Week 21 - Transfer 4 Here We Go

Guys so much is happening and this new transfer is about to be the craziest one yet! Transfer 3 has come and gone, and was by far the quickest 6 six weeks of my life.

I'm still in good ol' Enumclaw with Sister Deruvo, but I'm also training again! Basically I'm training someone else within training Sister Deruvo so this is going to get interesting. Our apartment is pretty small already and we have to fit another sister in there but we are determined to make it work. We are going to have a lot of fun! Sister Deruvo will leave Dec. 18th to go back to Temple Square so we only have 4 more weeks together. Then it will just be me and my cute little trainee the rest of the transfer. Honestly so excited because the more the merrier right? Especially around the holidays! We also get a bunk bed in our apartment...lucky us right?!

This week we didn't have too much success. J'nell and Rod have been rescheduling our meetings every time due to Rod's unpredictable work schedule so we haven't seen them for quite some time. They still have not made it to church sadly so keep them in your prayers. Mike and Chelsea sadly dropped us so we will not be teaching them anymore. We still have not seen or heard from Joel, but the ward is doing their absolute best to reach out to him. We spent the majority of our week working with members and finding new people to teach. We made it a goal to go knocking on doors at least 30 minutes a day. It's definitely not our favorite thing to do, but we know it shows our Heavenly Father we are willing to work hard to find those elect people. We've actually seen some miracles come from it. Quite a few asked us to come back after Thanksgiving when life isn't so crazy, so hopefully we will have lots of new friends to teach soon! We've also seen a lot of rejection. One lady literally told us to "take our religion and get off her porch." It's moments like that when you and your companion just have to laugh and move on. 

We had a really successful discussion with our friend Arianna. Usually her kids are there every time we go over and as cute as they are....they are a major distraction. This time when we went over, her kids were in daycare still so we were able to talk with her one on one. She opened up A LOT and we finally know how to help her progress. She has been to our church once befote and really liked how she felt there, so hopefully we can get her to come again! 

I have truly planted my heart here in Enumclaw and nothing makes me more happy than getting to be with these people for the holidays. They have become my family and they will always hold a special place in my heart. 

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving and remember to take some time to just realize how blessed we are! God is so good to us! 

Love you,

sis. smith 

Last district council together 

Yep that's us

 the ZONE

sister Deruvo and I have consumed way too much sushi lately 

 Look at this sunset, wow we live in a cool place!

How we feel about transfers

Sisters who make pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes together in their pjs are the best kind of sisters 

Week 20 - Zone Conference, Finding Festival, and Church Tour

Hey friends!

This week was another emotional roller-coaster which is actually pretty normal in the life of a missionary. I can't believe this transfer ends next week. I feel like it just started!

At the beginning of last week, we were invited to teach a lesson at the senior family home evening. Guess what the topic was? MISSIONARY WORK of course! We had a lot of fun with it because we practically had to yell the whole lesson so everyone could hear. Also the video we had prepared wasn't working and everyone was shouting their recommendations at us of what video we should watch. I love love love our senior ward members haha. Many of them are converts to the Church so we asked them to share their conversion stories. It was so amazing and the excitement of missionary work just overcame us all. I think it's so important that we realize missionary work isn't just about preaching the gospel; it includes being a friend and serving those around you. It includes being an example so others will recognize the light in you. Missionary work is so much easier than we think and I hope to be the best member missionary when I get home! 

On Wednesday, we had zone conference and it was amazing! There's nothing I love more than being surrounded by a bunch of missionaries and just learning how we can continue to elevate our mission. It only happens once a transfer and this time is so crucial for receiving revelation for our area. I know that there's some changes I definitely want to make to help progress this work. We also are already discussing Christmas plans which is crazy. It will be here before we know it! I'm so excited though to just serve everyone and talk about our Savior. 

Thursday was a very rough day....we spent basically half the day searching for Joel. He has fallen off the face of the earth and he won't reach out to us. We know something happened, but he won't talk about it. I felt like we were on a missing persons case because we were driving all around town, talking to different people that may have seen him. Luckily, we did finally run into him, but he's different. All I can say is, please please pray for him! Also, our car engine died again while this was all happening. Luckily, we have amazing members (the Ottos) that rushed to our rescue! 

On Saturday, we had another finding festival and our big church tour. We didn't see too much success with finding people, but we had a lot of fun with it. The elders found us a potential family to teach so we are really excited about that! I got to go finding with Hermana Aguayo and I'm convinced the Lord wants me to eventually go Spanish speaking. I'm always with the hermanas on finding day, and for the most part, I can actually understand what they are saying which is crazy because I was not good at Spanish in high school. The gift of tongues is a real thing and I'm going to teach myself Spanish now. 

