Final Blog for Sister Lindsay Smith well....you're probably wondering why I've gathered y'all here today...

I don't know what to write...Not sure how to being by summing up the past 18 months of experiences in just a wee little email. haha, I fully expect all y'all to be utterly interested in every "that one time on my mission..." stories so I can' impart to you the blessings and miracles that my heavenly father has given to me, and continue to reminisce, haha.

A wise sister, aka, my companion shared with me that, a mission, no matter where you serve becomes a second home in your heart, it and the people associated with it become sacred, because it was then that you came to know your Savior like you never had before. True story, this little southern state, not given a second thought by most people is full of some of the most Christ-like people I've ever met, those of our faith and those who are not.

My mission has taught me how entirely dependent I am upon the Savior and His gospel. There is no other option if you hope for peace and happiness now and forever.
Yes, I'm going to be an awkward missionary, and yes, if you happen to have a "Y" chromosome I'm going to want to give you a handshake at first, don't worry I'll snap out of it soon enough and pull you in for a big ol southern lovin' hug!
Besides the awkwardness, I don't want to lose any of the changes I've made on my mission, but if I've learned anything about the gospel, it's not about maintaining the changes I've made, it's about continuing to change.

Change is only possible through the atonement of Christ, because of Him, we have every opportunity tool we need to become our best selves, best suited to serve God's children. I know we have a living prophet, revelation is one of the most unique and important features in this restored gospel, the restoration all started with revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith by God our eternal father and our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is God's words, for his children. I could go on forever, but I'd rather tell y'all in person.


LOVE Y'ALLL! Thank you a million for the endless prayers, support, letters, packages, emails and examples that y'all blessed me with before and during my mission.
LOVE....SISTER SMITH!!!

Blending with the Natives y'all

Sister Smith returns Jan. 22nd and her talk in Sacrament is Feb. 15th at 9 am

First off..I was on exchanges with the Moncks Corner sisters and after a lesson with some members she commented, "you don't have much left on your mission do you?" (seeing as how I'm almost to the single digits, it's a tender subject, and I was so caught off-gaurd)...
"why do you say that?" I quickly responded.
"because you use the word "y'all" quite casually"
my thoughts, "yeeeees!, I blend in with the natives!" *fist pump*.
Next to all the miracles that have been popping out of the wood works, that little comment made my day.

We pulled up to Sis Hilpert’s home, a less active we've been trying to get in touch with. I looked over at Sis Burbank and she had a strange look on her face, and said she wasn’t sure how she felt about being here. Often we’ll get those promptings, we’ll pray about it and then reassess the situation. We waited and contemplated for a minute, said a prayer, and right during the prayer Sis Hilpert pulled in. It ended up being a little miracle for the day! She let us right in, for the first time! We were able to share some scriptures, and her troubled teenage son is a little interested because he’s noticed his Christian friends have it a little more together, and he wants to “find God” as well. Sis Hilpert, who’s name is now Sis Milone (yeah I was hoping it was Malone (you know? Carl Malone?) as well) is very supportive, but has been reserved about pushing her religion too much on her kids. Buuut, she knows how much it would help them, so she's being a little more pushy, in the most charitable way possible.

What's pushy about someone pushing you to eternal life eh?

Our lesson with Morgan was great, his 10yr old niece popped in to sit with us. She talked about how she wants to be baptized and was telling us how much she loves church when her mom takes her, they’ve gone on-and-off for the past little while, but for some reason none of the girls have been baptized, and then Becky hasn’t been baptized either. Who knows why?? But little Savannah is such a good influence, she told us, “I make sure to complain to my mom when we don’t get to go to church”.

While teaching about tithing, Savannah asked, “how do they get the money to God? I know they don’t just build a tower, I heard about that story. Uh-uh don’t do that.” Morgan jumped in and explained it clearly and simply. What a great future missionary!

Sis Soctomah arranged for a member to take us out to ZTM, so they could save some miles, she warned me to not lean my head back in the car because it’s very possible that I could acquire lice. The Moncks Corner sisters went through a nasty battle with the little head munchers, both of them are now sporting shorter haircuts, haha, they look good. Nothing’s more beautiful than some diligent, serving missionaries :).....update: so far no itching. fingers still crossed!

well, I love y'all lots!

LOVE!!!
sister smith:):)

I don't even know where to start right now?
Well let's start with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that we have it in its fulness upon the earth today. Thanks to the gospel and Christ's atonement, 2015 can be the best year yet! Life is great, the gospel works, God is near, and I'm so joyful:D

anyways, here's the week!

A bunch of the ward came together to help the Lincolns finish up moving, there was such a great turnout, we didn’t end up doing very much, besides watching the faithful priesthood holders magnifying their callings. Sis Lincoln was amazed, she said she had no idea what was happening, all of a sudden all of these men were at her home moving things and they were finished in 30min. They drove all the packed cars to the property and everything was unloaded, she never even had to lift a finger. Bro Lincoln chuckled and said, “she’s never experienced a Mormon service project”.

We received a new ward roster and Sis Burbank spotted a new name in our area. We had the Connors in our plans for the past few days, but we’d never had time to actually drop by. Finally around 6:30pm tonight we did! In the dark of the night we found the house, and were astonished to realize we’d worked literally all around this house. We were teaching Doris across the street and I’d knocked and contacted their next door neighbor. Haha, we even were driving by Christmas day, saw them playing in the front yard, commented on how cute of a family they were, and then their dog ran out in the road and I almost hit it. I’m so grateful that me killing their dog wasn’t our first encounter. Anyways, when we stopped by tonight she let us right in. She was baptized in Montana and super involved, moved to Washington but wasn't a fan of the ward. She admitted that was her own fault, not the ward’s. They’d just moved here a few months ago. The miracle of it all is this: About 2 yrs ago Danelle was talking with her husband about how much she wanted a church, the next day, 2 sister missionaries knocked on her door and she was baptized. Now in the present day, she was talking with her husbandYESTERDAY about how she wanted to get back into church, and WHAMO we are lead to her door! She ended up coming to church the next day with her 2 boys too!

One of the best lessons with the Haynes, it was great, thanks to the spirit we were able to discern that Bro. Haynes really wants to do this for his family, but he can’t if it’s not true, so it’s kinda tearing him apart because he feels like his family is disappointed in him. He didn’t actually say all of that, but that’s what the spirit helped us discern. Sis Haynes also opened up how hard this has been for her, that she’s been so strong and really wants this, but it’s hard because he’s not really progressing. She still has concerns of her own, she’s only recently been coming back to church.

Sister Haynes shared in church on Sunday, “I wasn’t living life fully without the gospel. Then the one day I had just been thinking about church, the sister missionaries (US!) showed up at my door”.
I wish I could say we had a crazy amazing vision that directed us to go to her home, nope. Sis Gubler had told us she thought her neighbor might be Mormon, and we thought we’d check it out. It’s neat to see how God was really guiding us the whole time.

