Another week in the life of me :)

Holla!

Hi family! So this week was just wonderful! Last Pday was AWESOME :) sis. smith and i went to chinatown and looked at all of the crazy stuff that is there and it was great. then we went to the beach -- okay i LOVE being able to just go to the beach and it's only 15 minutes away. so we had fun :) today is zone activity which, roughly translated, means all the elders get together and eat pizza and play sports. and the sisters? well, we eat pizza and chat :) and try to take a nap in the park.

This week had so many miracles!!!!!!! We met this guy named Blaise on the train and he just started talking to me -- wanted to meet with us and hear about the Book of Mormon. oh yeah! and when we met with him he said he had no idea why he was there because it's very unlike him to just meet with some random girls talking about Christ. he came to church on sunday and he loved it! he said he would be baptized when he gets an answer too so yeah. really big miracle.

Tamara decided she didn't want to talk to us this week -- but she got over it when she saw the elder she has fallen in love with. so we had a long talk about how you can't fall in love with missionaries and how you have to go to church for the right reasons. but she did really well with that little information so -- we are hoping that she gets baptized on halloween. weird that halloween is on sunday by the way. i'm so mad because pumpkins are really expensive in new york -- but stacy and chris (their story will be later) want us to come carve pumpkins with them! :) :) i like that idea.

Rachel -- IS GOING TO GET BAPTIZED ON HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!! she LOVED church and she said that she had a dream before she met us where some guy told her that she really needed to get baptized. dun da dah!!!!!! so we are teaching her and she wants to bring her husband to church along with their two little kids. yeah -- life as a missionary is awesome.

We also met with Stacy and Chris last night. I don't know if you all remember - Stacy is from idaho and chris isn't a member. stacy is super cute and made us breakfast for dinner and told us she wanted to carve pumpkins :) !! well, when we first met with chris he told us that he won't do things for anyone else but himself and he was pretty standoffish about everything. last night we talked about the plan of salvation and the atonement and stacy was crying and chris said that he is going to pray about the plan and getting baptized. so yeah -- they could both use some praying right now. i know that stacy's family has probably been praying for this for a LONG time, and it is absolutely incredible to be the person that gets to knock on the door and teach and be the answer to so many prayers.

i was just telling dad about this -- the whole mission is having "a year of miracles". president nelson has set a goal starting nov. 1 2009 to baptize double the baptisms for a normal year. well, nov. 1 2010 is coming REALLY fast and it is incredible that people are just being found. faith and work and God's help make really cool stuff happen.

well, that's about it for the week. we have a few more weeks in the transfer and i want to stay so bad. SO BAD. our ward has their first missionary coming home in 10 years so they are all freaking out and doing a huge party for him -- we get to make the welcome home banner. and yeah. life is really good. the church is true. we are so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel and the atonement and i LOVE knowing that my family is sealed for time and all eternity. because i love my family :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

-sister michelle smith

{Pictures of ME}

the first one is rachel -- she was sitting in her baby's stroller while we taught her and we thought it was pretty funny :)

second is sister t. smith's chalkboard drawing of us

i forgot to tell you about this!!!!!!! in chinatown there is a drink place called bubbles - well sister smith wanted to get us some -- it's slushies with tapioca balls in the bottom and you just swallow them and it feels like you are swallowing bubbles -- really weird but good

it was really really windy at the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your favorite email of the week from your favorite missionary in NYC!!!!!!! :)

FAMILY!

okay so i cannot believe that UTAH STATE BEAT BYU IN FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?! That is so sweet. Yeah, I tutored all of those players! Go aggies :)

Anyways, this week -- basically another week as a missionary which is another week that is really truly incredible. Let me just tell you family - when Elder Holland said that the blessings of serving the Lord full-time are sweet; well yeah. He is incredibly right. Now I just have to remember what actually happened this week.... First, I got a package from the fam! and i LOVED LOVED LOVED it! Because our apartment is new we don't actually have curtains so the skeleton tablecloth got put to really good use and it is now our curtains! :) I love it. and i just really loved my package.

Tamara took up a lot of our week again because we are preparing her for her baptism this Sunday. She let us meet her family which was a really big blessing and it is cool that she trusts us that much. REALLY good that she let us meet them because she hadn't quite told them that she was getting baptized. she told them that there was a baptism, but she didn't tell them that it was hers. soo - we gently persuaded her to tell her family. and her brother is interested in hearing more and her parents -- well, we haven't talked to them hardly at all but don't you worry - the spirit will tell them they should be baptized too.

Interviews with President Nelson were this week - I'm just always amazed. Heavenly Father has set EVERYTHING up so that we are taken care of. And He always puts inspired people in our lives to answer our prayers. I love President and Sister Nelson and they are such a blessing to me and all of the missionaries!

LITTLE CEASAR'S opened up in our area! and we took full advantage of the opportunity and got some this week. i never knew that little ceasar's could be so heavenly!!! we loved it.

I taught piano this week again -- yep. Miracles still happen if i can teach piano.

We had an investigator Rachel come to church with her son this week and she LOVED it! and i was so grateful to all of our members. they just welcomed her like she really was their sister and it made all the difference. the members in this ward are awesome - they always look for people that are new or people that are having a hard time or someone that they can help. love them. love midwood. love the mission.

Well, life is really really good. Missionary work is incredible. I am SO GLAD that we know that families can be together forever. SO GLAD that we know that there is a living prophet and that God hasn't just left us to do whatever. SO GLAD that we have the Book of Mormon and that we can read about the gospel so simply. SO GLAD that we know that our lives actually have meaning. SO GLAD that i have such an awesome family and friends.

love you all

sister mich smith

Missionaries teaching a lesson = my life. missionaries letting Pres. Monson teach a lesson = my really really AWESOME life!!!!!!!!!!

Hi family!

So this week was SICK!!!!!!!! I don't know why I thought conference was boring before -- yeah it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously. incredible! but that was the END of the week so those stories have to be at the end of the email :) sorry.

Well, today has been crazy. It seems like Pdays are ALWAYS crazy and never go how you plan them. Eh, whatever. That's life! We almost didn't get to e-mail today because the place that we normally do it wasn't open and none of us have library cards and yeah. it was a little bit of a mess. BUT it turned out just great! I'm typing to you all and yeah. Life is good.

Okay as I think of the week -- well, I can't really remember cool stuff happening until conference so -- so much for the last of the week being the last of the email :)

First I want to say thank you. When Elder Holland was talking about his parents supporting him on his mission -- well I must admit I started crying like a little girl. I cannot imagine being a missionary without the support system I have. And the incredible family I have. And the parents that sacrifice SO much for me to be out here and completely worry free. So... mom and dad THANK YOU! I can't even tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me. Family - THANK YOU! Your letters keep me going. I am so lucky. SO blessed. And I love you SOOOOOOOOOO much.

Second - we visited a less-active lady who just had her grand-nephew come from Haiti and oh dear. Her poor little nephew can only speak Creole and she is just this funny old lady that is very loud and doesn't care what she says and it cracks us all up. she came to conference with us (after telling us to get her cane so she could beat people with it) and we all went together. she ended up falling in the street on the way which scared the living daylights out of me and i can't describe this story. hopefully one day you will all be able to meet sister e. pierre. she's a hoot.

at conference, we had tamara come to the second saturday session! tamara is supposed to be getting baptized this sunday -- the mission president has to interview her tomorrow though so we will see if she passes or not. not going to lie - working with tamara has been quite the experience. i don't think i told you all but the first sunday she came to church she ended up leaving right during sacrament meeting. she didn't like me at all at first but hey. now we are good friends. she has made some of the lessons pretty interesting and awkward but she is SO sweet. she really has a sincere desire to follow Christ and is working really hard to do so. so we are really hoping that she will be able to be baptized on sunday! we have been working really hard to find her some of the members to be friends with -- she doesn't like hardly anyone and she doesn't open up to people at all. BUT our relief society pres. is incredible and they have become good friends. we're excited.

one of our members that was at conference called me and sis. smith over and almost started to cry as she apologized up and down for not being able to feed us because of her arthritis. she gave us some money to go out to eat and i was so humbled. she said she loves taking care of the missionaries because this gospel means EVERYTHING to her and she is so grateful for the missionaries that brought it to her. there are so many people that would give their last dime to help us. SO humbling. i love these people so much and they are so dear to me :)

okay. this was the highlight of my week. WINFORD CAME TO CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!! AND LOVED IT! he came to priesthood session and right before we met with him and brother giammusso - a member that he has gotten really close with - and we talked about prophets again and we had winford pray to know if the prophet was true and if the book of mormon is true and if he should be baptized. oh family. it was so good. and winford says that he hasn't looked up anti crap and won't anymore because he doesn't feel like it is what the church is and he came to the first session on sunday too and i seriously almost cried when i saw him walk through the door. we called him later last (sunday) night to see what he thought and he just thanked us over and over again. he said that he is never going to forget 2010 because it has been such a good year because he met us. it was a really cool reminder of what we are doing out here and the lives that we are changing.

okay. conference really was awesome. it was SO GOOD to have such a boost!!!!!!!!!! i LOVED Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about how we need to focus on the important things in our lives. being away from school and work and social life and everything that stresses me out has been absolutely incredible. DEFINITELY eye-opening. honestly, there really is more to life than making it go faster. :) like our FAMILY!!!!!!!!!! and i love mine :) yep. i WAS just that cheesy. and you loved it.

Court - I'm way proud of you for getting that job! Way to be you little champ! Mom - thank you for making sure my clothes didn't go to provo with the wrong daughter :) it will be okay. I'm way proud of you court for everything - you are going to LOVE it! and the family just has all the more reason to make it to provo every so often.

OH! one more miracle story. last night we were just about to go home - we were looking some people up and talking to people and doing the usual. well, we had the option of going to one more house or going home. it was a less active member's home and we decided to go -- her future daughter-in-law was there who isn't a member and we got to teach her -- she is only here for three days. and we came at just the right time to catch them both and teach her. i love the spirit!!!!!!!!!! okay fam. i love you SO much. so much. i am so grateful for all of you (including all my friends that are reading this!) and i want to let you know that each of you has been an incredible influence on me. love you :)

God is real. He loves us so much!

sister mich smith

PICTURES OF THE WEEK...

-- there are 6 missionaries that work in our ward alone and then four that work in the spanish ward (that meets in our building so we get to see them all the time) the only missionaries that are in our zone that aren't in this picture are 2 elders in park slope and the 2 ASL elders! the other pics are from staten island ferry and coney island beach. not sure what all i have sent you of those so if they are duplicates -- sorry!