Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Time is a tickin

Dear Amigos!!! 
   So we have a new rule in the mission that we can only email for 90 minutes so that is why the subject is that. We also got the rule that we will not be allowed to drive cars on Saturdays... lame but blessings will come from being obedient. Sometimes we don't always understand why but we do it because we know that others know better than us. So this week we great just like every week and well I learned a lot and got spiritually fed a lot as well! 
Monday: We had a totally awesome FHE with a member. She is amazing and is really strong. She's had a lot go on in her life recently and she was just so grateful that we could come over and share that time with her. I also gained a stronger testimony of how important it is to always have FHE!!! When the family gets together after evening work is done we learn to love each other by popping corn and having fun!!! (I think that is the lyrics I could totally be wrong) 
Tuesday: We had a lesson with our potential investigator named Hunter and it was great! He listened intently and the spirit was really there. He said that he had a few questions but that though out the lesson we had answered them. The member that we took with us, Sister Savage, asked what those questions were and he said "Why would I need the Book of Mormon?" and "How could the Book of Mormon help me?" It was amazing! I love finding people who are interested in the Book of Mormon because then you know that they are prepared!!! The elect resonate with the Book of Mormon! We also had dinner with a new couple in our ward and we love them! They are awesome! They actually just moved here from Tacoma Washington and Kelly Muro served in their ward and they had a picture of him on their refrigerator! That world is so small especially if you are a mormon!  
Wednesday: We had dinner with the pierce family and I just want to comment on how polite their boys were. They are 14, 12 and 9! They responded well to questions and they didn't argue with their mom and also they took our plates away after eating. It was just great! I want my kids to be that polite that would just be marvelous. 
Thursday: Alright, this was our first full day on bikes this week and boy was it cold!!!!!! Our toes were about to fall off they were so cold. As we were door knocking we just kept thinking "oh man it is going to get colder and this is only the beginning." I honestly don't know how I made it through last winter. Whenever anyone asks I just say "by the pure grace of God," which is very true. I wouldn't have been able to if I didn't have a testimony of the gospel and angels round about me the entire time! 
Friday: We met with the Woods family and we watched some Mormon messages and holy cow they are amazing! The church is really using technology to make the world a better place and I love it! There is a new video called "You don't Know" and it really is amazing and it brings tears to my eyes just about every time I watch it! The Lord truly knows what we need to do and we are made instruments in his hands more then we think! 
Saturday: We had stake conference adult session and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong and I was spiritually fed so much! I came away with tons of notes and having a greater desire to do better. It was also great because we were able to see Pres. Jacobsen and he called all the missionaries serving in the stake to come up and sing "Called to Serve" it was really powerful and it almost, key word, almost started to cry but I didn't because we have reason to rejoice and no need for tears! 
Sunday: Cool thing. Sister Chisholm and I got to eat lunch with Tilah Parker who is the sister of Jabarie Parker an NBA player who was quoted in last April's General Conference. STAKE CONFERENCE!!!! I think there is a theme going on here or a message that must be received because 2 of the people in the stake presidency talked about following the prophet and let us not forget that 2 General Conference talks were given on the same topic. I think Heavenly Father is trying to tell us something..... FOLLOW THE PROPHET!! In all sincerity though stake conference is wonderful! I loved it and my testimony deepened about the gospel and about how important it is to take notes in a meeting and really how much you put into it is how much you get out of it. I feel like the gospel really is centered on that concept. I know that the effort that we put into listening to talks will not be wasted and that we will be able to know that the Lord wants us to hear through his servants. 
Spiritual Thought: In stake conference our stake president talked about a plane accident that happened I think in the 70s. In this incident the pilots didn't realize that the plane was descending and before they could pull up the plane crashed killing many on the flight. I thought about this and I thought about when we get preoccupied with worldly things we don't recognize that we are slowly descending by degree and when we finally realize this, we crash. I makes me think of a story in the Book of Mormon. An evil captain of the Lamanites, who is compared to Satan, slowly poisons his other captain by degree so that he doesn't even know that he is being poisoned! That is how Satan is attacking us and that is how he has always attacked us. He slowly brings us down to hell. That is a little scary, but luckily we are told that we can avoid that fiery darts of the adversary by reading our scriptures, praying and all those small and simple things that really turn out to be the great deciding factors of our futures. I know that I talk a ton about the small and simple things but I'm telling ya these things are what help us to build our foundations on Jesus Christ. I've been on the other side where Satan was slowly bringing me down, and it wasn't a joyful happy life. I'm now string everyday to do the small and simple things and I've never received  so much happiness in my life! I love every minute of everyday! This is the key to true happiness! It'll save us from slowly decreasing. I know that as we do the small and simple things that the Lord has commanded us to do we will go "onward and upward" and we will find everlasting joy! In the name of Jesus the Christ, amen.
Love Always, 

Sister Smith