Power of the Priesthood

The flower was a live one! Needless to say it's still warm in El Paso!

This week has been good! None of our investigators have been progressing which is frustrating but we just keep working!

 

This week we visited a less active sister and her husband who isn't a member with Sister M         (a member of the ward). It went really well because when we got there the Elders where helping in the yard and had just been talking to them about how we hadn't been over in a couple of weeks! We were able to go inside and talk with them for awhile. We had asked him about baptism a couple of weeks before and he had just shrugged us off but when Sister M        asked him about what he knew of the gospel and what was holding him back from joining his wife he told! He wants to know for himself if Joseph Smith is a prophet before he joins the church but he said he really does want to know! We are so excited to them because he said we could come back and start teaching him the lessons so that he can understand everything better and prepare for baptism!

 

We have been working with a lot of less actives lately and we were able to visit the H              family this week. They are really great and want to start coming back to church but they work on Sunday. The husband (who isn't a member) said that if they have to find another job so that they can come to church they will! That is such a great example of faith! It amazes me what people are willing to do to come closer to the Savior.

 

We have also been working with the former bishops mom who is less active. She is such a sweet little old lady! She has really bad panic attacks so she stopped coming to church but since we have been visiting her she has expressed a great desire to go to the temple. Yesterday night we were able to have dinner at the C     families house, her sons family, and Brother C     was able to give her a blessing of comfort. I know that priesthood blessings have real power. The spirit was so strong during the blessing and you could feel the room fill with peace.

 

Thursday night our plans fell through but we ended up getting a call from the elders quorum president so we changed our plans and drove back to our apartment complex. A former investigator named Scarlet lives in our apartment complex and she had been really sick. That night she decided to wait outside for him to come home so she could ask him for a blessing. He hadn't planned on coming home but felt he needed to come back to get something so he was there when she was waiting. It was amazing to see that Heavenly Father knew her needs even when we didn't, but that he helped us to be there when she needed us. He called us after he talked to her so we hopped in the car and drove right over.  She doesn't have any furniture so we all stood while he gave the blessing but it was probably one of the most powerful experiences I have had thus far on my mission. The spirit was so strong, and although I don't know her well I know that God loves her and cares about her and answered her prayers. Afterwards she started to cry and told us that her faith is really small. The elders quorum president related the story of when Christ healed the young boy after his father said "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief." It was exactly what she needed to hear and we were able to share our testimonies of the power of priesthood blessings. Sunday we were able to go visit her again and she told us that the very next morning she had felt like her old self again, not sick one bit! That is the power of the priesthood, I know that miracles still happen today.

 

I am so grateful for everyone support and love and prayers. I love hearing from you so keep writing! I hope you have a great week and know how much Heavenly Father loves you. Go to Him in prayer and He will answer you.

 

Love you tons,

Sister Lexy Smith 

Happy Halloween!

"That Makes Sense"

This week has been a really awesome one! We have been working with our investigators trying to set baptism dates so they have something to progress towards. We also found a new investigator this week!  She is awesome! We found her trying to find a less-active that has apparently moved. She invited us back and when we came back we were able to teach her about the restoration. She said that her husband has been trying to get her to find a church but she just hasn't spent the time to find one. When we taught her about modern day prophets she "That makes sense, if God loves all His children he should give us prophets too!" When she said the closing prayer the spirit was so strong, you can feel that she knows she is talking to her Father in Heaven.

 

I LOVED General Conference! It was all so good and so inspiring! Some of my favorite talks where by Elder Edward Dube, Elder Gifford Nielson (about missionary work!!), Elder Holland, and Elder Richard G. Scott. You should go look them up, because you will like them too. One of my favorite quotes was "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" by President Uchdorf. General Conference

 

We had the opportunity yesterday to go to the Albuquerque Temple! It was about a 4 hour drive each way but it was so worth it! I love going to the temple because you can really feel God's love for you there. It was also such a neat experience to be there with just missionaries. We were all just so happy and you could feel the spirit so strongly. President Miller spoke to us afterwards, he always gives such great advice! He talked about how we need to trust that the Lord will help us know what to say, which is something that I am always trying to work on. Sometime it is easier to say the same thing to everyone but when we really listen to the spirit we will know what it is God wants each of His children to hear.

