Hi Family!
Well, I'm very glad that it is snowing in your side of the country!!! It hasn't snowed here yet and we are very very grateful because, well, we walk outside a lot. and i don't want to walk in snow :)
thanksgiving was awesome... we got to play football in the morning and i got to watch and give my support :) i got to talk to sister de la mare and it was so fun! umm, it was weird to leave our apartment in pants and we saw a ward member that was really weirded out that he saw us in pants.. but it was really good. then we got to eat lunch with sister smith's aunt because they live here and she got permission from President Nelson to see them because there was an "enormous missionary opportunity" -- it was cool. they brought chinese food for us - and they were really excited to see sister smith. then we went to the bishop's house for thanksgiving dinner number two and it was so good - sister cadet cooked all day long for us and she is so sweet -- not only did she feed us but she packed us all a little box to take home with food too.
okay fam. so sorry but there are a billion people waiting for us to get done with email so they can all email their families -- so here are some of the highlights of the week -- we met with a less-active woman who hasn't had anything to do with the church in more than 10 years. well, she hasn't talked to anyone in the church in a while too.. but she let us in and we talked and she started talking about how much Christ has done for her in her life and how, just when she thought that something would kill her -- somehow He steps in and makes the load a little lighter. she is coming with us to a relief society activity next week and she is going to come to a Christmas devotional that we are having as a mission. it was really cool to figure out once again that we are so guided by the spirit and put in people's path to help them know how much God loves them.
another highlight of the week - after the football game we were walking home and a squirrel came up to Sister Smith and tried to eat a lifesaver out of her hand. then he tried to eat her fingers -- good thing we always carry hand sanitizer with us :)
the office elders came and tried to help us put up our blinds -- it was pretty funny to see them try and put the blinds IN the brackets and try to screw them into the wall that way -- it didn't work out so well and after a half an hour of seeing them suffer i had to show them how to put the blinds in -- while i was in a skirt. it was quite interesting!
a cute little russian woman asked me if my teeth were real today -- me and sister smith got a good kick out of that.
we had singing practice this week again for the christmas eve mission conference -- i almost had to sing the soprano part in a quartet -- yeah really glad that's not happening! miracles do happen :)
i love you all so much. i'm so sorry this is so short!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i miss you and i can't even tell you how much you all mean to me.
love you!
sister michelle smith
11.29.2010
Happy Thanksgiving! (11/22/10)
Hello Family!!!!!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! and then the next holiday will be CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!! and then i will get to call you! woot.
okay, this week was really good -- a LOT of meetings. we had sisters conference on monday and it was all about family history and journals. good thing i actually have kept a journal for my mission or else i would feel bad -- kinda like feeling bad about not ever keeping journals before the mission :) oops. but it was really really fun to see all of the sisters. i saw Sister De La Mare and i LOVE seeing her! she is always so sweet to me and so concerned with how i am. i LOVE my companions (all three of them - including the MTC) really, it's cool to share so much with one person and be able to build such a relationship with them that they are one of your biggest helps when times get a little rough. and what is REALLY awesome is how much Heavenly Father is there for us and always sends us the angels we need at the exact moment that we need them. and it is really really cool to be able to have the spirit in our lives and be that angel for someone else.
that is kind of the theme for the week - we taught several people that are really struggling right now, so many people are faced with the chance of losing their home right before the holidays and they still have to get up and face their kids, not knowing what is going to happen. and we were blessed to have hopefully just a touch of inspiration to give them a message of hope and let them know that we are here and willing to help. another lesson came just at the time that a boyfriend called to break up and we had the message from april's conference of President Uchtdorf's "Happily Ever After" and we got to tell her that we are daughters of God and He knows exactly EXACTLY what is happening and that the grace and wisdom and character that is built by going through trials cannot be built in any other way. it is absolutely incredible. and prayer works. I am amazed at how much the spirit is a true comforter to us, Heavenly Father has the power to make any hurt a little more bearable and any pain sufferable.
and the rest of the week, we had a LOT of meetings. we had zone conference this week and sisters conference and district meeting. but it was really good. President Nelson and Sister Nelson are the sweetest people in the world. they are SO inspired and they are so concerned for us. we love them :)
we are so pumped for christmas!!!!!! we found out that one of the couples in our mission got the world's best teen violinist and his two sisters who are in juliard right now to come and play a Christmas devotional for us and we get to bring all of our investigators!!!!! woot.
blaise is doing awesome. AWESOME. he switched his work schedule so that he could come to the ward thanksgiving dinner -- he ended up working all night on saturday just so that he could come -- and he still showed up for church on sunday! he said he wants to get baptized really soon - so we are hoping that he will be baptized before christmas.