It was funny at the end of the lesson, Sis Burbank asked if they’d talked about WHEN the boys could be baptized. Izayah came shooting down from upstairs saying, “I want to be baptized, and I’m going to be baptized! There’s nothing you can do to stop me (this is the 10yr old by the way). I want the Holy Ghost, I want the holy spirit. I want to be a missionary like them one day!”.

…and the Lincoln family dwelt in a tent. Meanwhile in the wilderness of South Carolina, the Lincoln family has entirely moved into a little trailer and a tent for the next 3ish months, until their home is built. Oh boy, I can’t even imagine. This is a family of 6, and they also have 2 Brazilian mastiffs. The 3 girls all sleep in the same bed, Jared is on the pull out couch, the dogs are on the floor and bro and sister Lincoln are in a tent that bro Lincoln has lined with insulation to keep them through the 2 coldest months of the year in SC. That family is so faithful; they even still had us over for our usual lesson and dinner. It was seriously one of the best meals; we had tinfoil/hobo dinners and smores for dessert. By light of campfire we read from Ether 12 to them about faith. Bro and Sis Lincoln really opened up about how all of this is a huge act of faith. It seems crazy to everyone else, but they feel good about it and have pressed forward. They’re not in the ideal situation, but they know it’s where the Lord needs them to be right now. What a great life lesson? Plus bro Lincoln added, it’ll help them prepare for when the second coming draws nigh.

Sis Lincoln laughed and said, “It’s only been 2 days, ask us if we want tinfoil dinners and smores in a month”.

love y'all!

Sister Smith!!!

Christmas Sleepover with Presidents's Ok

Merry Christmas from Sister Smith and Sister Burbank

Merriest Christmas Ever!!!

Pretty sure I had the Merriest Christmas in my life!!...as of yet...isn't it great how because of the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no cap on our happiness?!
It was a WET and WHITE Christmas, no snow but a baptism on the 20th and the elders had a baptism this past Saturday as well. As far as the WET part of it, it was pouring all of Christmas, loved it. I kept hoping for a sudden arctic wind to bust through and turn it all to snow, but seeing as how that would've caused widespread panic a midst the native South Carolinian, I'm glad that it just stayed as rain.
Anyways....here's my week!!!

Sister Wheelock and I had a great day on exchanges, man I love that girl. Our first lesson was with Glenda and Poncho, Bro smith (we like to pretend that we’re family) joined us as well. He knows poncho from his police force days.

The lesson was amazing, Poncho has been reading and loves it. We asked him if he’d been praying about Joseph Smith and such, and he said he had, but he hadn't received his answer. His wife Glenda pointed out that his interest and desire to read the Book of Mormon and learn more, could be his answer. He agreed, and went on to relate to us the first 5 chapters in the Book of Mormon.

Christmas eve. We spent the morning and lunch with the Haynes, making cookies and having a big turkey lunch.

Later in the afternoon we went to Elena’s for Christmas eve, she had invited Kitt over as well, so that was fun being able to talk with him in a casual setting. Haha, that didn't last long though, after a brief chat about his family, we started talking about the apostasy, and I tried my "hand" at signing about how God had prepared Columbus, America, the pilgrims, the dark ages, the 2 great awakenings, all to lead to the restoration of the Gospel.

We made it home, changed into our Christmas jammies and moved all of our Christmas decorations to the main room where we’d be sleeping. We got permission from President to have a sleepover with the sisters in our apartment complex, so they came over with their blankets, pillows, presents and Christmas decorations. Our room was so lit up, it was grand! It felt so magical. Sis Burbank’s family tradition is to watch Joy to the World each Christmas eve, so we were going to end the night with that but first couldn't get it to work. After we ran to the sisters apartment and got another DVD it would only play it in Spanish…then French…Chinese…and finally after mashing buttons and flipping it on and off it came up in English!! Yes-christmas miracle! Haha, one thing my mission hasn’t broken is my terrible habit of falling asleep during movies, I was trying so hard to stay awake for sister Burbank, but just couldn't do it. Eventually we all drifted to sleep by light of a little Christmas tree in the corner, with visions of baptisms dancing in our headsJ

For the past 25 days Sis Burbank and I have been keeping track of the 25 miracles of Christmas. We taped a big white board up in our main room and would write one at he end of each day, so here they are!!

1. Barry--- a new investigator

2. MLC

3. Lesson with Paula

4. Companionship unity with Stout and Nielson and Cookout!

5. Lori’s on date, and we got a x-mas tree

6. Kebo’s baptism, Sis soctomah’s first baptism!

7. Elena came to Kitt’s with us last minute

8. The Duns invited us to come for Christmas!

9. Lincoln’s lesson (they’re just a big ol miracle on their own)

10. Horrocks had us over for dinner out of NOWHERE!

11. Went to institute with Morgan, and it just so happened to be the very last one of the year

12. Morgan was interviewed for his baptism

13. Sis Barker made cinnamon rolls, a Christmas tradition for sister BurbankJ

14. New family to teach, Kelly and Amber and their 3 girlsJ

15. Sis Wheelock was here (haha, she chose today’s miracle)

16. Elena had pizza with us last minute

17. We found Sister Fagin finally, and people actually laughed at our skit

18. (Sister Stout wrote this one, she’s so sweet) “Sis Smith helped me a lot!!

19. (fromSister Wheelock) “Sister Wheelock wuz here again”

20. MORGAN’S BAPTISM!

21. MORGAN GOT THE HOLY GHOST AND PRIESTHOOD, and his dad came to church

22. Free frosties from Wendy’s

23. Exchanges, Poncho and Bro. Smith’s perfect lesson

24. Got permission from Pres to have a sleepover with Sis Mcneely and Wheelock!

25. He (Christ) is the miracle!!
He really is the miracle though, all of the miracles we were able to see happen were because of Christ. It’s been such a neat experience to write down and record the daily miracles, seeing them come on so many different ways. I’m so grateful for this beautiful Christmas day I’ve had to celebrate my Savior’s birth in a special way. I’m more grateful for my mission that’s helped me to celebrate Christ’s birth the past 18months, and forever helped me to gain a greater appreciation and love for my Savior and EVERTHING that he’s done.

Christmas was great, spent it with members for the most part, and just basked in the love I received from friends and family back home.

love y'all!!

Have a fantabulous new year. We should be looking to change daily, and not just use the new year as an excuse to apply the atonement, but I hope that it motivates us to look back , move on and press forward with a steadfastness in Christ and a perfect brightness of HOPE!

