Conference Week!

HAPPY CONFERENCE WEEK!! I am so excited for conference this up coming weekend!!! Everyone is talking about it.  We are hoping to get as many investigators as we can to be there!!  This week was GREAT! We had A LOT of finding time.  It’s the end of the month so we are low on our K's so we did A LOT of walking. You know how I love to walk for sure!! But it gave us so many more opportunities to talk to more people and to bare our testimonies! Such a blessing.  We decided to stop by Nicole’s house since we hadn't been able to get hold of her through the phone.  When we stopped by she was home just hanging out by herself and so she let us in and we were able to teach her a lesson.  And then...WE SET A BAPTISM DATE WITH HER!! We are so excited! We are working super hard with her to get her to church every week and to help her stop smoking. 

Marson baptized his best friend this week as well, which was amazing.  We had two of our African sisters there at the baptism and they loved it.  There brother came with them and is now learning with the elders as well.  Marson and Alex Tait, another recent convert went to the temple trip with the ward! They each were beaming yesterday at church.  I realize what a blessing it is to have the temple so close in Idaho and to be able to go whenever we want.  The people here LOVE the temple and they do all they can to make it possible for them to go on the temple trip weekends.  The blessings of the temple are remarkable. 

We saw a lot of little blessings and miracles as we were out and about this week! I am so thankful for the hand of the Lord in His work.  He is watching over us for sure and helping His work move along. 

I was reading in 3rd Nephi this week and a lot of things popped out to me.  In chapter 22 verse 14 it says "in righteousness shalt thou be establishes; thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear, and from terror for it shall not come near thee."  If we are working in righteousness and doing righteous things, yes there will still be hard times in our lives and yes there will still be challenges but we will be FAR from oppression and there is no need to fear.  The Lord sees our efforts in righteousness and will protect us from danger when we put Him first in our lives. I know this is so true.  I have seen it as we have put Him first in our work, we have been kept safe in a lot of different situations and as we put our trust in the Lord, we will continually be blessed and kept safe.

I hope you all had a great week!! Hope the weather is warming up. It was a positive one this week...BEAUTIFUL! We were loving it. Enjoy conference!! I am so excited to hear from our prophet and the apostles and to hear what God would have us hear! What a blessing it is to have a prophet today!! WE ARE SO BLESSED!!

Love you all.

Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

It's melting!

HAPPY MONDAY! It's a new week!! I love the beginning of a new week!! I hope you all had a great week and that you are doing just great.

Well the first few days of the new transfer have been great!! Sister Reid and I have some pretty big goals for this transfer that I am really excited about!! It should be great!

Our investigator Nicole came to FHE on Monday! We played the brown paper bag game and ninja destruction.  She loved it!! She was going to come to church on Sunday but she got pretty ill! When we talked to her about it she said, oh don't you worry, there's next Sunday, and I’ll be there! She is planning on coming to FHE tonight as well!! She is great!
Angel, one of the African sisters came to church yesterday!! Turns out that she is the aunt to one of the members of our ward! It was a fun connection! Hopefully that sparks some more interest!

We found a new investigator this week named Marty!! Sister Reid and Sister Wennerlind met him on exchanges!! Sister Reid and I had an appointment with him on Saturday!! He came all dressed in his Sunday best and so excited!! He was so excited about the Book of Mormon and asked to have some extra copies to share with his friends!! He comes from a pretty sad background and has made changes in his life for himself. He told us he had been praying the day before he met these sisters for a new message from God that will help him and give him direction!! TADAAAA! And then there we were!! After he gave us the closing prayer he said, there's probably something you should know about me...I have a baby on the way, it should be here in the next couple days...and he's only 16!! So he has been doing a lot of praying for help and guidance!! He asked us to write our names and our testimonies in the Book of Mormon so he would always remember how he felt and the great day he met with us!! We are pretty excited about him as well!

Marson is baptizing his friend Nikash on Thursday!!!!!! Everyone around here is so excited! Marson is so happy!! Sad thing is, Marson hasn't been able to get things worked out with his visa, so he has to go back to India next week! It’s pretty sad but he is so excited to find the church there and to be active in it!!