We had some friends show up to our church tour! Brad came with some kids from our ward and I think he liked it. He took a Book of Mormon and said he will start reading it which is progress! Our elderly friends Douglas and Carol came too and they had a lot of good questions. Doug basically believes in the Book of Mormon minus a few details so we really just need him to be reading the scriptures everyday. We are guaranteed to develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon when we read with a sincere desire to know the truth. 

We haven't heard from Chelsea and Mike since they came to church so keep them in your prayers as well. We also still haven't been able to meet with J'nell so fingers crossed that they will reach out this week. Overall, the work is good. It's hard and yes, there are moments when I wonder "why am I even here?" You just have to look past all of that and when you do, the shower of blessings start to come. Trust me, it's so worth it to keep going. 

I hope this week brings you joy! Take moments to just laugh, even when you are having the worst day ever. Laughter will keep you sane! I can promise that. 

Love you all!

love,

sis. smith 

 Senior FHE with my favorite people

 My district sistas after zone conference 

Sister Cowley ❤

love my Italian companion

Views

Had to fit 12 balloons in our car for the church tour, it was nuts!

Week 19 - Tricks and Treats

Hey hey!

I hope you all had a lovely Halloween. Ours was pretty uneventful, but we made it fun! We spent all Halloween just visiting less active families and people we are teaching. We made little treat bags and wrote cards to each of them. They were all super grateful :) Also, as missionaries, we aren't allowed to be out past 7 on Halloween night so we just stayed in our apartment all night. We baked apples with cinnamon and brown sugar and watched church movies until we both passed out from exhaustion. 

Trick for the Week: Pretty sure Satan is trying to sabotage all our friends and members. Literally everyone we have talked to this week has the flu or has a family member with the flu. We are just waiting for it to hit us one day because we are surrounded by sick people. Our cute family, J'nell and Rod, were going to come to church this week and we were so excited about it. On Sunday morning we got a text saying they were hit with the flu and they couldn't make it to church. We also had to reschedule the lesson with them. It was pretty disappointing. It's also getting super dark at night which has made proselyting difficult. When we try to visit people in the evening, they usually don't want to talk with us because they are eating dinner or going to bed (yes, some go to bed at 7 pm just because it's darker outside). We've been trying to schedule more lessons in the evening so we can knock on doors earlier in the day, but it doesn't always work out. 

Treat for the Week: We had a trunk-or-treat with our stake last Tuesday and we invited all of our friends to it. Not all of them came, but we did see some of them there! It was great because they were able to meet many of the ward members so they can feel more comfortable about coming to church. Sister Deruvo and I just walked around and people kept asking us what we were dressed up as for Halloween lol. They think they are so funny. Our friends Mike and Chelsea were going to come to the trunk-or-treat, but guess what? They had the flu! Ok, but they totally made up for it because they came to church this Sunday!! They've been meaning to come for weeks now, so we were super shocked to see them actually show up. It was testimony meeting and they were super impressed with the way people would just get up and share their thoughts. They only stayed for sacrament meeting, but they loved it. They told us they had some reading to do....hopefully that means they are going to read the Book of Mormon. It was such a miracle. 

Well, that's pretty much all that happened this week! Pray for J'nell and Rod to get better so we can start teaching them again and get Rod on date for baptism! I love you all and I hope you have the best week ever! 

Be kind and be happy :) 

love,

sis. smith

 Thankful for Target and pizza costumes

Froyo is always a good idea

We made elder brewer a cake for his birthday (basically the best sisters ever) 

 Lol the district leader left this on our doorstep Halloween night. We have no idea what to do with it all 

Week 17 & 18 - Spiritual Ditches

Hello friends! 

Sorry I was lame and didn't send out a weekly email last week, but life has been crazy in the best kind of way! 

These past two weeks we've really been working with J'nell and Rod. J'nell definitely did her research and she had some good questions. We actually ended up going to the library this week to do some more research so we could understand how to help her. Last night we brought a member with us to their home and it was amazing! This lady is Sister Thorley and she is the most knowledgeable woman I've ever met. She had an answer to every question J'nell had and explained everything in such a logical way. I swear every time I listen to her, I am more converted to this gospel. She knows how to teach to one's understanding and the Spirit is so strong when she testifies of Joseph Smith being a prophet. After we answered all of J'nells questions, we both offered our personal testimonies of the Book of Mormon and I could just see something change in J'nell. She was becoming converted too. Now with the questions out of the way, we can start discussing when Rod wants to be baptized and they are going to start coming to church! This family has seriously been a blessing to us. 

