she and Tim were when they found out they were still welcome to come to church, even if they weren’t ready to give up tea or coffee yet. She said they still want that eternal marriage, it’s just with everything going on they don’t want to add quitting tea and coffee to it. That’s a concern we’ll continue to work with, but for now I’m just overjoyed we haven’t lost Melanie and Tim:)
Love y'all!
Sis smith
Monday, July 7, 2014
Is your picture on God's milk carton?
While none of the other churches in Anderson have the fullness of the gospel, they get lots of brownie points for clever church marquee signs, such as the the subject line of this email.
We finally had another apt scheduled with Alisha. We made sure she hadn’t forgotten by stopping by her work that morning. We arrived at her home at 4, her daughter told us she’d be back in a second from getting a new tire. A few moments later Bro and sis Campbell showed up…and ONE HOUR LATER alisha finally made it home.ugh. By then we only had about 15minutes until our dinner appointment. But we made the most of that time and talked about recognizing answers, and the importance of taking a step of faith. Teaching with the Campbell’s is just the greatest, and Alisha said that what they shared definitely gave her a lot to think about. Alisha shared that one thing that worried her was making the wrong choice, because she recognized how important this decision was, and how big of an impact it could have on generations! I love that she’s looking at this with an eternal perspective.
After dinner Sis Basarab came with us to Jerry’s. It’s funny how you think you know a person until you go back and try to teach them a second lesson. Jerry seemed really intelligent and willing to commit last time. Today he just seemed really confused. He told us he’d done a lot of research about the church. Sadly, that’s not always the most comforting thing to hear from an investigator. The rest of the hour it seemed like all we spoke about was polygamy. He told us at least 12 times how he loves us, and its fine if we practice polygamy but he’s not sure if that’s for him yet. We then explained to him at least 13 times that we don’t practice polygamy anymore. He was convinced that we don’t believe in it, but the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does. He told us he’d even gone to the trouble to call a TV station and talk to a reporter who had done a piece on Mormons. That poor man was so confused, and nothing we said was helping at that point. We invited him to leave us with a prayer asking Heavenly Father if he should come to church on Sunday, it was quite possible one of the longest prayers I’ve never heard from an investigator. In the prayer he just started telling stories of Jesus, explaining to Christ, “I remember when you went among the people and…” He was a precious guy though….we later found out that a big movie had premiered on LIFETIME television about Warren Jeffs. That piece of knowledge cleared up a whole lot about why investigators had been dropping like flies this week, it’s a pity though.
Switched up our workout this morning by going with the women of the ward. Sis Helm came by and picked us up at 5:45am and we met a bunch of other moms at the church. We went running for 40min, and it was so fun to be a part of one of those “mom groups” who just chat it up as they jog along talking about their little tykes. I know I’m deathly out of shape, but was grateful I could at least stay at the front of the group.
So Sis Hendrix and I have been on a watermelon binge. They’re so good, and you can get them for only $4 at Walmart. Watermelon smoothies are a new favorite, as well as the newly discovered watermelon and frozen banana smoothies. I ate half a watermelon for lunch the other day. Anyways, all of that watermelon meant we had some rinds left over. At the end of the first week we didn’t have much trash by Monday so we didn’t bother wasting a bad and taking the trash out. By the next week it was getting a little full. I go to grab the bag to take out the trash, and when a pull it out along came the worst smell my nostrils have ever beheld. There was also a ton of liquid at the bottom of the bag that was leaking out and leaked all over my shorts. It was unreal how rancid it was. It was like dying animal, mixed with rotten diaper and just a touch of leprous flesh. After much febreeze, disinfectant and bleach...it still reeked. We had to bag up the towels we used, along with my shorts because it smelt so horrible. The smell was engrained in our hands, no matter how many times we tried to wash them. Even after coming back that night, you could still smell it a little bit. It was bad. But we learned our lesson to immediately bag and dispose of old watermelon.
also....
-we got to meet our new mission president,President Turner. He's super great. The only funny thing was that before he walked in we all stood up, and then glanced...down. President Turner is about as small as President Holm was 5'4" OR 5'5".
