My FAMILY!!!!
Oh my word. I have a LOT to tell you. Thankfully I don't have the MTC timer ticking down my minutes :) and the enter button works! And life is good. And yes - I really have killed at least 135 cockroaches already. And I don't even get grossed out to kill them anymore!
WELL, holy cow it seems like a year and a half has already gone by just this week. I was put into Midwood BROOKLYN! And I'm right in the heart of the city. Holy cow. I love it. SO MUCH! My companion's name is Sister De La Mare and she is incredible. Love her more than I can say already - she is from SLC and has been out exactly nine months. She is adorable and we get along so well and I love being her companion and teaching with her! Ok so the first day I spent the night at the President's house and there were 22 new missionaries that all slept over. Poor Sister Nelson cooked the best meal for all of us and was so so sweet to us. I love her already. 22 missionaries is very unusual - there are about 200 in the mission so we made up a big chunk. And I found out that there are only 10 English sisters in the whole mission! And about 12 more Spanish sisters. So I am the luckiest person in the whole world to have been called here. :) Well, New York is first - awesome. Second - blasted hot. It's been unusually hot here (a welcome present just for me!) and it's been about 100 degrees everyday -- without humidity. So add in 80% humidity and I go through as much water as the entire state of Idaho has for the last twenty years! Basically I have to wash my clothes a lot and wear my hair in a ponytail so I don't die :) There are so many people here!!!!!!!!!!!! And the diversity is AWESOME! We were walking the street the other day and I saw this old Jamaican man that was seriously around 75 doing this dance to Bob Marley and I busted up laughing. I love Brooklyn! Oh and DALL! I saw SAL! He was looking for me at transfers and of course saw me in the first couple of minutes and we talked for a while and loved it! He is serving in Brooklyn too, but it's in East New York where sisters can't serve because it's too dangerous. Ok and back to my life. There are two spanish sisters in my apartment and then me and my companion in our apartment. It looks like a hotel in the hallways and yes chad - it's more ghetto here than Idaho will ever be :) and yep - the cockroaches. they gross me out so bad, but we all will jump up from the table and just start killing them. It's good. And now I need to start on all of the miracles I saw this week. HOLY CRAP! I think I can say that when I'm talking about miracles -- if not, whatev. First, there is this Korean guy named Washington Kim that the elders met the Friday before I got here and gave him to us on tuesday -- well he got BAPTIZED yesterday!!!! He is the most prepared person to receive the gospel ever! He had been to church a couple of times in Washington D.C. and then came up here and met us and said that he wanted to get baptized as soon as possible because he knew that there would be opposition and he didn't want Satan to keep him from making the most important step in his life so far. WOW!!! So we taught him every day and then he got baptized and literally four hours after his baptism we got a text from him telling us that he was at the temple - he found a flyer for some YSA activity and he just went. And then he texted us this morning asking if there was any activities at all he could go to today. Yeah how's that for a welcome to NY?! Bring on the heat baby! And then another miracle -- we seriously have had HUNDREDS this week - not exaggerating at all. We are working with this lady named Cybil and her husband is in jail (that happens a lot I guess) and she has four little kids under the age of 6. Well, she has been taught for about three months now and we went to go over and re-teach her the restoration. During the lesson we found out that she just got kicked out of nursing school which really bites and she doesn't know what to do with school or job or what. Well, I had the strongest impression that I have EVER had in my life to promise her that if she reads the Book of Mormon and prays about Joseph Smith that she would find a job. WHOA!!!!! I am so humbled SO HUMBLED that Heavenly Father has called me, some punk kid, to be His mouthpiece. And the power that He gives His servants is INCREDIBLE. More than just incredible, it is indescribable. P.S. PLEASE keep Cybil in your prayers and pray for her to have the desires to really act on everything that she already knows. And THEN another day we got stood up a couple times and so I knew that Satan was just trying to discourage us to keep us from a really big miracle. YEP that's exactly what he was trying to do. So I felt like we should visit two ladies that are not active - well we went to their apt (by the way, there is hardly anyone who doesn't live in a big ol' fatty apt building here -- but ALL the hallways aren't air conditioned which STINKS!) and yeah they weren't home. WELL, time for the miracle. We started going down and I said Sister - let's knock this floor - first door - they saw us through the peep hole and left :) second door -- this lady named Dina opens the door and she got so excited when we told her that there is a living prophet on the earth today. Just you wait, she is going to get baptized. AND THEN, same day, we were taking a Bible to a lady who requested one and she started talking to us and we taught her about the restoration and she seriously PHYSICALLY changed when we told her about prophets. You could see hope just change her. AND THEN!!! We were walking the street and saying hello to everyone and I smiled at this guy who stopped us and said - do you know me? (everyone kinda gets weirded out when we smile at them because they aren't used to people just being nice for the heck of it) well anyway we talked to him and he just barely got out of rehab for some serious crap and says that he looks at the sky and just knows there is a God, but hasn't found him yet. So we taught him. And he's going going to get baptized too - I know it! And yeah -- what else? The subways are SWEET! Coming home from the mission office we saw the NY skyline (it's really REALLY cool) and saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance (also REALLY cool) and yeah. As for all of your questions -- yes, mom the mission president is taking great care of me - he is SO RELAXED and I ALMOST FORGOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't have to wear NYLONS!!!!!!!!!!! (except for in the chapel) and mom - i can wear ANYTHING basically (still a dress) but I can even wear jeans on P-day! SO - I think I'm going to be buying some - or if you want (seriously you don't have to because postage i know is expensive) you can send me mine :) and you can even send any of my shorts! I can wear them on p-day and service stuff too! WOOT! AND, I can listen to any uplifting music - so burn anything you got :) and this might be bad but i started laughing when I heard about Westmark :) THANK YOU Dad for getting it worked out and honestly - if they took what $300 - well I really could care less :) so if it's a headache - don't worry about it. And to the person in Chicago -- (this is me yelling because they are far away) GOD STILL LOVES YOU!!!!!!!!!! Chad - I wish SO BAD that I could have been there to see the snake incident! And the Betty Ross one too.I'm cracking up right now about it actually. And my P-day is Monday and I can't print off any of your letters so if you ever want to print them and send them - well that would be just fine by me! And all the mail just goes to the mission office and they forward it to us or we pick it up - they said it is easier that way so yeah. That and I don't even know my apartment address anyway :) and I love you all and your letters seriously made my day. It's SO GOOD to hear from you - just love you all! Oh and I got asked several times if I was a nun and have had people ask me for my autograph and hit on me A LOT. Haha! Cracks me up!
Ok before I go I want all of you to know how grateful I am for you. I have THE BEST family in the entire world, and I really don't know how I got to be so blessed to have you all. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for raising us in the gospel and for making so many incredible memories with us. I am in awe at how much I am blessed. You are the best, cutest, best, best, best, funniest, most awesomest family EVER! :)
And I love you.
And the church is TRUE! And God is real. And miracles happen.
Love always,
Sister Mich (or Smith - whatever :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love this girl.
ReplyDelete