Week 23 - 5 Months Down

November 12, 2018

Tuesday: today was just anotha day! Sister ussery wakes up so grumpy some days and I swear doesn't smile half the day and it tears me down!! But no boobin!! Today was alright, we went to service and that was good! Cisco, one of the workers there is so nice, we talk the whole time and he says that every time I walk in the room I just brighten it, that made me happy!! But then we were supposed to have an appt with Mathew and he bailed.. so we tried doing studies but I accidently fell asleep lol... but then went to sister Kennedy's and She s the kindest and sweetest old lady! As we were leaving she said we are just like daughter's! It was cute! Then we stopped by a few people and went to dinner and then stopped by a few people and came and watched the district 3! That was my day but hey 5 MONTHS DOWN!!! 

Wednesday: today was a pretty good day actually! I felt like we had a lot more fun and guess what.. the work went better!! Weird how that works?!(; but we finally got to do studies! My studies were amazing!!! I was praying before hand that I would know what I need to focus on this upcoming transfer and everything I studied/read all had to do with not focusing so inward on my own wants and desires. Sooooooooo my goal foe the next 6 weeks is to really be more humble/ more charitable! Then comp study took longer than expected lol and then ate lunch and watched the district 3! Finished it holla!!! Then we left and went do Danielson and stopped by a few people and even started teaching 2 people!! The Lord is blessing us in so many ways!! Our new friends are briana (she just had a baby) and then jen and we walked past her and just said hi and I was like no we gotta go give her a card and we taught her about the book or Mormon and she said "when can you come back and teach me?" So we set up another appt. It was awesome!! Then we had a FaceTime lesson with Allen and it went really good (: he's just so cool! Then we had dinner at the fountains, correlated, went and taught Diane the plos and she s so amazing!! We told her about the new book called "the saints" and she was excited to have more reading material!! Haha she so funny😂 but we found out shes moving to new jersey in may :((( then the rest of the night we stopped by a few people and talked to a really cool less active, his name is Rob Vardaro, LOOK HIM UP ON GOOGLE!! crazy story!! But ya it was a great day! Love bein a missionary (: love you guys!!

Thursday: just another day in paradise! Today's one of those days where I get to the end of the day and I'm beat and have no clue why lol. Today we were so off track.. We first started studies late which made everyhting else fall behind schedule and then we weekly planned and again it took forever..... but oh well.. I gotta help sis ussery stay more focused hah and get workin hard again! But then we went and had a lesson with Katie and Russell, then went to dinner at the Owens and role played the plan of salvation with them and they were very pleased with our teaching together, it was cool! But then we had to boogie and we went and had another lesson with Greg! He's a great guy, we soft invited him to be baptized and he just doesn't understand that when he was baptized into the Roman Catholic church it wasn't the right way haha😂 but then we went and stopped by some people and that was pretty much our night! Kind of a rough day! 

Friday: first I just gotta say that i love you guys so much and im soooooo blessed to have you 💛 we got your package in the mail and wow you have no clue how much that means to us! So THANK YOU X 10000000❣ you're the best out there, that's for sure! But today was a pretty good day! We had district council and our new district is smaller but I like it! We had a training on how we have been given the authority but we have to earn the power but living righteously, it was cool! Afterwards it was funny, so the elders got a Tacoma (little truck) and elder Murray goes "sister Smoot i see you driving a truck like this" and I was like, "if I'm driving a truck it's gonna be a diesel!!" And they laugh and I say "yep a good ole powerstroke" and elder Goodman goes "not a cummins??" I said "nope! A 6.7 powerstroke" and they didn't know what to say h ahah, I think I throw all the elders off sometimes 😂😂 but after we went and visited some members in a nursing home and they were both very nice, old people are so funny! But then we went to "institute" which we mostly just talked and then we taught Allen the law of chastity and that went good, we think he understood it! But sad news:( he said December is too busy with finals so no baptism.. but he wants to get baptized in February so that's still good! But then we ate some subway for dinna and then talked to some people and left and went and stopped by some uncontacted referrals and most of them moved :( but then we stopped by a less active and oh boy we parked and went and talked to him for like 5 min, He gave us his girlfriend's number and said she might be interested so that's cool! But we were gone literally like 5 min and some guy came and took a pic of our license plate cause we parked in his spot.. even though there was no numbers? He was a jerk... but ya that was our day and the package made it 10x better!!! Love you guys so much ❣

