ONCE THERE WAS A SNOWMAN, SNOWMAN, SNOWMAN

Oh wait that snowman was probably just a frozen sister missionary ;) haha 

¡Hola mi Familia y Amigos! 

Esta semana fue frío....pero fue muy bueno también! I feel like I'm just learning so much lately, even during the super cold days where we feel like we're walking outside all day with no success somehow I'm still just so happy and feel like I'm growing so much, both as a person and my testimony. There may be slight moments where we complain but then my thoughts always turn to the good and realize how incredible the blessing it is to be able to serve! It's so cool to be able to work hard, and serve others, and then see that as we work harder the blessings come! (not always in the way we expect but they do come!) I think I've just done a lot of reflecting this week and then in our relief society something there was a quote that really stood out to me :  "There is no guarantee of convenience in our Christian covenant". Sometimes it's really easy for me to be lazy and want the convenient and easy way of doing everything BUT that's not how we become like Christ. We have to put in effort, actually learn and grow, try a little harder to be a little better each day. 

This week was full of a lot of awesome things! Dinners with members are always amazing and we had yet another week of awesome members! From cool views of the city, getting a ride home? Haha super rare in the city, adorable families, learning more about family history work, and we even got to visit a member from the Manhattan 3rd Ward! We rode the tram over Sunday, had delicious food, even played a short game. Members in New York City are just super nice. Seriously I love them all so much! They are such a huge blessing.

We got in with Gladys and her family again! I think they're actually starting to become more interested, especially the teenage granddaughter which is amazing! We also visited a less active we hadn't seen in forever and a non member old lady who just needs visits and our awesome Pentecostal partial investigator! those kind of lessons just make days full of tracting and lookups all worth it! Just to see someone actually enjoy you coming over and visiting and growing their testimony little by little.

So I have two funny moments from the life of a New Yorker this week. So first Sunday night we were walking to an appointment and I was kind of close to a trash bag on the sidewalk and next thing I know a huge rat ran across my feet!!  Ahhh!!!  yep. Nasty. But super funny after. (I'm sure you love that story mom ;)  Also we got a huge area rug for our apartment via the mission office. So picture me last night trying to get it from the church to home while riding the subway. Yep. Pretty great. Life of a New Yorker man.

Oh hey we got to go to the soup kitchen again! It's a regular Tuesday thing now (except if any "blizzards" close the subways again) it's seriously so amazing. Definitely always fun and interesting, and it just feels good to do some good old fashion service without people feeling like they have to listen to a message. Just being a true Christian. And some of the people there are super entertaining, always something new! :)

Anyway those are just some highlights of the week!! Hope y'all have an awesome week, stay warm and just keep smiling :) life is awesome. Love y'all:) 

xoxo

Hermana Smart