Week 11- Welcome to the crime capital of Mass!

August 20, 2018

Tuesday: first thing this morning we were supposed to teach Dennis and when we got there he never showed up so that was a bummer:( today we had lunch with Luna and she is so sad that we are leaving :( but today consisted of saying lots of goodbyes :( it was sad we started with Chuck and that was hard :( but I'm so blessed that we both got to grow together!! Then we went and said bye to some families tonight and that was sad:( the McBrides little boy (he's 8) came up and gave me a big hug and said in theeee saddest voice, "why do you have to leave? You just got here:(" it made me realize I dis just get here!! Where is time going?! Well it's time to hit the hay! I can't believe it's my last night in Natick but I'm so excited to hit Springfield!! Transfer number one down and successful!! Love you guys!! 

Wednesday: what a day!! I'm officially writing to you from Springfield!! Can you believe it!? Well today we taught some Chinese lady at 8 this morning haha she didn't know any English but still a good time! Then we went back and finished packing, and we cleaned the place spotless for the new elders coming in! Well then we went to the Weston chapel and met up with everyone and I got my new Comp! Her name is sister proenca, she is Brazilian, lived in Brazil for 9 years and Utah for the past 10! She has been out for 9 months! This is her first transfer English and she's super nervous. She likes to sing and play guitar and get this!! She even wrestled in 7th  grade!! Shes kinda quiet tho haha. But so far we get along great! Well we get to our new apartment and you will not believe it. The elders left the whole place a disaster!!! It was so bad, shoes and socks, shirts, ties, garbage, study stuff everywhere, bedding.. Well needless to say since they are both going home they left half there junk. And the place was so gross so all day we cleaned for a solid 5 hours!!! But it's starting to feel better, after you get over the fact that it smells like pee. Haha anyway what a Day! I'm excited for this transfer, I hope it goes fast! Love you ❤

Thursday: today was good! We woke up and a dang good work out!! And then we finished cleaning the kitchen and you'll never believe how bad it was.. almost all the food in the fridge was moldy!! We found stuff in the cabinets from 2015 with bugs crawling around.. so nice that's all clean now!! We met with the elders and they told us about the area and we came back did studies I read a bomb talk called "with one accord" read it!! Super good!! The lady who gave the talk was the lady that took elder Norman and elder tolman to lunch! After studies we met with the ward mission leader and he knows nothing!!!! Haha but then we got permission to go shopping cause we literally have no food... so we did that and then tonight we went to a Hawaiian luau behind the library and it was so fun!! We got to meet some members, talk to some people and listen to Hawaiian music! So much fun!! It really made me miss gma and gpa Smoot tho :(((( but I know they are watching over me ❤ super good Day! I have a feeling This transfer is gonna fly bye!! But it's gonna be fun!! Miss you guys so much!! 

Friday: geepers what a day!! Before you read this just know that i promise you i am safe!! So please don't worry bout me(; anyway today was crazy!! We had district meeting, which was good! I don't like this district as much:( but then we went to Holyoke to work and man that place is crazy!! There is a reason this area has always been elders lol. It is drug Galore. Found out that it is the crime capitol of Mass!! Everywhere you go people are smoking, drinking, shooting up, and we get some crazy looks haha. We are just walking down the street and people yell out of there car "get out of Holyoke!!" It's so funny😂 But get this we stopped by a potential and go in this crack house (literally) and walk up and the girl we went to go talk to about pulled a knife on us. She put her hand on it and started to pull it out and so We got outta there real quick. Well then we went to a really scary part of town to go visit these ladies and some guys were like "this is a scary part for you to be hanging around. Cops are here all the time bustin people" we thought we would be okay well we walk into this apartment place to go see the girls and I've never felt the spirit so strong. It legit stopped me from moving forward and told me to get out of there. It was so crazy!! Man the spirit is cool!!! So just know, even though im serving in a sketchy area we are protected!! It's quite crazy to think how much the Lord/mission pres trusts us. For us to  replace an area where sisters have never served, this is sister Proencas first transfers every serving English, and me being a greenie, this calls for a lot of trust!! So it's pretty cool. Anyway super sick and adventurous day!! I love being a missionary!! These are the expiernces I'll never forget!! 