Saturday: I felt like today was a really good day :) we went to second Saturday for a little bit which is the relief society activity but then we had to leave and we went and had a lesson with a less active couple and they committed to coming to church in December if he can get a Sunday off, so that was good! I feel like my teaching is improving so much and it just helps so much when I know how to teach!! Its cool thought because we are becoming preach my gosepl missionaries and so i hsve been studying it a lot lately and it has helped so much, and so many things come to my mind from it while I'm in lessons, It's really cool!! But then after that we went to the Mann's for lunch and they fed us pizza and it was so so good!! We get spoiled 😋 then we went to sister prisbys and cleaned her house, she just got admitted to the hospital for infection from her surgery so that's not good :( and then we hauled wood pellets and they were 40 lbs a bag and we were hauling 2 at a time and man I didn't think I could lift 80 lbs!! Haha but after that we went to Connies and talked then John came over and we had a lesson with him and taught him the resto and sis u barely even talked.. she gets in moods like that.  But I thought it was a really good lesson!! We soft invited him to be baptized and he partially said yes haha! So that's good (: but after we got a call from president (which is always scary) but he was calling us to tell us that we are one of the highest companionship in the mission for finding people to teach but we aren't retaining them.. aka they aren't coming to church and we aren't setting dates.. so pres challenged us to get 2 to church, set 1 more date, and find 2 friends.. so that's the goal! Haha pretty crazy! Then the rest of the night we stopped by some people and I was just messing around and laughing and having fun and sis u was not havin it.. she doesn't really ever wanna have fun and is so serious. But sometimes she will cheer up but not to often and then it being a me down :( but I'm trying to love her and that's what matters. But yep it was a solid day! This week flew bye! Love you so much 💛

November 12, 2018

Hello friends👋

It's unbelievable that I've been out serving the Lord for 5 months! It's crazy how fast time goes when you are on the Lord's time! But it was just another week here in Ashford! I dont feel like too much happened this week but ill give ya some deets(; Unfortanelty I have some sad news :( 

Work:

-Everyone knows about superdude Allen, my Chinese friend!! Well he was planning on getting baptized in December, but he decided that it would be too busy and we pushed his date back to February 9th:( I'm a little sad, but it's okay! We did have 2 really good lessons with him and just pray he is understanding it all hah! 

-we are teaching some incredible people right now! We are planning on setting a date with some friends this week! Alex, we've been teaching him for a few weeks now and he is really awesome and such a nice guy! Greg, we have been teaching him and his wife will be joining us next week so that's exciting! And then John, he is so awesome!! He has already read the book of Mormon before, prayed about it and received an answer that it is true. We had a good lesson with him and he is workinn towards the covenant path! 

-Well we got a call from president this week (which is always scary) but he was calling us to tell us that we are one of the highest companionship in the mission for finding people to teach but we aren't retaining them.. aka they aren't coming to church and we aren't setting dates... so he pretty much our the hammer down and told us we need to work harder at helping our friends grow in the gospel. So that's gonna be our focus this week! 

Funny:

So I guess when people first meet me they think I'm a girl girl by the way I dress but once they get to know me they realize I'm the total opposite of that😂 so this week after District Council, we walked out with  the elders and they got a Tacoma (little truck) and elder Murray goes "Sister Smoot i see you driving a truck like this" and I was like, "if I'm driving a truck it's gonna be a diesel!!" And they laugh and I say "yep a good ole powerstroke" and elder Goodman goes "not a cummins??" I said "nope! A 6.7 powerstroke" and they didn't know what to say hahah, I think I throw all the elders off sometimes 😂 its pretty funny! 

