Subject: Just keep driving 🚗

¡Hola mi Familia y Amigos!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! The schools here in New York don't have school until this weekend, so it's kind of like a huge extended holiday - but wherever you might be hopefully it was a good weekend and you were able to honor those who have gone before us, especially those who fought to protect the freedoms we enjoy every single day. 

Also a shout out to Dad and Matthew! Hope you old folks had an awesome birthday - love you both ♥️

This week was pretty great, I've adjusted a lot more to the life of an upstate missionary and me and Sister Smoot are having a blast. Who knew EFY music could make driving so much fun? 

Wednesday after Pday we went and taught Justo's kids (Victoria and JJ) - they're adorable. JJ is high energy but they really want to read and pray and come to church...especially Victoria. They don't have super big family support for it - but they already have super awesome testimonies. I'm excited for the day that they can join the church! We also got to go see our investigator, Ashley. Wow SO INCREDIBLE. First off before we even start the lesson she told us she posted about us on Facebook and she was like is that okay? So we asked her what she posted. So she showed us her status. She basically said she had been meeting with Mormon missionaries and thinks she finally found the church for her family to join and how good she feels about everything!!!! And we hadn't even set a baptismal date or anything yet!! Well we proceeded with our lesson plan, the Law of Chastity, and it was the best law of chastity lesson I think I've ever had on my mission. She was so excited, and called in her boyfriend and when we told them they could get married at the church they were so excited it was adorable. And then we even set a baptismal date with her for September. We were both so happy leaving their house. It was one of those moments when all the hardwork pays off. Telling people that they can be with their family forever, and seeing their excitement, words can't even explain how amazing that is. 

Thursday we went next door to teach sis McCreary (our neighbor has been an investigator for a few months) with the Hseih's. She is super in tune with the spirit, just needs a testimony of the restoration. She comes to church and really loves learning - love her! After that lesson almost all our plans we made fell through....which has been happening a lot lately but it's those times when you realize someone else must need you. So we went and looked up Nena and she ended up taking us to her friend's house (Angelo) he spoke mostly Italian....but it was super crazy, He lives in a crazy old homemade house...and is remaking the chicken coop so he can live there instead of his room?  Haha A guy named John lives there and is a huge hoarder and their is this huge complicated situation and lots of fighting. He asked if we could sprinkle his house with holy water so instead we prayed with him and told him we'd come back to help clean. So that should be fun service for the future! AND even crazier we walked back to Nena's house and John, the crazy one that lives with him, was waiting on her porch. So many crazy coincidences. That night we also went and ate with Brother King, he was recently reactivated and is so amazing. We had cheeseburger pizza, super crazy but yummy. And he gave us all huge boxes of nutty bars haha. AND to make Thursday even better we had some really good lookups and we stopped in on Barbara and it was perfect timing- she needed a little boost. Love her so much. 

Friday we started the day with some service at Firstway, went to Middletown for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and then had an interview with the STLs. Kind of fun when we can't get a little change of scenery :) we also got to see Sis Babcock Friday and we did a puzzle with her! Some good old lookups, tracting, and then correlation. 

Saturday our ward had "garden work day" since we have a small garden attached to the church. It ended up being a little cold so we mostly deep cleaned the church and such but it was just so fun to have a service day with like manual labor! That doesn't happen in the city. We also saw Barbara with the Hseih's have I told you how much I love her?? We went over baptismal interview questions to see what we still need to clarify/teach and she's just so excited!!

Sunday I had my first meeting with the branch since last week had stake conference. And Barbara came to all three hours AND a brought her nephew who now is interested. Also Sis McCreary came. The rest of our Sunday was good too....although we did have a guy yell at us while we were trying to talk to his guy outside. He was super angry....but hey not everyone likes us and that's okay. Sunday night we had dinner over at the Hseih's first of all because the missionary who found them and taught them 15 years ago came to visit. So cool. AND it was also Elder Diaz's birthday. So we worked hard to make him cupcakes, and since he has colitis we also made this awesome desert he could eat! It was a super fun night. I'll send some pictures. 

Monday everyone fell through...I guess everyone had fun Memorial Day plans? But it actually turned into a pretty good day! Sister Gaughan said of course we could come over. We also last minute went to Barbara again and her nephew sat in on the lesson too :) oh and also Sister Maldonado let us come over and gave us yummy bread pudding...did some tracting (most people thought we were JWs since it was a holiday) But it was a good Memorial Day still!  

Tuesday we did another long drive to New Palts because Sis Smoot is singing in zone conference so they had a practice. We're definitely exploring a lot of upstate! Barbara because she texted us and said she needed us, so we went over yet again to see her and it ended up being all is well and we just love seeing her so much. We were able to give her the New Testament picture book and she is still just so excited for her baptism! We also went to see sis Babcock super quick AND gave her a puzzle we had gotten for free at a yard sale it was perfect :) Helped at food pantry...and then the rest of the night we kept running into the most random former investigators. We were getting gas and ran into one of the elders old investigators, and then later we went to sync our areabook at the church and ran into one of our former investigators that's from Ukraine, so cool how the Lord puts us exactly in people's path that need us!! Also last night we went to see Beth, one of our less active members. She was just so sad and lonely. It broke our hearts. I feel like so many people in this area just need some love and friendship. So we'll be visiting more often, and doing some fun things with her to cheer her up! 

So sorry this email was longer today! We drove to Poughkeepsie today to visit Sister Smoot's old area so that was fun! More long drives- gotta love it :) One scripture we've been sharing with a few people this week is D&C 123:17 - we really can be so happy knowing that as we trust in the Lord all things will work out the way that is best for us! 

Well I love you all so much, I hope you all have an amazing week!! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Smart

Welcome to the Village

¡Hola! 

How is everyone?! I hope everyone had an awesome week. I can't believe I've already been in the village of Monticello for an entire week, kind of crazy. And yes it is a village, not even big enough to be a city, but hey our area is the entire Sullivan County so it's not TOO small. Although there are lots and lots of trees and time spent driving and cats.....Definitely feels like I was somehow transferred to a completely new mission. I guess that's what happens when you spend the first half of your mission in Manhattan. It's kind of awesome though, I get to see that there is more to New York than just the city. And we even have a Walmart (kind of a big deal), and I'm pretty sure our current apartment could fit like 20 of my Chinatown apartments inside of it haha.

One of the greatest parts about Monticello is that we have the Hseih's! They're a missionary senior couple that are serving in our branch - they're from Taiwan and we love them so much!! So our district consists of us, the Spanish elders, and the Hseih's. District meeting on Monday was a little different since it was just the same 6 people we see all week, but fun nonetheless. The Hseih's are the best. I'm sure I'll mention them a few times, we go over to their apartment a lot at night since they live in the apartment building next to us (same complex) and they have wifi and ice cream...Also funny story the first morning I was here Sis Smoot made this hot drink that the Hseih's had given us and she was like oh yeah it's coffee. Hahaha they all thought it was so funny. But don't worry it was just Barley Tea? Good joke. We love joking with the Hseih's and helping them learn more English. 

So we have a couple of awesome people we work with. We actually teach a ton of lessons every week here in Monticello (almost triple the amount of South Man) One of the most amazing investigators we have her name is Barbara - we saw her twice already (Saturday and yesterday). She just finished reading the entire BOM (children version) and just wants to be baptized right now. She has an incredible testimony I already love her so much. She's working on some word of wisdom things to be ready for her baptism June 20th, so keep her in your prayers! 

Thursday we visited a few houses that kind of smell a little due to some smoking and lots of cats...so we try to plan them close together so we can change after. But they are the most amazing people so it's all worth it. Sis Crumbley is a less active we see a few times a week and call her every night. Love her! We also saw Sis Babcock. She's having back issues right now (similar to Mom) and so we mostly just brought her some comfort. And we also saw Beth! She's a funny lady too. All members of our branch! Amongst a few other things we went and visited Sis Maldonado (part member family, her husband is a LA) and she fed us delicious food too! We've actually been fed quite a bit which is rare for this area but it's great for us! Then Thursday night we had the most crazy pass-over lesson with the elders. Stevey and her two kids. Lots of energy with two little kids but they were awesome. We're pretty sure mid lesson the little boy ate part of a plastic bottle....but It was amazing to be able to simplify the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that two kids could understand it. The gospel really is so simple! 

Friday we started the day off with service at this place called first way. I love service! We mostly just folded baby clothes (it's an organization that helps support families and help with alternatives to abortion). Friday we also did an APF with the elders - which all we can do to find here is tract since there isn't really many areas to street contact. So we tracted HOUSES. Like a real neighborhood. Not a project building. It was a gorgeous day. And I even had to gain courage to ask a lady who had already rejected us to use her bathroom....haha. But it all worked out. Even though she made Sis Smoot stay outside. But we tracted into Russians, a lady from Romania. Crazy stuff. We also taught Ashley and her daughter. They are another one of our amazing investigators. Love them! And Friday night we had correlation at our new Branch Mission Leader's house. He fed us BBQ and gave us fresh eggs. Pretty awesome. Also his mother-in-law was from Mexico so that was fun to speak some Spanish since our teaching pool is currently all English. 

Saturday was mostly spent going to the adult session of Stake Conference since it was clear in Newburg. BUT we did get a lesson with Barbara and also Carol (newer member) before we had to leave Monticello, so that was good. Sunday we drove back to Newburgh for the rest of stake conference and after they invited us to theYSA luncheon...haha super awkward to be surrounded by people who aren't missionaries...and most of them go to West Point? We hurried away as soon as we ate haha. We made it back to Monticello for some studies, some good lookups and then the Hseih's had us over for Sundaydinner :) have I told you how much we love them? 

Also... walking into our apartment building Sunday night we found a FROG. Yeah so we caught it of course and we had a pet for about 15 minutes during nightly panning before we let him go haha definitely not in the city anymore.

Monday was super foggy (I included a picture) and we had my first district meeting like I was talking about earlier. And we saw Barbara. And a few random people. And then we were getting gas....and these guys were trying to get sister smoot's number. So instead we gave them a chastity pamphlet and the elders number. Haha ended up teaching a weird lesson...

But anyway after we got gas we went to see Sis Roa. She's awesome. She comes from a Spanish family and her youngest daughter who is about my age is named Brittany too! She's awesome, told us some pretty great stories like how her and her husband met. And she made delicious dinner for us too. After her we went and visited sister Gaughan. She's definitely a little different, but has such a strong testimony! 

Yesterday we got a little more tracting in and I actually got to talk to someone in Spanish and then we talked to this one guy for a while at the door and his parent were talking in Spanish in the background the whole time, it was awesome. So we were around and doing lookups in a few different places and then as we were coming back to Monticello this guy started tailing us. I guess he thought we were going too slow - but we have this thing called tiwi that records our driving so we have to go the speed limit. But he got so angry and turned his flashers on and flipped us off....it was crazy. But eventually (felt like years) the road became a two lane road so we finally got away from him. But kind of a crazy moment. Later in the afternoon we got to go help at a food pantry which was super fun....but then the same guy (Tony) that had been at the gas station shows up! Yikes. Luckily we had the elders help him so hopefully he didn't see us. Small world here in Monticello.  We also went and looked up a media referral yesterday. She had referred both her and her friend. For copies of the Book of Mormon (a bible too) but she was really curious about what we believe. She was really amazing as we talked to her yesterday, so hopefully we'll be able to get a real appointment soon! We had decided to park a ways away (usually we don't do that)  and it started to down pour as we left so we were running back to our car in the rain...getting drenched...haha I'm sure that was hilarious to watch. 

Anyway sorry if that email got a little long (hopefully it wasn't too boring). Seems to happen the first week in a new area! Everything is new and exciting, especially being a Zebra companionship! :)  but hopefully I'll be able to tell you a little more in detail about the branch and the people here in next week since church will be normal this upcoming Sunday too!

I hope everyone has an amazing week!! Love you all! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Smart

CrAzYtOwN

¡Hola!

I know I just got to talk to most of you on Mother's Day which was
such a blessing, but I don't think I actually told you too much about
our week, mostly just missionary life in general! So this week, well
mostly this weekend turned into crazy town...but before I get to our
crazy weekend I'll catch you up on some highlights of the week!

Thursday we got to see Iris whom I love and she fed us dinner, and
even went clear out of her way to get us lobster tails from Carlos
Bake shop. She is seriously is the nicest. I attached some pictures
for you to enjoy! :)

Friday we tracted into this guy named Nicholas and we were able to
talk to him for a while and even gave him a Book of Mormon! And he
sincerely said he would read it and ask God if it was true. I think it
was the first time I've ever had a Book of Mormon lesson while
tracking, and it went so well! Hopefully they'll be able to follow up
with him! Also Friday night Elder Shepherd (the deaf elder) did the
nightly calls via an interpretation service? It was hilarious because
the lady interpreting didn't know gospel lingo and was so confused the
whole time...hahaha

Well Saturday was the most amazing day for our mission because QUENTIN
L COOK came to talk to us! It was incredible. Words can't really
describe how amazing it was. He truly is a special witness of the
Savior and was able to leave us with an incredible blessing. Re
studying my notes from that day has really been so special and
amazing.

 

Also we had THREE people come to English class Saturday! And we
randomly got lost in an area we really shouldn't have gotten lost
in...AND THEN walking home we crossed the same cross walk at the EXACT
same time as Johanny! Such a little miracle, we definitely got lost on
purpose.

So Saturday night was transfer calls...and the crazy began!! So many
changes are happening with our mission starting to downsize AND sadly
they are replacing the Spanish sisters in south man with English
Elders and the ward is going to help teach our Spanish
investigators....super sad but I know that Heavenly Father has a
bigger picture plan. I got transferred to MONTICELLO. Which is pretty
far upstate, a pretty small town (= 2 transfer meetings and a long
drive hence no email time) BUT the call was so shocking and we were so
sad for all the people we have been finding that we didn't sleep at
all...and then Sunday was crazy from Mothers Day and calling home
etc...and so somewhere amidst it all we lost our keys. Yeah. We
searched the entire church building and couldn't find them. At this
point it was super late after our Mother's Day calls. We eventually
got a hold of the RS president and found out someone had found them
but we didn't know where so we waited at the church and planned...but
finally had to get home at like 10:20 and took a taxi via our ZLs
request. But we still didn't have keys so we spent the night at the
English sisters apartment, people sleeping on the floor, it was crazy
town. BUT we got a text at like 11:30 saying our keys were in the
clerks office!!! Ahhh. So close. Anywho we ended up looking like
homeless people the next day (same clothes, no makeup, etc) and We had
to go to district meeting, and correlation, and take zone pictures all
while we were these homeless looking missionaries hahaha so funny.
Memories for life.

Soup Kitchen, wow I love them!

 Anyway I'm really out of time for emailing - but the past two days

were crazy full of trying to say goodbye, and transfer over people,
and somehow pack and get our apartment ready for elders......yeah. We
were SO BLESSED to accomplish so much in so little time. We ran into
everyone we needed to, even in the most random places. It just all
worked out so perfectly. We even talked to this family from Mexico on
the train and somehow my Spanish was just flowing out...it was
incredible. Gift of tongues is real. I might even start teaching one
of them a little when we get FB back!!

Lots more things happened this week, but I'm sure y'all understand
that timing is crazy on transfer days. I hope y'all have great weeks!
I'm sure I'll have lots of awesome crazy stories about Monticello :)

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart

Mayo esta aqui

¡Hola!

So unfortunately I really don't have much time left to email today
(luckily most of you I will be able to FaceTime on Sunday:) we had a
packed Pday starting at the Brooklyn Bridge and then going to pier 25
for some Mini Golfing! I will definitely attach a few pictures, it was
a really fun week. Also welcome to May! April went so fast, wow and
this transfer only has one more week. So crazy.

The miracles of finding just keep coming too!! We found FOUR new
investigators this week, and actually all of them came from tracting
which is pretty rare and incredible.

Thursday we welcomed a brand new Elder to our district that is deaf,
so we've been learning some sign language and it's super fun! Also on
Thursday one of the guys we tracted into, after we told him what
church we were from said oh it's okay I'm an "early saint" haha.

Friday we were contacting and teaching so much!! We met with one of
our less actives Milagros (she made us delicious tacos) and then we
found one of our new investigators Yolanda. She kind of old and lives
with a lady who doesn't want to see us...but she talked to us forever
at the door...all while this guy trying to sell flan was standing
behind us hahaha. BUT we did have a return appointment. We went back
on Sunday and had a lesson in the stairwell. Yep that's a first haha.
But she is so excited to learn, she's kind of old and doesn't retain
everything but just loves us so much she kept hugging us and
such,she's adorable.

Also Friday we were doing a lookup in this building and then I felt
like we really needed to go to the 2nd floor. So we did and the first
door we knocked on was Johanny, she's incredible. We went back
Saturday and ended up having a really awesome lesson and I'm so
excited to see where it goes with her (she's a mom of two girls).

Other funny story waiting to take the bus home Friday night these
random guys ran by and threw a football at me and were like throw it
back...so we did? Hahaha oh the people of New York are the greatest.

Monday we were the guests of honor at our ward mission leaders
daughters 6 year old bday party, so fun! Ice cream and pancakes and
funfetti cake! The best.

Cinco de Mayo was pretty awesome too. One of the volunteers at the
soup kitchen wore a sombrero. Talked to an awesome guy from South
Carolina while tracting, he had a lot of stories for us, one of our
members made "cafe rio" and seriously it was so good, I've missed that
place....BUT best of all!! We had our first return appointment with
another new investigator named Altagracia, not only was it a great
lesson BUT she really wants to be baptized!! AND she said she's coming
with us to church sunday!!! (We live super close so will just go pick
her up!) so that SUPER EXCITING!!! Everyone keep her in your prayers,
I have a feeling such great things are to come. With her and all our
new investigators.

Well I'm out of time and I hope that all made sense :) can't wait to
talk to some of you Sunday and of not, I'll write a little more next
week! Quentin L Cook is coming to visit Saturday so I should have some
exciting things to write about! I love you all, give an extra hug to
the mothers around you, and your own mom if you can. Have an
incredible week!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart

Springtime in the City

HOLA! 

So I'm currently sitting on a bench in my favorite room in the MET next to paintings of Monet. I'm so incredible blessed!! Wow. But someone definitely just took a picture of us....uhhh hahaha. I guess four sister missionaries sitting on the bench in the middle of Monet paintings writing emails is quite the sight haha. 

Well this week was pretty amazing. With the new 3 hours of finding everyday we've been seeing so many tender mercies and miracles! We definitely have quite a few funny stories as well...tracting and street contacting in Manhattan never ceases to be exciting. I won't recap EVERY experience, but I definitely have to include a few that were just TOO good. Last Wednesday night going to deliver our media referral bibles we stopped to talk and help 2 people find Rivington...and one of them knew about Mormons and had been to Salt Lake so that was cool but then as we were about to part ways the guy tried to hug us, and I just awkward stood their all stiff and it was just really hilarious to look at I'm sure. Haha ALSO that night one of the bible referrals ending up being this man named Joel. He's super curious so gave we him Spanish bible, and then we went back with a BOM and pamphlets the next day. His daughter was there the second day, but we're hopeful something will eventually happen! 

Thursday we tracted into this guy named Eddie. We had an incredible door lesson with him (despite some crazy teenagers in the hallway) ,he became a potential for the English sisters, but it was just such a blessing to answer questions like where people go after they die. Bringing that happiness and hope into people's lives is so incredible! 

Friday = 27 contacts. That may not seem like a ton, but for us was super amazing! One of those contacts was a lady named Kenny we tracted into, she immediately let us in (super rare). We showed He Lives and talked about how our church is different (ie: restoration) and we found out she actually lives in Brooklyn so we had to send her over to the South missionaries. But she is so prepared!!! Miracles can happen from tracting.

One more miracle is that we went back to two Spanish families we had found last Tuesday and one wasn't available so we went to the other (Angeles who let us in last week) and started to have kind of a How to begin teaching lesson....AND THEN in walks the other lady we had tried to follow up with!! Apparently they're friends. So we kind of had a lesson with both of them, and set a return appointment, it was so cool that they both were there at the same time!! I'll keep you posted on them.

So one funny story before I wrap up this section of my email...so we tract into A TON of Chinese people and usually they laugh at my attempt to say "free English class" in Chinese but at this one door this week this (probably really old) Chinese lady starts knocking on her side of the door...and saying hello hahaha we were dying. Not every day does the door knocking turn to you in reverse. 

Few random updates: We got to see Gladys this week! And her son who's a member in Harlem came in at the end too. We also had a big east coast stake conference broadcast from salt lake Sunday which was super cool. And then Sunday night we went over to Maria's for dinner and she is so funny. She gives us this HUGE plate of spaghetti. In one of our conversations we tried to explain that we only call our families twice a year and she freaks out and brings her phone out and tries to get us to call our families right then...uhhhhh. Haha so awkward. But no worries we finally explained it better. I guess my Spanish isn't clear enough to combat stubborn people haha. 

Well other fun things from the week: we walked on the Highline to street contact, passed by a movie being filmed and actually saw an actor this time! Had some yummy pizza with one of our favorite members Art, had a very confused Chinese lady call us like 20 times asking who we were (including at like 10:45 at night), learned some ASL so we can communicate with our brand new elder in our Zone who is deaf!! (I'm so excited!!!) 

Hopefully that all made some sort of sense...emailing while in the city sometimes gets a bit crazy. But I love you all so much. Hopefully wherever you are you can go out and enjoy some gorgeous spring weather today or this week! Our Heavenly Father sure does spoil us in the spring, everything is so pretty! Love you all!! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Smart