Saturday: I'm not gonna lie, this week I've been really homesick and just missing home.. today I read a talk by elder holland called, "the miracle of a mission" it was exactly what I needed. He talks about being homesick and specifically says, "if you have any feeling about going home, you cannot. You must not." "Every day and every way it will get better! That doesn't necessarily mean that it will get easier, but it will get better." And it just kind of hit me that heavenly father knows me. He knows when I struggle and he knows what I need to help pick me up. Anyway after that we went and taught our first lesson together and man it was sooo good. Probably one of the best lessons I've had and the spirit was so strong!! We taught Lou and Carlos. Lou is older and has been takin the lessons since April and his grandson Carlos joined and Carlos is 19 he has a rough background and is on house arrest. He has been reading the BOM and feels something different. Many he is awesome and both of them will get baptized one day!! He was gonna call to see if he could get out for church tomorrow and we are praying he can. The rest of the day we stopped by potentials/referrals and knocked some doors we only had luck with one guy! We got a reffwral from his son but I guess is son moved and so we talked to the dad and his name is Alex, We told him what we did and he said he wanted to learn more so he is planning on coming to church tomorrow! That was a Miracle!! Super cool!! Even though we got all No's today no one was rude, such a blessing!! Tonight we finished out weekly planning and started a fast for all our investigators (: anyway pretty good Day! I can't believe August is  half way over!! Miss you all❤

Sunday: first sunday in the new ward!! I think I'm gonna like this ward!! There are a lot of nice people!! Everyone is so excited to have sisters in the ward!! But both sister proenca and I have a feeling we will only be here foe one transfer and elders will be shot gunned in again.. it's just a really scary area, but who knows! I hope not!! I love sister proenca!! She is so funny and such a good missionary! We get along so good and we just laugh all the time!! So I hope we have more than one transfer together!! We had 3 non members show up at church today! So that was awesome! Then after church until dinner and dinner till tonight we just stopped by potentials and knocked doors we had no luck at all:( sister proenca said "I knew the English program was gonna be hard but not this hard.." literally no one will talk to us and I talk go everyone!!! But it's okay we will keep the faith and as we work hard the lord will provide!! 

I can't believe August is already 20 days in it feels like yesterday I was just saying I made it to august!! Man time is flying!! I hope you guys had a good week! I love you❤ and I hope you enjoy the day to day email! Sorry its so long!! It just makes it easier because then I don't have to explain my week on pday (: miss you guys!!

August 20, 2018

Hello all you great people!! This week has been quite the adventure! We had to go say good bye to all the ward members and our friend chuck and that was super hard:( but then i arrived in my new area, SPRINGFIELD!! with my comp Sister Proenca! So when we first got to the apartment, the Elders left this place a disaster!!! They were both going home and so they left so much stuff just laying around everywhere!! So needless to say we spent 7 hours cleaning that place but its good to go now!
Geepers Friday was quite the day!! Before you read this just know that i promise you i am safe!! So please don't worry bout me(; anyway today was crazy!! Get this we stopped by a potential and go in this crack house (literally) and walk up and the girl we went to go talk to about pulled a knife on us. She put her hand on it and started to pull it out and so We got outta there real quick. Well then we went to a really scary part of town to go visit these ladies and some guys were like "this is a scary part for you to be hanging around. Cops are here all the time bustin people" we thought we would be okay well we walk into this apartment place to go see the girls and I've never felt the spirit so strong. It legit stopped me from moving forward and told me to get out of there. It was so crazy!! Man the spirit is cool!!! So just know, even though I'm serving in a sketchy area we are protected!!

The first lesson we taught was on Saturday and their names are Lou and Carlos. Lou has been taking the lessons since April and is coming along very slowly but he is a super nice guy and and his grandson Carlos has joined in and started listening. That lesson we taught was probably one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. The spirit was so strong and i think we all had a tear in our eye, it was so amazing.

The ward here is great and i think we will get along great!! They are so excited to have sisters here! But we totally understand why it has always been elders all along because this quite a sketchy area hah so we will see how long sisters stay! Anyway it was a great week! i hope everyone is doing good!

This week i challenge everyone to pray with more intent. I know that as we talk to our heavenly father with meaning we can draw closer to him and the Savior.

Keep on keepin on!!

XOXO. Sista Smoot