Getting lost in the lightening storms

Hello everyone! I have a lot to say so buckle down and grab some chips and salsa! Sister Smyth and I are growing closer and closer everyday! Now that we have a car we belt out hymns and church music as we RIDE from place to place! It's kinda awesome! Sister Smyth as also brought out her artsy side and has begun leaving me "shower art"! Have you ever made pictures on shower walls with super long hair? Yeah I was grossed out at first but then we started making a game out of it. I tried to get a picture but it just didn't do it justice. This week we also had to drive down to Tucson for a new missionary training thingy with President and Sister Passey. We love them! Sister Passey is so fun to learn from! I could read the Book of Mormon with her all day! After the training I pulled President Passey aside and got to talk with him about a few things that I've been struggling with. It was such a blessing to hear that so many other missionaries have come to him for the same reasons. He was able to give me amazing advice and I've been doing so much better ever since! While in Tucson the elders asked Hermana Smyth to take them to see an investigator that she had taught when she served here. I guess she hadn't been letting the elders in. As soon as we got to the apartment complex I saw a woman running out screaming "HERMANA HERMANA!" It was the investigator. The elders couldn't believe it. I sat awkwardly in the corner while the 3 other missionaries spoke Spanish. Every once in a while someone would say something in English and I could pick up on what was going on but mostly I just sat there feeling like an alien. At the end of the lesson I said my one sentence that I could remember in Spanish! Yo se que Jesu Christo viva! I felt a little dumb because it sounded way better in my head and I came out sounding like a robot. The investigator looked at me with huge eyes and started crying! Ahhh I didn't know what to do. Hermana Smyth elaborated in Spanish and the spirit was so strong! I had no clue what was going on but the spirit was there and I loved being a witness! Too cool. I can say one line in Spanish and I eat Mexican food on the daily. I guess you could say I'm pretty much Mexican :) Next great story! We are teaching an investigator named Salvador. We are 99% positive that he only listens to us because he is in love with Sister Smyth because he tried to cuddle with her and he won't let the real Hermanas talk to him. Yeah it was the funniest thing I've ever witnessed. We were teaching him how to use Mormon.org on his phone when he all of a sudden went in for the kill! HAHAHAHA Sister Smyth's face was pure terror. Too funny. I couldn't believe it. He also sends us pictures all the time of random memes. Yes. Salvador has a special place in our hearts! Having a car is awesome! I never realized how much time we spent getting from place to place. We fly to each appointment now! All of the women in our ward freak out when they see us in cars. They were about to go on protest to get us a car. It's pretty funny to see them more happy about our cute truck than we are. Exchanges were this week. Sister Shrader came and acted like my companion for 24 hours. She was super nice and it put me at ease a little bit to see how we worked together. It wasn't the same as with Sister Smyth but it was still great. We decided to go see a woman that I had never met before. We met with her and had an amazing lesson that you can read in my journal in 18 months because I'm running out of time! Ahh. After exchanges we had to ride an hour to Wilcox in a monsoon. It was the scariest moment of my life! Highways and monsoons don't mix. The lightning was like a firework show. I love Arizona lightning! It's incredible! On the way back Sister Smyth and I were paying way too much attention on the driving part and not on the direction part. We got lost for a bit but eventually found our way home after making a few calls! It was a fun little adventure. On Wednesday we had an appointment cancel after another dinner at El Charro's Mexican restaurant. We were close to one of our recent converts houses so we decided to give miss Mary a visit! Mary has been going through a really hard time with her daughter in the middle of Chemo. The stress got to her and she turned back to smoking to try to ease the stress. WE WERE HEART BROKEN! We had a super awesome lesson on prayer and how it is the key to dealing with stress. She told us she would work on it. Then we decided to ask her about preparing for the temple. She told us how badly she wants to go to the temple to be baptized for her mother. We were so happy! Mary is the only member of her family and all of her siblings are very apposed to the church. It was awesome to hear how much Mary wanted to get her mother to the temple. She has never seen the temple in real life so we will be taking her to the temple this week! The temple president has agreed to meeting us outside and talking to Mary about the blessings that come from being worthy to enter the temple. I'm really excited for that! Because of the set back we have to wait a little while but Mary is working towards it and that's all that matters. In the mean time we will be working on some family history! We started teaching a part member family called the Visconti's. The wife isn't a member but everyone else in the family have been less active for a long time. Grandma Visconti goes every once in a while but the rest of the family has kinda given up. The first lesson we taught them was about celestial marriage and getting the family sealed in the temple. Sister Visconti got super defensive and said there was no way she was going to be a Mormon. It was interesting to hear how badly the rest of the family wanted that though. It got a bit emotional. The spirit was for sure there. Last night we were driving from our appointment with Doug to our appointment with the Visconti's. We had planned to just read with them Ether 12. While I was driving Sister Smyth asked me if that still felt right. It didn't. That's when Mosiah 26 popped into my head. Neither of us knew what Mosiah 26 was about so she opened up and read a little bit. Okay Pause the story- open up to Mosiah 26 for me. Now picture reading that to a less active/investigator family that haven't exactly been living worthily. Okay back to the story. We were super intimidated to read it with them but the spirit said so. As we were reading I was holding my breath! I kept waiting for someone to get offended and get mad but that didn't happen. We talked about the story and how Alma was faced with a situation that we had never dealt with before. I asked Brother Visconti if he had ever been put in that kind of a situation as a parent. He got a little emotional and said he was dealing with that right now. HOLY MOLY! The spirit flooded in! We kept going and talked about how Alma when to God for help. Alma's question was answered but Alma still had to put in work in order to fix the problem. The family asked a lot of questions and we did our best to answer. During the entire lesson I was in shock of how the spirit knew exactly what this family needed. We were scared to death to read Mosiah 26 with this family. We did and it worked. The spirit was there and each of them committed to go to the Lord with a question this week. I love being a missionary because of moments like this! AHHHHH! I'm super out of time but I love you all and am so grateful for you! Nicole I'm so happy that you are going on a mission. You won't regret it! Stacy- YOU'RE MARRIED. WEIRD! Ahh oh and hubbard family I love your cousin. She's so cute! I'm so glad I spoke in church at a mission farewell because that's the only way they found me. SMALL WORLD! K BYE! READING ASSIGNMENT- THE FIRST GREAT COMMANDMENT it's a talk by Elder Holland