a meeting with President Nelson... (3/14/11)

Hi family!

so... this week president called me in and had a special interview with me and i have some stuff i have to tell you all. yep. transfers are tomorrow.

so president called me in and said "sister smith i want you to train" i said okay president and then he went on to say well this is a unique training opportunity -- what we call a "u.t.o" and then he told me that i would be training - co-training. i'm going to be co-training with a sister (sister mammon). i was REALLY shocked to hear that because it's never been done before. i am really excited about the next six weeks - it's weird to realize that one of my new companions is probably on a plane right now or just getting to the airport. so yeah. there is the news. i'm just pretty nervous. i told president nelson that i was really shocked and that the situation is crazy. he said "yes, it is unprecedented, but you will be fine" anyways. this week was REALLY good. really good.

sister kim and i had a good chunk of time this week that we knew we would be "black-boxing" or looking up former investigators, potential investigators, and members. so i think it was my district leader that came up with this idea and we tried it -- we started our "black-boxing" by going to a member's home and praying with them before and then coming back after an hour and reporting what happened. it was amazing. God is real and miracles happen. we expected miracles and this week was SO GOOD. because judith and alexa were going to be baptized, sister kim and i knew that we really needed to find new people to work with. so we set a goal for finding two new investigators this week (which may not sound like a lot, but we have only had three the whole transfer) and we really REALLY wanted to get that so we can keep working and yeah. so on tuesday we started and we found that several people had moved and a LOT of people were catholic, but then we found one lady who said she doesn't have a religion and that we could come back on the weekends. also, when we prayed with the member (sister vandegraaf who is actually from rexburg) she told us of a friend that she has across the street that we could try. YEAH!!!!!!! that is a missionary's DREAM!!!!!!!!! so we did and we got a good 90 more seconds and gave the husband a card before we had to leave. both sister kim and i were so excited all day because of this whole "pray with a member before you work" thing. because of that our attitudes really changed and everything went so much better. LOVE IT! the next day we did the same thing with the bishop's wife and right out of her house we found a woman with a baby that we thought was going to be pretty rude because it was cold and she had a baby that shouldn't stay in the cold, but she talked to us and was really interested. it was AWESOME. then we got to report to the bishop's wife and give her a thought that she really needed.

this week we have, once again, been put in just the right place at just the right time. we have been able to really do that with members and it's amazing that they have been able to open up to us about the problems they are going through and the things that they need. awesome. and then yesterday was AMAZING.

judith and alexa got baptized!!!!!!! it went so well. the members were so excited and all of the members that have taught with us and worked with us were so pumped to be there. church went really good and everything went so smoothly. they decorated their house in white and with doves to celebrate their baptism -- so cute. and they were SO excited. the bishop baptized them and it was wonderful. and then they had three friends that came to the baptism that are interested in the gospel and a little girl came to church with her friends that got to stay for the baptism and told us that she wanted us to teach her and her family because "she was going to get baptized soon" -- the elders sang a musical number that was incredible. it brought the spirit so strong. basically, it was awesome. and then all the missionaries (me, sis. kim and the elders) stayed to eat lunch because a member randomly just brought us food (AWESOME.... what other point in my life will i have people just bring me dinner or ask to feed me?! yeah. i love it) so by suprise we were still at the church when someone from arizona came to the church looking for missionaries to give a blessing to their non-member aunt. miracle? i believe so. it just amazes me that God cares aobut each of us so much to figure out ALL of those details perfectly. anyways, THEN we went home and were getting some things in our area book ready for my new companions to come in and lo and behold, another miracle.

remember how sister kim and i prayed for two new investigators? yeah. when we were cleaning the area book we found them. randomly we called some people to make sure information was correct and stuff and they had been wanting to come to church and read the book of mormon -- they were just waiting for the phone call basically. it was AMAZING. absolutely amazing.

well fam,

i love you! always remember that. i am so grateful for all of your support. i am the luckiest missionary ever.

love you!

sister m. smith