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