-Sister Smith

Best White Christmas Ever

no better way to start a weekly email.....
BAPTISM! aka making eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father that allow us to progress, sanctify and consecrate ourselves to become like our Savior Jesus Christ, thus bringing about the most intense happiness and joy, now and in the eternities!

December 20:

Today.is.the.day! Morgan was finally baptized…and it wasn’t an easy process. We got to the church early to help set up and hear that glorious sound of water filling the font. We moved it from the relief society room to the chapel because of how many people we had coming. This was definitely the biggest baptism we’ve had, there was a huge support from the ward, all of the families that he’d worked with, he also had a lot of his family come, it was awesome! He had uncles, cousins, siblings, parents, grandparents (I finally got to meet the lovely bro and sister Vaughan from Lehi, UT, they’re so sweet!), his dad and grandparents are the only members, so that was neat to have them all. Haha, the adversary continued to try and foil Morgan’s salvation. When we went to move from the chapel to the font, we discovered that the plug in the font hadn’t been properly placed, so the water had leaked out, it was only up to Bishop’s knees! Lucky for us, we have the best font filling water pressure in the stake and it only took about 10-15min. Morgan looked great in white, bishop was standing in there with him, but we realized his grandpa wasn’t here yet, and he was going to be one of the witnesses. His grandpa was in the bathroom, and was an older fella, took about another 10min. Oh man, the adversary was giving Morgan every opportunity to back out. I can imagine only a few other circumstances more awkward; standing waste deep in water, in a white flattering jumpsuit, about 40people are standing over staring at you, for those who you can’t see directly they can watch you in the overhead mirror. I’d imagine the feeling is similar to how the hippos feel, little kids with their faces pressed up against the glass, oh man I felt so terrible. But it happened, he did it, the spirit was there and it was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Morgan is one of the most prepared and faithful people I’ve met. He’s been through so much and is so determined to continue with this course correction he’s made for his life. When he shared his testimony, is was short, sweet and true (what else is there??). He said he knew the church was true, and that it was the only one that had the priesthood authority, he’s grateful for his baptism because it means that he can always have the Lord with him in his life, and he’s determined to keep with it.

what else...

December 17, 2014
Zone conference finallllly came, I’ve been so excited for it and it arrived. We combined with the Florence zone, so we had to drive 90 min up to Sumter, haha which is actually where I had my last Christmas zone conference back when I served in Hartsville. It seems as though I’ve come full circle. At zone conference we…

-practiced our skit, realized that the elders half of the skit was way better and more prepared than ours so we frantically started brainstorming ways to make our part up to par on the laugh scale.
-talked a lot about planning and becoming better planners so that we can be better missionaries. Planning really is the key, if we think about it Heavenly Father is the best planner in the world, just ponder on the PLAN of salvation for a wee bit. If we ever hope to become like him, acquiring the skill of a master planner has to be one of our desires.
-broke for lunch, BBQ, potato salad and chili, a good southern lunch
-did our skits. Ours was one of the funniest, I was so relieved each time laughter would erupt from the audience, haha, definitely a Christmas miracle!
-watched Meet the Mormons. I loved it, and was one of the few who DIDN’T cry during the missionary mom part.
-drove back to Summerville with sis stout, she’s joining me on exchanges. The rest of the night we taught bro Isom and Lauren how to pray in sign language and then visited with a long lost semi-less active, Sister Fagin!...it’s amazing how you can just drop off the radar if the church doesn’t have your current address.

love y'all and hope you have the greatest Christmas ever!

I'm so greatful to be in the position I am on my mission. The world, and many members and missionaries look at the missionary rules as restrictions that hold us back, but I have been blessed with direction from my heavenly father to allow me to foster the greatest potential for spiritual growth. just think, I don't have to worry about finances, school, work, relationships, dating, what I wear, nothing, my only concern is bring others to Christ. What a job?! :D:D It's the greatest in the world and I earnestly pray that y'all can take the time to have a moment with the Savior, and ponder or the reality and divinity of his birth, ministry, sacrifice and death, and how he still lives today and leads us in His restored church.

Love y'all!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!
love, sister smith

In 1 month I will return Jan. 22 at 2:22pm  an early present for my mom Birthday 2-22

photo--South Carolina Sisters'

“If you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.

I really didn't think it would be possible to squeeze any more love and happiness into my being, but He's done it again, but seriously this time I think I'm about to burst. Morgan's getting baptized on Saturday, I've yet to teach anyone so faithful, strong and prepared, he's going to go so far! I'm so excited. His grandparents fly in from Utah this wednesday and the baptism is Saturday. Aw man, I wish I could skype y'all in, it's going to be a day to remember for sure!

...pictures to come next week!!
...in other news...
The Haynes are planning for their baptism way off in February, but we wanted to do something to get them excited. We bought a poster board and made a giant, neon green baptismal calendar. Complete with a big picture of Helaman and his army, and little CTR, Jesus and Church stickers so they can map out their spiritual progression for the next few months. It looks so good! Too bad they weren’t there for their lesson, they were out playing with friends, and were supposed to be home but had forgotten. It worked out though, we were able to visit a little with sis Haynes and talk with her about how she’s doing. She’s so amazing, and has been the EASIEST less active to bring back. Ha, all we had to do was knock on her door. She’s done everything else, and has been a rock in her family in bringing them to church.

Following a big dinner of waffles and bacon, we went over to the Horrocks for a big dinner of tacos and crepes for dessert. We were so stuffed, but it was worth it. They’re the sweetest young couple, with a new baby girl. He was raised in the church, and she was raised catholic but has always been around members and is familiar with it all. They had a great experience at sacrament. All meetings are great, but this one was especially good. So next week is Sadie’s last week, she bore her testimony. She also signed it at the same time, which isn’t as easy as you’d think…it’s like trying to speak 2 languages at the same time, and not only that, but she was sharing a story from her mission in Peru so she was translating her memory from Spanish to English to American sign language. What a woman!! Sadie bore powerful testimony about charity and faith. She then bore testimony of Kitt’s testimony and how he has such great faith to continue to come week after week, surrounded by people he can’t communicate with, and she encouraged everyone to learn sign, even if it’s just so that they can learn from his testimony. I’m so glad the Horrocks were there for that. They were really touched. We spoke for a while and got to know them, and closed with a thought from the Book of Mormon and also about #HeistheGift. They said we’re welcome back anytime. It was a little hard to teach because Sis Horrock's mother is in town for the holidays and she’s more devout catholic than her daughter, but it’s so sweet how both of them have a strong desire to get back into religion because of the birth of their daughter.

We ended the night with another miracle, a last minute impression to text a less active was heeded, and they texted right back and said we could come by!

