Doctrine and Covenants 19:36

Well I guess I better wrap this whole mission story up since I've been home one week, and all. Monday was wild, and hilarious. I went crazy packing all weekend so that I could drop all my stuff off at the mission office on Monday. (They don’t require us to have our stuff there until Tuesday afternoon but I didn’t want to waste time packing I just wanted to say goodbye to people.) We got all ready to go to the mission office when they called, and asked if we’d come in the afternoon. Well we got there in the afternoon, and everything was really behind. We ended up staying at the mission office for 5 hours! I had my FINAL INTERVIEW with President.  I thought I was going to be a wreck but I felt perfectly content. My mission president talked to me about dating, praying, reading, the scriptures, the temple, and lots of other things. I felt so loved that he took the time to help me out. He then gave me a priesthood blessing. It was perfect.We spent the evening saying goodbye to all my people. 

Tuesday was wild. First thing in the morning a family from my second area come pick me up to go to the temple. We were running a little behind so I changed so quickly, and was flying into the chapel when I stopped dead in my tracks. There sitting in the chapel was my mom!! The member who brought me was all “are you okay?” I said “That’s my Mom! That’s my REAL Mom!” I didn’t really cry when I saw her. Then I saw my Dad, and I didn't really cry but when they started things in the temple I sobbed hard. I was just so overwhelmed with everything. I think it finally hit me that I was actually going home. I spent the afternoon with my parents, and my MTC companion. It was a perfect ending. We then had the departing missionary testimony meeting. Lots of my favorite people came.  I mostly just bore my testimony about the Atonement. I talked about how life and this gospel is a process. That we aren’t ever going to be perfect and life isn’t ever going to be easy but we just keep trying. I also talked about prayer, and how I’ve learned that prayer isn’t a list of thank you’s, and asking for blessings but it’s talking. It’s telling Heavenly Father what you did that day, and how you felt. The evening was spent at the mission home. We ate supper, and then were able to do whatever we wanted. I totally milked being able to talk to President so much, and asked him so many questions. Everyone trickled off to put on their pjs, and I just didn’t want to miss any of President’s wisdom. Everyone also slowly started going to bed but a Sister I was in the MTC with, and I stayed up ALL night talking. We didn’t sleep one wink. It was a dream.

Wednesday was the big home coming. Since I was riding in the same airplane as my parents it wasn’t as dramatic as most peoples. On my first flight I sat by a member which was boring but the man across from me allowed for teaching moments. Turns out his mom is a member, and he’s never talked to missionaries before. Dreams come true. On my next flight I sat by this super nice Muslim girl who is around my age, and the whole time we just talked about the family, and the deterioration of morals in the world. When I got to the airport my aunts were waiting for me so that was special. When I got home we first went to the graveyard on my request. Then we went to see the Stake President. It was great to be able to receive more counsel from him. Then he invited my parents into the room. I was able to share one experience from my mission that taught me a principle of the gospel, and then bear my testimony. I told them about how I gained a testimony of what enduring to the end really means. I told them about an investigator we had in my third area who had been meeting with the missionaries on, and off for 6 years. The major reason he wasn’t progressing in the gospel is because he didn’t do anything consistently. Not read, pray, or go to church. I realized that enduring to the end isn’t being perfect or happy every moment but it’s being consistent with our obedience to the gospel.

Now, I’m just home. I actually love being home. Its super weird but I love it. I haven’t listened to worldly music, or watched TV yet.  Right now I just feel awkward because I’m in a very transient part of my life waiting for school to start in January but I’m excited to apply all that I’ve learned. I’m SO grateful for my mission. The only time I tear up lately is when I’m telling someone how grateful I am for my mission. I’m just obsessed with it. NLVM will forever live in my heart! 

3 Nephi 5:13

" Well the time has come. This is my very last blog post as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the middle of the mission I kind of felt like I was born on the mission and that I would die on the mission but now I feel like I've only been here I week. It's the weirdest thing. When I really think about it I know that I haven't seen my family in a really long time but it doesn't feel like that. It scares me a bit. I feel like I'll go home and my mission will feel like just a magical dream. Okay, enough rambling. I love my mission. I'm so obsessed with my mission. I don't even know what to say I am so grateful for this opportunity. Whenever I think about it I just get overwhelmed with happiness. Here are some of the highlights of how Heavenly Father blessed me for my last week on the mission. 

- I was able to bear my testimony in District Meeting. I talked about having courage and to just keeping going on. I think sometimes in the gospel we don't feel the power of the Spirit every second so we start to doubt. As a missionary when you've been out so long you start to forget why you are here and then you doubt it and it gets hard. I talked about just doing the right thing because it's the right thing. Everything works out when we are obedient. 

