Living in the Heights

Hola!

Primera, lo siento for any mistakes in this email, we get to go to the temple today!! Which is amazing but it means another pday writing most on subways, which equals a lot of typos and crazy organization so u hope this makes sense to all y'all! 

        My we had quite a few appointments with people this week that were really awesome, and some really good meetings and other things! 

        Wednesday night (last pday) we ended up having some unexpected time due to appointments that fell through (normal part of the day) BUT we got to go visit Lisbeth, one of the young women and read with her! It was so amazing, I seriously love the people here so much! Also it's always nice to speak some English (since most teenagers prefer English) 

      We were doing some lookups Thursday and found Ruth!!! She has a daughter that's a member, and she is a past investigator, she had so many questions. She was a little passionate, but she's reading the bible and just the night before we came had been telling her daughter she needed to pick a church for the granddaughter since she'd be 5 soon. She just kept saying she knew we were messengers of God, so many things had the timing work out so perfectly! Hopefully we'll have a lesson with her soon! 

      Also on Thursday we had a dinner appointment with Fanny, a member. And midway through eating her crazy hyper dog out of nowhere jumped up onto my lap. It was hilarious! 

       Friday we got to take the metro north up to Scarsdale chapel for our new missionary meeting which was seriously amazing! Listening to president talk about the doctrine of Christ is probably my new favorite hobby. He has so much knowledge and I feel like I have so much more to learn about the doctrine of Christ! President Morgan has been studying just the doctrine of Christ the whole time they have been serving! I'll take some time in my email next week to share more about it! Seriously so good. Sister Morgan also made delicious sandwiches, and veggies, and chips, and ice cream...as we would describe it, white people food again!! Yeah! Haha it's crazy how you don't realize you miss certain foods until you have them again. New missionary training was so spiritually uplifting and so motivating, and I got to see my MTC friends, just a really good morning/afternoon.

       If the new missionary meeting wasn't enough we met this amazing guy on a subway elevator and talked to him for quite a while. He grew up in Chicago and one of his friends went to BYU so years later they got back in contact so we went out to his wedding last week in salt lake! He had an amazing experience at temple square, and realized Mormons were real people, and was so excited about all the basketball stars that were mormon. It was a tender mercy story for us! AND we had an awesome lesson with our investigator Gloria after that about the plan of salvation, and got to answer a lot of her questions about the BOM. It was incredible night! 

         Sunday Fabian, the elders new convert, was confirmed and then bore his testimony and it was one of the strongest testimonies and he's a new convert too! Also in the middle of his testimony this crazy guy off the streets walked in and yelled a bunch of stuff and did some catholic crosses....then yelled and walked out? It was insane but it didn't even affect Fabian he continued to bear his testimony without pauses.

       Also Sunday we went tracting with the elders in our area...and it was the most interesting tracting experience yet! We got the cops "called" on us 3 times, the guy that "buzzed" us in was all offended because he was having a dinner party, met some JWs, a crazy lady was yelling at us for being fornicators because we're polygamists? Some free spirits....it was just weird and awesome. Haha really feel like a missionary! I love it!

        Sunday night we got to go to dinner at Leo's mom's house and the food was so good! I took a picture, also we ate with metal sporks, yes that's a thing. 

     

       Also doing studies Sunday I was reading in the Ensign and Eyring's article about prayer is so good, check it out! Also the. New mormon message is so good too, everyone needs to watch it. AND did everyone know I they're coming out with a movie called Meet the Mormons?!?! I'm so excited! It looks so good

         We had such a good lesson with Valerie Monday and she said when she lived in the DR she saw the temple every day, and she's really going to try to come to church! I love her! We had a surprise dinner appointment with Dulce, one of our members, she had some crazy stories. I love the Spanish people so much! Also later that day we got juked...so we went and got mcdonalds ice cream, and we needed milk, but while getting milk we met a guy who's parents are mormon and he even went to the Manhattan temple open house! So cool!      

         Tuesday was my first split in my area, which means I'm in charge of the phone, and what we're doing...so much pressure! But it ended up going well. We did a lot of lookups. Had church tours for our APF. Had a great lesson with one of our members that can't leave the house from medical reasons (she has the most faith of anyone I have met!) and we had another good lesson with the actor family! It ended up being a good day of splits with sister brower. Saturday I have a split with the English sisters...but luckily I'm going into there area this weekend should be interesting next week when I'm the only one speaking Spanish for a day!

