I'm going on a MISSION!!!!
As you all know I will be serving for the next 18 months in the Arizona Mesa Mission. My mission not only includes proselyting but also the Arizona Temple Visitor's Center. The best part is I get to learn Spanish! I'm so excited for the experiences I will have over these next 18 months. I would love to hear from everyone...seriously! I will write back those who write me so keep those letters coming, I know I am going to need them! Missionary work is tough. Once I leave on June 4th I will most likely not be able to keep up on the blog so I am putting my mom and sister in charge of that. They will post pictures and hopefully any emails I send. So keep updated on my crazy life these next 18 months. I'm so excited to get out and teach the gospel, it is going to be amazing! Thanks to everyone who has influenced my decision to go or who have supported me in my decision. You guys are awesome. I love you all!
Brit
Hey!
Well its incredible cool today at 82 degrees....crazy!!! its only because it rained last night. But you know what happened the other day in the heat of the summer...our AC broke. So so so fun!!! not!! but luckily they got it fixed and luckily we have a basement that we could sleep in last night....my crazy life.
Well as you all know i have a new comp sister castillo. She is so awesome!! im lucky that 99% of my companions i have liked. We've seen some miracles already. The area has tons of people...so i speak spanish all the time and i love it! Its an area that they combined a few transfers ago and hopefully next transfer it will be divided. Yesterday when we were out it was so awesome!! we went to contact a referall and when we got out of the car we saw this lady sitting under the tree so we decided to talk to her. Well as we walked up to her i noticed she was reading none other then THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! crazy...so we had the opportunity to teach her right there. It turns out she almost got baptized 2 years ago but because of problems with her sister in law, who is a less active member, she did not...she is going to be baptized this transfer:) we also had a FHE with a family yesterday. Everyone is members but the mom. She wants to be baptized the only problem is that she needs to get divorced from her 1st husband so she and Moises can get married. Well the spirit was so strong and we decided to set a date with her for the 15th of august. So keep berta in your prayers...we need a miracle because her husband doesnt want to sign the papers and is making it really hard for the divorce to go thru. But i know if berta does her part the Lord will permit us to see this miracle. It felt the spirit so strongly telling us we needed to set the date with her. She is willing just a little lazy. I looked forward to serving in this area. Im pretty sure it will be where i die. In mission terms that means i will end my mission here. I just love the people in this area! I cant believe we are going into august next week...time will not slow down. My comp leaves in 5 weeks...she's not trunky yet and im trying to help her stay focused. I hope that everyone is doing well.
Know that i miss and love you all sooooooo much!!! have a great week.
Hermana brittany Smith
HEY!!!
today starts week 1 of transfer #9...just to let you know there are only 11 transfers in my mission which means i have less and less time to do the work...its getting more sad each week. You're probably dying to know what happened with transfers.....well i will be transferred to an area called ellsworth park. Its a little branch right by my first area. Its pretty much like little mexico and im so excited!!! my new comp is sister castillo and she is from guatamala. She's an AMAZING missionary and im way excited to work with her. This is her last transfer...which isnt my favorite but its all good. Im so sad to leave sister avelino because ive had a blast with her. She will be training again so that will be an adventure. I think this transfer my spanish is gonna skyrocket and im so excited for that!!! i feel like i have so much to learn before i go home in november.
Its been kinda a crazy week...we had exchanges on wednesday and i went to sister blades' area to work. It was incredible!!! they have an investigator who read the whole Book of Mormon in 2 weeks...thats incredible. Needless to say she's getting baptized in a few weeks. Its been like 116 everyday or more...im jealous because 2 sisters are getting transferred up north...not fair. It looks like i will not get another full-field area...thats kinda sad to me but i will do what the Lord asks of me always.
Ive had really neat experiences this week in the VC. Yesterday a lady came in just really upset and i got to share with her my testimony of the Savior and the Atonement. The cool thing was just an hour earlier me and another sister were talking about how we came to know the Savior and the Atonement and then i got to share that with a perfect stranger. It helped her a lot. I guess it shows that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and He can use us as instruments if we allow Him too.
The mission is amazing in that way that really nothing about me matters. I am totally in the service of God. My hands are His hands, my voice is His voice. What a blessing it is everyday to see His hands in my life. Saturday we had a branch party...it was AMAZING!!! each family brought a typical food from their country. So i got to eat lots of latin food and i couldnt be any happier. Im pretty much mexican so dont be surprised if i come back eating chile and lime. I LOVE IT!!!
i cant really think of much else that is happening...its hot and im still loving my mission. I hope that you all are doing well. I miss you all but i know the Lord is watching over you.