We've made a few new friends these past couple of weeks. We found Brad last week during our mini finding festival and he's a pretty cool guy. He's around our age and we've only had one lesson with him, but he's on date for baptism in November! Hopefully all goes according to plan. We also had a lesson with a referral from some of our favorite members, the Knapps. This woman named Eva is from the Czech Republic and she's been living in the US for quite a few years now. She met Sister Knapp at work and ended up living with them for a year due to some financial/medical problems. Her husband is still in the Czech Republic receiving medical help and so Eva is all alone here. The Knapps found her a little apartment and she's come to church with them before. We taught her the Restoration and Brother Knapp blessed her new home. We were all in tears by the end because the Spirit was so strong. Yesterday we talked with a man named Mark who likes to show us videos of old British singers lol. When we first met Mark, he did not want to talk to us. We started asking him questions about his life and he opened up. Once he saw that we were genuinely interested in what he had to say, we were able to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon with him. We are going back tomorrow so hopefully we can discuss more about the gospel. 

This past Tuesday was an interesting day....we were trying to find Brad's house and literally took a turn for the worse. Sister Deruvo was the one who had found Brad when we were on splits during finding festival day so only she knew where he lived. She was trying to direct me where she thought they parked last time. Now, you have to understand that Enumclaw has these huge ditches on the side of the roads, but they are covered with really tall grass. So when you are just looking at the ditch from the front view, it looks flat. Sister Deruvo says "oh I think we parked there" so I go to park and instantly regret it. Our car starts to sink sideways and we are totally stuck. Not to mention that this is a busy highway we are stuck on the side of so we are in a pretty dangerous situation. We call Brad to reschedule and then our mission vehicle coordinator. He tells us to get out of the car immediately and to call a tow truck. The car is slightly teetering so getting out was a challenge, but we made it. Just as we are trying to call a tow truck, the police show up. The officer asks us what happened and he calls a tow truck for us. The funny thing is that all these members (many of them not even from our ward) pulled up as they were driving past and asked us if we needed any help. The police officer kept commenting "wow you know everyone here." Really we don't, but as missionaries we tend to have lots of people looking out for us. Oh, and I forgot to mention that after they towed our car out, the battery died, and so when I tried to back up, the car slid into the ditch again. We had to call someone with jumper cables and pull the car out of the ditch a second time. It was a hilarious/scary experience I never want to go through again. 

Getting stuck in the ditch did help me learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes in life we found ourselves in mental/spiritual ditches and we have no idea how to get out. When we look to trusted people that have been given the authority to give us guidance (the prophets), then we can find our solution to these spiritual ditches. We also have to learn to laugh when things don't go our way. Life is full of making mistakes and instead of letting ourselves get down about all the things we could've done better, just laugh and move on. Use your mistakes to help you move forward and you will be happier. I must admit it's not always an easy thing to do, but I have found it truly works, especially when you're a missionary. 

Anyway, the rest of the week was great! Mike and Chelsea, the young couple we have been teaching, have finally agreed to come to church with us this Sunday! Also Joel is doing well. We had a great lesson with him at the Knapp's home Wednesday night and we are preparing him to receive the Aaronic priesthood. He has been going to the Maple Valley YSA ward for the last couple of weeks and our ward has

been missing him. They love Joel so much and they always ask us how he's doing. Our ward is just the greatest! I hope I get to stay here for the holidays :) 

Thank you for your emails! I love reading about everything you guys are up to! Enjoy my favorite season for me and go hike a mountain or something. Have a great week and remember to always put Christ above all! 

lots of love,
sis. smith

I be(leaf) in Christ....pun intended obviously

Fall is here in Enumclaw!

 My companion being attacked by nature

Rip the car 

Week 16 - Italy is Better than Utah Apparently

Ciao!

So my new companion is the coolest person ever. She's from Italy and her English is amazing. She was called to the Temple Square mission in Salt Lake, but I guess it's a completely different kind of mission. They work with people online a lot more than we do and they get to give tours to everyone! The temple square sisters get a chance to receive a second mission call to serve somewhere else for 2 transfers to see what it would be like. My cute trainee, Sister Deruvo got called here and she is seriously amazing. She's going to teach me some Italian whether she wants to or not, lol. It's honestly so funny to see the reactions of people when they ask where we are from. I'll say "Utah" and get no reaction. Then Sister Deruvo will say "Italy" and everyone's eyes just get big. They start asking a bunch of questions like "Wow do they have many members in Italy?" or "Are you a convert to the Church?" 