- Our cute little 11 year old's Mom fed us and we had a great lesson. We are all so sad that I am leaving but it's okay. It was so nice to just be with their family. 

- We had great lessons. We taught so much and saw all my favorite people. I was nervous but everyone is really happy for me to go home and said really nice things to me. When I came I thought I'd hate teaching but I love it. I love listening to the Spirit and helping others learn about Christ. 

- We ordered food from this man who cooks it is his apartment. He doesn't have a restaurant you just call him up, tell him what you want and he cooks it up for you. I love the hood.

- I packed all my things up early and so I have nothing to worry about but just enjoying the last few days of my mission. 

- We had two baptisms. First we had my funny 16 year old investigator. There was some crazy opposition about getting this kid baptized. An alarm at the church was going off, there was no baptismal suits, our ward mission leader got lost, it was insane but he got baptized, got confirmed, and got the priesthood. I love him so much. He is so complainy  but he is good. We taught him this big lesson, and at the end he said "So how do I get out of home teaching and going on a mission. We said "You don't." To which he said "Aaahhhuughhhhh fine, I already have a bike." He just does the right thing because it's right. Then we had the wife of a newly coming back less active member get baptized. She had a baby 4 months ago. They are just the cutest family. When we asked her how she felt she said "Prepared." That is the greatest answer I've ever heard. 

- We street contacted this man as he was coming out of his garage. Turns out his wife is a member who goes to the Spanish ward but he prefers English. We taught him yesterday and he wants to get baptized. He told us how he has always thought he wanted to be a Mormon but never knew much about it. When we taught him he loved it  and said he wants to prepare to be baptized. It was amazing to end my mission with teaching such a great final first lesson to someone. 

I have really grown to love people more than I ever thought. I didn't know it was possible to meet someone one day and the next day be praying fervently for their eternal salvation. I have learned so much about myself and who I want to be. I could talk about so many things about what I've learned but I think one of the greatest things I've learned is that life is a process, perfection is process. I use to think that I was just dragging my feet and not progressing like how I was suppose to but that's not true. We are all in a process of progression. It's not a light switch of change but a dimmer switch. I learned that the Atonement is real and practical and that it changes us. I learned that real change and happiness comes from service and truly forgetting ourselves. Everything that I thought I knew has been had solid. I know that Joseph Smith restored Christ's church to the earth. That the Book of Mormon just makes me happy and that is really is the word of God. I learned that prophets are inspired and Heavenly Father loves us so much to give us prophets and apostles for our day. I am grateful that this is a church where our knowledge leads us to act. We don't really care how much you know but what you do with your knowledge and how you serve with your knowledge. I love the gospel. Life is great. See you soon!" 

P.S. October 20,2014

P.S. We met this member who lives in another stake. We were talking to him and his neighbor. We were talking about the church. This member says "That's what the gospel is all about being cool and helping folks. I just died of happiness. That's what I feel like that church is all about as well."

Ether 6:12

Oh my good word we had a great week. I just cannot explain how great everything is. I know this my sound phony but I am riding high on missionary life.  Haha but for reals. One of my biggest concerns at the moment about coming home next week is that I'm going to talk like a ghetto Baptist. I've served in the hood way too long; everyone is Baptist and now it's how I talk. The other day I told my companion "It's all about God" and then later I said "Jesus will get you through." Oh brother. I'm going to be in culture shock in Canada. This week was so good because: 

Monday: We went to Meet the Mormons with some recent converts. It was so great! I cry every time. We played lazer tag as a District and I bet all the Elders by 500 points. They wanted a rematch but luckily we had somewhere we had to be so we ended it on a great note. 

Tuesday: We did a training in District Meeting about getting investigators to church. I think everyone was shocked because we just told them how we just talk about church a lot and then people bring themselves. There really is no secrets to being a good missionary. It's all just depending on the Lord. A member in our ward took us to lunch outside our mission in a Casino. We were freaking out and told her we couldn't be there and she just said "Well I'm hungry." Our mission President didn't care because she took away our agency. Haha, but he just didn't care cause it was a street over and we are good people. We met a man that owns a nudist colony. I was dying laughing talking to him. How do you talk to someone about Jesus as they are telling you they like to go hiking in the nude?

Wednesday: We had two dream lessons with new investigators. In the first lesson the guy told us that he wants the originals of the Bible so he can know what God really said. When he told him about the Book of Mormon he was like "Yes, this is what I want." The second lesson was just all lead by the Spirit. The man we taught had gone through a ton of really crazy things. We ended up just talking about the Atonement and how forgiving Heavenly Father is. I know if he reads the Book of Mormon he'll get baptized in a second. 

Thursday: A less active in our ward wears a yellow top hat! He let us try it on. We vacuumed a member's house. I love straight up service. We then visited with a newly coming back member. She is so happy because she gets to come to church. Every time she takes the sacrament she cries because it's been so long. 

Friday: It was my 18 month mark! That's so insane. We had interviews with our mission president. I am so lucky to have him. He just told me how he has so much faith and confidence in me going home. I was worried and he reassured me that I'm going to excel. He then told me how he is my mission parent forever so he always wants to be apart of my life. How tender is that? Our 11 year old investigator told us that we are "Gospel Super Heroes." 

Saturday: We took our investigator to a stake activity where they had performers come and put on a Disney montage. After we had already gone to the show our Zone Leaders texted us saying we weren't allowed to go to the evening show. Haha, our bad. A few weeks ago they said we could go. It was already after the fact so what could they do. 

Sunday: We street contacted this lady the day before and she came to church. She loved it and even made comments. It was a dream come true. We went to my very last," Why I Believe Fireside" as a missionary. It was so good. Our newly 16 year old investigator came and at first he was dying but then they sang if the Savior Stood Beside Me and then he loved it. He ate my whole box of Tic Tacs. Besides that we had a lovely evening together. 

Man alive, isn't the mission great. I thought I would be way more scared and freaked out at this point but I feel fine. I have lots of good family, and friends. I've been obedient my whole mission so I can trust that it's been exactly what Heavenly Father wants it to be. I realized this past week how much Heavenly Father trusts me. I always worried that I didn't trust Him enough when in reality I don't trust myself enough. I feel like my whole mission He's been trying to tell me that He trusts me. That I'm fine. I'm doing His will and just this week I realized that. What a blessing. See you next week!

3 Nephi 28:19-22

I hope everyone knows that these are the most boss scriptures in the whole Book of Mormon. Maybe not the whole but I just feel like they are so cool. I just want to smite the earth with the word of God. Man, that's so rad. This week was so great. I probably say the word great more than anyone in the whole blog world but it's such a perfect word for me. 

Monday: We taught our 9 year old recent convert. He is the cutest. We showed him this pamphlet and he was like "I know that guy." Then he thought it was this guy in our ward. We were dying laughing. The picture was clearly of a lot older man. 

Tuesday: Today was our little 15 year old investigators 16th birthday! We had set up a little surprise birthday party for him at the church but sadly they had to cancel. We wouldn't take no for an answer so we just packed up the party and headed over to his house. When we got there it was so sad because it was only 6pm but everyone was in their own rooms just hanging out. When we were singing happy birthday he was tearing up! So tender. I LOVE being a missionary and I love teaching but sometimes it's nice just to help take care of people's physical and emotional needs not only their spiritually. 

Wednesday: We saw our investigator couple. She had her baby 9 days ago! He was SO cute!! She was so amazed that we couldn't hold him. She was like "They don't let you do anything!" We were so sad that we couldn't hold him but we held strong. Guess what? Our investigator committed to being baptized October 25th! The weekend before I leave!. 

Thursday: We had exchanges today! It was fun because the the sister I went with and I were both trained by the same person. It was cool to see what things we did the same and what things we did differently. We had a great day and talked to so many people. I was shocked because she told me that her goal was to work on being more genuine. I was asking her why and she said because whenever anyone talks about you they always say how genuine you are. She said that people always say "Sister Smith with red hair, glasses and is from Canada, oh yeah she is just Sister Smith, she's always the same in private or in public." She also said that that was true. I was so flattered. 

Friday: Today we had a fun, fun thing! We got to go see Meet the Mormons in the theater! It was kind of crazy because the theater was in the other mission and in a casino but we had permission! Don't worry. We got to go with an investigator and our Bishop's family. We saw so many people from both our wards. It was a reunion. It was SO good. Everyone should go see is as soon as they possibly can!

Saturday: Today the dad and son we are teaching got baptized!! It was so great! The Spirit was so strong. We were so happy. They were so happy. It was just a happy fest. Our newly 16 year old investigator came and after he told us that he wants to be baptized on October 25th!! If everything works out we will have 3 baptisms the Saturday before I come home. Heavenly Father loves me SO much. It's crazy how much. 

Sunday: I bore my testimony in church and in the beginning I just slipped in that over the last 18 months I've learned so much. After everyone was like "Wait that means you must go home soon!" Smooth operations. I bore my testimony about how the Atonement does take care of our sins but it's also the good in life. How the Atonement propels us to do more good then we would ever be able to if it was just left up to us. 

As you can see life is the best thing ever. I am completely chill about where I am on the mission. I'm so in love with every part of my mission. It's been the very best thing. I'm just happy. 

3 Nephi 17:10

This week was great as all weeks being a missionary are. I just love doing a list of my highlights from the week so here we go.

Monday: Our recent convert who is 9 years old was talking about this mean lady and he said "I bet she repents a lot." We died laughing. His Mom was really stressed and she told her that she just needs Christ and it'll all be fine. He's the cutest. 

Tuesday: Our 15 year old investigator told us that he isn't ready to be baptized. After talking to him for a while we realized that they reason he didn't feel ready is because he had no idea what a baptism would be like. He thought they'd push him face down into the water and he was really scared. When he explained it he was more excited but still nervous because he doesn't like to get his afro wet. 

Wednesday: We saw the Dad and son combo. They are so tender. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and at the end the 9 year old said "I have a question, so can kids drink tea?" We died laughing. For some reason he thought kids got a freebie on the Word of Wisdom. 

Thursday: We had my very last Zone Training Meeting. It was great! In it I had a suggestion and they made me come up and role play it in front of everyone. So unplanned. Then at the end they made me bare my testimony because it's my very last one. I was holding back tears the whole time. I talked about how living the gospel is like digging a hole in the sand. At first we see lots of progress and move lots of sand but then we feel like we aren't progressing because sand just keeps falling back into the hole. I then talked about how Heavenly Father just cares that we keep digging. We are progressing more than we realize. I don'tknow where that came from; it just came out. 

Friday: We went to the temple! I love the temple! 

Saturday and Sunday: Was blessed General Conference days! I love General Conference. I learned so much. I learned a lot about prayer and agency. I think it's amazing how much Heavenly Father trusts us and most times we just need to learn how to trust ourselves and apply the simple formula that He gives all His children. Pray, read the scriptures, go to church, and keep the commandments  It answers all the questions we have. 

It was a great, great, great week!

3 Nephi 4:10

"I come home in exactly a month from this day! That is mind blowing, but it really doesn't feel real. Sometimes I feel like I was born on the mission and I'll die on the mission. I know that I've been other places than this same valley but it kind of doesn't feel like that. I keep telling people I am from Canada but I almost don't believe it anymore. I guess that is a good thing but it's weird. I love my mission and I am most grateful for it. 

This week was so great! I LOVE my companion. We've been out around the same amount of time. It's so fun to be serving with someone who knows what they are doing. We are so balanced. I've been so blessed to have great companions but with my companion now we both just get to be missionaries. We talked to more people this week then I have ever talk to in one week of my mission. We had more people at church than I've ever had my whole mission. Heavenly Father must love me a lot to let me be in this ward and have this companion. 

Highlights of the week: 

- We started talking to this guy who was telling us all about how he makes gangster rap about drugs and I really have no idea why but I started bearing my testimony to him about how God loves him and that God understands him even when he thinks that no one does. Now keep in mind that this was a thug master and I got all emotional. I teared up a bit and told him to read the Book of Mormon because if he read it he'd know that God knows him. It was kind of funny afterward. 

- The cute, little girl who lived in my second area where I served for 7 1/2 months and who is going to Canada on her mission came out with us for one last time. It was so tender. 

- We are teaching this cute couple who the Dad is less active and the Mom is pregnant. We always say we are giving their son Nephi for a middle name. We taught her the plan of Salvation and she was getting upset at her husband for interrupting. She was like "Let me learn, this is great!" I love when people see how great the gospel is. 

-We street contacted this guy who told me that my ancestors were cave men because I have red hair. He was like "I'm not trying to offend you but it's just a fact that your ancestors were cave men probably Esau offspring. You know the guy who sold his birthright for pottage." I was like "Buddy please, I'm from the tribe of Ephraim." 

- We are teaching a 15 year old boy. During our lesson about the Plan of Salvation when we talked about the Resurrection he was like "So I'm going to be even more handsome than I am now? I'm at 110% handsome now, so I'll probably be 200% then." 

- The little 11 year old we are teaching committed to baptism the weekend before I come home!! I was SO happy! I wanted to cry!When we had the primary program; she sang all the songs and even had a line!! It was so tender. I love my wards. 

-The General Women's Broadcast was the happiest, cutest thing of all time. If that didn't make you want to go quickly to the temple; I don't know what would. 

It was a great,great week. I love my area! I love my companion! I love my mission! I really, realllllyyy love the gospel of Jesus Christ! There is nothing happier."