February 28, 2011 - 90 day mark!

WELL first of all...I’m a true missionary! Ha-ha. I had fish for dinner!!! We had an appointment at our new investigators home...our cute African family, and they wanted so badly to feed us.  So of course we said yes.  We had fish and spinach and rice and some African potatoes.  It’s real now. Ha.

MARSON IS BAPTIZED!! This week was pretty crazy!! He had a meeting with the elders on Thursday and said he wasn't sure if he should get baptized because he was nervous about things with his family.  So the elders prayed with him and right when they said amen, he opened up his scriptures.  The elders were just looking at him and he said, oh sometimes I do this. I pray then read. Ha. How great. They read with him and he said he would think about it over night. So Friday he still wasn't sure.  On Saturday morning the elders called and asked if I would speak at the baptism that afternoon.  They said they weren't sure if Marson was going to get baptized or not.  They said if he was going to, he would show up. So I prepared my talk and right before we were heading out to contact, the elders called and said, Sister Smith, we need to talk to you...I said. Ok...and they said, Marson will be getting baptized this afternoon. AHHHHHH! IT WAS THE BEST NEWS EVER!!! So Marson got baptized and I spoke at the baptism and it was just so great! :) Missionary work, I love it!!!

We found a family from Thailand this week!! They barely understood a word we spoke, but we managed to speak about prophets and we found a gospel principle book in Burmese for them!

We were just super busy with teaching appointments this week with our new investigators! It was such a blessing!! I can’t believe March is already here! Time just goes by so fast!!

I read Alma ch. 32 this morning and really thought a lot about faith.  A lot of people ask us why God lets bad things happen to us.  After reading that chapter I thought about how if life was always good, we would never be able to let our faith grow, we would of course still have faith that God is there and we can live with Him again, but in other ways, our faith would never grow if we never had those learning experiences.  It really makes me think about how I view difficulties and where my hopes and my faith are now and where is has been!

I hope you all had a great week!! And I hope this week is even better!! Love you all.

Remember who you are. Live it. Love it!

Last Week of February!

BLESSSSINNNGGSS!! Wowzy this week we have been so blessed!! It has been an amazing week! We were lead to 6 new investigators this week who are anything fantastic!! 5 of them are from Africa and have had very hard, challenging lives.  They have seen things and been through things that you would wish upon no one.  But their faith carried them through.  3 of them lived in a refugee camp for 10 years and they said it was their faith and their knowledge of God that helped them get through.  There are three of them, three sisters.  The oldest sister we met on the street last week and when we went to visit them all three of them joined us for the lesson.  When we started talking about the Book of Mormon, the oldest sister, Angel, got so excited and said oh yes, yes.  The younger girls asked a question and Angel said no, no, you listen.  Joseph Smith asked God what was right.  Jesus and God came to Joseph Smith and told him the truth, this is the truth.  Most people just have the Bible, but now we have the Book of Mormon.  She basically taught the whole first lesson we were all astonished and sat with huge grins on our faces.  It was AMAZING!! We have had another appointment since then and are going back this week again as well.  SO MANY BLESSINGS! The hard news of the week is that Terri dropped us.  Her baptism was scheduled for this coming Saturday.  We had a lesson on the word of wisdom and she got offended and asked us to leave and not to come back :( breaks my heart.  We have been seeking for the spirit to help guide us to help her. 

Marsins baptism is on Saturday! I AM SO EXCITED! Every time he sees us, he comes up and asks, so how is the missionary work today?! We tell him it is good and he always says, "Thank you for giving me this opportunity." Oh bless his little heart. 

This week with Eltouma was very tender as well.  On Tuesday when we were leaving, she looked at me and said, why do you have to wait two days to come back? I explained to her our schedule and what we do on the other days and she said two days is too long, I miss you.  Then on Thursday she wanted to email a sister who had previously been helping her so we emailed her and then she said I will email you every week when you leave me.  She grabbed my hand and said, you will be my best friend forever. My little heart melted.  She is so great. 

We had exchanges this week and sister Wennerlind came to be with us.  It was fun to be together again and see how we work together now that we have had experiences!!

We have really grown as a companionship this week! I love these two sisters so much!! We have become very close and learn so much from each other!!

I read a talk by Bishop Edgerly this week in the Ensign that talked a lot about faith to move mountains.  He talked about how we always hear that phrase, if we have faith, we can move mountains.  For my whole life I have always taken that so literally.  But he explained that each of us have personal mountains in our lives.  Some have mountains of grief and pain, some have mountains of addictions, and we each have different mountains in our lives.  But it is our faith in Christ that moves those mountains.  He can change our lives if we allow Him in.  He can make those mountains disappear. 

I know that we are all God’s children.  I know that there is a plan for each of us and that if we have faith in Him, He will guide us even in the darkest nights.