Morgan came with us to institute for his first time, and just our luck they’re studying the D&C. After the opening prayer the teacher says, “So what did we finish talking about last time?” Class response, “the sons of perdition”. That little missionary alarm goes off in Sis Burbank’s and my head, and I lean over to Morgan and try to simply explain what the sons of perdition are. The rest of the class was all about D&C 76, the 3 degrees of glory, haha, oh glory. We asked Morgan afterward how he felt, he said he liked it, but was a little lost. It was still good for him to find a little bit of fellowship and mingle with other singles his age.

Taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the Haynes. Izayah was asking when he could get baptized, his mom was all for Feb 7th, but Brother Haynes said they still needed to talk about it. Izayah starts to panic, “dad, no, please let me get baptized!!”. Later Jojo was having a bit of an attitude and his mother wasn’t happy with him and told us how he had lied earlier in the week and had peeked at his Christmas presents. We had just finished talking about repentance and the steps, so Izayah chimes in, “Jojo you just need to recognize, regret, etc” and he explains all the steps of repentance. Haha, I love these kids!
Dec. 13:
That evening we helped Paula decorate for Christmas and did a little Christmas lesson afterward. Gerald, the 6 yr old was helping his uncle Daniel get some stuff from the back closet, we heard a big crash and Daniel then tells Gerald that he’s not allowed to tell anyone about this, but to just keep it between them. They’d just spilled a little box of nails or something, he was just joking around. Haha, but Gerald comes out and comes straight up to me and says, “I’m going to use what we learned”, “and what’s that Gerald?”, I asked. “Honesty”, he replied. About a week ago we’d had a lesson with Gerald and his sister Alysa about honesty and integrity. Gerald then went straight to his Grandma and told him that Uncle Daniel had made a mess, it was so cute, and I was so proud! **tear**

love y'all!!!!
find some Christmas miracles!!
love, sister smith:D

oh and a little bonus, this was just something I've been thinking about...
On my mission I’ve been blessed with some baptisms, some solid investigator and miracles. During those moments it feels great and I’m happy, but what happens after; After the font is drained, after the closing prayer is said, after my mission is over. Those moments are great blessings from my Heavenly Father, but they’re not lasting. What brings me lasting joy is my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Savior, after all of that’s over, or whether it never happened at all, I find great joy and fulfillment in my progression in the gospel; faith, repentance, covenants and enduring to the end. There’s a quote from cool runnings that the coach says, “a gold medal is a great thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it”. I like applying that same quote to baptisms, or anything else we find validation in (callings, money, awards, compliments, praise, attention, etc), “if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.

Christmas Miracles

I just can't get over how happy where I am, doing what I'm doing, with the people I'm doing it with! I love sharing the gospel, I love teaching, serving, smiling and knocking on doors that no one answers. I love finding with faith, sharing my testimony and studying the doctrines of Salvation. I'm so grateful for the many Christmas miracles that are being placed in our path everyday. Here's a glimpse of my miraculous week!

Christmas Miracle #1: We were going to Rhi’s like we had planned last night, but when we pulled up to her house, neither of us felt like we should be there. We said a prayer, and concluded the spirit was restraining us from being there, so we carried on with our plans. We decided to go drop by Elena’s (a recent convert), we tried calling all THREE of her phones, no answer, but we still felt good about dropping by. It turns out she had her friend Barry over, we asked if we could do a quick lesson with them and he was all for it. We then presented, through the power of the Holy Ghost, one of the best restoration lessons. Barry loved it, and could really feel the spirit. He told us he felt hope, and a desire to learn more. He was so excited, and felt like he could finally get answers to his questions. Elena was amazing and bore a powerful testimony about how the gospel and church had helped her through some of the darkest times of her life.. We committed Barry to be baptized Dec. 27th, he said of course. He’s stoked to go to church with us this Sunday, and get this! He lives right next door to the church! Miracles are out there, and I’m so grateful for the spirit that kept pushing us towards Barry. He kept saying at the end what a miracle this was, there was no coincidence. You know, I’m kinda really grateful that Heavenly Father allows us to act in faith. When we decided to not go to Rhi’s and continue onto Elena’s the spirit didn’t say, “you can’t go to Rhi’s, and you need to go to Elena’s because there’s someone there you need to teach”. And then when we tried to call her 3 different times and she never answered, the spirit didn’t chime in and say, “no, you still need to go to Elena’s there’s this guy named Barry and he’s super prepared, so just keeeep on driving”. No. we didn’t get that, but we carried on, and ta-dah, MIRACLE! J

We had a birthday dinner and lesson with Sis Lincoln and of course the rest of the family. We talked about, ENDURING TO THE END! And related it to how we need to endure to the end in minute to win it games. Their family is doing so great, the other day when we taught them about temples Sis Lincoln told us how excited she was to go to the temple. I love this family so much! We did the oreo game, when you have to wiggle an oreo down your face into your mouth. Bro Lincoln decided that the oreo wasn’t worth the work, so he gave up after 2 tries. Haha, he said that, like life, you have to be working towards something that’s worth the work. Eternal life is always worth it, so we need to sacrifice whatever it takes, however money and recognition aren’t so why “labor for that which is of no worth”.PS: Sis lincoln told us how excited she is to go to the temple one day! :):)

During lunch we went to town decorating our apartment for the most wonderful time of the year. Paula donated a full size Christmas tree, but when we pulled it out of the box to set it up, we realized it was missing the top piece, we improvised, and with a little fluffing, ornaments and lights we the the best Christmas bush this side of the Mississippi. We hung snowflakes from the ceiling, arranged a little nativity set, colored a big “Joy to the World” banner and just basked in the majestic feeling of this wondrous season. I couldn’t be Jollier!!...even if Jollier isn’t a word;)

Sunday:
During my morning prayers, I was just smiling the whole time. We saw some great miracles as well, a whole bunch of people came to church, they even had to open up the overflow! Morgan got confused about the Christmas devotional, and that little diligent guy came to the church at 8AM! We felt so terrible, but he ended up coming back again at 8PM. Another miracle, we were panicking because we couldn’t find anyone to come to Kitt’s with us, but at the last minute we called Elena and she came through for us. Kitt’s so funny, he lets us teach the new member lessons, simple stuff like tithing and fast offerings today, but as soon as we finished, he was like, “ok, finished with that, now I have some questions!”. Kitt’s so funny, and was asking all about Christ real birthday and how it coordinates with the Jewish calendar, aw man Kitt, I told him that I’m learning so much from just teaching him. He literally studies the gospel all day. He’ll bust out these student institute study manuals and flip all through it showing us different sections and then ask some crazy question. He’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met-I love him so much!\

Love y'all, go lip sync to some Christmas tunes, enjoy your family and share the He is the Gift video with someone from christmas.mormon.org
LOVE! SISTER SMITH!
PS:guess what, only 16 days til christmas!!!!!!! haha, and even better only 12 days until Morgan's baptism!)