          Today was crazy packed, we went to FAO schwarz for candy, had to go to Times Square forever 21 for sister baker. Being in Times Square is awesome as a missionary! We talked to Spanish people from Bolivia in line, had a guy at the subway come up to me and ask me "do you know captain Moroni? So do I" haha it's so great! Grabbed a quick hot dog off the street and went into our TEMPLE SESSION! Wow he Manhattan temple is gorgeous and I've missed the temple so much, definitely best part of the day! After we got a few groceries at trader joes and headed back! As I was writing emails on the train this guy started playing his guitar and singing, haha he was actually really good just kind of comical! Such a packed day from 11-5:30

I'm definitely out of time for the week! I'll send some pictures from this week:)

xoxo

Hermana Smart 

"E'rybody have a good day"

¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

          I hope everybody is having a great day! So we were walking down this tunnel on the 191st subway stop and this guy is singing the same thing on repeat "e'rybody have a good day today. It's a beautiful bright sunny day, enjoy your day" hahaha we got part of it on video and randomly sister baker will just play it, or someone will start singing it, it's just so hilarious. Man I love the people of New York!

To avoid making this email too long I'm just going to hit the highlights! And mostly catch you up on some of our more progressing investigators!

          Last pday we had my first lesson with our investigator Gloria and her kids, mostly her teenage daughter Fernanda is the other investigator. They are seriously amazing, I'm so excited to go see them again tonight!

          Thursday we got to go to the upper east side for chiropractor for sister baker (she has migraines and other such things) but the point of this story is that it's just really fun to walk around the city and smile at people and to be a missionary in New York City! I love ever part of manhattan!

          Thursday night we had 6 lessons from 6pm-9pm, yes that's the truth. 2 of them were people we stopped on the street...but still so crazy!! Our first lesson was with Lucy & Lorraine. We were really worried because last time they had been visited it was a really bad crash and burn about the law of chastity (Lucy the mom and serafin the dad live together, but they aren't really in a relationship, and the dad had been married before and believes God told him he should never get married again....it's complicated) BUT we went in there and Lucy told us she really wants to get baptized and she'll do anything to figure it out. And there daughter Lorraine (college age) set a date to be baptized inOctober 11th. We taught them about the word of wisdom and they were so willing to try to start living it! so amazing!! So to celebrate we ate froyo for dinner (picture included) needless to say we were so happy after that lesson!!

           We were doing some lookups after and we approached this apartment and this guy sitting on the steps asks us if we want his key to get in since they weren't answering he buzzer. He hands it to me and without thinking I say "gracias" and he was like what did you say? Haha I was a little scared like uhhhh I just said thank you (FYI he's a rather larger Dominican man) and then he's like do you speak Spanish so we ended up talking to him, Miguel, for quite a bit of time. We invited him to church, gave him a restoration pamphlet to read. He was so interested!! He works a lot because he's some sort of chef. BUT I think something good could come in the future and all because we spoke Spanish!

          After the lookups Thursday we went and taught our investigator Neris (she's the grandma to one of the young men in our ward) because we were really close to her house and it turned out to be really amazing!! We taught her about repentance AND she had a family friend at her house (he's like young adult age) and he had awesome questions about religion and we talked about BOM we are turning him over to the elders but he seems to have the perfect questions to start receiving answers as an investigator!

         We went really late to our next appointment with a less active because of Neris but that appointment was really amazing too!! We met with Elizabeth Luna (and Milagros her mom and kids) we just read a little bit in the Book of Mormon with her and she stopped us so she could read more on her own!! So we gave her a card with the address of the church and committed her to give it back to us at church on Sunday (ie come to church) and what do you know after they had worked with reactivating her for 5 months she came up after sacrament meeting all excited with the card!! And then she stayed all 3 hours, and participated, and made friends!! It was an absolute miracle.

