let it snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well family,

i'm sure you noticed that it is, in fact, tuesday and pday is monday and i definitely did not email. well, the last couple of days have been pretty crazy. actually completely crazy. we went to church on sunday and it had started snowing for the first time this year. well, church was let out an hour early because of the storm and then we all got a text from the assistants saying that president had grounded all cars and everyone that was taking public transportation (me) should be smart and really consider staying inside. well, that didn't happen. because of christmas and our mission conference christmas eve we have several investigators that have baptismal dates and need a lot of attention and we haven't seen them for a while. so, we left the apartment. it was CRAZY. a billion people were getting stuck -- we were fine because we were walking, we just had to walk backwards a lot because the wind and snow were really cold. we passed some people in a store on the street and they were laughing at us for walking backwards, well then they came outside and started laughing and said "you really weren't kidding were you?" and they started walking backwards :) BUT, the lesson we had once we got to our investigator's home was really good. she loves the church, knows it is true, but with everything there will always be opposition. sometimes from the places you expect it the least. her husband, who is a less-active member, comes home and problems always come up. but never fear, we have the spirit which slaughters anything that satan can try to pull, so take that!! and they drove us home which was VERY appreciated :)

well, the blizzard turned EVERYTHING upside down. all of us feel like we are living in "I Am Legend" because there were literally hundreds of cars (on the main streets of brooklyn) just abandoned in the middle of the street. all of the buses shut down on monday, AS WELL AS the trains! by the way, that NEVER happens. new york city shutting down their trains is the equivalent of santa putting his reindeer in the garage on christmas eve. seriously never happens. and on monday morning we got another text from the assistants saying that all cars were grounded and we were supposed to be very wise in the appointments we go to. so we went out and helped people shovel their cars out, shovel their houses out and shovel everything else out. the elders showed up and then we didn't have to shovel anymore :) we just got to talk to the people that we were shoveling for and watch the elders do all the work -- while we were the ones who said you are welcome and took all the credit.

well, as for the rest of the week, it was AWESOME. christmas was the best day of my life and i loved loved loved talking to my family :) :) :) christmas eve was really really cool. we went to a mission-wide conference that was all music and president and sister nelson talking. it was SWEET. the spirit was really strong. THEN we caroled on the brooklyn bridge and that was so cool. and then the best part was that we got to play santa for one of the missionaries that is going through an incredibly hard time right now and he didn't get anything for christmas. it was really cool.

christmas is the best - love it! we have had so many miracles and it is really really cool to be able to talk to people about christ. my new companion is awesome. i love her! her name is sister robinson and she was in my district and in my room at the mtc. she is a really good missionary and we are really excited for things to get a little more normal so we can really get going.

hey family, i love you. thank you so much for all that you do for me and it was SO AWESOME to get to talk to you. you are all incredible people and i love you so much. don't even fret or worry about me :) i'm doing absolutely amazing. i love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

sister mich smith

...And the transfer calls come (12/20/10)

Hi Family!!!!!!!!


Well, i really hate to say it, but this email is going to be short and i know it - so i'm warning you beforehand :) this week has flown by -- my life is flying by and it kind of freaks me out. well, biggest news of the week is transfers. the zone leaders called us and they actually three way called with our district leaders because they were all shocked and wanted to hear our reaction. i'm staying in midwood still and sister t. smith is leaving. we heard it, said "okay thank you elders. goodnight" and they were so disappointed because it was very anticlimactic they said. oops. i'm really, really sad to see sister t. smith leave - we got really close, but it is for the best. so, a of tomorrow i will have a new companion! weird. and, if i get left in midwood again next transfer, that will be half of my mission!!!!!! the ward HATES transfers, that's why this is short because we need to say goodbye. bah. goodbyes - WAY too many of those in the life of a missionary. however, they always make room for new adventures!


