No Car Week!!!!

Dear family and friends!!!

How are all of ya'll doing?? I hope that you are all doing well and enjoying every day! This week has been an adventure just like every other week!

Monday: We had a lesson with Robert and it went well! We watched talks from last session of General Conference! It went really well and we are just so excited for Robert and we pray that he will keep progressing and feeling the spirit!!!

Tuesday: Sister Hunt and I drove to Midland... again. We also gave up our car Hona. It was a sad departure. Hona was such a great car. She was so great at getting us to the places that we needed to go. We've really missed her.

Wednesday: FIRST DAY ON BIKES!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!! Sister Hunt and I had to bike to the church and get to district meeting. Oh yeah biking in skirts isn't the most pleasant thing you can do... Oh funny story! On our bike ride back from a lesson I was riding my bike and these bikes are kind of old and rusty, well I went up this tiny hill and my handle bars came off my bike!!! It was so funny! I fell off my bike and into some dirt! Luckily a nice older gentleman saw and he put the handle bars back on. I feel pretty bad though cause after I fell we called the Elders and Elder Webb had had a dream the night before that one of us got hit by a car while biking. So when Sister Hunt called saying I had fallen he started to feel really bad, but no worries everyone is good and I only have a few bruises. Latter that night we also had an awesome lesson with a girl names Sarah! She is willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it!

Thursday: Sister Hunt and I had apartment checks. Lets just say ours was super clean and we got a star! Woo-Hoo! It's great to be clean and organized!

Friday: We had a lesson with a girl named Cassie! We just love her! She is so prepared to receive the gospel at this time! She has been struggling and she is learning to pray and ask questions and for help! It is awesome and we really look forward to teaching her more and hope that she progresses!!!

Saturday: The elders are running low on miles so this day we did bike trade-offs. The elders got the bikes this day so that lead to Sister Hunt and I walking 9 miles. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it does take a lot of time from your day to walk places. We were also able to go to the RS Meeting! It was amazing! Wasn't it!! If you weren't able to watch it, I recommend taking some time to watch it cause it will really bless your life and your family's!

Sunday: Sister Hunt and I walked to church and while we did we sang hymns the entire way! It was pretty fantastic!!! We also had an investigator named Alexis come to church even though her friends and family don't really approve! Sad, but awesome at the same time.

So for my spiritual thought. In district meeting we learned that what we believe effects our behavior which will reflect our experiences. This is so true especially as a missionary. What you believe and your attitude towards it really effects how things turn out. I know that as we have positive beliefs about ourselves, work and others that it will effect our lives in a more positive way!

This is a sweet diagram that Sister Hunt made to show the correlation! Isn't she just the best! :D

Keep doing great work and don't forget 'Every Member a Missionary" Pres. David O. McKay!

Love Always,

Sister Miranda Smith

* Sorry I couldn't pull up their diagram.... 

The work is moving FORWARD!!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

    I hope that everyone had a great week and is enjoying their time where ever they maybe! I have been so blessed this week and I am so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who loves each and everyone of us!!

Monday: I put together a puzzle that has an old 1957 GMC on it. It was blue and I love it. I took a picture. The better part of the day though was that Sister Hunt and I were able to have a lesson on baptism with Robert, with Bro. May! It was a really good lesson and we are so excited to see Robert progressing so well! We committed him to pray about what he should do when it comes to baptism.

Tuesday: While Sister Hunt and I were driving to Midland for trade-offs we sang Karaoke to the piano song Waterfall by John Schmit. It was pretty awesome! We sang about our district and each other. I just love Sister Hunt! She and I get along so well!!!

Wednesday: We met a lady while door knocking who said she would take us all the way up to Mackinaw Bridge! President Said no of course, but it was pretty awesome that she would do that for us!

Thursday: We had half mission training!!!! I got to see my companion for the MTC!! And I also got to see to Elders from my MTC district. They are all doing well and loving their missions also. Training is good, but bad all at the same time. It is good because you get so motivated to do everything and become a better missionary, but then you realize how much you need to improve on and what you can do better which is always a lot. I just hope that I can use what I learned and help build God's kingdom. I love being taught by people who love the Lord and follow the spirit it is so amazing being surrounded by people who all have the same goal as you! Missionary work is that best!!!!