        Since my companion is a sister training leader we have to go on splits with the sisters in our zone. So Friday I was in splits with Hermana Hall (she lives in our apartment which makes for an easy split) and it was a really awesome experience to be in a different area, everyone kind of has slight differences in how they do missionary work which was really cool to see. During our split we were in a lesson with the zone leaders because they were turning over this investigator to the sisters and the investigator, Laurie, was so amazing and interested. BUT I was sitting by this huge fan and every 2 seconds I was caught in a wind tunnel...pretty much impossible to interpret what limited Spanish vocabulary I have when my ears are being pounded by the fan and my red hair blowing everywhere. Hahaha at the end of the lesson she even commented on how beautiful my red hair was....hahaha

           On Saturday we had a minute so we surprise visited Maria Espinoza and wow it was perfect timing. Sometimes we plan a full day, everyone cancels because someone else needs us more and that definitely happened. Wow I love her so much she also at the end (since it was a really rainy day) said oh let me make you hot chocolate and then ended up bringing us amazing cinnamon or something similarly flavored hot cocoa and these amazing toquito things! So great.

          We finally got a bishop sunday! I don't remember if I told you...but about a week or more before it her the bishop moved without really warning people, so we finally got a new bishop called which is great! Also the closing prayer in relief society was this crazy old lady pretty much telling us who she was and rambling (no one even knew she was praying) and then she just said amen and that was it, bahaha Spanish wards are the best.

          Awkward moment of the week. So were waiting on the stairs in this building we had just been doing lookups in (since it was the same building we had appointment with Hermana Jimenez, relief society presidente, in) We were kind of close to this door that we had just knocked but the music was really loud and they didn't answer. Then this huge group of people with food, etc come out of the elevator and approached the same door they saw our card and swore taking it off the door. Haha we're just chilling right there as they walk in and proceed with there party. Hahaha we were dying, too awkward and hilarious.

          We had a lesson Monday with Valerie, Tammy's stepdaughter, and it was so awesome! Can't wait to start teaching her more. Also that night the Giffords sent pizza and dessert and soda to the apartment, seriously the nicest people.

          Yesterday during the APF I was on splits with English sister hall. Haha wow I don't know enough Spanish....but so crazy fun 2 hours!! I Gave away my first El Libro de Mormon on the streets! (We also won the scavenger hunt, which was the activity this week to find people that fit certain characteristics) most we just  talked to so many people!! It was amazing.

        Well yet again this email got way too long, so sorry, hopefully it enjoyable:) I just want to leave you with a spiritual thought from president this week! We had an elder in our zone go home this week (he came out at the same time I did) so during zone/district meeting president talked to us for a minute. What I loved most from his thoughts was that the mission is so hard but it is so worth it! Like in ether12:27 it says that if you have weaknesses you are coming closer to God. Weaknesses are good they make us humble! Also you know you are growing in faith when you have more trust, more, understanding, more hope, more desire, and more courage!

I love y'all so much and hope you have he best week!

xoxo
    Hermana Smart

First bite of the Big Apple

¡Hola mi Familia (y Amigos)!

Wow I can't believe I've already been in New York for a week! I'm absolutely loving my area and being a missionary, I seriously am always so happy I'm sure all the grumpy New Yorkers think I'm some insane red head walking down the street but I seriously am loving it!

Before you proceed in reading this email be warned that 1) I'm writing this on the subway because we are going into the city for pday and 2) I have a lot of really good stories from the week so this could get on the long side, BUT it'll all be worth it. 3) I still don't have too many pictures besides the ones I've started to take on the iPad since I've yet to gain access to a computer to get the ones of my camera....and I have a really good share a coke picture from Mexico that y'all should be excited for!!

Okay so I'm going to kind of go day by day so you realize how fresh I am to the area as the stories progress....

So you heard from me last Wednesday and I'm sure it was a big old long jumble of nothing's because I seriously was like a deer in the headlights all day long...but it was really good despite being a lot bit lost. Mostly Wednesday was getting oriented with our area, and our apartment is really nice. I absolutely love it! Also I taught my first lesson to real people! Two of our investigators Louisa and Rachel (mother daughter duo from Ecuador)  we're at the church doing yoga with some of the other sisters so we asked if they had a minute for a lesson. After they got done with yoga (had some time to practice some Spanish while they finished) we sat done with them at the church to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ it was going super well and then as we were about to wrap it all up the daughter proceeded to start crying and talking in rapid Spanish and I really started to understand nothing, if I thought it was hard before trying to understand Spanish while someone is sobbing is impossible haha. But after my trainer recapped that they were upset because the missionaries and church hadn't been able to help with their residency papers and that they spent all there time at the church and couldn't even prove it. Any-who they were just so offended and the daughter said she was losing her faith. Such a great first lesson right? Haha my trainer said I handled it well and ended up just baring a simple testimony at the end.

