Many prayers for Sarah right now! I love you and know that the Lord is watching over you. As well as many angels that are round about you.

Lots to update on! On Saturday, President called to tell us that Sister Call was being transferred. Yeah we were a wreck the past couple days.. but we are doing a little better. Aside from that, we had a great week and saw miracles.

We are still teaching Karaissa and her familia. As well as Michelle (her neighbor) and they are AWESOME. They are all still super interested. The girls especially are super excited. They loove mutual and the young women in the ward, it's great. We are teaching Amelia who will be baptized on the 24th!! Her family has been less active but are now coming back and she is excited to be taught! Also, Megan is amazing and we had an incredible lesson with her last night. Sister Homewood came with us and the Spirit was super strong. I was filled with our Savior's love for her so strongly. We followed up on her praying about the Church and she said she received her answer!!!!!!! She described it as "calming". I seriously just wanted to cry when she told us this and we invited her to be baptized and she said yes!! She is going to prepare for January 11th :) love her soo much!

Also, we had our mission Christmas party in Manhattan this past week and it was a blast. To start out, we watched a really powerful movie on Christ and it really strengthened my testimony and helped me to remember why I am even out here on a mission. It helped me to remember the Atonement and how it applies to each and every one of our brothers and sisters no matter what they are going through. After that we had a testimony meeting and it was incredibleee. Then we played charades and had a grand ole time and ate yummy food. Oh and we wore ugly Christmas sweaters so it was great. 

I was super nervous for the holidays coming out on a mish but it has been great! I love being a missionary sooo much and wouldn't trade this for anything. I am grateful for this time of year to remember our Savior and the emphasis on serving and loving.

Merry almost Christmas!! I love you all.

Sister Smartt

PS joke of the week:

While Sister Call and I are bawling our eyes out, she managed to blubber this joke out

"You can't just tear apart Sister Small! Pick on someone your own size!"

Yeah we died.

Sis Call decorating our tree

Getting some Christmas spirit 

It's cold here!!!

But I love it!!!!

Well basically it is like ZERO DEGREES. But I love the snow, it is soooo pretty. I feel like we are in a winter wonderland and everything sparkles. Minus the fact that I drove last night in the mad storm and had to drive like a gma cause it was so sketch. Okay but we we were so beyond blessed this week!

So MLC was great. The Manhattan sisters slept over the night before, then we jumped in the "Egan Van" along with the zone leaders and office elders. It was a blast! Okay so guess how they started the meeting? So cruel slash so powerful.

President runs in towards the beginning with one of the AP's and a letter from the First Presidency. All serious, he announces that because of the increase in missionaries, they have prayerfully decided to reduce all the lengths of missions by 6 months. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I felt so sick to my stomach. My initial thought was that is soooo not fair and 18 months is already too short. Of course sisters are crying (maybe me included) and the elders were all pretty upset. It was a really powerful time to evaluate how precious this time really is. Of course it ended up being a joke but it set the tone for the meeting and allowed us to all focus 100%.

Thursday we met with the AP's (Elders Neeley and De Leon) and our zone leaders (Elders Moyle and Bartholomew) to plan for zone training on Friday. It was way cool to all come together with our ideas and zone training turned out to be AMAZING. We all felt like we should start out the meeting the same way that MLC started. President sent out a voicemail announcing the reduction of mission time and we hooked it up to speakers. We actually felt kind of bad because some of the sisters immediately started bawling hysterically. We went around and expressed why we felt like that and it was incredible to see how much everyone loves their missions.

We are still teaching Karaissa and just love her sooo much! Bro Scerbo and the elders joined us to dedicate her home and give her a blessing. It was a super powerful visit. Her house is always a party and the neighbor kids were over for one of the visits and are now new investigators! Michelle, Kylie, and Madison came to church :) Also, we met with Megan (referral from Felix) and she is such a sweetheart. She's super interested too. Between them and the Douglass fam, we were blessed to find 13 new investigators this week!! Oh and yesterday in church we were both able to speak in sacrament meeting. Relief society and young women's also asked us to help teach so we realized we double booked and had to split. I was blessed to be in RS and share my testimony about Joseph Smith. It was incredible to take myself back to the many experiences I had at the Liberty Jail and to remember how I have been able to come to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and to reaccount how I have come to know him.