aight family. i have to go. i LOVE you and i love you and i love you. i cannot even begin to express how grateful i am for such an incredible family and friends. we all have SO MUCH to be thankful for -- i know i sure do! especially the gospel. yep, biggest blessing of my life. God lives. He loves us all. He has given us so much and i hope you all have so much fun at Thanksgiving! and i love you.
love
sister mich smith
okay, this week was really good -- a LOT of meetings. we had sisters conference on monday and it was all about family history and journals. good thing i actually have kept a journal for my mission or else i would feel bad -- kinda like feeling bad about not ever keeping journals before the mission :) oops. but it was really really fun to see all of the sisters. i saw Sister De La Mare and i LOVE seeing her! she is always so sweet to me and so concerned with how i am. i LOVE my companions (all three of them - including the MTC) really, it's cool to share so much with one person and be able to build such a relationship with them that they are one of your biggest helps when times get a little rough. and what is REALLY awesome is how much Heavenly Father is there for us and always sends us the angels we need at the exact moment that we need them. and it is really really cool to be able to have the spirit in our lives and be that angel for someone else.
that is kind of the theme for the week - we taught several people that are really struggling right now, so many people are faced with the chance of losing their home right before the holidays and they still have to get up and face their kids, not knowing what is going to happen. and we were blessed to have hopefully just a touch of inspiration to give them a message of hope and let them know that we are here and willing to help. another lesson came just at the time that a boyfriend called to break up and we had the message from april's conference of President Uchtdorf's "Happily Ever After" and we got to tell her that we are daughters of God and He knows exactly EXACTLY what is happening and that the grace and wisdom and character that is built by going through trials cannot be built in any other way. it is absolutely incredible. and prayer works. I am amazed at how much the spirit is a true comforter to us, Heavenly Father has the power to make any hurt a little more bearable and any pain sufferable.
and the rest of the week, we had a LOT of meetings. we had zone conference this week and sisters conference and district meeting. but it was really good. President Nelson and Sister Nelson are the sweetest people in the world. they are SO inspired and they are so concerned for us. we love them :)
we are so pumped for christmas!!!!!! we found out that one of the couples in our mission got the world's best teen violinist and his two sisters who are in juliard right now to come and play a Christmas devotional for us and we get to bring all of our investigators!!!!! woot.
blaise is doing awesome. AWESOME. he switched his work schedule so that he could come to the ward thanksgiving dinner -- he ended up working all night on saturday just so that he could come -- and he still showed up for church on sunday! he said he wants to get baptized really soon - so we are hoping that he will be baptized before christmas.
aight family. i have to go. i LOVE you and i love you and i love you. i cannot even begin to express how grateful i am for such an incredible family and friends. we all have SO MUCH to be thankful for -- i know i sure do! especially the gospel. yep, biggest blessing of my life. God lives. He loves us all. He has given us so much and i hope you all have so much fun at Thanksgiving! and i love you.
love
sister mich smith
If airplanes really were shooting stars... I'd have ALOT of wishes (11/15/10)
Hi Family!!!!!
Well, this week was awesome. We got to go to transfer meeting even though we weren't being transferred because Sister Smith wanted to say goodbye to one of her really close companions and President took mercy on us and let us go!! It was SO GOOD. It's amazing how much of a boost just seeing other people who are actually living the gospel and trying their hardest. I saw my good friend Sal and that was sweet! It still blows my mind sometimes to see him out here -- it makes it seem not very real that I'm in NYC. We got three new elders in our district, one of them is the new district leader and one is the new zone leader. I'm REALLY excited for this transfer because it seems like everyone is ready to rock and be unified in our efforts and we are going to really concentrate on working with the ward and getting them all to first come to church and second give us all of their families and friends to teach. :) Which is really good. I LOVE this ward. I love that they ALL know me and love me and they are so so so sweet. Church gets SUPER crazy... I don't stop talking until I have left the building once I get to church. But it is so good. We had our primary program yesterday too and so all the parents of the kids came which is a big deal because many of them use their agency to decide not to come to church... which is completely lame but whatever. But yeah. today we are having a special "sister's conference" so i don't have too much time because most of the day will be spent on trains getting to the mission office. it's crazy that the mission office is only 13 miles away -- but it takes you AT LEAST an hour and a half to get there any way you go -- unless maybe you had a helicopter. hmm, maybe we can ask the prophet to look into one of those. :)
as for the rest of the week, we had a really good day yesterday because Tamara was able to be confirmed and I was SO PROUD of her. She came back and sat by me and gave me a really big hug and told me that she couldn't do it without me -- that was pretty humbling. Oh and yesterday we found out where we are having stake conference (which is the first week in december) -- it is going to be at the Midwood Jewish Center.. a little different from stake conferences in Idaho! So we have to make sure that we don't bring any food or water into the center because it is kosher and ANY food would contaminate the building. yep, quite a bit different from idaho.