Friday: I gave toilet paper that I received in my package to the elders all tied together with ribbon and with a bow so it looked like a wreath. It was pretty awesome! That is what missionaries do for fun! haha! Also Hannah Griffin a YSA fed us in her dorm cafeteria thing! It was awesome! We were able to eat however much we wanted! It reminded Sister Hunt and I of the MTC except a lot less missionaries. It was fun being able to eat with someone our age, she also brought her boyfriend Devin who is the recent convert I talked about last week! We love them both so much! They both have the missionary work fire burning in them which is awesome!!!!

Saturday: So the college does this thing called chalking which is where you chalk out events and stuff like that. Hannah, Devin, Sister Hunt and I all decided it would be a fantastic idea to chalk the plan of salvation. We did and it was pretty awesome!! We weren't able to stand next to it and answer people's questions cause we had an appointment, but hopefully it gets people thinking. We also chalked visit mormon.org a lot of places. We also got to watch the Restoration twice. I love the story of Joseph Smith. He is an example to me of loving God and doing as he has commanded us, but he was not perfect and made mistakes so it makes me feel like I can do great things even though I am imperfect.

Sunday: This day was the Primary Program!!!!! I love little children!! They are so adorable and I love their innocence. A little boy who is like 9 or 10 played the song "I like to Look for Rainbows" which is a song about baptism on his violin and he did amazing!!! It brought the spirit so strong it was amazing!!! Cool story, so I was going to give the lesson in Gospel Principles on Missionary Work, but during sacrament meeting I felt like I should teach the Plan of Salvation. Well that lead me to freak out because I didn't have that planned out, but I couldn't deny that the spirit told me to teach the Plan of Salvation. So I asked Sister Hunt to teach with me and she said yes, that was at the beginning of sacrament. At the end of sacrament she told me she had the thought to have me teach with Elder Hamelin. Well that is interesting. Well we taught together and it was just the lesson that was needed for our investigator Robert!!!!! Robert set his baptismal date for October 12th!!!!!! We are so excited for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We hope that he can keep progressing and hit this goal!!!!

Never give up and always keep moving forward. Things will happen in the Lord's time and we need to have the faith that it will happen! I've been able to see this in this week! I love the Lord and I am so grateful that I get to be out here doing his work.

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week and that you are able to notice God's hand in your lives!!!!!

Love Always,

Sister Miranda Smith 

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

or email her at miranda.smith@myldsmail.net

It's Getting Colder!!!!!

Hey Family and Friends!!!!

    I hope all is well with everyone. So this week has been a little crazy! Sister Hunt and I have been going on trade offs like mad women! We were apart 4 nights this week! Which is a bummer when you have an awesome companion like Sister Hunt! I've learned a lot though so it's okay. This week has been pretty cold! Today it is like 50 degrees!! It's turning into FALL!!!! Woo-Hoo!! 

So last Monday Sister Hunt and I went to Goodwill and found the best cookie jar ever! Sister Hunt and I thought it would be a wonderful gift to give the Elders because they like cookies. So we made them Chocolate Chip pumpkin cookies and we gave them like 24 and filled their cookie jar up! Haha! we also gave them chicken squares! It's hard though when you cook for Elder Webb cause his dad is a chef so you're always hoping that your food doesn't taste gross. Our cookies and chicken squares were approved! Woo-Hoo! HAHA! so Tuesday, I was in Midland on trade offs. It was so weird being in a different area! Funny story a dog followed us the entire time we were door knocking and it came up to every door with us! It was pretty crazy if you ask me! On Wednesday we did trade backs in the morning and had to make it back in time for District Meeting! I love my district they are awesome! I enjoy spending time with them and learning how to be a better missionary from them and the spirit! On Thursday sister Hunt and I taught a lesson with a member named Devin Brenann and he was baptized a little over a week ago. He is awesome!!! He is 20 and is planning on going on a mission! He will be an amazing missionary and I'm so glad we go to talk with him and have him at our lesson! Friday, I was on trade offs with Sister Kane! She is the other Sister Training Leader! We went to get the delicious bread we had last time and it is still delicious! Saturday we did early morning trade backs and that was a little frustrating, early morning trade backs are not very fun, but I did get Sister Hunt back so it's always a plus! We were also able to do service for a less-active member which is awesome! We love service!!!!!!! Sunday we went to church and Robert was there!!!! Yeah!!!!! We love Robert!!! We are hoping to set a baptismal date with him today!! We are excited to see what happens!!!