Spiritual

I'm sorry this email has been pretty lame but on a high note, this week we had stake conference and they talked a lot about how the gathering of Israel is happening right now. One of them said, "As the Lord Hastens his work, Satan does too." It's very true, but as each of us strive to hold onto the iron rod and stay on the covenant path, Satan will not drag us down. Just like it states in Helaman 5:12, "remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo" let us all press forward and help gather scatter Israel, to build a foundation on Jesus Christ, and to never give up. I love you all! 

Keep on keepin on

Xoxo. Sista Smoot 💛

On Mon, Nov 5, 2018, 4:29 PM Kassidi Smoot <kassidi.smoot@myldsmail.net wrote:

It was quite a rough week, being sick on the mission is no fun because there is no time to relax, you just have to push through it! So between Tylenol, Dayquil, Nyquil, and emergency C... I AM ALIVE! Not to mention, doing so so so good! It was honestly and incredible week! To start off... I GET TO STAY IN ASHFORD FOR MY 4th TRANSFER!! I am so excited to stay here, to be with Sister Ussery, and continue being a sister training leader! Although i am a little nervous, they have switched it up and we now cover 2 zones so we will be very busy!! But it'll be great!:)

Few highlights of the week:

-Wednesday was such a special day, one that i will cherish forever. We were able to go to the Hartford temple with our recent covert, Diane and it was such a spiritual experience. She was able to get baptized for her mom and great grandma and the spirit that we all felt as she was getting baptized was amazing.  I just feel so blessed that we are able to have the house of the Lord here on the earth and that she was able to do work for her parents. 

-We went and stopped by a less active and it was not a coincidence that his girlfriend was there. He let us in and she started asking a lot of questions! Apparently her church got shut down and so she hasn't been going to church and has been really interested in finding a church to go to and she wants to come to ours! Her name is Kelly, and she is such a sweetheart! On top of that, i guess he has always been close to the missionaries and does a lot for them. So he asked if we wanted or needed anything and for those of you who don't know, i love license plates and so i said a Connecticut licence plate, sure enough he went out to his car and had one and gave it to me! DAY MADE!! 

-Allen is still progressing really well and working towards his baptism on December 8th! We had a lesson with him this week and taught spiritual CPR, which is church, prayer, and reading! This is the way to keep us spiritually alive and in the middle of our lesson he just got so happy and said, ""I like this church so much!" It was so cute! He is just awesome! i finally snapped a picture with him so you can see my Chinese friend! 

-Our new friend, John is so awesome! He ordered a Book of Mormon (self referrals are rare) and so we went and delivered it to him and he said, "I've read the whole book before and did that challenge at the end, where it says to pray about it. I got a very clear answer that it was the truth." So that was really cool! He then came to church and oh man what an experience.. In gospel principles, Russell (member) passed out and had a seizure and John had to call the ambulance and it was just a wreck.. WELCOME TO CHURCH JOHN!! lol 

Spiritual thought: This week we taught a lesson in Relief Society about how to get others involved with missionary work. We focused it around the talk, "Sharing the Restored Gospel" its by Dallin H. Oaks and he specifically says, "We all know that member participation in missionary work is vital to achieving both conversion and retention. President Thomas S. Monson has said: “Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together … [and] labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work.”" This is very important, it doesn't matter how old you are, what you do, or what you know but the Lord will use YOU to help further his work. Be an instrument in the Lords hand and i know each of you will experience so much happiness as you do so. 

I love you all so much and i know that the Savior does as well. Rely on him and let him help you in all that you do! I can't believe that I have already been out here for 5 months, I wouldn't be here without the support from each of you! As always.. keep on keepin on.<3

XOXO. Sista Smoot