Blaise is the big update for the week. he is doing AWESOME. he says he thinks he will be ready to be baptized by next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the only thing that is holding him back is that he feels like he can't answer his friends' or family's questions because he doesn't know enough yet and hasn't read the entire book of mormon - so we are working on that and yeah.
we found out this week that on Thanksgiving day we are allowed to go to a member's home with the whole district and we get to stay there-- ALL DAY!!!!!!!! until we GET TO PLAY FOOTBALL IN THE AFTERNOON WITH ALL OF THE MISSIONARIES! and no, i'm not going to play because i don't want to get creamed or screw up my knee or anything. but i said i would be everyone's cheerleader :) we are all pretty excited.
i'm so sorry this is short -- i'm just running out of time. i really really love you all. you are such a strength to me and i LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! the gospel is absolutely incredible and we are so blessed to have it. the spirit is real and God works miracles. i'm just really lucky to get to see so many :) I love you all! your prayers, thoughts, and letters are appreciated more than you know.
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! have a happy week before thanksgiving! and i forgot last week to say Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you Grandpa Sonderegger and Dallin and all of you that have served for this country. I am SO BLESSED to have been able to live here my whole life. We meet so many people that are doing anything and everything they can just to be able to live in this country - they give up so much just to have a chance to live here. thank you to those who have given up so much so that I can enjoy my freedom :) i love you.
con amor,
Sister Michelle Smith
Well, this week was awesome. We got to go to transfer meeting even though we weren't being transferred because Sister Smith wanted to say goodbye to one of her really close companions and President took mercy on us and let us go!! It was SO GOOD. It's amazing how much of a boost just seeing other people who are actually living the gospel and trying their hardest. I saw my good friend Sal and that was sweet! It still blows my mind sometimes to see him out here -- it makes it seem not very real that I'm in NYC. We got three new elders in our district, one of them is the new district leader and one is the new zone leader. I'm REALLY excited for this transfer because it seems like everyone is ready to rock and be unified in our efforts and we are going to really concentrate on working with the ward and getting them all to first come to church and second give us all of their families and friends to teach. :) Which is really good. I LOVE this ward. I love that they ALL know me and love me and they are so so so sweet. Church gets SUPER crazy... I don't stop talking until I have left the building once I get to church. But it is so good. We had our primary program yesterday too and so all the parents of the kids came which is a big deal because many of them use their agency to decide not to come to church... which is completely lame but whatever. But yeah. today we are having a special "sister's conference" so i don't have too much time because most of the day will be spent on trains getting to the mission office. it's crazy that the mission office is only 13 miles away -- but it takes you AT LEAST an hour and a half to get there any way you go -- unless maybe you had a helicopter. hmm, maybe we can ask the prophet to look into one of those. :)
as for the rest of the week, we had a really good day yesterday because Tamara was able to be confirmed and I was SO PROUD of her. She came back and sat by me and gave me a really big hug and told me that she couldn't do it without me -- that was pretty humbling. Oh and yesterday we found out where we are having stake conference (which is the first week in december) -- it is going to be at the Midwood Jewish Center.. a little different from stake conferences in Idaho! So we have to make sure that we don't bring any food or water into the center because it is kosher and ANY food would contaminate the building. yep, quite a bit different from idaho.
Blaise is the big update for the week. he is doing AWESOME. he says he thinks he will be ready to be baptized by next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the only thing that is holding him back is that he feels like he can't answer his friends' or family's questions because he doesn't know enough yet and hasn't read the entire book of mormon - so we are working on that and yeah.
we found out this week that on Thanksgiving day we are allowed to go to a member's home with the whole district and we get to stay there-- ALL DAY!!!!!!!! until we GET TO PLAY FOOTBALL IN THE AFTERNOON WITH ALL OF THE MISSIONARIES! and no, i'm not going to play because i don't want to get creamed or screw up my knee or anything. but i said i would be everyone's cheerleader :) we are all pretty excited.
i'm so sorry this is short -- i'm just running out of time. i really really love you all. you are such a strength to me and i LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! the gospel is absolutely incredible and we are so blessed to have it. the spirit is real and God works miracles. i'm just really lucky to get to see so many :) I love you all! your prayers, thoughts, and letters are appreciated more than you know.
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! have a happy week before thanksgiving! and i forgot last week to say Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you Grandpa Sonderegger and Dallin and all of you that have served for this country. I am SO BLESSED to have been able to live here my whole life. We meet so many people that are doing anything and everything they can just to be able to live in this country - they give up so much just to have a chance to live here. thank you to those who have given up so much so that I can enjoy my freedom :) i love you.
con amor,
Sister Michelle Smith
11.08.2010
.....and the sister smith duo stays together for another transfer!!!!
Hi Family!!!!!!
