HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY AMAZING PARENTS! I will keep the year hidden for 
your sake. But I love you both so much and couldn't be more grateful for 
the parents I have. 
 
This past week has been an insane one. Such a rollercoaster! But overall it 
was good and we are off to begin a new transfer with new adventures ahead. 
Let's start with Sister Minall's last tour at the Liberty Jail that we took 
together. I have never really gotten nervous for a tour yet but this one 
was not the case. We received a call letting us know that President Keyes 
would arrive at the Liberty Jail with the 28 new missionaries and they'd be 
expecting a tour. Somehow Sister Minall ended up as the ones assigned to 
take it and for some reason I felt soo nervous! President is not an 
intimidating man, he is so sweet, but he just carries such a powerful 
Spirit with him and I was nervous to mess up. But then I realized these 
missionaries have just arrived and are half asleep from the insane first 
day that all new missionaries have after leaving the MTC, so I shouldn't 
have been nervous.. Sister Minall and I said a prayer before and I said 
probably 12 in my heart, and it went well. One of the AP's afterwards was 
like hey wasn't that you like yesterday in those seats of new missionaries? 
Yeah practically. Mind BLOWN. 
 
Okay so let's talk about Departure Breakfast. All the sisters at the 
Liberty Jail head down to the Idependence Visitor's Center and we have a 
breakfast when there are sisters leaving us. This one happened to be for my 
dear comp.. But they always have them go up and bear testimony. Knowing Sis 
Minall, you'd know she'd have to leave with a BANG. And she did. She was 
asked to go up and share her testimony and when she got to the mic she 
instead sang her heart out, Gladys Knight version of "As I Have Loved You." 
(I have videos of many performances by the minall that I will send). It was 
the funniest thing. Everyone was in tears, laughing. (I was crying laughing 
as well and also crying crying, knowing one of my best friends would be 
leaving the next day). Following her gladys impersonation, she ended with 
her powerful testimony. The next morning was transfers. We woke up at like 
5 or something, then Sister Minall and I went over and ate a doughnut in 
front of the Liberty Jail and said one last companionship prayer. Then one 
of the senior couples drove us to transfer busses and we bid farewell.. It 
was too chaotic to be sad so I was doing pretty good. 
 
Sister Castellano is my new companion and she's from Corvallis, Oregon! She 
was actually Megan Smartt's roommate in Idaho. (Dad if you could send me 
megan's address to give her that'd be awesome). She is super chill and we 
get along great. She has been out for like 16 months. We have already had 
some adventures together. One of which, our gas tank started overflowing.. 
I guess the sensor was broken? Luckily, her window was open so she heard 
the gas pouring out and we ran out and stopped it. Basically we just 
smelled like gas the rest of the day and I will blame that on no one 
lettings us inside ;) But we did find one new investigator! Christina, who 
we have an appointment with on Thursday. Also, we met this girl named Jeney 
who was soooo hilarious and so chill. She let us right inside and said 
she'd love to learn more about us but she's going to have to "get the okay 
from her boyfriend first". But she said we could check back up on her. She 
was so blunt and direct about things it was awesome. She asked us directly 
"Why do you like being Mormon? What blessings have you noticed from being 
Mormon?" and some other awesome questions. Another crazy thing that 
happened was our phone broke... We didn't drop it or anything, it just 
stopped working.. So we lost some contacts and it was difficult not being 
able to contact people for a day. But we got that worked out and then the 
car we were driving that day, was out of oil so we had to have someone look 
at it. We didn't have the best luck our first couple of days, but it was 
been an adventure haha. 
 
Sunday was insane. Our day started out with waking up at 6 and had to leave 
by 7 to get to our area in time for PEC. It hit me then that I was the only 
one that has been serving here so it was up to me to keep up with what we 
have been doing and keep the area moving along.. until we get organized 
again. But the meeting was great. Then, church began at nine. Member how we 
were supposed to speak a couple weeks ago and then it was a snow day? Well, 
we didn't get out of it. They had us speak yesterday and the youth speaker 
got sick so it was just Sister Castellano and I on the program.. I felt so 
overwhelmed because we had like nooo time to prepare talks since this past 
week has been insanely busy plus transfers, I felt like I was gonna b*** 
(throwup word I hate). I was really really struggling before going up there 
and I just said a million prayers beforehand, that I had done all I could 
with the time we had, and I was asking Heavenly Father to help me do the 
rest. I prayed so hard and I knew that I was just completely turning it 
over to Him. I felt so releived and I have no clue what I said or how I 
filled that time. All I know, is that I hope I said something that someone 
needed that day and that they were able to feel of the Spirit and be 
uplifted. Then, another reason why I was stressin, is because we had to 
teach young womens after that, with like no prep time. It went well though! 
And there ended up being a nonmember visiting who we just might get to 
teach :) I know that I was not alone yesterday, I was comforted by my 
Savior so directly. I literally felt like I was not the one speaking and it 
was the most amazing feeling. The Atonement is real. 
 
Also, we got to meet with Shane yesterday. We finally were able to 
introduce the Book of Mormon to him and he said he would read it. We have 
an appointment with him on Friday! He has a looooot to learn and he has 
tons of questions. And much to overcome. But he is willing to keep meeting 
with us and he is so interested so I know that if he is open to it, the 
Spirit will be able to work on his heart. One thing I heard in the MTC is 
to picture all of your investigators in white, ready to be baptized and 
even better, enter the temple. And that's what I have done with Shane. I 
KNOW that the gospel can change his life. 
 
Guess who I get to see on Saturday? ELDER COOK. Yeah, he is coming to speak 
to all the missionaries. So we are super stoked!! Guess what else? I held a 
snake at Shane's house. It was pretty cool. I may have freaked out a little 
inside. Or outside, as you will see in the pics. 
 
Love you all! 
Sister Smartt 
 
"If you reflect *often* on how His Atonement has *changed* you and if you 
give thanks often, you will find that your witness of Him gains *power* to 
touch the hearts of others."