Wow this week has been fantastic! We have been really busy working hard!

 

We have seen so many miracles this week but I only have time to write about a few so here are my favorites:

 

The first one is Vanessa! She just moved into our apartment complex and is from Seattle Washington. She is getting married this summer so she moved her to be with her fiancé. While she was in Seattle she started meeting with the missionaries and she already has a strong desire to have the gospel in her life. It filled my heart with joy when she told us that this "feels like home" and is "where [her] heart is". We are so excited to start teaching her and her fiancé because we know that the gospel will bless their lives and she has already seen that several times.

 

The next one is Crystal! Friday afternoon our appointment fell through so we went to visit another ward member that lived near by. Even though I felt that we should go over there I didn't really feel like she needed us that much but we followed the prompting to go there and it paid off! When we were walking to her apartment there was a lady (Crystal) outside cleaning her chairs. We said hi and for a moment I almost kept walking but then I stopped and we were able to talk with her. She has already seen Gods hand in her life so many times, it was amazing to hear her stories. After listening to her for awhile she asked us what we do as missionaries and we were able to teach her all about the restoration of the gospel and how we have living prophets today. When we asked her if she believed there could be prophets on the earth today she said "Ya, but do we?" and it felt so good to be able to tell her that we do have living prophets on the earth today! We are so excited to start teaching her more about the restored gospel. I am so grateful that I stopped and spent the time to get to know her so that we could share the message of the gospel with her. At church we were able to talk to the member that lives near her and it was so fun to tell her all about our experience. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that knows where we are needed even when we don't. I am also so grateful for the Holy Spirit which can lead and guide us while we are here.

 

Okay, one more! So our mission president wants us to start having more dinners with less active members or have members that are going to feed us invite someone into their home. Consequently we have been having more dinners in our apartment than usual because it is taking a little time to get the program up and running. But this week when we went out with a member she asked if we could come have dinner with her family because they had invited a friend who is a less active member over for dinner. We were able to make it to dinner with them and what resulted was a miracle! We had dinner and talked with them and then at the end we were able to share a message about enduring to the end. All during the lesson you could tell that the less active member was deep in thought and when we asked him what he thought helped enduring to the end he said that you have to rely on Christ. We were able to share the scripture Moroni 10:32 which starts "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him..." This scripture has come to be one of my favorites (and there is even a song that talks about it which I really like: https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng ). The spirit was so strong during the whole lessons and I was just praying that his heart would be softened and it was! On Sunday he came to church for the first time in almost 6 months!!! I was so happy I could have jumped for joy (I didn't because I was in the chapel and wearing a skirt but you get my point).

 

So overall we have had a fantastic week and I LOVE being a missionary! I know that God loves us and I know that living the principles of the gospel will bless your life immensely.

 

Love you tons!!

Sister Lexy Smith

P-Day

 Mountains in Chapparal.
 

Transfer Week, Still in El Paso

Sister Smith's District in El Paso with Pres. Miller

So I am once again... not being transferred! Neither is Sister Carpenter so we will both be here in El Paso for at least a month and a half more. The weather here has been wonderful (in the 80's) so I don't mind. I also have come to love the people here so much so it is nice to know that I will get to spend a little more time with them.

 

We had some awesome miracles this week! Thursday we walked to a lady that lives about 3 miles away, on the way there and back we were able to talk to a lot of people. One of them was Donald. Donald is a younger guys who was sitting outside with his mom. His mom only speaks Spanish but we were able to talk to him and she wants the Spanish speaking missionaries to come visit her too. Donald has wanted to go to a church and start reading the bible but he just didn't ever know which one to go to so we were able to leave him with a pamphlet and invite him to come to church on Sunday. Then Friday night we were able to meet with him again and he had already read all of the pamphlet we left him with! It was so awesome to see him soak in everything we said as we taught him about prophets and how we have living prophets on the earth today. We also left him with a Book of Mormon and invited him to prepare to be baptized and he accepted! Sunday he came to church and when we met with him later that night he committed to be baptized on the 15th of March! I know that we were supposed to walk Thursday so that we could meet him because he is so ready for the gospel and has such a great desire to follow Christ.

 

When we met with the lady we walked to, Lakai, on Thursday we were able to teach her about the restoration of the church. While we taught a quiet peace filled the room. After talking about Christ's earthly ministry and the loss of the priesthood (the power to act in Gods name) when all the apostles were killed; we were able to share Joseph Smiths experience as he prayed to know which church was he should join. I love sharing his experience because the spirit testifies to me every time that it is true. Afterwards we asked her how she felt and she said she felt really good and warm inside. It was so neat to be able to help her recognize that those feelings were from the Holy Ghost. I think that is the first time on my mission that someone has recognized those promptings so quickly. She even said she would like to prepare to be baptized!

 

Those are just two of the miracles that we have seen this past week! I know that God loves us and that the gospel will bring you the most happiness in your life. If you are struggling with something, go to Him. If you need someone to talk to, He is there. As Christ said, "Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." 3 Nephi 18:18-20

 

I hope you all had a great Valentines Day and feel as loved as I do! Make this next week great!

 

Love ya,

Sister Lexy Smith

Sister Smith in front of their apartment sign.

Look how hot it is!!!

Sister Smith with the Franklin Mountain's in back.

February 11

Sister Smith at the Library.

Another great (and warm) week here in El Paso!

It is amazing to see all the little miracles that come from listening to the promptings of the spirit. Although nothing big is happening we have seen countless miracles each day. I know that Heavenly Father cares about all of his children. He wants us to feel His love.

 

I think the thing I have noticed the most this week is how the gospel makes us desire to change our natures. 

We have been working with a family where the wife is a member (Angela) but she hadn't been to church in several years. When we first went over you could tell that she wanted to make a change in her life. Recently she has been to church two weeks in a row! Her husband (Chris)has also opened up a lot and we were able to teach him about the Restoration of the church and the plan that God has for us, the Plan of Salvation. It has been amazing to see how they have been prepared to come unto Christ. He has several friends that are LDS and has actually met with the missionaries before but felt that they couldn't answer all of his questions. Because of his experiences he has a real desire to learn and know for himself if the Church is true. She also remembers the joy the gospel brought to her family's life growing up and wants that for her son. Whenever we would mention something they could do as a family, such a pray and study the scriptures, she would light up and ask her husband if they could do that too. Although we aren't perfect teachers, as we have followed the promptings of the spirit, we have been able to answer their questions and help them grow in the gospel together.

We have also been working with another couple that are in a similar situation, the girlfriend is a member (Natalie) and her boyfriend (Torrance) is investigation the church. As they have started coming to church regularly, reading the scriptures together and praying their lives have improved leaps and bounds. Although not everything is perfect, they have hope that they didn't once have and they have purpose in their lives. 

 

This week we also started teaching someone new! She (Symphony) is 26 and wants to change her life. Even though we have only been able to meet with her once I have already seen miracles as we have met with her. The Spanish elders had met her earlier in the week so Friday we went to go visit her. We tried the house we though she lived at but no one answered so we assumed they weren't home. Then before we were able to hop in our car we say the elders walking down the street. They were able to direct us to her real house (we had tried the wrong one) and she was home! If they hadn't walked down the street we might have never realized that we were trying the wrong house and we would have never met her. I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for us all. He knew that we needed to visit Symphony Friday so He provided a way for it to happen.

 

I know that the gospel is true because it not only has brought joy into my life but into the lives of all of those that we are teaching as well. I love the scripture where Moroni teaches us that the Holy Ghost will testify of Christ by letting us know if something is good, or of Christ.

"By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is...

And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every good gift cometh of Christ...

And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift"

(Moroni 10:5-6,18,30)

 

I know the that the gospel is true. I love sharing it with all of the people here. I'm grateful for the scriptures that can teach us of Christ and what we need to do to follow Him. I can promise you that God hears and answers your prayers. I am so grateful for the hope the gospel brings into my life. No matter what trials we may be going through, Christ is always there if we will simple come unto Him. Look for the simple miracles, for you will find them.

 

Love,

Sister Lexy Smith

Cute  kitten Sister Smith found.

 

At the Stake  Center.

Local trees.

February 4th

Sister Smith and Sister Carpenter had their apartment heart attacked.

You mak a Great Share the Gospel Pair!

The Beautiful Franklin Mountains

This week was awesome! For starters we had 5 investigators and 6 less active members at church on Sunday. It was great to see how loving all of the members where and how they took everyone in. I have a great love for the Sabbath because I get to feel the spirit in greater abundance, renew my covenants with the Lord and be uplifted by those who also want to follow Christ and help in the work. The Sabbath truly is a "delight"(Isaiah 58:13-14)!

 

We had a really neat experience with a newer family this week. The wife is a member of the church but her husband is not and they have a 3 year old son. Back when Sister Brown was here we had gone to visit her once but her husband wouldn't come out because he though our prayer would light him on fire! Haha, it was really funny but we didn't think much of it and we never saw her at church after that. But then about half way through January we decided to go visit them again. She wasn't home because she was gone with the military but we were able to invite him to church the next week and guess what?!?! He came! Then this past Saturday we were able to go over and see them because she was finally home and we invited them to church again and their whole family came! Then on Monday we were able to go and visit with them. We talked about what they learned at church and invited him to learn more about the church and he accepted. He had some pretty funny questions like "How will everyone fit into Heaven or Hell since there have been so many people living on the earth?" But we were able to share our testimonies of the gospel and how it can bless their family. The spirit was so strong and you could tell that they felt it and want their family to have the happiness the gospel brings. I love teaching families because the most joy we can feel in this life comes in our families!

 

This week we were able to go and help a sister who was in a car accident clean her house. It wasn't much but if felt so good to serve her. I love when King Benjamin tells us that "when [we] are in the service of [our] fellow beings [we] are only in the service of [our] God." (Mosiah 2:17) I know that this is true because helping other people has become one of my favorite things to do! I would encourage everyone to read Mosiah 2 and ponder how you can help someone around you. I can promise you that it will bring light into your life and make your hardest days better when you serve someone else!

 

As for everything else, I'm doing great and the work here continues to progress. All of our investigators are doing really well and several are starting to progress towards baptism. I just have to remember that even if things seem to be going slow, we're on the Lords timing not our own. Here are some really great scriptures that I have been reading this week:

 

Alma 57:21, 26 The blessings from exact obedience

Alma 58:10-11 God didn't fight the battle for them but He gave them the strength they needed to continue on.

2 Nephi 32:8-9 Remember to pray

1 Nephi 15:24 Reading the scriptures will protect us.

 

I love all of you and hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Lexy Smith 

On Exchanges