April 28, 2025

From Abby - "And with this, his life begins anew"

Hello Dearest Readers, 

I hope this email finds you immensely well

I'm currently posessed of the unusual lack of motivation to make myself breakfast

and simultaneously living in fear that this email will send itself earlier than intended...
If it happens a third time I'm EXCLUSIVELY writing my emails in the notes app.

Its currently 6:42 AM
I'm feeling optomistic to finish semi early if I can stay on task.

Last Pday we did  i think what you would call the touristy thing 
serving in Pleasant Grove we HAD to hike the G
our district has a ball of a time enjoying each others company while cursing the incline and picking flowers!

The view of our ENTIRE mission^.. and probably some of the saratoga springs mission, and Provo mission.. 
Photo Credit to Elder brown :) 

If I wasn't a missionary on a Pday Schedule I would have stayed there MUCH longer, the sun shining down on me, the wind cooling my face and blowing my hair, and never ending flowers and sticks and rocks to fidgit with as you make deep conversation with your fellow missionaries. ETC Gods creations are beautiful.

This week was one of the HARDEST weeks i've ever experienced on my mission. I genuinly had a crisis half way through the week about my ability to battle the natural man. It's SO dissapointing when your true desires are overcome by natural man desires

I feel like we all feel this. Although its completely isolating at the same time.

The adversary is cunning

the 23rd marks SEVEN MONTHS of being set apart as a missionary! Can any of us believe it? I don't know. 
Also April is the month that marks one year until I come home!! WHOS COUNTING not me okayyy

Anyways 

We were able to go to the temple this week :)
Nothing is more wonderful than walking onto temple grounds and feeling the spirit that is always there.

Sisters! ^

Elders :) ^

its almost like they plant the temple gardens with the flowers that will pop up the SOONEST riddling the grounds with the happiest colors of spring :) 

While I was sitting in the Celestial room of the temple the words kept coming into my head "I love you, I love you."

the temple is one of the most sacred gifts we've ever been given.

After the temple we ate DELICIOUS Thai food in this little hole in the wall run by one lady and her family.
I've concluded that mango sticky rice brings me exceeding amounts of joy.

SISTER DIMITROV EXCHANGES
Adventures from exchanges enclude:
- Realising that biking in a dress can be one of the most humbling things ever to occur XD 
I love going on exchanges with people who've been in a car their whole mission because then I REALLY see how used to it I am.
-Going to knock a red dot refferal (We usually don't knock red dots unless someone explicitly tells us to) after we knock the door we realise it was the WRONG RED DOT. Criminal. Luckily they didn't answer so we're in the clear XD
-We met this older Gentleman named Mike working outside a house. We approached him and commented on his measuring tape overalls (Which he's actually used to help measure in a pinch!) He explains that he lives in Americain Fork and is here for his job assuming we'd leave him alone.. oh how Mike was wrong 

We learn that he's a member but hasn't been to church in years because of how he was treated by certain people (Never heard this story before) in complete contrast to his situation, Mike proceeds to spit religious BARS 
He explains to us that he almost died once and had an experience witnessing an angel narrirate his death. He heard these two sentances 
"And with this, he takes his last breath. (Exiting mortal life)

And with this, his life begins anew" (Entering spirit world)
He basically bore his testimony that the next life exists.
how wonderful it is to believe in a newer, greater, and more wonderful life after this one. 
Especially since this life is already wonderful and filled with light as it is :)

on faith this is what he had to say:
"If faith made sense.. it wouldn't be faith."
I replied: 
"Mike it seems like you need to take your own advice"

I think we invited him to church/ asked him to let missionaries come to his door 5 or 6 times during that conversation which he kindly rejected.. RIGHT before we walked away I reextended the invitation to let me send missionaries to his door. his response?
"I guess. But I'll probably turn them away."
It was a win to me 

-Later in the night we were knocking a semi sketchy place we call "The cottages" 
theres one lady who lives there named amber who's a less active and a total smoker and  absolutely one of my most favorite people EVER. 
we were knocking doors close to her apartment and shes sitting on her doorstep on the phone with one of her friends, when she sees us she hangs up, runs up to the door where we're talking to this guy (Max),gives him a handful of candy, and joins us om his doorstep in her shorts and hoodie saying "Sorry I'm late" IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR DOOR CONTACT

I LOVE HER. 
Shes not normal XD
But i love her :))

Something I LOVE about being a missionary is that you just never know where you're going to end up.
We were visiting this older lady with a member, we make our way to the basement apartment when we run into the person who lives upstairs whos outside gardening.. (Also, completely less active.) she asked us if we could do some service for her and pretty soon we find ourselves battling weeds and trying to carve out rough spots to plant flowers through dirt, clay and rocks... While also listening to Claire de lume?. I had a moment where i thought 
"This is not how I thought my evening would go.. This is the best." 

