Great week in the work of the Lord! Slightly insane as well, but overall it was awesome. Felix and Karen were both baptized and confirmed!!!! Happy days!! First off, Satan is REAL holy cow. He worked extra hard this past week. 

Tuesday afternoon we get a call from Elder Taylor (assistant to the pres.) asking us to be moved out that day.. So basically, in between appointments, we threw our stuff together and packed our apartment into our car. We are now living with the Gardner family who live outside of our area. They were told the day of as well so let's just say we are slightly crammed in their basement. We are grateful for a roof over our heads though. We were given one bed and one holy (literally) blowup mattress, which deflated. So I ended up on the floor for the first three nights. Aka no sleep for this sister. For some reason we hadn't even thought to ask for another bed, we were just trying to tough it out.. haha. Anyways, the zone leaders found out I was sleeping on the floor and were slightly appalled! They had us go buy a mattress so we got that all taken care of.. It has been interesting because we are basically living out of our suitcases (no closet space) and we do our studies on the kitchen floor....

We aren't sure how long we will be living there and it will be interesting this week on bikes. It is a nice long and hilly bike ride just to get out to our proselyting area!! Supposedly they want us to be fit or something. Adventures adventures. Also, planning for the baptisms and getting everything organized was madness, especially running on zero sleep. Oh and both of our allergies went haywire living out there. I bought some meds at the gas station and took them without reading all the side effects (drowsiness).....so that contributed to the insanity hahaha. So embarrassing! I fell asleep for the first time in an appointment! And it happened TWICE. First occurrence: visiting Sister Crump (less active) and her apartment was very dark and hot so it made me even more sleepy. Not to mention she can TALK :) but we love her so much haha. Second: We got to visit Joyce (our sweetest deaf friend) and we watched the Restoration DVD in sign language. Her apartment was also very dimmed and hot, and it was silent because we watched it in ASL. So funny/embarrassed..

Enough about that. The baptisms turned out so so great!! We had some fun doing our studies at the church Saturday morning while the font filled up (took a couple of hours). The pianist called an hour before the baptism to let us know he forgot he had to play at a wedding the same time.. so last minute craziness there. Then the brother giving a talk didn't show up until they were literally going to forgo the talk and move on... he walked in JUST in time haha. The AC wasn't working so everyone was sweating.. 

But what matters, is that both Felix and Karen were able to make beautiful covenants with our Father in Heaven and they are now official members! The Spirit is so strong at a baptism and it was so great. My favorite part of this week would have to be the confirmations. Satan again worked hard on both Felix and Karen on their way to the church.. They made it in the nick of time. But hearing Bishop confirm them a member of Christ's Church and to listen as they received the Holy Ghost, I was sooo overwhelmed by the Spirit. I know without a doubt that this Church is true and we are so blessed to have all of the blessings of the restored gospel. Including the GIFT of receiving a member of the Godhead to be with us at all times as long as we live worthy of Him.

This week will be finding new investigators!! We are grateful to have another transfer here in Manhattan together and know that the Lord kept us here for a reason. There are brothers and sisters of ours that are prepared and ready to hear the gospel. It is just a matter of finding them :)

A quote that I loved in Sister Crump's apartment- 

"Please be patient. God isn't finished with me yet." (Story of my life!)

I love you all. I'm sad I wasn't there to hear your farewell talk, Bug, but I am so stoked for you to head out into the mission field. You will be an amazing missionary.

Sister Smartt

PS All missionaries should be given a dog. We were walking down the street with a member and her three dogs and everyone was drawn to us. Key to success=walk a dog, people automatically love you.