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