Loyal to the C.O.R.E.

¡Hola!

Wow another week has flown by! I hope everyone had an awesome week and started to enjoy summer :) this email will be a bit shorter this week. I became the designated driver as of yesterday (yikes) and we had a sisters Pday up in Poughkeepsie. So I don't have a ton of time to email.

This week was awesome and the highlight was definitely zone conference! Friday we made the trek over to Ossining for the last zone conference with the Morgan's. It was so bittersweet. We talked a lot about the mission theme that the Morgan's have had for their past 3 years serving - "Loyal to the C.O.R.E" which stands for courage, obedience, reverence, effort. We had talks for each of the 4 and it was just so powerful. I love the mission motto so much. At the end Sister Morgan gave us apples and told us that every seed makes a difference because of how many trees and apples come out of the smallest seeds we plant. What we do on missions may be small but the efforts are never wasted, no matter how small. Mostly zone conference was just the greatest ever, joking with president and getting Facebook back was fun too! I'm goi to miss the Morgan's so much but there is always good things to come and I'm sure the Smith's will be amazing too! 

Other than zone conference our week was pretty normal! We had dinner at the Murphys and the banks were there too! Always fun. We finally met Maurleen the investigator from Florida, she wasn't as interested as we thought but it was still good! We saw all the usuals and had correlation at the Roberts (which becomes like. 2-3 hour event with dinner) and this week as we left their little boy Skylar kissed me and Sis Smoot on the cheek....oops! Kissed someone on my mission ;). Saw Carol and made her a Facebook - awesome. The elders took us to two appointments one Spanish, one English and it's always so exciting to increase our teaching pool! One fun lesson we had too was we took Beth her favorite ice cream and watched Meet the Mormons with her! She loved it. Love that lady. Sunday we got to do singing time for primary AND had a pot luck after church which was great. Oh and Barbara still needs help with quitting smoking....so we have to push her baptism back, so keep her in your prayers!!

Wow sorry that paragraph was like a big huge ramble.....but really this week was good! We got Facebook back as a tool from online proselyting and are already seeing the blessings from that! The weather has been super bipolar with flash floods and sunshine. The Jewish people are starting to come up for the summer and it's getting crazy up here in Monticello! But other than that it's missionary work as usual! So crazy that this cycle is already almost over. We get transfer calls Saturday so I guess by next week y'all will know if anything is changing (besides the fact we'll have a new mission president) 

I hope you all have an amazing week! To end this weeks email - I found another amazing quote from L Tom Perry "Today's complexity demands greater simplicity". Try and keep it simple and remember the little things this week they truly make all the difference! Love y'all!

Con Amor,

Hermana Smart 

Its Christmas time in ...June?!..

Hola! Or should I say Feliz Navidad? ;)

Haha so for some reason me and sister smoot decided to start listening
to Christmas music in the car this week. Best decision ever. Christmas
in June, it's a thing. We love it! You can never have too much
Christmas spirit and the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing
loud for all to hear. So of course we do just that! I'm sure people
think we're a little crazy when they pass us but at least they see
we're happy! :)

Well this week was another successful week in Monticelestial! Last
Wednesday after pday ended we got to go over to the Bank's (he's a
counselor in the branch presidency) Bro Banks is also a chef and made
the most amazing salad with grilled chicken and homemade raspberry
vinaigrette....it was amazing.

Thursday we had some time in the morning before set appointments. We
had decided we needed to go tracting but weren't exactly sure where,
so we pulled are car over and prayed and then went to the GPS and we
both felt directed to this area not too far. So we drove over there
and the first place we find looks so promising. But then as we park we
realize it's just a community of Jewish bungalows. Haha BUT we weren't
going to give up so we get back in the car and literally across the
street is an apartment complex. So we knock on the first door and the
guy was super interested and said we could come back, and then the
second door this girl named Ashley answered and let us right in. She's
only a little older than us and she has religious beliefs but we just
had the most incredible lesson with her and were able to share the He
Lives video and talk about the plan of salvation since she had had
some friends pass away. It was such a tender mercy. We tracted a lot
more doors without not too much success, we even tracted into a funny
older guy that was a former investigator of the elders. But it was
just such an amazing experience to be so directed to one specific
person with tracting. Ashley even said she isn't usually home at that
time but her work schedule changed. The Lord's timing is so
incredible.

