I have not eaten out anywhere cool yet because my last companion was a cheap-o and would only eat at McDonalds!!!! haha! I will do better at sending pictures!
Mom, I LOVE my new companion. Seriously this transfer will be full of miracles, seeing how much the ward already changed in one transfer, from how they treated me when I got here to how they treated Sister Nelson was night and day difference. They are starting to care about who we are! Sister Nelson has so much faith and so much desire to change herself, the area, and the ward, it is incredible! I am so excited to see the miracles that we are blessed with because of her faith! Now we have 2 sister missionaries who want to be a blessing not a burden, and who are willing to work to gain the trust of the members! I am so grateful for her mom, I'm so happy!!!!
Something that I realized today is that there are three sets of missionaries in our ward, so it is a lot of missionaries to feed every night of every week. Utah and is a lot different, it is rare to even see the missionaries because they are assigned to a whole stake, where we are assigned to a ward, usually 2-3 sets of missionaries assigned to one ward, so we demand a lot more from each member, because there are less members here. So the ratio for members to missionaries is a lot smaller, and we have a lot more non-members to watch after too. I think the attitude of the missionaries towards the ward makes a huge difference, all this ward needs is to know that we do love them, and we do want to help them, and we will see more of a willingness!
"Gretta" is the baptism we are planning. She referred herself on mormon.org, and she was 100% prepared for the gospel. The Elders started teaching her, after 1 lesson, she quit drinking coffee, and all caffeine. In the pamphlets we give out there are questions in the back, and she fills out all of the questions. After the 2nd lesson, she started asking "how much does baptism cost?" and "When do you need to start wearing garments?" Then we began teaching her at the 3rd lesson, she asked a lot about baptism and at the beginning of the lesson she told us "I'd say yes to baptism." She has literally taught herself everything because of her study and her desire to learn. She began fasting after the 3rd lesson, and she is just preparing herself for baptism! I love her and I learn so much from her amazing study habits!
I do know Lane, he went to school with Jenn
I am a little crazy, and I don't know anything about snap chat or things kids have now-a-days :) but i say (jokingly) NO MORE SNAP CHAT! haha! I feel like I have developed this hatred for all of the electronics that people have now, no one has lives, no one can have a conversation that is not on the phone. It is annoying! But I think if you ban it then she will just rebel. When I was in High school it seemed like my friends had a lot of rules with their phones, like the phones spent the night in the parents room, and they could not do this or that. I know that I really appreciated not having tons of silly rules like that. I just understood that you payed for my phone, so you were entitled to anything on there, and I honestly never had any desire to hide anything from you. If anything questionable ever happened I always wanted to tell you. Whereas my friends the first thing they would say was "don't tell my parents."(I think Bryson was the one that said that the most haha!) I knew that I did not have to hide things from you. I think the trust you placed in me made me want to be more open with you because I wanted to have that good relationship and I felt like you trusted me, and in return I felt like I could trust you and talk to you about anything.
I think defining the difference between "dating" and "hanging out" would probably be helpful for her because I know I did not know the difference, and I just assumed as long as there were an odd amount of boys and girls we were fine. We will all want to hang out with friends but when does it become a dating situation? What qualifies a date? What is appropriate for just 'hanging-out'? no one really knows and it would be helpful if you and dad and Cassidy decided together what is appropriate, at least so she knows what you expect. Did you read the Ensign with the dating academy article in there, I LOVED that, those kids knew what their parents expected of them without their parents enforcing all sorts of weird rules about strange things that did not even make sense.
Something that seems to be a recurring theme on my mission is a quote from President Joseph Smith “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.” it is so frustrating sometimes to allow people to make their own choices but they need to in order to grow and to learn for themselves. I feel like that is how you raised me, there were not all sorts of rules, but you taught me the gospel and I had a desire to follow it. I think the most helpful thing is to just communicate more of what you expect, and spiritual experiences that you have so that she can see more of your testimony and how the gospel affects you DAILY. That was one reason I felt close to you, I always heard your testimony in YW's because you were my leader. Does she get to hear the testimonies that you give to me weekly?
I know that is really long, sorry for the novel. I hope that it makes sense and is helpful:) I love you, you are truly the best parents ever for me. I am convinced that we have the best family. I know you worry, that is a mother's job but Morg and Cassidy are doing well too, they both have testimonies, and they have great examples all around them. They are sent here because they are needed to prepare the world for the second coming of the Messiah. They are strong enough:)
Yeh Eh Nah!
With Love,
Sister Smith
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