Everyday is a new Day!

Hey family and friends,

    How is everyone doing?? I hope all is well with everyone and everyone is enjoying their lives! I hear that it is pretty hot out there is good old AZ! It is a nice like 85 degrees here with some wind. It is super nice actually.

   Well this week has been pretty awesome. This week I actually went on trade off with the Sister Training Leader! She is awesome. Her name is Sis. Kane and I love her. One thing about a mission you really learn to love people so that's why I say love a lot. She and I ate at the place called The Italian Oven and boy did it have fantastic bread!!! Together we ate 3 loaves don't worry though I worked out the next day! Haha!! On Wednesday we had a wonderful, amazing zone conference. I learned so much it was awesome!!! We learned how to plan and how to work with ward members. The elder who is serving in Mesquite ward is right (his name slipped my mind) Member really are the most important. Missionaries leave members stay. Speaking of leaving transfers are coming up, but I should be staying because of training, but that means Elder Webb might be leaving which is a bummer because Sis. Hunt, Elder Hamlin, Elder Webb and I have good relationships with one another and we have good unity. But if he leaves it is for a good reason. This week Sis. Hunt and I have been blessed with talking with Less Active members which is totally awesome. There are so many Less Active people in the ward so when we get a hold of one and set an appointment we get so excited!!! On a mission the days really start to blurr.... I'm not exactly sure what happened on Friday, but I bet it was awesome! So Saturday we talked with the elders and ward mission leader about getting the ward excited about missionary work which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. We really want to get involved with the members because that is really where the work starts. MEMBERS ARE EVERYTHING! True statement. Oh also I got to do a bit of canning at Sister Lori Martins house and I get the opportunity to do more service which is always wonderful!! So on Sunday Robert came to church!!! Woo-Hoo second time! He is so awesome! I love teaching him with Sis. Hunt. We are so happy we knocked into him! See door knocking isn't all that bad! He is really moving forward and we tried to set a baptism date with him, but he just wants to be really dedicated to the church and make sure he sticks with it, which is really good. We're hoping it won't take too long. Also I gave a talk on Sunday on gratitude. It was my first bullet point talk and I'd say it went pretty well.

   So I want to talk to you about gratitude. There are 4 ways we can show gratitude for what we have been given. 1) Acknowledge God's hands in all things 2) Thanking him for all that he gives you 3) Keeping His commandments 4) Serving others     I really enjoyed giving a talk on gratitude because I realized how blessed I am and how much I need to thank Heavenly Father for. There is always something to be grateful for. I would like to give you a challenge. (missionaries love giving challenges) Will you commit to saying a gratitude prayer, which means saying a prayer where you only give thanks to god. It really helps you realize how much you have and how blessed your life is. I know that as you do this you will be happier and will want to share those blessings with others.

   Well that's about it! I love you all and hope you enjoy your blessed lives because we truly are so blessed! Keep moving forward and also accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, hold on the the affirmative and don't mess with mister in between. (song I learned in Zone Conference )

Love Always,

Sister Smith

Keep Moving Forward!!

Dear Family,

     I hope everyone is doing well and that they are enjoying life. I hope those who have just started school are taking the time to enjoy learning and having that opportunity to grow.

    So this week has been pretty awesome, just like every week! On Tuesday we have another sister with us and her name is Sis. Whipple. She came into the field the same day I did. She is so sweet and I love learning from other people. While out door knocking we were able to meet Trayton. He is a 15 year old boy who had tons of questions. It was awesome! I loved getting to be there and feel the spirit. He was so excited about the BoM! We actually haven't been able to meet with him, so we are hoping we can this week because he was so golden! We can't let him go. Wednesday we had district meeting. Let me tell you, I have an awesome District Leader. He is so in tune with the spirit and he cares so much about us!!! I love getting to hear what he has to say about how we can improve ourselves and become better teachers. On Thursday we got the opportunity to door knock like all day!!!! I love door knocking I meet so many new people and it is pretty exciting. We met this lady who trains dogs for a living and she has trained like champion dogs. She also trains hospice dogs which is really neat. Her dogs were so well behaved. They have been my favorite dogs so far! Friday was awesome!!! Well actually Sis. Hunt was sick so we weren't able to go door knocking, but the Elders had a baptism and Robert was able to come! We were able to have a lesson with him about the BoM and the spirit was so strong then we were able to have a lesson with him on the Gospel of Jesus Christ but we only got to the part about repentance so... we didn't get through the whole thing. It was so great being able to go to a baptism while being a missionary and having an investigator there. It was just so amazing. On Saturday we were able to door knock which is always great except we didn't make very much progress which is kind of a bummer. That night though we were able to go to Lori's house and do some more service and we were able to eat Indian

tacos which are delicious!!!!! Sis. Hunt and I got to organize her food storage, which is in her basement. I really don't like spiders or spider webs. The Elders though, they got the best job of all!!! They got to clean the chicken coop. It was so funny watching them clean it. Farm work is the best!