After tracting on Thursday we also got to meet with Chevy, an
investigator, and she's so prepared. We taught her the plan of
salvation and she recently had a son pass away and she really loved
Hola! Or should I say Feliz Navidad? ;)

Haha so for some reason me and sister smoot decided to start listening
to Christmas music in the car this week. Best decision ever. Christmas
in June, it's a thing. We love it! You can never have too much
Christmas spirit and the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing
loud for all to hear. So of course we do just that! I'm sure people
think we're a little crazy when they pass us but at least they see
we're happy! :)

Well this week was another successful week in Monticelestial! Last
Wednesday after pday ended we got to go over to the Bank's (he's a
counselor in the branch presidency) Bro Banks is also a chef and made
the most amazing salad with grilled chicken and homemade raspberry
vinaigrette....it was amazing.

Thursday we had some time in the morning before set appointments. We
had decided we needed to go tracting but weren't exactly sure where,
so we pulled are car over and prayed and then went to the GPS and we
both felt directed to this area not too far. So we drove over there
and the first place we find looks so promising. But then as we park we
realize it's just a community of Jewish bungalows. Haha BUT we weren't
going to give up so we get back in the car and literally across the
street is an apartment complex. So we knock on the first door and the
guy was super interested and said we could come back, and then the
second door this girl named Ashley answered and let us right in. She's
only a little older than us and she has religious beliefs but we just
had the most incredible lesson with her and were able to share the He
Lives video and talk about the plan of salvation since she had had
some friends pass away. It was such a tender mercy. We tracted a lot
more doors without not too much success, we even tracted into a funny
older guy that was a former investigator of the elders. But it was
just such an amazing experience to be so directed to one specific
person with tracting. Ashley even said she isn't usually home at that
time but her work schedule changed. The Lord's timing is so
incredible.

After tracting on Thursday we also got to meet with Chevy, an
investigator, and she's so prepared. We taught her the plan of
salvation and she recently had a son pass away and she really loved
it.....and then we felt prompted to invite her to set a baptismal
date. And she was so excited. She set one for the end of August and
told us she's looked into lots of religions but they never set a goal
with her like that and it just made her feel so good. It was one of
those immediate rewarding moments of listening to spiritual
promptings.

We also met with the referral, Jane, that we found a few weeks ago.
She had us over and had lots of super hard questions for us...which
was really intimidating. But we were able to bear testimony of what we
did know and how we came to know it which was cool.

So this email is starting to get kind of long so I'll briefly go over
the rest of our week. We met with all our usually members and
investigators. We had an awesome lesson with the other Ashley about
the word of wisdom. And Barbara went to Atlantic City to visit family
since that's where they're from....so hopefully she's still on track
for her baptism on the 20th! Keep her in your prayers. We had another
awesome correlation at the Robert's. We followed up with a potential
Rebecca and she has the chubbiest 2-year old ever. We also did some
more tracting in the trailer park we found last week and talked to a
super nice JW forever and the cutest senior couple ever. The Wilson's
they told us the story on how they met and how they've been married
for 61 years. So cute. Beth was hilarious this week, and one of the
days we went over she was even watching princess diaries haha. Love
Beth.

On Sunday Sister Roa came to church!!! We were so happy. AND THEN
after church we went to a Spanish lesson with the elders with a lady
named Marcella. And it was the first time I've had a Spanish lesson in
this area - it was the best. I've missed the Spanish people! And then
later Sunday we had dinner at the Hseih's which is always the best. I
love them so much!!

oh! we also went on a split with the STLs this week- we split Monday
after district meeting until Tuesday after singing practice (sis smoot
is singing in zone conference) so that was fun! I had to drive for the
first time in FOREVER. And with Tiwi which like makes sure you don't
speed and all these things....and our Tiwi is kind of crazy and yells
at you if you go 2 miles over the speed limit (like 57 in a 55) AND
flash floods have started so it was randomly down pouring......it was
crazy. Haha driving through all the forests and rain and trying to
drive slow so Tiwi wouldn't yell. Haha I don't miss driving too much.
But it was a good split we went from lesson to lesson it was a packed
day! BUT I missed Sister Smoot so much. Yesterday when we were
reunited it was the best ever. We just have too much fun and love each
other so much. Last night we got to go to Interfaith council- which
was really cool to see how strong the community is even in such a
small area and also how much respect and admiration everyone has for
our church in the community. It makes you happy to know that the
church is known for being willing to serve and help! And then after
interfaith council our branch president took us missionaries out for
dinner. Kind of fun to get to know his family better. Our branch
members are starting to feed us a lot more since brother banks got up
in sacrament meeting and announced that we were starving....haha
awkward but hey I guess we'll get fed more?

