Have I Done Any Good?

(Sister Missionaries do love 
Christmas and Santa!)

Apparently as Sister Missionaries, we just become part of the family here in the South. Dinner conversations consist of openly discussing bowel movements, monthly cycles, financial problems, chopping heads off bunnies, second marriage honeymoons, womanly health issues, scalping a dog's head, martial struggles, where milking cows/goats/and other animals originated from, and stretch marks, just to name a few. I think my OWN family dinner conversations definitely prepared me in a lot of ways to be here. Welcome to Arkansas! Oh! And literally every family here has a dog and a truck. #OnlyInAR

This week has been a slightly slow one. We were able to go out caroling a couple of times. When we were out, we stopped at one house, and they invited us in for coffee.... Awkward two seconds where we couldn't breathe and didn't know what to say... THEN! They offered hot chocolate. We breathed again. Hahah The group was a Book Club meeting from some Baptist church. They were nice and sweet, asking us questions. And then, BAM! The claws came out! Turns out, one of the people there was the pastor from their church... No big deal. Except it was! He was trying to tongue tie us and trip us with our words. Basically saying that what we believed was blasphemy. Luckily, we had the Elders with us, too. Elder Phillips (DL) and I were switching off between answering all of his questions, as well as asking Pastor Rob questions. Pastor Rob was incredibly confrontational and it was hard to maintain the Spirit, but we did well and kept it as a Spirit-filled Bible Bash. It was great! I've definitely missed those lively conversations! Haven't been involved in one of them in over a year!

We were able to go back over to the house a few days later and visit with the lady and her husband that actually live there. It definitely felt like a date. We were getting mixed signals the whole time. They were hot and cold: not interested, and then kinda interested saying yes, let's hang out, but then saying only when it's convenient, and then invited us back. It was quite like my dating life. However, we were able to leave them with a Book of Mormon and she seemed incredibly interested in reading it. Hopefully she'll contact us to want to meet, after reading some.

(Swag with a giraffe.
Can't get cooler than that.)

We decided to spend the day at the church before our Ward Christmas Party. However, we did not think about the fact that we didn't have a key (an no car). So after being dropped off, we told our ride that the Elders can let us in, to not to worry because they will be here soon. They left. We quickly called the Elders asking to let us in, they just didn't know when they could. So yup, we were stranded outside the church in the middle of nowhere in our PJs. The closest things around us are a lingerie store across the highway and then about 5 liquor stores up the street. God answered our awkward pleading prayers within 10 minutes as the 2nd Counselor of the Bishopric arrived with food for the party. Hallelujah! We get to go inside! Moral of the story: when you have to resort to plan Z almost every day you sometimes can lose your mind and forget the big deets, BUT the Lord will always provide a way for his young missionaries!

Not too many exciting things have happened this week. Sister Eckley and I have lasted through the transfer though! We shall remain in Cabot for another 6 weeks (or more, depending on the next transfer changes). Hallelujah! However, we lost one of our Elders. Elder Butler (the one that lives in Enumclaw) will be transferred, so now we will only have two Elders with us. Oh! Also, the group of us got asked to sing in Church on Sunday as part of the Christmas Program. That should be alright. At least we didn't lose our musical Elder (Elder Phillips... He actually went to school for music composition or something like that). Bummed to see Elder Butler go, but it's been a fun ride! There are a lot of changes this transfer, including a new main Office Elder, a new Sister Training Leader, a new Zone Leader, and a new Assistant to the President. It'll be interesting to see all the differences.

That's all for now! Enjoy y'alls week! (:

Sister Jessica Ann Smith

(Our tree isn't so empty 
anymore.... Thanks Mama! (:)