Miranda's off to Michigan : Helaman's Army!

Dearest Family and Friends!

This week has been TOTALLY WICKED!!!! I am just loving life and enjoying every second of being a missionary. I love that as a missionary you learn and grow and you are able to be stretched more then you could ever imagine. Sister Chisholm and I have been talking about how much we change in such a short amount of time because of our missions. It would take like 30 years to learn what we learn in about 18 months, as long as we let it! How cool is that!

This is what my week consisted of!

Monday: We had a lesson with a recent convert named Heather! I love her so much! She is a huge inspiration to me! She is only 18 and she amazes me every single time I talk to her. The cool part of the story though is that Elder Derricott and Elder Krebs were teaching her while I was in Midland 1st ward and when I left I told her that I was just getting to know her and that I was so sad that I wouldn't get to know her more. She then moved to Midland 2nd ward and well so did I!!! I love how the Lord works!!! Also I've realized that some of the best members are converts and those who haven't been found yet.

Tuesday: Oh man this was a good day! Sister Chisholm and I were driving and then we saw this older woman carrying bags of leaves our to her curb so we decided to park the car and get out and help her. We got out and asked if she needed our help and she said no. Well... okay so we started talking about our purpose as missionaries. and asked if she needed our help after talking a bit more. No she said again. We talked to her more and then we asked a third time to help her and she finally said yes!!! We were so excited that someone actually wanted our help! It was totally great!

Wednesday: Oh man we had one of the most spiritual lessons in my entire life!! It was amazing!!! We were all on the same page and we were intune with the spirit and it was just amazing. We were teaching our investigator named Jason! He has been taught for about 4 years now. He opened up to us a lot! It is amazing! I really can't even describe it, it was just like you could feel how much Heavenly Father loved this man and you could just feel the potential that Jason has as he comes unto Christ. I love being a missionary, experiences of a life time!

Thursday: Alright this is awesome! There is a woman who just moved here from Tennessee and she loved the members there. She came to the building and asked to know if there was anyone who could babysit her kids. Well they put us in charge of talking to her. We met with her and she knows a ton about the church!! It is awesome! She was talking to us and telling us that she was feeling the spirit! She is so prepared but she doesn't really know it. She is a devout Catholic actually.... keep her in your prayers! She's great! Her name is Julia!

Friday: Let's see.... it started to snow! It was crazy!!! We were racking leaves and it was cold! We had a lot of fun though and I love doing service it really just makes you feel so good inside. I love the scriptures Matthew 25:40 and Mosiah 2:17 which both talk about service and how we serve our fellowman we are serving God. We also went to a member's home and made pizza which was great! We played Catch Phrase and our team totally won! It was great! We were all laughing and really enjoying that time that we had together as a district!

Saturday: I'd say the miracle of the day/week was the fact that Sister Chisholm and I have been praying for referrals and we got 3 in one day! It was totally amazing! We were like well pray really works! We know that already but is always nice when you have your testimony strengthened because of it!

Sunday: I learned a lot about how important it is to listen to the spirit and how much the spirit can really help you in lessons. Sister Chisholm and I had a lesson planned for our investigator to watch a movie but unfortunately they didn't have a DVD player that works. Sister Chisholm and I didn't have a back up lesson but we were able to listen to the spirit and have unity with each other and we were able to have a good lesson with them. I am so grateful for the spirit. I know that without him I would not be a good missionary. It is so important that we live our lives in a way that we will be able to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost because he helps us in every aspect of our lives!

Spiritual Thought: Alright so I have been obsessed with studying about the small and simple things that bring us closer to Christ in our everyday lives! Sister Chisholm loves running and today in studies I made an analogy about running and doing the small and simple things. "When you are running a marathon every step that you take brings you closer to the finish line. It is by those small and simple steps that you are able to make that great distance. The same is with the small and simple things of the gospel. As we read our scriptures and pray everyday, attend church weekly and attend the temple on a regular basis we are getting closer to the end goal which is eternal life. We can't stop doing the small and simple things in the middle of life and think we'll get to the finish line just like you can't stop in the middle of a race and quit. We can't expect to finish a race that we never start either so we must start now to do the small and simple things in life. Remember we've been trained for this. We know what we need to do. We know how to receive eternal life, now we must go and finish our race by taking it one small and simple thing at a time." I know that by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. They will lead you to eternal life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love Always,

Sister Smith