 

I love all of you and enjoy getting all of your letters and emails. If I don't reply right away please don't despair, I try and read all of them but because writing time is limited to only P-Days it is hard to write to everyone all the things I have to say. Have patience and know I will get back to you soon!

 

Love you tons!

Sister Lexy Smith

"When they left they all had big smiles on their faces" 10/14

Sister Brown and I at the Albuquerque Temple!

 

This week has been both hard but very good! Sister Brown got sick but not sick enough to stay home so we still went out but it was mostly me doing all the teaching. We haven't had a lot of lessons this week but we have tried to do a lot of finding so hopefully something will come of that!

When we were knocking one street I had the impression to try the houses on a cross street and the first house we tried was A--------! She is a super sweet girl who is going to UTEP. She invited us in to share a message with her and once we got to teaching her about the Book of Mormon she pulled one out! She had gone to the institute because she was interested and wanted to know more! She was so excited and said she knew it was a sign that we had come to visit her so soon after her wanting to learn more!

We also have been teaching a lady, G--------, out in Chapparal New Mexico. She is very religious but doesn't feel satisfied with her church. Whenever we teach her she always thinks her beliefs are going to be very different than ours but they end up being the exact same! She even asked for a Book of Mormon before we had even taught her about it because she wanted to pray about Joseph Smith to find out if he really was a prophet!

Our investigator A------ came to church yesterday with her 2 sons! It was so great to see her there and I know she felt the spirit! When they left they all had big smiles on their faces! A less active family also came to church yesterday for the first time in years! They were so happy and it was amazing to see the ward befriend them! Our ward has really stepped up to the plate and we had 10 people say they would go out with us this week!

I am really grateful that I get to stay in Hondo Pass for another transfer with Sister Brown because all of the seeds we planted last transfer are just starting to sprout!

I love being a missionary even though it can be hard because the gospel brings so much joy into peoples lives and we get to be apart of their joy! Thank you for all the letters and emails! I love hearing about how everyone is doing so keep writing!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Lexy Smith

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

Albuquerque Temple

 

This week has been a really awesome one! We have been working with our investigators trying to set baptism dates so they have something to progress towards. We also found a new investigator this week! She is awesome! We found her trying to find a less-active that has apparently moved. She invited us back and when we came back we were able to teach her about the restoration. She said that her husband has been trying to get her to find a church but she just hasn't spent the time to find one. When we taught her about modern day prophets she "That makes sence, if God loves all His children he should give us prophets too!" When she said the closing prayer the spirit was so stong, you can feel that she knows she is talking to her Father in Heaven.

 

I LOVED General Conference! It was all so good and so inspiring! Some of my favorite talks where by Elder Edward Dube, Elder Gifford Nielson (about missionary work!!), Elder Holland, and Elder Richard G. Scott. You should go look them up, because you will like them too. One of my favorite quotes was "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" by President Uchdorf. General Conference October 2013

 

We had the opportunity yesterday to go to the Albuquerque Temple! It was about a 4 hour drive each way but it was so worth it! I love going to the temple because you can really feel God's love for you there. It was also such a neat experience to be there with just missionaries. We were all just so happy and you could feel the spirit so strongly. President Miller spoke to us afterwards, he always gives such great advice! He talked about how we need to trust that the Lord will help us know what to say, which is something that I am always trying to work on. Sometime it is easier to say the same thing to everyone but when we really listen to the spirit we will know what it is God wants each of His children to hear.

 

I love all of you and enjoy getting all of your letters and emails. If I don't reply right away please don't dispair, I try and read all of them but because writing time is limited to only P-Days it is hard to write to everyone all the things I have to say. Have patience and know I will get back to you soon!

 

Love you tons!

Sister Lexy Smith



I received the "Novella Star" award at Zone Conference!