So my spiritual thought is going to be about faith! so I'm reading in Alma which has a lot of wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Nephites always defeat the Lamanites when they  look towards their God and have faith that He will deliver them from the hands of the Lamanites! As we put our faith in God and turn to him not just when we need him, but always, he will help us especially when we are going through trials. Alma 32 and Ether 12 are great chapters on faith and I would challenge you to read at least one of these chapters this week! I have a testimony of faith and how having faith in our Savior Jesus Christ can help us through our trials and we can receive strength to over come them. There is a quote that I enjoy very much "God will either lighten our load or strengthen our backs." I love you all very much and hope that you enjoy the rest of your week!!

Love Always,

Sister Miranda Smith 

The Book of Mormon Arrives!

Hey Everyone!!!!

So the title of my email has a funny story! We were door knocking and this man opens the door says "the Book of Mormon arrives"! then he proceeds to tell us how excited he is to go and see The Book of Mormon the musical! HaHa I love people!

So anyways... I hope that everyone is doing well and that the rain in AZ isn't hindering anyone's happiness! So lets see... Monday was good I got to buy a new sweatshirt that supports MSU! Tell Rose that I am sorry i didn't buy a U of M one...  On Tuesday I was on a trade off, just for the day though. Since Sister Hunt is an STL she had to go to a meeting so I was with Sister Whipple! I came out with Sister Whipple and she is awesome! I adore her! And she has a testimony that can bring down walls just like when Alma and Amulek were in the jail! It is epic!!! We were on campus pretty much all day and it was great! We got a little sun burned though.   Wednesday, we had zone training which is something new to our mission. This meeting is where the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders teach us what they learned in their meetings the day before! It was awesome! I love the leaders in my zone! Oh fun fact: Sister Hunt loves words and dictionaries so it has rubbed off on me. We learned that the definition of love is to highly value something or someone. We now like to say "we highly value you"! We enjoy it very much! Well anyways, the meeting was great and we set the goal as a zone to have 60 baptisms by the end of the year which means 4 per companionship! We are all excited to reach this goal!!!   Thursday, We were able to teach Robert! He is doing well and still progressing. We are still praying that he will set a date for baptism so he can have a visual goal. He is busy though cause he is back in school so we are trying to let him know that as he puts God first he will be blessed.   Friday, We were on campus pretty much all day which is great, but sadly we didn't really get to teach many people. We did get to go to a YSA activity though which is pretty sweet if you ask me! Saturday, Sister Hunt and I Door Knocked a lot and had a nice conversation with two college girls who were super nice and unfortunately one is moving or else she would have liked to learn more! Also Saturday we went to Sister Lori Martin's house! I got to do service which is awesome! Sister Hunt and I got to dig up a ton of Iris flowers while the elders killed their chickens! Also I got the opportunity to kill a chicken!! Poor chicken... but I killed it in one swing so not a big deal. Haha Elder Webb missed his first swing and totally made the chicken freak out! Also now I truly understand the saying "like a chicken running with their heads cut off". I hope that none of you think less of me for killing a chicken.   Sunday, we got to eat at the May's house. That is our ward mission leader. He is great and I love his family. They have a little boy named Zach who I adore and he gives me fist bumps all the time! Well that is the highlights of this week! Now to the spiritual thought!