- had an awesome 4th of july BBQ with the members. we experienced for the first time a low country boil. aka you get a huge pot, insert potatoes, sausage, corn on the cob, shrimp, onions and other goodness along with some seasoning andyou boil it! thenyou drain it and throw it out in a big pan and everyone digs in. it's amazing! oh, and then we had to go in early for lockdown at 7:30, we heard lots of fireworks but didn't see a single one.
love y'all!
sis smith:)
We finally had another apt scheduled with Alisha. We made sure she hadn’t forgotten by stopping by her work that morning. We arrived at her home at 4, her daughter told us she’d be back in a second from getting a new tire. A few moments later Bro and sis Campbell showed up…and ONE HOUR LATER alisha finally made it home.ugh. By then we only had about 15minutes until our dinner appointment. But we made the most of that time and talked about recognizing answers, and the importance of taking a step of faith. Teaching with the Campbell’s is just the greatest, and Alisha said that what they shared definitely gave her a lot to think about. Alisha shared that one thing that worried her was making the wrong choice, because she recognized how important this decision was, and how big of an impact it could have on generations! I love that she’s looking at this with an eternal perspective.
After dinner Sis Basarab came with us to Jerry’s. It’s funny how you think you know a person until you go back and try to teach them a second lesson. Jerry seemed really intelligent and willing to commit last time. Today he just seemed really confused. He told us he’d done a lot of research about the church. Sadly, that’s not always the most comforting thing to hear from an investigator. The rest of the hour it seemed like all we spoke about was polygamy. He told us at least 12 times how he loves us, and its fine if we practice polygamy but he’s not sure if that’s for him yet. We then explained to him at least 13 times that we don’t practice polygamy anymore. He was convinced that we don’t believe in it, but the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does. He told us he’d even gone to the trouble to call a TV station and talk to a reporter who had done a piece on Mormons. That poor man was so confused, and nothing we said was helping at that point. We invited him to leave us with a prayer asking Heavenly Father if he should come to church on Sunday, it was quite possible one of the longest prayers I’ve never heard from an investigator. In the prayer he just started telling stories of Jesus, explaining to Christ, “I remember when you went among the people and…” He was a precious guy though….we later found out that a big movie had premiered on LIFETIME television about Warren Jeffs. That piece of knowledge cleared up a whole lot about why investigators had been dropping like flies this week, it’s a pity though.
Switched up our workout this morning by going with the women of the ward. Sis Helm came by and picked us up at 5:45am and we met a bunch of other moms at the church. We went running for 40min, and it was so fun to be a part of one of those “mom groups” who just chat it up as they jog along talking about their little tykes. I know I’m deathly out of shape, but was grateful I could at least stay at the front of the group.
So Sis Hendrix and I have been on a watermelon binge. They’re so good, and you can get them for only $4 at Walmart. Watermelon smoothies are a new favorite, as well as the newly discovered watermelon and frozen banana smoothies. I ate half a watermelon for lunch the other day. Anyways, all of that watermelon meant we had some rinds left over. At the end of the first week we didn’t have much trash by Monday so we didn’t bother wasting a bad and taking the trash out. By the next week it was getting a little full. I go to grab the bag to take out the trash, and when a pull it out along came the worst smell my nostrils have ever beheld. There was also a ton of liquid at the bottom of the bag that was leaking out and leaked all over my shorts. It was unreal how rancid it was. It was like dying animal, mixed with rotten diaper and just a touch of leprous flesh. After much febreeze, disinfectant and bleach...it still reeked. We had to bag up the towels we used, along with my shorts because it smelt so horrible. The smell was engrained in our hands, no matter how many times we tried to wash them. Even after coming back that night, you could still smell it a little bit. It was bad. But we learned our lesson to immediately bag and dispose of old watermelon.
also....
-we got to meet our new mission president,President Turner. He's super great. The only funny thing was that before he walked in we all stood up, and then glanced...down. President Turner is about as small as President Holm was 5'4" OR 5'5".
- had an awesome 4th of july BBQ with the members. we experienced for the first time a low country boil. aka you get a huge pot, insert potatoes, sausage, corn on the cob, shrimp, onions and other goodness along with some seasoning andyou boil it! thenyou drain it and throw it out in a big pan and everyone digs in. it's amazing! oh, and then we had to go in early for lockdown at 7:30, we heard lots of fireworks but didn't see a single one.
love y'all!
sis smith:)
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