4.04.2011

I love to see the temple -- I'm going there WEDNESDAY!! (2/28/11)

Dearest Family,

As you can tell from the subject line i got some really exciting/freaky news this week and i'm pumped. on friday i got a letter from the mission and it said that i have my "anniversary temple trip" on WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! freak! i wasn't emotionally prepared to get that letter - i thought that i would be going to the temple next transfer because technically, my nine-month-mark (my grammar really is crappy by the way -- i don't know how i'm ever going to write another college paper again so please don't judge) is three days into next transfer. well, i got the letter. and i cannot even tell you all how excited i am to be able to go to the house of the Lord. however, i had a big reality check on how fast time is going and to be totally honest, i kinda freaked out. i have learned to love this work more than i ever thought i could and i realize how short 18 months really is. anyways, that's my news. so this week is going to be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we have pday today, we have to deep clean our apartment tomorrow, i get to go to the temple on wednesday, we have some appointments that have taken us a month to set up for thursday, there is a youth fireside that Elder Rasband is speaking at on friday and we can go if we have investigators with us and we possibly have two, and then ELDER ANDERSON is coming on saturday and on sunday too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh i think i forgot to tell you all that elder anderson wants to do not only stake conference, but he is doing a mission-wide conference on saturday. my excitement is the equivalent of a BYU professor telling you that someone did all of your homework for the entire semester, you magically have all the knowledge for the class in your head, and you got an a. lie. my excitement is if ALL of my professors were to say that to me. i have been SO blessed this week that i don't even know what to say.

a whole bunch of funny things happened this week that i will update everyone on :)
-sister kim changes her accent everytime she leaves the elders a voicemail... this week included whale language (as seen on Nemo), pirate, girly princess, irish, darth vader, and several others.
-sister kim and i prayed at the door right before we were ready to leave and she said (background quick - she always wears basketball shorts underneath her skirt -- it keeps you warmer) "i looked down to see what skirt i was wearing and i felt my shorts... then i realized i didn't have a skirt on"
-the elders visited one of their investigators and his daughter and they started freaking out because they saw three lights over the manhattan skyline.... elder kinikini said that clearly the lights were helicopters, but the daughter and the investigator kept insisting they were spaceships and the daughter started bobbing her head randomly and said "we be seeing spaceships" -- the elders reenacted it for us and sister kim and i were DYING we were laughing so hard (it may have been one of those you had to be there moments but hey. i thought it was funny :)

okay i realize that the funny section may only be funny to me but cut me some slack, we ARE missionaries. some of the miracles that happened this week...

we went over to one of our active member's home and HOLY COW! she is one of the strongest people i have ever met. she just opened up to us and told us her whole story and how much God loved her... it was awesome. she had some serious family issues that resulted in her going into a coma for over two weeks. she made it out of the coma without any brain damage or anything and she said that she then realized that she needed to leave the situation and God provided a way. she had been trying forever to find housing and then she just found something in the projects (the projects in bensonhurst are SOOOOOOOOO much nicer than the ones in midwood) and she was able to move and get a better life. that's just a tiny bit of her story, but it was incredible. most of it i really can't share - but God is real and He really does love his children individually and miracles are real and they happen all of the time. we invited her to ask someone to come to the special stake conference and she was so excited. she ADORES the people that shared the gospel with her and she can't wait to share it with someone else. she said she wanted to talk to two of her friends and we are really excited for her.

we had dinner at a family's home that the wife just barely found out that she has cancer. i could not believe how upbeat she was and how positive she was. she has just decided to leave it to God and she knows He will take care of it. she is not worried because she has faith and she is so sweet. she chastised me a little bit when i asked her what we could do for her. she said that the only thing we could do is to come and eat with her family on friday night. so we did and she was so sweet to us. and, by the way, i'm getting REALLY good at eating with chopsticks. okay that is being super prideful and pride definitely comes before the fall -- hopefully i don't spill food all over me this week :)

sister kim has been such a blessing in my life. i'm always amazed at how Heavenly Father puts people in your life specifically for different times. we have SO much fun together and i love that girl a LOT. she has helped me grow so much and she has helped me really love myself for exactly who i am. i love that Heavenly Father calls each of us for the people we are, not for the people that we compare ourselves to or wish we could be. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses and He knows where we are needed. It is amazing to me that, despite all of my imperfections and weaknesses, He still loves me. He still needs my specific talents and He still needs ME. and bless sister kim for helping me to learn that lesson. and to learn how to throw your shoe as far as you can, how to speak korean, and how to play the piano. and she is hilarious. anyways.

i LOVE you all. please know that i pray for all of you all the time and that i am overwhelmed at how blessed i am. i have an AMAZING family and wonderful friends and i really couldn't ask for more. you are the biggest blessing in my life and i truly appreciate each and every one of you. your letters always seem to come when i need them the most and they give me the boost that i need. thank you. i love you and i hope you all have a good week!

love ( <3 )
sister mich smith

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