Dearest familia,
I've been wearing my contacts all week; want to know
why? It's pretty hot when you're walking
around in the sun and humidity. I'm
definitely the sweatiest of the two of us. :)
It's okay, though, I'm staying hydrated and eating loads of food (my
decreased appetite must have been a fluke).
The members are taking care of us and I'm also cooking sometimes...it's
pretty great. I've made scrambled
eggs...twice in the past two months.
It's my specialty, I guess. haha.
Well, well, what can I say?
Being a missionary is like being on a very big and expensive
rollercoaster. I don't fear I'll be
thrown out of the safety restraints, but when the drops come they're pretty
big. The thing is, you don't anticipate
the drops when you're having a grand old time with the rest of the awesome
ride--they just kind of appear out of nowhere and surprise you. This analogy is an old, tried and tested
favorite of missionaries far and wide, but I've just been recognizing the truth
of it, sorry. :) I bring this up,
because last week was a really awesome rollercoaster. We had an INCREDIBLE District Meeting with
Pres. and Sis. Bulloch and then had to say "see you later." That was pretty sad, but we had to keep
going. Then we taught a new friend about
the plan of salvation and he promised he'd come to church--he actually didn't
come, but we'll be seeing him again this week.
We had multiple, really great dinners with members of the ward last week
(I even learned more about Pokemon from a few little ones--apparently I'm really
behind the times in that arena--get it, arena?). We were invited over to a nice lady's house
and she was there when we knocked, and we got to help her take some mail to the
post office before catching a bus--hopefully we get to see her again. We helped a sick elderly lady in the ward
clean her house and completed more projects in the time we had allotted to be
there than she imagined we would. We
brought a member to one of our appointments and she made a HUGE difference in
the way the conversation went--it was such a tender mercy! Heavenly Father totally knows His children,
and I know He inspired us to invite this sweet member to come with us because
He wants to bring all His children into the fold and let them have the
happiness He promises. We got a call
from a man we've been trying to meet for a couple of weeks and set up a time
TODAY to meet with him. He's from PA and
has talked to missionaries there, so I'm pretty durn excited to talk to him
tonight. We helped our beloved Burmese
family learn scriptural language a bit better and are slowly and steadily
grounding them in the Book of Mormon. I
love them. :) We had an incredible
lesson with a recent convert who is a very hard worker and also very, very
busy. He had question that went right
along with the lesson we'd prepared--honestly, I didn't even look at the lesson
plans we'd made and just listened and answered questions when I had answers,
and afterward realized that we were talking about (in a roundabout way) the
things we'd planned on discussing! IT
WAS GREAT! The Lord gives us knowledge
every minute of every day to bless His children. Then...Saturday. We had to kind of rearrange some of our plans
so we could visit with our philosophy professor friend. Our discussion was actually kind of
frustrating to me, because we were asked to answer some deep questions that
I've honestly and unsurprisingly never even considered. This should be expected with a philosopher, I
know, but this appointment was different than the others...Anyway, we invited
him to church and he said he'd like to but he'll have to see what his wife
thinks, and....HE CAME TO THE BRANCH SACRAMENT MEETING!!!!!!! Yes, I was pretty, pretty elated when Sister
Palmer nudged my ribs excitedly to point out that he'd walked in to the chapel
as we were singing the opening hymn.
Ah. We'll discuss the experience
with him this week before he leaves for basically 6 months. And wanna know the cherry? I was asked to speak in that meeting about
Daughters in My Kingdom and I'd never read the book before. Well, I focused mostly on Matt. 22:36-40 and
developing the love that God has for us, and the role Relief Society, the
Gospel, the Church plays in that lifelong pursuit. But, yes, I walked up to the stand a few
minutes after our friend arrived and spoke, then we enjoyed the rest of the
meeting--let me tell you, I felt a lot of pressure. But I just kept it simple and bore
testimony--it's what we do. :) Anyway, on
Saturday we visited our elderly friends at the rest home and they were so happy! We talked about Ammon, sang hymns...It was
marvelous. And we met a few great
people. Sunday was wonderful. Oh boy, I'm running out of steam. Sorry I'm not breaking into paragraphs. We had great meetings with the ward and
branch mission leaders, had a great dinner at a WONDERFUL member family's home,
had good laughs, and felt the Spirit in great abundance...We saw a great recent
convert who lives in a very secure building, who we haven't been able to see
when we've stopped by recently b/c of the security...It was a very good week.
Sister Palmer is such a stalwart example. I feel extremely privileged to be serving
with her. She works hard, loves, keeps
going, strengthens her faith continually, always looks for ways to improve and
help others. I love her, she's great!
Disneyland--I'm so glad you enjoyed your trip! It seems like it was kind of a whirlwind
experience. Haha. I hope you took pictures (I'm wearing a stern
face). And SO MANY WEDDINGS! Oh glory!
The pictures are all beautiful.
Thank you! Michelle...oh...she's
so beautiful. Two days younger and
already married. Hahaha. I'm so happy for them. And Allie and Grant--oo! They look great! Such pretty people! What is it about weddings?... :)
I love you so so much!!
I miss you! I love being
here. My body is beginning to ache a
bit, but I'm glad about it (I'm NOT glad that my left calf keeps cramping while
I'm sleeping so I have to stretch it while I'm trying to rest, but hopefully
the bananas will help). Life moves forward. I'm working on becoming the disciple of
Christ I know I need and want to be, but it doesn't happen overnight--that's a
"good grief"-esque part about the Gospel. Let me explain--Sister Palmer asked why
people say "good grief" (I say it a lot) and I explained why I do; I
try to provide some humor to sticky or unpleasant situations. "Good grief" seems oxymoronic,
doesn't it? Contradictory? Eh, no.
Because we know from the teachings of Christ that struggles strengthen
us.
And with that, I bid you adieu til next week. :) I love you.
Love for always,
Sister Smith
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