Anyway, even though my "trainee" has been out longer than I have, I'm still called to be her trainer. Everything from our schedule to finding people to teach is way different than the Temple Square mission so she kind of has to relearn/adjust to some things. It's been good though and she has a lot of patience with me. I'm not going to lie...it's been a rough couple of days adjusting. I feel like I went from being the baby of the family to the oldest kid within a day and it's given me a lot of responsibility. Sister Deruvo only brought her tablet so I've been on phone duty and driving duty this week. IT'S BEEN HECTIC. We may have gotten lost more than a couple of times, but all is well. This experience has been much needed and I definitely feel more humble than when I first came out. We've spent most this week knocking on doors, partly because I want Sister Deruvo to get comfortable talking to people on their doorstep and partly because we need more friends to teach. Other than Joel, our other friends have not been progressing very much lately. HOWEVER....we saw a lot of promise with tracting this week and hopefully we will have some new people to teach soon! 

J'nell and her family (the ones who got involved in a lot of anti -literature) finally reached out to us! They have been dealing with a lot of problems lately and have been keeping in contact with us all week to get the help they need. I think it's incredible that when people go through hard things, they always seem to find their way back to the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father truly gives us trials out of love. He knows that when hard things come, we can choose to grow closer to Him or to fall away. It's in those moments when we look to the gospel for help that we understand the power of Christ's Atonement and the comfort it can bring us. I hope J'nell is realizing that and I know that her heart has been softened. We are going over tonight to answer all their questions so PLEASE PRAY FOR US! Also, J'nell and Rod still want to be married by our bishop so that's a huge step in the right direction :)

Joel is doing well and is getting involved in the young single adult ward up in Maple Valley. I think it will be good for him to meet other kids his age in the Church; our ward is full of old people haha. Also, he did finally find a job and luckily he doesn't have to work on Sundays! We are now teaching him the new member lessons and it's been really cool to see how far he has come. He understands the Restoration way more than when we first taught it to him. We really want him to serve a mission because we think he'd be amazing at it. Joel is the type that will talk with anyone he sees and have a two hour conversation with them so he's basically a pre-trained missionary. Also, he went to all four sessions of General Conference and even took notes! We are so PROUD of him!

Not much else has happened, but I know we are about to witness an abundance of miracles here in Enumclaw very soon! I've been thinking about one of the overall themes of General Conference lately and I love the idea of "shepherding" to others in need. Christ was the Good Shepherd and He served everyone no matter who they were. As members of His church, we too have been given the responsibility to serve others and to be His hands in this great work. We may not realize it, but there is so much to be said in the small acts of kindness we do every single day. I encourage you all to be kind to one another and to love each other as the Savior would. Each person has a right to feel the love of God! Service is the best medicine for sorrow and I have definitely found that to be true as a missionary. 

I love you all and I wish you the best week ever!

love, 

sis. smith

  this is where i live. so pretty.

our hike today

Week 15 - Baptism, General Conference, & Transfers

Hey everyone! Oh my gosh this week has been the craziest week of my mission by far!  I know I say that every week but it's for reals this time!

So our little friend Joel finally got baptized!! It was the greatest experience  ever and I'm so humbled I got to be a part of it (it's pretty rare here in Washington to have a baptism during your two transfers of training). Also, our ward is actually amazing. So many members came to support him and we ended up filling the chapel! My cute companion sang "Nearer My God, To Thee" with our ward mission leader's wife and it was beautiful. The spirit was so strong in the chapel.

And....Joel brought his mom to his baptism! Not only is she the coolest, most supportive lady ever, but she asked our bishop if she could go up and bear her testimony! After Joel was baptized, his mom went up and shared her thoughts about how her faith in God has grown. She ended up talking for like 15 minutes but it was such a powerful testimony. At the end of the baptism, she gave us her phone number and asked us to keep an eye on Joel. She has so much trust in us and we barely just met her! 

A couple days later we went by Joel's apartment to drop off some things he left at the church. We asked him how he felt after being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said he "felt lighter" and I definitely could see it. I wish you could see how he used to be. He used to be so negative about the future and his self-image. Now he's happier and knows he is cared for by the ward. He shared with us that he quit his only job because they asked him to start working on Sundays at the same time church starts. He only has like $10 left and no idea where he's going to find a new job, but he's so hopeful. If that's not faith, I don't know what is! 

Ok now can we talk about General Conference?? Best birthday present ever. All the missionaries got to watch it in the chapel and we just partied in between sessions. I love love love our prophet so much. So much revelation received! I'm taking the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year and I encourage you all to do the same. The Book of Mormon has brought me so much comfort and knowledge during my mission. It is truly what will be the foundation of our eternal conversion. 

Now something crazy to tell you! So transfers are here and we've all been dreading it. Most of the missionaries in our zone have been here for at least 3 transfers so we knew the zone was about to get scattered. For the last couple of weeks everyone has been telling me I was destined to train next transfer. I blew it off because I thought there was no way our mission president would trust me to train someone right after I just completed training. But it's not the mission president's decision....it's God's decision. So anyway, I've been super nervous about taking over the area because I knew my trainer, Sister Morris was going to leave me next transfer. Then, on Sunday while we were watching the morning session of General Conference, without warning I heard a voice say "You are going to be a trainer." It totally threw me off and I kinda looked around. The feeling came again and even stronger. I silently told Heavenly Father I wasn't ready to be a trainer, but then I felt an overwhelming feeling of trust and I knew this is what He wanted me to do. I can't remember who gave the talk during that moment, but he was talking about letting our faith in Christ overcome our fear. It was exactly what I needed to hear.

Sunday night transfer calls came and sure enough, my trainer was leaving me. On Monday, I helped her pack and we went to say goodbye to all the members and our friends. Mondays are also the days we are informed if we have been assigned a leadership calling. While Sister Morris and I were studying, the phone rang and it was the assistants to the president. My heart dropped as Elder Corbett told me I would be a trainer next transfer. These were his exact words: The Lord has a lot of trust in you Sister Smith. You will either make or break this sister's mission." Then he hung up. Talk about a lot of pressure! I definitely freaked out but after some much needed encouragement and advice, I feel better about training this next transfer. 

The mission truly is there to push up and mold us into what He needs us to be. I hope to be the best trainer for this new sister. I know that my faith in the Lord's plan for me will mean everything these next couple of months. Please pray for me and wish me luck! 

Grateful for you all and please never forgot how much you are loved!

Love, 

Sister Smith

Week 14 - 3 Months Out

Hey everyone!!

First of all....thank you guys so much for all the early birthday wishes!! Seriously means the world to me ❤ I feel so lucky to have my birthday fall on General Conference weekend again because we get to hear from the prophet! Best birthday present ever! 

Honestly I have no clue what happened this week! The time just speeds up the longer you are out. I can't believe it's been 3 months already and I'll be done with training in a week so pray for me haha. 

Joel's baptismal date is finally set for this Wednesday, October 3rd. We found him at the beginning of this transfer and now he's getting baptized right before next transfer. It's super rare to find and baptize someone in one transfer so Sister Morris and I are very blessed. We often laugh about how crazy it was that Joel found us. A week before we met him, we were making absolutely no progress. During our weekly planning session, we finally just threw our hands up and basically decided to give up looking for people to teach that week. We felt like Heavenly Father had seen our efforts and would bring someone to us. A couple of days later Joel asks for our church tour flier at the library....and calls us about wanting to go to church that weekend! It was not a coincidence and Heavenly Father definitely answered our prayers. I can't wait for my first baptism of the mission, it's going to be so good! 

This week we've been spending most of our time knocking on doors. Our current friends have all failed to progress so we've been focusing on finding new people to teach. We've been trying this new door approach where we ask people how they are preparing for the Second Coming of Christ. Most are just taken aback and they have to sit and think about it for a minute. We then proceed to tell them how Christ restored His church through a prophet and gave him the proper authority to act in God's name. Then we say that we represent this restored church and we help people prepare for the day when Christ will come again. Many have responded positively to this approach and they'll usually let us talk with them. We even made a new friend. Pam is an older woman who has been looking for a different church. She has so much faith, but she is lost without the complete truth of the restored gospel. We taught her the Restoration and she was pretty insistent about checking out our church on Sunday. 

We've also been singing to everyone this week. Sister Morris is pretty good with the ukulele and she's been learning a bunch of hymns and primary songs. We take the uke around when we go tracting and ask people if we can sing to them. Most people will let us and the music invites the Spirit. Almost everyone we have sang to is more open to hearing us share a scripture and our testimonies of the Book of Mormon with them. 

We've been very blessed with sunshine this past week, but now fall has officially rolled in. We tried to go hiking this morning to get a good view of Mount Rainier, but we were all freezing and the fog covered up the view. It was still such a pretty hike and the leaves are finally starting to change colors! Anyone who knows me knows that I love fall the most out of all the seasons, so despite the sudden cold air, my heart is full of joy. 

