Oh man, oh MAN did I have a crazy week! Mostly the good kind of crazy though.
So Monday was the usual P-Day routine, but then we started a Fast as a Mission at 6pm. We were fasting for Mission Goals that would help us be more effective in our service. Tuesday was the day where we did the most work this week, or at least tried to. A lot of things fell through, but we broke our fast at 6pm after 24 hours. That soup tasted really, REALLY good!
Then Wednesday, this is where a large part of the crazy comes in. We wake up early, carpool with some Elders up to the Mission Office, and meet up with ALL the Missionaries in the Houston Mission. English AND Spanish, we filled the gym! We were all there for Mission P-Day. We started with a song, prayer, some Testimonies and Talks, then we broke into three groups to give a couple hours of service. My group went to a GoodWill kind of store to do whatever they needed. It was really fun, except for the part where I sliced open my arm on a screw that was sticking out of a wooden pole. Owies. They didn't have bandaids so I got a big patch of gauze taped to my arm. It was funny seeing people's faces when I told them I'd been attacked by some wild animal, haha!
We returned to the Hafer Chapel next to the Mission Office for lunch, then it was off to cycle between playing Ultimate Frisbee, building Gingerbread Creations, and thowing "cow pies" (a.k.a. frozen beef pot pies). My favorite part was the gingerbread, which was actually graham crackers. My companion and I made a replica of the Last Supper and many people agreed that we should have won. I am also in that opinion, I was beat out by a cheap baptismal font! *shake fist* Ah well, it was fun eating our creation afterwards. I walked around asking friends "Would you like to eat an Apostle?"
After that we changed to look nice and took a Mission Picture all together, another chunk of craziness. Then it was dinner, followed by a very good Christmas Devotional with a lot of beautiful Musical Numbers. I was sooooooo tiiiired after it was all done!
Then Thursday we had the chance to go to the Temple and had some lessons in the evening when we were back. Friday was CRAZY, Hispanics celebrate New Years Eve, usually staying up until Midnight to open their presents and going to sleep like 2-4am. We couldn't stay out that late, but we did have dinner appointments every two hours.... uuurgh... Well the first one was Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon, Mmmmm. THAT was nummy. The following meals were also nice, but I was so full I could not properly enjoy them I'm afraid. We followed the Spanish Tradition and opened our presents Friday Night before going to sleep.
On Saturday we went and had a breakfast of Pasole at an Investigator's house, then we basically chilled out for the rest of the day since we were not allowed to Proselyte at all. So we hung out with some Elders in the Chapel, playing basketball, piano, frisbee, nerf guns, watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, ate stuffed French Toast, aaaand at some point in there I passed out on a pew because I'm sick. It was a good day :)
Yesterday despite all odds we had a Baptism! Of someone who had been Investigating for like nine months! It was so awesome! He was really happy too so that was the best part to see.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well, and will have a Safe and Happy New Year!!
Love and Good Wishes,
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, December 27, 2010
Merry Christmas
It's already that week! Wow! My parents sent me one of those 'Pop open a tab every day count-down to Christmas' things and I was so antsy to start it, but now? Man, I do NOT feel like it's been 20 days. Maybe seven, but I vividly remember thinking that it was going to take forever and BAM Christmas is almost here! Trippy...
I hope everyone has fun plans for thise weekend, even if your definition of 'fun' is taking a nap and laying low. My Companion and I have several invites for Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, including an Investigator family that invited us to eat Pasole at 9:30 am! There may or may not be tamales involved (and if you know the time and effort that goes into making those, that's a sure sign they like us!!). The work is moving forward because the Lord is behind our efforts and rewards us for Obedience.
In other news I find myself shaking my head a lot while walking outside because even less than a week before Christmas, there are STILL Icecream Trucks trundling around blasting a cheery rendition of "El Cucaracha". I always wanted to run up to an icecream truck and buy something, but we don't carry cash and they don't accept cards so I'll just have to wait.
In three more weeks I'll have been in the area of Bear Creek for Six Months. Half a year in this one area, and third of my Mission. Whoa. Kinda crazy to think about once I realized it. For that reason, and the fact that my Companion will only have two Transfers left in her Mission, it is highly likely that I'll be the one to be moved this Transfer. I don't know where I'll be going, I'm not good at playing the Transfer Game. But I may be changing locations in three weeks. From what has been explained to me I want to go to the Hafer area with Hermana Rodriguez, I know her from my first District and she's a Native Speaker so my Spanish should improve dramatically. I also think it would be funny to be sent back to my Baby Area Gulfbank and impress everyone with my conversational Skills. They knew me from when I first came out and could hardly introduce myself without messing up!
Things are going well, and I am grateful for all your love and support and prayers. Keep it up!
Love and Holiday Cheer
~ Hermana Smart
I hope everyone has fun plans for thise weekend, even if your definition of 'fun' is taking a nap and laying low. My Companion and I have several invites for Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, including an Investigator family that invited us to eat Pasole at 9:30 am! There may or may not be tamales involved (and if you know the time and effort that goes into making those, that's a sure sign they like us!!). The work is moving forward because the Lord is behind our efforts and rewards us for Obedience.
In other news I find myself shaking my head a lot while walking outside because even less than a week before Christmas, there are STILL Icecream Trucks trundling around blasting a cheery rendition of "El Cucaracha". I always wanted to run up to an icecream truck and buy something, but we don't carry cash and they don't accept cards so I'll just have to wait.
In three more weeks I'll have been in the area of Bear Creek for Six Months. Half a year in this one area, and third of my Mission. Whoa. Kinda crazy to think about once I realized it. For that reason, and the fact that my Companion will only have two Transfers left in her Mission, it is highly likely that I'll be the one to be moved this Transfer. I don't know where I'll be going, I'm not good at playing the Transfer Game. But I may be changing locations in three weeks. From what has been explained to me I want to go to the Hafer area with Hermana Rodriguez, I know her from my first District and she's a Native Speaker so my Spanish should improve dramatically. I also think it would be funny to be sent back to my Baby Area Gulfbank and impress everyone with my conversational Skills. They knew me from when I first came out and could hardly introduce myself without messing up!
Things are going well, and I am grateful for all your love and support and prayers. Keep it up!
Love and Holiday Cheer
~ Hermana Smart
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Raindrops on windshields
And dinners with members
Chili con queso y no jalapenos
Packages from mom that our mailman brings
These are a few of our favorite things
Inviting to learn and making appointments
Teaching God's plan to beautiful families
Lots of referrals and they are progressing
These are a few of our favorite things
When the dogs bite, when the bugs sting
When contacts are mad
We just remember our favorite things, and then we don't feel so bad!
(read to the tune of 'Favorite Things' from The Sound of Music)
Made the most of that up with my Trainer, I realized I never shared it with you... and I'm kind of a loss of what to say today sooooo....
Things are going well, we have FIVE investigators in church yesterday! Me and Hermana Wardle were running around showing them where their classes were and sitting with them and explaining things WOW. I was so happy I think I skipped down the hallway! It was super crazy for us, but I hope that it happens every week. That's the kinda stress I wouldn't mind more of.
Families are starting to ask us if we have plan on Christmas. We're not allowed to Proselyte so we can spend the time with families which will be nice! I'm going to make Deviled Eggs for the Ward Christmas Party this Friday. They asked that people make a plate of food that is traditional for their country. I think Deviled Eggs is traditional in the United States, at least it is in my family because I'm asked to make it every year! Haha!
I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas preparations instead of getting stressed out. Remember the reason WHY we have the Christmas Season.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Chili con queso y no jalapenos
Packages from mom that our mailman brings
These are a few of our favorite things
Inviting to learn and making appointments
Teaching God's plan to beautiful families
Lots of referrals and they are progressing
These are a few of our favorite things
When the dogs bite, when the bugs sting
When contacts are mad
We just remember our favorite things, and then we don't feel so bad!
(read to the tune of 'Favorite Things' from The Sound of Music)
Made the most of that up with my Trainer, I realized I never shared it with you... and I'm kind of a loss of what to say today sooooo....
Things are going well, we have FIVE investigators in church yesterday! Me and Hermana Wardle were running around showing them where their classes were and sitting with them and explaining things WOW. I was so happy I think I skipped down the hallway! It was super crazy for us, but I hope that it happens every week. That's the kinda stress I wouldn't mind more of.
Families are starting to ask us if we have plan on Christmas. We're not allowed to Proselyte so we can spend the time with families which will be nice! I'm going to make Deviled Eggs for the Ward Christmas Party this Friday. They asked that people make a plate of food that is traditional for their country. I think Deviled Eggs is traditional in the United States, at least it is in my family because I'm asked to make it every year! Haha!
I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas preparations instead of getting stressed out. Remember the reason WHY we have the Christmas Season.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Oh man the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night was so awesome! Really everything's better on the Mission. I've loved them before, but this one I was looking forward to the most and I really enjoyed the whole thing! If you missed it, never fear! I have the link right here: http://lds.org/broadcasts/watch/christmas-devotional/2010/12?pid=692245596001&pkey=AQ~~,AAAAjP0hvGE~,N-ZbNsw4qBrw7kwhMdnhxO2ZFGj6dA4f&lang=eng Go an enjoy!
The other thing of greatest note that passed in the week that just left us is that I've completed NINE MONTHS as a Missionary! Know what that means? Hmmmmmm? That's right! I'm half way done. Can you believe it? Man, looking back it doesn't really seem like it's been all that long. But then again I can believe it. I think I've mentioned before how Missionary Time is some kind of funky paradox. Has it felt like Nine Months to you?
It's cold again here, might be getting mighty cold too if a forcast we heard was correct. High in the 50s and low in the 30s. Might even freeze, whooo! (yeah I'm strange for being excited) It was actually funny when we went Grocery Shopping and everyone but us had on long sleeve shirts or jackets, we were just in our blouses. You can really tell the out-of-towners when it's 60 degrees or so, haha!
I hope that everyone's Holiday Season is going well. Don't forget in the hustle and bustle of this time that the Reason for the Season is not Travel, Presents, and days off from School/Work. The real reason we celebrate is because our Savior and Redeemer was born, in the lowliest of conditions, so that he could one day raise us up to live in the Kingdom of our Father.
Love and Good Thoughts,
~ Hermana Smart
The other thing of greatest note that passed in the week that just left us is that I've completed NINE MONTHS as a Missionary! Know what that means? Hmmmmmm? That's right! I'm half way done. Can you believe it? Man, looking back it doesn't really seem like it's been all that long. But then again I can believe it. I think I've mentioned before how Missionary Time is some kind of funky paradox. Has it felt like Nine Months to you?
It's cold again here, might be getting mighty cold too if a forcast we heard was correct. High in the 50s and low in the 30s. Might even freeze, whooo! (yeah I'm strange for being excited) It was actually funny when we went Grocery Shopping and everyone but us had on long sleeve shirts or jackets, we were just in our blouses. You can really tell the out-of-towners when it's 60 degrees or so, haha!
I hope that everyone's Holiday Season is going well. Don't forget in the hustle and bustle of this time that the Reason for the Season is not Travel, Presents, and days off from School/Work. The real reason we celebrate is because our Savior and Redeemer was born, in the lowliest of conditions, so that he could one day raise us up to live in the Kingdom of our Father.
Love and Good Thoughts,
~ Hermana Smart
Transfer number six
I'm on Transfer Number Six! In fact I complete Nine Months as a Missionary this upcoming Friday, the third of December! That's the half-way mark for a Sister Missionary. Has it felt like three-fourths of a year to you since I left? Sometimes it feels shorter, or longer, to me. Being on a Mission is seriously messing with my sense of time, haha!
For this Transfer I am remaining in Bearcreek again, and I get to keep my current companion Hermana Wardle. I am really happy about that, I'm learning so much from her and I'm basically happy all the time. We get along super well. Two Elders are leaving from our District so we'll have two new ones in my Christmas District. It's almost that time! Though in the hustle and bustle of December shopping and vacations I encourage everyone to remember that the True Spirit of Christmas is found by dropping the last sylable. The Spirit of Christ.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&channelId=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=324bfaf90a495210VgnVCM100000176f620a____
Sending love from the field,
~ Hermana Smart
For this Transfer I am remaining in Bearcreek again, and I get to keep my current companion Hermana Wardle. I am really happy about that, I'm learning so much from her and I'm basically happy all the time. We get along super well. Two Elders are leaving from our District so we'll have two new ones in my Christmas District. It's almost that time! Though in the hustle and bustle of December shopping and vacations I encourage everyone to remember that the True Spirit of Christmas is found by dropping the last sylable. The Spirit of Christ.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&channelId=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=324bfaf90a495210VgnVCM100000176f620a____
Sending love from the field,
~ Hermana Smart
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tenga un feliz Dia de Turki!