This week we had a LOVELY visit with a completely innactive member named Laurel and her Primary President friend Janet XD THEY WERE THE CUTEST. Sister Orton asked what their advice was for a long lasting friendship 
They said
-Don't EVER let anything fester. you should be able to honest with eachother 

-When you miss eachother, reach out, go for a drive or something, reconnect. 
-You can't expect eachother to change, you must love them for who they are and run with it. People always change.

I think there could be a worse combination than good advice and Pizza :) 

We also had a Jungle exchange which basically means that you're with a different companion the entire night and maybe even multiple!
My favorite part of these is at the end of the night when we come together and rejoice in the small wins of missionary work that we saw throughout the night 

So much Chaos, so much love :) ^

Theres this one less active member in the ward named Tonja. Tonja struggles with her addiction to alcohol and the only time she texts or calls the missionaries is when she's completely intoxicated. Our text conversation saturday morning went something like this 

Hi! Its Tonja
Want to stop by?

Hi Tonja! We can come at 12:00!


Please don't bother 

We'll come by just to check up! See you later! 

Please don't! Unless Sister Hall and Sister Cox are here

*two minutes later*

Please stop by soon.

Its a difficult situation. After one very drunk visit with her, I don't think our visits are very productive. She was VERY sad that we werent Sister Hall and Sister Cox  even though she asked us to come.

upset to the point where she said 
"If you aren't Sister Hall and Sister Cox, I don't want to meet with you missionaries ANY more."

I was like "BET" 

IDK its hard. Again, you just never know where you're going to find yourself as a missionary. 

for the rest of saturday we were able to walk in the GORGOUS weather, proselyting in warm weather is the next level. 

Also changed my back pack to a cross body for ONE day just to try it. It's been a chronic backpack because of biking but we were walking for most of the day so I thought "Why not." 
Lets just say it was a backpack the next morning :))

Heard some possibly abusive yelling in thornberry the other day that was fun. 

We had a lesson with one of the people we're teaching who's name is Georgia. Shes SO cute, and loves her fellowshipping family the kemps (I love them too) 
Her Dad (Mike) Is rough around the edges and sometimes brings his other friends who are equally if not more rough.. in maybe more than just the edges. 
We taught Georgia about prayer this week and we explained how we begin by saying "Dear Heavenly father", and that we pray to our heavenly father in the name of Jesus Christ ETC
Mikes friend (James) Pipes up and starts explaining that he prefers to pray to Jesus.

He starts preaching to us about the atonement and how much Jesus did for us.. which is good! But in this context his comment displayed the atonement as an argument point AGAINST praying to God, Since "Jesus Christ has done so much more for us than god." 
James is forgetting that God GAVE Jesus Christ.. and that God presented that plan.
"For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only begotten son." - John 3:16
I watched this opinionated, immature, jeering old man passionately interject himself in the middle of two 20 year old missionaries trying to teach a 10 year old little girl.

as he was ranting I CANNOT tell you how uninterested I was. AND how hard it was not to argue against him.
"Thats a good point james, and thats something we can thank God for, that he sent us his son."
The spirit was struggling as I tried to steer the lesson back to something productive without bringing on contention.
We finished the lesson but I couldn't help but be ANGRY. 

James also told us that David killed Goliath with a frog so I don't know how much i trust his doctrinal knowledge. 

Last sunday we got a text from one of our fellowshippers and she asked "Would one of you sister's be willing to sing a musical number for my sons farewell?"

I was just BARELY willing enough to jump in and sing a cheesy youth song over the puplit for the purpose of sending off a missionary 
So this week has been riddled with "Disciple of Christ" 
Spontaneously practised with the pianist who is JENEDY PAIGE?!  She's probably one of the most impressive people i've ever met. Professional artist, mom, entrepeneur.. and on top of that she's stunningly beautiful and a body builder. 
Anyways she played the piano for me.OH yeah and I guess she can also play the piano very well

We sang on sunday and after sacrament the stake president comes up and is like "Can we plan on having you sing that in stake conference? For the youth?" And I'm like yeahh :D 
So thats cool!!
Yay for not burrying talents. 

This week i've been reading SO MUCH about the plan of salvation. Doctrine and Covenants 76, 78, and 88 specifically. (Brain hurts)

D&C 88: 17-19
17 And the redemption of the soul is through him that quickeneth all things, in whose bosom it is decreed that the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it.

