Finally got a pic with Mater!  Love Sis Sorenson!!!

E. Jones and Sis Brusch. We dominated
 this pepper challenge at our district
 lunch. My mouth is stillll on fire...hahaha

Saying bye to sis Huff...LOVE her!

Sis Blood, Murphy and Hannah...brutal goodbyes!

Victoria and Theresa with Sis Hannah

Sis Gurr!!  So happy to serve with her!!

Subject: It pays to be a ginger ;)

What a great new transfer and week! It was splendid. Minus many sad goodbyes (Sister Hannah, and everyone that I saw at the transfer devotional....)

Sister Gurr is amazing! She's from Pleasant Grove, Utah. She knew of Sam and Hilary Norton so that's a cool connection. She's been out for about a year and is a great missionary! Sticking to my word of this being a huuge tender mercy that she's the grand finale comp. We get along too great and she is probably the sweetest, quietest comp I have had. LOVE her.

We are finding the elect! Last night we met with Dustin and Terri for the first time. They are a young couple and engaged to be married next May. We taught the Restoration out on their lawn.. near their table they were painting. Minus the paint fumes that were making us dizzy, the lesson was soooo incredible! The Spirit was definitely leading our discussion and they are soooo prepared. They committed to be baptized and THEY prayed at the end for God to help them to know that what we taught them is true and for help to reach their goal of August 16th for their baptism. We will be teaching the Law of Chastity shortly so they can get murried first and it will be great!

Right next door to Dustin and Terri is the Lund's. They are a less active family that the ward has been trying to reach out to recently. Sister Hannah and I didn't have much luck soo we haven't been working with them too much. But on Saturday we called to see if we could stop by. They agreed (surprisingly) and we had a great visit! When we invited them to church Sister Lund said "Yeah we will come! Only because you have red hair." Wait what? hahhahaha we were sooo confused. But hey they actually did come! We found them a ride and the ward was soo shocked that they finally came. Sister Lund just kept talking about how she came because of my red hair.. everyone was dying laughing. Now we will be working on a spiritual conversion for them....haha

We are still teaching Cherri and Jeff. We brought Sister Miller over to Cherri's with us and had another great lesson. Out of all the many lessons we had this week I mention this one because I will always and forever remember the Spirit in her home as we have been sharing the Plan of Salvation with her. There were many tears shed as we testified of our Father's plan for her and for her deceased son. I know that our Heavenly Father has revealed this plan for us to find comfort and direction throughout our lives. We are soo blessed!

The Thompson's are a less active, part-member family that we have been working with for quite awhile! They recently asked us to start teaching their 8 and 9 year olds so they can get baptized and so we can help the fam get back to church :) We are stoked to help them. Also, the aunt is living with them and she's a nonmember so we are definitely finding through The Rescue!! (huge focus of the mission lately)

Maggie, Daleena and her five kids, Cherri, Taylor, Trace, and others all committed to come to church but bailed! BUT we had a miracle with less actives at church. The Lund's, Randall's, Sister Ellis, Victoria, and last but NOT least, Sister Sorenson came!! She even went to Relief Society (for the first time in 6 years). I was sooooo happy I wanted to cry! She had us over for lunch after church and cried as she said it was all because of me that she's back. I know I haven't done anything but I seriously love that woman so much and am so happy for her! Oh and she is planning to kidnap me this month sooo if I go missing......hahah

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. Holy cow. We witness soo many miracles. There are many days that definitely test my faith and I have never relied more on the Lord than now.. but I wouldn't trade this time for anything. The restored gospel is true! Share it!!!

Love,
Sister Smartt

Sue visiting at a dinner appt - outside doing her Tarzan call!
Funniest thing ever...hahaha

Lorraine, Love her...

Seal Team Six District

Sis Murphy and Sis Hannah-2 of my daughters;)

Natalie from the YSA branch. Love her!
She's going to BYUI too!

Last Zone Conference! :(

Subject: KS in KS

Last transfer revealed.......

I will be staying here in Derby in the Ridgepoint Ward and Rock Road branch.. and Sister Gurr will be joining me!! I honestly couldn't be happier. She is such a sweet sister that I have served around quite a bit throughout my mission. I can't wait to get out and kill it with her this next month!!!!

We have been verrry blessed this past week. Here are some favorites:

On Saturday I prayed and prayed like crazy, then fasted that Taylor, Trace, and their mom Deborah could come to church!! And guess what? They came! They had to rush out after sacrament meeting so she could get to work.. but the members were so great in welcoming them and inviting them to the next classes :)

We are teaching the coolest family ever!! So we met the mom, Katherine, first and she accepted a BOM and said we could come back. When we did, she was asleep but we were able to meet with her husband, Ezekiel. He is AWESOME. Originally from Kenya, he's 7th Day Adventist.. But is very open and they are such a cute little young family! They are some of the kindest people I have met and the parents want the best for their cute kids.. soooo let's pray and hope that they join the Lord's church! As we were driving away from that appointment, Sister Hannah and I just kept saying over and over again how much the Lord NEEDS them in His church. I can't wait for the day.