So we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in the conversion of our investigators. It is also very important in the process of converting ourselves. It took me a very long time to read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of it. Once I finished reading the Book of Mormon I did as Moroni suggests and prayed with real intent to know if the book was true. I received my answer and gained a knowledge that the Book of Mormon is true, that I have a Savior and that Joseph Smith was prophet of God. Since then I have learned to love the Book of Mormon. It is my favorite book! It holds so many answers and we can truly come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ by reading it. I have a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it can change lives because it has changed mine. If you haven't gotten the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon and come to the knowledge of it's truthfulness for yourself, I challenge you to do so. It will change your life and your outlook on life! It will bring so much happiness and joy in your life that you cannot get or experience anywhere else. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I leave you these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love Always,

Sister Smith

                                        So the first photo is my awesome tan lines on my feet!!! 

                                        That's what you get for walking on campus 4 hours a day.

Sister Miranda Smith's Sun Burn and Missionary Toes- so much for pedicures

Sister Miranda Smith and Sister Melissa Hunt- This is us after the awesome rain storm that we had to run through and Look how clean we are keeping our apartment!

Sister Hunt and I tried to make a smoothy..... the blender wasn't well put together...

Sis. Hunt frustrated with her smoothy cause the terrible mess it made!

I'm so excited to have a smoothy!!!!!! Haha these make me laugh so much!

Don't we look great! 

 

We ran to the bath tub once we got into our apartment because we were soaking wet!!

Best day of the mission so far!!!!

This was at a door we were about to knock... we didn't end up knocking it

It's all in God's time!

Hey!!! How is everyone in good ole AZ doing? Well and everyone everywhere else? I hope all is well with you and that you are enjoying your lives.

Hummm..... This week has been totally awesome!!!!! I love missionary work!!! Boo Ya!! So on Monday Sister Hunt and I got to play basketball and well let me tell ya we are the bee's knees! Together we pretty much make the best NBA team ever! Our team's name is the cookie monsters and my name is Snicker Doodle (Snickers for short). Sis. Hunt is BP. We take every moment to enjoy life! Tuesday was our first day PCing (personal contacting) on campus! Holy Cow that was super frustrating. I could not open my mouth. It is really hard to stop someone dead in their tracks to talk to them, but hey we have like the greatest message ever so why not, but still very difficult. The students are a lot more receptive then doors though so that is pretty nice. Actually the first person we contacted is named Creed Blankenship and we set a return appointment with him the next day so that was pretty sweet! Also we had the BEST rain storm ever!!!!!! So after a quick lesson with Andrew Surma we went outside and seriously it was raining buckets!!! So it was like 10 minutes till 9 which is our curfew so we had to go. Funny thing though; Sis. Hunt and I don't have a parking pass for campus! We pretty much have to park about a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile to get to our car! It was raining so hard we couldn't see very far in front of us, but we had to be home by 9! We walked outside and instantly we were soaked. We decided to run to our car. Finally after not being able to see we made it to our car!!! Now we had to drive home, which is another challenge. The streets were like already starting to flood! It was pretty awesome and scary. We prayed like the whole way home. We made it safely though. As soon as we got home we went and stood in our bath tub soaking wet!! The Elders got caught also and they had to borrow our mop because their shoes tracked in so much water. It is an awesome memory!!!! so Wednesday we had a lesson with Creed and it went awesome! At the end we challenged him to be baptized and he said YES!! He has the date to be baptized on September 21st! We really believe he'll be ready! Thursday we had an awesome question and answer thing with a guy named Kyle and his friends! The spirit was so strong. It was especially strong when the first vision was recited! I love reciting that, I feel the spirit work through me more then than any other time! It is fantastic cause you know that the spirit witnesses of truth so you know Joseph Smith was a prophet every single time you say it!!! I love it! Friday, I got to can peaches which is pretty sweet! I now know how to take off the skin of a peach, Woo-Hoo!! On Saturday Sis. Hunt and I had so much fun together!!! We were laughing all the time and it was just awesome! Sis. Hunt actually sang a song to me and it reminded me so much of mom! We were out contacting Less Active members and well not many were home which is very sad, but hey well find them! Keep staying positive right! Fast and Testimony meeting was great! I love those and Robert was able to come to church well he comes every week, but still. Elder Webb bore his testimony and it was awesome, it was his last Fast and Testimony meeting on his mission. There were just so many great testimonies born! We also got to teach the beehives! These young women are amazing! They are such examples to me and I admire who they are! 