Have a great week and dont be afraid to send a letter or email or package my way.
I love you.
Hermana brittany smith
Hola todos!!!
well it is july and HOT! I really dont know how anyone could spend their life in this heat. I feel like im going to catch fire most of the time...i just keep telling myself 1-i asked for the heat 2-only a few more months of the heat and i have to go back to the snow. This week has been kinda long and kinda weird....yesterday started week 6 of the transfer which means saturday we will know transfer news. CRAZY!!! let me tell you about sunday...we were soooo excited because we got someone to church on sunday. Her name is aida. I dont know if ive talked about her yet but...she believes she has the gift of tongues. She has this whole story how an old man appeared to her and she received this gift from God. When she tells the story she speaks in this tongue for a portion of it...it freaked me out the first time i heard it. Well all went well in sunday school she participated and loved the class then we went to relief society...duh duh duh...sister navarro our RS president invited the sisters to share a story when they knew God existed. Guess who was the first to volunteer....AIDA. I was just praying she wouldnt but she did....she told the whole story speaking in tongues and all. You should've seen the faces of these women...their faces were priceless. The funny thing is aida had a really hard speaking in tongues this time and im pretty sure its because we were praying she wouldnt do it. The spirit was fighting with her. As if that wasnt enough in the middle of sacrament meeting her phone rang and yes she answered it!!! it was crazy....im just thankful she didnt get up for fast and testimony meeting and tell the whole branch. It was insane!!! so now we have to figure out how to help her realize this gift is not from God. 4th of july went fine for me. We taught quite a bit on the 4th which we werent expecting...i guess mexicans dont really celebrate. It was weird because usually you see lots of fireworks but i didnt see one!!! fireworks are illegal here and usually the city does some but they didnt have a budget for the fireworks this year so i saw 0 fireworks this year...sad! Well as a missionary holidays dont feel like holidays because we do the same thing everyday. Im enjoying it and only counting down the days until it cools down a bit...unfortunately the heat is here to stay for awhile.
I hope all is well for everyone and that you all had a great 4th.
Remember i love you!!!
hna brittany smith
Hola hola hola!!!
another HOT week in arizona...its offically summer here. We hit 118 the other day and i just wanted to die. Luckily i will only have to deal with it for a few more months before the fall hits and then we will be good to go. Today starts week 5 of transfer #8...crazy. I swear this week just flew by i feel like p-day was yesterday. well not too much has changed in the area...we are just trying to talk to everyone we can because the more we talk to people the more people the Lord will put in my way. We met a really cool guy this week...his name is Hugo and im really excited to see what happens. We actually taught him like 3 months ago and then had the opportunity to go back. He lives with this crazy lady...well she's just really christian and i dont think she likes our religion because we believe in the Book of Mormon. But things have been better since we've been teaching him outside...yes in the HEAT!!! if you've ever tried wearing nylons in the the heat you know how much fun it is. But its all part of the experience. Yesterday was interesting to say the least. As you know we teach the gospel principles class and there was this brother(a gringo) in our class...he was asking just crazy questions and making it really difficult to teach. Then we were asked to speak in church on saturday...the night before...so we did and it went really well actually. The funny thing is that another lady spoke too after us and she wore her sunglasses the whole entire time...it was hard not to laugh. Then that night we went to teach a lesson to a lady who says she has the gift of tongues...yes she did speak it to me...she paints these weird painting that she says are revelations from God...i dunno about that. But our recent convert francisco was with us and he was commenting on the painting and egging on the craziness...when we finally got to teach the lesson the lady told us the story of how she got the gift of tongues and started speaking it. Im pretty sure she has an evil spirit...seriously. I tell you the weird things we come into contact to on the mission. I never knew they really existed. We had our interviews with president this week...it went fine. I almost think he will be keeping me here for another transfer...that would make almost 8 months in this area. But we will see. Im doing well and enjoying life. The mission is speeding by me and i wish i could just take a remote control and pause it for a few extra months. I have a lot to learn still. I had to give a talk on “how do i know if im a successful missionary” it went pretty well. I think i learned more then i shared preparing for the talk. It is really easy to get down on yourself as a missionary because there is so much to do but if we give all we have the Lord will make up for our weaknesses.
I love you all! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer...probably less hot then mine but that's great.
Have a good week and remember to share what you know:)
hna brittany smith