sunday was interesting. we got there and i had to lead the music because no one else could -- i'm still very un musically inclined - haven't changed that much! i have gotten a pretty bad cold this week and right after the sacrament i actually ended up running out of the chapel crying because i was trying not to cough (sister smith was really worried when she saw tears in my eyes and i just started walking out - it was pretty funny) then we went to gospel principles with our investigator and we got pulled out of class because there was no gospel doctrine teacher. so, i looked at the lesson during the opening hymn and then taught for an hour!! :) i NEVER thought i would be okay with that, i remember saying that gospel doctrine teacher is the one calling i would not be very okay with -- it's a good thing i got over that one :) and i am amazed that the Lord just puts words in your mouth. no way on this earth would i ever be okay doing something like that without the spirit. after that we went to the julliard violin concert -- awesome. it was really cool to be on the stand with them as they played, and i really enjoyed it. it's also REALLY fun to see all of the other missionaries too -- we had a good night. all of us were going home on the train together and we started singing christmas carols, but no one really did it - it was just funny and we ended up laughing a lot.


well, we are seeing a million miracles still and i love every second of it. i got a really good chance to reflect on the past six months this week and i realize how much i really REALLY love being a missionary. i am so thankful that i get the opportunity to share the gospel with so many people. so thankful that i get to see people realize the way to our Heavenly Father and start making changes in their lives to follow Him. i am SO lucky and i love it.


the gospel is true - God is real and His love is for each and every one of us :) i think Elder Holland summed it up in his talk in conference - don't look at your neighbor, i'm pointing to YOU! :) :)


i love you all and i wish you the best christmas of your lives!!!!!!!!


love
sister michelle smith

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE SISTER!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURTNEY NOEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Weird! You are 19! Really weird! But i would like everyone to know how much i love my GIRL. dear courtney, i love you more than gangstas love low-riding their pants, more than new yorkers love honking their horn, and more than missionaries love mail (yeah -- that's a LOT) love you. and i hope you have a good birthday.

ALSO, i would like to wish my parents a happy anniversary. i love you both more than i can ever tell you and i am so grateful for you. and i can't wait to talk to you :)

WELL, this week was great. REALLY great. it went by really really fast and i am SO EXCITED for Christmas!!!!!!! we saw about a billion miracles this week and i realized just a little bit of how blessed i am. and that's a lot.

miracle #1 - RACHEL. we went over to rachel's house and she told us about a dream that she had. she was there and Christ came - she ran to the church to be saved, but it was already full. she was really sad in her dream and she told us that she realized she needed to be baptized before Christ comes. we talked about the parable of the ten virgins and how her dream really is exactly right. procrastination - bad. preparation - good. she said she wanted to be baptized on the 2nd of January!!!!!!!!!!! it was really cool to be there and to see the change that has come into her life. her husband really doesn't have much to do with churches, but he has been reading the book of mormon and told us that he would come to church with us because he has seen the change that has come over his wife and he knows that the church is good because of that. i really can't describe how awesome it is to see people change their lives - to give up everything and say i'm ready to follow Christ. and the light that comes into their lives when that happens. the gospel is true and truly incredible.

miracle #2 - SERGIO. we have only taught sergio once. we talked to him on the street and he said that he had seen missionaries in haiti all the time, but it was a very very long time ago. well, we gave him the book of mormon in french and english so that what he doesn't understand in english he can get it in french -- well, he has come to church twice, even when he was in the hospital the night before getting a cortizone shot for some major pain in his shoulder (i think his shoulder - eh, something like that) well, we took a member over to his home and they really clicked and we talked about the restoration - sergio said that he gets it, that he has been to a LOT of other churches before and he doesn't ever bother with them. BUT he knows that the book of mormon is true and he believes everything. well, we asked him if he wanted to be baptized on jan. 2nd and he said yes! we taught him again on sunday and he is just soaking everything up. a really really big miracle. just some guy on the street, we see honestly thousands of people on the street, but somehow we are always guided to the right place and placed in the path of the people that are ready for the gospel. cool? umm yeah. really cool.

miracle #3 - BLAISE. blaise has been awesome. he is soaking everything up too, but he doesn't feel ready for baptism. he says he needs several more months to a year before he will be ready. and then he texted us this week and told us that he was so happy to announce that he is ready and he will be baptized the first week of january. he doesn't know the date because he doesn't have his work schedule, but he is ready. miracle? yes. i think so.

