Letter of June 11, 2012

Dear, dear family and friends,

If you thought I could escape my HP obsession as a missionary in the NYUM, you (and I) were wrong.  Just this morning as I was studying I realized that healing from our disobedience is like healing your soul after you've made a horcrux.  It requires absolute remorse--godly sorrow is what we call it.  I was reading Alma 15:3-11, and it hit me--disobedience, sin, wickedness, iniquity, hard heartedness, pride, all of these things rip us up.  Zeezrom was in intense suffering (he was "scorched with a burning heat") because all the wickedness he'd done in trying to defame the truth that Alma and Amulek were sharing, and he asked the priesthood leaders, Alma and Amulek, to come see him because he had felt that absolute remorse, which is what was SO painful to him (v. 3).  He "besought them that they would heal him" (v. 5).  HEAL him.  Zeezrom knew that in order to be healed by the Atonement of Christ, and be forgiven of his sins, he needed to talk to his priesthood leaders, and that those righteous men would have the tools to help him overcome his sickness that was put on by extreme guilt over his wrongdoing.  He went to the doctors to receive the healing he needed, and...Alma was able to help Zeezrom access the mercy of the Lord and therefore BE HEALED.  Good grief.  I love the scriptures!  They make things so clear!  The words "beginneth to enlighten my understanding" (Alma 32: 28)!  So, in relation to horcruxes--killing rips the soul apart according to JK Rowling, and it can only be healed and made right by the exercise of remorse...Disobedience tears us up, causes sickness, grief, sorrow, guilt--it's not happy.  We NEED the Atonement of Christ to become WHOLE!  And as we access and use the Atonement through godly sorrow for and repentance of our sins, we can have a hope of becoming "perfect even as [Christ], or your Father who is in heaven is perfect" (3 Ne. 12:48).  Woah, woah, woah.  You mean to say that we can become perfect through repentance and change? You bet that's what I'm saying.  Because being perfect really means becoming whole and complete?  Absolutely.  Yes, so my week is starting off really well.

We had a really good week last week--we were able to meet a lot of new people which is always exciting.  I've found that it's really easy to start talking with someone when he/she has a pet.  Last week we were walking around and we saw this really cute kitten that was acting like a jungle cat and trying to claw its way up the fence--the owner of the kitten(/cub) appeared and we were able to start a normal conversation about her cat which grew into her inviting us to come and talk with her teenage daughter as well!  It turns out that she wants to become a church-goer, and that she and her daughter haven't ever been affiliated with any church before.  But I was just amazed at how easily the conversation flowed because we showed that we were interested in something that she obviously was interested in (her cat).  So even though I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not just a member of the church who's moved here for a little while (rather, I'm a missionary and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ), it has been neat to learn how to have normal conversations with people and introduce topics that I'm very passionate about--the Gospel of Christ.  You'd think it wouldn't have taken me this long to figure this out, but I can be kind of intense, I don't know if you remember.  Another instance when we've met people by talking about their pet: we were waiting for a member of the Church to pick us up from outside the library to go to her house for dinner (she and her family are converts of a couple years and are pretty awesome) and I noticed a beautiful, big dog right there by a bench and what seemed to be his owners. :)  We went over and petted the one-year-old pit bull/German shepherd/rottweiler named Brosco and struck up a conversation.  The woman who owns him also has a few other pets, apparently, and a young daughter!  Well, you bet we told her who we are and what we do, and we asked if we could come visit her-->we got her number and turned around to find out ride parked at the curb.  Anyway, it's been pretty fun to see how universal the message of Christ is, and how equalizing the Spirit is.  I love being a missionary.

Well, it sounds like the summer holds marvelous plans!  More barbecues, service projects, birthdays, vacations, and enjoyment to come!  I love you so so much!  I'm glad you're able to enjoy nicer weather.  We are, too!  I've been getting pretty sweaty, but that was to be expected, eh?  Sweatiness is a natural thing. Too bad I wasn't okay with it in my teenage years.  Ha!  I'm learning little by little how to better share this wonderful message, and I can't wait til it's all just a natural part of me, this sharing.  We're keeping on, always keeping on. :)  Hey, happy belated birthday, Dust!!  I hope Olive didn't dampen your day...okay, so I already know she kind of did....haha.  Oh family--I love you!

Love for always,

Sister Smith

A Wonderful Week!