Man I love that, yesterday a Member told us to 'carry yourselves to my house for the day of turkey' (straight translation) Man sometimes I really quite enjoy Spanish, ha ha ha!
Last week I got to try Plantain bananas sliced and fried in oil. Yuuuuummy! So I bought some today, since they are 44 cents a pound, and I just need to wait for them to become all black which apparently is when they are perfect. And today sometime I'm going to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm. Not to mention we have several Appointments with Member for Consumptions of Great Quantities this coming week. Food Coma here we come!
And I would like to also invite everyone to not only feast physically, but have a Spiritual Feast. This Holiday is specifically named so that we remember to GIVE THANKS. We have so many blessings, think about it. Do you have a job? That's a blessing, no matter how much you may dislike it. Do you have family? That is a blessing, even if they sometimes drive us crazy. Do you have challenges? Be Thankful! Our loving Heavenly Father knows that you're ready to learn another lesson, to gain more skills, to come off conquerer with his help! There are many people who do not have family they can rely on, or a job, or even food to eat at all let alone in excess. There are even people who count in their blessings that they woke up that Morning. Do not EVER forget just how blessed you are, and how you can bless others as well.
This week I would like to give you all, my friends and family, a challenge that I intend to take on myself. It will take just five minutes (give or take for low much you put in) but I would like to invite everyone to give a prayer only of gratitude this Thanksgiving. It's hard because it is our instict to ask for things for ourselves and those we care about. But take a couple minutes to tell Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that you acknowledge their love and care in your life and appreciate every up and down
Last week I got to try Plantain bananas sliced and fried in oil. Yuuuuummy! So I bought some today, since they are 44 cents a pound, and I just need to wait for them to become all black which apparently is when they are perfect. And today sometime I'm going to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm. Not to mention we have several Appointments with Member for Consumptions of Great Quantities this coming week. Food Coma here we come!
And I would like to also invite everyone to not only feast physically, but have a Spiritual Feast. This Holiday is specifically named so that we remember to GIVE THANKS. We have so many blessings, think about it. Do you have a job? That's a blessing, no matter how much you may dislike it. Do you have family? That is a blessing, even if they sometimes drive us crazy. Do you have challenges? Be Thankful! Our loving Heavenly Father knows that you're ready to learn another lesson, to gain more skills, to come off conquerer with his help! There are many people who do not have family they can rely on, or a job, or even food to eat at all let alone in excess. There are even people who count in their blessings that they woke up that Morning. Do not EVER forget just how blessed you are, and how you can bless others as well.
This week I would like to give you all, my friends and family, a challenge that I intend to take on myself. It will take just five minutes (give or take for low much you put in) but I would like to invite everyone to give a prayer only of gratitude this Thanksgiving. It's hard because it is our instict to ask for things for ourselves and those we care about. But take a couple minutes to tell Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that you acknowledge their love and care in your life and appreciate every up and down
NEW BABY NEICE
Darcie's brother Taylor and his wife Amy had a new baby girl on Thanksgiving. Her name is Brooke and her big brother Brennan is very helpful and loving........so far :0)
Hace Frio, y me gusta!
Hey all, sorry for flaking and not having an email last week. I had gotten done quickly and went on to check out lds.org and then suddenly I realized that while I had replied to my Mom's email and stuff I had completely blanked on needing to send my Update Email! Whups! So I headed back to the Missionary Email Site and it had crashed. It didn't recover by the time I had to go because my hour for email was up. So another apology and moving on.
Mostly things remain the same. It's cold now, and like really cold not just a cold snap. And the humidity makes a big difference. Back home at these temperatures I'd be walking around perfectly comforable in a Tshirt or Sweatshirt for longer periods. But because of the humidity I'm shivering outside! I bought a down coat from a thrift store for a reasonable sum and I'm SO glad that I did. It's waaaaay comfy, I don't mind if I look like a marshmellow. A very comforable marshmellow I make.
Something also that I think I should share with those near and dear to me is a rediculously easy way to make a seasonal treat: Namely get yourself a box of Spice cake Mix, a can of Pureed Pumpkin (not the pie filling), and chocolate chips. Combine them all and you have the means to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. DELISH. I got the ingredients last week but I haven't had time to put them all together. I look forward to the day I can, however. It will be FAB.
Last week was something both wonderful and stressful. Wednesday night we got a call from Sister Hansen, the wife of our Mission President. She wanted us to have a teaching appointment for Eleven a.m. that she could accompany us to since she would be in the area the following day. Usually that's the time we're having lunch so we didn't have anything lined up. We scrambled and the only person to answer their phone couldn't have us over! So we prayed that the top person on our list would be at home so we wouldn't only take Sister Hansen for a fruitless drive looking for people! Blessedly, our first choice was there. And Sis Hansen did an admireable job helping us teach in Spanish! Afterwards we went out to lunch with the President and his Wife, and two english Missionaries that share our area. We went to Spring Creek, a BBQ place I'd never been to before. Nice and tasty! They bring you fresh hot little mini loaves for rolls. Mmmmmm...
I think that's all the noticias I have right now.
Work hard, love big!
~ Hermana Smart
Mostly things remain the same. It's cold now, and like really cold not just a cold snap. And the humidity makes a big difference. Back home at these temperatures I'd be walking around perfectly comforable in a Tshirt or Sweatshirt for longer periods. But because of the humidity I'm shivering outside! I bought a down coat from a thrift store for a reasonable sum and I'm SO glad that I did. It's waaaaay comfy, I don't mind if I look like a marshmellow. A very comforable marshmellow I make.
Something also that I think I should share with those near and dear to me is a rediculously easy way to make a seasonal treat: Namely get yourself a box of Spice cake Mix, a can of Pureed Pumpkin (not the pie filling), and chocolate chips. Combine them all and you have the means to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. DELISH. I got the ingredients last week but I haven't had time to put them all together. I look forward to the day I can, however. It will be FAB.
Last week was something both wonderful and stressful. Wednesday night we got a call from Sister Hansen, the wife of our Mission President. She wanted us to have a teaching appointment for Eleven a.m. that she could accompany us to since she would be in the area the following day. Usually that's the time we're having lunch so we didn't have anything lined up. We scrambled and the only person to answer their phone couldn't have us over! So we prayed that the top person on our list would be at home so we wouldn't only take Sister Hansen for a fruitless drive looking for people! Blessedly, our first choice was there. And Sis Hansen did an admireable job helping us teach in Spanish! Afterwards we went out to lunch with the President and his Wife, and two english Missionaries that share our area. We went to Spring Creek, a BBQ place I'd never been to before. Nice and tasty! They bring you fresh hot little mini loaves for rolls. Mmmmmm...
I think that's all the noticias I have right now.
Work hard, love big!
~ Hermana Smart
Sunday, November 14, 2010
11-1
I hope everyone had a Safe and Fabulous Halloween! I got some discount candy today myself! Actually it's mostly to give to children. I averted THREE disasters on Saturday because I had little suckers from the Dollar Store in my bag just in case. Quieted two children fussing during a Baptism, then another got hit in the head with a volleyball and forgot all about it when I held up the candy. Gotta love that part about kids, so easily distracted!
This last week has been pretty good, I'm still loving my new Companion Hermana Wardle more and more as we talk and work together. She's so cool and full of knowledge, common sense, and a strong work ethic. AND she's a bomb pianist! She doesn't write music or anything, she doesn't know all the theory behind it. But she can sight read and basically play anything that she has sheet music for.
And while on that subject: last Friday she gave me a crash-course in reading music! So now I can, with quite a bit of sitting there and thinking, tell you what a note is from looking at it. Hna Wardle has flash cards that I'm using to try and read more quickly. But I can play the melody to 'If you could hie to Kolob' my favorite hymn! I'm working on the Alto part now. I don't even know how I'm going to start playing with my left hand, but apparently it's possible. I'm a little better off than some apparently because I can hear if I messed up or not. But then I don't know what to do after, haha!
I hope you all have a fantastic first week of November 2010!
Ciao!
Hermana Smart
This last week has been pretty good, I'm still loving my new Companion Hermana Wardle more and more as we talk and work together. She's so cool and full of knowledge, common sense, and a strong work ethic. AND she's a bomb pianist! She doesn't write music or anything, she doesn't know all the theory behind it. But she can sight read and basically play anything that she has sheet music for.
And while on that subject: last Friday she gave me a crash-course in reading music! So now I can, with quite a bit of sitting there and thinking, tell you what a note is from looking at it. Hna Wardle has flash cards that I'm using to try and read more quickly. But I can play the melody to 'If you could hie to Kolob' my favorite hymn! I'm working on the Alto part now. I don't even know how I'm going to start playing with my left hand, but apparently it's possible. I'm a little better off than some apparently because I can hear if I messed up or not. But then I don't know what to do after, haha!
I hope you all have a fantastic first week of November 2010!
Ciao!
Hermana Smart
Monday, October 25, 2010
Transfer number five in the works
Greetings and Salutations! That's my special way of saying Hello!
Man this week's been kinda bleh because I've been sick again. I had a terrible allergy attack on Wednesday night, but when I wok up the next day I had a cold! That's never happened to me before. Anywyas, my new Companion thinks it could have to do with the air filter in our apartment that was GRODY. When we changed it today we read on the filter that it needed to be changed every three months... uhm, that thing had to be in there for over a year. Sick. But hopefully the smell of the apartment and my respiratory problems will improve. Without the need to buy more air fresheners!
Other than being sick I've been getting to know my new Companion Hermana Wardle. I already knew her a little before, but I'm REALLY starting to get to like her. Especially since she's a Clean Freak and I don't have to clean up after her! Also she's very Obediant and focused on Missionary Work. I think we'll get along just fine! She has a lot of really good ideas for the people we are teaching or hope to teach, I'm glad to have her as my Senior Companion. I think she likes me too, at least I hope!
We got to go to the Wedding on Friday, it was really cute and we helped out a bit, but then had to go home because of curfew before things really got started. But we got to see the good part and how much they really loved eachother. One of their daughters was crying she was so happy. They'll be baptised this next coming Saturday, yay!
Hmmm, because I was sick not too much else... I'll be trying to write back to my small pile of letters today, but we're being kidnapped by the rest of our district for Pizza and Pumpkins so I might be horribley distracted haha!
Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!
(I wish I could dress up!)
Love and Good Thoughts!
~ Hermana Smart
Man this week's been kinda bleh because I've been sick again. I had a terrible allergy attack on Wednesday night, but when I wok up the next day I had a cold! That's never happened to me before. Anywyas, my new Companion thinks it could have to do with the air filter in our apartment that was GRODY. When we changed it today we read on the filter that it needed to be changed every three months... uhm, that thing had to be in there for over a year. Sick. But hopefully the smell of the apartment and my respiratory problems will improve. Without the need to buy more air fresheners!
Other than being sick I've been getting to know my new Companion Hermana Wardle. I already knew her a little before, but I'm REALLY starting to get to like her. Especially since she's a Clean Freak and I don't have to clean up after her! Also she's very Obediant and focused on Missionary Work. I think we'll get along just fine! She has a lot of really good ideas for the people we are teaching or hope to teach, I'm glad to have her as my Senior Companion. I think she likes me too, at least I hope!
We got to go to the Wedding on Friday, it was really cute and we helped out a bit, but then had to go home because of curfew before things really got started. But we got to see the good part and how much they really loved eachother. One of their daughters was crying she was so happy. They'll be baptised this next coming Saturday, yay!
Hmmm, because I was sick not too much else... I'll be trying to write back to my small pile of letters today, but we're being kidnapped by the rest of our district for Pizza and Pumpkins so I might be horribley distracted haha!
Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!
(I wish I could dress up!)
Love and Good Thoughts!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, October 18, 2010
It's a Whopper!
For those of you who know what a Transfer is and have been wanting to find out my fate, just so you know I'm not leaving my area. But my Companion who has been here since she came to Texas in December is! Hna Christensen has been profoundly weirded out as she has been packing for the first time since she left the MTC, she's been in Bear Creek for almost a year! One more Transfer would have done it almost. But now she's going to another area, and I'm left to try and remember everyone's names and where they live. Oh dear....
But I'm excited about my new companion! Her name is Hermana Wardle. I went on Exchanges with her once in my second Transfer (exchanges is where Missonaries swap companions for 24 hours) and I got to know her a bit from that and other meetings. From what I can tell I rather like her, so I'm really hopeful. And if nothing else, both our favorite colors is Orange. We'll do fine!