some funny, random moments of the week -- as i was walking here to email, some older man stopped me on the street and asked what church i was with. so i started telling him about our church and the book of mormon - then after we talked for a while, he took my hand and told me i had beautiful eyes (he is about mid 70's) and he told me that i would have a soulmate come into my life very soon. and then he told me that if he were younger, he would chase after me. well sir, i'm sorry to break this to you, but i'm a missionary :) and i will be for a while. sorry!
-someone in sunday school asked some very weird questions yesterday and a woman in relief society's phone rang -- well she just answered it and had a full on conversation right before and during the prayer. it was kind of tough to not giggle.
-we had SINGING practice again this week..... enough said
-i got a call from one of the senior couples and they asked me to be the speaker in our mission christmas music devotional -- i'm REALLY excited. me and an elder are doing all of the speaking, but they have 3 Julliard students coming to play the music and one was the world's best youth violinist. that is next sunday so we are all really excited
-we find out about transfers on saturday -- bah!

and that is about everything that happened this week, i think. or everything that i can remember, which is actually not very much. once it gets to monday my brain basically shuts down until we go out to work at 6 -- so sorry! you all get the scatterbrained stories and i forget most of them... oops! forgive me :)

i love you all so much and i hope you have an incredible week. 12 days till Christmas!!!!!!!! woot. i love that i have the chance to testify to people of Christ and help them see why Christmas really is incredible. think about it -- the world (well, most of the world) only really shuts down on one day to be with their families and reflect on their lives, and that is the day to celebrate the birth of our Savior. pretty amazing. love you! have a good week.

sister mich smith

Happy Hanukkah! (12/6/10)

Oh my dear dear family!

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!!!!!!!!!!!

A Chinese/Haitian Thanksgiving :)

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

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

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

.....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

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

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

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!

Another 6 Weeks in Da Hood!!!!!!!

That's right family! I am STAYING IN MIDWOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes! same companion. same area. yes! I'm so glad because this last transfer has been so crazy with moving twice (we moved again last week) and everything that I have felt like we have had a lot of proselyting time taken away so I'm really really glad that sis. smith and i can just keep running and not have to stop for transfers. yeah!

SO - this is lame but tooth report :) -- i am so blessed! the crack in the crown didn't break the seal so they just polished it up and everything is good. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! dad i will email you a little more about it :) and i love you all

we moved so it's only sister smith and i in the apartment. we just live in a little studio apartment and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so so so beautiful. we have been truly blessed by the work that the senior couples in our mission do for us - they have busted tail to get our zone into separate apartments and they did such a good job. oh - and they really did spoil the sisters :) they saw our apartment and said oh the sisters HAVE to have this one! yeah, sorry all you ex-elders out there --- sisters do get special treatment and we know and we know that we are spoiled but hey - we appreciate it :) :)

well, this week was a lot of moving. we are in another Jewish neighborhood -- which is cool. a little Jewish girl stopped us the other day and asked us to plug something in for her because she wasn't allowed to touch the plug because it was her holiday -- easiest service i have EVER done for someone. and she was so grateful because it was her air conditioning that was unplugged. yeah - she thought we were pretty cool for doing it!

i got proposed to this week - some guy just said that mormons have a lot of pretty girls and he wants to join so he can marry one of them. then he said it was me he wanted to marry. yeah -- don't worry. it is DEFINITELY not going to happen. my favorite pick-up line of the week is "i want more of YOUR bible study" haha.

the elders had another baptism yesterday that was really really cool. she started crying as soon as she came out of the water and just cried for 2 whole minutes. hope the water was warm or that was probably uncomfortable :) kidding. one of our investigators was there and she said she is getting really excited for her baptism on the 10th!!!!!!! we are taking things slow with her though because she is a very extreme person and she walked out of sacrament meeting last week and yeah. just taking things slow so she is ready :)

GENERAL RELIEF SOCIETY MEETING!! aww. i LOVED it! i have never really been SO EXCITED for general conference and i realize now that i was being an IDIOT! we have the opportunity to listen to a LIVING PROPHET. like a living nephi! and i just didn't get it!! but it was really good to listen to the prophet and i LOVED sister thompson's talk about visiting teaching. i didn't realize how important that is either until now when i go to visit soooooooo many sisters that haven't had contact with the church in years. we each have the responsibility of taking care of a few of our heavenly father's children and he trusts us with that ! and it is the calling that i just brushed under the rug most often. oops.

