Letter of June 25, 2012

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

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

Hark, hark, hark, tis children's music...

Dear, dear family,

Happy belated Memorial Day!  Robbie has glasses like MINE!!!!  Oooo (squeal)!  I am so happy for you!  Are you wearing them often?  Do you luuuurve them?  I do.  Oh, you mature youth, you.  And you also spoke in Sacrament meeting?  Good grief, you are on a roll!  It sounds like you did a great job on your talk, Rob.  I wish I could've heard it....do you think...maybe...you could send me a copy?  Okay, great, thanks! 

Good thinking about not sending the video, Mom.  No, I don't think I would've watched it, but I would have been sorely tempted and if I yielded then I would have perished (I read Alma 10 this morning--focused especially on verse 25).

That's a great message from President and Cody!  Did I tell you that President Castleton sent me a letter recently?  It was absolutely a very bright spot in my day and has continued to be on my mind since I received it.  We are so blessed to know the Castletons as we do, and to have such incredible home teachers.  I'm thankful for the move to Granite 5th Ward oh so long ago. :)

That's terrible about Sherrie!  But I'm glad to hear she's improving!  Will you send my love along? 

So, the library was closed yesterday, that's why I'm emailing today.  Also, yesterday we helped our former branch mission leader and his wonderful wife move things into their moving truck because they're moving to Iowa.  It was a great time we had--we were glad we could say one more thank you for all they've done.

Last week was a little bit crazy.  Lots of new experiences.  You'll have to wait for a few years until I tell you a few of them (okay, maybe just one of them), but let me tease you by saying that there has never been a time in my life when I have been so put through the refiner's fire as these times.  To be expected, I know, but still I am in awe of the foresight, wisdom, and love of my Heavenly Father who makes all things possible and attainable for me.  Just yesterday when I felt like I was going to really mess things up because I couldn't stay focused, I knelt down and really really prayed for help and kept going with the hope that the Lord would take care of His children that we were visiting, and He did.  Humility--it's absolutely necessary.

Hmmm...I don't know that I have any exciting stories to tell you.  But wait!  We went to Utica for Sister Palmer's Return and Report!  That was incredible.  The APs and President and Sister Bulloch basically trained on the same things they did for my R&R, but I learned so much more and so many different things this time around.  We got to take the elders' car up to Utica (and it was a long drive--2 hours is way long when you're only accustomed to driving a max of 20 minutes in a stretch for P-days) and brought it back to them at the end of the night.  Sharing a car is very interesting.  We realized about 20 minutes into the journey that the gas tank was almost empty so I filled up the gas tank for the first time in who knows how long!  There was a series of things we had to enter into the gas station pump thing before we could actually get gas...it was a significant stop for us on our journey, but we succeeded and all is well.  Now we know what to do when the tank needs to be filled.

We found out that a member in the ward knows our philosophy professor friend!  We chatted on Sunday about the classes he's (the member) attended and the questions he's (the friend) posed to us...hopefully he can start coming with us when we visit our intelligent friend.

Well, family, I don't know that I have any new updates except that humidity and heat are a great combination.  It's really very cool up here in Ithaca, NY.  Our faces stay shiny and clean!  Seriously, though, I love this area.  I am so thankful to be here.  God loves all of His children and He wants each of us to be happy.  Share the love!

I love, love, love you!

Sister Smith

P.S. I think I saw a beaver for the first time in real life.  And I saw a raccoon a few weeks ago.

April 29th Letter

Just a little background…Sister Smith’s trainer was transferred last Wednesday to Syracuse, NY (boo hoo).  But after four months in the mission field, Sister Smith is a new trainer and senior companion to Sister Palmer, fresh from the MTC.

Dear, dear family and friends,

Sister Palmer is incredible!  She's from Preston, ID, and is so sweet, SO enthusiastic about the work, full of love for all of these people in Ithaca and she knows maybe .5 percent of them.  Oh, I just love her!  The Lord knew what He was doing when He called Sister Palmer over here to Ithaca with me.  She is just full of righteous fire!  Yesss.  The day that she got here we had a dinner appointment with a member family, a regular appointment with one of our investigators (the IS guy), and a recent convert.  Had I had time to study that morning before driving to Utica and meeting Sister Palmer?  Negative.  But Heavenly Father blessed us.  Everything was just wonderful.  The Spirit was there in abundance all night, and we were able to say things to the people we saw that we couldn't have planned, wouldn't have anticipated saying.  We have seen many miracles in the past 5 days. 

I'll tell you an interesting story from this past week: Sister Palmer and I planned for our lesson with an investigator who was set with a baptismal date, and Sister Palmer was just full of all of these ideas that could help him overcome some addictions he has, and we felt so excited and ready for the appointment!  Then we went to Friday Forum at Cornell and guess what the discussion was on--addictions.  That's right.  And the article that was being discussed was something that had the potential of immeasurably helping this investigator.  Miracles miracles.  The Timothys were able to come with us and so we had their support at the lesson.  The lesson went okay, but I could tell the investigator wasn't really wanting to listen to the lesson because of the content.  It was unsavory to him.  So at the end we invited him to keep the commandment we'd been teaching about, and he said "no."  He said he didn't want to deceive us by saying that he'd keep it and then fall and have to repent.  We tried to explain about repentance and having a goal, but he refused, so we left with a prayer.  Later on that day, probably a few hours after the lesson, he called and told us he wouldn't be coming to church and he didn't need our help--if he does in the future he will give us a call.  Woah.  I was pretty shaken up.  We were dropped just like that, after many miracles in preparation for our appointment with him!  I tried to keep it together for Sister Palmer's sake, but eventually I had to do a little silent crying in the bathroom for a few minutes and pull it together.  Then, the next day, my study in the Book of Mormon was at a chapter in Mosiah that kept drawing me back to the basic and glorious principle that we all have the power to choose and to act on our choices.  We all have agency.  We do all that we can as missionaries in inviting others to Christ, but it's up to them to accept and act on the message.  What a lesson to learn, no?

Anyway, it's starting to get a bit warmer again, after a few crazy days with snow and rain and cold winds, but this weather has been quite a marvel. 

Two awesome stories: we had been following up on a few potential and former investigators while heading to our appointment with a less active member when we stopped and talked to a lady who listened to what we are all about and then proceded to tell us that she hadn't gone to church in a while, but had recently started thinking about finding a church to go to.  She invited us over to her house this upcoming Saturday, telling us that her daughter will be excited to talk with us, but maybe not her 12 year old son. :)  Woo!  Talk about the miracle of finding people!  And the second story:  our branch mission leader called us one night to let us know that one of his colleagues in his program had told him that one of her friends wanted to go to our church and sit down with someone and hear what the LDS church is all about and what we believe and such, and then he told us he'd give us the colleague's number and name on Sunday or Monday if he didn't hear anything more about it by Sunday.  Sunday rolls around and who is with this member couple?  The friend of his colleague.  Yep.  She was there when they went to pick her up and she stayed all 3 hours for church, asked great questions, and set up an appointment with us for Tuesday.  How incredible!  She's graduating and moving to Maryland in a couple of weeks, but....we have until then to help her understand the important message of the Restoration of Christ's Church!  We're really, really excited for this week.

Anyway, it sounds like things are moving forward at home--excellent!  Stand-stills are no good, even if we might sometimes hope for them.  I'm so excited to talk to you in a couple of weeks!!  WOO!  Oh, guess who we're having dinner with in just a few short hours?  Trina Asay and her family (she knows Uncle Tod, she's from N. Ogden).  It'll be fun.

I love you!  Sorry, I'm all out of time, just when I get into writing stride. 

love love love for always,

Sister Smith

Joy in the journey...

Dear family,

I kind of hit a wall in my progression this week, I think. But, I spent a little bit of time one morning to cry it out, and now I'm doing just fine--ready to conquer Satan. I just feel pretty terrible about the added stress it causes Sister Takapu when I'm not doing my best to do this work. It's not fair to her, to the Lord, to these people in Ithaca who need the Gospel, nor to myself. I reread one of my friend's letters the other day and a phrase stuck out that I've been repeating to myself throughout the days: "Start strong and don't let up." I'm sure I could've gotten that message from a scripture or church or even from praying, but I'm sure thankful for that letter that boosted my work ethic, regardless.

We have been able to pick an investigator that we previously had to drop because he was in NYC for a little while, so it was an exciting week for that reason. There are many more reasons it was a fabulous and exciting week, though, depsite my moments of egocentricity. We had time to be there for a recent convert when she needed company. And her faith is definitely growing! It's incredible to see! And the Burmese family we're teaching fed us a traditional Karen meal--they are becoming more and more open--it's wonderful! And we have an investigator who has struggled with an addiction since his childhood, and after our meeting last week he followed up on the commitment he made to throw out all of the material he has! He called us as he was walking to the dumpster and said that it was done--no more. It's so wonderful to see the Atonement of Christ working in people as they exercise faith enough to repent and want to make covenants with their Heavenly Father.

Oh, and one more thing: at District Meeting last week we made a prayer list of 2 people in each area that we should all pray for, and one of our people has responded to our contacts this week, which she hasn't done for a couple of weeks! It's a miracle.

Sorry this is short--we're unexpectedly going to Toughannock Falls with a member family in about one minute, so...I love you! I'll write a letter later on. :) HOORAY FOR KATIE AND KARLEE!!

lovelovelove,

Sister Smith

P.S. I got bangs and met my clone. You can call her Mini Me. She's the oldest daughter of a family in the ward. :)

