Sincerely Sister Smith

The other day, my companion and I went to visit a family we'd never met before. Outside their house, they had a mailbox library--a cheerily painted box filled with books so anyone who passed by could take or leave one. I opened up the hatch, looked through the books, and straightened some of them. I'd seen Facebook posts about mailbox libraries before, but this is only the second or third one I'd seen in real life. I think they're charming, and I planned on talking about it when I went to the door to meet the family. Then the mom opened the front door.  "Please don't put Book of Mormons in there," she called. "I don't want my neighbors to think I'm trying to preach to them." I hastily explained that I wasn't and complimented her library. She said that she was a librarian, but not much more than that before she dismissed us. I imagine that if her mailbox library works at all, if people ever take books, then she periodically ge...

This week after emailing, my companion and I went to an escape room. I've done two of those in Provo, one for my 21st birthday and one for my cousin Aimee's bachelorette party, always with a big group. I thought we wouldn't get out in time with only two of us, but we escaped with six minutes to spare! This one was hostage themed. An eerily realistic child mannequin was gagged and chained to a wall in a locked room. We had to get into her room, defuse her bomb, and get her out. This room had a little glass window we could see through, but we didn't know she was in there at first. So we're creeping around in the dark with red lighting, and all of a sudden Sister Holland rounds the corner and sees a gagged child starring at us from behind glass. She screamed. It was hilarious.  I'm sad to see Sister Holland go home. She was a party in a lot of ways. She facetimed in to a lesson with me and my new companion, Sister Larsen. This week was a blur of goodbyes and...

Dear Loved Ones, First, some housekeeping details: My email day next week will be Tuesday rather than Monday. Also, my email domain is changing from ldsmail.net to missionary.org. Emails sent to my old account will be forwarded. I've also heard that lds.org will be replaced. People focus on not used the word Mormon, but we aren't supposed to use LDS either. A woman speaking at church recently gave a talk about using the real name of the church, and then she used LDS at the end of it. Change is coming and it will be permanent. We'd all better get used to it. This Monday after emailing, my companion, two other missionaries, and I went downtown. I'm in the suburbs and hadn't been able to explore urban Boise before then. After I got my call to Boise, I looked up things to do in the area to find ways to entertain myself on preparation days. The thing that intrigued me the most was the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. It's the only human rights memorial in the ...

Dear Loved Ones, One day when I was a sophomore in college, I knelt on my bedroom floor praying and sobbing. It was February, a little after Valentine's day and a little after the anniversary of the day I got barred from going on a mission (Feb 10, 2016). I prayed for God to help me out, send me some comfort, get me on a mission, give me a friend I could talk to. A knock sounded on my door. I was the only one of my roommates home, so I answered it, and there were two missionaries at the door. I invited them in and told them my situation. I told them my story. If they spoke any words of comfort or said anything useful, I don't remember it. I don't remember them helping, just asking if I had any non-member friends they could teach and giving me a pass-a-long card with their number. And I remember that I gave them chocolate, though, because it was Valentine's and my parents had sent me a fancy box of them. I was already a member, so they moved along with their day.  ...