Never trade what you want MOST for what you want NOW

Another week!...gone!
Well, despite how quickly time flies by, I love being able to recongize the growth and change that the atonement enables me to do. No matter what point in your life or mission you're at, you can always change. Sis Willis and I talked a bit about that considering she's DYING in a few days (for those of you not familiar with the missionary lingo, it means she's going home this thursday).
Well, can I tell you about this past miraculous week already?...mmk, here's a couple excerpts from the 'ol journal!

On exchanges Sis Wheelock and I tore it up. Their car is out of commission so we got to bike all day! Lucky us-- it was the rainiest day all week. Biking around sopping wet in a skirt with a helmet, I felt about as classy as canned cheese on wonder bread. BUT- I loved it! Suprisingly, despite how much time we spent biking from appt to appt we had a really awesome day full of appts and contacts. A few favorites were Liz: sweet 72yr old black lady who, after teaching about the Holy Ghost and baptism, told us how much she wanted what we had. She said, “before y’all came around, I went to church my whole life just going and clapping, never really learning stuff, but y’all are really teaching me”. Another awesome lesson, was a miracle contact we were guided to thanks to an appt that fell through. Kris and Paul were right outside Tamika’s and just so happened to have time to talk. Kris had been to a mormon church before and liked it, Paul was an ex catholic, really knowledgeable and was super interested in learning more! Also, I just wanted to give a shout-out, thanks to all the drivers who were aware of two soggy sisters biking home one dark and stormy night. I have a lot of respect for those elders, and jealousy! There’s just something invigorating about coming home exhausted and dirty when you’ve been doing the Lord’s workJ

We had our first ASL class tonight, and it was a much bigger success than we ever anticipated. Sis Petersen, had texted us earlier in the day asking if we were still doing it. Sis Willis and I figured she’d be the only one there, but we were ok with that. Turns out we had sis Peterson, Elena Andrews, annnd 4 others, and the elders joined us because no one showed up for Book of Mormon class. The class went great! We went over the basics of the alphabet, some greetings and how to introduce yourself. It was so fun to teach everyone, and they were all so excited about learning it. They had lots of questions and kept asking about the smallest little details of the signs. We’d never been that detail oriented until they pointed out the slightest inconsistency between Sis Willis’ and I’s signs. I’m super excited if this is how the class will continue from here on out, it’ll be interesting next week when Sis Willis isn’t there, and it’s up to me to lead the class. Or, miracles could strike and I’ll get a companion who’s secretly fluent in ASL. Fingers crossed!:)

The adult session of stake conference was awesome. We had a couple members of the 70's come because the stake presidency was being changed. It was Elder Alan Meredith, and Larry Y. Wilson. The old presidency had been in their positions for 10yrs! A few things that were touched on…

-A story when Elder Meredith was with L. Tom Perry. Elder Perry was speaking with his waitress and said, (in his booming Elder Perry voice, “we need more people like you in the church, you’ve got SPUNK! We need more spunk in the church”

-It’s no longer enough to JUST be an example, we must OPEN OUR MOUTHS

-You can’t just believe something because it SOUNDS wonderful, to believe it, it has to be true.

-A ward’s barometer on how they’re doing is how the members sing the songs of the restoration. We need to be singing as if we just stepped out of the sacred grove. Elder Wilson then praised the saints of the Charleston zone for their zealous singing. (It really was an amazing thing to hear)

-“Make sure you never trade what you want MOST for what you want NOW!-elder Meredith

-“More important than anything else (in regards to the new stake president’s wonderful characteristics) HE HAS BEEN CALLED OF GOD.

LOVE Y'ALL!

challenge of the day...WILL YOU, implement the word "y'all" into your vocabulary at some point today?

I promise that if you do, you'll feel that sweet sweet southern joy start to bubble up inside of you:)

-Sister Smith