WELL, we got the call and both of us are staying in Midwood. yeah.... that was a HUGE suprise because companions never ever stay together for 3 transfers. soooo - we were preparing to say goodbye to everyone and told all of them to come to church to say goodbye -- and they all came! Winford came back to church again and he said he is coming back next week too -- which was a really good suprise! The mom of the little boy that I teach piano to came to church and it was SO GOOD to see her and several other people came to church just to see us off -- well funny joke! we got you to come to church AND we are both staying :) but yeah. it is really really fulfilling to go to church and the ENTIRE ward is freaking out because they think you are leaving. we had a lot of people say that they were praying that we would both stay -- it is very humbling to hear those prayers :)
SO this week -- we saw Sister Denniston and she cracks me up so much. She just barely had cataract surgery, but she told us that if we didn't come over to her house to eat then she would give us the belt. we told her that she was going to get the belt because she wasn't supposed to be cooking... it didn't go over very well. when we were checking on her the day that she had surgery she made another lady go and get us food and she got so mad because she didn't make the sandwiches "properly" :) they didn't have pickles and radishes and she served them with juice and sister denniston said that it is cold and so we did NOT need juice - we needed hot chocolate. we laughed our heads off as we heard this whole fight in the kitchen and them yelling "FRIDA SIT DOWN!!!!!" and "you are going to get a punch to the mouth if you keep going!" i LOVE the people here and i am so glad that i didn't have to say goodbye to them. Sister Denniston also started dancing in the kitchen - she is 80 and she was really dancing! it was so cute!
OH we had a lesson with Winford this week and we asked him what his favorite scripture was -- it was Proverbs 21 (read verse 9 and 19) we almost started laughing so hard when we read it together!!!!!! haha.
Highlight miracle of the week: lesson with Blaise.
Not sure if i told you about Blaise, but if i did here is a recap. met him on the train. talked to him. invited him to listen to us and come to church. he met with us and said he really didn't know why -- he never does this stuff. well, that was three weeks ago. ish. time gets incredibly warped out here. but yeah we met with him last week and he was really wary about saying yes to being baptized -- he didn't really have that drive or want to DO something about what we were saying. he just wanted to read the Book of Mormon to study and research it. well, he is now several chapters into second Nephi and when we met he asked all of these questions about baptism and told us how he thinks it is so important and now he is praying about a date to get baptized. yeah. THAT is how important the Book of Mormon is. I just never got it before and i don't understand why! Read the Book of Mormon and you WILL get a testimony or strengthen the one you have. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the time i have every day to read my scriptures. This week especially I have had so many answers to my prayers through the scriptures. Love it. Love the gospel. LOVE miracles :)
another miracle of the week:
sunday we got up at 6:30 and i was thinking you know, sometimes i wish that the alarm going off was a joke. maybe it will magically be 5 or something so i can go back to sleep..... YEAH! then i looked at the phone and it said 530 and i realized that i could sleep for an hour! it was a good morning :)
WELL family - i love you. Thank you SO much to everyone who looks at my blog and writes me -- your letters mean the world to me. and yeah - that is a guilt trip for all of you that are slacking :) :) kidding.
I LOVE YOU. Christ is real and His atonement is the most precious gift we can ever have. The gospel is absolutely incredible and it is the answer to all of life's problems. God is real and He DOES hear our prayers.
Love you
Sister Mich Smith
WELL, we got the call and both of us are staying in Midwood. yeah.... that was a HUGE suprise because companions never ever stay together for 3 transfers. soooo - we were preparing to say goodbye to everyone and told all of them to come to church to say goodbye -- and they all came! Winford came back to church again and he said he is coming back next week too -- which was a really good suprise! The mom of the little boy that I teach piano to came to church and it was SO GOOD to see her and several other people came to church just to see us off -- well funny joke! we got you to come to church AND we are both staying :) but yeah. it is really really fulfilling to go to church and the ENTIRE ward is freaking out because they think you are leaving. we had a lot of people say that they were praying that we would both stay -- it is very humbling to hear those prayers :)
SO this week -- we saw Sister Denniston and she cracks me up so much. She just barely had cataract surgery, but she told us that if we didn't come over to her house to eat then she would give us the belt. we told her that she was going to get the belt because she wasn't supposed to be cooking... it didn't go over very well. when we were checking on her the day that she had surgery she made another lady go and get us food and she got so mad because she didn't make the sandwiches "properly" :) they didn't have pickles and radishes and she served them with juice and sister denniston said that it is cold and so we did NOT need juice - we needed hot chocolate. we laughed our heads off as we heard this whole fight in the kitchen and them yelling "FRIDA SIT DOWN!!!!!" and "you are going to get a punch to the mouth if you keep going!" i LOVE the people here and i am so glad that i didn't have to say goodbye to them. Sister Denniston also started dancing in the kitchen - she is 80 and she was really dancing! it was so cute!
