Challenges and Change

Hey Family,
This week we spent a lot of time with one of our investigators and it has just been quite a story filled week. I think most notably was last night when we went to go visit her, as soon as we got there she was turning on her water to water the Garden and then noticed that two plants weren't getting any water, so she grabbed that hose and unbeknownst to her she had pointed the nozzle straight at my face and then she squeezed the handle to find that she had sprayed me square in the face. I had been kind of grumpy yesterday, for some reason, so It was a good moment to just laugh and I think it was Heavenly Father telling me to change my attitude! She was pretty proud of herself for being able to not get any of my clothes wet and still get to spray me. After that we ate some sandwiches with her and had a lesson about Faith.
She has some pretty big road blocks in her way to get baptized so we are really praying for a way for it to happen, She seems to want to be baptized, but is afraid of what it will mean for her family and what she will have to do to change to a different lifestyle. We had been watching or talking about stories where people have sacrificed so much to keep the commandments or follow the Prophet and she would always exclaim that these people were idiots or that it didnt make any sense for someone to do something like that, such as Abraham being willing to sacrifice Issac, the pioneers moving west, Joseph Smith and Hyrum being martyrs, and just lots of other examples. After thinking about all of these different stories I put myself in her situation and these other people. I realized that I have been able to live in a place and home where the decisions to keep the commandments has been easy. My decision to serve a mission was easy. I had not really had to face anything, compared to these other people, and had not even faced as hard of a trial as we were asking this investigator to go through in order to be baptized. It was pretty shocking and made me very grateful for the numerous blessings in my life. I was raised like Nephi with "goodly parents" unlike Nephi I even had loving siblings who never criticized my desire to serve my God but instead encouraged me and helped me. I just pray that if I ever get into a situation where my faith is tested more, that I will have the strength to follow through. And I applaud and revere those that have gone through struggles and still kept their faith intact.
Love, 

Elder Smith