Week # 75 My very last letter! ( Nov. 2, 2014)

My brain is in a fuzz looking back at the last 18 months of my life. The unexpected, the unanticipated, the uncontrollable, the unforgettable. Wow.

My last day of proselyting was last night. We stayed out as late as we could, then spent an hour packing up all my things. After getting into bed on time, I couldn't fall asleep for over 3 hours. So many things running through my mind. I'm not excited to go home, I'm not sad to leave, I'm not stressed about the work... I'm just in a blur. I think my whole being is in denial. I can't really explain. I'm just going through the motions now of the day getting the things done that I need to. Sister Nielsen (my companion from the MTC) and I are companions for this week. Today we have interviews with president and time to pick up last minute things. Tomorrow we have a carreer workshop all day and a devotional/dinner at night. Wednsday we fly to Manila, go to the Temple, and wait for our flight home which is Thursday Morning. I'll get home Friday for my body, but Thursday for you because of the time change. Even as I am saying this, I don't really believe it. It's really here? I'm really going to be an RM? That title is for old, mature people.

Saturday was on of the biggest holidays in the Philippines. It's bigger than Christmas. Its called Fieste Minatay. It's the Filipino Halloween. It's the day to celebrate and remember all the loved ones who past away. What is that in america... Mamorial day? But litterally everyone celebrates and goes to the cemetary. Because of lack of space, each lot is stacked 6 tombs high with little ledges to light the candles on each grave. Because no one is in there homes, each year, the missionaries go and proselyte at the grave yard and talk and teach. We taught a lot of lessons and met a lot of prepared people. But since Paglaum doesn't have a cemetary, we were proselyting in Murcia for the day. So we ended up giving the Elders a lot of referrals. Oh, well. I hope they stay busy contacting all of them. It is tradition that after the days festivities, all the kids and teenagers spend the night in the Cemetary partying. Hence, there were no people in Church on Sunday. But that's okay, we did our best.

I did have a sweet tender mercy on my last Sunday yesterday. Remember Joshua? He was the little boy who kept talking to me while I was emailing you a few months ago. We found his house back then and found out he is an 8 year old of a really less-active family. He has been begging us to get baptized, but we didn't want to baptize him without his family returning, otherwise he might go less-active as well. But he has been coming to church on his own for the last 6 weeks. Finally we found the mom who works full time in another town. We told her that Joshua really wants to be baptized, but she needs to come with him to church to talk to Bishop about his baptism. She re-arranged her schedule and her first Sunday back was yesterday. We went up to Bishop after Sacrament meeting and told him the story. He looked at me and said, "Do you want to baptize him today on your last Sunday?" I told him to talk to the family first. After a long interview with the family, they decided to baptize him that day. We threw the baptism together and baptized little Joshua. The mom bore her testimony and said that she changed her schedule permanently so that they can keep coming to church with Joshua. I'm so impressed and amazed with Joshua. His sweet spirit, sweet desire, and honest pleading to be baptized. Miracles do happen.
 

I love you all more than you know!  Thank you all for all your love, prayers and support for the last 18 months! 

Lots of love, Palangga ko kamo! Kitanay kita sa Huwebes! 

Love, Sister Smoot

sisterashleysmoot.blogspot.com  You can catch up a little on her letters so you can talk to her about it! haha