Week 13 - 3 Sisters 'Dead on the Floor'

Pageant week one- ✔. 

Sister Hatfield and me at our post and ready to testify!

Sufficeth to say, on our 'chaos chart' this week 'three sisters dead on the floor' was put more than once.  At the Smith Farm alone on Friday I met about 10,000 people! The record for any day prior to this is 3,000 people!  Wow!  For all 3 days of pageant I got to testify to over 15,000 people about the restoration of the gospel--how amazing is that?!  Thankfully the weather was good or that would have been pretty miserable! 

This is a picture that someone posted from last year showing the sisters 'dead on the floor' haha!
Those 12-hour days and thousands of visitors are what we have been training for, but it's still exhausting!

We aren't allowed to see pageant which is kind of a bummer but it's fun meeting all the cast and everyone coming to see pageant! I've become obsessed with hearing where everyone is from and I have met people from 47 of the 50 states just since the 9th! Cool huh? Also people from Canada, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, Ghana, and more! How incredible to see people from all over the world coming to unite in a common cause with a common faith and to see how the gospel has spread all over the world. 

One of my favorite views from the Smith Farm! When they built the Palmyra Temple, they cut a clearing out of the trees so it can be seen from here.  The Palmyra Temple is actually on part of the Smith's land.  I've been spending about half the week at the Smith Farm lately which includes the old log home (where Joseph read James 1:5 and Moroni appeared to him),  the frame home they built later on (where they were living when Joseph got the gold plates), and the Sacred Grove (as well as a few other barns and buildings).  Incredible spirit here!

One of the hardest parts has been because, you know, 12-hour days on your feet, but hopefully that won't be what I remember. Can't wait to see what this next week has in store! One more week of pageant!  Then next Monday or Tuesday is transfers and we'll see where I end up going from here (or staying).

A fun thing that happened this week was one little girl at the Smith Farm came up and gave me a hug and I was like awww and her Dad was like "sorry, we just came from Disneyland and so she's used to hugging all the princesses." AWWWWW I died haha. 

Love, Sister Potts

FUN FACTS:

1. It's likely that Father Smith first considered New York from a newspaper article advertising land.

2. When the Smith's traveled to NY they had 8 kids ranging in age from 17 to under 1.

3. Lucy had to make the 300 mile journey in the winter alone with her 8 kids.

4. Joseph Sr arranged for a man named Caleb Howard to make the trip with Mother Smith, but he was terrible, if you want to read more about it read Saints! ;)

5. Mr Howard even knocked 10 y.o. Joseph out of the wagon for several days while he was still recovering from his surgery.

More from Mom:  Bruce and I took Jacob out to see the pageant and sites this past weekend since this will most likely be our last chance to go see the pageant before it ends and Jacob attends a semester at BYU-I and then on to a mission. Bruce had also never seen the sites or the pageant.  It was such a beautiful place!  We were there on their busiest, record-breaking day!  Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Emily (at the mission president's request) and had to avoid going to where she was assigned each day, which is not for the faint of heart, I can assure you!  My momma heart was nearly breaking and overflowed several times, but I consoled myself by taking pictures of all the other sister missionaries (and giving them big momma hugs) so I could share pictures of them on the mission facebook page or by texting their moms.  Thankfully other kind souls texted us these sweet pictures of my missionary this past week:

Bruce's Uncle Terry (Duffin) made a surprise visit
to see Sister Potts while he was in the area last week!

Sent the day before we arrived:  "Thanks for letting your daughters serve :-). 
We are from Phoenix and ran into them yesterday and today at two of the sites we were visiting. 
Two of my children are missing from the picture, but I was able to get most of them. 
Your missionaries were some of their favorites!"  💖

Friday (our first day there):  "Your beautiful missionary is sharing her time with us today. 
Love the Maughan's from Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Our Sister Missionary is in Kirtland, OH." 
She gave her a mom's hug from me when she found out I was there but unable to see her.

"Look who we found at the Smith Farm! 
She said they broke the record of visitors at half way through the day. 
Busy, busy missionary!  The saints are here in hoards today!"

From Saturday:  "Greetings from Cumorah.  My wife and I got to meet your daughters at the Visitor Center yesterday.  They are happy & doing well.  We served in this mission 7 years ago.  We had a Sister Julia Potts, from Price serve with us.  We are from Layton.  Pageant was great!"

Sunday from a friend of Bruce's:  "Look who I see!! :)"

Monday:  "Sister Potts & Sister Hatfield - What sweet Missionaries!!"
Good to see them smiling even during pageant and even though we didn't get to see them in person!