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