Sincerely Sister Smith

January 17, 2020 So excited to hear more details about this temple! I've been waiting on this ever since it was announced. February 1, 2020 Last week, my companion and I got in a car crash while leaving a teaching appointment. The impact was hard enough to knock the glasses from my face and bend her earring against the side of her head. We were T-boned by a car going at least 40 miles per hour and the left side of the car was inescapable. We definitely could have died. Overall I am fine, but I woke up this morning dealing with back pain and feeling burdened. And then I saw this little quote. I know God kept us alive (and relatively uninjured) for a purpose and I am adamant to find it as I continue my mission in Missouri for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm going to trust in God to shape my back to bear my burdens and give me work to do. March 17, 2020 As I've watched the nation and the world panic over coronavirus, my thought...

April 21, 2019 "And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying: Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world." -3 Nephi 11:9-10 Happy Easter from the Missouri Independence Mission! He lives! June 18, 2019 Kansas is the Sunflower State, but so far, the only sunflowers I've seen are these ones at the Historic Liberty Jail in Liberty, Missouri. June 30, 2019 This is a land "which is choice above all other lands, which is the land that the Lord God hath covenanted" with his people to possess. 1 Nephi 13:30. Happy upcoming fourth of July! July 22, 2019 Me singing the national anthem at the Royals game: https://m.facebook.com/groups/236873356465948?view=permalink&id=1347126662107273 August 6, 2019 August 23, 2019 "If God be with us, who can stand against us?" -Book of Romans November 10, 2019 ...

Dear Loved Ones, This week has changed the way I see food. As early as Monday night, when we were still working around the clock, our meals with members turned into door drop-offs. I was given an enchilada that I realized while biting into it had been made with canned corn and beans. That was so precious to me. Canned foods keep well and a family was willing to sacrifice food they might need soon to give something to us. I feel guilty about all the food I have here, both from members and what I was able to buy on my own, when I know people in Raytown, Independence, and Kansas City are struggling. Little Saydi, my nine year old convert, has a family with a very hand-mouth existence and I keep wishing I could drive over there and drop off a bag. Another couple I taught, Kim and T, are also on my mind. But Grain Valley is better off and I don't think anyone I teach is at risk of going hungry right now. And then as if that wasn't bad enough, I received word this week that Utah...

Dear Loved Ones, Earlier in this week, the Coneys, our restoration branch family committed to come to church! I was ecstatic. I've gone three or four months at a time without being able to get one person to church, and now I had six!  A family in the ward, the Stowes, arranged to have us, our little family, and another friend of theirs over for dinner Thursday. Sister Stowe needed to buy food enough for sixteen people, so she braved hoarder crowds at the store. She told us everyone kept looking at her cart funny. When we were en route to the Stowes, our bishop texted us to say church was canceled for coronavirus. Both families had already heard the news by the time we showed up. We passed the time between eating and teaching by telling Corona jokes. When you make fun of something serious, you claim it as your own, wrestle it into submission, and it can't hurt you anymore. The gathering turned to games and dessert after the lesson and my companion and I ended up in the kitc...

Dear Loved Ones, This was a really hard, heartbreaking week for me. Prayers and emails of support would be much appreciated. Over time, I drafted insight essays for weeks when I had nothing to say. So in lieu of an email, here's my thoughts on gender and priesthood. Too often, I hear both men and women of the church claiming that women holding the priesthood would be like men having babies. That is a faulty comparison.  It is just an erroneous as inventing that black men weren't allowed to have the priesthood for many years because there was something wrong with them. Here are some ways priesthood and pregnancy don't match up: 1. Women of all religions can have children. While Hindu women, Sikh women, Lutheran women, and Catholic women are having babies as we speak, only men of this church have the power and authority to act in God's name. 2. Not all women of our own faith can have children.  Indeed, there are many women in the bible who couldn't have chil...

Dear Loved Ones, One year ago today, my call to Missouri was assigned. I opened it on the 11th. It's been a long journey, but I'm saving my thoughts on things for next week because a lot of has happened. This week we took a recent convert, Tony, to the temple. He was nervous at first and wanted to just watch, but I volunteered to get baptized as well to peer pressure him into it. I haven't done baptisms since 2017 and it was nice to get back in the water. After I got out, I stood there dripping and prayed that shy Tony would be able to have a good experience. When he got out, I asked him how he felt and he said, "Calm." Tony's parents were baptized into the church forever ago and had him and his brother blessed as babies, but then they dropped off the face of the earth and didn't take him to church at all. But then Tony got a job as a pizza man, delivered to some elders who gave him a Book of Mormon, called the phone number they'd written in...

Dear Loved Ones, When I was twelve, I got really into this show called Christy. Set in the 1910s, Christy is a nineteen year old school teacher who moves to the rural Applachian community of Cutter Gap. Armed with her big city ideas about women's rights and modern hygiene, Christy is sure she's going to raise up an educated generation and revolutionize life in Cutter Gap. In one episode, a female pilot crashlands in Cutter Gap and catches the fascination of everyone in town, including Christy's love interest David. Pilots, let alone female ones, are a rarity in this time period.  Christy is miffed that she isn't the center of attention and beacon of feminine progress anymore. She complains to a friend, who tells her, "Life will go back to normal when she leaves. Just like with you."  The series ends before you can see what becomes of Cutter Gap. But sequel movies and a book show the disappointing future. Christy's schoolchildren become child laborer...