 18 Therefore, it must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory; 

19 For after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father.

So to inherit the Celestial Kingdom or highest degree of glory is to fill the measure of your creation!
Filling the measure of our creation is the complete opposite of damnation. 

Damnation is the state of being stopped in ones progress and denied access to the fullness of God and his Glory because they're not willing to accept those conditions or laws which are REQUIRED for us to dwell with God. (D&C 88:32-33, 38-39)
So filling the measure of our creation is achieving the progress and potential God intended for us to recieve!

I don't know of any of that makes much sense but it was in my study journal so I thought I'd share. 

With that I end this Email. Its currently 11:17

(11:50 post editing)

 (There was shopping in the middle somewhere)

 The point is the work is DONE 

I hope this week is just splendid. 
Let god prevail!

Fill the measure of your creation! 

Albumm
https://photos.app.goo.gl/XUXT8gMVvExvkJbJ9


-Sister Smith  

From Mom - The Rhythm of Joy

Dear Amazing Sister Smith,

I arrived at the Edmonton Airport Saturday night after having a fantastic visit with Stephanie and family with a side trip to Texas to see Tonia Rice. It was super fun to experience Texas through the eyes of Tonia. I spent a lot of time laughing because she's so expressive and has strong opinions. Happily, she can handle my strong opinions too so we balance each other out. I loved the historical buildings and the abundance of blooming flowers. I spent time in the pool and, by some miracle, my pasty winter skin did not burn. We ate good food, had deep spiritual discussions, lamented about the homeless, sped around in her Jeep with the top down, and overall had a great time. I told her about the adage penned by Benjamin Franklin that "Fish and company stink after three days," so I kept it to a three-day trip and that was about perfect. I was actually anxious to get home to Dad. I forgot that I don't love being away from him longer than a week. He picked me up in our new-to-us Hyundai Palisade and it is definitely the fanciest vehicle we've ever owned. It's like a grey Derek, but new-and-improved. Dad made a good call and we're going to love it. And the best thing of all is to have no car payments! Whoop! Whoop!

Sunday morning had us driving to Stake Conference in Edmonton. Here is my take-away. ... We teach in our religion that one of the purposes of life is to have Joy, right? So, first think about the quality of being alive as dependent on a beating heart. Our heart repetitively beats 15-20 times per minute, and its rhythm dictates our days, weeks and years. If the heart stops, our bodies die. We depend upon the rhythmic cadence of our hearts to continue breathing. But "being alive" is not enough to have joy. We could think of Joy as the rhythmic quality of keeping our spirit alive. I mean, consider your joyful moments and how much light, positivity and hope it brings to you. For me, my joyful moments include stillness in gratitude for nature (especially flowers), laughing with my loved ones (especially my birth family, my husband and my children), accomplishing something hard (like finishing a university class). But if I'm completely honest with myself, my most frequent joyful moments come when I am in communion with God. It's kneeling beside my bed in sincere dialogue and what I mean by prayerful dialogue comes in two parts. Part One is the articulation of words directed to a loving Father in Heaven. Part Two begins when I say "amen" then stay kneeling as I listen. The gentle impressions that come into my mind fuel the day and honestly bring me Joy to know Heaven is deeply involved in my life. That Joy is strengthened when I open the scriptures and that heavenly dialogue is continued. It's a repetitive rhythm, like a beating heart. Because Joy is dependent on intention and agency, the challenge comes when we don't make it repetitive. For the last two months, my personal pattern has been disrupted and I can see a big difference, even already this morning of restoring that heavenly dialogue. Thank-you, Stake Conference!

And I did really have a joyful Sunday. Partly because of church, but also because it was Josh's Birthday! First born son turns 29! Ben came up for it and it's really so nice to be together. You, of course, are sorely missed in these moments. We called Steph to witness the Minecraft Birthday Cake, singing, and blowing out the candles event. The candles witnessed that Josh has two girlfriends but he recovered by saying the only two women he loves is his wife and his mother. Haha, good recovery! We topped the evening off with a round of Frisbee despite the fact we woke up to snow Sunday morning. It had melted by the time we went outside in the evening though. Ben said we need Abby here to document since none of us took pictures. I guess we won't have any proof of our lives until next year when you get back!

As I write this, Dad and Mia are at Jubilee Campground meeting with the Manager there to see if she can get decent summer work. Time will tell and maybe we will have an update for you at your regularly scheduled PDay call. I work until 8 tonight so call after that! Also, today is the federal election and we will be going to vote as soon as they get back.

As always, we love you deeply and are so proud of you!

Have an amazing week!

Love,

Mom