Another dreaded phone call from President Millar !!!

Oh no its just cos' he cares.

“
Hello hello!! this week has been a good week! I love being a missionary!!

President called earlier this week and asked to speak with me specifically and I thought "Oh no!! Who has died or is unwell this time?!?!". I was very pleased to find out that it wasn't that kind of phone call. He was calling to see how Abe was doing as I mentioned that he had been unwell in my last email to him. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that man!! 300 Missionaries and he calls to see how my Nephew is!

Sister Hickman and I are doing well. I truly love her and being here in Bracknell! On the whole, we are getting support from the Members and that is great. It's nice when it feels like we're all wearing the same jersey. The Relief Society President is a great support in coming on teaches and she bears her testimony of it each week at the beginning of Relief Society which is amazing and it really is encouraging the other members. Sister Ellis is awesome!!!!!!

Virdi is progressing really well! It is amazing how prepared he is! I shouldn't be surprised as Heavenly Father is amazing. I am so happy to be a part of his journey. He is still planning to be baptised on October 8th... Lets just hope I don't get transferred! He attended the Reading Stake Road show with us on Saturday and he loved it... He chuckled away all night!!

Speaking of the Road show... The missionaries were enlisted to help with the props. It was fun and I successfully changed the moon to the sun on the backdrop without error! :) I had just finished chatting away to someone and was heading back to my seat when Zoe (I don't know her married name... But Pam Makinsons daughter) stopped me. I was so confused at first... Similar to how I was with Martin Cook! We had a nice chat, took a photo and hugged... I gave her an extra hug to pass to Mum and She is heading to Ashton next week! The world is so small!!!!! Turns out she moved to Oxford not that long ago!

Last week I didn't mention the Europe Area Sisters Meeting last week... I loved it!!!!!!! I loved the talk about tackling the hardest corner of the "bed" first. And I loved Elder Bednar's talk on prayer... Pray as a agent! Amazing people! I think everyone should watch it... Not just the women!!! Here's the link! https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/europe-area-sisters-meeting/2014/09?lang=eng

I am so glad to be here and to be a part of this great work! I do still thing about my eternal companion and family every now and then but I don't feel that it distracts me any more. It is simply a righteous desire. I wouldn't be anywhere else right now. I am where Heavenly Father wants/needs me to be.

Last night we took one of our investigators to a fireside in Reading on addiction... It was so interesting. I wish everyone had the opportunity to hear all that we heard. I am praying that it will benefit the investigator we took.

Today we are heading to Reading for a Pday with the Reading District and the Zone Leaders. We are going to a park... We're having a picnic and playing games :) I am excited!!!!

Last Friday Sister Hickman had a hospital appointment in Windsor so we planned our week around that... Only to be informed that there had been a mistake in booking the appointment. Useless private hospitals!! :) haha! We are heading there this Friday instead so that will be an adventure!!

I hope you all have a great week!

I love you!

Love, Sister Smart

Sister Hickman and I! - Smile

Sister Hickman and I! - Not so smiley

Me on a pretty day!

Elder Christensen keeps doing these stupid hand gestures. To help him stop I slap him on the hands each time he does it :) He's showing that his hands hurt :( haha!

Crowethorne District... Sister Hickman, Sister Smart, Elder Cooper and Elder Christensen

We found a trampoline and I lost my legs!!!!

Lost Email Last Week - Lost Connection This Week !!!

Whatever will she lose next???

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This week I only have 30 minutes to email after reading everyone's email and emailing President Millar. We are emailing at the Hamilton's again as we went to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) with them today. I didn't delete my email this time but I lost internet connection for ages. Not having much luck am I?! I may not have time to email photo's again but we'll see. I know Mum wants' to see my face so I will try to send at least one.

I loved Zone Conference this Tuesday!! As I said last week we were expecting some changes and we got them. President wants us to focus on our accountability to the Lord. We have pretty much stopped street teaching, so the way we account to the mission for our weeks effort has changed. It is an exciting change and I am excited to here in the ELSM!

