My Dearest Dearest Family, SO -- this week. FLEW by! And it was absolutely incredible. Sister De La Mare had some leadership meetings to go to and so I went to Queens to do exchanges with Sister Kim and oh yes -- another Sister Smith. From Idaho. With six kids in the family. And the youngest is 11. Weird. But it was really good. I was there on Wed and Thurs -- and saw A TRACTOR on the freeway!!!!!! I got so excited and started running after it like a three year old after an ice cream truck :) yep I'm pretty proud of my roots. Don't worry - I got my picture! So yeah - exchanges were great because the city didn't smell like trash and there were people that actually lived in houses - not apartments. that was really weird. But it was SO GREAT to come back to Brooklyn. I really love it here. And Thursday night -- oh family buckle up for this one! -- we had a lesson with Cybil. WOW!!!!! I'm still just in awe. So here goes. In Sister De La Mare's meeting she learned about how critical the Book of Mormon is in the conversion process and how investigators absolutely will not progress if they are not reading it. Well, missionaries have been meeting with Cybil for about three or four months now and guess what - no reading. So Sister D and I were planning on figuring out the situation when we went over and we were going to figure out if Cybil is really serious about committing or if we were going to have to drop her. Bah. The thought of dropping that woman broke my heart. She needs this gospel SO much and yeah. So we went over, said the prayer, and not kidding FIRST thing that comes out of Cybil's mouth is "so I was reading in Alma the other day" SHUT UP!! I really almost forgot how to breathe. And Cybil was saying that she was reading about how those who have been told the gospel are going to be in a very bad way if they reject it after they have been told. YEAH! So basically we didn't even have to chastise her -- which is AWESOME because Alma does a much better job at that than I would. And yeah - incredible. The spirit was so strong and both Sis. D and I could tell that she is a changed person. So we are going over tomorrow night -- still have a ways to go because we were told by a sister at church that she goes and smokes between sacrament and relief society. whatever. that is going to change real quick :) and yeah. so the lesson was awesome, the kids were actually quiet, which is an incredible miracle in and of itself, and then right when we were winding down one of the kids - J.J. - leaves the room and comes back in with his arms folded - holding something. and then he pulls it out - he has a HUGE butcher knife and starts waving it around. HAHA! So of course I'm trying not to laugh and Cybil runs over and takes it away. Pretty funny. i almost forgot! cybil was talking to her probation officer and the officer set her up with a job. a temp agency, but a job! yes, God is real. And for the rest of the week - it finally rained - thank goodness because that means it's not as hot - but also means that the humidity is through the roof. But Tuesday was quite the day. It was POURING - like nothing Idaho has ever seen before - probably very similar to Georgia weather- and Sister De La Mare and I forgot our umbrellas. Oh yeah. We started Tuesday morning on a quest (which the morning was beautiful and sunny by the way) on a quest to this place Prospect Park. Not sure if I told you last week, but we did service at the park and I met this kid - Ramen - who is really ready for the gospel. And I didn't have a book of mormon to give him. stupid i know. and so i really wanted to meet up with him again. well prospect park is clear the crap out there on the opposite border of where we live in our area. so sis d and i leave with this book of mormon, ready to walk to the end of the earth, and it starts raining SO HARD. we kept going. still raining. and anyways, we got drenched, left for home right at the edge of prospect park because no one was in the park and went home for lunch to change. we had around 15 appointments that day to visit a bunch of investigators and referrals - well ZERO of them were home. and we were soaked. and the day just kept going and going and we were laughing because we looked like a couple of drowned rats (oh and i had to wear my glasses that day because my eyes were freaking out so i just saw through the rain drops all day) and yeah. so i kept saying to sis d that some miracle was bound to happen because there were a lot of forces at work trying to keep us discouraged so that we wouldn't find someone or something. OH YEAH! that's exactly what was happening! we were walking and passed this guy that was standing in the middle of the driveway to an apt. building and he was really far away from us. we passed and i felt like we should talk to him, but i didn't want to because he was really far away and stuff - well i turned around and we went to talk to him. he is SO READY for the gospel. his name is ronald and we talked for a good 15-20 minutes which is very unusual here and he set up an appointment and said he wants to make it worth our time so he is inviting a bunch of friends. oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!! take that rain! so we're really excited for that. hmm-- other things that have happened this week - i spoke in church yesterday on service and it went really well. Washington Kim got confirmed and oh my word i just remembered the lesson we had with him. we were trying to explain the priesthood and he got off on a tangent about eternal marriage and oh dear it was FUNNY!! first of all Washington Kim is 29, a very serious politician, Korean, and yeah now you can hear the story. he asked us how to date and asked us if all he needed to do was go up to someone and ask her if she would be his eternal companion -- obviously we told him no that is NOT how you date - even though some boys at BYU and BYU-I think that's how it's done :) and then he asked us "so it's ok for me to ask anyone out that doesn't have a badge right?" and then we explained to him that yes, he can't ask us out because we are missionaries and he should probably check for both a badge and a wedding ring before he asks someone out. another great day - Saturday the bishop decided to take all the missionaries to lunch at a Chinese buffet which is the biggest blessing EVER because we hadn't had a dinner appointment yet and missionaries kinda eat like crap because you don't have any time - dad, dall, you know exactly what i'm talking about. so we had an appointment right before lunch and we were starving because it was already 230 -- well the lady thought we were just coming over for lunch and not teaching her. so she had toast, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs for us. so sis d and i were so sad because we had to waste precious room in our stomachs on hot dogs :( but it was really good and really REALLY sweet of her and the chinese buffet - OH YEAH! it was a good day :) oh so we were walking (what? missionaries walking?!) and some NYPD called us over and talked to us for a while and it was REALLY cool. they said they really admired us and thought it was way cool that we didn't drink or smoke or curse. they also asked us if we ate cheese, had ten wives, could flip a lightswitch on saturdays, and how much we got paid for every person we baptized. don't worry - we straightened everything out :) and yeah, it was cool. oh and i threw a pair of contacts away this week which means I have been out a whole month! yeah that's weird! but i'm still so so so new :) i get asked a lot if i'm from new york because i smile at people and they automatically know that i'm not from around here. i want to leave you all with a quote from one of the elders in my district -- he was talking about faith and having as much faith as a mustard seed and he said that that much faith really will move mountains - one shovel-full at a time. it's true. Heavenly Father is real and He loves us and we can do anything with His help - we just have to pray like it depends on Him and work our little bums off like it depends on us. LOVE YOU!
First - Pres. and Sis. Nelson and ME! Second - SAL!!!!!!!!!! Dall, put it on the FB :) Third - my creature :) Fourth - My MTC companion Sister Kuttler and I Fifth - my whole MTC district that is now all in TX, but i really think it is hotter here and the last - the classic!
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