THURSDAY
       So the first big chunk of the day was planning for dayzzzz📆 literally. We had to do weekly planning and coordinate with missionaries in our area. And our area used to just be one Spanish sister companionship so we got another this cycle so we had to transfer stuff over to them and all. But to the good stuff of the day.
       I had my first food appointment! First off all food appointments in the Spanish program are kind of crazy....they feed you SO MUCH FOOD. And they expect you to eat at least seconds. And culturally you kind of stay a while. I'm sure I'll start having really good stories. But this appointment was with a recently deactivated member Maria Espinoza and she is the best. By far one of my favorite members so far, I'll send a picture of us at that appointment, she's from Ecuador so I actually understand most of her Spanish and she is an AMAZING cook. So my trainer Hermana Baker was companions with a sister who just left but her family was picking her up so she came to our lunch appointment with Maria too! So fun. We also got to meet with our investigators the Castro family this night and we read out of the BOM with them and taught them about family prayer, they were so adorable I love the. Also they gave us ritz crackers and juice. It's definitely a cultural thing to always feel like they need to feed us, pray I don't get fat!
       So coming home from that appointment we were at the 175th subway stop and Hermana Baker went really fast ahead and the swip turn thing was different and I accidentally swiped at a different one than I tried to go through so it didn't work but I had already swiped my unlimited card so that means I have to wait 15 minutes, but my trainer was already on the other side. There was momentary panic but then Hermana Baker just let me through the door. We were halfway down the platform like 4 minutes later and this cop comes down and says I just saw you let her through he gate and that's illegal. He proceeds to ask us where we were from...and when we said Utah he asked what country that was in? Really? He makes us come back up to the top, ask for my picture ID and tells me that even though I had only been in New York for 2 days I have to just pay this ticket even though I swiped my card. He didn't speak any English I'm pretty sure he asked what my last name was at least 20 times while holding my id, and looking at my badge, and my last name is one of the first words you learn in English. Anyway it was awful, but we're appealing it so all is well, mostly just a hilarious story to tell even though Hermana Baker tells it better. Haha apparently New York doesn't love me as much as I love it!

FRIDAY

     Friday I got to both street contact AND tract for my first time ever. Haha during tracting we had 2 pretty funny experiences a one door this Asian lady that I'm pretty sure was blind slowly opens the door staring at us and closes the door in the same motion, we were dying it was so funny. Then at another door this guy answers and before we say anything says come on in! We were shocked. They ended up being this crazy Family from Lebanon that loved Donny Osmond and knew we were all children of God, it was great.
     Two investigators for this day are Ana Chan, the house attendant for an English investigator, and she is amazing we also got to meet with her after church Sunday. She is a stellar investigator that reads a lot and I just love her. Lianabel is another investigator she is 15 and so ready for the gospel but unfortunately her family is really strong in a local church so she will probably have to wait until she's older and move out, but I love her. Also we teach lianabel I'm English most teenagers prefer English actually.
    I tried my first cocohelado it's this amazing Dominican ice cream stuff that kind of is like Rita's but so much better. Also we got a mango from a Mexican street vendor with hot sauce and lime and salt it was really delicious.
    Our young women in the ward are struggling so we also went to the young women's activity Friday night and read with them in the BOM for a minute! Also our young women's president is amazing she's English but her husband speaks Spanish and used to be the bishop so she taught herself Spanish, she's amazing!

SATURDAY
   Okay so there isn't a lot y'all will want to know about Saturday BUT we did meet with this awesome referral Jericel that is going on a mission soon and wants us to teach her family. She was so cool, unfortunately she lives in the other sisters area but still cool. We had a dinner appointment with on the the bishops counselors and they have the cutest little girl about Joshua's age. We also met with my favorite investigator Ylaura that unfortunately we also turn over to the other sisters AND I set my first baptism date for October 4th and she is amazing and so prepared!!! We met a less active Tammy and her family on a whim after and on the way there saw a drug deal go done so that's cool.

