Sunday, April 6, 2014

COLORADO, The Land of Bugs!

This week was rather interesting, but still it was super awesome. One, because the WEATHER!!!! I FELT LIKE I WAS IN WYOMING AND IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!! Ok, the Toy Story clouds are coming back, the grass is green, spring is here and I AM LOVING IT! Weather seriously makes such a HUGE difference in my attitude and how I see everything! There is definitely a reason why I was sent to a sunny place with beautiful clouds :)

Monday: P-day was good, but sorry for my weekly email last week... I, um, well, I'm not super creative in a limited time, so if I do that again I will work on it a little bit more. Got to teach an awesome dinner message with a new book that I made (ok I didn't create the idea, but I worked on it last week while my companion was sick)! This family reminded me a LOT of my family! Just joking around the table not really doing the classic boring questions that people ask when missionaries come over. They were literally themselves, which was awesome! Then I broke down. I was in so much physical and emotional pain that I knew I needed a priesthood blessing. That past weekend was super hard for me because it was the most pain I had been in in months! Priesthood blessings are always the cure :)

My Miracle Wall
Tuesday: Tuesday was weird, but we got to go to an awesome Relief society activity!!! We put things in a bag, and then the Relief Society sisters guess who's bag it is... well I put one of my Nerf guns, my Tow Mater ornament, and heart post-its. My companion called me out though... I don't know if anyone in the ward would have gotten that it's me, because the only family in the ward that knows I like Nerf wasn’t’ there :) but it was really fun, I got to explain the things in my bag. 1. I love Nerf! 2. I am kind of obsessed with Cars, and Tow Mater is my favorite :) One lady was like "You brought a Tow Mater ornament on your mission?" me: "No, a boy gave it to me while I was on my mission!!" Bodie, and Jamen, I MISS YOU!!! 3. Post-its, I have a miracle wall and I love post-its!! It was super fun to just be myself and let others see that!!!

Wednesday: We had an INCREDIBLE district meeting where my testimony of my Savior grew so much! We finally brought a member to our lesson with L... well L was still at her doctor's appointment. So we didn't' get to have that lesson. We had a lesson with C instead. Wow, that was an interesting lesson! A new ward missionary came with us and it was PERFECT! We were pretty much companions, it was AWESOME!! Well, C is a tough one. He has been a member for 63 years and has NEVER prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. For reals?!! So we worked on that, but it is hard to help someone understand that they NEED to simply just pray to know if it is true. But he doesn't want to, so we will work on that desire. He knows that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, so that's a plus. We went to go pick up my book that I gave a Young Woman and she has been wanting to give a Book of Mormon to one of her friends, but has been really nervous and just didn't really know how. Well I gave her this book (Green Eggs and Ham, but missionary style) the day before. So we go to her house to pick it up and what does she tell me?! That she is going to give the Book of Mormon to her friend TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!! I about screamed! Her friend knew she was going to give it to her, so she had too, it was THE BEST!!! K is one of my favorite people in this town right now! We bonded over this experience she had this week!!

Chocolate Waffles
Thursday: got to have a "lesson" with T (our new investigator that we get to have TOMORROW since she will be moving in to my area TOMORROW)!!!!! She is excited to listen to the Prophet, this weekend! So cute, love T already! We also got to have a lesson with S and J, but not only was it a lesson but I made chocolate waffles for them! This lesson was a miracle, because it is hard to get lessons with them and our dinner happened to cancel on us. Well, that was truly a miracle in disguise because J texted us at 5:00, and was like “can you come at 5:30?” “Sure we can, because we have an open night!!!” It was a good lesson, and good to just spend time with them! It is always important to develop relationships with people! Miracle afterward too... my companion has had a hard time loving this area, and she turned to me in the car. "I think I love them." AAAAHHHH huge miracle!!!
 It felt so awesome to not have a dinner break! We just kept working and I LOVED IT!!! Oh I got some LEGIT music this week. 1980's EFY music is the BEST!! I loved reminiscing and dancing to the old stuff that I used to listen to on road trips and such, THE BEST!!! If you don't know what old EFY is, go listen to it! "Friends Stick Together" So funny!! And super great!!