OH we had a lesson with Winford this week and we asked him what his favorite scripture was -- it was Proverbs 21 (read verse 9 and 19) we almost started laughing so hard when we read it together!!!!!! haha.
Highlight miracle of the week: lesson with Blaise.
Not sure if i told you about Blaise, but if i did here is a recap. met him on the train. talked to him. invited him to listen to us and come to church. he met with us and said he really didn't know why -- he never does this stuff. well, that was three weeks ago. ish. time gets incredibly warped out here. but yeah we met with him last week and he was really wary about saying yes to being baptized -- he didn't really have that drive or want to DO something about what we were saying. he just wanted to read the Book of Mormon to study and research it. well, he is now several chapters into second Nephi and when we met he asked all of these questions about baptism and told us how he thinks it is so important and now he is praying about a date to get baptized. yeah. THAT is how important the Book of Mormon is. I just never got it before and i don't understand why! Read the Book of Mormon and you WILL get a testimony or strengthen the one you have. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the time i have every day to read my scriptures. This week especially I have had so many answers to my prayers through the scriptures. Love it. Love the gospel. LOVE miracles :)
another miracle of the week:
sunday we got up at 6:30 and i was thinking you know, sometimes i wish that the alarm going off was a joke. maybe it will magically be 5 or something so i can go back to sleep..... YEAH! then i looked at the phone and it said 530 and i realized that i could sleep for an hour! it was a good morning :)
WELL family - i love you. Thank you SO much to everyone who looks at my blog and writes me -- your letters mean the world to me. and yeah - that is a guilt trip for all of you that are slacking :) :) kidding.
I LOVE YOU. Christ is real and His atonement is the most precious gift we can ever have. The gospel is absolutely incredible and it is the answer to all of life's problems. God is real and He DOES hear our prayers.
Love you
Sister Mich Smith
11.01.2010
Halloween as a missionary -- equals going to church!
Hi Family!
Okay so....... highlight of the week TAMARA GOT BAPTIZED! And yeah. More later. This week was great, it looks like everyone who was not in the airforce had a good halloween - cory... well, please keep all of my clothes locked away from him. good job at wrestling buddy! way to go. chaddy - i'm glad you got to judge for debate and thank you so much for all of your emails! court - learn from chad's example. write to your sister. more than two lines. dall - i'm so sorry you had to be on campus for so long.. i'm really glad i'm not in school right now! chels - you have the cutest kids in the world. i LOVE the pictures and i can't look at your blog :( so i'm really glad that you printed some off. thank you so so so so much!
okay. so last week feels like FOREVER ago, but i should probably start getting used to that. on monday sister smith and i went to go get some winter clothes and we got our boots for the winter -- they are apple bottom boots :) :) i love ny. so much. and that is all i have to say about that. so this week sister smith and i were walking to one of our appointments and we got stopped by some guy that started talking to us - he works as a barber in a place called the cocoa mane. well, as the name implies -- they mostly do hair for african american people. so this guy asked me if i would model for the cocoa mane. i told him thank you but i can't -- i laughed pretty hard though because i'm not the typical cocoa mane model -- maybe he just didn't put his glasses on though.
this week our zone started practicing our musical number for the mission wide christmas conference.... we all know how i seriously hate singing. WELL, we were practicing and i had to sing by myself for everyone and we had to sing forever and yeah. God is real to be able to give me the strength to do that :) and Tamara asked me to sing the musical number for her baptism. thankfully i worked it so that the hermanas, sister smith, AND the elders to sing with me. and it worked out!
so for some of the service we do we get to sing for a lady that is in a nursing home -- more singing!!!!!! but it was SO cute. we sang for her and she prayed for us like always and she WENT off about you all. she prayed for my nephews and my brothers and sisters and parents and she told me to make sure to take care of you. i told her i would :)
WELL, now for Tamara. She was so stressed and nervous on Sunday. it was quite the ride and we prayed A LOT for everything to go smoothly.... basically i didn't stop praying after sacrament meeting. but once again - God is real. He REALLY does answer our prayers in so many ways. Tamara was fine. she calmed down and her parents even came to her baptism (her dad is a deacon for some other church) and they were so happy and she was "ecstatic" she came out and just kept saying "did i do it? did i really do it?" and she said she felt like she was on top of the world. the best part was she said "WOW!!!!!!!!! i feel like micheal jackson!" haha. i guess micheal jackson and baptism now have something in common. little did i know. dad, you are SO right. getting investigators to baptisms is AWESOME. we had one investigator come yesterday and it was really good. we are meeting with her tonight and we are really really excited! i will let you know what happens next week!