Sister Hickman hasn't been very well this week and then neither was I. It has set us back a little which has been frustrating but we are excited about this coming week and what Heavenly Father has in stall for us. Sister Hickman really is amazing... I love her and I am so excited to be here in Bracknell with her, and we are very blessed to be in this companionship.

We have been so blessed with member support recently. We really feel loved by the ward.

Sister Hickman and I are praying that we will be able to stay together until she goes home (December 31st) but the way my transfers have been, we are doubting that will be the case. But that's okay as Heavenly Father knows what needs to happen.

Yesterday we only had one investigator at church and that was Jim... He has been investigating the church for about 18 months now. He is driving me crazy!!! He knows it's true but doesn't feel he is ready for baptism yet. Anyway the reason I'm telling you this... We have Sacrament meeting last and Jim only comes for that so we didn't have a Gospel Principles class. We joined the Gospel Doctrine class. We sat down and I then I scanned the room as I always do... Only to find Martin Cook sat behind me. Crazy!! We were both very shocked to see one another. It was good to see someone from home but kinda weird too... Home world and Mission world are two very different things and mixing the two is weird. Sister Hickman took a photograph of him and I on his phone as he said he was going to send it home! Crazy! He is down here on church business though, so he is probably very busy.

Virdi... He is amazing!!! I feel so blessed to be working with him. He is so prepared!!! We currently have him scheduled for baptism on October 18th but we feel that we may be able to bring it forward a little. He is progressing so well and comprehends the gospel so well. Heavenly Father has prepared him and He is by his side right now and he feels it. AMAZING!! We are having a family home evening today at the Hamilton's and he is coming along :D!!!!

Very quickly running out of time!!!

People keep asking me how long I have been out and I can't remember any more... I think that's probably a good thing! I do know that October 31st is my year mark and it is only around the corner... SCARY!!!

Today was an awesome day!!! As I mentioned we went to Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) with the Hamilton's... It was lovely! They brought a picnic and it was so nice spending the day with them. They are so good to us.

Remember who you are!!!!!

3 Nephi 2:1... Never forget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you!!!!

Love, Sister Smart

Look Who turned up in My Sunday School Class

Me at Highclere Castle

Another of Me at Highclere Castle

Yet another and there's only one way down!!

Sister Hickman & I with the Hamilton's at Highclere Castle

Is It Gone? Oh No Its Here !!!

When She said she had lost her email I thought there was no email at all, but she was just showing us how much she had lost...

“
Well… I have just deleted my entire email which was about this long


































No over exaggeration…

I literally just cried for 5 minutes trying to get it back and no joy.

To put it short.

I don't think anyone really understood my question about chastening and rebuking… I have ready Elder Christtofersen's talk and I know how and why Heavenly Father does chasten and rebuke us. And I now haven't got time to explain what I really mean.

Vinayak's baptism did not go through last Saturday. His situation has changed slightly so he has asked if he could wait and be baptised in India.

Verdi is amazing… We have been teaching him for about two weeks and he has been reading the Book of Mormon for that time… He is up to Alma 36ish.

We went to the London Temple Visitors Centre yesterday for a fireside and it was amazing. He loved it. When we first sat down he turned to me and said, "The atmosphere in here is amazing!".

We went to Windsor today with all of the Sisters from the Zone. It was fun. We practiced our musical item for tomorrow… Haha! Crazy missionaries singing in Windsor. The Hamilton's drove us… An amazing family in the ward. They're spoiling us!

We have Zone Training tomorrow so that should be fun… I am excited!!! We're singing though! :/ We have some new things happening in the mission so that should be exciting to learn about tomorrow!

We have a new couple in the ward called the Barkers… They're amazing! They love missionary work! He is from York so it's cool to hear a fellow northerner. I thought I had lost my accent but he assures me I haven't.

The Elders got separated this week for about 5 minutes… Elder Christensen called us in a flap…. So so so funny!! Poor guy. 5 minutes being alone as a missionary is awful!