Sisters and Elders Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl

Our first thanksgiving meal was with Doris, her son and her 6 grands. It was so much fun! They’re just a good ‘ol southern black family. The meal consisted of yams, rice, collard greens, potato salad, mac-n-cheese and a Tur-duck-hen. Not all of your traditional western thanksgiving foods, but when we told them that back home I’d never had a thanksgiving with mac-n-cheese they were appalled. Keenan exclaimed, “what?! That’s the only thing I look forward to each thanksgiving!”

Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without Mac and Cheese

Welcome to December, and this week's edition of The Lord's Vineyard: Summerville, South Carolina Edition...I'm your host, Sister Smith and I'll be filling you in on the miracles, adventures and happenings of my time serving as a full-time representative of our Savior Jesus Christ, hope you enjoy and feel a little more joyful after reading!!

Nov 24th:
The Cicon’s had Morgan over for FHE tonight. I love how we’re on such a steady schedule with morgan. Every Monday we go over and he follows us to a members house to have FHE, then every Friday at 10:30am we meet in his driveway on camp chairs and have a lesson. He’s the greatest. He told us he’d finally finished 2 Nephi, he’s a little nervous for his baptism, but he’s getting excited as well. The Cicon’s had no idea he was getting baptized, so when they started asking him how he was feeling about the church and such, he piped in, well I’m getting baptized Dec. 20th. They were like, “WHAT!?”, they had the peeeerrrfect reaction, as they both shouted and congratulated him with jubilance. Which is how it should be, this is one of the most life changing decisions, he’s making an eternal covenant with God, I think it deserves a few emotional pyrotechnics.

Nov. 26th:
After unexchanging with Sis Havens, we went to the Haynes for our lesson. We taught the little munchkins about the plan of salvation. We started with having them color their own, and I did my best to help the 6yr old not “scribble-scrabble” all over, because as she told me, “you can’t scribble-scrabble, it’s dangerous!”. We cut them out, and laid it out piece by piece explaining it all. I love breaking things down to a child’s level, that’s the simplicity we should all be looking at things with. We mixed up all the pieces and challenged them to put it all back together again. Izayah, the 10yr old was great, we’d only asked him to rearrange the pieces in order. He not only did that, but proceeded to explain to us about what each piece was, and how it fit into the plan. He was a little confused about what temples are, and told us that’s where all of our bodies are kept, we quickly cleared that one up, haha.

Nov 27th:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
HAPPY HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I couldn’t be more grateful to be where I am right now. Smack dab in the middle of the Lord’s vineyard, sporting a shiny black nametag bearing the name of Jesus Christ, and his Church in these Latter Days.
For the first time ever, I got to participate in the Turkey Bowl. It was a blast, and felt so good to play a competitive sport after such a long time. Our ward was combined with the 3rd ward, so we got to play with the other sisters and elders as well. We layered up, and headed out. Sis Wheelock was so pumped, the day before she’d been sick with the flu, but sure enough she shook it off, and said there was no way she wasn’t playing in the turkey bowl because of some little flu. Sis Mathias was a little unfamiliar with it all, but she caught on fast. We randomly split up the teams, making sure companions stayed together to make sure companionship unity was maintained. We played 2-hand touch, only sisters could guard sisters, but if a sister caught a pass it was an automatic down. We did pretty good, and I think represented the face of all sister missionaries everywhere. Sis Burbank caught a touchdown pass, I played more on the defense and tipped a few passes, took down a few runs and caught a interception, and Sis Wheelock had the same. haha, and this was sis Mathias' first time playing american football, and she didn't do too shabby.

Our first thanksgiving meal was with Doris, her son and her 6 grands. It was so much fun! They’re just a good ‘ol southern black family. The meal consisted of yams, rice, collard greens, potato salad, mac-n-cheese and a Tur-duck-hen. Not all of your traditional western thanksgiving foods, but when we told them that back home I’d never had a thanksgiving with mac-n-cheese they were appalled. Keenan exclaimed, “what?! That’s the only thing I look forward to eachthanksgiving!” The rest of our Thanksgiving was with the Blonquist family.

Nov. 29:
All afternoon we were struggling to find anyone to let us in and teach. We pulled up to our last plan, and it was only 7:30…I prayed for a miracle, and that some way these people would let us in, and we’d be able to teach them. We knocked in the Peterson’s neighbor’s door. We’d tried before to meet with her, because the Peterson’s told us they might be interested. She answered and let us right in! We got to teach her, Amy, and her boyfriend, Joe! They’re middle aged, with families of their own and were the sweetest little miracle of the night. Looking back I can tell how the spirit guided us, we were lead in our questions and we taught in a different way than we ever had. It was doctrine focused, but applied in a casual way that testified of how ultimate truth is out there, and it can bless their individual lives. They areed to read from the Book of Mormon, and said we were welcome to come back, and even sent us on our way with a big bag of chex mix! I’m smiling just thinking about how sweet Heavenly Father was in leading 2 cold, lonely, rejected sisters to their home, so we could be an instrument in His hands.

ok, this episode ended up being an extended addition! But there was just too much goodness and blessings this week! hope y'all experience the same! miracles are out there, go get em!!

Love y'all!

Sister Smith

Hey y'all, Another great week flew by, seriously where did November go?!?

Hey y'all, Another great week flew by, seriously where did November go?!?
well at least I have evidence that it happened based off of these little weekly email things, but otherwise I'd hardly believe that 7 more days just passed by!!
check it out!
....
Morgan followed us over to the Dunn’s for a family home evening with their family. It was so fun, talked about humility, he was a little nervous at first, but it soon lightened up and he told us that his favorite part was playing apples to apples with them all at the end. We were a little nervous at the end when the Dunn’s started talking a lot about polygamy and such, but Morgan didn't skip a beat, he’d already researched that and learned about how it was needed for a time, and that God had commanded it. He’s so great!
We’d texted him about how he was feeling about the Dunn’s and his baptism and we almost died with every text he sent, I’m just going to type it word for word.

Morgan: I’m feeling good about it grandma (his grandma in Utah) and I discussed it some and she fully agrees with y’all that I shouldn't wait any longer. She also, like y’all told me that the doubt is the devil trying to convince me that I shouldn't go through with it. So hearing it from y’all and her, and based on how I feel as I've been progressing I feel fairly confident about doing it the 20th!! Sis Burbank and I were going nuts, he’s the best!! He sent a bunch more about how the gospel has been blessing his life, how he feels when he studies from the scriptures, how much he wants his family to accept this, and so much more:)

The Lincoln lesson was a blast, and I’m so glad Sis Harvey was there. You’d never know that she’s a newer missionary, which is how it should be. She had a member tell her once that she “looked” like a greenie, that you could tell her companion was a long time experienced and seasoned missionary, but that Sis Harvey looked “green”. I told her that wasn't true, and that being told you’re green is a compliment. I had a good friend give me the advice before I came out in the field to “stay green”. No matter how long you’ve been out stay that on fire, obedient, humble, submissive, always looking to improve green missionary.