Zone Conference & Norma's Baptism

Sister Brown & Sister Smith

This week has been crazy awesome!!! So much has happened in just one week! For starters Monday night we had an appointment with one of our investigators but they weren't home so we decided to go and knock a street nearby. No one on the left side of the street was interested but once we got to the right side of the street miracles happened! One lady was super nice and although she didn't have time to talk with us then she set up a time that we could come back. Then we met M----------- who was outside with his kids. We asked if we could share a message with him and his family and he said yes and went to get his wife! They invited us in so we taught the restoration and it went really well! They both said that they believe that Joseph Smith could have gotten an answer to his prayers because they have gotten answers to their prayers. Before we went to leave he said that he loves learning but is non-denominational and I really felt like I needed to invite then to be baptised right then... so I did! The spirit was so strong and he said that if he finds out it's true he will do whatever it takes to come unto Christ! I am so grateful that I was listening to the spirit and followed that promting. The very next house was a lady named C-------- who invited us in right away. She had met with LDS missionaries in Hawaii before she moved to El Paso a couple of months ago. She is catholic but after we taught her and her daughter A------ the plan of salvation the spirit was really strong. She asked us about church and we was really impressed that we get to partake of the sacrament each week because that is something that she wishes they did in her church. Needless to say we set an appointment and will continue to teach them!

Zone Conference

Wednesday was Zone Conference! We got up at 4:30am so we could be ready to go by 5:30am. It was so nice to see all the other Sisters, especially Sister Beech(my compaion from the MTC who I haven't seen since we got to NM)!!

Sister Smith & Sister Beech

The conference was awesome, I took tons of notes and felt so uplifted and inspired afterwards! One of my favorite things that they talked about was that we are commanded to be of good cheer! The Lord wants us to be happy and he has even commanded that we be happy.

 

 

We have been visiting with lots of less actives lately. Our ward has a very strange makeup, 1/3 of the people on the list have moved, 1/3 are less active and the last 1/3 is active. One of the ladies we visit is Sister L----------, she is the sweetest old lady! When we went over this week she read us a letter her granddaughter that is on a mission sent her. In it she talked about the story in  1 Nephi 8 where Lehi see's the tree whos fruit is the love of God. She was very confused by the letter so we read the story with her. It was amazing to see that as she read she was able to teach herself and, without our promting, she decided that she needs to start coming to church again. She had stopped going because she had panic attacks but she said that she knows if she prayes with faith she will be able to get through sacrament meeting without one. We are so excited for her to start coming again!

 

 

 

 

Saturday was amazing! One of our investigators, Norma Duarte, got baptised!





She has been investigating the church for 6+ months and was so ready to make that covenant with God. The spirit was so strong and you could tell that she was happier when she left than when she came in.

 

That afternoon we got to go to the dinner our stake was putting on before the Relief Society Broadcast. We had invited a lady who's daughters are members but she is not. We were a bit worried at first but after she said she would go we knew that's what we were supposed to do. It was amazing to see how the Lord know what we need even when we don't. We had been planning on getting a ride from the relief society president of our ward but friday we weren't able to get ahold of her and let her know we would be bringing a potential investigator. We ended up calling both of her counselors and no one answered! We finally decided to call a lady from the ward and see if we could get a ride with her and she said we could! When we got to her house saturday she told us that she had invited 3 other sisters from the ward to come with us. We all went to pick up our potential investigator and it went even better than we could have hoped for! The sisters were so nice to her and she got along with then great! She hasn't been in El Paso very long so making those friendships is just what she needed!

Sunday was so good because we got to fast! I love fasting because there is so much power behind it. As a stake we were fasting that the members that are in the military could get permission to go to the Juarez temple. When they first announced that this is what they wanted to fast for I was so afraid and almost didn't want to include it in my fast but as I have prayed throughtout the week and while I was fasting I have had the spirit testify that God would not allow any harm to befall his people when they are going to the temple. It is amazing to see the peace that you can feel when you rely on God.

I love being a missionary and can't wait for another great week! I hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful week too! 

Love you tons,

Sister Lexy Smith  

Sister Smith and Sister Brown made a Don't Eat Pete game to play with investigators and Member for FHE.