I have had an amazing week!!!!!!! Until 10 minutes ago when I deleted my email…. GUTTED!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all have an amazing week too!

I love you!

Never forget who you are…

Love, Sister Smart

P.S. Deffo no time to send photos now!!!! Hopefully next week!

A Mission Just Seems To Be One Long P'Day !!!

I'm Sure I'll Be Offending Someone With That Title

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This week has been great! Sister Hickman is amazing! She is from Blackfoot, Idaho and she has been out for 14 months. She is a great missionary and I am very excited to be her companion! We are determined together to be the best that we can be.

Bracknell is great... I already feel at home! This move (as always) was inspired and I am so excited to be here. Sister Hickman and I are getting along really well. We laugh a lot!! We already have great unity and I just love her. We currently have four baptismal dates and I am so excited to be working with these people on their journey to come unto Christ.

We are having a baptism this coming Saturday... His name is Vinayak and he is from India. He has been here for 2 months for his son's wedding and he goes home soon after his baptism. I am so excited for him! His English isn't great so we teach him with a translator (Elder Botcha from the London Mission). Elder Botcha's brother is serving his mission in India and he have just been transferred to Vinayak's home town... How crazy is that!?!??!?! Heavenly Father sure is hard at work!
We have members from the Reading Ward and the Oxford Ward helping out at the baptism who speak Hindi. Everything is working out just great.

We went to the Temple and Visitors Centre with him on Saturday and he loved it. The spirit was strong and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ", in Hindi... It was just what he needed!!

I saw Bishop Smith from Eastbourne at the Temple too. He is security there and he expressed how disappointed he was that I was transferred. It's nice to be loved!

We have Elders in our Ward... Elder Christenson and Elder Cooper. Elder Cooper is our District Leader and he moved into the area when I did. He seems pretty cool. Our District is just our two companionship's so that will be interesting as I have just come from a District of 5 companionships. Elder Christenson has just been out 4 1/2 months and he is crazy!!! He is 18 and he is from Utah. I'm sure we are going to laugh alot!!!!!! Probably at him!

Unfortunately Sister Hickman and I seem to have a little stomach bug thing going on! Not cool but we're hoping it will run it's course quickly. It hasn't stopped us thus far and we don't think it will. We have great plans for this week so it can't stop us!!! :)

Wednesday (Transfers) was cool... Clive our Ward Mission Leader from Eastbourne drove us to Crawley with the Elders where we met Sister Anderson and Sister Hickman. Sister Hickman and I got a train to Bracknell and Clive took the Eastbourne missionaries to the Temple for the day. Lucky them!!!! It's all good though as Sister Hickman and I had a chilled day once we got home! Some very kind members here picked us up from Bracknell train station and took us home which as very kind as my bags are getting heavier and heavier each move!

Apparently Reading Zone is a great place for P-days...
Next week 08/09 we are going to Windsor Castle with all of the Sisters (4 companionships) in the Zone (even though it's in the Staines Zone).
The week after 15/09 we are going to Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed with the Elders.
Then the week after that 22/09 we are having a joint P-day with the Zone Leaders.
The week after 29/09 we're heading to Oxford with the Elders and meeting up with the Missionaries there for the day.
Then the following week it is transfers 08/10.
This transfer really is going to fly by!!!!!!!

Recently I have been thinking and studying a lot about Heavenly Father chastening and rebuking us. Trying to decipher when we are being chastened & rebuked and when we are being brought down by Satan. I have asked multiple Priesthood leaders to help me understand but none of them have really been able to give me a "good enough" answer. Finally I am getting somewhere!!!! It's not just a question of Heavenly Father or Satan... Heavenly Father chastens and rebukes us because he loves us. Then we have the natural man as a result of the fall "Suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing;" and then we have Satan "suffer not the devil to lead away your heart again after those wicked harlots." Alma 39:11. I think the ";" is key in this Scripture! Please let me know if I am wrong and if you have any other thoughts!!!!

Remember who you are!!!!

Love, Sister Smart

Just one of Sister Hickman and I!