Thank you everyone for your amazing support! I hope you all have an amazing week wherever you may be! 

Love, 

Sister Smith

 Enumclaw=farm country so basically cows everywhere

The Halloween costumes have started to appear in every store so naturally...this happened

This dog tried to attack me with its love

 On top of the world

 My cute companion

Sunrise hike with the sistas. 

Look it's finally fall!!! 

Week 13 - The Roses and Thorns of Missionary Work

Wow what a week this has been! Let's just say it started off pretty rough....

The thorn of this week was that our favorite progressing family (J'nell and Rod) took a turn down the wrong path. They were hit with a lot of anti literature from the internet Monday night and are now convinced we are not who we say we are. J'nell called her mom who called us, freaking out about all the things her daughter saw. J'nell's mom is a strong member and works in the temple daily. She has been wanting this for her daughter for a long time and it's hurting her to see Satan trying to take that away again. J'nell's mom was also forwarding all of J'nell's texts to us so we were getting hit with the anti stuff too. And even though Sister Morris and I have strong testimonies, we could feel our faith shaking. We felt horrible and we had no idea how to help J'nell. We were able to get one of our members to come to J'nell's home with us to help her answer her questions. Unfortuantely, J'nell was not ready to talk to us.

Some good did come from this though! The member sat down with us and taught us how to answer most anti questions that could come up. It reaffirmed my faith in this gospel and everything truly ties back to the Book of Mormon. There is so much power when we strive to read from it each day. Personal revelation comes from the white spaces of the page, not just the words. I gained a stronger testimony that night of God's love for His children because I know He would never lead us astray. 

Ok now the roses of this week! Because Joel's baptism falls on the weekend of General Conference and lots of members are going to be busy/gone, we are planning to move his baptism date. We just have no idea when lol. Our hands have been full this week as we've tried to prepare Joel for baptism. I still can't believe how much progress he has made. When we first found Joel, he was in a rough spot. He didn't even know if God existed. Now he has a firm testimony in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He believes in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We have seen the power of Christ's Atonement work through him. He used to have a bad habit of swearing, especially when we would talk to him on the phone. I have not heard one swear word leave his mouth for weeks and he's completely stopped on his own. That's the power of having the Spirit in your life friends. When we first invited him to be baptized, he told us he didn't feel worthy enough. Now, he tells us how excited he is for his baptism because he gets a fresh start in life. He wore a suit to church for the first time on Sunday and it made me so happy!! He's going to definitely serve a mission someday ;)

Our grand church tour went really well Saturday night! We didn't have quite as many people show up as we wanted but it was still a success! We had a less active member (a father and his two daughters) come to the tour which was super awesome! We gave each of the girls a Book of Mormon and they went straight to reading and highlighting parts they liked! On Sunday, the dad (Brother Josh Thompson) brought his girls and their friend to church and it was such a tender mercy! They loved church and Zoey who is 10 wants to get baptized. We had family home evening with them last night and they made prayer jars so they could know what to pray for each day. We are so excited for this family and the father is such an amazing dad to them. The girls just look up to him so much. 

We had 7 friends at church this week which was a huge miracle! Many less active members came too and the chapel was just filled with people. It was such a testimony builder to me of  how truly important it is to get people to church because the Spirit felt there is unlike anything you'll find elsewhere. 

We were able to have Elder Whiting, a member of the seventy, come and visit us yesterday for zone conference. Wow, he is basically Elder Holland in a nutshell. I've never been so inspired to be the best missionary I can be. He told us how the Second Coming basically depends on us as missionaries because Christ will only return to the earth once the gospel has touched every part of the world. That struck me hard and I realized how important this work really is and I need to take it even more seriously. I know my time is limited and I want to exert all my effort every minute of each day. I seriously love this work, even if it's hard and many times I have wanted to give up. I know I grew up in the church for a reason and it's my job to share it with as many as I can. I can't wait for the miracles to come as this transfer comes to an end!

Love you all and life is so good here in Enumclaw! Have the best week ever!

love, 

sister smith

Week 12 - The Prophet Was Here!

