Monday, February 10, 2014

I am still in the city of churches!

Hey Everyone!!! 
     I hope that you all had a wonderful week and are enjoying the wonderful lives that you have been given. We had transfer calls this last week and I am staying! I will be getting a new companion and her name is Sister Green. I hear great things about her and I am looking forward to getting to know her. So let me give you a little replay of my last week! 
Monday- We went to a place to get cupcakes and they were some pretty good cupcakes. The other sister missionaries in Midland 2nd ward just love them and told us that we had to go there!! 
Tuesday- Oh my goodness!!!!! Sister Whipple and I had a lesson with one of our investigators outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention that our lesson ended up being an hour and a half and they live up by the lake!! Can you say frozen!!! The funny thing is that we did not expect that so we did not have hats or gloves or scarfs so we were not prepared for that! The lesson went well though and he still wants to meet with us so that is good!!! 
Wednesday- We handed over the car......sad day. We meet with Meagan and Lamont and they told us that the Mormon thing was not for them and that they did not want to continue the lessons. They did tell us though that they still liked us and wanted to be friends which is nice.... but they did not accept the gospel yet. BUT there is hope!!!!!! I really feel that later on they will accept it and that their two little girls will have it in their lives. 
Thursday- Oh my! haha- Sister Whipple and I walked from our apartment which is not in our area to the very tip of our area in the city on a super duper cold day!!! It was exciting! We were trudging through snow and climbing mountains of snow.... there was just a lot of snow and walking. That is life as a missionary without a car. The sad part is the street that we walked to, only one person answered the door, but luckily they were actually really nice so it was all good! That night we also had a lesson with Dakota! We talked about prophets and why they are so important. I never really realized how important it was to follow the prophet. We are so blessed to have a living prophet on the earth today!!!!! 
Friday- Sister Whipple and I were walking somewhere and we stopped and talked to this woman named Maggie. She is from China and has lived here for about a year and she was just the nicest woman ever! We asked if she wanted to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she said yeah and gave us her phone number. We are hoping that we can talk with her soon! 
Saturday- We talked to a woman that is named Sally. The funny thing is that while on trade offs Sister Hunt and I door knocked into her and well Sister Whipple and I re door knocked this street and she remembered me!!!! This time Sister Whipple and I were able to talk to her more about the Book of Mormon and she said that she would read it, which is pretty cool cause she is really into what she believes in. We will keep praying for her heart to be softened. 
Sunday- Sister Whipple and I door knocked into a man named Scott and he is agnostic meaning he really does not know if there is a God or higher power or something along those lines. We started talking to him and he invited us in and he was really nice. He feels though that God is not happy with him and he does not feel like he is worth anything. I have been praying that he will have a softened heart towards the spirit that it may testify to him that he is a Son of God. We have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow! 
Spiritual Thought- What I wanted to talk about is something that was brought up in our sacrament meeting yesterday about hastening the work. The speaker was talking about the story of Christ walking on water to his Apostles. He talked about how when Christ asks us to do something it makes us uncomfortable and we have to get outside our comfort zone. It is interesting how in this story which is in Matthew 14 24-31 it talks about the winds and the waves rocking the ship and how it is hard for the Apostles to know that it is the Lord who is walking towards them. The Lord gives them comfort and says It is I be not afraid. The next part is what I want to focus on. Peter asks the Lord to bid him into the sea. The Lord asks us to take a step of faith and to get out of the boat. The Lord asks us to do things that make us uncomfortable but will help us to grow. The only way that we can come closer to Christ is by getting out of the boat. We must show that step of faith and walk towards our Savior. We cannot take our eyes off the Savior, but when we do He will be there just as he was when Peter called for him as he sank into the sea. He wants us to grow and come closer to Him and the only way we can do that is by getting out of the boat! We cannot build muscle without resistance. We cannot strengthen our faith without having it tried. We are here to be tested! We are here to learn and grow! We are here to follow and to look towards our perfect example our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that as we all strive to gain faith and take that first step out of the boat to get closer to our Savior we will be blessed. We will see our faith strengthened and our testimonies of the gospel grow! I know that we have a Savior who loves us and knows how to help us and I know that He will as we call for Him. I say these things in the names of Jesus Christ, Amen. 
I hope that you all have a great week!!!! Love You!!! 
Love Always, 

Sister Miranda Smith 
This is my District!! Top row- Me, Sister Dillie, Sister Seagraves, Sister Empey, and Sister Whipple
                             Bottom row- Elder Graves, Elder Schmutz, Elder Derricott, and Elder Krebs