Other sources of news are that on Thursday we visited a Recent Convert (who is an absolutely adorable young woman but that's beside the point) around noon, and when we came outside we discovered that Harvey's Driver's Side window was bashed in. We hadn't heard anything, the car's alarm didn't even sound off! We called the cops and two of them came. From the way it was broken and the fact nothing was stolen points to Criminal Mischief. Apparently the Apartment Complex right next door has kids who do things like this, and shooting out house windows with BB guns, etc. Bummer for us, we had to get to Interviews with President Hansen!! But that same adorable RC drove us to the church building where the Senior Missionary in charge of cars picked us up in our temporary replacement. She was a dusky blue and we decided to name her Destiny. We only had her until Saturday, the window got fixed quick!
Other exciting thing that happened started at 5am this morning. We got up early, dressed in service clothes, and got picked up to go with our District to the Bayou and fish. So I went fishing this morning, between the bayou and a man-made lake I caught TEN FISH. Not too shabby, eh? First one was what's called an Aligator Garr. They get big and they're mean and you should be afraid to fall into the water when they're around apparently. Mine was just like... uh... I don't know how to judge fish-size! Two feet? Little less? Whatever, I got some awesome pictures and video! Next one was a baby Catfish. Then I caught what's called a Drum Bass, it had pretty irredescent scales on it's forehead. Then I caught a Croppy. After that we switched to the lake and I caught a little Sunfish, followed by a big Catfish! Like, well big! I was really afraid that it was going to snap my line! But with help I got it onto the grass. It had only one eye... Not my fault! I held that one to let it back into the water, I was letting him back in gently instead of throwing him and when I had his face to the water he grunted twice and I let go! I didn't know Catfish could make noises like that! After that I caught three more Sunfish. At that point Elder Geldmacher told me that if I got a tenth I had to be the one to take the hook out of it's mouth. I didn't want to do it so I just put my little bobbing line close to the edge and talked. THEN I GOT ANOTHER FISH without even trying! Jeez! It was another sunfish and I just let it tug on the line, then I hit the button on my pole and let it swim as far as it liked. I was hoping that it would get itself off the hook before we had to go in a couple minutes. When I reeled the hook in I got my wish! I didn't have to unhook the tenth fish I caught, haha!
Man I'm tired, but we have to get Hna Christensen ready to leave and go to her new area tomorrow morning. And she has so many clothes, haha! But it's all good, she's skilled at packing them away.
This was a lovely chat, we should have more.
Cheerio!
~ Hermana Smart
But I'm excited about my new companion! Her name is Hermana Wardle. I went on Exchanges with her once in my second Transfer (exchanges is where Missonaries swap companions for 24 hours) and I got to know her a bit from that and other meetings. From what I can tell I rather like her, so I'm really hopeful. And if nothing else, both our favorite colors is Orange. We'll do fine!
Other sources of news are that on Thursday we visited a Recent Convert (who is an absolutely adorable young woman but that's beside the point) around noon, and when we came outside we discovered that Harvey's Driver's Side window was bashed in. We hadn't heard anything, the car's alarm didn't even sound off! We called the cops and two of them came. From the way it was broken and the fact nothing was stolen points to Criminal Mischief. Apparently the Apartment Complex right next door has kids who do things like this, and shooting out house windows with BB guns, etc. Bummer for us, we had to get to Interviews with President Hansen!! But that same adorable RC drove us to the church building where the Senior Missionary in charge of cars picked us up in our temporary replacement. She was a dusky blue and we decided to name her Destiny. We only had her until Saturday, the window got fixed quick!
Other exciting thing that happened started at 5am this morning. We got up early, dressed in service clothes, and got picked up to go with our District to the Bayou and fish. So I went fishing this morning, between the bayou and a man-made lake I caught TEN FISH. Not too shabby, eh? First one was what's called an Aligator Garr. They get big and they're mean and you should be afraid to fall into the water when they're around apparently. Mine was just like... uh... I don't know how to judge fish-size! Two feet? Little less? Whatever, I got some awesome pictures and video! Next one was a baby Catfish. Then I caught what's called a Drum Bass, it had pretty irredescent scales on it's forehead. Then I caught a Croppy. After that we switched to the lake and I caught a little Sunfish, followed by a big Catfish! Like, well big! I was really afraid that it was going to snap my line! But with help I got it onto the grass. It had only one eye... Not my fault! I held that one to let it back into the water, I was letting him back in gently instead of throwing him and when I had his face to the water he grunted twice and I let go! I didn't know Catfish could make noises like that! After that I caught three more Sunfish. At that point Elder Geldmacher told me that if I got a tenth I had to be the one to take the hook out of it's mouth. I didn't want to do it so I just put my little bobbing line close to the edge and talked. THEN I GOT ANOTHER FISH without even trying! Jeez! It was another sunfish and I just let it tug on the line, then I hit the button on my pole and let it swim as far as it liked. I was hoping that it would get itself off the hook before we had to go in a couple minutes. When I reeled the hook in I got my wish! I didn't have to unhook the tenth fish I caught, haha!
Man I'm tired, but we have to get Hna Christensen ready to leave and go to her new area tomorrow morning. And she has so many clothes, haha! But it's all good, she's skilled at packing them away.
This was a lovely chat, we should have more.
Cheerio!
~ Hermana Smart
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
The light bulb goes on....
Okay before I forget (like I did last week) I have to let the world know one of the biggest light bulb moments in my LIFE. And this will show just how big of a geek I am:
ArticUNO - ZapDOS - MolTRES
Pokemon Legendaries were counting in Spanish and I didn't realize it until I was 22 years of age!!! Am I the only one who noticed? Or has everyone else my age known since they were ten years old and I'm just slow on the uptake?
We now return to our regularly scheduled Programing.
The area Seventy for the south part of the United States, Elder Costa, came and had a meeting with us on this past Saturday and it was really cool. It was a TRI-Mission Meeting meaning ALL the missionaries from the three Houston Missions came, that was over 400 Missionaries in the Hafer Building. We got there in time to get good seats. Then fifteen minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start the announcement was made that Elder Costa wanted to shake the hand of every Missionary present. It took him a half an hour to do. He kept saying "No sleeping, no sleeping!" To make the line hurry along. He was pretty funny, and had almost perfect english, just a few quirks that were funny. He's originally from Brazil and has a pretty amazing Conversion Story. It was a good Meeting.
Oh and this next Saturday we are getting Transfer Calls and I really have no idea where to stick my bets for where we'll end up going but logic points to Hermana Christensen leaving and me staying in Bear Creek. But I don't know what's going to happen. But it is bound to be intersting I'm thinking.
But since Transfers are on their way, I would suggest sending mail that won't be here by Saturday to the Mission Office at the Hafer address. Just to make sure it gets to me in a timely manner.
I really can't think of what else to say...... Wait cool! I can use my USB cord on this computer! Lemme attach some photos...
Okay if this works I've attatched a short video about my shoes (Yes, my shoes) and a Picture of one of the Games we played in Spanish Study as a Zone a couple of weeks back.
I'll try sending more on other emails, but I can only send so much on one email I think.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
ArticUNO - ZapDOS - MolTRES
Pokemon Legendaries were counting in Spanish and I didn't realize it until I was 22 years of age!!! Am I the only one who noticed? Or has everyone else my age known since they were ten years old and I'm just slow on the uptake?
We now return to our regularly scheduled Programing.
The area Seventy for the south part of the United States, Elder Costa, came and had a meeting with us on this past Saturday and it was really cool. It was a TRI-Mission Meeting meaning ALL the missionaries from the three Houston Missions came, that was over 400 Missionaries in the Hafer Building. We got there in time to get good seats. Then fifteen minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start the announcement was made that Elder Costa wanted to shake the hand of every Missionary present. It took him a half an hour to do. He kept saying "No sleeping, no sleeping!" To make the line hurry along. He was pretty funny, and had almost perfect english, just a few quirks that were funny. He's originally from Brazil and has a pretty amazing Conversion Story. It was a good Meeting.
Oh and this next Saturday we are getting Transfer Calls and I really have no idea where to stick my bets for where we'll end up going but logic points to Hermana Christensen leaving and me staying in Bear Creek. But I don't know what's going to happen. But it is bound to be intersting I'm thinking.
But since Transfers are on their way, I would suggest sending mail that won't be here by Saturday to the Mission Office at the Hafer address. Just to make sure it gets to me in a timely manner.
I really can't think of what else to say...... Wait cool! I can use my USB cord on this computer! Lemme attach some photos...
Okay if this works I've attatched a short video about my shoes (Yes, my shoes) and a Picture of one of the Games we played in Spanish Study as a Zone a couple of weeks back.
I'll try sending more on other emails, but I can only send so much on one email I think.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Feliz Octubrel
I know I was excited about the temperature LAST week, but oh man it was 61 degrees THIS morning! It has been sooo niiiice to walk around this whole week! October weather in Houston is PERFECT, when I come to visit again I think I'll try to do it around this season. It's kind of funny, the whole time I've been here it's been Summer but this kind of weather is what I'm used to feeling so NOW I'm getting all nostalgic for summer and having memories recalled.
This morning, other than the blessed temperature, was not all that great. Mainly because we ran out of gas in our car on the way to getting more. We had a 'LOW FUEL' warning since late Saturday, but when we went to get gas the mile keeping book where our gascard is was left in the apartment by Hermana Christensen. She had taken it out of the glovebox to make the mile report at the end of the month, but had never put it back in I found out. SO not having time to go back and forth without breaking curfew we sent back home. There's like 50 miles left once you have that warning, and so we thought we could get through Sunday. We were on the way somewhere that evening and I was going over the miles in my head and I got a bad feeling. I thought I was just worrying too much, but then wondered if it might have been a Spiritual Prompting. I got Hna Christensen to turn around and we visited people closer to home instead. Then in the Morning when we were heading to get gas we sputtered and died right before getting onto the main road. I am SO glad we didn't visit those other people! We would have died much further from home and either would have had to leave our car until Monday, or have someone break the Sabbath to bring us Gas! We did have to sit with our flashers on for almost an hour while waiting for someone to bring us gas this morning though. Ah well, I prefer that than the alternative!
Not much going on really, still trying to Find and Teach new investigators and help our current ones progress. Thus is always the struggle.
But I DID enjoy General Conference! It kinda blows my mind that the last time I watched one I was in the MTC six months ago! Having milestones like that is pretty interesting. And this Conference has been the best so far in my opinion, and that's probably because I appreciate listening to the Prophet, Twelve Apostles, and the other General Authorities so much more than I ever have before in my life. I wasn't checking the clock thinking "Man, how much longer until it's over?" I was thinking, "Oh no! Only an hour left? That's not enough!" I want another General Conference this next weekend!!! I can't wait for the November Ensign to come out so I can reread the talks!
Today we finally have money/time to check out the Asian Food Store I spotted near our apartment. I hope they have rice seasoning so I can start making my riceballs again! And maybe we'll hit a thriftstore, I could use a couple new clothes I'm thinking. (only if they're super cheap tho!)
Love from me to all of you!
~ Hermana Smart
This morning, other than the blessed temperature, was not all that great. Mainly because we ran out of gas in our car on the way to getting more. We had a 'LOW FUEL' warning since late Saturday, but when we went to get gas the mile keeping book where our gascard is was left in the apartment by Hermana Christensen. She had taken it out of the glovebox to make the mile report at the end of the month, but had never put it back in I found out. SO not having time to go back and forth without breaking curfew we sent back home. There's like 50 miles left once you have that warning, and so we thought we could get through Sunday. We were on the way somewhere that evening and I was going over the miles in my head and I got a bad feeling. I thought I was just worrying too much, but then wondered if it might have been a Spiritual Prompting. I got Hna Christensen to turn around and we visited people closer to home instead. Then in the Morning when we were heading to get gas we sputtered and died right before getting onto the main road. I am SO glad we didn't visit those other people! We would have died much further from home and either would have had to leave our car until Monday, or have someone break the Sabbath to bring us Gas! We did have to sit with our flashers on for almost an hour while waiting for someone to bring us gas this morning though. Ah well, I prefer that than the alternative!
Not much going on really, still trying to Find and Teach new investigators and help our current ones progress. Thus is always the struggle.
But I DID enjoy General Conference! It kinda blows my mind that the last time I watched one I was in the MTC six months ago! Having milestones like that is pretty interesting. And this Conference has been the best so far in my opinion, and that's probably because I appreciate listening to the Prophet, Twelve Apostles, and the other General Authorities so much more than I ever have before in my life. I wasn't checking the clock thinking "Man, how much longer until it's over?" I was thinking, "Oh no! Only an hour left? That's not enough!" I want another General Conference this next weekend!!! I can't wait for the November Ensign to come out so I can reread the talks!
Today we finally have money/time to check out the Asian Food Store I spotted near our apartment. I hope they have rice seasoning so I can start making my riceballs again! And maybe we'll hit a thriftstore, I could use a couple new clothes I'm thinking. (only if they're super cheap tho!)
Love from me to all of you!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, September 27, 2010
Blessed Cold!
When we got in Harvey (our car) this morning he said the temperature was 66 degrees! SIXTY-SIX DEGREES! *cue angelic choir singing*
I haven't seen it lower than 74 degrees since I came here, and even that was only once! Oh MAN it feels SO GOOD to walk outside! There's not a cloud in the sky though, so within a few hours it's going to be hot again... sad. But for a little while it feels VERY GOOD to go walking outside! And the breeze isn't just kinda cool, it's actually refreshingly cold! Looooooove it!
In other news last Thursday was a Special Sisters Conference. Where only all the Sister Missionaries were invited! (Well then President Hansen and his Wife, and the Assistants who are Elders) It was sooo goood. And WAY fun to see all the girl Missionaries in the whole Texas Houston Mission. Lots of them I don't know, mostly the English Sisters who I don't have occassion to mingle with much. But I got to see Sister Peterson who I flew in with and haven't seen for like Five Months. That was cool. The talks and messages were really, really good. Especially Hermana Naufahu Talakai's talk on Love. Love is really everything, isn't it? Love if why our Heavenly Father sent us here. Love is why our Savior endured the Atonement. Love is why we as Missionaries persistently seek those who are ready to hear our joyous message. The pure Love of Christ is Charity, and Charity never faileth. And if we have not Charity, we are nothing and can do nothing.
On that uplifting note I'll sign off for this week.
Love y'all!
~ Hermana Smart
I haven't seen it lower than 74 degrees since I came here, and even that was only once! Oh MAN it feels SO GOOD to walk outside! There's not a cloud in the sky though, so within a few hours it's going to be hot again... sad. But for a little while it feels VERY GOOD to go walking outside! And the breeze isn't just kinda cool, it's actually refreshingly cold! Looooooove it!
In other news last Thursday was a Special Sisters Conference. Where only all the Sister Missionaries were invited! (Well then President Hansen and his Wife, and the Assistants who are Elders) It was sooo goood. And WAY fun to see all the girl Missionaries in the whole Texas Houston Mission. Lots of them I don't know, mostly the English Sisters who I don't have occassion to mingle with much. But I got to see Sister Peterson who I flew in with and haven't seen for like Five Months. That was cool. The talks and messages were really, really good. Especially Hermana Naufahu Talakai's talk on Love. Love is really everything, isn't it? Love if why our Heavenly Father sent us here. Love is why our Savior endured the Atonement. Love is why we as Missionaries persistently seek those who are ready to hear our joyous message. The pure Love of Christ is Charity, and Charity never faileth. And if we have not Charity, we are nothing and can do nothing.
On that uplifting note I'll sign off for this week.
Love y'all!
~ Hermana Smart
It's almost Fall!
The last two days have been overcast and that always makes me so happy. I'm so weird, haha! Sun = Sad and Clouds = Happy for me.
Luckily it didn't rain on us while we were tracting and knocking doors up and down streets this week. We need new Investigators, the ones we have are all dropped or not progressing... And I had two experiances I would like to tell you about that concern the previously mentioned tracting. One good and one Bad.
Bad: Many people are not interested in our message and will politely (or not very politely at all) decline to hear more. Once suck occasion was a man who did not speak Spanish but was not skilled at English either. Anyways, he said "No" and we accepted that and said "Okay, have a nice Day!" And turned to go to the next house. Because sometimes I have trouble remembering how many people we have talked to that day I keep a tally mark column in my little planner. As we walked to the next house I made a mark and put my planner away. Halfway between driveways we hear the man behind us. He had exited his house and was saying something so we turned and asked if we could help him. We had trouble understanding but he was pointing at me and then at his house while yelling. The clearest part I understood was "You are... very BAD!" He was accusing me of writing down his house number so I could come back and rob him. I think at least, he was very angry and frankly I was more than a little scared. We tried to tell him I was writing something else down but he could not or would not understand. So we just had to keep going to the next door. He watched us until we went back to our car four houses later. I thought he was going to call the police on us or something! Which the police would scare me less than the man because they probably know Mormon Missionaries and would know we don't mean any harm.
Now on to the nice experiance that kind of balances out the one before.
So we were doing the tracting thing, inviting people to learn. Once house we knocked a man answered and we gave an introduction and a few Gospel Truths such as how we have a Prophet to lead and guide us today and that Families can live together forever. He then said "Do you guys really believe all that stuff?" My immediate reaction was an enthusiastic "Yeah!" He then said "So do I, I'm a member." He then proceeded to let us inside and gave use brownies and icecream. He was a member from the English Ward that we didn't know but he talked to us for a while and gave us some water too. We picked a great Day to visit, they were going to have a double birthday party later so that's why he had the treats! That was really nice.
So now I have to wonder when we go tracting if thise door is going to have a mean paranoid person or a lovely kind and generous person behind it. Or no one answers. That happens a lot too.
OH! And the best activity EVAR was on Saturday night. International Food Night where everyone brings food from their country and dresses up. That was FABULOUS!! THe only bad part was that in true Latino fashion they started TWO HOURS late. And then because of that combined with our curfew of 9:30 to be in our apartments we couldn't stay long enough to see the dancing! Their dresses were SO BEAUTIFUL I wanted to see so bad! The little girls were going to dance too! *sigh* Oh well...
And that's all for now I believe.
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love Hermana Smart
Luckily it didn't rain on us while we were tracting and knocking doors up and down streets this week. We need new Investigators, the ones we have are all dropped or not progressing... And I had two experiances I would like to tell you about that concern the previously mentioned tracting. One good and one Bad.
Bad: Many people are not interested in our message and will politely (or not very politely at all) decline to hear more. Once suck occasion was a man who did not speak Spanish but was not skilled at English either. Anyways, he said "No" and we accepted that and said "Okay, have a nice Day!" And turned to go to the next house. Because sometimes I have trouble remembering how many people we have talked to that day I keep a tally mark column in my little planner. As we walked to the next house I made a mark and put my planner away. Halfway between driveways we hear the man behind us. He had exited his house and was saying something so we turned and asked if we could help him. We had trouble understanding but he was pointing at me and then at his house while yelling. The clearest part I understood was "You are... very BAD!" He was accusing me of writing down his house number so I could come back and rob him. I think at least, he was very angry and frankly I was more than a little scared. We tried to tell him I was writing something else down but he could not or would not understand. So we just had to keep going to the next door. He watched us until we went back to our car four houses later. I thought he was going to call the police on us or something! Which the police would scare me less than the man because they probably know Mormon Missionaries and would know we don't mean any harm.
Now on to the nice experiance that kind of balances out the one before.
So we were doing the tracting thing, inviting people to learn. Once house we knocked a man answered and we gave an introduction and a few Gospel Truths such as how we have a Prophet to lead and guide us today and that Families can live together forever. He then said "Do you guys really believe all that stuff?" My immediate reaction was an enthusiastic "Yeah!" He then said "So do I, I'm a member." He then proceeded to let us inside and gave use brownies and icecream. He was a member from the English Ward that we didn't know but he talked to us for a while and gave us some water too. We picked a great Day to visit, they were going to have a double birthday party later so that's why he had the treats! That was really nice.
So now I have to wonder when we go tracting if thise door is going to have a mean paranoid person or a lovely kind and generous person behind it. Or no one answers. That happens a lot too.
OH! And the best activity EVAR was on Saturday night. International Food Night where everyone brings food from their country and dresses up. That was FABULOUS!! THe only bad part was that in true Latino fashion they started TWO HOURS late. And then because of that combined with our curfew of 9:30 to be in our apartments we couldn't stay long enough to see the dancing! Their dresses were SO BEAUTIFUL I wanted to see so bad! The little girls were going to dance too! *sigh* Oh well...
And that's all for now I believe.
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love Hermana Smart
Monday, September 13, 2010
Fourth Transfer Week Two
Hola Hola!
I'll apologize in advance if this entry is a little off, I started suffering the symptoms of a cold on Saturday and have been enduring the effects thereof since. Including lack of coordination and coherent thought at times. But even with everything my nose is still clear, yay for silver lining!
Lessee.... Well on either Thursday or Friday we went to a Baby Shower of a lady in our Ward and it way way fun! I didn't know Baby showers could be so fun! We played games and I actually won the one where you put a paper plate on your head, and then without looking you have to try and draw a baby. Mine actually looked pretty good and so I won a prize, I chose an Air Freshener because our car needed one. Red Candy Apple it's called, I dunno if I really like it... Anyways, we had to leave because we had an appointment, but they stood us up, so we just went right back to the party to eat with them and get to know more of the Hermanas in the Ward.
Two days ago in Saturday we were knocking an apartment complex and we got the Best reaction when we said there was a Prophet on the earth today! The woman was all "QUEE? Un Profeta ahora?!" It was GREAT! Hna Christensen said that she had been waiting for a response like that all her mission. She let us inside and we explained more, then we got the same reaction when we introduced the Book of Mormon and said that we now have available more scripture that testifies of Jesus Christ. We'll be going back to see her tomorrow.
I'm having trouble remembering anything else. Probably I'll have more to update next week when I remember what I forgot and write down a note so I'll remember once in front of a computer again.
Have a fabulous week!
~ Hermana Smart
I'll apologize in advance if this entry is a little off, I started suffering the symptoms of a cold on Saturday and have been enduring the effects thereof since. Including lack of coordination and coherent thought at times. But even with everything my nose is still clear, yay for silver lining!
Lessee.... Well on either Thursday or Friday we went to a Baby Shower of a lady in our Ward and it way way fun! I didn't know Baby showers could be so fun! We played games and I actually won the one where you put a paper plate on your head, and then without looking you have to try and draw a baby. Mine actually looked pretty good and so I won a prize, I chose an Air Freshener because our car needed one. Red Candy Apple it's called, I dunno if I really like it... Anyways, we had to leave because we had an appointment, but they stood us up, so we just went right back to the party to eat with them and get to know more of the Hermanas in the Ward.
Two days ago in Saturday we were knocking an apartment complex and we got the Best reaction when we said there was a Prophet on the earth today! The woman was all "QUEE? Un Profeta ahora?!" It was GREAT! Hna Christensen said that she had been waiting for a response like that all her mission. She let us inside and we explained more, then we got the same reaction when we introduced the Book of Mormon and said that we now have available more scripture that testifies of Jesus Christ. We'll be going back to see her tomorrow.
I'm having trouble remembering anything else. Probably I'll have more to update next week when I remember what I forgot and write down a note so I'll remember once in front of a computer again.
Have a fabulous week!
~ Hermana Smart
Translado numero quatro
I'm sure you're all biting at the bit to find out where I'm going this Transfer! Well I'm not going anywhere, haha. That was to be expected, I just got here AND my companion has been here for six transfers. She's spent half her mission in Bearcreek. The surprise is that she's staying too! I'm kind of relieved, I didnt' feel ready to be left as the presiding authority on an area yet. She knows so much since she's been here like forever she kind of forgets to tell me things, so this Transfer I'll be asking a lot more questions.
In other news we had a Baptism last night! Yaaaay! One was an eight-year-old baptised by his Father, then the other was the boy's fifteen-year-old uncle who is living with them was baptised by the Bishop. It was so cute, after the boy recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Bishop told him to go hug his Mom, then his Dad, then his Bishop. Then he went around and shook the hands of those who confired the Holy Ghost upon him but he just took their hands then hugged them all. It was soooo cuuute! Really good baptism, there was chocolate Cake! AND the day before in Saturday I got to go back to my old area in Gulf Bank to see the baptism of someone I taught there. Whoo! Good weekend! Lots of pictures. In fact I need to send a memory card home, heh.
In slightly sadder news my beloved Trainer is leaving the mission this week. I'll miss chances to sneak over and see her for another year, but I'm hoping that she'll write me! She better. The other missionaries that left and I sent mail to haven't yet and it's been a whole Transfer!! I haven't gotten mail in a while actually because when there's a Transfer they don't know where people are going, so they hold the mail in the office for like a week. I want my mail!
Anyways, love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
In other news we had a Baptism last night! Yaaaay! One was an eight-year-old baptised by his Father, then the other was the boy's fifteen-year-old uncle who is living with them was baptised by the Bishop. It was so cute, after the boy recieved the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Bishop told him to go hug his Mom, then his Dad, then his Bishop. Then he went around and shook the hands of those who confired the Holy Ghost upon him but he just took their hands then hugged them all. It was soooo cuuute! Really good baptism, there was chocolate Cake! AND the day before in Saturday I got to go back to my old area in Gulf Bank to see the baptism of someone I taught there. Whoo! Good weekend! Lots of pictures. In fact I need to send a memory card home, heh.
In slightly sadder news my beloved Trainer is leaving the mission this week. I'll miss chances to sneak over and see her for another year, but I'm hoping that she'll write me! She better. The other missionaries that left and I sent mail to haven't yet and it's been a whole Transfer!! I haven't gotten mail in a while actually because when there's a Transfer they don't know where people are going, so they hold the mail in the office for like a week. I want my mail!
Anyways, love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, August 30, 2010
August is HAWT
Bleh! Temperatures hovering or topping the high 90's! BLEH!!
At least I can see a clear blessing of being a Missionary. Heat used to make me nauseous and miserable, now I'm walking around in Houston in August and I often forget how hot it is until the trickle of sweat down my back reminds me. Really I'm kind of amazed, but not surprised. Heavenly Father takes care of thos who follow his Commandments, and especially those dedicating all their time to being his Servants! I can just see myself when I return after my Mission to visit and I'm just going to be DYING without the Mantle of a Missionary Calling protecting me, haha!
Biggest news this week was that Elder Kukuchi came on Wednesday! Whoo! MAN that was a long meeting! Car checks were at 8:30am to 9:30 am and then the meeting started at 10am and lasted until 5pm (an hour later than Zone Conferences usually go) with lunch served at 1pm. That was a looooot of sitting but lots of good stuff too!
Before we were asked to commit to memory the Standard of Truth, a quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith that goes:
"The Standard of Trught has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecusions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the trught of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."
Then also the fourth seccion of the Doctrine and Covenants:
1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye might stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 There fore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall recieve; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.
At the beginning of the meeting we stood and recited both of these, clearly aimed at missionary work. It was really cool!
We had wonderful instruction given to us that we started putting into practice the next day, and I believe we are already seeing the fruits of our efforts. And it can only get better!
Anything else... hmmm... well this is the last week of the Transfer, come this Saturday we'll be getting a call to see if I'm leaving or if Hermana Christensen is leaving, or if we're both staying another Transfer together, or in a rare chance if we're both being moved and the area gets Whitewashed.
So it might be wise to send mail to my Mission Address rather than my Apartment Address, to make for sure that I recieve it.
That's all I can think of for now, you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana Smart
At least I can see a clear blessing of being a Missionary. Heat used to make me nauseous and miserable, now I'm walking around in Houston in August and I often forget how hot it is until the trickle of sweat down my back reminds me. Really I'm kind of amazed, but not surprised. Heavenly Father takes care of thos who follow his Commandments, and especially those dedicating all their time to being his Servants! I can just see myself when I return after my Mission to visit and I'm just going to be DYING without the Mantle of a Missionary Calling protecting me, haha!
Biggest news this week was that Elder Kukuchi came on Wednesday! Whoo! MAN that was a long meeting! Car checks were at 8:30am to 9:30 am and then the meeting started at 10am and lasted until 5pm (an hour later than Zone Conferences usually go) with lunch served at 1pm. That was a looooot of sitting but lots of good stuff too!
Before we were asked to commit to memory the Standard of Truth, a quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith that goes:
"The Standard of Trught has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecusions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the trught of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."
Then also the fourth seccion of the Doctrine and Covenants:
1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye might stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 There fore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall recieve; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.
At the beginning of the meeting we stood and recited both of these, clearly aimed at missionary work. It was really cool!
We had wonderful instruction given to us that we started putting into practice the next day, and I believe we are already seeing the fruits of our efforts. And it can only get better!
Anything else... hmmm... well this is the last week of the Transfer, come this Saturday we'll be getting a call to see if I'm leaving or if Hermana Christensen is leaving, or if we're both staying another Transfer together, or in a rare chance if we're both being moved and the area gets Whitewashed.
So it might be wise to send mail to my Mission Address rather than my Apartment Address, to make for sure that I recieve it.
That's all I can think of for now, you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana Smart
Monday, August 23, 2010
Me falta una semana hasta tengo seis meses!
As the title says, folks, in one week I'll complete six months as a Missionary!
That's a third of my mission! Has it felt like half a year to you?
In the way of news... I went to the Temple with my Zone last week. That is always way wonderful. I am really blessed to have a Temple in my Mission and to be able to attend it every Transfer. Some missionaries in other missions that don't include a Temple can only go once a year, or not at all depending on where they are. So I am very lucky.
It might have not been QUITE as hot by like a few degrees this last little while as it had been this Summer. I wouldn't say it's cooling off yet.
Oh and yesterday I gave a Talk in Sacrament. All four Missionaries in our Ward did, and we were only told Saturday that we had to! So with less than a day to prepare we decided our topics and wrote. IN SPANISH. Then I was the first to speak, IN SPANISH. Oh my gosh! But I feel it went well. My talk was on Prayer. I'll work on translating it back to English and maybe put it up in my email next week since I'm out of time now.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
That's a third of my mission! Has it felt like half a year to you?
In the way of news... I went to the Temple with my Zone last week. That is always way wonderful. I am really blessed to have a Temple in my Mission and to be able to attend it every Transfer. Some missionaries in other missions that don't include a Temple can only go once a year, or not at all depending on where they are. So I am very lucky.
It might have not been QUITE as hot by like a few degrees this last little while as it had been this Summer. I wouldn't say it's cooling off yet.
Oh and yesterday I gave a Talk in Sacrament. All four Missionaries in our Ward did, and we were only told Saturday that we had to! So with less than a day to prepare we decided our topics and wrote. IN SPANISH. Then I was the first to speak, IN SPANISH. Oh my gosh! But I feel it went well. My talk was on Prayer. I'll work on translating it back to English and maybe put it up in my email next week since I'm out of time now.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, August 16, 2010
Bow Wow!!
Howdy-Doody!
Okay, so something I forgot to mention last week is that I have gone through a traditional Missionary right-of-passage. I was bit by a dog. He didn't draw blood even though it hurt. The cuplrit is named 'Boots' and is the brown and black Chihuahua belonging to a Recent Convert woman. Little punk dog let me pet him just fine and THEN attacked me after.
Okay what else.... well my new Companion got me addicted to a new CD. Anyone seen/heard the Musical called 'The Garden' by Micheal McLean (sp?). It's the same guy who did 'Forgotten Carols' if anyone's seen that. I did when younger. The first time I heard this little seed singing about how she can't grow I thought it was the weirdest thing ever. Then once I listened to it all the way through I was hooked. It's SO EPIC. I suggest that people listen to it if they can. I'm going to check for recordings of the actual play on youtube or something when I get back to see if they match my mental image of what's going on, haha!
I have gotten just a few postcards from three friends since I came and I've sent a bunch out. I now thing postcards are one of the coolest things ever! So if anyone has an old postcard send me one! They take less postage but make the recipient feel more special! I put them up on the corkboard above my table and it's fun to look at them. I have two from California, one from Alaska, and one from Spain.
Oooh yeah! Last night we got to go to a Baptism and it was so wonderful. A woman who had been investigating the Church for two years (and is sooo adorable by the way!) was baptized with her son that was old enough. And it was also her birthday! That part was so wonderful on it's own, but what made it even BETTER was that her Husband had decided to get baptized as well but kept it a secret. So after the Mother and Son had gotten dried off and dressed and were sitting again they opened the font door to show the Father in white in the water. Oh it was so sweet. I saw her beginning to cry she was so happy so I whipped out a tissue and gave it to her. Fue tan dulce a mi corazon y espiritu. They are so happy! That's what it's all about!
It hasn't been QUITE as hot as it has been before, but still up there. I guess it should start 'cooling down' in September. I'll endure another summer before the end of my Mission, but I'll only be gone one Christmas!
This past Saturday we didn't have any appointments set up (even our dinner appointment with a member was canceled!) so we did a whole lot of Tracting. Walking up and down a street and knocking on doors. Some people were polite, a handfull actually listened, and a few where outrightly rude but they were thankfully in the minority.
Oh! Also Elder Bednar was here this past weekend to talk to the English Stake but he didn't talk to the Missionaries so I didn't get to see him! Que Paso? But I'm over it, we'll have one of the Seventy here next week I think to talk to us.
Hmmm, I think that's all the news I can remember/wrote down for now.
Talk to you again next week!
~ Hermana Smart
Okay, so something I forgot to mention last week is that I have gone through a traditional Missionary right-of-passage. I was bit by a dog. He didn't draw blood even though it hurt. The cuplrit is named 'Boots' and is the brown and black Chihuahua belonging to a Recent Convert woman. Little punk dog let me pet him just fine and THEN attacked me after.
Okay what else.... well my new Companion got me addicted to a new CD. Anyone seen/heard the Musical called 'The Garden' by Micheal McLean (sp?). It's the same guy who did 'Forgotten Carols' if anyone's seen that. I did when younger. The first time I heard this little seed singing about how she can't grow I thought it was the weirdest thing ever. Then once I listened to it all the way through I was hooked. It's SO EPIC. I suggest that people listen to it if they can. I'm going to check for recordings of the actual play on youtube or something when I get back to see if they match my mental image of what's going on, haha!
I have gotten just a few postcards from three friends since I came and I've sent a bunch out. I now thing postcards are one of the coolest things ever! So if anyone has an old postcard send me one! They take less postage but make the recipient feel more special! I put them up on the corkboard above my table and it's fun to look at them. I have two from California, one from Alaska, and one from Spain.
Oooh yeah! Last night we got to go to a Baptism and it was so wonderful. A woman who had been investigating the Church for two years (and is sooo adorable by the way!) was baptized with her son that was old enough. And it was also her birthday! That part was so wonderful on it's own, but what made it even BETTER was that her Husband had decided to get baptized as well but kept it a secret. So after the Mother and Son had gotten dried off and dressed and were sitting again they opened the font door to show the Father in white in the water. Oh it was so sweet. I saw her beginning to cry she was so happy so I whipped out a tissue and gave it to her. Fue tan dulce a mi corazon y espiritu. They are so happy! That's what it's all about!
It hasn't been QUITE as hot as it has been before, but still up there. I guess it should start 'cooling down' in September. I'll endure another summer before the end of my Mission, but I'll only be gone one Christmas!
This past Saturday we didn't have any appointments set up (even our dinner appointment with a member was canceled!) so we did a whole lot of Tracting. Walking up and down a street and knocking on doors. Some people were polite, a handfull actually listened, and a few where outrightly rude but they were thankfully in the minority.
Oh! Also Elder Bednar was here this past weekend to talk to the English Stake but he didn't talk to the Missionaries so I didn't get to see him! Que Paso? But I'm over it, we'll have one of the Seventy here next week I think to talk to us.
Hmmm, I think that's all the news I can remember/wrote down for now.
Talk to you again next week!
~ Hermana Smart
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
New address
Here is Darcie's new address for her apartment
Hermana Smart
Green Tree Apts #509
4211 Clay Hill Drive
Houston Tx, 77084
Hermana Smart
Green Tree Apts #509
4211 Clay Hill Drive
Houston Tx, 77084
Hace Mucho Calor
It's been hot, but it rained FINALLY! Lots of people get depressed when there's clouds. I was depressed becasue of the utter LACK of clouds for a few days! WAH. I miss the weather in Western Washington. But I have to fully admit, Houston has a lot of beautiful sky to look at. Even better when it's clouds I think though.
Soooo what's been going on with me... well we've spent a lot of time trying to find more people to teach since before I came Hermana Christiensen and her former Companion's top Investigators have all been baptised and now are wonderful Recent Converts. But that means that our teaching pool has shrunk. Hence the searching for more people prepared to learn by Heavenly Father. But it's a good work, we got a few Refferals that will hopefully continue to have lessons.
Uhm... that's pretty much it actually. Well we did promise two families with children that if they read their scriptures and pray every day, and then come to church yesterday, then we will bring them icecream. I think both families were at church, so we're having two icecream parties! YEAH!! Bribes work! *thumbs up*
But yeah, sorry for not a whole lot of news. I haven't heard much from others either. I've only got mail two days in two weeks! I know some people get less, but for me it's a bit of a mental blow. When we checked the mailbox on Saturday and it was empty (when I knew for a fact I should have gotten a letter from Hermana Green by then) Hermana Christiensen cried "Nadie nos quiere!" (translated: "Nobody likes us!")
Talk to you next week.
*salutes*
~ Hermana Smart
Soooo what's been going on with me... well we've spent a lot of time trying to find more people to teach since before I came Hermana Christiensen and her former Companion's top Investigators have all been baptised and now are wonderful Recent Converts. But that means that our teaching pool has shrunk. Hence the searching for more people prepared to learn by Heavenly Father. But it's a good work, we got a few Refferals that will hopefully continue to have lessons.
Uhm... that's pretty much it actually. Well we did promise two families with children that if they read their scriptures and pray every day, and then come to church yesterday, then we will bring them icecream. I think both families were at church, so we're having two icecream parties! YEAH!! Bribes work! *thumbs up*
But yeah, sorry for not a whole lot of news. I haven't heard much from others either. I've only got mail two days in two weeks! I know some people get less, but for me it's a bit of a mental blow. When we checked the mailbox on Saturday and it was empty (when I knew for a fact I should have gotten a letter from Hermana Green by then) Hermana Christiensen cried "Nadie nos quiere!" (translated: "Nobody likes us!")
Talk to you next week.
*salutes*
~ Hermana Smart
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
New area
Whelp, I've completed almost one full week in my new area.
Lots of stuff is different: New companion, New roads, New people, New routines in some cases. I kind of feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me quite rudely, not as bad as before. And most of any such feelings are just me being a brat and disliking change. The work is the same, the goal is the same, my purpose is the same. The most important things have not changed.
I still miss Hermana Green terribley, she was more than a wonderful companion, I felt as though I had found the best friend I'd been missing out on until now. We just complimented eachother so well. But now I have the oportunity to make another wonderful friend. And then afterwards I'll have another oportunity. We grow up ten years while serving a mission, that includes making ten years worth of friends I suppose, haha!
The new Ward contains very nice people, they are warm and supportive as all the wards I've been in before have. I'm always with family, my Brothers and Sisters in the Church. I miss my Latina Mamas that would hug my head to their busom and declare that they would take care of me since my real Mom was thousands of miles away. I'm sure that's going to happen to me again though, heh, the Latino people are incredibley loving.
I'm doing a lot more tracting in this area than I was before, which means walking streets and knocking doors. The one return appointment we got that has passed we were stood up for. But that is the usual pattern. Whenever someone actually allows us entrance, AND is there for the return appointment, that is a very rare and precious thing indeed. Those are the people that may have been prepared by Heavenly Father and are ready to accept the Gospel. We have a few Investigators, and several Less-Actives that we are trying to help. But they are all good people, and I desire very strongly that they have the Fullness of the Gospel in their lives.
Oh! By-the-way my new companion's name is Hermana Christianson, and she's from Washington too! But from a place called Royal City, which is close to the Tri-City area. We get along pretty well, we're both easy-going and I think this will be a good Transfer. She has been out for nine months, which means that she is halfway through her mission!
In other news: two nights ago we locked out keys in the car when we came home. Meaning we couldn't get into our car OR into our apartment and it was nine at night. Major bummer. We called our District Leaders, they didnt' know what to do, so we called our Zone Leaders, they told us to call 911. Hermana Christianson did and the Dispatch Lady said their Deputies did not carry the kind of equiptment we needed to get the car unlocked. She told us to call the Towtruck and they would charge us. Heck with that! We're Missionaries! We don't have money to spare!! So the Zone Leaders (who by the way I heard lots of laughing being made at us in the background while I was on the phone with them) called the Assistents to the President who drove to the Mission Office, got in after hours, got the spare key, and then drove to us to unlock the car and solve the whole problem. YAY!!!
While waiting we sat on the sidewalk and did Nightly Planning, then told crazy stories to eachother from our College days. Hna. Christianson said it was like we were camping or something, that made it fun. We still got in before lights-out at least!
No other super crazy stories to tell I'm afraid. Maybe next week.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Lots of stuff is different: New companion, New roads, New people, New routines in some cases. I kind of feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me quite rudely, not as bad as before. And most of any such feelings are just me being a brat and disliking change. The work is the same, the goal is the same, my purpose is the same. The most important things have not changed.
I still miss Hermana Green terribley, she was more than a wonderful companion, I felt as though I had found the best friend I'd been missing out on until now. We just complimented eachother so well. But now I have the oportunity to make another wonderful friend. And then afterwards I'll have another oportunity. We grow up ten years while serving a mission, that includes making ten years worth of friends I suppose, haha!
The new Ward contains very nice people, they are warm and supportive as all the wards I've been in before have. I'm always with family, my Brothers and Sisters in the Church. I miss my Latina Mamas that would hug my head to their busom and declare that they would take care of me since my real Mom was thousands of miles away. I'm sure that's going to happen to me again though, heh, the Latino people are incredibley loving.
I'm doing a lot more tracting in this area than I was before, which means walking streets and knocking doors. The one return appointment we got that has passed we were stood up for. But that is the usual pattern. Whenever someone actually allows us entrance, AND is there for the return appointment, that is a very rare and precious thing indeed. Those are the people that may have been prepared by Heavenly Father and are ready to accept the Gospel. We have a few Investigators, and several Less-Actives that we are trying to help. But they are all good people, and I desire very strongly that they have the Fullness of the Gospel in their lives.
Oh! By-the-way my new companion's name is Hermana Christianson, and she's from Washington too! But from a place called Royal City, which is close to the Tri-City area. We get along pretty well, we're both easy-going and I think this will be a good Transfer. She has been out for nine months, which means that she is halfway through her mission!
In other news: two nights ago we locked out keys in the car when we came home. Meaning we couldn't get into our car OR into our apartment and it was nine at night. Major bummer. We called our District Leaders, they didnt' know what to do, so we called our Zone Leaders, they told us to call 911. Hermana Christianson did and the Dispatch Lady said their Deputies did not carry the kind of equiptment we needed to get the car unlocked. She told us to call the Towtruck and they would charge us. Heck with that! We're Missionaries! We don't have money to spare!! So the Zone Leaders (who by the way I heard lots of laughing being made at us in the background while I was on the phone with them) called the Assistents to the President who drove to the Mission Office, got in after hours, got the spare key, and then drove to us to unlock the car and solve the whole problem. YAY!!!
While waiting we sat on the sidewalk and did Nightly Planning, then told crazy stories to eachother from our College days. Hna. Christianson said it was like we were camping or something, that made it fun. We still got in before lights-out at least!
No other super crazy stories to tell I'm afraid. Maybe next week.
Love you all!
~ Hermana Smart
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
My first transfer
Waaaaah!
They're moving me away from Hermana Green!!
This is something I definately DO NOT WANT but when God wants you somewhere else the best thing to do is say 'Sir, Yessir!' and go. Which I'm doing, with a minimum of whining.
I'm being sent out to the Katy area, to a Ward named Bearcreek I think. My new Companion's name is Hermana Christianson. I've never met her before but from what I've heard she is very nice and cute and wears flowers in her hair all the time. Hermana Green doesn't know her well but said she's very Fairy-like, and Hna. Christianson's Trainer Hna. Lillywhite said she is like Glenda the Good Witch. So I'm thinking she will be a good person to have as my 'Greenie-Breaker' (which sounds harsh, but that's the nickname of the Companion you have after your Trainer)
Hermana Green is Training again too, so she's staying in Gulfbank until the end of her mission.
I go tomorrow, today is my last day with Hermana Green and to meet any of the people from the Area and Ward I've been serving for the last three months.
Yesterday a Recent Convert who thought he would never see me again tried to hug me! I don't think anyone's explained to him that while serving Missionaries can't hug anyone of the opposite gender! I had my hands on his shoulders and was repeating "No! No! No!" with a smigeon of despiration. Looking back on it now I actually think it was pretty hilarious, haha!
I actually accidentally hugged one of the Senior Missionaries last week after hugging his Wife! I gave him a sidehug because he put his arm out, then realizing what I had done I drew away with a horrified gasp of "Oh no!" and you know what he said? He just grinned and said "Well it's too late now!" I ran down the hallway crying "Hermanaaaaa! I just hugged Elder Chestnut!" And heard the couple behind me just bust out laughing. Later when we were leaving the Mission Office Sister Chestnut told me, "I think he wants another hug." And they laughed when I hid behind Hermana Green. I was so mortified but they were just highly amused.
Hmmmm, I'm not thinking of anything else really. Just send any mail to the Mission Office address of: 16623 Hafer Rd, Houston TX 77090. At least until I figure out what my new address is and reply to the mound of letters that suddenly all attacked me at once! So if you're waiting for a letter, I have it I just need to get though them in order.
Love and Stuffies!
~ Hermana Smart
They're moving me away from Hermana Green!!
This is something I definately DO NOT WANT but when God wants you somewhere else the best thing to do is say 'Sir, Yessir!' and go. Which I'm doing, with a minimum of whining.
I'm being sent out to the Katy area, to a Ward named Bearcreek I think. My new Companion's name is Hermana Christianson. I've never met her before but from what I've heard she is very nice and cute and wears flowers in her hair all the time. Hermana Green doesn't know her well but said she's very Fairy-like, and Hna. Christianson's Trainer Hna. Lillywhite said she is like Glenda the Good Witch. So I'm thinking she will be a good person to have as my 'Greenie-Breaker' (which sounds harsh, but that's the nickname of the Companion you have after your Trainer)
Hermana Green is Training again too, so she's staying in Gulfbank until the end of her mission.
I go tomorrow, today is my last day with Hermana Green and to meet any of the people from the Area and Ward I've been serving for the last three months.
Yesterday a Recent Convert who thought he would never see me again tried to hug me! I don't think anyone's explained to him that while serving Missionaries can't hug anyone of the opposite gender! I had my hands on his shoulders and was repeating "No! No! No!" with a smigeon of despiration. Looking back on it now I actually think it was pretty hilarious, haha!
I actually accidentally hugged one of the Senior Missionaries last week after hugging his Wife! I gave him a sidehug because he put his arm out, then realizing what I had done I drew away with a horrified gasp of "Oh no!" and you know what he said? He just grinned and said "Well it's too late now!" I ran down the hallway crying "Hermanaaaaa! I just hugged Elder Chestnut!" And heard the couple behind me just bust out laughing. Later when we were leaving the Mission Office Sister Chestnut told me, "I think he wants another hug." And they laughed when I hid behind Hermana Green. I was so mortified but they were just highly amused.
Hmmmm, I'm not thinking of anything else really. Just send any mail to the Mission Office address of: 16623 Hafer Rd, Houston TX 77090. At least until I figure out what my new address is and reply to the mound of letters that suddenly all attacked me at once! So if you're waiting for a letter, I have it I just need to get though them in order.
Love and Stuffies!
~ Hermana Smart
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
July 19
Ahhhh! This is the last week of my second Transfer! ALREADY?! Que Paso?
This means that at the beginning of next week either I could be moved to a new area, or Hermana Green moved away and I get a new companion and I have to be the expert on the area we have! Or something wonderful could happen and we get to stay together another transfer. I'm actually hoping that we can train one of the two new Spanish-speaking Hermanas coming in next transfer.
I've almost been here three months! Twelve weeks! Eighty-four days! Two-thousand and sixteen hours! And I won't even calculate the minutes and seconds because this is just getting ridiculous!
Okay in other news... hmm. Well for anyone that felt acute concern for me hearing that there had been a hurricane don't worry too badly. There are apparently quite a few hurricanes every year so they are common. It's just how strong are they and where do they actually have land-fall are the worries. Hurricane Alex, my first one, hit down in Mexico. We just had crazy rain for a while from it. We had a Tropical Storm a little while back, I don't believe it got a name. I fine much enjoyment when it is overcast and raining, especially because often we get to watch and hear the results of thunderstorms (which are entirely EPIC in Houston just so you know.)
Also a note worth making is for the next two weeks anyone sending me mail should send it to the Mission Office address not to my apartment to avoid it getting lost and I never recieving it, considering that I'm going to be possibley changing residences.
And a kind of big occurance to report is we just had a meeting this last week where we were informed about then instructed in a new 'Simplified Curiculum' that is being put out by the Church for Missionaries. It involves adding chapters to the Preach My Gospel manuel. They're telling us now so we can begin implimenting it before they start changing the teaching in the Missionary Training Centers next year. The President, Zone leaders, and District leaders spent three days last week in meetings for ten hours each day learning about the new Simplified Curiculum. Hermana Green and I are excited! We're doing our best to be Early Adopters of a good change and are already beginning to not only improve our study but also impliment it in our teaching as well. Good things are ahead!
That's all I have to report.
Have fun and read your Scriptures until next week!
Con Amor
~ Hermana Smart
This means that at the beginning of next week either I could be moved to a new area, or Hermana Green moved away and I get a new companion and I have to be the expert on the area we have! Or something wonderful could happen and we get to stay together another transfer. I'm actually hoping that we can train one of the two new Spanish-speaking Hermanas coming in next transfer.
I've almost been here three months! Twelve weeks! Eighty-four days! Two-thousand and sixteen hours! And I won't even calculate the minutes and seconds because this is just getting ridiculous!
Okay in other news... hmm. Well for anyone that felt acute concern for me hearing that there had been a hurricane don't worry too badly. There are apparently quite a few hurricanes every year so they are common. It's just how strong are they and where do they actually have land-fall are the worries. Hurricane Alex, my first one, hit down in Mexico. We just had crazy rain for a while from it. We had a Tropical Storm a little while back, I don't believe it got a name. I fine much enjoyment when it is overcast and raining, especially because often we get to watch and hear the results of thunderstorms (which are entirely EPIC in Houston just so you know.)
Also a note worth making is for the next two weeks anyone sending me mail should send it to the Mission Office address not to my apartment to avoid it getting lost and I never recieving it, considering that I'm going to be possibley changing residences.
And a kind of big occurance to report is we just had a meeting this last week where we were informed about then instructed in a new 'Simplified Curiculum' that is being put out by the Church for Missionaries. It involves adding chapters to the Preach My Gospel manuel. They're telling us now so we can begin implimenting it before they start changing the teaching in the Missionary Training Centers next year. The President, Zone leaders, and District leaders spent three days last week in meetings for ten hours each day learning about the new Simplified Curiculum. Hermana Green and I are excited! We're doing our best to be Early Adopters of a good change and are already beginning to not only improve our study but also impliment it in our teaching as well. Good things are ahead!
That's all I have to report.
Have fun and read your Scriptures until next week!
Con Amor
~ Hermana Smart
July 12
Whoa, craziness! I'm almost to the end of my second Transfer in the Mission! When did that happen?!First on my list of stuff to inform you of is that we have a Progressing Investigator with a Baptismal Date! Yaaaay! She is the most adorable little woman! She comes up to my shoulder (I'm going to feel SO short when I get home, I'm used to being taller than the men here!) and she is very soft-spoken and polite. She accepted the invitation to be baptized this week and is a joy to be with. And just icing on the cake her little dog had puppies! So we get to see those adorable little peritos when we visit, and the Pera likes us now so we can actually pet them a little. She told us that eight days before we met her that she had been at the Pulga (flea market) looking for items for a party she was halping to plan. Missonaries take turns at a table talking to people and extending invitations to learn and in that instance they had talked to her friend but not to her. Then we came a little over a week later and she said that she felt special because the Lord had sent us just for her. And it's true! I believe that 100%, we are guided to those who have been prepared to recieve us and our message. We had actually been checking on a Referal that was bad (meaning someone gave us a fake name and address) then decided to go knocking on the street. That is how we met this wonderful woman. If we just keep walking, keeping faith active, then the Lord can guide our footsteps. But God cannot drive a parked car. We have to be in motion and trust that we are where we have been sent for a reason!We also have two other Progressing Invesigators, but they will lose their 'progressing' here soon if they miss out on church another week. But they appear honestly interested in learning and ask REALLY good questions. Which is wonderful! We love questions with the intent to further edify! I just really like it when I understand what they are asking, haha! Sometimes I can even answer too!Whoops, outta time!Catch y'all next week.Same Missionary time, same Missionary channel.~ Hermana Smart
July 5th
Yay for my first Hurricane!Well okay, Alex was technically in Mexico, but the effects reached us up here in Houston! Practically ALL last week it was overcast and I LOVED it! Reminded me of home and spared me the effects of exposure to direct sunlight. On Friday though it rained like a day in the time of Noah, and it flooded too! It flooded the streets so bad that we actually had to make a U-turn on an on ramp for the highway to avoid a sudden lake with stalled cars in it. Then we kept trying to get back to our area and had to abort and try another way because of flooding. THEN while trying to get to an appointment we parked the car out of the way and walked down two streets shin-high in water holding our skirts up. It was CRAZY. There was water up to people's doors in some places, others had their houses elevated and looked like they were still fine. Some places were deeper than others and when we finally got to the house, no one was home... The other appointment we went to no one was home either. The area was Flooded! Where else could they have been?! It was actually really fun walking around in the water and we got pictures and video on Hermana Green's camera! Althought I might have ruined the pair of shoes I was wearing.... and now I have a cold. We were soaked from the rain and our feet were wet part of the day, so it's not suprising actually. At least we could finally enjoy the Heated Seats feature in our car, haha!I found out that the names of all the Hurricanes in a year are actually picked out in advance! There's a list you can go find and see what the next hurricane's name is going to be! I only saw the list for a moment, could someone find the list and send it to me? I would like to know!Also a Recent Convert who is AWESOME about coming with use to teaching appointments (He actually calls us when he doesn't have work and asks to accompany us!!!) gave my Companion and I each a little Texas-themed Snowglobe! My first souvenir! Mine has a Texas flag inside and the base has a long-horded steer, a sod house, a cowboy, and a space rocket! So fun!And yesterday on Preperation Day I baked 45 cookies at a Member's house! That was way fun, and like a third of the cookies had been eaten before we left which was good, because there were a LOT and we still have Snickerdoodles in our apartment too from Sunday night. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday our curfew was moved up to 7:30pm unless we had an appointment in order to be safe because there would be people partying and setting off fireworks. Though actually I didn't hear a whole lot. I hope everyone had an awesome, fun, and safe Independence Day weekend!
Friday, July 2, 2010
June 27th
Feliz Lunes Ustedes!This week has gone a little differently in that poor Hermana Green's tummy troubles tried to take her down. She has periodic pains that make it hard to keep working, but they usually stop after a while and she just powers through them, being the hard-working trooper she is. But this last week she had them BAD and we're on day five now. It makes it so that she can't really sleep, and sleep seems to be the only thing that helps. So please add Hermana Green to your prayers. Thank you.In other news I forgot to mention a few things from the last week. One is that I got really bold and protested an explicit calendar in a sneaky way. You see, the man sharing an apartment with our Recent Convert Pedro Castro who was also taking lessons with us had an inappropriate calendar displayed right next to the front door. So one day when he wasn't there, I put a long sticky note to cover the woman with 'Soy una Hija de Dios!' written on it (meaning 'I am a daughter of God!') Next time we came by it had not been removed. I added another sticky that had the command form of 'don't look at me anymore!' He claimed that the calendar was only for the days and not for the pictures, so it might be an issue of pride that he hasn't removed the stickies because that would mean that he DOES look at the pictures. I have a scripture written and waiting for the next month incase I need to do more sneaky protesting.Also when Missionaries back out in our mission car the other companion is required to stand behind at a distance and motion them out to avoid any possibility of an accident. Since there's two of us we might as well, and it's nice having someone making sure you're clear when you can't see yourself. But twice now, once where she actually got me with the car, my companion hasn't paid attention and nearly backed over me. I had to slam on the trunk a couple of times to make her stop. Scared the daylights outta me!In an ironic twist of Fate I allowed Hna Green to straighten my hair last night and this morning, and it was raining, only to rain MUCH harder with big fatty drops when we made the mad dash into the college whose computers we use for email. I haven't even been able to show my hair to anyone yet! Blah!That's all for now. If anyone has specifict questions my address is on the side there.Have a good week!~ Hermana Smart
Thursday, June 24, 2010
June 20, 2010
Hola, greetings and salutations.
What tales shall I regal you with this week?
Well there is one thing that is very different about Houston. As it becomes summer time the insects mature and begin to romance each other. This includes Cicadas which are very loud and another insect that the Latinos call 'cuchara', I don't know the English name. But they hiss in the trees. So every few seconds there's a loud buzzing, and sometimes it's loud enough to drown out our talking. That really makes me feel like I'm in another country!
Another thing that's foreign to me is the heat. Everyone keeps telling me 'Oh, wait until July and August' with a scary kind of foreboding. It's really starting to warm up in earnest. One morning last week it was 99.8 degrees when we left for the day. ALMOST 100 degrees! Yikes! Then while we were driving there came a sudden violent deluge of rain, we drove in and out of several of these and that cooled off the temperature to 76 degrees. Better right? WRONG. That made the humidity SPIKE so it didn't actually feel any better to be outside. In fact the humidity makes it harder for me to breath, I'm going to need gills by August! But even with all that I'm more highly amused by the crazy weather than anything else. I've actually discovered that the Heat doesn't bother me terribly. What gets me is being in the sun, it is my kryptnonite no matter the temperature.
And speaking of temperature there's a story I forgot to tell from like my third week in Texas. Every Thursday we go have dinner at the Ward Mission Leader's house and then have weekly Coordination Meeting with all the ward missionaries and various other leaders. Well one time we had the usual rice and little toasted tortillas and this meat saute with peppers. Now these peppers were green and I thought it was a bell pepper because everyone else was eating it fine and no one had told me not to eat it. Only after I scarf one of the things am I told "Oh don't eat those." But it was too late! It was like a chemical burn all the way down my throat once I tried to keep eating. I turned SO red and I was straight-up CRYING, tears streaming down my face as I gasped and coughed and everyone else at the table laughed at me. No permanent damage though, I'm just very cautious about bits of green in my food now.
That's all I have on my list of things I wanted to talk about for now. If anyone has a specific question or something they would like to hear about, write me! I'll be happy to give a specific exposition on a subject of your choosing.
Until next week,
Love and Stuffies!
~ Hermana Smart
What tales shall I regal you with this week?
Well there is one thing that is very different about Houston. As it becomes summer time the insects mature and begin to romance each other. This includes Cicadas which are very loud and another insect that the Latinos call 'cuchara', I don't know the English name. But they hiss in the trees. So every few seconds there's a loud buzzing, and sometimes it's loud enough to drown out our talking. That really makes me feel like I'm in another country!
Another thing that's foreign to me is the heat. Everyone keeps telling me 'Oh, wait until July and August' with a scary kind of foreboding. It's really starting to warm up in earnest. One morning last week it was 99.8 degrees when we left for the day. ALMOST 100 degrees! Yikes! Then while we were driving there came a sudden violent deluge of rain, we drove in and out of several of these and that cooled off the temperature to 76 degrees. Better right? WRONG. That made the humidity SPIKE so it didn't actually feel any better to be outside. In fact the humidity makes it harder for me to breath, I'm going to need gills by August! But even with all that I'm more highly amused by the crazy weather than anything else. I've actually discovered that the Heat doesn't bother me terribly. What gets me is being in the sun, it is my kryptnonite no matter the temperature.
And speaking of temperature there's a story I forgot to tell from like my third week in Texas. Every Thursday we go have dinner at the Ward Mission Leader's house and then have weekly Coordination Meeting with all the ward missionaries and various other leaders. Well one time we had the usual rice and little toasted tortillas and this meat saute with peppers. Now these peppers were green and I thought it was a bell pepper because everyone else was eating it fine and no one had told me not to eat it. Only after I scarf one of the things am I told "Oh don't eat those." But it was too late! It was like a chemical burn all the way down my throat once I tried to keep eating. I turned SO red and I was straight-up CRYING, tears streaming down my face as I gasped and coughed and everyone else at the table laughed at me. No permanent damage though, I'm just very cautious about bits of green in my food now.
That's all I have on my list of things I wanted to talk about for now. If anyone has a specific question or something they would like to hear about, write me! I'll be happy to give a specific exposition on a subject of your choosing.
Until next week,
Love and Stuffies!
~ Hermana Smart
June 14-2010
Say hello to my second Transfer in the Mission!Transfers are six weeks long, and at the end is when Missionaries get a call to see if they are staying where they are, moving to a new area, or getting a new companion. Luckily I do indeed get to stay with my marvelous Trainer Hermana Green for another Transfer. I hope I can stay with her until she leaves in October to go home, but I don't think that's terribly likely. Okay news on the week let's see... hmmm....Well I went on my first Exchanges last weekend. Exchanges are when Companionships swap companions for a twenty-four hour period. It is a fun way to see how things are done in another companionship, and what another area is like, to gain more experience. I was the one that was swapped, so I went to the area of Crosstimbers where I had never been before and Hermana Thomas was my companion. She is pretty awesome. But it was interesting to be with her because while I am a Greenie, she was a Veteran and is going home on Wednesday. What a contrast! We talked a LOT and I was trying to syphon off all the knowledge and experience and such that I could in that time. While on exchanges I went to the Pulga for the third time, I'm kinda-sorta getting better. The Elders that were there before us paid the icecream vendor next to our table so we could each have one of these things that I can't remember the name of. But it's like sweet, milky with a hint of fruit flavor liquid in plastic and frozen. It was SO nice after standing in the heat and talking to people for hours! You bite a corner off the plastic and it's like a big otterpop. Yum! They're only a dollar, so I think I MAY have a new Pulga tradition to help me be excited for them.I don't know if I remembered to talk about Squirt before. So there's this little toad that we saw on the grass next to our apartment while we were walking in one night. It had been raining so it was a good moistness for him I guess. Then we saw him again another night and Hermana Green tried to pick him up again. I guess she squeezed him or scared him because he peed ALL over her hand Haha! So his name is Squirt, and now we see him with good regularity. Last night in fact. If it's rained that day it's almost garenteed that he's going to be out on that grass. I guess that's all for this week. Today is the long-awaited day of Ruben's BBQ! Ruben is a member who is very awesome, comes with us to appointments and is an all-around wonderful fun guy. But he ALSO puts on a BBQ once a Transfer for missionaries to either say their goodbyes, or also their hellos depending which week it's held. And I've heard about this wonderous event for six weeks now and I'm so excited! Eeeee! I'll tell you how it goes next week probably, and I'll have pictures from it!Viva la Vida Misional!~ Hermana Smart
Roomies at the MTC
Hermana Read
Our Dorm room
We happened to all have different colored towels. Mine of course was Orange
Our Dorm room
We happened to all have different colored towels. Mine of course was Orange
Monday, June 7, 2010
A month and two days in Texas
Greetings to family, friends, and possible future acquaintances!
First off: I had my first baptism on Saturday! WOOOOHOOOOO! Oh it was so wonderful! A couple of things went wrong, but we persevered and Pedro got baptized and I am so happy! I know that his life will continue to change for the better, and he will receive even more blessings. Starting with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And his apartment-mate Jose came both to his Baptism, and then to his Confirmation the next day!
Speaking of Jose, there is a story I would like to tell. Jose is interesting, he agrees with everything we teach, he even participates and sounds like a Member a lot of the time as he helps Pedro understand. But he says to change is really hard for him, even though he believes everything we are saying is true; INCLUDING that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth. But he's in every lesson we teach, he's started cooking dinner for us when we come over, and he even reminded us when it was 9:04 and we needed to be home at 9:30. (He called us 'ninas' which means 'young girls' basically) And actually that particular night last week, we said goodbuy and they stayed on their second-story porch as we went to where we always parked. When we came to our car a man called out to us and began to walk towards us. Now this man had a cigarette, a plastic garbage can, and was in striped pajamas with a robe and flipflops. Already we know that this is not normal. Anyways he asks "You speak english?" and we said we did. He said that he had lived there since August and had not met a SINGLE person who spoke english. Uhhhh-huh.... Well he told us this story that made me doutb that he knew english either (there was something about snakes, crippled mexicans, his pregnant ladyfriend, drivers liscence, and a busride across town tomorrow). Then he asked for money, and as missionaries we don't carry cash on us so we couldnt' help him. He turned cold real quick once we wouldn't give him money and then he walked off. Now in normal circumstances we would have driven off pretty quickly, but Hermana Green had to back me out of the parking space, since I was driving, and I didn't want to leave her alone outside the car incase the guy was crazy AND aggressive. So once he walked away Hna. Green gestured at me mouthing 'Go! Go!' and I quickly got in the car and she backed me up, and got inside where it was safe.
Here is where Jose comes in: I didn't see but Hna. Green did that he had either heard the man call out to us or saw him walking towards where we always parked and he came down. He had been watching the goings on from a short distance away with his arms crossed. I wish I had known he was there, Hna. Green said his face was priceless, he looked like a dog with his hackles up. I have no doubt that if that man had done anything threatening at all our short, mexican guardian angel would have swooped in in a heartbeat.
Those were the two most exciting events this past week. There has been a lot of cloudcover and some rain lately, which I enjoy. One day it was even dim enough to remind me of my home in Western Washington! But as soon as I step outside the illusion is shattered, 'cause it's hot and humid. But that's okay. I haven't gotten sunburned yet, I MIGHT be tanning a little, I don't know. But what I do know is that I must have the tastiest bloodtype in the land because I get EATEN up by mosquitoes. I am like candy to them! But weird thing is it's always my legs, and usually my left leg. Don't know why that is. But I am developing a supreme will to not scratch them when I get them. At least I haven't been bitten by any ants lately, that's happened a couple of times too. The buggers are everywhere! We had an infestation of sugar ants in our kitchen a while back, and now some in our bathroom. Though I think they might have exterminated themselves for us, they came for the Robitussin in the medicine cabinet, then we found vast numbers fo their corpses on the bathroom counter. And I didn't see any live ones when I cleaned this morning... hm...
This is the last week in this Transfer (6 weeks) but I don't think I'll be transfered to another area, or that I'll be losing my Trainer Hermana Green. They usually keep Trainers and Trainees together for two tranfers. I'm happy about that.
Much love!
~ Hermana Green
First off: I had my first baptism on Saturday! WOOOOHOOOOO! Oh it was so wonderful! A couple of things went wrong, but we persevered and Pedro got baptized and I am so happy! I know that his life will continue to change for the better, and he will receive even more blessings. Starting with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And his apartment-mate Jose came both to his Baptism, and then to his Confirmation the next day!
Speaking of Jose, there is a story I would like to tell. Jose is interesting, he agrees with everything we teach, he even participates and sounds like a Member a lot of the time as he helps Pedro understand. But he says to change is really hard for him, even though he believes everything we are saying is true; INCLUDING that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth. But he's in every lesson we teach, he's started cooking dinner for us when we come over, and he even reminded us when it was 9:04 and we needed to be home at 9:30. (He called us 'ninas' which means 'young girls' basically) And actually that particular night last week, we said goodbuy and they stayed on their second-story porch as we went to where we always parked. When we came to our car a man called out to us and began to walk towards us. Now this man had a cigarette, a plastic garbage can, and was in striped pajamas with a robe and flipflops. Already we know that this is not normal. Anyways he asks "You speak english?" and we said we did. He said that he had lived there since August and had not met a SINGLE person who spoke english. Uhhhh-huh.... Well he told us this story that made me doutb that he knew english either (there was something about snakes, crippled mexicans, his pregnant ladyfriend, drivers liscence, and a busride across town tomorrow). Then he asked for money, and as missionaries we don't carry cash on us so we couldnt' help him. He turned cold real quick once we wouldn't give him money and then he walked off. Now in normal circumstances we would have driven off pretty quickly, but Hermana Green had to back me out of the parking space, since I was driving, and I didn't want to leave her alone outside the car incase the guy was crazy AND aggressive. So once he walked away Hna. Green gestured at me mouthing 'Go! Go!' and I quickly got in the car and she backed me up, and got inside where it was safe.
Here is where Jose comes in: I didn't see but Hna. Green did that he had either heard the man call out to us or saw him walking towards where we always parked and he came down. He had been watching the goings on from a short distance away with his arms crossed. I wish I had known he was there, Hna. Green said his face was priceless, he looked like a dog with his hackles up. I have no doubt that if that man had done anything threatening at all our short, mexican guardian angel would have swooped in in a heartbeat.
Those were the two most exciting events this past week. There has been a lot of cloudcover and some rain lately, which I enjoy. One day it was even dim enough to remind me of my home in Western Washington! But as soon as I step outside the illusion is shattered, 'cause it's hot and humid. But that's okay. I haven't gotten sunburned yet, I MIGHT be tanning a little, I don't know. But what I do know is that I must have the tastiest bloodtype in the land because I get EATEN up by mosquitoes. I am like candy to them! But weird thing is it's always my legs, and usually my left leg. Don't know why that is. But I am developing a supreme will to not scratch them when I get them. At least I haven't been bitten by any ants lately, that's happened a couple of times too. The buggers are everywhere! We had an infestation of sugar ants in our kitchen a while back, and now some in our bathroom. Though I think they might have exterminated themselves for us, they came for the Robitussin in the medicine cabinet, then we found vast numbers fo their corpses on the bathroom counter. And I didn't see any live ones when I cleaned this morning... hm...
This is the last week in this Transfer (6 weeks) but I don't think I'll be transfered to another area, or that I'll be losing my Trainer Hermana Green. They usually keep Trainers and Trainees together for two tranfers. I'm happy about that.
Much love!
~ Hermana Green
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Week four in Texas
Wow, I've been in Texas just under a month. Has it felt like a whole month to anyone?
In some ways it does feel like a whole four weeks to me. But in others, it is really just a blur punctuated by flashes of awesome.
Let's see, what do I want to talk about this week... well first off sorry that my email is late this week. As you all probably know Monday was Memorial Day, and many places were closed. Such as: the library where we type our emails. So everyone was to do them Tuesday. But then the site that we use for our email was down for the whole time. My companion logged in a few minutes before me because I was doing my email to the President of the Mission on a different program. Then when I tried it wouldn't allow me to log in no matter which link I tried or how I typed it. It was just a big ol' error page. So I sat while my companion finished her emails up and when she tried to log out and let me use her computer, but the site also errored when she logged out. So I was kinda sad, but I got over it.
We had another storm last week that was pretty awesome, lots of lightning and I got a video of it! I actually caught some bolts! Whoo! I hope that when I send my memory card home my parents will be able to put up some of my videos. I think they're cool at least heh.
Also we have one Member who is big on home remedies. (All Latinos seem to like home remedies like yucky teas and such) She gave my Companion a spoon full of Castor Oil and then made me take one too! I had always heard that Castor Oil tasted horrible. Truthfully it didn't taste like much, maybe a slight aftertaste of cucumber if you think hard enough. But the TEXTURE is what got us, oh goodness! It was like trying to swallow melted Vaseline. Bleeeeeeh. I don't think it did us any good either.
I'm really excited for tomorrow because we get to go to the Houston Temple! Yay! It's soooo pretty! I'll try to get some pictures of it, the grounds are beautiful and there's a fountain! Also we can go to the church bookstore that's next to it, maybe I can find an Angel Moroni key chain, I've wanted something like that for my bag for a little while. Or fun stickers! I love stickers!
I think that's it for now. I replied to all the letters I had been sent other than what I recieved late last week and I haven't gotten any letters yet this week so I'm up to date! Yay me!
Much love and encouragement from me to you!
Adios hasta el proximo Lunes
~ Hermana Smart
In some ways it does feel like a whole four weeks to me. But in others, it is really just a blur punctuated by flashes of awesome.
Let's see, what do I want to talk about this week... well first off sorry that my email is late this week. As you all probably know Monday was Memorial Day, and many places were closed. Such as: the library where we type our emails. So everyone was to do them Tuesday. But then the site that we use for our email was down for the whole time. My companion logged in a few minutes before me because I was doing my email to the President of the Mission on a different program. Then when I tried it wouldn't allow me to log in no matter which link I tried or how I typed it. It was just a big ol' error page. So I sat while my companion finished her emails up and when she tried to log out and let me use her computer, but the site also errored when she logged out. So I was kinda sad, but I got over it.
We had another storm last week that was pretty awesome, lots of lightning and I got a video of it! I actually caught some bolts! Whoo! I hope that when I send my memory card home my parents will be able to put up some of my videos. I think they're cool at least heh.
Also we have one Member who is big on home remedies. (All Latinos seem to like home remedies like yucky teas and such) She gave my Companion a spoon full of Castor Oil and then made me take one too! I had always heard that Castor Oil tasted horrible. Truthfully it didn't taste like much, maybe a slight aftertaste of cucumber if you think hard enough. But the TEXTURE is what got us, oh goodness! It was like trying to swallow melted Vaseline. Bleeeeeeh. I don't think it did us any good either.
I'm really excited for tomorrow because we get to go to the Houston Temple! Yay! It's soooo pretty! I'll try to get some pictures of it, the grounds are beautiful and there's a fountain! Also we can go to the church bookstore that's next to it, maybe I can find an Angel Moroni key chain, I've wanted something like that for my bag for a little while. Or fun stickers! I love stickers!
I think that's it for now. I replied to all the letters I had been sent other than what I recieved late last week and I haven't gotten any letters yet this week so I'm up to date! Yay me!
Much love and encouragement from me to you!
Adios hasta el proximo Lunes
~ Hermana Smart
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