    So I'm going to give a little thought. So Sis. Hunt had been sick for a few days, but on Friday it started to interfere with the work. So we had the elders come over and give her a blessing. I have a strong testimony of the priesthood. It just amazes me that Heavenly Father would give us such great power. When the elders anointed Sis. Hunt the spirit was instantly there. Her blessing was great and I knew it came from God. I just love that God gives that power to young men. Think about it, they have the power to act in God's name which means they are doing what Christ would do if He were there to do it. I am just so grateful that the priesthood is on the earth today and that it is here for everyone. We all have the opportunity to use it.

    I also have another thought. Heavenly Father answers our prayers. I have been praying for help and while I was studying in my scriptures I found my answer and I was given strength from what I read. It strengthened my testimony that God is there and that God does know each of us and what we are going through. He is always willing to help us and give us answers to our questions as long as we are willing to work and search for them. I feel so blessed to have had these opportunities that have strengthened my testimony and I know that you all can have experiences just like that if you have the faith and desire. I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

Love Always,

Sis. Smith   

This picture is of Elder Webb, Elder Hamelin, me and Sis. Hunt! We have ring pops on that Sis. Hunt's nephews gave her. This is at Lori's house after eating and doing service, so after the elders cleaned the chicken coop.

Let me tell you just a little about elder Hamelin. He is from Ammon, ID!! He actually was a ballroom dancer before his mission which is totally awesome. Both his parents are ball room dancers and so are his brothers. He is my other Zone Leader and both he and Elder Webb are awesome and are great examples to me and Sis. Hunt.Elder Hamelin has been out 18 months and Elder Webb has one transfer left. 

Sister Miranda Smith's Address in Mount Pleasant:
1617 Flynn Ln. Apt. B
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858

My Purpose!!

Hey Family!!!

    How is everyone doing?? I hope all is going well with everyone and that they are feeling blessed! Haha! So... my week has been full of door knocking!!! I now fully understand what it means to have brass knuckles! We have a saying knock once for your salvation, knock twice for theirs. Also I have learned that almost every person in Michigan has dogs. All sorts of dogs. I've made it a goal to know what kind of dog is at the door by it's bark, it's a a pretty good goal if you ask me. We also say instead of door bells they have dog bells. It's pretty awesome. Sis. Hunt and I are to the point where we play games while walking. Just yesterday we played the game "Who would live in that house" We walk down the street and say who in our district would live in that house. It is pretty entertaining. If we are feeling like we need a little pick me up we'll say our Michigan Lansing Mission purpose. It's pretty great! Also I don't want to forget. Sis. Hunt and I have a GPS and we named her Lea and then our car's name is Hona. Like Lea-Hona. Haha missionary humor, it's the best! So this week while door knocking we meet a man named Robert. We talked with him for 45 minutes and at the end we invited him to come to church! HE CAME!!!! And he stayed all 3 hours. That is the first investigator to come to church!!! Yeah! (Happy Dance) I know God had a great part in this miracle of ours!! We have an appointment with him today and he is coming with us to an activity! I hope the spirit will touch his heart!

Sis. Hunt and I are doing great! She is awesome and teaches me a lot. It is so true that once you get on a mission you realize how much you don't know. I am trying to rely more on Heavenly Father than on myself. It is a work in progress like all things. We are being feed so much food! Luckily as a sister you are expected to eat less than the elders. Oh mom this is for you! You know  how you always wanted us kids to work on a farm well I did! The us and the elders did service for people in our ward who live on a farm! It wasn't like total farm work, but I had to pull some giant weeds and grass. It was pretty great, the weeds were like as tall as me! They have a barn and everything though so I was just in love with the country feel! We eat over there once a week and we have a blast! Missionary work is the best!!!

Alright so I want to have a little spiritual note. So I've been studying the Atonement the last two days and I have learned a lot. Our Savior has done so much for us, so we could live with our Father in Heaven. In Alma 7: 11-12 it talks about how Christ suffered our infirmities. I looked up what that meant in the Dictionary and it says sickness, but also "a personal failing". I really thought about that and it really gave me comfort. Christ knows how it feels when I and you fail. While I come up short and feel like I have failed he knows how to succor me. I also have learned to love the word succor, which means aid, and help. Jesus Christ knows how to help us and is always their to give us aid. That then made me think about how I use the Atonement in my life. Do I really use it to its full potential? I realized that I don't use it as often as I should. It is a gift that we need to be using everyday of our lives, not just to repent, but to help us get through those trials and short comings. I know that if we do this we will be able to see God's hand in our lives and that our burdens will be lighter. (Matthew 11: 28-30) I'm very grateful that I got the opportunity to study something so great and gracious as the Atonement.