Friday: We got to do service at the YMCA! OK THIS WAS A MIRACLE AND I FELT LIKE I WAS IN HEAVEN! So I decided to wear my hair in braids (that was the first step) 2, I was wearing a Wyoming sweatshirt. 3. The clouds looked like Toy Story clouds, bright blue sky, windy and it reminded me of June in Wyoming, so that was awesome. 3. We get to the YMCA and what are we doing? Organizing their summer camp trailer thing, like the EXACT SAME THING as the one I got to use at my old job!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH I was super excited!! Even though I didn't get to organize, I weeded instead, just being around camp equipment, being outside, and enjoying the weather was a MIRACLE and the BEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS STOKED OUT OF MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to go back to being a summer camp counselor!!! I have thought about EFY, but hey I could probably do more missionary work if I went back to working at SPARKS!! I just loved this service project SO MUCH!! Everyone was like “Wow you have a lot of energy and really love this!”  haha It was funny because a missionary was like “yeah I can see you being a camp counselor!” THANK YOU!!! IT's THE BEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, missionary work is the best thing ever, but summer camp counselor comes second, but it's still amazing!!!! I got to go on an exchange with Sister C that day. We took an adventure finding invitations to the General Women's Broadcast for the next day, it was fun!

I'm driving a Jeep!!
Saturday: during study time I asked Sister C why they got new mattresses recently. She said THEY HAD BED BUGS!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! How many times have I slept on these mattresses because of exchanges?... Why have I been getting bites in the middle of the night?... Oh probably because of BED BUGS!!! That saying "Goodnight, don't let the bed bugs bite." yeah it's REAL!!!!! So I think I might have bed bugs now... we will see. AAAAHHHHH The exchange was good! I got to drive their Jeep, it was fun!! As we were driving to our dinner we drove past the church building. We saw five teenage boys smoking on the church property. So what did I do? Turned the car around, parked at the church, said a prayer, got out and instead of just asking them to leave church property I did what missionaries do, PREACH THE GOSPEL!! "Hi! do you know what this building is? It's a church building. Will you come to church with us tomorrow at 1pm? We teach about Jesus Christ and how the same church that He set up when he was on the earth is on the earth again today. We would love to see you there!" The boys slowly left and it was super funny! They thought I was weird, but I was thinking about how the gospel is a gospel of change. When people hear the truth, they want to change. These boys wanted to change, they left the place they were sitting and started smoking/playing basketball across the street! I loved doing just what we are asked to do, share the gospel! That conversation was DEFINITELY guided by the Spirit becasue I didn't know what I was going to say beforehand! I ended the exchange by watching the General Women's Broadcast at the Stake Center. OH MY GOODNESS it was the best MEETING EVER! For reals, everyone needs to watch it, especially if you are 8 yrs old or older! I was crying throughout it because the Spirit was so strong and speaking directly to me! BEST!!!!! Go listen to it my friends! lds.org baby!!!

Sunday: BIGGEST MIRACLE I HAVE SEEN HERE IN THIS WARD! L CAME TO CHURCH!!! Like no joke, after almost 3 months of working with her, she came to CHURCH!!!! So I was sitting on a pew talking with a member in our ward and all of a sudden L walked in, and my reaction was just so impulsive and filled with JOY. I imagined that this is what it will be like to see my family after the mission or what the Spirit World will be like. I literally was just like "L!" and got up and gave her a hug -- seriously amazing!!! HUGE, HUGE, HUGE MIRACLE!!!
Ended up having a lesson with a less-active and he gave me a CD of church music, he is so great! Then when we got in the car after the lesson we looked at our phone and a couple said that they were on their way to visit the same person we just finished visiting! So funny, but really good for him to have that support! Oh we were driving down a street yesterday and I saw four VW Bugs on the same street! There are a lot of bugs here in Colorado... real and vehicle wise!

Have a fabulous week! Don't forget to listen to General Conference! It is one of the best weekends of my life!! Ok, at least the best weekend in the first 6 months of the year!! The Savior lives! He loves you all so much!! Heavenly Father loves you!

Love,
Sister Kelly Smith

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