Week 54 - God Bless America (and the Missionaries)

This just isn't my transfer....we've been struggling to keep our progressing friends. 

So, remember Mona? She was on date for baptism when I first got to Cougar Mountain. She had 2 kids and was golden. We stopped teaching her because she was going through many personal problems and needed space. Well, at the beginning of last week, I felt prompted to heart attack her door. We cut out paper hearts and wrote little messages on each. I didn't know if much would come from it but I wanted her to know we were still thinking about her. The next day during our finding time, we received a text from a member Mona trusted. She sent us Mona's new contact information and wanted us to reach out. We texted Mona and she told us she was doing much better. She wanted to continue the lessons and prepare for baptism again. I was overjoyed! I had been praying for this moment to happen! 

We went over the next night and taught her. She thanked us for never giving up on her and told us she cried when she saw all of the hearts on her door. She had just been through a rough patch with her family and didn't feel like she had anyone in the world who actually cared about her. We told her how much we love her and we made plans to take her to the 4th of July ward breakfast. She came the next day and had a great time! We planned to read the Book of Mormon with her on Friday when we received a devastating text that evening. She said that she no longer wanted us to visit her. I'm pretty sure she had found anti-church information and told us she didn't want to be a member of our Church. She didn't agree with Joseph Smith's story even though we had taught her the Restoration before. I don't know what happened, but it broke me. After all we had done for her, she chose to believe some false news over her true friends. That's how quickly Satan works on the children of God. So right now, we are struggling to find prepared friends, but we have the faith that they will be found. 

On a much brighter note, we had a great 4th of July! We took one of our white boards to a park and wrote "I Love My Country Because..." and then we had people write something. We related it back to the gospel and talked about how lucky we are to live in a land that allows religious freedom. My favorite one was this cute little Mexican woman who wrote "a nation of opportunities" in Spanish of course. It reminded me then that we are all children of God and that's why God chose America to be the promised land for the Church to be restored. Even despite all of the negative news, there are still good people out there and we are still a nation of endless opportunities. 

Well, that's all for this week! Also, we said goodbye to our mission president and his wife last week. They were amazing! Now, we have a new mission president (President Beardall). He is awesome and I know he will take the mission to new heights. I'm excited to work with him!

Have a great week!

love,
sister smith

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Week 52 & 53 - It's Been a Year.......

Quick update since the new transfer:
I love my new companion Sister Woolwine! She was trained by Sister Cowley so I already knew so much about her. She is already one of my best friends and this transfer is going to fly by! She is so easy to get along with which has become somewhat of an issue: we tend to stay up too late just talking. I haven't talked so much and slept so little in two weeks! 

These past weeks have been another roller coaster. The first week we taught our family from Hawaii and they are progressing towards baptism! We are shooting for sometime in August and are working to get the oldest daughter to girls camp this summer. Our girls camp in the Bellevue South Stake is apparently amazing. Girls fly in from other states just to come back and do it! Too bad they don't take missionaries...We just need to get the family to actually come to church now. Irena and her daughter have come once, but that's as far as we've come. Please pray for this family; they need lots of help! 

We had a finding festival day last Saturday and we were asked to pick two streets for missionaries to tract. We ended up only giving the name of one of our streets to the elders assigned to tract our area, but they happened to find some miracle people. Joy and Malcom are this cute couple who have been church hopping for the longest time. They felt they needed God in their lives more and were willing to read the Book of Mormon. Sister Woolwine and I paid them a visit last Monday and were welcomed in. Malcom had read the chapter the elders had given him and had SO MANY QUESTIONS. We taught him and his wife about the restoration of the Church and they were so excited to learn. We gave them another reading assignment and promised they could find the truth on their own. We told them to pray for confirmation of the Book of Mormon and invited them to enter the waters of baptism. Joy asked if it was okay to be baptized again. OF COURSE! They didn't want to pick a date, but were willing to continue learning. We set up another time to meet for Saturday and all seemed well. It was by far one of my favorite lessons I had ever taught. The Spirit had filled the entire room and they were so open to the message. 

Well then of course Satan had to come and ruin everything. On Saturday morning we received a text from Malcom saying they were not ready to pursue this any further and then thanked us for sharing the Book of Mormon with them. I read the text over and over and wondered why missionary work has to be so hard. I've given everything to teach these people and one little thought from Satan can undo everything the Spirit told them. I still have hope for them that they will choose this path in another time. Although it was hard to come back from that disappointment, I'm thankful to have planted a seed in their hearts. 

As I hit my one year mark this week, I've been contemplating what I want to become. I only have a little time left and I want to stretch myself to new heights. I realize each day that a mission is really about converting yourself. Yes, our job is to serve and teach, but most importantly, we have to be converted to the gospel ourselves. I hope to become the disciple Christ needs me to be, especially at a time like this. We need more members of the Church, but it means nothing if they aren't strong members. Each person is accountable for acquiring their own testimony of Jesus Christ. I'm happy to say I have found mine. 

Have a blessed week and do things that bring you eternal happiness!

Love, 
Sister Smith 

Cougar Mountain

We spent 3 hours at the dentist 😳

Tracting

Our appointment fell threw but Sister Villanueva made a cute note to leave for our friend

Planning for the day (sister brewer captured this moment thanks)

Exchanges and herbal tea 

Could use more Jesus and less of the coffee

 Love having the temple in my area!