The last week of the Smoot & Smart zebra

¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

Wow! This cycle has truly flown by. Transfers are today and I think
I'm still in denial that this transfer has already ended. Sending a
companion home is never easy, and I'm going to miss Sister Smoot a
lot! But as someone shared with me once "the pain of saying goodbye is
nothing compared to the joy of seeing each other again". The reunion
of all my missionary friends is going to amazing someday - even
greater like with the story of Alma & the sons of Mosiah (Alma 17:2)
that we can say we're all still disciples, sisters in the Lord!

I'm staying here in Monticello this next cycle and I'm excited! I fell
like there is still work for me to do here, and lessons to learn. My
new companion will be Hermana Ponce, yes she's a Spanish Speaking
missionary. I'm really excited to get back/improve my Spanish! There's
also an elder coming to our district that's from Spain. District
language study here we go!

Anyway this week was pretty packed! We had goodbyes and dinners and
packing and miracles!
Last Wednesday after pday ended we went out to dinner with the two
ladies from Firstway (a place we do service in Monticello) and the
restaurant was by this gorgeous rover and had a live band towards the
end. It was kind of fun, and we got to share a lot more about what we
do as missionaries and even talked a little about family history! It
was really awesome.

Thursday we had a mission wide conference call (something President
Smith has started) and He told us who all the trainers were going to
be, baptisms that have happened, and shared a miracle moment. What a
great way to start the day! Ever since President Smith talked about
timing and recognizing miracles I feel like I have been seeing the
hand of the Lord in the smallest things every single day. Later on
Thursday we were supposed to drive to Ossining to have Sister Smoot's
exit interview but they got behind so hey called and pushed it back
and hour...which at first was a little inconvenient since we had
planned everything out. Put en we were able to go see Chevy with the
time and I know it was no coincidence. She is incredible. We talked
about baptism, and the Joseph smith story, and really finding out
truth for yourself, she has such a strong desire and her daughter
¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

Wow! This cycle has truly flown by. Transfers are today and I think
I'm still in denial that this transfer has already ended. Sending a
companion home is never easy, and I'm going to miss Sister Smoot a
lot! But as someone shared with me once "the pain of saying goodbye is
nothing compared to the joy of seeing each other again". The reunion
of all my missionary friends is going to amazing someday - even
greater like with the story of Alma & the sons of Mosiah (Alma 17:2)
that we can say we're all still disciples, sisters in the Lord!

I'm staying here in Monticello this next cycle and I'm excited! I fell
like there is still work for me to do here, and lessons to learn. My
new companion will be Hermana Ponce, yes she's a Spanish Speaking
missionary. I'm really excited to get back/improve my Spanish! There's
also an elder coming to our district that's from Spain. District
language study here we go!

Anyway this week was pretty packed! We had goodbyes and dinners and
packing and miracles!
Last Wednesday after pday ended we went out to dinner with the two
ladies from Firstway (a place we do service in Monticello) and the
restaurant was by this gorgeous rover and had a live band towards the
end. It was kind of fun, and we got to share a lot more about what we
do as missionaries and even talked a little about family history! It
was really awesome.

Thursday we had a mission wide conference call (something President
Smith has started) and He told us who all the trainers were going to
be, baptisms that have happened, and shared a miracle moment. What a
great way to start the day! Ever since President Smith talked about
timing and recognizing miracles I feel like I have been seeing the
hand of the Lord in the smallest things every single day. Later on
Thursday we were supposed to drive to Ossining to have Sister Smoot's
exit interview but they got behind so hey called and pushed it back
and hour...which at first was a little inconvenient since we had
planned everything out. Put en we were able to go see Chevy with the
time and I know it was no coincidence. She is incredible. We talked
about baptism, and the Joseph smith story, and really finding out
truth for yourself, she has such a strong desire and her daughter
walked in towards the end and they both really want to come to
church!! It was just an incredible lesson/moment and timing really was
everything. Walking out from Chevy's too one of her neighbors, Arturo,
is a potential investigator. We talked to him for a little bit and he
told us elders used to visit him too like 9 years ago. THEN the next
day (Friday) he called the elders and told them he was coming to
church. He didn't end up coming because there wasn't a ride....but he
was someone we hadn't really had on our mind but the Lord put us in
his path at the perfect timing.

Wow did we get fed this week too! (Tends to happen when someone is
leaving) The Riley's took us out for pizza, Bro King bought us KFC,
President Fuller had us over for Chinese, Carol had us over, the usual
ward correlation dinner at the Robert's, Sunday dinner at the Hseih's,
b-dubs after zone meeting, Venison at the Van Valkenburgs (wow their
house is gorgeous, in he middle of a Forrest practically), and a huge
chili dinner/last supper for Sis Smoot at the Maldonado's.

Saturday we decided we really wanted to end the week out strong. We
set a goal for 16 total lessons and woke up the next day ready to work
hard! We did so many lookups and the majority wasn't successful. But
then we were able to go lookup Stevie and her kids at the perfect
timing. She has been having a really hard time but we were ere, and
she said she finally had a Sunday off so they were coming to church -
AND they did!! It was awesome. The kids loved it, Adelyse even bore
her testimony with help from Sister Smoot. And Stevie loved it too, a
tender mercy for sure. Shortly after we got to meet with Ashley and
the spirit was so strong. We all just bore our testimonies and she's
just awesome. There really aren't words to describe it, but it was a
blessing. Overall too we ended the day with 8 lessons for the day -
prayers are answered. Not just that but overall this week we hit all
our goals for lessons, which missionary work definitely is never about
numbers but we really tried hard to have a last strong week for Sister
Smoot and the hard work paid off.

Funny Monticello moment of the week (I know I don't share too many of
these) but so we're sitting in fast and testimony meeting and one of
our members gets up and starts to bear her testimony about how she
sees Heavenly Father and the 3 wiseman in the moon at
night.....uhhhh....never what you want to hear the first time you have
an investigator family at church. Hahaha only in Monticello.

Well I'm about out of time but this week really was good! It's good to
see so many people the last week before companions leave the area. But
it's also sad. Every cycle, every companionship is always different
even with the same area. You really have to ride the wave of change as
a missionary. But I've just loved how me and Sister Smoot were able to
accomplish our VGPA of loving those people we teach. We made some
really close friends because of it, and I have seen so many miracles.
Here's to a new cycle here in Monticelestial!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart