This week President Hansen and his wife, who have been serving in the Texas Houston Mission for three years, will return to their home in Arizona and leave the 'keys of the kingdom' in the hands of President Pingree and his wife.
I'm a little sad, because I might not see them again for a while and also I've had the same Mission President for my entire mission. But I am excited to get to know President Pingree in my last six weeks here. He and his wife sound very sweet, and they are bringing their five children with them so that will be different. And I know that they have been prepared by the Lord to serve with us at this time in Houston Texas. I know my mission will be in good hands.
In other news: it's really hot! (Okay not new news) The humidity has spiked even though we haven't gotten a lot of rain, that's what makes July even worse. I'm hoping for a few epic storms before I head out though. And next week is the 4th of July, so I'll be emailing on Tuesday instead. I hope you all have fun plans in mind! So far our Zone has another BBQ planned, the last one was pretty fun so I'm excited!
Other than that there's not a whole lot of new information, just that we should have a baptism this next weekend. Yay! We're trying to think of a gift for him, because he is always going back and forth because of work and that he said he's sick of eating pure hamburgers we're thinking of buying a couple little microwave-able meals. He lives in a hotel because of work, so can't really cook for himself. Hopefully he likes that!!
Everyone have a fun and safe 4th!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Final Fate
Saturday night, June 18, the members of my District joined together in Baskin Robins 31 Flavors to be advised of our fate for the next seven weeks. And consequently, of my final fate in the last Transfer of my Mission.
I had a double-scoop sugar cone. One of Rocky Road and one of Rainbow Sherbet.
And it turns out I'm not going anywhere. Still in Fairbanks, still with Hermana Barton. Sweet!
I thought for SURE we were going to Trio-Train because there were no other Senior Hermanas that were available and our apartment is a good size for another person. But I dodged the bullet on that one (I kind of always wanted to Trio-train though...)
Because I'm staying in the same place I don't really have a lot of new stuff to report. Well, actually on Friday and Saturday last week we had an outpouring of miracles that was really cool! Let's see if I can remember them all:
1) While we were getting out of our car a man leaving the apartment complex called us over. He was a former investigator that had said he was happy with his church but accepted the Book of Mormon. He said he would be back in an hour and wanted to meet with us!
2) We visited another investigator and found out that she had already asked her employer to switch around her work days so that she would have Sundays off and could come to church! (that's amazing because it's always like pulling teeth to get people to request Sundays off!)
3) Then we checked on a family that we are teaching. We have only been able to have one sit-down lesson with them, but we keep checking back and brought them all copies of the Book of Mormon. We found out that their 11-year-old has read to 1 Nephi chapter 17 in two weeks WITHOUT us reminding him AND that his Dad reads every day after coming home from work!
4) Later on we were making calls and FINALLY got back in contact with another investigator that we thought was avoiding us. But it turns out that her two-year-old was sick bad with a flu for one week, then the week after she was the sick one. She didn't want to get us sick and was too out of it to call us back. But now she's back on board!
5) We often struggle on keeping our lessons within the time-limit because of the Hispanic Culture (I love the people! Just their sense of Good Hospitality means they expect us to stay longer than an hour so they can serve us so it's hard to get out!) But we were doing some Micro-lessons where we got in and out within a half an hour and we taught more, it was great!
6) Our only Progressing Investigator for a while is amazing and would come back into town ever weekend to have a lesson and go to Church (He even went to the English Ward when he missed the Spanish one!) But when we brought up setting a Baptismal Date as a goal the first time he got mad and said if we tried to put a date on him he would never come back to Church again! We kind of didn't bring it up again for two weeks, but then we did, and the week after we asked if he had prayed and after some resistance he said something to the effect of "I'll prove that Satan can't obstruct me from being baptized!" then he pointed at Hna Barton and said "Pone una fecha tu!" Which was basically commanding her to pick a date. Her face when she realized what he said was priceless! After some hushed conversations and looking at a calendar (all the while he was watching us with this 'yes, that's right, plan it out' face on) we picked a date and he agreed. YAY!!!!
So yeah, I guess quite a bit has gone on! I'm hoping to have several consecutive weeks of baptisms my last Transfer!
Onward and Upward!
~ Hermana Smart
I had a double-scoop sugar cone. One of Rocky Road and one of Rainbow Sherbet.
And it turns out I'm not going anywhere. Still in Fairbanks, still with Hermana Barton. Sweet!
I thought for SURE we were going to Trio-Train because there were no other Senior Hermanas that were available and our apartment is a good size for another person. But I dodged the bullet on that one (I kind of always wanted to Trio-train though...)
Because I'm staying in the same place I don't really have a lot of new stuff to report. Well, actually on Friday and Saturday last week we had an outpouring of miracles that was really cool! Let's see if I can remember them all:
1) While we were getting out of our car a man leaving the apartment complex called us over. He was a former investigator that had said he was happy with his church but accepted the Book of Mormon. He said he would be back in an hour and wanted to meet with us!
2) We visited another investigator and found out that she had already asked her employer to switch around her work days so that she would have Sundays off and could come to church! (that's amazing because it's always like pulling teeth to get people to request Sundays off!)
3) Then we checked on a family that we are teaching. We have only been able to have one sit-down lesson with them, but we keep checking back and brought them all copies of the Book of Mormon. We found out that their 11-year-old has read to 1 Nephi chapter 17 in two weeks WITHOUT us reminding him AND that his Dad reads every day after coming home from work!
4) Later on we were making calls and FINALLY got back in contact with another investigator that we thought was avoiding us. But it turns out that her two-year-old was sick bad with a flu for one week, then the week after she was the sick one. She didn't want to get us sick and was too out of it to call us back. But now she's back on board!
5) We often struggle on keeping our lessons within the time-limit because of the Hispanic Culture (I love the people! Just their sense of Good Hospitality means they expect us to stay longer than an hour so they can serve us so it's hard to get out!) But we were doing some Micro-lessons where we got in and out within a half an hour and we taught more, it was great!
6) Our only Progressing Investigator for a while is amazing and would come back into town ever weekend to have a lesson and go to Church (He even went to the English Ward when he missed the Spanish one!) But when we brought up setting a Baptismal Date as a goal the first time he got mad and said if we tried to put a date on him he would never come back to Church again! We kind of didn't bring it up again for two weeks, but then we did, and the week after we asked if he had prayed and after some resistance he said something to the effect of "I'll prove that Satan can't obstruct me from being baptized!" then he pointed at Hna Barton and said "Pone una fecha tu!" Which was basically commanding her to pick a date. Her face when she realized what he said was priceless! After some hushed conversations and looking at a calendar (all the while he was watching us with this 'yes, that's right, plan it out' face on) we picked a date and he agreed. YAY!!!!
So yeah, I guess quite a bit has gone on! I'm hoping to have several consecutive weeks of baptisms my last Transfer!
Onward and Upward!
~ Hermana Smart
Monday, June 13, 2011
Long time no talk
Sorry about the lack of updates! I was kind of freaking out over registering for classes this fall. But with the help of many wonderful people (top of the list being my Parents) things were worked out and my classes are locked in.
Man... I haven't sent an email for three weeks! I so sorry!
Okay well, what's new.... I am surprised to find that I speak Spanish very well now that I have to know what people are saying. That is pretty exciting! And I really like my new companion, she is extremely sweet and very hard working. We laugh a lot too which just makes the time together sweeter. I still have a hard time keeping names straight and I don't know where we are in the area sometimes, but Hna Barton has a mind like a steel trap so we get through just fine. I really like her.
So much has happened, I have no idea why I'm drawing a blank.
Currently we are teaching two separate and extremely intelligent nine-year-old girls. They both speak English and Spanish, and one speaks like a mature lady. It's really fun to teach children. They are so pure, and have more Faith. If you tell them they can pray and God will answer their prayer, they believe it and say the sweetest and most humble prayers!
Oh yeah, I had my Mini-Quincenera two weeks ago and it was nice. Hna Barton made me a cute sign while I was in the shower and baked me brownies then decorated them with a big '15'. We didn't do much else though other than go to District Meeting and share the brownies.
Darn, that's all I can really think of. If you have questions feel free to write me. I'll be back on next week with a better summary of my life probably.
Siga Adelante!
~ Hermana Smart
Man... I haven't sent an email for three weeks! I so sorry!
Okay well, what's new.... I am surprised to find that I speak Spanish very well now that I have to know what people are saying. That is pretty exciting! And I really like my new companion, she is extremely sweet and very hard working. We laugh a lot too which just makes the time together sweeter. I still have a hard time keeping names straight and I don't know where we are in the area sometimes, but Hna Barton has a mind like a steel trap so we get through just fine. I really like her.
So much has happened, I have no idea why I'm drawing a blank.
Currently we are teaching two separate and extremely intelligent nine-year-old girls. They both speak English and Spanish, and one speaks like a mature lady. It's really fun to teach children. They are so pure, and have more Faith. If you tell them they can pray and God will answer their prayer, they believe it and say the sweetest and most humble prayers!
Oh yeah, I had my Mini-Quincenera two weeks ago and it was nice. Hna Barton made me a cute sign while I was in the shower and baked me brownies then decorated them with a big '15'. We didn't do much else though other than go to District Meeting and share the brownies.
Darn, that's all I can really think of. If you have questions feel free to write me. I'll be back on next week with a better summary of my life probably.
Siga Adelante!
~ Hermana Smart
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