Week 66 - Boston Baby ❤ 🌃

September 16, 2019

Hiiiii! The time is going by way too fast and it's crazy to believe I'm in the single digits for the amount of weeks I have left. I love my mission and I love the countless opportunities I've had to testify of Christ and His restored gospel. This week as always, was a crazy busy one! Between 3 exchanges and zone conference I'm beat but still kickin! 

Let's get started, shall we?!

Random things: 

-Something I love doing is playing pros ball, the other night we went up to a group of 10-15 guys and asked if we could take a few shots and challenged them to read the book of Mormon if we made it. Sadly, we didn't make the shots but they asked us to hop in and play full court with them. It was super fun and afterwards they all gathered around and sat in a circle as we showed a video about Christ. I LOVE MY PURPOSE!! There is nothing greater than seeing everyone gathered around, drawing closer to their Savior. 

-This past zone conference was everything I needed and something that answered many of my prayers. As we sat there and discussed conversion it made me ponder back on my mission and ask myself, "have I worked hard because that's the way I was raised? Or have I worked hard because I love the Lord?" Many months ago I probably would have said the first, but now I can truly say I do everything for the Savior.

-had to eat a full on fried fish.. still scared of them.🐟

Updates:

-Sadly, Donna is probably done meeting with us. She doesn't want to accept the Word of Wisdom and said "if God wants me to change, He will tell me. Not somebody else" so that's heart breaking😞

-Jeff and Ky are perfect. They read the chapters we left them in the Book of Mormon and loved them, discussed them, and taught them to each other. When we got to the end of our lesson they said, "give us more to read!!" And immediately asked when we could meet again. They are so so eager to learn about the gospel truths. 

-Abolaji is still doing good! We brought her kids the Book of Mormon stories to read and they wouldn't put it down the whole time we were there. They absolutely loved it! 

- That miracle I shared last week about the guy who overheard us on the bus, he walked an hour just to come to our ward bbq on Saturday and he loved it! He texted us afterwards asking all these questions and said "I'm thinking about converting" SO COOL. 

-We also were on our Blitz night and Sister Gilman and I went out together. We had a really cool miracle, found a less active family that wants to come back!! Also their son isn't baptized and probably will be as soon as we get them back to church! 

Exchanges:

-I was on exchanges with Sister Cronin, probably the last time I'll get to serve with her :( SOMETHING FUNNY HAPPENED!! We were chillin, sippin on some hot coco and these guys rolled up and offered us a joint and to come smoke with them. We offered the gospel in return but sadly they weren't wanting that.🤷‍♀️

-exchanges with Sister Hurst!! It was a very surreal moment. Our first day in the mission field, Sister Hurst and I went and contacted the very first person of our mission together and we got to go back to the same station and contact again. It was so cool to see the changes that have taken place. 

-here is a crazy story... Sister Tolman and I were leaving an appointment at about 8:30 at night in Dorchester and we walked straight through all these cops and the looks they gave us were so priceless!! Anyway they were holding this guy and he was yelling "I just about killed 4 people. Watch out that guy over there has a sniper" all i can say is, you gotta love the mission. 

Man, to I'm say happy and living the dream is an understatement. God knows what he is doing and I'm so grateful to watch that first hand, everyday. Someone said this week, "Even when we make a mess of things, God still provides" I see this over and over every day. God is a loving and caring God who will always make things right. All he asks of us is to trust in him and his plan. 

STOP THE TIME FOR ME PLEASEEEEE. I'M NEVER RETURNING HOME! 

Love y'all 

Keep prayin

Xoxo. Sister Smoot