We are also teaching this couple, Cherie and Ron. We taught Cherie the Plan of Salvation on Thursday. It was a beautiful evening, we were sitting on her porch swings and the Spirit was THICK. It was the most amazing thing to testify to her that she CAN see her son again, who passed away when he was 22.... I LOVE the gospel and sharing this joy and knowledge with others.

I am so grateful for all of our Heavenly Father's children that we are teaching here. I love this area and I love being a missionary! I know that there are soooo many miracles awaiting this next transfer. I feel blessed to be apart of this great work. And I know everyone can experience miracles every single day.. we just need to open our eyes and hearts and allow the Lord to work through us.

I love you all! I have a testimony that this is the Lord's church. He has a plan for each of us and He LOVES us. 

"Pure Christlike love flowing from righteousness can change the world."

Sister Smartt

Gold old Kansas!!!! I love this place!!

Good old Kansas!!!! Love it!!!

Apartment ties

Granny dresses from Lorraine our 85 yr old investigator!
hahaha - we love them!

July 14, 2014

We had a great week of hard work, I blinked again, and here we are. Stop the clock!

Let's see.. updates from the week:

We got to mow Kaili and Marshall's lawn for them :) Tender mercy when investigators let you serve them. It's the best. They were sick this past week but we have an appointment with their family, FINALLY, tomorrow night. They are such a cute little family from Hawaii (I extra love them;) )

We are still teaching Ashley and have had awesome team ups for her. They always relate so well and it's been great having their testimonies there. They're always so inspired! We are hoping/praying she will be at church next week! Taylor and Trace weren't able to come to church yesterday either.. so we will have to push their baptism back to August 2nd. I loove them though.

Members spoil us. I think every day, except for yesterday, we had at least one teamup out with us. We found many new investigators again this week and are really praying/striving to find families. We have seen so many tender mercies as we have relied on the Lord to lead us to families. I KNOW that there are prepared families out there that the Lord needs and wants in His church. This truly is His kingdom on earth and we are so blessed to be a part of it.

Grand finale.. last night we were teaching Lorraine. She's 85 and a new investigator we found this week. She is the SWEETEST lady ever and very open to hearing our message. She might be a hoarder and have a roach infestation....... but I love her nonetheless. Literally there were roaches crawling around us the entire lesson but all I could think of was the love I have for this sister. She agreed to be baptized when she comes to find out for herself that this is Christ's church and His authority is in it.

I love being a missionary!!!

"Regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, certain and sure."

"I believe in Christ, so come what may!" :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Smartt

Twins at Zone Conf!

Kansas road kill...

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th!!!

Zone sisters celebrate 4th!

July 7, 2014
AHHH I can't wait to meet Boston!!! This was the best surprise ever. I have been praying so hard that everything would go well and I'm so glad he's happy and healthy. Our family is so blessed.

I can't even remember what we did this past week.... all I remember is that we worked HARD, saw many tender mercies/miracles, and endured through some dark days. Also, zone conference is coming up and they have asked us to read The Challenging and Testifying Missionary. It's been a while since I had read it so it's been super motivating and has inspired me to progress each day as a disciple of Christ.

My favorite lesson of the week was on Saturday. We went with some members to pick up Taylor and Trace for a church tour :) We had an awesome church tour which ended in front of the baptismal font. Taylor and Trace are 15 and 11.. brother and sister and very shy. It was a trial to get them to open up throughout the lesson but the spirit was suuper strong. They committed to be baptized on July 26th! Their mom is very supportive and will listen in on lessons but "isn't interested right now".. Pray for her!

Another highlight of the week was alll of the members that went out with us! We had 9 member present lessons and tons of teamups- it was such a blessing. We are striving to find the Amulek for each investigator right now. OH and when Emily came out with us..... we encountered some llama dogs! It was hilarious/scary/we almost died. They spat on us just like llamas and then attacked. We were trying to contact a referral from the elders but weren't successful. We will be back soon to visit those vicious llama dogs. Nothing can stop the work..... hahahha

Like I said at the beginning, there were a couple really dark days this week. I prayed and prayed and prayed harder. Then one of the mornings I decided to study all about peace for my personal study. I looked up peace in the topical guide and studied all of the scriptures. Despite our circumstances, or the darkness of others around us, we can be filled with light and peace as we turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for this light that is always there for us, without fail. We are sooooooo blessed. This world really is dark and scary and we have been called to share our light with others to make it brighter each day. I love being a missionary and I love this gospel.

With love,

Sister Smartt 

KS in KS :)

PS Happy birthday to Jen!!!! I love you soo so much and am so grateful to have an amazing example like you as my sis. Have such a great day!! Also, happy bday to the KWM. I love this mission with all of my heart and I can't even believe it's been a year since the mission split.... we have seen some major miracles/progress in the KWM. I love it!