winford is doing really well. we just want to yell at him sometimes and say HELLO YOUR ANSWER IS RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!!! sometimes we are really stupid when we ask heavenly father again and again and again for an answer and it is RIGHT there. we are just so stubborn! i'm just REALLY glad heavenly father is SOO patient.

this month the mission is having "sister conference" and we get to go to the mission home for the day. holy moly i'm STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!! and i'm also stoked for CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!! woot. okay fam. i LOVE you. sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. every night i thank heavenly father for blessing me beyond ANYTHING i deserve with such an incredible family and friends. all of your letters give me the biggest strength and i just thank heaven that i am the luckiest girl alive.

i love you. sister mich

Pictures of the week!
the first ones are my new beautiful apartment :) i know - i'm way spoiled! the others are from the staten island ferry

From the NYC

Hey family! so this week has been pretty crazy and emailing is a little crazy today so it's going to be short -- sorry! but i love your letters SO much and they really do mean more to me than i can ever tell you. sooooooo this week -yes there was a hurricane. miracle = sis. smith and i AND the hermanas were inside when it hit. we just had a LOT of rain and lightning and i was just glad that i wasn't outside. we were going to go tracting all night but sis. smith decided that we should probably map out our area instead. so we did :) -as most of you know by now i just talked to mom! i woke up yesterday and something felt pretty rough in my mouth and i broke my stupid crown so i got to talk to mom to get insurance info. it was AWESOME i freaked out when i dialed my HOME PHONE NUMBER and hit send. i love you all so much. thank you SO SO much for your love and support. it means more than you know. -i lost my name tag this week -- thankfully my companion is named sister smith so i just borrowed one of hers. haha. thanks president for putting us together. -it was yom kippur or something this week -- i'm becoming more aware of jewish holidays than i ever have in my life. some of them are really sweet to us. one lady stopped us on the street and told us what good girls we were and how we are doing an awesome job. aww. -BIG OL FAT MIRACLE. we were walking on the street and a man stopped us and told us that he studied with missionaries in haiti and wants to keep going and be baptized. yeah. it was a good day. we are SO guided -- love it! -we got a new investigator that is a fashion designer. he is quite a character. he asked both sis. smith and i if our hair was real. it made me feel good to say YEAH! my hair is so long that he thought it was fake! nope real :) :) and yeah. my brain is SUPER scattered right now -- sorry fam. next week will be better. oh. next week is transfers. so -- we will find out if everything is the same or not. i heard from someone that it's so cool to know that we have a specific place we need to be at a specific time and with a specific companion. and it is up to us to figure out why and make our purpose happen. love it. love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sister mich

Another Day in Paradise :)

Hi Family!

OOOOOOOkay so I totally forgot last week to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIFFANY NOODLE!!!!!! (someone make sure she reads that :) ) and this week was so good! We moved apartments this week - I'll talk about it later, but if anyone is sending me a letter (which I STRONGLY encourage and highly recommend) -- do NOT send it to my ocean ave. address. Just send them all to the mission office. :) and i love you all.

soo -- monday was pretty crazy. i never NEVER knew that Labor Day was a big deal -- well it's a REALLY big deal in ny. it's like 4th of July for all of the people from the carribbean which is basically everyone and everyone flips out about their country. and they party. a LOT. the biggest parade in new york is NOT the thanksgiving day parade -- it is most definitely the labor day parade. weird. well, our ward had a bbq on monday and we went -- one of the ward members got lost though and she had a stroke 5 days earlier and was walking around a massive park in the hot sun... the elders had to go get her and it took them a few hours because she has lost some brain power from the stroke and they weren't too happy but hey! some girl is going to really appreciate the lessons they learned in patience :)