But anyways with the Lincolns we taught the 10 commandments and had them break up in groups, learn about a few commandments and then present a mini lesson. At the end I taught them the hand signals to remember the 10 commandments with, then we did a game where I would call out a number, commandment or do the hand sign and they’d have to give which commandment was associated with it. I was able to give Gabbie my little picture I drew for her, along with the CTR earrings my mom gave me, and she loved them and put them in right away!

-went on 3 exchanges this week, with my favorite Sis Harvey from Kaysville, Sis Vaifanua from Cali (haha, nobody messes with her here, because she's Samoan, haha, but alot of people mistake her for being black), and Sis Mathias my favorite German sister!

Aw man! We went over to Elena’s for smores, and due to the fact that the fire kept EXPLODING, we got a little distracted and weren't able to include a lesson. That bothered me, but I’ll make sure to make it a priority next time. Her logs she had were wet, so when the water heated up the pressure would build then WHAMO! Explosion complete with plumes of sparks and flying coal. It was quite exciting, and made smore making a dangerous activity. It really was pretty scary though, eventually we backed away, not far enough though, I got hit in the head with a big chunk of wood, and Sis Burbank got burned when a small piece of coal fell down her shirt, it was so crazy! Haha, something really crazy for me was that she just made the fire on her back patio, didn’t clear the area, didn’t worry about the piles of dry leaves everywhere, it’s so humid they don’t have a real fear of wild fires starting up. I’m not in Utah anymore that’s for sure, haha, she kept laughing at Sis Burbank and I because we were nervous about not having a firepit, or about all of the dry leaves just hanging around, or the fact that the fire kept exploding and burning logs would fly all over the lawn, we even heard one fly up and hit the roof.

I'm, so grateful for everything! But that's a silly cop out, I've found a lot of joy as I pray more specifically. Today I'm especially grateful for my Heavenly Father's grand plan to help us learn how to make decisions. Yes he wants us to rely on him, but he duly wants us to become like him so that we may know in each situation what decision He would make.

Gee whiz there are some good days ahead!
hope y'all have some too!
LOVE,
Sister Smith
Love y'all!

I'm Dreamin' of a White Christmas the Missionary way

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!..haha, but not like the ones I used to know in utah with snow and what-not. Well the snow would be nice, who knows maybe we'll get a little this year! But what I'm ever so excited about is the baptism that'll be happening dec 27 with morgan in his WHITE baptismal suit.
Sis burbank and I keep asking ourselves how have we been blessed with such an awesome, elect person to teach??

Morgan came with us to Bishop Walker’s home for an FHE lesson with the Walker family. It was so perfect, their family is amazing and it was cool to see Morgan participating in the lesson, and not being afraid to speak up. I was eavesdropping when bishop was talking with Morgan about going to institute, Morgan seemed pretty interested!

A few days earlier we'd committed Morgan to watch at least one talk by President Monson, the next day he texted us and said that he'd read 2 already. He told us how he could feel the power of the spirit when he spoke. He also made the connection that whenever he reads the Book of Mormon he feels good and peaceful and that he gets the exact same feeling when he'd study President Monson's talks! so cool!

I had such a joyful surprise, our first lesson of the exchange was with Becky! miracle moment!! I had taught Becky back when I was with Sis Willis, she’s the sister of a less active/recent convert in our ward (Paula). She’s the greatest, always has a fabulous analogy on hand to relate to what we’re teaching her. We even committed her to baptism, and then she moved back home and I hadn’t seen her since. Becky lives on the edge of the Walterboro sisters area so they’d only had a chance to meet with her once. She was surprised to see me standing behind Sis Allen. It was such a joyful reunion, similar to when the sons of mosiah are reunited after their missions, and our joy was even greater because she’s still interested in baptism and learning more. We went over the plan of salvation again, and she told us how it answered so many questions. I’m so grateful for the plan, and even more grateful that our Heavenly Father decided to let us in on the plan and gave us a few details about what’s happened, what’s happening and what will be happening in His planJ Becky committed to prepare for her baptism for Dec. 13th.

Sis Burbank and I were able to spend a whole whopping hour together, and then we swapped again and I headed out to James Island with the lovely Sis Kayla Stout. I was so glad to be with her, I came out with her and I’ve never really gotten to know her besides the few nights we stayed in a hotel together at the beginning of our mission.

We got to teach a man who may or may not have multiple personalities, but he's super intelligent and has a desire to learn.

Sunday was Sis Burbanks birthday! yup, the big 2-1!! we celebrated with a big breakfast with the other sisters and then running off to our regular Sunday meetings. It was SUCH a good day, we had Kitt, Alysa, Gerald, Alyssa (#2), the Haynes family, Elena and Morgan all at church!

Love y'all so much! How blessed are we to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives, I know that it's through our savior that we can truly "lay hold upon every good thing". Through the enabling power of the atonement I'm able to have the strength to change and improve, and when I fall short I know that the redeeming power of the atonement is there to cleanse me.

It was a little disheartening to meet with a less active woman sunday, she'd been raised in the church, her parents were converts. She attended BYU-i, and byu hawaii, sealed in the temple, her husband converted. But because of the world, and some anti-material she's now fallen away, and not just from the church, but she no longer believes there's a Savior or a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about every aspect of our lives. What a way to live?

Go out and spread the love y'all!!
signing out!

Sister Smith!!

Our Church smells like popcorn

The quote of the day comes from a billboard we saw the other day, it read, “Our church smells like popcorn”. It was an advertisement for their church. While MY church may not smell like popcorn, I’m so grateful for the blessings and eternal happiness that it offers insteadJ

Well, it’s a beautiful fall day in Summerville, South Carolina, and once again, here we are, at our computers reading about sister smith’s week. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope and pray something I say will...
A. motivate you to come closer to our Savior
and/or
B. bring a wee bit of sunshineyness to your day!!

here's the week!...
We ran down to the Lincolns and got to sit in on their FHE. I felt like a proud parent watching them put on this awesome FHE lesson about rising higher than our trials, they made analogies to kites and how kites need wind to fly. Then we each made kites and enjoyed a little kite decorated cookies. So precious. Gabby, the 7 yr old showed us the mini Book of Mormon she had made for her doll-so awesome! Love this family:D

We drove our usual 2hrs to Columbia for MLC this morning, I LOVE MLC (mission leadership conference)!
The spirit was super strong, and we spoke all about how we can now implement becoming better planners and finders. There are a few new policies no longer are we saying, “Hi, we’re the missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints…”, now we start by saying, “Hi, we’re your missionaries!”