Halloween was good. President had all of us come in at 5 - that happens on Halloween and New Year's Eve and that's it. So we are supposed to plan for the week and then kind of do whatever. that NEVER happens. ever. but yeah! so last night we finished planning and then went downstairs to the hermanas' apartment and had Hawaiian haystacks that Hermana Reed made for us and homemade idaho potato french fries (made by both sister smiths from idaho... it's kind of really funny to see us shop for potatoes. we're PICKY! we WILL NOT buy potatoes that aren't from idaho and it's just funny) and then we played a card game called "it came to pass" that is a Book of Mormon card game. the bad cards are called desolation and the good cards are charity and mercy. haha. but it was really fun to hang out with them -- i felt SO WEIRD just staying inside and not going out after dinner. but it was really really fun. we were thing one and thing two -- as you can see by the pictures. and yeah! it was good. as for NY, yeah no one cares that the holiday falls on a sunday -- everyone celebrates it on sunday. so not much controversy here -- people do what they want.
well family! i love you all! so so so much! thank you so much for your letters and your support - i can't even tell you how much i appreciate it. I LOVE YOU and i will talk to you next week! BAH! that's the day before transfers... we will see where the Lord needs me, but i'm hoping so bad that it is still in Midwood :)
love you!
sister michelle smith
Okay so here are the pictures of Halloween, yeah me and Sister Smith were Thing One and Thing Two ... how cute i know. And there are some of TAMARA'S BAPTISM!!!!!!!!! It was good :) and the email will follow! oh and there are some that i pulled off Sister Smith's camera, one of the laser lights for the twin towers on sept. 11 and the paint on our faces was making the welcome home banner for a kid from the ward
Okay so....... highlight of the week TAMARA GOT BAPTIZED! And yeah. More later. This week was great, it looks like everyone who was not in the airforce had a good halloween - cory... well, please keep all of my clothes locked away from him. good job at wrestling buddy! way to go. chaddy - i'm glad you got to judge for debate and thank you so much for all of your emails! court - learn from chad's example. write to your sister. more than two lines. dall - i'm so sorry you had to be on campus for so long.. i'm really glad i'm not in school right now! chels - you have the cutest kids in the world. i LOVE the pictures and i can't look at your blog :( so i'm really glad that you printed some off. thank you so so so so much!
okay. so last week feels like FOREVER ago, but i should probably start getting used to that. on monday sister smith and i went to go get some winter clothes and we got our boots for the winter -- they are apple bottom boots :) :) i love ny. so much. and that is all i have to say about that. so this week sister smith and i were walking to one of our appointments and we got stopped by some guy that started talking to us - he works as a barber in a place called the cocoa mane. well, as the name implies -- they mostly do hair for african american people. so this guy asked me if i would model for the cocoa mane. i told him thank you but i can't -- i laughed pretty hard though because i'm not the typical cocoa mane model -- maybe he just didn't put his glasses on though.
this week our zone started practicing our musical number for the mission wide christmas conference.... we all know how i seriously hate singing. WELL, we were practicing and i had to sing by myself for everyone and we had to sing forever and yeah. God is real to be able to give me the strength to do that :) and Tamara asked me to sing the musical number for her baptism. thankfully i worked it so that the hermanas, sister smith, AND the elders to sing with me. and it worked out!
so for some of the service we do we get to sing for a lady that is in a nursing home -- more singing!!!!!! but it was SO cute. we sang for her and she prayed for us like always and she WENT off about you all. she prayed for my nephews and my brothers and sisters and parents and she told me to make sure to take care of you. i told her i would :)
WELL, now for Tamara. She was so stressed and nervous on Sunday. it was quite the ride and we prayed A LOT for everything to go smoothly.... basically i didn't stop praying after sacrament meeting. but once again - God is real. He REALLY does answer our prayers in so many ways. Tamara was fine. she calmed down and her parents even came to her baptism (her dad is a deacon for some other church) and they were so happy and she was "ecstatic" she came out and just kept saying "did i do it? did i really do it?" and she said she felt like she was on top of the world. the best part was she said "WOW!!!!!!!!! i feel like micheal jackson!" haha. i guess micheal jackson and baptism now have something in common. little did i know. dad, you are SO right. getting investigators to baptisms is AWESOME. we had one investigator come yesterday and it was really good. we are meeting with her tonight and we are really really excited! i will let you know what happens next week!