Well I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and are
enjoying summer. Spread some Christmas cheer (or just the light of
Christ) with someone this week. True joy and happiness really does
come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart

the rain came down

Hola, ¿Como están? Espero que todo esta muy bien :)

This week was another adventure here in the village... Until today it
rained for like 3 days straight, it was so gloomy and cold, but today
has been warm and sunny which was perfect for our outdoor zone
activity (we had a BBQ and played games, etc at this members lodge
thing? Super fun!) the sun just makes such a difference in everyone's
mood I love to see the sun! June is finally here which means summer is
soon, though we are kind of in the mountains here so it shouldn't get
TOO hot....also June means all the Jewish people start coming up so
things should get super crazy here in Monticello!

Last week after P-day we went over to the Murphys who invited us to
dinner and it was awesome, they kind of live in a cabin so we had
steak and BBQ stuff and then for desert we got to roast marshmallows.
Something I never thought I'd do as a missionary it was awesome!

This week during weekly planning we decided to set the high goal of 7
baptismal dates for week...and as of yesterday we have..... SEVEN
people with baptismal dates!!!!!!!! It's incredible. The work here in
Monticello is so amazing. Barbara is still doing amazing (she finished
the New Testament children book in like 2 days). Ashley is great,
having a few trials but is turning to us for spiritual uplift which is
awesome. The elders found this family tracting I probably mentioned
before....Stevie and her kids and they are also excited to be
baptized. AND THEN this week out of no where we got a referral from
Florida. This lady was supposed to be baptized there but is coming to
Monticello for the summer so she is going to be baptized here which is
so cool!! And Sis McCreary is still doing good too...still slowly
gaining a testimony of the restoration. These are just the people
getting ready for baptism too, we work with all these awesome less
actives and other investigators too. I might not really be using my
Spanish but I love them all so much.

 We also got to have our last interview this week with President Morgan

before he leaves at the end of the month....bitter sweet. I'm
definitely going to miss him and Sister Morgan they've been so
amazing! But I'm sure the next president will be great too. President
Morgan told me and sis smoot in our interviews how much he LOVES
Monticello especially there garden we have at our church! (We get to
start planting tomorrow- woot woot) y'all will have to look out for
our interview selfies....president Morgan got a selfie stick so I'm
sure they were great!!

Well I'm sorry I don't have too much time to go into a ton of detail
about our week but it was a pretty good week! We tracked a trailer
park which was fun, had a lot of really amazing lessons (we finally
got in with a less active we've been trying to meet with all cycle her
name is Emily and she was amazing), parked our car on the sidewalk of
the church to wash it for car inspections haha. Oh hey I did get to
speak in church this Sunday. We got the call on Friday and I was given
The scripture D&C 110:3-4, my talk ended up being more of a testimony
(I've always gone over on time before so I was worried and then ended
up speaking under time oops) and sis smoot also bore her testimony.
Kind of funny that I haven't spoken in sacrament meeting my whole
mission.....it was a little scary even though our branch is so small,
but I think it went well. That scripture is really cool and it's
included in the Living Christ - which is awesome. Y'all should read
it. We had a really good zone meeting on Monday too in Middletown
(which meant we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch - so yummy and
are server gave us way more food than we ordered we are blessed)

Mostly I can't really put this week into words but it was truly
another amazing week! I love you all so much and hope you have an
amazing week.

To end this weeks email here's one of my favorite quotes from L Tom
Perry (so crazy I met him just a few months ago) "The world changes
constantly and dramatically, but God, His commandments, and promised
blessings do not change. They are immutable and unchanging.”—Elder L.
Tom Perry

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart