Happy Hanukkah! so... hanukkah is a pretty big deal in my neighborhood because it's all jewish. so last night as we were walking home, we saw THREE cars with minorahs a good six feet long and four feet tall strapped to the top of the cars... something that i had never seen before! but it is really cool to see so many new traditions and how people celebrate. we had stake conference yesterday in the jewish synagogue... that was way cool. elder bruce carlson was there from the seventy and he was talking about Christ and how he stood up in a jewish synagogue that was just like the one we were in (but much much smaller) and read Isaiah 61:1 and said that this day is this scripture fulfilled. it was really really cool. we had one of our investigators with us and she just soaked it all up. she is from nigeria and she is AWESOME. her husband was baptized in a jacuzzi in china (i may or may not have told you this already, but whatever.) and everytime we come over, she just sighs and says please, keep going. we watched the Testaments with her and as soon as it ended, she started it again. it's way cool. her whole family is catholic and very set in traditions (they have a LOT of traditions in nigeria) and so she has told us again and again that she is not ready for baptism. however, her mom passed away a few weeks ago and now things have definitely changed. she is praying about being baptized on the 26th of december. i'm always amazed at how fast we change our minds of what is really important when something happens that makes us see the bigger picture. and then i realize how much God helps us through those times because he knows that we have to go through them to learn and grow -- but he is also there to hold our hand every step of the way.
blaise is still praying about the 26th of december too. with blaise i have really come to realize how much your testimony grows by reading the book of mormon. really, the promise is real. read the book of mormon - gain a testimony of it's divinity. don't read the book of mormon - don't gain a testimony. simple as that. the hard part is just getting people to start reading :) but yeah, blaise is a champion. such a miracle. he wants the holy ghost so bad because he says we share the holy ghost with him everytime we meet. and he wants it forever. dear blaise, you are in luck! that is EXACTLY what my job is right now. to tell you how you can get the holy ghost forever. awesome. miracle? i think so.
Winford moved clear across the country this week and we had one last lesson with him. he kept thanking us and telling us that he will always remember 2010 because he met us. and he had already looked up where an LDS church was where he is moving and he said it's not very far so sister smith and i are really excited. he just needs a different experience or something out there to help him before he gets baptized. every day, every week i am absolutely amazed at how much God has His hand in our lives. He just puts us exactly where we need to be if we follow him. that happened in a really big miracle this week too. we have been trying to get in touch with this girl who hasn't been to church in a long time -- we FINALLY met her this week. she said she has been feeling a nagging feeling that she needs to go back to church and her mom just barely mailed her scriptures to her and said just give it a shot. well, that's when we called. it never ceases to amaze me and it is so humbling that the Lord reaches out to His children through me and my companion. two girls that would never be qualified unless he had called us and given us the power. but he does it. and it is incredible. elder bruce carlson said yesterday that he would rather spend the rest of his life in no other way than in full-time service to the Lord. yeah, it's cool.
so... i told you all that last year for the entire mission was the year of miracles and mighty change -- well that year is now over. so the zone leaders were trying to come up with a theme and goal for this next year and they decided to leave it up to all of the missionaries to decide. they wanted to do something with the title of liberty and make our own NYNYsouth mission title of liberty. so we had a meeting with the whole zone and everyone was bouncing around ideas. well, they were talking about the reasons that the nephites were fighting and what really motivated them. as they were talking i just had an idea come to my head. well, i wrote it down and told the zone. they liked it a lot so my zone leader is asking president nelson about it when they get together on wednesday. we'll see. here was the idea:
Courage
For our God, His kingdom, Their freedom, and Forever families
we had a mission-wide fast on sunday to know where we need to go with all of our ideas. i love it. i love that we can just get revelation whenever we have a question :) sweet.
okay family, i love you more than you will ever ever know. new york is awesome. incredible. i love my mission so much. and i love all of you - your support means the world to me. remember that God is real and He loves you. and i do too!!!!!!!!!!!
love you!
sister mich smith
PICS! I haven't sent any in awhile!
me, sister smith and winford
me and sal's "hey we're on the same mission" picture
me, sister smith and our investigator in front of the jewish synagogue
an awesome picture of the brooklyn bridge that i took :)
some other random picture that i already forgot what i uploaded. oops.
love you!!!!!!!!!!!
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