Let's just say it was one of the MOST LEGIT WEEKS I HAVE HAD IN THIS AREA!!!!!!!! We taught 23 lessons by Saturday night, and not like all member lessons, they were legit investigator and less-active lessons!!! I was STOKED!!! Sister C had never taught more than 19 (the mission goal is 20 for a week). So we smoked it!! We taught more than I ever had total, too!! The last week I was in Laramie we taught 26 lessons, this past week, 27! LOVED IT!!!! They were solid too! I love exceeding goals and just seeing Heavenly Father's hand COMPLETELY guiding us! Jesus Christ is with us and knows exactly who we need to see, and still gives people agency to accept an appointment/lesson. This week it worked in our favor, and we even had exchanges thrown in and it was AWESOME!!!!
Monday: Got to do some archery, for like a few minutes! haha It was great! We had a lesson with R that night! I love just being able to sit outside under a huge tree surrounded by green grass and trees at the picnic table outside his house! It is so great, and so spiritual!! Found out B, one of our investigators has cancer. Hopefully it can be removed and its benign! So sad, but this could be a way to help her really understand the gospel!
Tuesday: Exchange with Hermana E in the Spanish area!!! It was great, and actually most of our lessons were in English! It was fun! Personal Study was LEGIT. Ok, Alma 32 is awesome! I already knew that, but I gained new insight. If we all knew and remembered the plan of salvation, and then did not follow what we needed to do to get back to Heavenly Father's presence, how much worse off would we be? WAY WORSE!!!! Alma 32:18-19, read it and love it! Some of the new Mormon messages are amazing and I got to watch a few--love it! I am going to try and incorporate one into my emails each week. So here you go for this week:
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/prayer?v=2505987918001
"Origin" I saw this one a while ago, but it is just SO GOOD!!! Know what? I'm just going to throw another one in too, because we used it in a lesson, and I have never seen it before, WOW--powerful! It is so true that we just need to do what God has asked us to do, and we will be blessed, we just don't know when:
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/hope?v=911029449001 "Good Things Come" - Elder Holland
HOLD THE PHONE-- I ALMOST FORGOT!!!! I got one of the BEST letters EVER that day!!! MY FRIEND, K. C. said that she has started her mission papers... yes, this picture only captures a GLIMPSE of my excitement!
Wednesday: We had district meeting and wow, I realized that I have totally changed as a missionary, and that the entire culture of our mission has changed, SO GREAT!!! I have truly become more of a missionary that Heavenly Father wants me to be, but boy do I have a long way to go still... and only 24 weeks left to fulfill that! NNNOOOOOOO. Had a lesson with K, dang she's great! She read the Book of Mormon and said that a light was just pouring out of it, and that when she prayed it was like a burden that was lifted off of her! OH MY YES!!! She said she isn't sure about baptism... ok we need to work on that! We went tracting that night... only ended up knocking on two doors, and they didn't even answer... but then as we were walking, we ran into a lady from one of our service projects! She totally let us into her house (we had no idea where she lived), showed us around and we even got to talk about how we lived with God before this life and that we really are His children! It was great! Lesson with C that night went really well :) The Murphy's came with us, so great! His expressions when we were talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the tree of life vision in 1 Nephi 8 were wonderful! It was like a whole new concept to him, yet it wasn't. He was baptized over a year ago, but hasn't been to church really since moving here last July, and he never got the new member lessons. We get to do them! MIRACLE that we had a lesson with him! I have only had three lessons with him since being here... and it's been six months!!!!
Thursday: So we had like a bunch of service things that day. But our day was also spent talking to a less-active. We went to dinner at the P’s home. Guess what?! C proposed to C!!! YES, C one of my now recent converts!!!! I AM STOKED!!!!!!!! Well, we were having dinner (C is still in Georgia) and he called while I was there, so I GOT TO TALK TO HIM for a few minutes!!! BEST!!! He is doing well, and is going to the temple to do baptisms soon, YES!!!!!!!! It was so great!
Friday: Highlights. Sister C and I spent one hour planning one lesson for one of our investigators, D! WOW so good! So we planned the lesson, like to a T! It was so sweet! So guess what?We didn't even have to ask D the questions we were going to, or bring things up... Heavenly Father truly blessed us with a miracle and she TOLD us exactly what we were going to ask, on her own! MIRACLE!!! She told us why she wants to get baptized, and her love for the Book of Mormon, so great! This is one of the crazy miracles for the week, ready? As we come out of D's lesson we got a text form L (the investigator we were about to head over to have a lesson with) telling us she couldn't do it that night. Ok. Instead of just calling the member that was waiting for us at her apartment, we decided to just meet her there and see if she could come with us to visit another investigator. She was totally willing to! SWEETNESS!!!!! I drove, and she followed us. Sister C and I were talking as we passed A's house that we should go visit her if this other investigator wasn't home or couldn't meet. GUESS WHAT?! We PASSED A WALKING HER DOGS!!!!!!! So I roll down my window, wave and then turn into a court to park! The member that came with us had already met A so it was perfect! Ended up having a lesson with her outside, on the sidewalk/court, and wow so incredible! We were able to answer some of her questions that she had while reading the Gospel Principles manual on her own. Love her! So great!!! So yeah, that was a HUGE MIRACLE!!!!
Saturday: MIRACLE OF A DAY!!! We had like six set lessons WHAT?! SO COOL!!!! Six set lessons in ONE DAY!!! I have achieved five lessons in a WEEK before, so to have six in one day, SO COOL!! Ended up having seven total that day! LEGIT!!!!!! There is so much work here, I LOVE IT!!! Finally had a lesson with D..n, and he is still solid after months of not meeting with him. Wants to go to the temple, and get baptized next April.
Oh, that night I found out I am getting transferred..and will be ON BIKE!!! Pretty stoked actually, but it should be interesting, kind of nervous about my companion... but you know what? Heavenly Father loves us all and knows exactly what we need, the people we need in our lives! So glad that Sister C is staying here, way less stressful than both of us leaving!
Sunday: Said goodbye to people, and had a lesson with D. She was bummed that I am leaving. Her testimony of the Book of Mormon is so cool! You can tell that she loves it based on how she talks about it! It was a great day!
The gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE!!! I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of a loving Savior and Father in Heaven. The Spirit is real, and such a blessing in my life! Have a fabulous week!! Love you all, the adventures continue but in a different area!!! SWEET!!!!!
Love,
Sister Kelly Smith