we have known that we were going to move for a while, but the office hasn't told us when or where or anything and then we called them on tuesday because we were deep cleaning our apt and we weren't sure if we needed to pack or not because we knew that our lease was ending on the 10th and that we were going to be evicted that day. well, they told us yeah you need to pack because you are moving the day after tomorrow. so -- we got everything ready and moved and we moved to a VERY prominent Jewish neighborhood. Sister Smith said that we now know what it would be like for a Muslim or Jewish person to move to Utah. poor people. we walked into our apt and there were prayer scrolls everywhere and all of this Jewish stuff that we don't really know what it is, but it's cool. we blend in pretty good though because we are wearing dresses all the time -- it's just our name tags that say Jesus Christ on them that kinda set us apart -- a little :) needless to say that we didn't put a picture of Christ on the outside of our door like the last apartment -- we don't want people to hate us THAT bad. and the other news is that we are moving again this week! the Jewish apartment is for the elders and the office didn't have our apartment ready before we got evicted so we are moving into our real apt. this week. and transfers are next week so i just haven't really unpacked and probably won't until i know where i will be for the next transfer. :) it's kinda fun. the first night in our Jewish apt. we all slept on the floor because we didn't have our beds set up and it was a really fun little sleepover party/night under the stars brooklyn missionary style i guess. but yeah. my arm muscles are huge again because i moved a LOT of furniture :)

sooo September 11th was this week. i was thinking about the family Florida trip and how i NEVER in my WILDEST dreams thought that nine years later i would be right there - serving a mission. we saw the laser lights for the twin towers and it was really cool. it was cool to talk to people and see how it was here when everything happened -- it was a crazy CRAZY day that is for sure. a LOT of people here were affected -- it's sad that sometimes it takes a terrorist attack for people to turn to our Heavenly Father and remember what life is really about
so this week our district started talking about our goal -- 8 baptisms this month. well, that goal is definitely breaking midwood brooklyn history and it is going to take several miracles to get there. our district leader, elder olsen, was talking about how none of our goals are going to happen in the first five minutes that we make them - God needs to try our faith and see if we REALLY believe in Him and if we really can give everything to Him and know that it is going to happen. It was an awesome district meeting that i really needed because we were all losing faith. well, that night we met with this lady named lorraine -- we found her on some list that was from 2008 and i called her when sis. de la mare was sick and we were inside for the week. it took us FOREVER to meet with her because her schedule is crazy -- well she is a really really big miracle. she has met with missionaries several times in jamaica and here and is so prepared and things have just fallen through so that she hasn't been baptized yet. yeah - it was a really good lesson for me. God is in control and he can make whatever He wants happen. The hardest part is getting over ourselves and our pride so that we trust Him and can expect the miracles to happen.

another miracle. i'm really hoping something changed in Winford. he has been having a REALLY rough time with anti-mormon literature and he has lost all of the drive that he had. we went over though and Heavenly Father guided the lesson we had PERFECTLY and we all prayed together right there about his concerns. And then we just sat in silence for a while (which iss really difficult for Winford because he really like to talk and may or may not have ADD) After our "moment of silence" Winford said that he heard a voice telling him that he WILL know. so yeah - he is praying about getting baptized on the 20th and i will probably do a backflip on that day. it's going to be REALLY really good. :) :)

well, that's about it. family - i love you SO much (and anyone else reading this email). thank you so much for your encouragement -- your letters mean the world to me and i am the luckiest girl ever to have such an amazing support system. This week when I saw all my Jewish neighbors walking around I kept thinking about how much Christ really does mean in my life and I am amazed. Christ is everything. EVERYTHING. His atonement will heal any wound and He is there for us every single day -- even when we are horrible to Him and reject Him. This gospel is the most amazing part of my life and I am so blessed to be able to share it with so many people.

God is real. Miracles happen. We will NEVER be forgotten.