Words of wisdom for the week: live every day like it's your last, with Jesus Christ at the center. And I will live my mission like every day is my last.

I LOVE you all!!!

Sister Smartt

PS this morning Sister Small put up a mini Christmas tree and decorated our basement. It was the BEST EVER. Christmas is here woooooWOOO

Lyndee became my bestie! Made us sit at the kid's table
hahaha - it was so fun!

Thanksgiving din - Natalie (sassiest little girl you'll ever meet)

Sis Call and these weird brain things that fall from trees here

Crocker Family baptism!!

Our amazing ward mission leader, Bro Scerbo and his wife,
drove us to Manhattan and took us to Longhorn after!!

Being spoiled at Longhorn!

Greet week in Lake Shawnee! Felt sooo good to finally be able to work some.

Thanksgiving was great. The members spoil us so much. And they won't stop feeding us!!! So basically we need to start running hard core ha. But we literally ate all day... breakfast, lunch, and dinner appointments. Every appointment was so solid though, with nonmember friends and family. Also, there were THEE cutest kids so it made me feel like I was home for a sec, sitting at the mini kid's table for Thanksgiving din.

WE FOUND A NEW INVESTIGATOR! Karaissa was a self referral. We didn't have much info on her and were hoping and praying she would be receptive to our visit. She let us RIGHT in and said she had been waiting for us.. She used to meet with elders for a long time and explained her past with missionaries. She knows the Church is true and wants to be baptized! She has had an incredibly rough life but is such a strong woman. I was seriously sooo overwhelmed with love for her and her family. I knew that she was one soul the Lord sent us here for. She is stoked to have sisters and we know this is her time! She is so prepared. Oh and she showed us all of the church books she has read (teachings of the prophets, articles of faith) and she has read the D&C as well as the Pearl of Great Price. We kept having to pinch ourselves to confirm it was real life. We love her soo much already and are so excited to serve her. 

Both Friday and Saturday we went to Manhattan for baptisms!! The Crocker family was baptized Friday evening and it was just too great. It was incredible to see their family so happy and full of the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hannah, Ellie, and Brayden were soo adorable when they saw me and attacked me with hugs. I love their family! Saturday was Ivan's baptism (Sister Call's investigator) and it was soo so good. He has a very powerful testimony and it was cool to witness that special day for him. Oh and we got to see Felix there!!!! He set us up an appointment with another referral, his friend, (Megan) in Topeka for Tuesday.

We finally got to go to our ward on Sunday! It was awesome to meet so many of the members and introduce ourselves/bear testimonies. It was one of the most powerful fast and testimony meetings I have ever been to. I love this ward a lot and it is quickly filling the holes in my heart from leaving the Little Apple. Being a Sister Training Leader is still a learning experience for me. It has been hard and sometimes I feel like we are therapists.... literally. But I know the Lord will help me and I have a lot to learn!

I can't even remember if I told you guys last week.. But the KWM is doing what's called Noche Blancha. (White Christmas) and we have set a goal to have 40 baptisms before the new year! We are inviting EVERYONE to be baptized on the 24th of December. What a better gift to give our Savior right? Please pray for the mish and us in Lake Shawnee to find those that the Lord has prepared. Sister Call and I have faith that there are at least 2 of our brothers and sisters that will be ready in this area.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Oh and thank you mom and pops for the early Christmas present, I was seriously so happy when Bro Homewood gave me them. 

Much love,

Sister Smartt

PS this old man called us last night and asked us to marry him. Sister Small died laughing to say the least.