I hope that all of you are doing well and that you are striving to do your very best every day and if you fall short it's okay, I do it all the time. Never give up and keep moving forward, Christ is always walking beside you. I love you all and wish you a very wonderful and happy week!! Enjoy going back to school, learning is fantastic!!!! Love you!!

Love Always,

Sis. Smith 

One more DOOR!!!!

Hey Family/ Everyone,

How is everyone? How is the ward? How are the missionaries doing in Gilbert? Working hard I hope! It sounds like everyone has been having a pretty good week which is wonderful!!! I am so happy to hear that!

So onto the good stuff- haha kidding! :D So this week has been full of door knocking and eating! Sis. Hunt and I have been working hard on trying to find new investigators. We are finding that there are many different churches here and Mt. Pleasant which is great, but the people aren't too open about talking with us. We actually have made up a song to door knocking. It is called One Door More and it is to the tune of One Day More from Les Mis which is pretty awesome! We've actually made multiple songs! So we've actually had so great experiences this week.

We contacted a man named Ola and he is from Nigeria. One thing awesome about contacting on a campus you meet people from everywhere!! Okay so we actually had a lesson with him on Friday it started really well, until we got to the BoM. He is very faithful to the Bible. He is gone for 2 weeks which will take a tool but we encouraged him to read just a verse a day from the BoM and pray about it. Now it is up to him and his agency and up to us to pray!

Next story! Sis. Hunt and I have set aside like 5 hours of door knocking and we had picked out roads to work on. We started knocking and it didn't feel right so we went back to the car and prayed. We felt like we should go to  another street called Broadway! On Broadway we meet Alison who is 19 and very faithful to her church but actually did a paper on Mormons in high school. She had so many questions it was great. After meeting Alison we felt like we shouldn't be on Broadway so we went back and prayed again, but we then felt we needed to go the different direction on Broadway. We listened and at this point the spirit was really guiding us. We walked all the way down Broadway and then there was a man working on a old fashioned car. This car is 86 years old and it is totally awesome. He has been working on it since he was 11. Okay so we started talking to him and getting to know him a bit. He just stopped drinking and he doesn't know why he is still here in Mt. Pleasant. He has been asking himself lately what is his purpose and all this stuff. We talked to him for about an hour and a half! We taught him about prayer and we gave him the plan of salvation pamphlet to read. Also crazy he lived in Utah for 5 years and attended church all 5 years but was never baptized. He says LDS people are the nicest people he has known. We felt like he is just so prepared and we are so excited to teach him more and answer his questions. We have an appointment on Wednesday so we're getting ready for that.

Well that's the really exciting stuff that happened this week. We are looking forward to this week and meeting more people and finding those people who God has prepared! I love missionary work it is so amazing and such a blessing. I have learned so much and I learn more everyday. I am so grateful to have been called on a mission! I know this will strengthen my future family and my future self. So I'm going to leave you with another challenge! :D Read your scriptures, just a verse a day will make a huge difference! The BoM is great and can answer all your questions. I love studying the scriptures and studying with Sis. Hunt. It is so great to learn from one another. I love you all so much! Keep working hard and remember every member is a missionary!!!!

Love Always,

Sister Smith

I'M A MICHIGANARY....

Sister Hess, Sister Miranda Smith & President Hess

 Sister Miranda Smith and Sister Hunt

President & Sister Hess with some of the Lansing Mission Missionaries 

Hey Everyone!

So I am serving in Mount Pleasant! It is a little town and it is just so cute and so country looking! The ward here is awesome and are so willing to help us out! Sis. Hunt is my trainer and she has been out for 6 months and I'm like her 3rd trainee. She is so nice, but wants to work hard which is fantastic cause I want to work hard too!! So we were actually white washed! This area hasn't been open to sisters for 6 months to a year so I feel very privileged to be here! My apartment is nice and we actually live across the street from the Zone Leaders so we feel really safe and looked after! So the plane ride was great we had lots of fun flying with almost all my district! We then went to the mission home and we met Pres. Hess and Sis. Hess. They are the sweetest people ever!! I have a very exact obedient mission president which is actually what I wanted so I'm very excited about that! The mission home is so cute and homey! So the first day we got there we went contacting on MSU campus which I loved!! I like that better than door knocking for sure! I hope I can serve on a campus at some point! The next day we went and I met my trainer Sis. Hunt! Everyone said she is a great missionary and it is true she really is! The assistants said we'd be a great companionship! On the first day in Mt. Pleasant we visited less actives well none were home so we went door knocking! We came across Marsha who is awesome! We love her so much! She is our investigator now! Umm... I don't have too much time so I have to finish soon! We have been door knocking everyday which I actually really enjoy you meet tons of people and your faith totally grows! We really hope we can get investigators from this. Them members have already given us referrals which is great!!!! We love referrals! Also there is a lady in the ward who lives on a farm and she grows her own food and everything is fresh! She feeds the missionaries once a week!!!! She also gave um homemade jam and syrup and other homemade goods!!! Yummy!!!

I seriously love it here!!!! There is no place I would rather be than here serving the Lord!! I know this is what I supposed to do! I have already learned so many amazing things and the Lord truly knows each of us! Also I have a challenge for you all! Say family prayer! Prayer is the first step to coming closer to God! He wants to hear us so bad because He loves us so much! I pray like 20 times a day and you really need it! He has done so much for us! Please try and I promise you will notice a difference in your life!!! Okay so my address is Sis. Miranda Smith 1617 Flynn Ln Mt. Pleasant 48858!!! Send Letters!!! I love you all so much!!! Keep working hard and coming closer to Christ!!!

Love Always,

Sis. Smith

Sister Smith & Sister Hunt

Miranda's Last Email in the MTC Before She Leaves for Michigan

Dear Family,

Well I am about to leave for Michigan so I was able to write you fellas!!! So these last few days have been awesome just like every other day!!!! Last night was especially amazing! We had the Elders in our district give us sister missionaries blessings!! I think it was almost all of their first blessings so it was fantastic! So asked Elder Taylor to give me my blessing and it was his first blessing!!!! I was Elder Taylor's first blessing, how cool is that! Okay well all the blessings were short and just the sweetest! These young missionaries are so strong and you know that the Lord has prepared them for this time! I have learned so much from them and I'd like to think they are doing the same. Don't worry I wrote my blessing down in a journal so I won't forget it. That was probably the highlight of my MTC experience. So the other sisters in my district are gone, they left this morning for Boston so it is just me and Sister Mortensen with all the elders!! Haha! They're great so we don't really have too many problems. It is crazy how your district can become like a little family and how much you learn and support one another. It truly is amazing. I have loved seeing everyone grow and I hope that I will be able to see them out in the field and see the progress and growth they have made.

Oh also guess what Sister Mortensen and I got locked out of our room twice!!!! It was so funny until it happened a second time! So the second time we said a companion prayer to have Heavenly Father unlock the door and I really thought and believed that it would be unlocked, but it wasn't. A few seconds latter a worker came by and unlocked out door!!! Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers through other people!!! I just feel so blessed to have all these experiences!! I am just loving being a missionary. Don't get me wrong it is tough work and it takes so much out of you but I have learned and grown so much already!! Oh also I was chosen out of our whole zone to give a talk on Sunday. It was random, but I mean seriously out of everyone!!! It was on enduring to the end by the way. Also while we were on our temple walk Sunday there were protesters at the temple! It was weird! Well I am sorry but I have to go!! Sorry it is so short! I love you all and wish you a great week!

Love Always,

Sis. Smith

Miranda's Addresses so far:

October 7, 2013 for the next six weeks!
New Address In Midland Michigan 
5220 Hedgewood #804 
 Midland, MI 48640

Michigan Address: In Mount Pleasant
1617 Flynn Ln. Apt. B
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858

MTC
Sister Miranda Smith
2013 N. 900 E. Unit#343
Jul17MI-LAN
Provo, Utah 84604

*MTC Letters must arrive by Tuesday, July 16th.

Email Address:

miranda.smith@myldsmail.net

*She can email on her Pdays-  
(preparation day= Pday)
Miranda's Pday is Monday 

Mission Office Address:

Michigan Lansing Mission
1400 Abbott Road, Suite 310
East Lansing, MI 48823-1900

Mail should be sent directly to her missionary apartment address: I will post it as soon as I receive it. This is the quickest and most reliable way to get mail to her. You may send it to the Mission Office pending notification of her new address or when anticipation a transfer. All mail received in the Mission Office will be forwarded to her apartment the day they receive it if it is sent via U.S. Postal Service First Class or Priority Mail.

*When sending a Letter please put her full Name not just her last name: Sister Miranda Smith
**The best thing to do is send all Letters and Packages by First Class or Priority Mail via the U.S. Postal Service. These can be forwarded should she no longer be at the address. Also, the U.S. Postal Service leaves a notice for pick up mail at the Post Office if she is not home rather then leaving it on the doorstep.
Fed-ex and UPS cannot be forwarded on to her and these carriers leave the packages at the doorstep where they could be stolen. Also, Packages sent Standard or Parcel Post through the U.S. Postal Service cannot be forwarded. 
If you send a package to the Michigan Lansing Mission Office that cannot be forwarded they will remain in the Mission Office until a Zone Conference or until someone from the office is going her way. (This could be several weeks).