I hope you have all had a great week!! Love you all.  Be good. Remember who you are. Live it and love it! :)

Sister Smith

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! Oh what a glorious day!! I found these cute little heart shaped ice cube makers and chocolate hearts last week so I was sneaky and got them for my companions and made them juice with heart ice cubes and such this morning! I love it!! So fun! I hope all of you find so much love today!! I hope you're wearing pink! Ha-ha.

Well this week was a tricky one. Terri had a very hard week this week and cancelled our appointment on Thursday! Her baptism date is set for next Saturday still! So we're just praying and working hard to help her through!! We do have a new investigator! I’m not sure if I told you about her last week or not. Her name is Bakirathy... (sounds like ba hear da dee) she is from Shrilanka! Her sister is a convert of about 4 or 5 years and so we have got to know her and she wants to learn. We had an amazing lesson with her yesterday! She said she knows it's all true!! but wants to really pray about it this week to know for sure so by next week she should have her answer if she wants to get baptized!! She is just the cutest little thing ever! It is such a little blessing and a perfect way to end a week!! We have a lot of good appointments set up for this week which I’m super excited about!

It was our first full week together as companions and it went really well!! We are all getting along very nicely! They find a kick out of my color blindness! Hilarious right?! (Haha) and they were surprised that I could hit so well (thank you brothers). It was the shock of a life time! haha.

Today Sister Paulson gave us the cutest Valentine’s card!! This is what it looked like

For God so loVed the world

that he gAve

his onLy

begottEn

soN

That whosoever

belieiveth In him

should Not perish,

but have Everlasting life.

Of course it is centered and really cute...but that's the best I could do on the computer!!

I hope you all have a great week!! I love you all!!

4 nephi 1:15

"There was no contention in the land because of the LOVE of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people."

Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

Sister Smith

Another crazy week in Winnipeg, Canada!

Well it's been another crazy week in Winnipeg, Canada! Who woulda thought eh?! It was transfer week and our new companion came! Her name is Sister Reid. She is from Orem Utah and super fun and creative!! She’s just this little ball of energy and love! I’m excited to get to work with her! I miss Sister Broderick like crazy! The farewell fireside was a bittersweet kind of thing!!
This week was the dinner with Eltouma! It was fantastic!! We sat and ate for literally 2 hours straight...no chit chat time mixed in the middle. From the time we started eating to the time we finished eating...it was 2 hours!! Insane!! But so so worth it! It was such good food. Super spicy!! there was this little thing that looked like a chocolate chip cookie so I said oooh Eltouma, you made cookies...and she got this really funny look on her fake and started laughing and said no no no, it's falapho (spelt totally wrong I’m sure)!! So every couple of minutes she asked...how is your cookie?! It was hilarious!! We shared pictures of our families together!! She wants to meet everyone!! She was so tender...she said...will you remember in 2 years?! I said oh yes of course...then she said, what about 10?! I said oh Eltouma. forever!! She’s just my little Sudan mother. Her son calls her sister mousa when we are not there! It’s quite hilarious!
Well our magical baptismal date, Cerise, is nowhere to be found :( :( super sad!! We haven’t been able to contact her at all since we set her date! Terri is still doing great!! She hasn't missed church and she is very consistent with our meetings!! We keep praying that it all works out and she continues to feel the spirit!! We were blessed with a lot of street contacting time this week! We were able to meet a lot of new people and get a lot of potentials!! One of the members came out with us. So she and I went together!! She was fantastic! Just got herself right out there and invited everyone we talked to church and everything! It was great! It was fun to be with her!
We were fed by 2 converts this week. Both of them were from the elders but they are huge examples to me about truly allowing the gospel to influence every aspect of your life!! It was so great to see them and see how they changed everything for the gospel!!
This weekend there was a band that came through town called behind sapphire...the members are all members of the church so they came to church on Sunday before they got back on the road. After sacrament meeting the bishop asked them if they would sing a song for us...so they got out their guitar and sang nearer my God to thee...Kyle Henderson style!! My little heart got so excited!! They introduced it by saying this was their favorite rendition and they sing it all the time while they're on the road. Afterwards I went up to them and introduced myself and told them about Kyle and said thank you!! They got all sorts of excited and were super jealous I knew the person who sang it!!! They said they want to meet him some day! It was just a neat little tie to home!!
there was a neat thing said at church this week" if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." how true is that. We have to stand for truth!! If we aren’t standing for what we believe in and for truth...we will fall for everything other idea that comes our way!! If we put our trust in the Lord, He will lead us to truth and help us stand strong and true in principles of truth!!
I hope you all had a wonderful week!! Happy groundhogs day...spring eh?! Is that what I heard?!?!
Love you all!! Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it!!
Sister Smith