Our usual Friday morning lesson with Morgan was just splendid! As alwaysJ He’s just finished 1 Nephi, and had all of these awesome questions for us about, “who are the gentiles? What’s the devils church? What’s the gathering of Israel, the house of Israel?” He’s big history buff, so he loved the chapters of when Nephi is shown a vision of the future by the angel. Morgan even recognized that when it’s talking about the Jews and Israel, how it connects with what’s happened in history. He readily accepted tithing and fasting, and said that he’d no doubt following it after he was baptized. He still has such a fire for it all, and he’s changed so much. Instead of being more reserved and not confident about the gospel, when there are pauses during the lesson he’ll chime up. We had just shared about the widows mite and he pipes in, “God doesn’t really care about how much we make, he wants us to give all that we have”. He’s feeling excited about his baptism, but asked us if he’s not ready when the time comes, will it be a big deal if he drops out? We told him, of course not, that this is his day, but that honestly he’s ready, and those feelings of doubt and uncertainty are only going to increase as the devil tries harder to dissuade him from doing this. No matter what though, Heavenly Father will be there through it all.

When Bro Lincoln came with us to teach the Haynes family, he shared a little more insight into his family, and it melted my heart!
We knew that a few weeks ago he and his wife had taken each of the girls aside to ask them how they were feeling about the missionary lessons and such. Isabella told him, “there’s no other option, this church is where we need to be”.
He also said that about a year ago, before we’d even started teaching, Gabby was at a Lutheran church with her mom and said, as a 6yr old at the time, “I don’t believe this, I want to go to church with Papi”

This church is true, and children are some of the most pure Christ like vessels for the spirit to work through!

Have a great day cause it's the most wonderful time of the year. Naw, regardless of the holiday season it's a beautiful time to be alive, it's the most wonderful time of this dispensation!

Love,
your missionary,
sis smith

Halloween photo fun

Sister Burbank and Sister Smith Match---What

What Sister Missionaries do when locked down for Halloween

Where to take all the muffins?????

Don't y'all go backsliding now:)

Southerners love to use the term backsliding. Such as....
"I went through a time of backsliding when I stopped going tuh church"
haha, and until I came across jeremiah 3:22, I never knew it was an actual biblical term! who knew? challenge of the week...Use the word backsliding in an everyday conversation! :D

This week contained no backsliding whatsoever. The Lord's work continues, and it's such a blessing to be in the front row watching and participating in it's hastening! so blessed:)

It was so neat in our lesson with Doris to see the influence of the spirit, and witness evidence of how the spirit can only testify of truth. We started our lesson, and she started talking about how she just wasn’t quite picking up on the Book of Mormon, it just wasn’t sitting right. As she was describing her understanding we could tell something was off. I interjected and started from the beginning and said that the Book of Mormon starts in 600 BC—and her eyes lit up! “oooooooooh” she says. “that makes sense”, she’d never understood that the Book of Mormon was occurring during the time of the Bible. She thought it was many years after the Bible had ended, and it wasn’t sitting well with her. As soon as we clarified and were able to teach of the truth about the Book of Mormon the spirit swept in, and she felt the truth of our message. She’s more interested than she ever had been before, and asked to have us come back in a couple days for another lesson. The Book of Mormon is so powerful!

Tonight we had a combined lesson with the Lincolns and the Blonquists, it was a fun full house! We had the Blonquist family of 7, the Lincolns family of 6 and Sis Burbank and I. We did a lesson on keeping the Sabbath day holy. We used ice cream sundaes for our object lesson. First we made a Sundae, and put things that are good, but don’t belong on a Sundae like, ketchup, hot sauce, ranch, artichoke hearts, etc. Just like some things are good, but we don’t do them on Sundays (shopping, sports, work, cleaning, etc). Then we scooped everyone a bowl of ice-cream and put things that DO belong on Sundaes; sprinkles (church), hot fudge (prayer), m&m’s (scripture study), etc. Haha, I even introduced everyone to putting frosted flakes on their ice cream and they really enjoyed it. A great part to see how the Lincolns progression was coming along was at the end. We played scripture charades with everyone! It was so neat to see Sis Lincoln and the girls participate and have fun. Bro Lincoln was one of MVP’s of team 2. It’s amazing to see how far Sis Lincoln has come! When I first started teaching her with Sis Willis she was so reserved, and each lesson I felt like I was walking on glass, trying to say EXACTLY the right thing. But now she loves us, and we joke around, it’s beautiful. She was telling us how Isabella was going on a little trip with some of her friends from her old church, and she said, “my church”, but then corrected herself and said, “well I guess they’re not my church anymore”. At first I was a little disappointed that they’d decided to wait until April to get baptized, when Gabby turns 8, but I feel really good about it. In the past with other investigators I’d felt inspired to encourage them to have their baptisms sooner, but it wasn’t the case with the Lincoln family. When Sis Burbank asked Bro Lincoln when Gabby’s baptism was, he said April 26th then turned to us and said, “looks like y’all are going to have to make a little trip out”. Um, YES! Sis Burbank and I are contemplating getting airplane tickets, or if a road trip would be cheaper after we get home from our missions:D:D

what else???
-we were on lockdown at 6pm so we enjoyed face painting, and other scripture related games of nonsense for a few hours with the 3rd ward sisters

-Some of the Elder’s from the 2nd ward have a less active member that makes bread deliveries, he had a BUNCH of extra mini-muffins and loafs of bread. They filled a room at the pig pickin’ and let members take as much as they wanted. At the end the bread was all gone, but there were still about 100 boxes of mini pumpkin muffins. We’d already taken 8 boxes to pass out to families and opted out of taking any more. While we were cleaning up Elder Smith asked if we had a Book of Mormon in our trunk they could have. We said of course and started to go grab one, he said he’d grab it and asked for our keys, I passed him the keys and we continued wiping down tables. He and his companion Elder Shawcroft took off a little too quick, and our brains quickly made the connection. When we called out after them they broke out into a run and all 8 elders of the various wards piled out of the muffin room carrying boxes and boxes of muffins and shoved them all in our trunk. Haha, it was so funny, there was nothing we could do. We gave out about 20 boxes that afternoon to various families and we still have about 30 more boxes in our trunk!

Christmas is a only a mere 52 days away!! haha, I love this time of the year, and I'm trying my best to be jolly about the time change since it gets dark around 6pm now. Oh well, life's great!

love y'all!!

sister smith:D:D

Oct 26, 2014

After gospel principles we were talking with Morgan, (he came for his second Sunday in a row!!), Sis Eagan came up and asked Morgan, are you investigating the church. You wanna know Morgan’s response?? “No, I’m joining.” I was signing with Kitt, so I missed it, but when sis Burbank told me I was so thrilled!!!! Morgan’s the best, he has so much faith and he shows it! …good things are in store for this one. I really can’t get it out of my mind of how amazing it would be if Morgan chose to serve a mission…sigh.

