wk 12 - I hope I turn into Spider-Man!

Companion: Elder Incill
Area: Andalein

lunch at a member's house after church

the guy is not the dad he is a member that teaches a lot of lessons with us. he is a pretty cool guy!!

I don't even remember what i do on all the days!! all i know is that time goes fast here!! i will send a pic of the family that two of them have a baptism date. the family is awesome and are so ready to receive the gospel. they have a little kid who is 7 so he can't be baptized yet. i love teaching the family because they are always so interested in what we have to say! i love all the times we teach because it is always a spiritual experience!! 

every Mericoles or wednesday we play soccer at the church with kids who are inactive and other kids who aren't members. i guess i found out that i am not terrible at soccer well... the only thing i have on them is i can kick the ball a lot harder! haha but the little chilenos are pretty good!!

My spanish is coming along slowly. i always can understand a little more each day and i can most of the time understand them. It is hard here because people talk so fast!! but i am getting the hang of it but i still need to improve a ton!! 

so on saturday in the morning i woke up with this thing that i thought was a huge scratch! i didnt think much of it so i just kind of went on with the day. by saturday night i had three little blister things on my arm and i was thinking this cant be good. my companion said oh dont worry about it. i didn't really worry about it until sunday morning it was pretty big. the three little blisters were one huge blister and it popped in my sweater and there was so much crap that came out!! it was nasty! i cleaned it and i asked the mission nurse about it today and i showed her the picture of it with the blister and the first words she said was OH NO. haha i was thinking oh crap what is this. she gave me some medicine for it and i will clean it for the next couple days and if it gets worse i am supposed to call her. so i hope all will turn out all right! 

my week was pretty good other than now my camera doesn't really work anymore and a spider bit me. but if i turn into spider-man i wont mind.

 i am staying in the same area in Andalein for another cambio. I just finished 6 weeks here in chile! so that's something that's cool! i am still living with the same elders in my house. 

but i want you guys to know i love you and i hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Smoot

(more pics from last week's zone activity )

Wk 11 - i love pirates!

Companion: Elder Incill
Area: Andalein

i have a ton of pics but i might not have time to explain all of them 

but the pictures on the beach was one from a zone class 

with Elder Hancock

Elder Hancock, Incill, & Pavon (our house)

we had a mini combio i was with elder catron from argentina and i stayed in elder mittons house on his birthday. it was pretty cool. i learned a ton from them. elder mitton is a stud out here!

 you usually can see a city behind us
 but it was so foggy you could hardly see anything!

i know you want longer letters but because of all the pictures i sent i have a little time!! 

this week was pretty good!! i went to the new missionary conference and learned a ton!! i was with elder catron who is a freakin stud!! he is from argentina and he is companions with elder mitton who is only a year older than me and went to pg! all the new missionaries were companions with zone leaders so they get to learn a ton. i learned i needed to contact more!! i told my companion that we needed to talk to more people!! we did that and had 247 contacts this week which was pretty cool!! elder mitton and elder catron have over 300 contacts a week which is insane! i am enjoying it though!! i can have simple conversations in the street but i am still no where near good yet!! 

(pictures from the mission blog of the new missionary conference)

I had another funny experience with a drunk guy!! my companion and i see this drunk guy and he says cuidado which is be careful and i see he is drunk and i am thinking oh this is going to be good. i dont know why but the drunk people always try and talk to you. but he was talking to us and he was a pretty fat guy and was just so drunk and he started crying and i could help but try not to laugh! oh man it was pretty funny!! 

i love you guys have a good week!

Elder Smoot

when i am wearing regular clothes that was from today when we went and had a bbq with our zone. 
it was pretty dope and there was a pirate cave there. 
one thing you might have never known about me is i love pirates so much. 

this is the pirate cave

with Elder Hancock

elder hancock and i had to run from the pirate cave on the beach to our bus and i was so sweaty!!

Wk 10 - whats up my fam!!

Companion: Elder Incil
Area: Andalein

I love hearing from you guys each week!! every single week goes by pretty quick!! i have weird experiences here though!! to expain that one picture with the guy passed out is just to show you how many people drink here!! it is kinda sad to see how many people throw away their lives!! but when you see someone passed out on the side of the road i couldnt help but to take and pic!! haha 

i think it was a couple of days ago where my companion and i are walking down the street and this happens a ton where people see that i am american or as they call them Greengos and they say hello and laugh because they are speaking english i dont know!! haha but this guy said hello are you? and just smiled and I said im very good thank you! and thinking this guy was just a nice old man he said i feel like crap!! and yelled it! except he didnt say crap he said the other word. haha i just kept walking and i was laughing but my companion was confused and i had to say el dijo un malo palabra en ingles. it was kind of strange!!

on the bright side my companion and i found a family that is golden but the only thing is we havent met the husband because he lives some where else for work! we have taught them multiple lessons and they have come to church! their family is way tight! they have this son named Diego and he is probably the funniest kid. i gave him a 1 dollar bill because i still have american money and they think it is the coolest thing!! haha but i hope everything works out with their family!!

 hey i want you guys to know i love you all and pray for you guys everyday!! have a wonderful week and it brings me so much joy seeing my parents take a selfie riding a scooter!! haha love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Smoot

elder dillon hancock is my homeboy!! he is from arizona. i want you to look him up on facebook and talk to his mom or something or whatever you do! haha he is one of my favorite kids!!

yes it rains a ton here

questions/answers:

*what are the names of the other Elders that live in your house?

pavon, hancock, incil

*ever had Cumpletos? Or empanadas? how
expensive are they?

yes all the time and they are way good. and not very expensive

*what is your daily schedule? 

 in the winter we go from 7 to 11 and in the summer 7 30 to 11 30

*What do you do on Pday? do you play any sports?

yeeah soccer behind the church they have a little court for soccer

*how's your Health? did you get over your Cold? 

my health is good i feel fine

*have any problems with Fleas? 

i dont have a huge problem with fleas but only a little problem

*did you get your PACKAGE?

yes thank you i loved it

*when you say 'dangerous' part of the mission- what does that mean? I

crime- drunk people and gangsters but they are very small people here haha

Wk 9 - Loving it here in Chile!!

Companion: Elder Incil
Area: Andalein

well all is well here in chile!! i went on a mini combio with elder bence and the other elder with our beanies on is elder pavon!! i live with the zone leaders and they both are way cool!! i need to get a picture with elder hancock the other zone leader! he played baseball in high school in arizona and we have a lot in common!!

family- life is good here!! i never thought about how much joy you can have out in the compo misional!! but i have funny things happen to me as well!! we see drunk people all the time and 2 times this week we stopped to talk to them without knowing how drunk they were!! first time we stopped and after realizing how drunk this guy was we gave him a card and we are like well he will look at it when he comes to. but he kept trying get way close to my face and so i just held him away and he kept trying! it was pretty funny though.

another time we see this guy and go talk to him and he was super drunk. and trying to understand spanish right now is kinda difficult but trying to understand a drunk guy is super hard!! haha we shook his hand and he gave me a wet kiss on my hand and oh boy it was nasty!! haha we gave him a card as well and we were like well that is an easy contact! haha as well we saw a drunk guy peeing in a parking lot so that was scary. but you just have to laugh at those things!! 

on the more serious side here on the mission you feel so close to God and it is awesome. i have never felt love for so many random people. just randomly walking up to someone and really caring about their salvacion(cant remember how to spell it in english) is awesome! nothing better than being out here. yes i do miss my family and more people but nothing i would rather be doing!! love this work and my testimonio is strengthened every day!! i hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

Love,

Elder Smoot

Andalein Zone Conference July 2014