   So this week my testimony of  patience has grown. It is so hard to be patient. After weeks of working I feel that we are finally able to start seeing the fruits of our works. I have also been able to finally see the progress that I have been able to make. As a missionary I ask for help a lot, and a lot of the time I expect that help to be given right then and there. I've really had to learn to rely on God's timing and not mine. It is line upon line, precept upon precept. I still struggle with it, but I know as we do have patience and have faith that God with help us with our righteous desires.

   I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week! Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Love Always,

Sister Miranda Smith

Hey there family!

     How is everyone? I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying their lives and that adventures they are given! Man this week has been a little Cra- Cra!!! But what do you expect being a missionary in Mt. Pleasant! So lets see.... Tuesday Sis. Hunt and I had a lesson with Robert which didn't go very well, so that was pretty frustrating. Don't worry though when you have solid investigators like Robert who are really prepared by the Lord, they don't really mind how bad the lesson goes. On Wednesday we had a district meeting and it was the last one of the transfer, so it was sad, but not too sad cause most of us are staying. One of our district elders though was a visa waiter and he got his visa to Brazil, which is awesome, but we're going to miss him. Oh and we went to the Italian Oven which like I said earlier has like the best bread ever!!! Thursday Sis. Hunt and I had ice cream for dinner from cold stone! Haha! being a missionary is like being on a college diet, don't worry though we are getting fruits and vegetables too! Friday we did a lot of knocking. The people we door knocked into were super nice, though they didn't really want to hear about the gospel it was still really awesome to meet nice people. Actually while we were door knocking we knocked into a woman named Jane and she is was participating in a service event on Saturday and she invited us to come. We totally jumped on that!! Also we had transfer calls!!! I'm staying in Mt. Pleasant along with Sis. Hunt who is now a Sister Training Leader, so I'll be doing a lot of trade offs. And Elder Webb and Hamelin are staying so we're all pretty excited! So that bring us to Saturday. Saturday was totally awesome!! So us and the Elders went to the service event. This event is great! A truck load of food is brought to a destination and we unload it and organize is into like a line and bag it. We had a super good assembly line going with the four of us, but anyways so 200 people come out to get free food! And we got to talk with people in the community which is great because then when we knock on their door they've already met us. Jane actually didn't expect us to come so it is so great that we did and gained trust with community members. It was so fun and I really enjoyed it. The people in Mt. Pleasant are so caring it is wonderful!! Also on Saturday we had another lesson with Robert and this lesson went AWESOME!! Robert told us that he will be baptized he just doesn't know when. He really wants to make sure he is committed for life. He knows that this what he should do he just wants to be really prepared which is good cause then he knows how serious the covenants he is making are. Robert is so great!

Now onto my little gospel insight. First, the spirit works in mysterious ways and always follow promptings given even if they seem weird. Second, I got an opportunity to talk with Elder Webb and he has on his last transfer. I asked him for one piece of advise and out of all the advice he gave me he said "Say faithful prayers. God is willing to give you what you desire as long as you have the faith." That hit me because I pray all the time, but do I pray in faith? Do I have faith that the things I ask for, God will give me? I've really been thinking about that the last couple of days. Faith is so important. It is the first thing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith is the foundation of all things. So I challenge you all to think about your prayers and think if you have the faith that God will answer them. Our faith can always improve, especially mine!

I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week full of love and service! Sorry for the long letter!

Love Always,

Sister Smith  

 This is my district and yes, we are the best district around!

Top Left to Right: Elder Candland, Elder Lutz (transferred to Brazil), Elder Heffner (transferred), Elder Newman

Bottom Left to Right: Me, Elder Oler (district leader), Sister Hunt 

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