Sept. 30, 2013
Hyenas!
Well I blinked again and it's Monday!! What the.... This past week was great though. Although we did have a bijillion meetings and not as much time out proselyting as we would like.

Okay so first off, we pulled weeds with hyenas, hence the email topic haha. It was so sweet!!! Most of the missionaries in our zone did service at the zoo because an investigator works there. Best service EVER.

On Tuesday there was a Sister's meeting. Yes, it may have started out with some yoga. They spoil us sisters. But they had some trainings to help some of the sisters that are really struggling.. Sister Bell is such a sweetheart and put this whole program together and it turned out wonderful! Sister Dean and I were asked to do a 30-minute training on makeup.. which was interesting because I feel like I make up my own rules with makeup and as I missionary I can't ask google for help. But it turned out good! I shared some quotes from the Atonement class I took about how our light of Christ shines through our eyes and how powerful it is to focus on the eyes and also our smiles :)

Friday was Apryl's husband's funeral.. we got special permission from the AP's to attend that. She was THRILLED to see us there and it was soo good to be there for her and comfort her as much as we could.. It was hard though. It was also extremely hard because the service was held at a Methodist church in Ogden, aka we aren't allowed to proselyte at other churches.. I wanted so badly to bear testimony to them of the plan of happiness that we KNOW has been revealed. It was a very neat experience attending that and seeing a whole new perspective. There are others who are trying their hardest and believe they are striving to follow Jesus Christ. They just don't have the fullness.. 

On Friday was also district meeting and we were asked to give a training on the Book of Mormon.. It was super short because Elder Swensen and I are both training so we had to hurry to this conference call for training new missionaries. Which turned out great. Even though they called on me like 12 times and it is always interesting saying prayers/singing hymns over the phone ha. Then they randomly call on one missionary at the end to bear their testimony and luck of the draw they called on me.. But I got to find out my new companion's name! Sister Murphy. I will meet her on Wednesday evening.

Susan is doing great! She is so solid. Loves reading and praying now. One hurdle to jump is helping her to come to church. She was at the Renaissance Festival this weekend but we are really going to emphasize the importance of church and keeping the Sabbath day holy. Nancy is also an older lady that we are teaching and she is recovering from surgery so has a lot of time on her hands. She has been reading and praying as well and was home-bound so she couldn't come to church.. But she is awesome. We are also teaching the Crocker family! They are soo cute. Three of the kids have not been baptized so starting tomorrow we will teach them the lessons so that when their dad returns from deployment at the end of October, they can be ready for baptism!!

I am grateful for more time in this beautiful area and great ward. I love all those that we are teaching right now!! And I am so grateful for these past 4 and a half months that Sister Stewart and I have been companions. I have learned soooo much. 

We were blessed to have an investigator (Erin) that offered her washer and dryer so that is where we will be headed. And then off to play sports with the zone!!! SO fun.

Hope you all have a great week. You are loved.

Mosiah 24:15 "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

xoxo Sister Smartt