There is sunshine in my soul!!!

Hey Family and Friends!!! 

    We have been so blessed to see the sunshine and some warmth this week and it is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! :D There is sunshine in my soul today!!! It is a whole 40 degrees out right now and I only have to wear a light coat, A LIGHT COAT!!!! I feel like the only people who would really understand where I am coming from are those who have served missions in cold places.... we will band together and rejoice in the sunshine! 

Monday: I am not really sure what happened last Monday.... I know I did something. As you can tell my Mondays aren't the most memorable. 

Tuesday: Oh man we had all of these people to meet with on Tuesday and they all cancelled!! It was a huge bummer!! The crazy thing though is that almost all the missionaries in Midland were cancelled on which is crazy! Okay so for Dinner Sister Greene and I got Panera and guess what they have! They have cinnamon raisin swirl bread! It was great!!! It just reminded me of my childhood which is great! Oh also the elders didn't have the best of day so Sister Greene and I got them cookies from Panera and left them on their door step and ran! It was so great! It really made our day being able to do something nice for someone else! "And behold I tell ye these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."Mosiah 2:17 

Wednesday: We picked up a new investigator! His name is Bill and his wife Hillary is a less-active member who we have been working with! We had a lesson on prayer and we asked if we could teach him the lessons and he said yes! Woo-Hoo! We are excited and we are really hoping that he is doing this for himself and that the spirit will touch his heart! 

Thursday: We picked up a new investigator as well. I have actually taught this woman before so she is a former investigator. Her name is Eulene and we were able to talk about some of the concerns that she has and figure out how we can help her past those! We are praying that we will be able to have the spirit with us so that we can help her and discern her needs. 

Friday: This was the most beautiful day in my entire life!!!!!! Oh my goodness I almost cried when I walked outside because the weather was so wonderful! The sun was shining and it was 35 degrees outside! We were so happy to go door knocking! We didn't have to wear our hats or our gloves and we were able to get away with wearing one pair of tights!!! That whole day I had a heart full of thanks towards Heavenly Father for the weather! Nothing could have brought us down that day! We also were able to pick up a new investigator named Kathy! Her husband is a less-active member and he is great! He has a solid testimony of the church he just feels uncomfortable at church because he would be by himself and because he was once an alcoholic he feels that not a lot of people in the church can relate to him. It was so funny though. He was pretty much telling his wife to take the lessons. We are looking forward to meeting with them again! 

Saturday: We were door knocking right before we were going to have dinner with some members and we knocked on this door and and man just started yelling at us and telling us that we were wrong and that we were a cult! Haha! I don't know why I find it funny I just do. We stood quietly at this man's door as he was telling us these things then he started to calm down. We then told him that we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is our Savior, then he started to lighten up and was a bit more friendly. The thing people always say to us when they yell at us is that they are telling us this out of love.... it doesn't feel like I am loved when I am being yelled at and told I am a cult. No wonder they tell us to not be contentious cause you go no where. 

Sunday: A less-active member that we have been working with came to church! Her name is Sister Wisneiwski! It was great!! Having a less-active come to church is always great! We also talked with Austin and Dakota who were both able to go and do baptisms for the dead for the first time on Saturday which is wonderful!!!! Dakota was describing her experience and it was wonderful! She told us that she felt full and peaceful! Austin also did really well at being reverent! Oh man also at the end of our lesson Austin gave a wonderful, meaningful prayer which like never happens!! I was so happy!!! 

Spiritual Thought: For some reason I feel like I need to write about Charity today. Charity is the pure love of Christ and it is one of the 8 attributes of Christ. We cannot obtain any of these attributes unless we pray for them and ask for help in developing them. We pray to have charity for others, so that we can have the ability to see our brothers and sisters as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ see them. When we are able to feel love for others it gives us more motivation to help and serve them. The charity that we develop for one another will endure forever. The relationships that we form here on earth do not end, but they endure. Do not give up hope for loved ones that may not be following the teachings of Christ, but hold fast to them and love them! Seek comfort through the Atonement and ask for guidance and help. The Lord loves all of us and we are all important in our Father's eyes. "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." I say these things in the names of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Love Always, 

Sister Miranda Smith