God is great. Root beer is good. People are crazy.

¡Hola!

I hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July weekend! (I had to throw a country sing in the title this week ;) First off, I'm emailing a little earlier today because Sis Smoot is going to see Wicked today so we just made it to the city (wow I love Manhattan) and sending off our emails before the day gets crazy!! We might find wifi a little later too, but for now at least I'll have emailed most of y'all! 

Well this week was a little unusual. With the 4th of July weekend we just had a lot of appointments cancel (we weren't able to see any of our investigators all last week) and going to the Yankees game took out a day too...so it was a little hard for missionary work but we ended up having some mini miracles the past few days. I was reading the talk "Forget Me Not" by President Uchtdorf and just realized that sometimes we think that because our lives aren't always glamorous and measuring up to these unrealistic standards we set that we are failing. But really we are have small blessings multiple times every single day! This week was definitely one that we had to look for those "forget me not flowers" to see our success as missionaries. And as we looked they were EVERYWHERE. It's incredible how much the Lord blesses us, we just sometimes have to stop and realize the blessings are there - they usually are small and simple but they are there. 

So Friday the whole mission got to go to a YANKEES GAME. ️ we are spoiled to be serving in New York! We only stayed at the game until 8:30 (only like the 4th inning) but we later found out the Yankees won in the 12th inning!! It was a good game. It happened to be a day they were giving away free Yankees hats too, and MOTAB sang an American medley and the national anthem, me and Sis Smoot had seats right next to the Smith's so that was really fun to get to know them and their kids a little better too! Overall, it was so fun to be at a baseball game and to see all the missionaries in the mission and to be back in the city for a night! It was a long night traveling back to Monticello - but it was all worth it and luckily we went down with the Hseih's so we could sleep on the way home! 

Saturday was the 4th of July and we started off the morning right by being in a PARADE. Yep it was awesome, as many parades that I've been to in my lifetime I don't ever remember actually being a part of the parade so it was really fun! Monticello has a curse of it always raining when we're in a parade and this year was no exception, but luckily by the time we were walking it was just barely sprinkling. I'll send some pictures so you can see the wagon, Bro Van Valkenburg did a really good job making it look authentic and we all looked like pioneers. It was great! Me and Sis Smoot helped the little kids throw out candy and it was just a fun start to the 4th! The rest of the day wasn't anything too exciting, we visited a member, cleaned the church, and then the Hseih's had us over for dinner and ice cream! Just a simple holiday for the mission life but still a good day. 

Sunday was a day full of the most miracles of the week! I had prayed really hard Saturday night and Sunday morning that we'd be able to have a productive day, try to end a slow week strong. And it was an incredible day! We got to church and a less active we have been working with, Bro King came to church as well as a recent convert, James, who we had fasted for as a branch last month that he'd be able to come back (there are some family issues that made it so he couldn't come) that was really cool to see that exactly one month later, he came on fast Sunday. Fasting truly brings miracles!! Then towards the end of sacrament meeting a family with 3 kids walks in....so I walk up to say hi to them and they were SPANISH. They recently moved here from Costa Rica for a family members health care, and they are super strong members. But they're still in the process of learning English. So I got to go to primary with their daughter, Valeria, and help translate and sing and such in Spanish. I think this is probably one of my biggest tender mercies since being here in Monticello. Sometimes I wonder why I'm serving in an English area, and immediately I think of the people and my companion and all the blessings I've had and lessons learned....but then this family showing up to church I realized that I'm here for my Spanish too! It just felt like the Lord had put me exactly where I needed to be. The rest of Sunday went really well too with visiting people and dinner at the Murphy's and we had a successful online event....and then at the end of the night driving home this one single firework shot up right over the trees on the road and it was just so cool. Sometimes you have those moments where you realize how much Heavenly Father loves you and is so aware of the details of your life. 

Monday we had zone meeting & and interview with Sis Fansler (our STL) and then we went to b-dubs. Our favorite treat when we're in Middletown. We also did a lot of lookups Monday and we were talking to this potential, Ribeiro, and out of no where he's like hey my church is having an event for young people and my grandson is going and you should go and then maybe I'll come to your church.....and so we said okay and then he was like what are you waiting for follow my grandson car go right now!!! Haha it was crazy but we went to the church and it was kind of just a hangout...so we didn't even get out of our car, by hey we tried! The crazy things we do as missionaries. We ended the night weeding the garden at Garden Work Night (every Monday the branch comes to help the garden we have next to the church) 

So if I could give a title to yesterday.....it'd probably include something on how awkward missionaries are haha. So our first appointment for the day the elders said they had confirmed, it was with Larry. So we get there and NO ONE is there....so we are just awkwardly waiting in their driveway... and eventually Lynn, his wife, comes and is tells us they didn't set an appointment with the elders? But she's a sweetheart and to,d us to come in and get some water, and Larry eventually came home and we briefly talked to him and then left. AND THEN like 30 minutes after apparently the elders showed up. Oh dear. And then they were calling us while we were visiting Beth, so we told her the story. And I know I aren't told you much about Beth but she's hilarious and kind of scary and has this "Beth stare" and she grabbed the phone and told the elders to come over so she could "smack down" hahaha luckily the elders didn't show up. THEN we went to see Barbara and she was on her way out somewhere and we think she's slowly dropping us and it's breaking our hearts AND THEN we go to the food pantry for service and it's all normal, stocking, etc and one of the ladies in charge, Jemma, out of no where is like which of you is going to take me to my house to get the freezer key. And she's kind of huge and scary and we were like um well we have to go together but I guess we can do that for you.....since she basically commanded us. Haha so yeah. Gave a random person a ride. So the awkward day continues.....but since this is turning into a ramble and I'm sure a few of you have stopped reading by now I'll just end by saying we also looked up on of our less actives that was definitely drunk at the door, and we had parked in front of our investigators apartment (a little early) right as we got a text canceling the appointment and then she walks out so me and Sis Smolt had to quickly put our seats down so she wouldn't see us. Hahahaha. Just another day in the life of a missionary! 

In memory of Boyd K Packer I just wanted to end with part of his testimony from the last general conference. His whole talk is really amazing and all about love and family so I encourage y'all to go re-read it but in the final part he went off the prepared script and bore such a powerful testimony: 

"I bear witness that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that the Atonement is not a general thing that is for the whole Church. The Atonement is individual, and if you have something that is bothering you--sometimes so long ago you can hardly remember it--put the Atonement to work. It will clean it up, and you, as does He, will remember your sins no more."

Hope y'all have an amazing week!! I love you! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Smart