SUNDAY

    insane church day, mostly didn't understand ANYTHING, so crazy RS and testimonies but after church we  had mini BOM/ turnover to the other sisters lesson with Adelis, a recent convert.
   This adorable family called the Giffords had us over for dinner I guess we go every other week, they are cutest young family, the mom is Mexican and they met at BYU he's in finance, kind of cool. And we finally ate some veggies! And sandwiches and ice cream 🍨
 Walking around Sunday we heard this huge thump and turned to see a squirrel hitting car💥 because it fell out of a tree, we died laughing, too good.
  So we had yet another dinner appointment with Miguel  in the PROJECTS! He has the most amazing stories about gangs he was in and prison stories, apparently he was in prism in Utah for killing 2 guys but was released because they were people the cops had needed. Pretty much he's an amazing member that President Packer came to New York to give a baptism interview to pretty amazing .

Monday

-district meeting📆
-first real NY pizza slice🍕🍕(picture included)
-FHE (Rachel & Louisa came!!, Monserrat's house, food and random message about prayer) zone leaders and other Hermanas📖🍛
-Guadalupe was home! (Newer investigator) we had an Interesting lesson about god as Heavenly Father and trinity and she committed to church📖

Tuesday

-we went to south man! The Temple for interviews and leadership  meeting, (I ❤️ Lower manhattan!)
-3 performers on subway back
-APF street contacting with surveys
- Maria Villanueva (surprise fed us dinner) showed video, talked about being worth for temple recommend by paying tithing 📖🍛 she's a member
-more tracting🚪

Okay so I'm out of time but just do you know today we got to go to the city and spent some time at highline park and it was so great! There was a little store thing by jcrew that I will definitely go back to eventually, also we ended up in Chinatown for food and wifi in the weirdest office building chapel haha gotta love Chinatown, and the city!

WOW so sorry that got so long so much has happened and so many things are new, hopefully you were entertained or were able to skim through some parts. I'm loving being in the city, walking around the beautiful park in the morning for exercise. Most of the time haha I love riding the subway, and meeting lots of people. It's just so great! My Spanish is coming along, though I still don't understand the Dominican Spanish all is well and he Lord is definitely helping me so much. Thanks for all y'all do! Love you so much and hope you have a great week☺️💕😊

xoxo
Hermana Smart

And My First Area Is...

INWOOD! It's in the northern tip of manhattan I cover from like 215th street down to like 185th street. Kind of a small area but the Spanish population is so dense that it works great!

Well I already emailed about the end of the CCM so I guess I'll just do a brief summary so y'all know whats up here in NYC! Pdays are always wednesday in the mission so heads up on that one. Also I do get an iPad that I do my emailing and everything on (we just barely got it working so I'm emailing on the computer for just this email and then I'm iPad ready). Pretty much whenever we have wi-fi on pdays (before 6:00) we can email! i don't start online proselyting (aka Facebook) until after my 12 weeks of training. also I still need to find a cord or a way to attach my pictures from my camera...but I also can take pictures on the iPad so we'll see what works. This email will not have pictures since I still know nothing haha

Well the flight from Mexico to Atlanta was great, the flight attendants we're so nice to the missionaries. Also I got a sandwich on the flight? who knew delta gave us more than just peanuts and cookies, it was great :) I got to call mom in Atlanta which was amazing, sorry I couldn't call all y'all! Altanta airport was kind of crazy, then we got on a really small plain to head to white plains, NY. We were all ready to take off but then there was rain so we sat on the plain for like and hour and a half! It was insane. Kind of boring but I got a small nap in so that's always good. We got to the White Plains airport FINALLY and the mission president and APs were all there to greet us and it was really just so nice, the airport was really small and It was just so homey!

It is so hot and humid right now in New York so that was an adjustment! haha I actually really love it. We had to stay in a hotel last night because 26 of us came in yesterday and the mission home only fits like 18 missionaries at a time! It was a super nice hotel, kind of condo style really close to the mission home. But we only slept there, we spent all the time in the mission home! I really love the mission home it is in a gorgeously green area, and just feels like home. The mission president's wife is so nice, I love them so much already!

Last night at the mission home we had the most amazing dinner, had a testimony meeting, dessert, and then left for the hotel! This morning we found out about our area, a few orientation things and then headed to my area's church building for transfers. They do 2 transfer meetings every time one in my area's church, and one in what they call upstate. Since my trainer...oh I forgot to tell you! My trainer's name is Hermana Baker! she had already been in this area so she was at the first meeting so we just stayed down here!

After the meeting we went to the Bronx (not in my area, only authorized for groceries) to go to Target! Gotta love taking a bus back with groceries haha public transport is always fun :)

Now we're just hanging out at the church for a minute until the 2 other sisters we will be sharing an apartment with to come back from the 2nd transfer meeting and we'll take all my stuff and move in! i will definitely have so much more to write next week about all that is happening once I figure more out!

Just know i love you all a lot, I made it to New York, my pdays are now on wednesday, and since pdays end at 6pm I will be teaching in spanish starting TONIGHT. So crazy. I'm excited to just throw myself into the work. I can't wait until I can start sharing the gospel and affecting lives. the church is so true. The Savior loves you. Have a great week!!

xoxo
Hermana Smart

I'm leaving tonight!

I'm leaving tonight!! (since we leave at 3:30) I will be a great big part of it...NEW YORK, NEW YORK!! Wow this is so crazy that the time has already come to say goodbye to the good old CCM. I'm definitely going to miss all the people hear but it will be nice to get back to the good old USA and also not be in such a bubble :) We got to Mexico and it was sunshine rain (tears of joy) and now tonight it is all dark and cloudy with rain, I think Mexico is definitely going to miss this ginger Hermana ;) Well this week was pretty good! I'm going to do a spiritual thought and then a quick review of the week. FIRST. There was SO MANY amazing spiritual thoughts this week but mostly I really loved relief society and this old MTC devo from Elder Scott. In relief society we talked about the differences between testimony and conversion and that obedience is the link between them. As we become more obedient for the right reasons we have a change of heart. We become people who turn outward instead of inward and selfish like the cookie monster. As we feel the true change of conversion we constantly want and desire to be obedient. WE no longer want to do wrong, and blessings are just a secondary benefit. We obey because we love. But this change of heart requires action, we must have faith and repentance. Also good to remember that conversion is not a one time event. It is a lifelong journey to become more like Christ. Elder Scott talked about missionary work and that we are called to succeed not to fail! We need to rely on the Lord. Also as a district we talked about that our message as missionaries needs to be simple and lead by the spirit. It is such a blessing to have a language in the mission so that we don't go overboard with information about the gospel. The most important thing to learn for me in Español is to bear a strong testimony. I'm just so excited to get out and serve the people of Nueva York! I know my spanish isn't anywhere close to perfect. But it's crazy how much I have learned in the 6 weeks that I have been here. The Lord has truly blessed me! Okay heres some things for this week, sorry if it's scattered I'm running out of time, but there important CCM things before I leave here :) -Our district is seriously the best we have so much fun and we've really bonded. -Hosting this week was the best, and we got legit badges and took a sweet picture with Elder Jones' golf cart. haha I'll for sure attach those pictures! -The elders in our district pulled a prank on Hermana Smith y Alexander and wrote fake package slips so they went to the post office and really had nothing...haha even the post office lady was in on it. too good. The things we do for entertainment in the good old CCM -two of our elders decided everyone's spirit animals...apparently I'm a red panada? haha -CHOCOLATE CEREAL made a reappearance after like 3 weeks for two days and it was seriously an answer to prayers. -Elders are seriously crazy. I think we definitely got bored this week. They've done everything from pretending they were blind with sticks, to weird games with sound effects. It's all just hilarious. Gotta love high school kids. -Friday night the power went out when we got back to get ready for the night. Luckily for me I had taken only half my makeup off and was getting ready for the shower...haha much panic when it was COMPLETELY dark all of the sudden. Luckily it turned out to be a fun moment with the hermanas in our casa and the lights finally came back on after 11...definitely not in bed on time that night. Gotta love crazy Mexico. At least we didn't have any earthquakes while we were here! -Sunday was also amazing and guess what....I gave a talk in sacrament meeting! We always have to prepare talks and never know when they will call on us, luckily I got the last sunday, haha I actually talked WAY too long. We're only given 5 minutes but I talked for 10 minutes! All in spanish. About patience (and how you need faith and diligence too) and I think it went pretty well. So crazy to think it's only been 6 weeks since I knew NOTHING! -We were finally the ones in the slideshow after the video! SO cool! I think they'll eventually send the powerpoint to mom so she'll have to show y'all our picture was pretty great. I took a picture of the projection, but it didn't turn out too good. haha -after the video we finally got to know what the secret meeting for leaving missionaries was! A testimony meeting....IN ENGLISH! haha it was really powerful and amazing we got a minute or less and less than half got to bear theirs but it was just a simple what we know and it was amazing. Farewell for this week, next week you'll be hearing from me in NEW YORK!! xoxo Hermana Smart