The Book of Mormon Arrives!

Hey Everyone!!!!

So the title of my email has a funny story! We were door knocking and this man opens the door says "the Book of Mormon arrives"! then he proceeds to tell us how excited he is to go and see The Book of Mormon the musical! HaHa I love people!

So anyways... I hope that everyone is doing well and that the rain in AZ isn't hindering anyone's happiness! So lets see... Monday was good I got to buy a new sweatshirt that supports MSU! Tell Rose that I am sorry i didn't buy a U of M one...  On Tuesday I was on a trade off, just for the day though. Since Sister Hunt is an STL she had to go to a meeting so I was with Sister Whipple! I came out with Sister Whipple and she is awesome! I adore her! And she has a testimony that can bring down walls just like when Alma and Amulek were in the jail! It is epic!!! We were on campus pretty much all day and it was great! We got a little sun burned though.   Wednesday, we had zone training which is something new to our mission. This meeting is where the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders teach us what they learned in their meetings the day before! It was awesome! I love the leaders in my zone! Oh fun fact: Sister Hunt loves words and dictionaries so it has rubbed off on me. We learned that the definition of love is to highly value something or someone. We now like to say "we highly value you"! We enjoy it very much! Well anyways, the meeting was great and we set the goal as a zone to have 60 baptisms by the end of the year which means 4 per companionship! We are all excited to reach this goal!!!   Thursday, We were able to teach Robert! He is doing well and still progressing. We are still praying that he will set a date for baptism so he can have a visual goal. He is busy though cause he is back in school so we are trying to let him know that as he puts God first he will be blessed.   Friday, We were on campus pretty much all day which is great, but sadly we didn't really get to teach many people. We did get to go to a YSA activity though which is pretty sweet if you ask me! Saturday, Sister Hunt and I Door Knocked a lot and had a nice conversation with two college girls who were super nice and unfortunately one is moving or else she would have liked to learn more! Also Saturday we went to Sister Lori Martin's house! I got to do service which is awesome! Sister Hunt and I got to dig up a ton of Iris flowers while the elders killed their chickens! Also I got the opportunity to kill a chicken!! Poor chicken... but I killed it in one swing so not a big deal. Haha Elder Webb missed his first swing and totally made the chicken freak out! Also now I truly understand the saying "like a chicken running with their heads cut off". I hope that none of you think less of me for killing a chicken.   Sunday, we got to eat at the May's house. That is our ward mission leader. He is great and I love his family. They have a little boy named Zach who I adore and he gives me fist bumps all the time! Well that is the highlights of this week! Now to the spiritual thought!

So we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in the conversion of our investigators. It is also very important in the process of converting ourselves. It took me a very long time to read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of it. Once I finished reading the Book of Mormon I did as Moroni suggests and prayed with real intent to know if the book was true. I received my answer and gained a knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true, that I have a Savior and that Joseph Smith was prophet of God. Since then I have learned to love the Book of Mormon. It is my favorite book! It holds so many answers and we can truly come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ by reading it. I have a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it can change lives because it has changed mine. If you haven't gotten the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon and come to the knowledge of it's truthfulness for yourself, I challenge you to do so. It will change your life and your outlook on life! It will bring so much happiness and joy in your life that you cannot get or experience anywhere else. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I leave you these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love Always,

Sister Smith

                                        So the first photo is my awesome tan lines on my feet!!! 

                                        That's what you get for walking on campus 4 hours a day.

Sister Miranda Smith's Sun Burn and Missionary Toes- so much for pedicures

Sister Miranda Smith and Sister Melissa Hunt- This is us after the awesome rain storm that we had to run through and Look how clean we are keeping our apartment!

Sister Hunt and I tried to make a smoothy..... the blender wasn't well put together...

Sis. Hunt frustrated with her smoothy cause the terrible mess it made!

I'm so excited to have a smoothy!!!!!! Haha these make me laugh so much!

Don't we look great! 

 

We ran to the bath tub once we got into our apartment because we were soaking wet!!

Best day of the mission so far!!!!

This was at a door we were about to knock... we didn't end up knocking it

It's all in God's time!

Hey!!! How is everyone in good ole AZ doing? Well and everyone everywhere else? I hope all is well with you and that you are enjoying your lives.

Hummm..... This week has been totally awesome!!!!! I love missionary work!!! Boo Ya!! So on Monday Sister Hunt and I got to play basketball and well let me tell ya we are the bee's knees! Together we pretty much make the best NBA team ever! Our team's name is the cookie monsters and my name is Snicker Doodle (Snickers for short). Sis. Hunt is BP. We take every moment to enjoy life! Tuesday was our first day PCing (personal contacting) on campus! Holy Cow that was super frustrating. I could not open my mouth. It is really hard to stop someone dead in their tracks to talk to them, but hey we have like the greatest message ever so why not, but still very difficult. The students are a lot more receptive then doors though so that is pretty nice. Actually the first person we contacted is named Creed Blankenship and we set a return appointment with him the next day so that was pretty sweet! Also we had the BEST rain storm ever!!!!!! So after a quick lesson with Andrew Surma we went outside and seriously it was raining buckets!!! So it was like 10 minutes till 9 which is our curfew so we had to go. Funny thing though; Sis. Hunt and I don't have a parking pass for campus! We pretty much have to park about a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to get to our car! It was raining so hard we couldn't see very far in front of us, but we had to be home by 9! We walked outside and instantly we were soaked. We decided to run to our car. Finally after not being able to see we made it to our car!!! Now we had to drive home, which is another challenge. The streets were like already starting to flood! It was pretty awesome and scary. We prayed like the whole way home. We made it safely though. As soon as we got home we went and stood in our bath tub soaking wet!! The Elders got caught also and they had to borrow our mop because their shoes tracked in so much water. It is an awesome memory!!!! so Wednesday we had a lesson with Creed and it went awesome! At the end we challenged him to be baptized and he said YES!! He has the date to be baptized on September 21st! We really believe he'll be ready! Thursday we had an awesome question and answer thing with a guy named Kyle and his friends! The spirit was so strong. It was especially strong when the first vision was recited! I love reciting that, I feel the spirit work through me more then than any other time! It is fantastic cause you know that the spirit witnesses of truth so you know Joseph Smith was a prophet every single time you say it!!! I love it! Friday, I got to can peaches which is pretty sweet! I now know how to take off the skin of a peach, Woo-Hoo!! On Saturday Sis. Hunt and I had so much fun together!!! We were laughing all the time and it was just awesome! Sis. Hunt actually sang a song to me and it reminded me so much of mom! We were out contacting Less Active members and well not many were home which is very sad, but hey well find them! Keep staying positive right! Fast and Testimony meeting was great! I love those and Robert was able to come to church well he comes every week, but still. Elder Webb bore his testimony and it was awesome, it was his last Fast and Testimony meeting on his mission. There were just so many great testimonies born! We also got to teach the beehives! These young women are amazing! They are such examples to me and I admire who they are! 

   So this week my testimony of  patience has grown. It is so hard to be patient. After weeks of working I feel that we are finally able to start seeing the fruits of our works. I have also been able to finally see the progress that I have been able to make. As a missionary I ask for help a lot, and a lot of the time I expect that help to be given right then and there. I've really had to learn to rely on God's timing and not mine. It is line upon line, precept upon precept. I still struggle with it, but I know as we do have patience and have faith that God with help us with our righteous desires.

   I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week! Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Love Always,

Sister Miranda Smith