Bautismos y Milagros

Hola familia y amigos :)


How was everyone's week?? I hope y'all had an incredible week! Our
week started out super crazy, and packed and a little stressful.....it
kind of hit us how many things we were doing to cover both areas. So
we paused. And took a minute to simplify, to really focus on the
things and the people that are the most important - it has helped so
much! Simplifying to achieve the goals that you desire really does
work! Just like President Uchtdorf was talking about this last general
conference - simplify :)

We are seeing SO MUCH success in this area, especially in the Stamford
part, which is so happy. So the rest of this email I'll be talking
about people in Stamford BUT last Wednesday we did have a really cool
lesson with Johanna. We brought a member with us, Consuelo, who had
been to some lessons with her in the past. And it was just perfect.
They've become friends and Consuelo was pretty much teaching Johanna
exactly what she needed before the lesson even began! Fellow shippers
and member presents really do make a difference, sometimes it can be
hard but it was just and awesome to see it come together.

We had a meeting Thursday that was kind of like an MLC. But Brother
Donaldson (mission president from the District 2, on the missionary
board) came to instruct us alongside President & Sister Smith. They
introduced a new standard of excellence for the mission - 3 New
Investigators a week, 1 baptism every other month, invite to baptism
on first lessons, invite to a baptismal date on second lessons. So
simple and so achievable! Yet with this we can double baptisms in our
mission :) they also gave a lot of good training on planning and
overall just such a good meeting.

There were 3 miracles this week that we're all a result of either
timing or following through with our plans. The first was super
simple. We had planned to lookup a less active. So we did and her
sister was the only one there, and about to leave. But we talked to
her and she's a member too - she said she just hasn't been able to
come because she can't get work off so she asked us to pray for her.
We did. AND both her and her sister showed up at church on Sunday!!
The second miracle was that we were invited over to Hermana Baltazar's
house this week for lunch. She makes amazing food. We were talking,
and she just shared experiences and things going on in her life that
we all needed and it was so spiritually uplifting. We then proceeded
to share a part of a conference article we had planned to share and it
ended up being one that her and her daughter had watched together and
it was just the PERFECT thing to share. Sometimes Heavenly Father
inspires our plans so much and it's so cool when we are able to see
the immediate results of it!! The last miracle is my favorite. It
starts on Friday night. We finished a lesson in Norwalk and we looked
at the calendar and we had planned to go find Jeremias a potential
investigator we'd met the week before at our investigator Lubia's
house. We were thinking of changing the plan, but decided to stick to
the plan. We get to Lubia's house and Jermias isn't there. But the mom
of the little boy Lubia watches is. We started talking to her and find
out her son is a member of our Ward and she has sons in Peru that are
members. And a brother. We had a very simple lesson and Sister Smith
sang a hymn. The spirit was just so strong. So Jeovana (that's her
name) said we could come over Tuesday night. So we go over and it was
INCREDIBLE. Her son randomly didn't have work, so we got to meet him
and we realized he's an active member we've definitely seen before. We
asked her how she's been feeling and if she had the opportunity to
pray about our message. She says she did and she couldn't describe it
but it just felt good. Then her son bore such a powerful testimony of
the spirit. We were then able to teach about the restoration. She just
soaked it all in, especially about the prophets. And then at the end
we invited her to be baptized, and then invited her to be baptized on
Dec 12th and she said if she finds out El Libro de Mormon is true she
would be baptized that date!!!!!! She is SO PREPARED. It was such a
tender mercy. And her son is the perfect fellowship per - they should
even be at church this week.

Saturday Genesis entered the waters of baptism! It was such a special
event and we are so happy for her decision to be baptized. She is such
an amazing little girl. The morning before e baptism we had a lot of
random opposition but e baptism ended up going so well and her part
member family came (her mom is reactivating and her brothers aren't
members) and it was such awesome. We should be having the baptism of
Ryan (another 10 year old) this Saturday so that should be fun too!

My ponderize scripture for this week is Alma 37:37 "Counsel with the
Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when
thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch
over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy
heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall
be lifted up at the last day."

Well I think that's all for this week! Sorry it got a little bit long
- We had so many miracles and I am so grateful for every single one of
them! OH also I did eat some pig ear this week.....not my
favorite....haha gotta love missionary life :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart