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
Monday, November 3, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
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
Monday, October 20, 2014
photos
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!!
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!!
Monday, October 13, 2014
photos
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| P-Day adventure Sister Willis, Sister Wheelock, Sister Ruell and Sister Smith |
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| First Alligators seen while in South Carolina |
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Sister Smith loves when she can ride the bikes as missionaries with Sister Wheelock
A Beautiful Busy Week
This week was beautiful, one of those weeks where you just go out and work your heart out, the times blows by. Then WHAMO, Monday is here again and you get sick to your stomach thinking about how quickly time is passing by. In the words of the beloved white handbook, "time is one of the most precious resources your Father in Heaven has given you". By the way, that doesn't just apply to missionaries either, so after you skim over the adventures of sister smith, go out and do something good today!
We were in DDM, and good ‘ol Elder Taylor was giving his training when suddenly Sis Wheelock says…”um, what’s coming out of the vents?”
We all looked up to see large plumes of smoke coming in through the vents in the ceiling. All four elders immediately stood up and told us sisters, stay here we’re going to go figure this out, and they all quickly shuffled out one-by-one in their suits and ties to save the day. Well, we weren't going to just wait in the relief society room and get smoked out so we all left to go wandering ourselves. Sis Burbank grabbed a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the kitchen and we wandered around aimlessly trying to solve the problem. We never figured it out, we assumed the outside vents had sucked in some smoke from a nearby burn pile. But in the end we were able to relocate to the primary room and continue to be instructed about asking for referrals, the importance of following up and extending commitments. All is well.
Oct 9
Sis Call went biking with me this morning, we tried to contact a very nice Spanish women who told us she didn’t speak any English. I stammered out a messy, “we missionaries Jesus Christ”, she nodded and smiled but I don’t think she had any idea what we were saying. I then proceeded to try and do charades to show her that we wanted to help her rake her leaves, but she had no idea what we were talking about. Haha, it probably didn’t help that my charades was also mixed in with sign language.
We had our ASL class with Sis Barker, Sadie wasn’t able to come so we were on our own. We decided we’d start trying to memorize the sacrament prayers. It was much harder than we thought. It made it so much more meaningful to learn it in sign, it really helped us to take it word by word, and concept by concept. I love how visual sign is, it helps me to truly remember what the sacrament is all about, and I’m so grateful for each Sunday I get to renew my covenants with my Father.
Oct 10
During conference Sis Burbank and I both got the impression that we needed to drop Joan. Dropping investigators is the worse, but the spirit confirmed again in our lesson with her tonight that dropping is what will be the best for her in the end. She’s just not ready for the gospel right now. Even though we were dropping her, we still made an effort to involve members and had her friend Sis Winters join us. We read a little from Alma 22, and I asked Sis Winters what sacrifices she’d made for the church and how had they blessed her. Sis Winters was so enthusiastic about the gospel and the church. I’m pretty sure if there was a stenographer present, many exclamation points and ALL CAPS would have been usedJ She shared that she never really sacrificed, because she’d been blessed 10-fold for living the gospel. It was perfect for Joan, although she may not now be ready to commit right, she was able to feel a strong spirit and excitement from Sis Winters. Now is the time for members and missionaries to work together, I’m so grateful for inspired prophets in these days to direct us on how to hasten the work!:D
alsoooo...
-Sadie our interpreter couldn't come so I interpreted all Sunday long for kitt! dah! I'd never done both sacrament, sunday school and priesthood!
-Elena took us out for japanese hibachi!
-went to taco bell for my first time, now I feel like a real American!
-starting to memorize The Living Christ, so beautiful.
love y'all much much!
carry on and have a great day!
love, SISTER SMITH!
We were in DDM, and good ‘ol Elder Taylor was giving his training when suddenly Sis Wheelock says…”um, what’s coming out of the vents?”
We all looked up to see large plumes of smoke coming in through the vents in the ceiling. All four elders immediately stood up and told us sisters, stay here we’re going to go figure this out, and they all quickly shuffled out one-by-one in their suits and ties to save the day. Well, we weren't going to just wait in the relief society room and get smoked out so we all left to go wandering ourselves. Sis Burbank grabbed a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall of the kitchen and we wandered around aimlessly trying to solve the problem. We never figured it out, we assumed the outside vents had sucked in some smoke from a nearby burn pile. But in the end we were able to relocate to the primary room and continue to be instructed about asking for referrals, the importance of following up and extending commitments. All is well.
Oct 9
Sis Call went biking with me this morning, we tried to contact a very nice Spanish women who told us she didn’t speak any English. I stammered out a messy, “we missionaries Jesus Christ”, she nodded and smiled but I don’t think she had any idea what we were saying. I then proceeded to try and do charades to show her that we wanted to help her rake her leaves, but she had no idea what we were talking about. Haha, it probably didn’t help that my charades was also mixed in with sign language.
We had our ASL class with Sis Barker, Sadie wasn’t able to come so we were on our own. We decided we’d start trying to memorize the sacrament prayers. It was much harder than we thought. It made it so much more meaningful to learn it in sign, it really helped us to take it word by word, and concept by concept. I love how visual sign is, it helps me to truly remember what the sacrament is all about, and I’m so grateful for each Sunday I get to renew my covenants with my Father.
Oct 10
During conference Sis Burbank and I both got the impression that we needed to drop Joan. Dropping investigators is the worse, but the spirit confirmed again in our lesson with her tonight that dropping is what will be the best for her in the end. She’s just not ready for the gospel right now. Even though we were dropping her, we still made an effort to involve members and had her friend Sis Winters join us. We read a little from Alma 22, and I asked Sis Winters what sacrifices she’d made for the church and how had they blessed her. Sis Winters was so enthusiastic about the gospel and the church. I’m pretty sure if there was a stenographer present, many exclamation points and ALL CAPS would have been usedJ She shared that she never really sacrificed, because she’d been blessed 10-fold for living the gospel. It was perfect for Joan, although she may not now be ready to commit right, she was able to feel a strong spirit and excitement from Sis Winters. Now is the time for members and missionaries to work together, I’m so grateful for inspired prophets in these days to direct us on how to hasten the work!:D
alsoooo...
-Sadie our interpreter couldn't come so I interpreted all Sunday long for kitt! dah! I'd never done both sacrament, sunday school and priesthood!
-Elena took us out for japanese hibachi!
-went to taco bell for my first time, now I feel like a real American!
-starting to memorize The Living Christ, so beautiful.
love y'all much much!
carry on and have a great day!
love, SISTER SMITH!
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