He is Risen, He is Risen

Dear family and friends,

It was such a blessing to focus on the Savior this week during my study time. I read about the Resurrection in the Bible Dictionary, the accounts in Mark and John about Christ's last days on earth, watched "The Lamb of God" over and over again (actually, we only watched it in our appointments, but we really did watch it over and over again), the revelation Joseph F. Smith received in D&C 138 about our Savior ministering to the righteous souls in the spirit world before He was resurrected...What a great opportunity it is to be able to learn more about our Savior's life, His character, His Gospel, His truths. I feel ashamed for not focusing more on the Savior's life in studying the scriptures before now. It's pretty inexcusable considering I've been going to church my whole life and Seminary for 4 years in high school, reading the scriptures on my own for 7 or 8 years, taking religion classes in which the study is focused on the scriptures for 2 years....It's just sad. The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price...All of these precious tools are given to us to learn more of our Lord and Redeemer, our Savior Jesus Christ, and how often do we focus strictly on Him? True, sometimes it's important to focus on principles and attributes that will help you grow as you study, but it's been an incredible experience to focus more on the Savior and His mercy, because He is "the light, and the life, and the truth" (Ether 4:12). He is the only way to eternal, lasting joy, to being clean, to becoming perfect. He provided everything for each of us. Wow.

It sounds like you had a fabulous time in South Carolina! Boy, it must have been great. What a beautiful place to spend a week for Spring Break and Easter! It's too bad you weren't able to attend church on Sunday! Sister Takapu and I participated in the branch choir for the Easter program on Sunday--one of the sisters in the branch has a very musically talented father who arranged a rendition of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and she tweaked it a little bit and conducted us in the singing of it. :) It is absolutely beautiful. So many parts, so much blending, so much goodness, oh boy. It was a great song to be singing on Easter when we celebrate what we know--that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, lives. A couple of people came to church yesterday who aren't members of the Church and so we were able to meet them, and hopefully we'll be able to answer questions they have and talk to them more about what we believe, and impart the importance of it to them. Member referrals are so great! We can't talk to everyone, even though we try, so it's wonderful when members of the Church introduce us to people that they know who are interested in learning more. I firmly believe that we all know people who are more prepared and receptive to the messages we teach simply because they know us and that we believe. If it's nothing more than curiosity, it's enough. We had dinner yesterday with a family from the ward who have 4 cute, intelligent, red-headed kiddies, and we discussed how we (members of Christ's restored Church) are a very small percentage of the world's population. And of the members of the church that make up that percentage, a smaller amount and percent is active in the Church. And of THAT smaller percent, how many members are full-time missionaries? The work I am doing as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is great, because every soul is of great worth (D&C 18:10), but it's not enough, as President Hinckley said. We're trying to enlist the help of all of the members here in Ithaca, but this is only one little place. This Gospel needs to be taken to all of the world--NO ONE IS OUT OF THE REACH OF OUR SAVIOR'S ATONEMENT. So we just need to expand our reach. :)

At Friday Forum (for the LDSSA at Cornell where we have a discussion about gospel-related topics and an article, and free, delicious lunch) last week a friend of one of the branch members came (he comes quite often, actually, and is very Christian) and I was reminded by him that I shouldn't let my weaknesses become an excuse for me not excelling or achieving the expectations I have for myself and our Heavenly Father has for me. I don't want to be someone that only coasts along, as I've been wont to do so often in my life. Haha. This life is precious and is a gift for me--for all of us--to learn and become more like Christ, more like our Father. How long does this life last? About 90 years if we're blessed with that amount of time? It's not eternally "worth it" to give in to laziness now, to satisfy my fatigue or selfishness or pride or whatever, because the benefits of living righteously and sacrificing my own selfish wants FAR OUTWEIGH the costs of those sacrifices. I just have to remember the end goal, here--eternal life, living with my family forever, living with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ forever, obtaining a celestial body, inheriting the kingdom of God, joy, peace, EVERYTHING is to be gained. So I must "pray always" (D&C 10:5--this is a really good one, by the way).

We helped one of the ladies who was recently baptized organize her jewelry this week--it was great! Remember how much I like to look at your jewelry, Mom? Well, this sister has a lot of cool jewelry, too--earrings, bracelets (I learned that tennis bracelets are not just athletic sweat bands), necklaces, watches, rings, brooches (is that right?), you name it. She even gave me a REALLY awesome pair of Merlin earrings, with little men holding a crystal ball! I can't wait to wear them in 1 & 1/2 years!

Our little teaching pool has receded like the rivers running through the Ithaca gorges, because a few people have kind of faded out of communication, so we've been trying to find some more people who are searching for the truth. And within the past...3 days we have heard of many different people who possibly want to learn more. The Lord is so aware of the people here. Yes, many of them are very intelligent and might be prone to discount God's hand in their lives, but there are also many who are ready to accept the truth of His love, His guidance, His visible (though not literally visible) hand.

Well, I love you! I'm glad to hear that the trip was so SWEET! Until next week, my beloveds.

Love for always,

Sister Smith

P.S. We found an AWESOME waterfall this weekend! It's smaller than others, and it's kind of hidden away from the road, but...oh man...when we ventured in (not into the water, but down the path that wasn't really a "path") and saw all of the beauty...It was an incredible blessing to remember the "beauty of the earth" and the Lord's hand in providing it for us. Maybe I'll send pictures next week in the email; I can't this week, because I forgot the cord at home. :) Just wait 'til you see it.