Halloween was good. President had all of us come in at 5 - that happens on Halloween and New Year's Eve and that's it. So we are supposed to plan for the week and then kind of do whatever. that NEVER happens. ever. but yeah! so last night we finished planning and then went downstairs to the hermanas' apartment and had Hawaiian haystacks that Hermana Reed made for us and homemade idaho potato french fries (made by both sister smiths from idaho... it's kind of really funny to see us shop for potatoes. we're PICKY! we WILL NOT buy potatoes that aren't from idaho and it's just funny) and then we played a card game called "it came to pass" that is a Book of Mormon card game. the bad cards are called desolation and the good cards are charity and mercy. haha. but it was really fun to hang out with them -- i felt SO WEIRD just staying inside and not going out after dinner. but it was really really fun. we were thing one and thing two -- as you can see by the pictures. and yeah! it was good. as for NY, yeah no one cares that the holiday falls on a sunday -- everyone celebrates it on sunday. so not much controversy here -- people do what they want.
well family! i love you all! so so so much! thank you so much for your letters and your support - i can't even tell you how much i appreciate it. I LOVE YOU and i will talk to you next week! BAH! that's the day before transfers... we will see where the Lord needs me, but i'm hoping so bad that it is still in Midwood :)
love you!
sister michelle smith
Okay so here are the pictures of Halloween, yeah me and Sister Smith were Thing One and Thing Two ... how cute i know. And there are some of TAMARA'S BAPTISM!!!!!!!!! It was good :) and the email will follow! oh and there are some that i pulled off Sister Smith's camera, one of the laser lights for the twin towers on sept. 11 and the paint on our faces was making the welcome home banner for a kid from the ward
I would like to say happy birthday to my brother! (10/25/10)
Hi Family!
Well, first off - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you. Second, this week was so so good. Like always :) I always blank out when I think about the past week because it seriously seems like years since I have written last because so much happens during the week!!! So I will just start with Monday :)
We had zone activity and yep -- we played sports. Well, anyone who actually knows me knows that I DON'T play sports because every time I do I embarrass the family name! But I played ultimate frisbee and I even made a really good catch (as well as a few stupid ones) and we all had a lot of fun. Thankfully all the elders on my team didn't really care about winning (the other team did -- so I helped them out and they felt better about themselves... I know it was really sweet of me) And yeah. We had a good time. Tuesday we had flu shots and it was hilarious to see some of the "tough guy" elders turn a little squeamish when they got poked. But I was really brave and Sister Rasmussen gave me a Snickers bar for being brave :) We also got asked by the ward to make a banner for the bishop's son because he came home from his mission this week. little did i know that all my years of cheering and making signs would be put to use in the mission field. so we painted a sign way quick and the ward LOVED it and thought it was so cool and... now they want me to do several more.
this week we had a bunch of miracles -- i'll start with yesterday. we went to pick rachel up for church and she came to the door pretty chaotic. her life is just kind of crazy and she usually has a billion things going on at the same time (hmm sounds like a lot of other people i know) but she has come up with some lame excuses for church because of it and we told her that this week none of them were going to work. well, the excuse was that she couldn't find her husband's keys and they had both been looking for them all morning long and she couldn't leave without them because she couldn't lock the house. and well, that really isn't a problem in idaho we all know, but it is a legitimate concern in NY :) so anyways... she wasn't going to come to church. well, i told her we were going to pray to find the keys. (the spirit is awesome -- just listen to it and really cool things happen) so we say a prayer and i KNEW exactly where the keys were. so i asked if we could help look. rachel said yes and i went straight to the couch and got the keys from underneath the cushion. BAM!!! yeah. then she was really happy and said it was too late and she wasn't ready so she still couldn't go. i took both of her hands and said RACHEL. God wants you to be at church. He just found your keys. Now go get ready. so she did :) and she came to church and we had a lesson after and she committed to live the word of wisdom and tithing (even though she and her husband may lose their house and store this month) and it was really good.
i don't think i told you all about jean-emmanuel yet. well, he was some guy on the street that we said hello to (we say hello to everyone and we get the WEIRDEST looks because we are the ONLY people in NY that do that... i love it!) anyways, he stopped us and asked us in broken english if we were missionaries. yep! and he told us that he moved from Haiti to Boston and met with missionaries there. well, that was 3 or 4 weeks ago and we hadn't heard anything since. side note - communicating with him is pretty tough because he speaks creole and we don't -- so we had one of our members call him the other day. turns out he wasn't at church because he was lost and couldn't call us because we wouldn't understand him but he tried to come for three weeks in a row and just couldn't find it. he was in the earthquake in Haiti and was the only survivor out of the 13 people that were in the house he was in. his girlfriend/mother of his son died too. so he moved (his son is still in Haiti) and found the missionaries in Boston and they taught him EVERYTHING and he was preparing to be baptized and he wants to be baptized now. WOOT WOOT! yeah -- it was REALLY cool.
Tamara is back to her normal self and is going to be baptized on Sunday. I am SO excited for her. she is so sweet and we love her so much. not going to lie - i had a hard time truly loving her at first but i prayed really hard to love her and i tried really hard and now she is such a dear dear little friend :) she asked if we would write her when we left and we said of course! she was so excited that we would do that because she doesn't have a ton of friends that she is really close with. she is a trooper. anyways. so we are really excited for this week -- and it's HALLOWEEN!!!! Cory asked me what i am being for halloween - well, i'm thinking that i'm going to go with the "sister missionary" costume this year. original i know! everyone jokes that me and sister smith should switch name tags and be each other -- hah. hah. (we have only heard that one ONCE i'm sure)
well family - i LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope you all have an awesome halloween! and happy birthday again dallin! and i need you all to tell me what you would like for christmas (mom -- i haven't seen any nativities floating around because everyone i live around is either muslim or jewish... i'm sorry!!!!! :( ) and i love you and i love you and i love you!
love
sister michelle smith
Well, first off - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you. Second, this week was so so good. Like always :) I always blank out when I think about the past week because it seriously seems like years since I have written last because so much happens during the week!!! So I will just start with Monday :)
We had zone activity and yep -- we played sports. Well, anyone who actually knows me knows that I DON'T play sports because every time I do I embarrass the family name! But I played ultimate frisbee and I even made a really good catch (as well as a few stupid ones) and we all had a lot of fun. Thankfully all the elders on my team didn't really care about winning (the other team did -- so I helped them out and they felt better about themselves... I know it was really sweet of me) And yeah. We had a good time. Tuesday we had flu shots and it was hilarious to see some of the "tough guy" elders turn a little squeamish when they got poked. But I was really brave and Sister Rasmussen gave me a Snickers bar for being brave :) We also got asked by the ward to make a banner for the bishop's son because he came home from his mission this week. little did i know that all my years of cheering and making signs would be put to use in the mission field. so we painted a sign way quick and the ward LOVED it and thought it was so cool and... now they want me to do several more.
this week we had a bunch of miracles -- i'll start with yesterday. we went to pick rachel up for church and she came to the door pretty chaotic. her life is just kind of crazy and she usually has a billion things going on at the same time (hmm sounds like a lot of other people i know) but she has come up with some lame excuses for church because of it and we told her that this week none of them were going to work. well, the excuse was that she couldn't find her husband's keys and they had both been looking for them all morning long and she couldn't leave without them because she couldn't lock the house. and well, that really isn't a problem in idaho we all know, but it is a legitimate concern in NY :) so anyways... she wasn't going to come to church. well, i told her we were going to pray to find the keys. (the spirit is awesome -- just listen to it and really cool things happen) so we say a prayer and i KNEW exactly where the keys were. so i asked if we could help look. rachel said yes and i went straight to the couch and got the keys from underneath the cushion. BAM!!! yeah. then she was really happy and said it was too late and she wasn't ready so she still couldn't go. i took both of her hands and said RACHEL. God wants you to be at church. He just found your keys. Now go get ready. so she did :) and she came to church and we had a lesson after and she committed to live the word of wisdom and tithing (even though she and her husband may lose their house and store this month) and it was really good.
i don't think i told you all about jean-emmanuel yet. well, he was some guy on the street that we said hello to (we say hello to everyone and we get the WEIRDEST looks because we are the ONLY people in NY that do that... i love it!) anyways, he stopped us and asked us in broken english if we were missionaries. yep! and he told us that he moved from Haiti to Boston and met with missionaries there. well, that was 3 or 4 weeks ago and we hadn't heard anything since. side note - communicating with him is pretty tough because he speaks creole and we don't -- so we had one of our members call him the other day. turns out he wasn't at church because he was lost and couldn't call us because we wouldn't understand him but he tried to come for three weeks in a row and just couldn't find it. he was in the earthquake in Haiti and was the only survivor out of the 13 people that were in the house he was in. his girlfriend/mother of his son died too. so he moved (his son is still in Haiti) and found the missionaries in Boston and they taught him EVERYTHING and he was preparing to be baptized and he wants to be baptized now. WOOT WOOT! yeah -- it was REALLY cool.
Tamara is back to her normal self and is going to be baptized on Sunday. I am SO excited for her. she is so sweet and we love her so much. not going to lie - i had a hard time truly loving her at first but i prayed really hard to love her and i tried really hard and now she is such a dear dear little friend :) she asked if we would write her when we left and we said of course! she was so excited that we would do that because she doesn't have a ton of friends that she is really close with. she is a trooper. anyways. so we are really excited for this week -- and it's HALLOWEEN!!!! Cory asked me what i am being for halloween - well, i'm thinking that i'm going to go with the "sister missionary" costume this year. original i know! everyone jokes that me and sister smith should switch name tags and be each other -- hah. hah. (we have only heard that one ONCE i'm sure)
well family - i LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope you all have an awesome halloween! and happy birthday again dallin! and i need you all to tell me what you would like for christmas (mom -- i haven't seen any nativities floating around because everyone i live around is either muslim or jewish... i'm sorry!!!!! :( ) and i love you and i love you and i love you!
love
sister michelle smith
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