Love you all.
Sister Mich

Sometimes I Hate the Subject Line Because I Really Don't Know What to Say Here (9/6/10)

My Dearest Family,

Well, this week has been very... busy. I guess that's the best way to describe it :) The Hermanas (Hermana Reed and Hermana Banaswzeski that live with us) had a HUGE rollercoaster of miracles and opposition and stuff. They taught a woman who is the mother of our ward executive secretary and she is from Puerto Rico -- so they taught her. Well, she was here for vacation and the family has been working on her for over 15 years -- she got baptized on Saturday. (with special permission from President Nelson and the Puerto Rico mission president and everyone because she was just on vacation here). But yeah, it was WAY cool. President Nelson came to the baptism and we got to go as well and it was really really cool. The son though, our exec. secretary, was the opposition. He freaked out and was so mad that the missionaries were teaching her and that she wanted to be baptized because he told them that there was no way that she would go home and be active without any support. Yeah. There will ALWAYS be opposition -- even in the ways that we really don't expect it. But, it all worked out and Brother Cuaves (son and exec. sec.) had a change of heart the night before the baptism. He finally talked to his mom and his wife and the missionaries and realized that his mom WAS ready for baptism and that everything was going to work out. So she got baptized -- on Hermana Reed's birthday. So me and Sis. Smith tried REALLY hard to make that day really special for her and everything. I made an AWESOME cake. :) yeah - I just said that. But it was three layers - funfetti on bottom, brownie middle, and funfetti top. We each had one piece and then realized how much cake was there and how few sisters we had to eat it and so we made the elders' day by giving the rest to them.

For us, we had a crazy week too. Example: Yesterday we went to a less-active's home and we walked in and their grandma who lives with them was just sitting on the couch with only a towel wrapped around her waist. Awkward. And the family was just kind of taking things easy and they told us that they were taking the grandma to the emergency room because she couldn't breathe. So we weren't sure what to do and they told us to keep going and give them our message - so we put in the Restoration movie and the grandma is just sitting there and panting and gripping the couch and speaking in French because she doesn't know English and we were so awkward -- so we just told them to watch the movie with their family and we would call it good.
We met with Stacy and Chris again this week and it was really cool. Like I said last week, it's cool to see Stacy feel like she can finally share her testimony with Chris and he started reading Our Search for Happiness and we have really high hopes for them. We found a family of five people that were really receptive to us and it was really cool. The entire time the one brother (there are three brothers in their 30s ish and two wives/girlfriends too) but anyways the main guy we were talking to - he calls himself "the one" kept bashing the Catholic church and telling us how much he hates it. Well buddy, do we have a message for you!!

We found one lady this week that is a former investigator -- well we knocked on her door and she said that she wants us to come back so bad and that she wants to go to church and become a member -- the only thing that is stopping her is that she doesn't have a dress for church. Woot! If Satan thinks that a stinking dress is opposition -- oh no. Very very wrong :) The other Sister Smith got proposed to this week by some really drunk dude. And we met this lady named Shemane - she thinks she is a prophet because she has a whole bunch of visions and thinks she can heal people. Well, her last vision was of two guys in white shirts coming to her door and she was told not to turn them away. That was the day before the elders knocked on her door ;) yeah - God is real. We taught her with the elders and it's a little tough to make her realize that she isn't a prophet, but it was really good!

Well family, I really do love you. I'm praying for you everyday and I hope you know how much I love you. Pretend that I'm there and that I'm giving all of you a really big hug. I love you. God loves you. Christ loves you. The church is true.

Love,
Sister Smith (Sister M. Smith -- we have to distinguish now :) )

The First Time I Haven't Stressed about "Back to School" (8/30/10)

Hi Family!!!!!

So, this week was full of adventures -- I don't think I will ever have a week that isn't :) We had zone conference this week and it was SO SO SO GOOD. and we had a very interesting experience with a woman we have been working with and the fire department, and more stuff that my brain can't remember right now :) but i'm going to try!

so monday, was great! we spent FOREVER emailing because i just kept looking at pics of baby coleman :) and while we were sitting there all the sudden over the intercom (in the family history center) comes the elders singing at the top of their lungs. Yeah, they didn't know that we could hear them -- and the ENTIRE building could hear them too. It was great.

wednesday was zone conference and it really was cool. president nelson is pretty funny -- he always smacks me on the arm and calls me smitty. he thinks it's pretty funny that we get a bunch of flack for being sister smith and sister smith. but yeah, we just talked about loving the people you teach and doing things for them. i'm so excited for the next two months -- you can tell that president nelson really was inspired to set a goal of 800 people to baptize for our mission and we are going to see a LOT of miracles to get there.