Oct 20, 2014

Tonight was a great night as well we had 3 lessons. First was one with Kayla, it was quick, effective and then we were off. The best form of missionary work is being able to do quick efficient lessons where you leave them at a spiritual peak, the whamo, you’re gone, and they’re left wondering “what just happened, and how can I have it happen again”. Ok, that’s the ideal, not saying it happens everytime with us, but we try real hard. Our second lesson was with Morgan and Bro Duren. It was on the gospel of Jesus Christ, I love teaching and testifying about the Atonement, I feel like my understanding has deepened so much on my mission, and Morgan really wants to have that “clean start”. Our third lesson was with Cindy, and included the world’s most loved rhythmic game, ping-pong! Cindy’s a 60yr old grandma ping-pong master, and invited us to play. We just hit it back and forth, never really keeping score, but we could tell she could’ve smashed us at any moment, I was so impressed. We talked a lot about the organization of the Church, and different things she’s experienced since her son is a member. So much fun, and my skills haven’t taken too much of a beating either.

Oct 21, 2014

Sis Eagan joined us for our lesson with the Lincolns and it was so perfect! We told them last week that we’d be doing a testimony meeting today. We started with talking about what a testimony is then me, Sis baker an Sis Eagan shared a brief testimony and then we went youngest to oldest. Gabby paused for a long bit, and we tried to help her figure out what to say, then she cuts in and says, “can I say the church is true?”, “of course!”, so she says, “I know the church is true”. Isabella bore a precious testimony about God’s love and how he’s there for us. Kami was awesome and shared a little story about a time she prayed at a cross country meet, and felt a spirit of peace and comfort come over her. Sis Lincoln told how she’d been thinking A LOT about investigating the church, and all that they’ve learned and felt. She told us she’d try to get through this, and told bro Lincoln not to look at her, or she’d start crying. She said they’d had individual interviews with each of the girls to see how they’ve been feeling about it all. I was in awe at how amazing all of them are, how elect, how strong the spirit was, haha, I had to try hard to not drool. She said, choking back tears that she knew she was taking her family in the right direction. In the end they committed to praying about taking the next step and being baptized November 29!! Sis Eagan shared her conversion story, and it was so perfect for Kami and sis Lincoln! She testified how in the beginning when she was taking the lessons she wasn’t 100% about it all, and was super nervous but continued on, and eventually that witness came. I was so nervous the whole time, and felt like I couldn’t say anything I wanted to. But I KNOW that what they felt, and what I felt will never be forgotten, but my stumbling and stammering will quickly be whisked away. AH! I can’t even express how much joy explodes in my innards every time I think about their family, and how much they’re progressing and what additional blessings lie in store!!

Oct 24, 2014

Earlier we used our miracle miles and drove out to visit some long lost less actives out in st. George, only about 30min away but we rarely get out there, here’s who we found…
-Harry, he lives in a state park. Haha, took us a minute to find his address using our GPS.
-Mike, the Pentecostal husband of A less active lady. He was really nice, we related on missionary work, and he advised us not to fall off the path.
-the Harley’s weren’t home, but I was able to determine that their electric fence was indeed on, haha.

Love y'all, don't forget to look for the miracles and how it all relates back to our Saviors Atonement, and then share it with someone else:)

love,
Sister Smith

photos

 Our lovely little sisters in Summerville.--- Burbank, Mathias, Wheelock and me!

                                        Sister Burbank and Sister Smith ready for the day

Beautiful, Beautiful week except maybe getting the Flu Shot

ummmm, let's just get into things shall we:)

Last year Sis Holm had recommended it, but this time Sis Turner was very direct in telling us we didn't really have a choice, and that we didn’t have to worry because mission medical (our missionary insurance) would cover the entire cost. Haha, she ended the email with, “make sure to text the mission nurse after you’ve gotten the shot, so that we can know who has been an obedient missionary”-what the guilt trip?! Haha, I’ve never had a flu shot in my life, and I’ve also never had many issues with the flu, so I wasn’t too excited to get it. But just as Nephi says in 2 nephi (the very last verse) “I MUST OBEY”. So all four of us went to the CVS and got our shots together! I was a little unhappy when the lady told me it was going to cost $13 still. I asked her if I could just negate my purchase of the shot at this point, but she told me no…which made me think "what if I really didn’t have any money? Would they have made me stock shelves for 2 hours to earn my flu shot?!" Just kidding, I paid for it, begrudgingly, received the shot, and now I’m convinced that just out of pure irony I’m going to get the flu this year. I haven’t been sick my whole mission, well I haven’t been sick enough to have to stay in, and I pray I never will. I was really nervous I was coming down with something because when night time rolled around y stomach was feeling a little queasy, and I kept getting the chills, and then feeling feverish all night long, but it passed, and all is wellJ

Speaking of illnesses, we had a “sick” lesson with Morgan Vaughn tonight.   He’s a 20yr old whose dad was raised in the church, but fell away at a young age. Morgan’s dad’s side of the family is still active in the church, and he’s always wanted to know more. He’s super intelligent and insightful for a 20yr old boy, and he sincerely wants answers to his questions about the purpose of life, and what he’s doing here. It was crazy awesome as we taught him the restoration, he understood and agreed with everything. He’d already read the pamphlet we left last time, and as we read he was able to tell us what part came next. He would bring up different things he wants to achieve, or things he believes and we were able to pull out scriptures in the Book of Mormon to prove that his beliefs are true doctrine!

We had MLC again today-I love MLC so much! It’s amazing to gather as the mission leadership council and strive to represent the missionaries in our zone. This time was extra special because we had two representatives from Salt Lake City. One was Bro Hemingway from the Church’s proselyting dept, and the other was Bro Hall from the Church’s finance dept. They spoke with us the entire time, answering the questions we wanted to know. I loved what they trained on about how this is the LORD's work, not ours. HE will hasten his work how he wants it hastened, and we can either get with the program or not.

At MLC the people from church headquarters told us when we’re contacting that we should try telling people, “we’re your missionaries!” This afternoon we went to check on a less active family. This man answers the door, and we asked him if this was the Hartley’s residence, he told us they had moved. I jumped in “well, we’re your missionaries!”-Sis Burbank said, “We come out sharing a message about Jesus Christ”. He then told us…”yeah, let’s not get into that” and he slowly closed the door while we said farewell and passed a card quickly to him. Haha, it wasn’t quite the response I was expecting...

beautiful beautiful week, hope yours is just dandy as well!!

love, Sister Smith!!

photos

P-Day adventure Sister Willis, Sister Wheelock, Sister Ruell and Sister Smith

First Alligators seen while in South Carolina

Sister Smith loves when she can ride the bikes as missionaries with Sister Wheelock