Begin with the end in mind

¡Hola!

How is everyone?? I hope y'all had amazing Father's Day weekend and
gave big hugs to all the fathers in your life!

Today was transfer meeting....the last time we will see President and
Sister Morgan. They will be greatly missed but I know everything is a
part of a bigger plan, and I'm really excited to meet the Smith's next
week and see what is in store for the rest of my mission!

The last talk President Morgan gave really made me think and it was
just awesome. He talked about beginning with the end in mind. How we
need to be thinking of the end of everything to set those goals and
plans which give us the motivation to move forward. The ultimate end
is returning to live with our Heavenly Father, and the way back is
through the sublime and perfect pattern of the doctrine of Christ. The
doctrine of Christ is so powerful. President Morgan studied only that
for 3 years and is still learning, it really is our road map back to
our Heavenly Father. We will do great things on our mission, but the
most IMPORTANT thing we do is to convert ourselves, allow the process
of change to take place and progress and increase our faith. Really
that is the end destination of our missions and it comes through the
little steps we take forward each day. It's incredible how the
littlest things we do combine to become something bigger than we ever
imagined.

Sorry if this email is a little different, I feel like at the end of
every cycle I think back to what has happened and what I've learned.
(PS: me and Sister Smoot are staying together, and they whitewashed
the Spanish elders and now we are getting 2 new English elders)
Thursday we had an interview over Skype with our STLs, they usually do
that at the beginning and end of every cycle, and that morning we had
both studied charity really in-depth and then when we were talking
about how our VGPA has been this cycle we realized that we had been
focusing on increasing our love and charity- especially to our branch
members. Charity really is so central to everything we do, it should
be the ultimate motivator. I really have grown to love this area and
these people so much! The Lord has a perfect plan and I know every
area, companion, timing, everything is so inspired to teach me exactly
what I need in that moment.

Well I guess y'all probably want to know how our week went! So since
the elders were leaving we went to a few lesson with them. A lot of
the members fed us (Carol, the Reiser's, the Fuller's, Murphy's,
etc....) and we went to the Roa's and we also got to go to a really
amazing lesson with them yesterday. They had tracked into this guy
name Larry. He's from Maryland and is just here for a short time with
his wife to fix up this house to sell. And wow. He's so prepared. We
had the most amazing conversations with him about life, and spiritual
experiences, and we even talked about baptism. It was just one of
those moments when you weren't necessarily teaching someone but we
were all sitting there learning together from the spirit and it was so
cool. I really think he will be an incredible member sometime soon -
the new elders will take over teaching him but I'll keep you posted.

Friday, Sis Smoot went down to the temple to be the escort for a
member from Poughkeepsie who she had taught. It was a really amazing
experience for her! I stayed here in Monticello and went on another
split with Sister Fansler. Friday morning I made her this barley tea
that the Hseih's helped us discover. It's super delicious but kind of
smells like coffee so I tried to trick her....she wouldn't drink it.
But hey I enjoyed it ;) haha. I guess it's a Korean drink, but it's
pretty much just barley boiled with some milk added. Really yummy.
Always funny to pull little pranks. Got to have some humor :-) We had
a busy split day visiting Sis Crumbley (her sister in law was there
and said she really wanted to bring her to church!) sis Babcock, Beth,
and we had to go to a leadership meeting too in Middletown. We drove A
TON in the less than 24 hours we were on a split......so that wand the
most exciting. But me and Sis Smoot were happily reunited and got to
go to he Robert's Friday night for correlation. Sometimes splits just
really help you realize how much you love your companion, because we
really missed each other!

So we only saw Barbara once this week, we finally got in touch
yesterday. Her progression is slowing and we don't have a solid
baptismal date anymore but she's still moving forward so keep her in
your prayers! And Ashley now wants a church tour so she feels
comfortable come to church the first time- she's so accepting and so
ready! Our investigators are slowly not progressing as much, but we
still know they are all amazing and we will just keep trying!

Sunday was great too! President Fuller's whole family (wife, 2 kids)
spoke about fathers and it was so adorable. AND sis Babcock came to
church for the first time since I've been in Monticello. We also had
our first online Facebook event (which is like a lesson online) and we
did it on Christlike attributes and it turned out super well! And then
we got to eat dinner at the Hseih's. I love Sunday dinner with them
because it feels like a home away from home. The people I've met here
really are like family to me :)

Well those really are the highlights of this week and with transfer
meeting plus all the driving that requires we don't have a ton of
time. But I'll leave you with the funniest story of the week since I
started with a spiritual thought. So we go and visit this member, Sis
Gaughan, a couple of times a week. She lives in an upstairs room to a
house. She a little crazy but we love her. So we go to visit her this
week and we walk into her room and she's frantically looking for
something, but won't look at us and it's talking funny. And then she's
like I lost my teeth! We were dying.....she smiled at us with all the
gums and we lost it. It was just so funny. She's just frantically
searching her room to find them and we didn't even know she had fake
teeth and it was all just so surprising hahahahaha. She eventually
found them in her pocketbook. But it was just too funny. And guess she
doesn't even have bottom teeth, just top dentures. And we never even
knew! Hahaha. It's definitely not as funny unless you had been there
but hopefully y'all can enjoy that story.

I love you all so much!! Have an awesome week and enjoy the sunshine!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart