Hello family!!
I have so much to tell you!! Josh congrats on your tennis tournament. You are getting so good! I can't wait to watch you play :) Jake I bet you're the best zip lining employee ever!! You are so tan. I want to live in Hawaii!!
Okay so time for the updates. The Flores kids are doing amazing!! We decided to push back their baptismal date for August 8th. We told them that this isn't an extra week to slack off but an extra week to study, pray and prepare. And...they're doing exactly that! Every night the kids get together and read the book of mormon and the pamphlets. I'm so proud of them! They all used to not like praying and now they all fight over who's going to say the prayer haha. It's been amazing to see the change in these kids. I love them :)
We also had interviews this past week. It was definitely a surprise because no one told us. It was my departing interview. It was weird. It's just hard because President Carlson doesn't know me so it was a pretty short simple interview. He just was like, "How was your mission?" I was like, "Great." and that was basically it hahaha. Oh he asked me what I learned too.
So because it is the end of the month we are out of miles. We only have a certain amount of miles we can go and we had gotten to that point. So on Saturday we decided to walk. We probably walked over 10 miles. No joke. We walked all of Columbus! We had to meet with the Flores kids and we had another appointment so we walked to all of them. I got three blisters on my feet from this adventure and sister gray got sick. I think she got heat stroke combined with something else. Poor thing. So we didn't go to church yesterday and she's just been taking it easy.
We did have a miracle come out of this walking event! As we were walking we saw a girl sitting on a bench. We went over and talked to her. Her name is Korina and she is from the Philippines. She told us that she's catholic but doesn't believe in some of the things. She has been to a mormon valentines day dance when she was in the philippines haha. We were able to teach her yesterday and she brought her boyfriend Drew! I taught with Sister Sowards because sister gray wasn't feeling well so we did an exchange. It was nice because sister sowards and I were companions so we were already used to teaching together. It was such a good lesson! The both really responded well to it and are excited to read the book of mormon. She had heard a lot of things so we were able to answer a lot of the questions she had as well. What's even more amazing is our member. His name is taylor and he is 17 years old. When we asked him how he came to know the book of mormon is true he told these people that he's actually reading it at the moment to find out if it is. It was such a honest raw testimony. It was amazing! The spirit was so strong! I think that lesson was for him as much as it was for Korina and Drew.
Also! Saturday after walking everywhere we were so exhausted. BUT the Anderson's came to Columbus and took us out to dinner! It's Elder Anderson's birthday today and he said that he wanted to celebrate it with me :) So that's why we went out to dinner on Saturday. It was the best! They are so funny we just laughed the whole time. I love them. Don't worry mom they're taking care of me.
I love you all!! Miss you lots! Have a good week :)
Love,
Sister Smith
I have so much to tell you!! Josh congrats on your tennis tournament. You are getting so good! I can't wait to watch you play :) Jake I bet you're the best zip lining employee ever!! You are so tan. I want to live in Hawaii!!
Okay so time for the updates. The Flores kids are doing amazing!! We decided to push back their baptismal date for August 8th. We told them that this isn't an extra week to slack off but an extra week to study, pray and prepare. And...they're doing exactly that! Every night the kids get together and read the book of mormon and the pamphlets. I'm so proud of them! They all used to not like praying and now they all fight over who's going to say the prayer haha. It's been amazing to see the change in these kids. I love them :)
We also had interviews this past week. It was definitely a surprise because no one told us. It was my departing interview. It was weird. It's just hard because President Carlson doesn't know me so it was a pretty short simple interview. He just was like, "How was your mission?" I was like, "Great." and that was basically it hahaha. Oh he asked me what I learned too.
So because it is the end of the month we are out of miles. We only have a certain amount of miles we can go and we had gotten to that point. So on Saturday we decided to walk. We probably walked over 10 miles. No joke. We walked all of Columbus! We had to meet with the Flores kids and we had another appointment so we walked to all of them. I got three blisters on my feet from this adventure and sister gray got sick. I think she got heat stroke combined with something else. Poor thing. So we didn't go to church yesterday and she's just been taking it easy.
We did have a miracle come out of this walking event! As we were walking we saw a girl sitting on a bench. We went over and talked to her. Her name is Korina and she is from the Philippines. She told us that she's catholic but doesn't believe in some of the things. She has been to a mormon valentines day dance when she was in the philippines haha. We were able to teach her yesterday and she brought her boyfriend Drew! I taught with Sister Sowards because sister gray wasn't feeling well so we did an exchange. It was nice because sister sowards and I were companions so we were already used to teaching together. It was such a good lesson! The both really responded well to it and are excited to read the book of mormon. She had heard a lot of things so we were able to answer a lot of the questions she had as well. What's even more amazing is our member. His name is taylor and he is 17 years old. When we asked him how he came to know the book of mormon is true he told these people that he's actually reading it at the moment to find out if it is. It was such a honest raw testimony. It was amazing! The spirit was so strong! I think that lesson was for him as much as it was for Korina and Drew.
Also! Saturday after walking everywhere we were so exhausted. BUT the Anderson's came to Columbus and took us out to dinner! It's Elder Anderson's birthday today and he said that he wanted to celebrate it with me :) So that's why we went out to dinner on Saturday. It was the best! They are so funny we just laughed the whole time. I love them. Don't worry mom they're taking care of me.
I love you all!! Miss you lots! Have a good week :)
Love,
Sister Smith