The rain has finally come to Washington and it's not coming lightly! I know I'll get sick of the rain eventually but right now I love it! Especially when we are tracting because people feel sorry for us and let us into their homes :) 

So much happened this week OH MY GOSH!! First of all, I don't know if y'all heard, but the prophet came to our mission and spoke at Safeco stadium in Seattle last Saturday. So that was pretty cool. All the missionaries got to ride in school buses up to Seattle and we had reserved seating in the luxury boxes. Also, SO MANY PEOPLE! There were over 49,000 people there which marks the largest event to take place at Safeco field! President Henry B. Eyring, Sister Wendy Nelson, and President Nelson all spoke. Sister Nelson shared some experiences she's had ever since her husband became tbe president of the church. I GOT CHILLS, IT WAS SO GOOD! It made the calling of a prophet more real to me. I know without a doubt that President Russell M. Nelson is truly a prophet called by God. When the prophet spoke, the whole audience just shifted to the edge of their seats. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Definitely the highlight of my week! 

Also Rod is now on date to be baptized on October 27th!! He is so excited and loves reading the Book of Mormon with his family. J'nell and Rod even text scriptures to each other that they find throughout the day! We just need to get Rod and J'nell married by our bishop soon. Sister Morris and I have already been planning their little wedding...without them even knowing. We can hardly wait! 

On Wednesday, we had exchanges again. Sister Watson came to my area and I had to be in charge for a day. Honestly, I was kinda freaking out about having to take over the area, but Sister Watson is such an experienced missionary and that helped take pressure off me. We did get lost a couple...ok several times, but we invited lots of people to our upcoming church tour! We also met a lady who at first wanted nothing to do with us. Then, we started bearing our testimonies and her heart softened. She let us in and then proceeded to give us umbrellas because it was pouring outside. We sang "I Am A Child of God" to her and she definitely felt the Spirit. She still doesn't agree with our beliefs but at least she has respect for what we do as missionaries. Seed has been planted friends. 

Ok now I HAVE to tell you about David! I think I've briefly mentioned him before, but David has extreme social anxiety. Sister Morris has been trying to get him to pray out loud for months. There was one point when we talked about not teaching David any more. He was not progressing at all. Then, something changed and he's been reaching out to us more than usual. We were able to meet him at the church on Thursday. He told us he was going to surprise us this week and show up to church!!! He also told us he realized we won't be here forever and he is wasting precious time. He really does have so much faith; he just doesn't recognize it.... yet. After we talked about the importance of taking the sacrament at church, we invited David to be baptized. And GUESS WHAT??! He is on date for October 20th!! We've invited David to be baptized several times before, but this time was definitely different. He is starting to realize what this gospel can do for him and he truly has a desire to change. And to top it off, David said the closing prayer...OUT LOUD. Sister Morris and I just started screaming when we got in the car. It was the BIGGEST miracle ever! 

Today for our p-day we hiked the Summit and it was beautiful. Washington never ceases to amaze me. We hiked to this lake and may have accidentally fell in and got soaking wet....we were freezing on the way back! At least we got quality pictures :) 

I truly love my mission in every aspect and I can't wait to experience more! Also, today marks 2 months for me in the mission field and that's crazy! I feel like I literally just got here! Have a great week everyone and thank you so much for your support! 

-sis. smith 

mcdonalds finally opened in our area..we had to celebrate 

 my godmother aka sister vanderwerken

going to see the prophet!!

Safeco field

 the legend himself (Grandpa Blad)

Sister Morris is cute

Sister Burdina is from Russia wut

just look at this lake, your eyes will be blessed

Week 11 - Fasting for Friends

Hello again!

Wow I don't think I've ever fasted this many times in just a couple of weeks. As a district, we have been choosing a day  each week to fast for our goals. Last week our goal was to find new friends and this week it was to get people to church. We've also been fasting for certain friends to recognize their answers from the Holy Ghost. This Friday we are holding another fast as a mission in hopes that a member of our ward will be rid of his cancer. This member has just been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer and the doctors said it would take a miracle for him to live through it. He pulled us aside in church yesterday and asked for the missionaries to fast for him. We believe our entire  mission can provide that miracle he needs. He received a priesthood blessing the other night telling him that his body would be healed. We know that with Heaven's help, anything is possible. I invite you to keep this man (Jack Simmons) in your prayers this week. He is a missionary's best friend. He hands out Books of Mormon left and right and always asks us for more. He is truly amazing and we know he can overcome this burden. 

This week we were able to finally teach our favorite part-member family. And holy cow...THEY ARE SO PREPARED! The couple isn't married, but they have four kids together. They want to be married by our bishop asap. J'nell (the mom) has been inactive for 20 years and has finally decided to come back to church. She asked us to have someone give her a priesthood blessing so she won't have the desire to smoke anymore. Her faith is incredible and we love her so much already! We taught the father (Rod) the Restoration on Saturday and he already knows he needs to be baptized. They also have a picture of the Seattle temple in their living room to remind them of their goal to be sealed as a family someday! They are so amazing! 

