Week of Miracles!

Dear Family!

This week has been a week of miracles!! We have been having a little bit of a rough time in Wufeng--many of the progressing investigators from last move call stopped progressing and several great people we had started teaching stopped meeting with us due to exposure to anti-LDS literature or friends. Our zone leaders had given us some invitations to increase our investigators at church, and even though we had been trying really hard, we only had one person committed for church on Saturday day. Also our week B (past tense now...:( ) still did not receive permission from her mom still. We were feeling a bit down and discouraged, but we have also been focusing on mighty prayer. I have really noticed a change in my own prayers, and in our companionship prayers. Sometimes it is hard when we feel soooo sleepy, but it really does make a big difference! This week we saw miracles! One happened when it was eight thirty at night and we were calling formers. I had already called through most of the numbers I had with me, but my companion said we should call for another twenty minutes. I was tried, my Chinese was getting slurred and I was just a little discouraged from the lack of success. But I decided to call through some of the numbers that hadn't answered the day before. The first number I called actually picked up and when I asked if she could come to church (twelve hours later) she said YES!!! My companion also was blessed to confirm one other for church. So we went from one to three. We were still feeling that was a little low, but we had tried our best. Next morning, our investigator arrives EARLY and is so happy to be with us. Heavenly Father also blessed us to have our other two confirmed for church investigators arrive. Then a member brought her yet-to-be-member mother, and another member brought her niece and four of her friends. So in total, we had NINE investigators at church!!!! It was a MIRACLE! And the miracle add from the night before brought her daughter to the Jenny Philip's concert that night! It was so great! I feel like the Lord has really blessed us. Also that day so many people came to our church meetings--it was a very great feeling. I want every Sunday to be like this one.

As for our less active work, I have been thinking about how we need to take a member with us to visit, and hopefully we'll be able to put that more into practice this week. We haven't yet :(. But I feel like that will really help a lot. This week we focused on them by having more of our RCLAs be our member at lessons. The only problem is that we were fanged by our peikes (members at lessons) a few times...but hopefully we can continue to work with them on that!

In the gospel study realm--I love the Book of Mormon, I love being able to feel more and more familiar with it every day. It has been a real source of comfort for me. One of my favorite verses--my motto for this move call is Alma 26:27. I am always inspired by the accounts of the ancient missionaries. I just finished up the last bit of Helaman, and I am just so impressed by the example of Nephi. I really liked chapter 16 and how it showed how Samuel the Lamanite and Nephi worked together to bring many souls unto Christ. It showed how districts and zones should be--especially verses 1-5. I really believe that as we work in unity, we will be able to work miracles. Today we had an awesome preparation da yactivity in our zone to increase unity. I felt like it really did and I gained a better appreciation for all the effort and love our leaders put into this zone. They are great!

Sometimes I think I just never want to come home, lol. But then I think about taking a bath and reading books, playing in Alaska and going to school and then I think, maybe in a year that would be nice. Lol. Eleven months left! Sometimes it feels like I just started, others like I should be on the last stretch. Mainly you feel down when the work is going slow or things aren't so perfect with a companion. But when you have success the time really flies and you are filled with such joy that you wouldn't be anywhere else.

I met a member at church who remembered Emily Owen! It was pretty fun.

Love,
Sister Brooke Smith