Service in Seattle: Week 5 - One Month Down!

Helllloooooo!

I've been out more than a month now...I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Enumclaw is the BEST area to be in, God has truly blessed me. I'm just amazed everyday by how green and beautiful this place is and the people are so cool. Sister Morris and I have been crazy busy this week running from appointment to appointment. We also have had some really neat experiences in the past couple of days. Friends, let me tell you....revelation is a REAL THING. We have a zone goal of inviting at least one person to be baptized each day. It was Saturday night and we were running out of time to invite someone. We also had been knocking on doors all day and hadn't had much success. We pulled over again and offered a mighty prayer. After we just looked at each other and said the exact same name. We knew this person was out of town, but we followed the prompting anyway. When we got there, their neighbors were outside and we walked up to them and invited them to be baptized right there. The kids all jumped up and down saying "Yes!!" and the mom said "not in the Mormon church" but the dad was very touched. I could just see this look of astonishment on his face and I knew he had felt the Spirit. The same thing happened to us Sunday when we were looking through our contacts and a name just stood out. We went to her house and sang "I Am a Child of God." The woman didn't let us come in but she praised us for being bold enough to share the gospel.

We also met Donna this week and she wants to get to the temple. She's agreed to be baptized on September 13th so cross your fingers that she follows through! We found Donna at a rehab center and she's been reading the Book of Mormon (a friend gave her a copy). She wanted to know more so she sent for the missionaries to come find her. She's the sweetest lady and just wants the best for her family. She knows so little, but has so much faith that the gospel will help her. I can already feel my own testimony growing as I find people like Donna who really just need a message of hope. The gospel of Jesus Christ is just that: a message of hope and happiness. I'm so thankful to be a missionary.

This week I found out I LOVE going on exchanges! I got to spend a whole day with Sister Hardy in the Maple Valley area (little towns outside of Bellevue) and I loved every second of it. Exchanges happen once a month and you get paired up with someone who isn't your companion and you spend 24 hours just learning and teaching with them. Sister Hardy is the most down to earth person I've ever met and I hope we can be companions for real one day. We tried bike contacting and it was interesting....we found one person and tried to share a scripture with him but he wasn't having it. Also biking in Washington is hard because there are SO MANY hills. Sister Morris and I are going to try to bike sometime and hopefully I'll have a better experience.

Church members are the greatest. They just love missionaries and are willing to do anything for them. This morning we hiked Mount Peak and the view was amazing. We came back super tired and as we tried to leave, our car got stuck in a literal ditch. Missionaries have this rule where one of them has to stand outside while the other puts the car into reverse. It's meant to help us avoid backing into anything and prevent accidents. Because we are lazy, we usually try to just do a U-turn instead of backing up. That didn't work in our favor today... We called the elders to come pull us out, but there were too far away. We called other members, but they were all at work. We finally called Brother Bard (we call him our grandpa) and he came rushing over. Another member came with a tow rope and they worked together for several hours trying to get the car out. We didn't have much success so grandpa offered to call the tow truck and wait with the car so we could email. He is my new favorite human being.

Well that's all for now! I love Washington and I love being a missionary. Also blackberries are starting to grow and we just pick them off and eat them everyday. SO GOOD! Also it still hasn't rained but I'm mentally preparing myself for when it does.

Love you all and thanks for your emails!

-Sister Smith