Joel, or as we call him...our star investigator, is great! He had a rough childhood and the ward has just become the family he never felt like he had. They adore Joel so much. Joel honestly is the best though because he keeps every commitment we give him and he's always asking for more. He goes to every devotional and activity we tell him about. I'm truly amazed how lucky we are to have found him. 

This week has definitely been a hard one for me. I know that Satan truly tries to hurt us when something great is about to happen. We just have to be patient with ourselves and the Lord's timing and things will work out in the end. I know Enumclaw isn't done with me yet and we still have so much to do here! 

Well that's all for now, but have the best week ever everyone! Heavenly Father's hand is always outstretched to those who seek His help. I know He loves us so much! 

-sister smith

Week 10 - MIRACLES ARE EVERYWHERE

Heavenly Father has done it again!! We just had the most successful week ever aka miracle after miracle!
On Wednesday, in district council we talked about wanting to really focus on finding new people. We made a decision to fast for 24 hours for our goal of finding 12 new friends this week. It has made all the difference!

Joel, our friend we found at the library, met with us on Wednesday. He is currently on date for baptism the 6th of October!! He is such an amazing person and he loves coming to church. On Sunday we persuaded him to go up and bear his testimony. He starts off by saying "Good morning, I'm Joel." No one says anything. "Wow that was weak! I said GOOD MORNING!" Everyone just looks at each other and mutters "good morning." Then Joel starts asking questions, expecting the congregation to participate. Sister Morris and I just look at each other with fear in our eyes like "what did we just do?!" Then Joel starts sharing a story and relating it to how God doesn't leave us behind. Keep in mind that last week this kid didn't even believe in God. It was a beautiful testimony. He is progressing fast and I'm so excited for him!!

Thursday night we went tracting in an area we never saw before. LOTS OF POTENTIAL. We met so many nice people who said we could come back and teach them. It was the first time I actually enjoyed knocking on doors because I could see the benefits of my labors. Also...we may have rescued a baby bird that flew into our car that same night. It was a scary moment but don't worry...the bird is fine and it eventually flew away :) 

Friday was the climax of miracles this week. We had a lesson with one of our newer friends we found tracting. Her name is Twee and she is incredible. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved every minute of it. We invited her to pray about baptism to see if that was something God wanted her to do. She said yes and wants to be baptized on October 6th if she gets her answer! She also wants her sons to be baptized so we are super excited for them!

Later that same day we had a lesson with Colton, a referral from a member in our ward. At first, the lesson started off super tense because he was just throwing all these random questions at us. Sister Morris interrupted him and asked if we could say a prayer. After the prayer, the Spirit just flooded the room and Colton was more willing to listen to us. It was the most powerful lesson I've experienced so far.

At the end of Friday, we stopped by a less active member's home (the Monacos). The husband is the less active and the wife isn't even a member. They have the cutest family and they used to come to church all the time. We went over just to say hello and they ended up feeding us dinner. After, we asked if there was anything we could do for them. Sister Monaco asked if we could come over next week and read the Book of Mormon with her! Brother Monaco admitted he wanted to start coming to church again and he wanted his newborn baby to be blessed. We were so shocked and told them we could definitely help out. I know that the Lord put us there at the right time when this family was willing to try again.

The miracles continue on Saturday! There was a woman we met about a month ago who asked us for a Book of Mormon. We decided to go back and see if she actually ever read it. We met her husband (Mike) and had a lesson with both of them. The woman (Chelsea) grew up with friends that were members and she admitted she always wanted to raise her family in the LDS church. Mike and Chelsea do not believe in God but are very open to the idea. We taught about the Holy Ghost and what it feels like to receive an answer from our Heavenly Father. After Sister Morris ends the lesson with a prayers, Mike says "woah, is that what the Spirit feels like?" We both look at each other and nod. Then he says "so that's what I need to look for when I pray tonight." It was so cool!!

We were also able to meet with J'nell (non active member who is trying to come back to church). We've been over a couple of times and no one ever answers. We have also called her several times and no answer. So it was a miracle that she answered the door! She really wants her husband to take the lessons so he can be baptized. They both also want to be sealed in the temple! We meet with them again on Wednesday and I'm so excited!

The Lord has been so good to us this week! I feel like we are finally finding people who are truly ready for the gospel. I love this work, even if it gets stressful or hard. I know Heavenly Father gives us bad days so we can appreciate the good days.

Love you all and have an amazing week!

-sis. smith