friday was REALLY interesting. that was the fire dept. day. we went to see carol, she got baptized over 30 yrs. ago and doesn't know anything about the gospel, she just got baptized because her sister told her to. so we went over to visit -- she lives in one room of a house that is in the basement so you have to knock on her window to let her know you are there -- well she was coming out of the house when we got there. we asked her what was going on because she doesn't usually come out of the house and she said it smelled like smoke and fire in her basement. so we went in and it smelled like gas SO BAD. so we ran out and told carol to get out too. carol is pretty stubborn and she would not come out of the house. she wanted to lock all the doors and make several phone calls and i was yelling at her (very forcefully :) ) to get out of the dumb house. and i got to call 911! so the fire dept. came and got everything under control and it turned out fine. carol's boiler is BAD and it was leaking gas and that was the problem.... as well as carol's attitude but whatever. the firefighters were getting so mad at her -- it was kind of funny.

friday we went to see an awesome family too. it was SWEET!!! stacy is from idaho and she got married to chris who is a nonmember. well -- stacy hasn't been to church in a long time and we taught them both and it was so cool to see stacy bear her testimony to chris. you can tell that it really stresses her out that he doesn't understand her religion and that part of who she is. and you can also tell that she doesn't want to bring it up because she doesn't want to force him to change -- that's where we come in! (not forcing him to change of course) but it was cool to teach them both and their assignment was to watch the restoration -- stacy called yesterday to apologize because she wasn't going to bring it back to us because chris wanted to watch it again! woot! and we are going over tomorrow to teach them again.

Winford has been talking to us every night -- he is doing really well. he is reading a lot of anti-crap though and it has been confusing him. never fear -- God can definitely handle the situation. however, it frustrates me to no end that someone who knows the church so well would say some of the things they say. sis. smith and i were talking about how alma the younger was considered the "vilest of sinners" because they were trying to destroy the church and how much more people will be accountable now because the internet reaches SO MANY PEOPLE and how much more those people are destroying the church. yeah, glad i'm not in their shoes.

sundays are always REALLY interesting here. :) i love it. the ward is almost converts and most of them are pretty new. so yesterday we had a discussion on how to get less-active people to church. carol came up with the idea that we all need to pool our money together to buy a church bus and go around to all of them and force them to get on. well -- it actually was discussed as a real option for 15 minutes as the missionaries kept saying that we CANNOT do that. :) but there are so many incredible people here! sister denniston is an older woman in the ward that always feeds missionaries and she is so cute to us. she always says that it is her job to make us feel like we have gone out to dinner -- that means we CANNOT help with the dishes. one of the elders, elder olsen tried last week. she smacked him on the bum. HAHA!!!!!!!! i wish i could have been there to see it.

well fam -- i love you. all. and anyone who reads my blog :) you all make me happy! thank you so much for your letters and support. you are all incredible. good luck with school -- bahaha!
God is real and the church is MOST DEFINITELY true!

have a good week!

sister mich

BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (8/23/10)

Hi Family!

I'M AN AUNT!!!! (again) Holy cow I thought today was going to kill me because the man in our ward that lets us use his internet cafe left and didn't tell us so I honestly thought I wasn't going to get to e-mail until next week. That would have really stunk. Well, HELLLLLOOOOO TO BABY COLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! And so happy for all of you that you get to finally see him! Congratulations Chels for finally not being pregnant anymore and YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Okay, in that one sentence I have successfully answered all of your emails :)

Well, here is how life is in NY -- I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Smith. Haha very funny we know. We are BOTH from Idaho, both the third of six children, and both of our youngest siblings are 11. Everyone and their dog thinks it is SO HILARIOUS that we are both named Sister Smith. Okay friends, we know there are a LOT of Smiths in the world -- it was bound to happen. But yeah. She is way cool. Sister De La Mare was moved to Bensonhurst Brooklyn and so she is actually really REALLY close to my area. I saw Sal again at transfers! It was great. It's really nice to see a familiar face every six weeks. But yeah. It has been pretty scary to be the one navigating and figuring out where to go and what to do every day. However, God is DEFINITELY real because we haven't gotten lost yet.... well, we haven't gotten THAT lost. But Sister Smith has been really patient with me and has been really nice about me not ever knowing quite where we are.

We met with Winford again this week and have talked to him on the phone every day.... most of the time it is an adventure :) we saw him on Wednesday and realized that he is in the elders' area. But they said that we could keep calling him and they might start teaching him -- let's just say it's a good thing I really REALLY want to be obedient and give him to the elders because it wasn't easy :) However, he is praying about being baptized on Sept. 5th and he calls and talks to me every night about the scriptures and about questions he has. Dear, dear Winford. He is a great guy. He needs all the prayers he can get though so hey -- if you ever don't think you have something to pray for, pray for Winford :) and also pray that I can make a billion and a half cookies by Sept. 5th :) I think I told you but he almost didn't come to church last week until I told him that there were going to be snacks afterward. He asked me if we would make a lot of food for his baptism if he got baptized -- umm YEAH! If that is all that it takes Winford - you got it :)

Okay so this year is the "year of miracles" for our mission and we have a goal of 800 baptisms by November 1st. That is double the number of baptisms we have ever had in a year and we have a little over 400 left -- BY NOVEMBER 1ST. So, buckle up family. This next two and a half months we are all going to see more miracles in NYC then we have in a long long time. So -- now that y'all have a little background I can tell you this story. On Thursday our district decided to fast because we want to, as a district, have 8 baptisms in September (that's making history in Midwood Brooklyn :) ) so-- we fasted and we found some SWEET people that day. We were on a train and this Arabic/Muslim looking guy (I'm getting pretty good at being able to tell Russians, Muslims, and Jews apart from everyone else) anyways, this guy comes up to us and asks us what church we go to and he just barely converted from Muslim to being a Christian (which is a big deal - there is a reason that a lot of Muslims die for their religion.... they don't really EVER want to change) and he said he knew he needed to be baptized. So -- of COURSE we are going to teach him! Thursday we also got to go to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! And see Washington Kim do baptisms for the first time. Oh my word. I cracked up a couple of times. He was sitting on the bench right by me and turns to look at me like Cade-o or any toddler does right before they go and dump out an entire drawer full of silverware or something and then he gets up, tip-toes to the ox (one that is holding the baptismal font) and touches its eye and then runs and sits back down and is snickering. The man is a 6'4" 29 year-old Korean -- heavily involved in politics and it was just really funny.

Being at the temple for an hour or so was SO GOOD. Family -- I didn't ever understand how much it means to just be able to pick up and go to the temple whenever you want. HOLY COW WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, it was really really good to have an hour break from life :) and we ran into the mom of one of the missionaries in our mission and that was funny and we ran into a friend that Sister Smith knew from Rexburg. Weird.

Friday was kinda crazy -- I TAUGHT PIANO LESSONS. What?! Yeah, me -- the same person you all know -- TAUGHT piano lessons. And the poor kid actually LEARNED something! I guess playing the clarinet in sixth grade may have actually benefited me in some way. Huh. Who would have thought.

Sunday was pretty funny -- one of the members came to gospel essentials class and kept waving her hands around and talking about casting Satan out and kicking some lady out of her apartment that was evil and sweeping and throwing water all over the place when she left. Sister Smith and I looked at each other and I almost had to leave because I could barely hold in all of my giggles. Sister Smith said it reminded her of the guy on Just Like Heaven when the guy comes into the house and keeps saying "the power of Christ compels you" over and over again. Yeah, there was an investigator at church for the first time in that class. Good thing that God works miracles and people are understanding :)

WELL, I'm SOOOO glad that all of you are doing well and dall - HOLY! CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING THE PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are INCREDIBLE and I love you so much and I'm so SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of you! I'm also SO glad that Chels and Coleman are happy and healthy and that all is well. Enjoy him family :) take and send pictures :) -- i know i don't need to remind you but hey -- i'm just going to do it anyways.

*inspirational last sentence coming up :)*

I really do love you all. You are incredible. Remember that I will always love you and that God loves you and His hand is and always will be in every second of our lives. Satan sucks. God is real. Miracles happen :)

Sister Smith

The first pic -- me and Sister De La Mare on the Brooklyn Bridge -- yeah. I live there.