Sister Reid and I were street contacting yesterday and had to hug the fences as we tried to walk around all the massive water puddles....everything is melted here and the roads are all basically flooded...as we did ...this old man was watching us and just bust up laughing so hard!! He got quite a laugh out of two young ladies in skirts trying to find their way around a huge ole puddle!! We told him we were glad we could provide some comedy relief for him! Now I know what people think when they see us walking on the streets! Ha. :)

In church on Sunday there was a talk given about being a disciple of Christ!! She shared the scripture Alma 5:26 where it talks about can we feel the spirit now...I've spent some time thinking about it.  If we felt it once, why can't we feel it now...probably because we aren’t doing the things that we should be doing in order to feel it!  We know what the spirit feels like and when we aren’t doing the things we should be doing, the spirit can't be with us!! In order to keep that feeling and keep the spirit with us...in order to "feel it now" we must be doing the things we should be doing...reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, gonig to church, giving service, being charitable...all of those things will help bring and keep the spirit in our lives.

Hope it's been a great week!! Hope the weathers warming up for yous! (Another Canadian lingo...instead of how are all of you? they would say how are yours?!)

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

Sister Smith

Middle of March!

Can you believe it's the middle of March already?! Where does the time go?!

Well. We had our transfer calls this week...annnnndd....DUN DUN DUN.....I'M STAYING IN WINNIPEG YSA!!! I am SO excited! Sister Reid and I will be staying here for another transfer! We have a lot of good things happening right now so I am really excited to be able to stay!! It should be a great transfer! The new sister that comes this week will also be in Winnipeg with Sister Hope so we'll be able to work real close with her! IT SHOULD BE GREAT! It was a pretty great week! We found a lot of new investigators again!! We set 3 other baptism dates as well!! 2 of them we have to turn over to the elders because it was a husband and a wife, BUT...it was still great! :) Love it! We had another good lesson with our African friends.  They are  stuck on the point that there is only one true church.  They think that every church that teaches of Jesus Christ is good and true.  So, we're hoping to get through to them this week!! We had 7 investigators set for church...buuuuuut....daylight savings can be a bugger :( ha. Who woulda thought? So we're still just working hard and doing our very best!

On Sunday there was a "farewell."  One of the boys in the ward is leaving for the Philippines in 10 days!! It reminded me of when I was preparing and all the emotions I had and how I just wanted to go so bad and just always do my best. It was a great reminder and refresher!! They even played Be Still My Soul as the special musical number! Classy! :)

That's about all for this week. We’re just working hard and loving life. I’m excited for a new week and for the new transfer!!

Hope you're all doing great! Love you all! Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

Sister Smith

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS. SMITH (JESSICA)

MY OH MY, WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEK! We have just been blessed blessed blessed over and over again!! This week we found a bundle of new investigators and had a very good lesson with our little African family.  We talked a lot about baptism and the importance of priesthood!! They said they were going to pray to know if God wanted them to be baptized twice since they were already baptized into another church.  They said they will do whatever God tells them to do!! We are excited to meet with them again this week and see where things are headed!! We had exchanges this week! I got to go with Sister Hope over to the family ward in the area!! It was fun to be with her and see how she does things!! Us Idaho girls gotta stick together! :) They had tracted into a girl the day before named Christina and had an appointment with her the day I was there.  We went to teach her. She is 19 and from Trinidad!! Everyone in her family is a different religion.  She said when she was 14 living in Trinidad, her auntie was taking the lessons from some missionaries so she had seen the Book of Mormon and had been to church a couple of times.  She was excited to have her own copy of the Book of Mormon and to read it.  She said she never wanted to join any other religions because it wasn't what she wanted.  She wants to do things for her!! We told her that's what it's all about!! To find out for herself if it's true.  We talked about baptism and she said she knew she would get baptized, she just wasn't sure when yet! We have an appointment with her on Wednesday! We called her on Saturday and she had read the intro and the 1st three chapters of 1st Nephi!! So great.

Marson received the priesthood yesterday!!!!!! What a good day. He also got up and bore his testimony! He is so excited about missionary work and wants to share the gospel with everyone he comes in contact with!!

Eltouma convinced the sisters to allow her to give me a little surprise birthday party! Ha. So they sneakily made a way that we had to go over to her house on Saturday and she had a cake and candy and cupcakes and cookies and was just so excited and happy!!! I said “oh Eltouma, why?!”   And she said, “well, you are my bestest friend in the whole wide world!!” Love that lady so much!!

I was reading in Alma chapter 38 this week in vs. 5 it talks about trusting in God to be delivered out of trials.  It talks about how he tried other ways to find his relief, but it wasn't until he turned to Jesus Christ that he was healed.  We turn to ways of the world to find relief and comfort for our trials...at times it can give us the temporary satisfaction we need, but when we turn to the Lord, we can be completely healed from all of our trials.

Oh I just LOVE the gospel!!!

I hope you all had a great week and I hope this week is even better! Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it

Love,

Sister Smith

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