Dear family and friends,

This past week was full of many bountiful blessings, and it was just a wonderful week. Good grief. The pictures are from Return and Report for Sister Palmer, and...I can't remember which other ones I just loaded. Let me check. Oh, the first one is taken from a bridge we cross every P-Day. It's pretty green out here. :) And that body of water you see? Cayuga Lake. Well, just the southern tip of it. Oh, and the last one was taken at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (that's the study of birds). Elder and Sister Timothy took us there after District Meeting on Wednesday, before we headed to Cortland to exchange with the Fayetteville sisters. Yes, it's true, I went on my first exchange! We can exchange once every transfer, but for whatever reason I hadn't in the four that I've been out, so it was kind of fun. :) It was nice to get Sister Palmer back to Ithaca with me, though. Hahaha.

We met two people last week that we're going to meet with again this week! I'm so excited! I've just been struck this past week by the Lord's timing. We plan for our next day every evening and quite often I feel like I'm scrambling in trying to know where we should spend our time. But we pray for guidance, and the next day--BOOM. We end up right where we need to be. It happened over and over again last week, that we made plans the night before and gone out and met with those people whom the Lord intended us to--well, I'm assuming He intended us to because of the Spirit I felt and the GOOD fruits that came. :) Am I overusing the smiley face? We met with two investigators this week that we hadn't been in contact with for about a week, so that was a miracle. And we met a very nice lady that the sisters had talked to before, and she invited us to come back. She seems very open to the idea of having modern day prophets, and she told us that the sisters had had her watch a tv program that's on once a year with a bunch of speakers and some lovely music...We didn't know what she was referring to. Just kidding, we did. We explained that what she'd watched was General Conference and that it happens twice a year, that modern Apostles and the Prophet speak to us during those meetings. She was excited about that. And we're excited to be able to tell her more this week!

We met our other new friend while Sister Ross from Fayetteville was here on exchange. We may or may not have been following one of the less active members of the branch, trying to catch up with him, when we met this nice lady...He stopped and talked to her, so we stopped and talked to them both! When he left, we sat down and chatted and she seems interested in learning more, so we're going back this week. She's a funny lady. While we were talking with her, her neighbor called to ask her if she could see the landlord still outside because she didn't want to talk to him. She called back about 15 minutes after the first call to ask again. What was so funny is that the lady we were talking with explained all of that after she'd gotten off the phone as if it were completely normal. I guess I've never felt the need or urge to avoid my landlord.

Carol (our lovely friend who was baptized in March) bore her testimony for the first time in church on Sunday!!! It was really incredible. She'd written down some things she wanted to remember to express during her stay at the pulpit, and it was so powerful. This gospel that we learn and live, it's truly the way to happiness and the only way to Heavenly Father's home. People have asked me what my favorite part of "the mission" is so far, and I generally reply that it's been working with those people who've recently joined the church and whose testimonies are just so strong and continually growing! It's so humbling to me to see the challenges that they face after they're baptized into Christ's church, because Satan doesn't want them to stay as strong in their faith as they are. I've been thinking a lot about the analogy of the refiner's fire and how necessary and wonderful it is for us to choose to stay in it. It gets hot in there, right? Yeah, I feel pretty burned right now--way more burned than the time I spilled piping hot hot chocolate on my arm in CA (do any of you remember that? probably not, but that's okay; it was in my performing years). It's easy to jump out. It's a lot easier than standing still inside while everything that's not fit is burned out.

Anyway, we found out this week that festivals aren't the great contacting events you'd hope/think them to be. It was Ithaca Festival this past weekend and we planned on just talking with hundreds of people who were at the festival on Saturday, but it was less than effective. People don't like to talk to strangers for more than a moment when they're in a festivous (?) atmosphere. We learned our lesson! Hopefully next year the missionaries in Ithaca can set up a table at the festival for people to seek them out, rather than infringing on their enjoyment time.

Well family, I'm not sure what else to report. I'll be staying another transfer in Ithaca with Sister Palmer (the poor soul)! Sister Takapu will be training another missionary this next transfer so I'm told I'll have a new sister! You can send congratulations in the regular way.

I love you so so so much! Thank you for your love and letters and emails and support! Thanks for helping me to grow up well. Oh, speaking of growing up--I made eggs for the two of us yesterday while Sister Palmer made waffles, and I also made a tasty smoothie. Your foolish daughter is slowly progressing in the ways of the kitchen.

Have a most magnificent week!

LOVE for always,

Sister Smith