Prayer of Thanksgiving

(I have the most wonderfulest companion.
We are all bundled up for the cold weather!)

Man! This week has been a doozy! Thanksgiving was great! Thank you family for all your emails of love and holiday wishes! We had two meals on Thursday (lunch and dinner) and then a third Thanksgiving meal on Friday. I guess you could say that Sister Eckley and I are pretty stuffed full. On Thursday, we had lunch at about 2:30pm and then our dinner was at 5:30pm. We were feeling very groggy and nauseated after those meals, for sure!

Sister Eckley and I have been getting excited... Christmas is in less than one month!! Too stoked. A couple exciting things that happened this week. One, Sis Eckley drove us into a ditch (well, a culvert, that's what the call it in the south). It was great. Also, I ran straight into a cement pole. That was fun. No big deal. Both of us have been sickly this week, still going out and getting things done, but we had the Elders come over last night to give us a Blessing. That was much needed.

(The Elders in our District are super great, too!)
Elder Phillips (District Leader), Elder Butler (from Enumclaw, WA),
and Elder Lambson (been out 4 weeks)

A lot of the work here in Cabot has to do with reactivation. There aren't too many people that we can find via door knocking. It hasn't proven too successful. Which means, we stick with what the elders have been doing, which is going down the ward member list. We are trying to meet as many people that we don't know and invite them back to church. Some are definitely not interested, but others have invited us back.

Relating to that... I have a story!!! So, this man, let's call him John. He's a less active. He was planning on going on a mission, saved up the money, but then gave the money to his brothers and they went on missions. Therefore, John never went. Anyways, years have passed and he's now in his second marriage. His wife, Jane, is not a member. We met him the first week and invited him back to church. The spirit was so strong and he had a desire to return, but felt as though his wife was against it and didn't want to upset her. He told us to come back so we could meet with the family on another day, however, she wasn't feeling well. So we never went back. Now, fast forward a week... Our Bishop went and visited with him. Long story short, John AND Jane decided to come to church Sunday (yesterday) and Jane agreed to having missionaries over, i.e. us!!! She said that she went a time or two but she felt like the members made fun of her dress or something like that and she quit going. She has loads of questions and we hope we can answer them! We have set up to meet with her later this week! I am so excited for their family!

I'm, for the most part, getting back into the swing of things. With it being Thanksgiving and all, I've had time to reflect on what I am most truly grateful for. A member actually asked me at one of our meals and I got super teary-eyed (thanks, mama!). I am grateful for the love of my Heavenly Father. I know that it's because of His love that I am able to be back here in Arkansas. I know that He loves me, and because of that, He has provided a way for me to do what I love, which is serving Him. There are so many things I would not be doing at this time if it wasn't for His continual arm of love which is stretched out towards me. He's heard my prayers, cries, and desires, and because He loves me so deeply, He has allowed me to be where I am. To which, I am so very grateful. Every time I teach, I am so full of my Savior's love and I feel so much joy and peace. I know that I am supposed to be here and I know that the Lord truly does love His children and is only but a "phone call away". He doesn't pull away from us; we are the ones that move further away from Him. He is waiting to bless us. Seek Him. Find Him. Learn of Him. Follow Him. And pray to Him. He's waiting.

Much love,
Sister Jessica Ann Smith