Letter (novel) to Lindsey

Okay, sorry I did not get to respond last week when you e-mailed, it was a rushed week and it was a long e-mail, that I LOVED! Here it goes:

Mom, sent me a video of you on the trampoline showing off your belly, it is cute! Is it hard to have a vbac? Did you not have a good experience last time you gave birth? I bet it would be hard going from Logan to Duchesne, as far as doctors go, there is not a lot of choice in Duchesne. 

Any news on your house yet? How long do the people before you have to sell their house before you get it? Nevermind, you answered later on in the letter:) Patience is one of the hardest lessons ever. to keep your faith bright and fired up for such a long period of time that the Lord wants you to wait before he makes it known to you what you need to do.

I do pray for specific things I want. We do pray for baptisms often. We pray that we will be able to teach Restoration lessons to people, but after we ask for specific things we want we almost always follow up with "if it is thy will." My favorite model of prayer in the scriptures is Enos. He is so faithful, and has such a change of heart. Also Alma 36:12-25 it does not specifically say that Alma prayed but it says he cried to the Lord, and asked forgiveness, that sounds like prayer to me! Forgiveness and Repentance is kind of a theme for my favorite prayer scriptures! 

Teaching primary was my favorite calling ever! Besides being a missionary of course! haha! It is a challenge but I loved teaching them, I remember Cameron Brady being a stinker in Sharing time though. . . good luck!

My companion and I do not plan weekly meals, usually we have a lot of member meals throughout the week, so we do not have a lot of meals, besides breakfast at home. We are companions, we do everything together;) jk, It depends on the companion if we shop together or not. Sister Beeson and I did plan meals and split up who was going to buy what. Some people like to have their own food and others like to buy things we both like and share. that is what I prefer, that is also what Sister Shumway and I do. we do not plan meals but we share the food that we do buy.  I have not had any companions that like to cook, so we do not usually cook together. Usually they just eat the food I make anyway. Sister Shumway is really good at helping out in the kitchen though, she will usually wash the dishes as I am cooking, or do something else that I have been planning on doing but am not able to do because I am cooking:) we get $152 a month to spend on food, postage, laundry, and all necessary things to live. Now that we live in a member home and do not have to pay for laundry we will get more money to spend! I usually spend around $25 a week for food. but it varies by week.

I love personal study, it is usually the best hour of the day! it is expecially my favorite to study the Atonement. A while ago our mission studied a packet that President Clements put together all on the Atonement and I grew so much while reading it. It was so great! Mostly companion study is sing a song, pray, quote Our Purpose, and Doctrine and Covenants 4 (or the 1st vision, or the How to begin teaching points, or anything we are working on memorizing), sharing what we learn in personal study, then planning the lessons we are going to teach that day. I like companion study most of the time. Sometimes my pride makes me annoyed when we do not get to plan what I want to do for a specific investigator. 

The members in this area take the best care of me out of any ward that I have been in so far. They LOVE the sister missionaries, they have not had Sisters for 3 years, so they do a good job of letting us know we are loved. I would say an average of 3 or 4 meals per week. they always go teaching with us, and the Parkinson's are letting us live in their home:) So that is great! They do not help us find many investigators but that is about to change! Bishop Miller is a very inspired man, and he gave us great directionon how we can get more referrals from the members. Becasue a lot of them really really want to share the gospel they just do not know how. so we will be their teachers in the MMTC (member missionary training center).

The weirdest thing I have eaten on my mission so far was a chicken foot, that I had to eat right off the bone. yuck, Karen food was super weird. I DO NOT like Rice noodles at all, the texture and taste is gross. The nastiest thing I have eaten on my mission so far though was Pho (said Fuh) it is Hmong food and it is not yummy. it has tripe in it. . 

I had one scary experince, one day we were going to meet a member and the people directed us to the back of the house, adn so we went there and an old man who was very very much on drugs came out and wanted us (Sister Beeson and I) to come in. He kept asking us if we were college girls, and if we had ever made-out with anyone, and he got kind of mad at us that we would not come in. Then he came out of his door. then we just ran down his stairs and drove away as fast as we could. That was the scariest moment of my mission.

I do have a car, we get to go 1000 miles a month. that is about 35ish miles a day. The weather is Minnesota, so it is super hot and humid, one day then the Rain is the craziest thing ever. The storms are nothing like the ones in Utah, much more intense. THe Bugs are OUT OF CONTROL but I think I am getting really good at ignoring the constant desire to itch my skin.

any fun findings in the FHC? She did not tell me about the Holder family. Cooper is getting so big, I am so excited to see him again! I love you so much!

With Love, 
      Sister Smith