Wk 23 - God is always watching out for those missionaries!

Companion: Elder Ramos
Area: Andalein

one of my zone leaders elder miranda

tannner mancill he is our stake and jenna's friend
he is in the mission concepcion south and I saw him in the office-
(we share offices with the South mission)

so i will write hand written letters to all of you this week and answer all of your letters!

i am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary! i want you guys to know that i love you all so much and i pray for all of you every day multiple times a day!! this past week my testimony has been strengthened about how God is always watching out for those missionarys! all i want you to know mom is i am ok and i am very happy.

i would like a new little hymn book in Spanish if you could do that:) just know i am so grateful for your prayers and i do love this gospel so much!

this week i was with my companion and we were teaching a lesson and he said a word in portuguese and it was pretty funny! i guess those misionarys who know portuguese and spanish it is hard for them at times to speak one language or the other because some of the words are the same! i like having this comp because he is teaching me some words in portuguese as well! 

my companion and i are having a hard time finding people and yeah right now it is a difficult time. we walk a lot. we do contacting we have lessons with recent converts and less actives and we knock doors and referrals we use a little bit. when we get them we use them. the truth is we always find less actives and they don't want anything but i feel like the times that it is hard to find people you grow the most. i think that is true because you learn to depend on the gospel for your happiness and god.

i love how much i have learned about the scriptures. there is one scripture in Alma 13:24 that talks about how angels are here on the earth preparing the hearts of men to receive the gospel and that scripture brought me so much happiness.

i hope you all have a wonderful week and it brings me so much joy to see how happy my family is! love you all!!

Elder Smoot

Wk 22 - ¡Todo bien en Chile!

Companion: Elder Ramos
Area: Andalein

well this week was pretty good! every Wednesday we play soccer so that's always fun! 

one thing that happened is one of our recent converts well she was baptized like 7 months ago and she died from old age this past week! we always visited her and her daughter was always with her in the house and this past Sunday they had the funeral in the church after church and the daughter talked to us a little bit before the funeral. she expressed how grateful she is for the missionaries and having them always visit her mom and it was cool to see because her daughter is a less active and is participating in another church and she was expressing how grateful she was for the missionaries. i hope that she can find her way back to the true church. we are going to continue to visit the daughter and hopefully we can help her out.

i really have no idea what to write! one thing that i have learned here on the mission is to depend on the gospel and the spirit to bring me happiness and comfort. i am grateful for the comfort that i can have when i am so far away from home. it is a testimony builder how true this church is. i know without a doubt this church is true and there is nothing i would rather be doing than sharing the happiness i have. 

i just want to thank you mom for the dog dazer thing that you sent me! it has brought me a of entertainment! haha i will just be walking in the street and a dog will start barking. i use the thing and that dog just runs right off! its like magic! haha but there are some dogs that just get more mad and that's when we just walk the other way! haha!

 i enjoy my new companion and he is a great guy! we have 2 more weeks left with this transfer and it has gone by so fast!

one thing that i have learned and i am so grateful for is it is more important to please God than men. 

i hope you all have a wonderful week and i love you all!!

Elder Smoot

Wk 21 - . i have found so much happiness this week

Companion: Elder Ramos
Area: Andalein

saw my old companion today! (Elder Incil)

my comp and i are having a hard time finding right now and everyday is kind of long but i feel like this is the time where i have grown the most spiritually. i have realized that i am not always going to have success but i still have to find happiness. i have learned a little bit better how i can depend on the Lord Jesus Christ and how i can find happiness. i have found so much happiness this week. yes we have walked a ton this past week but i have never been happier talking to every person we see and testifying to of the truthfulness of the gospel. i don't know if you knew me before but i would have never done this before my mission. i feel like i am proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and i am not ashamed to tell every person of the happiness that they can have.

this week i have felt the adversary working on me more than i have ever felt before but i have felt more peace and happiness through pray and it is something that is hard to explain. many times this week i have felt the efforts of satan but i chose not to listen and rely on the gospel and the scriptures for my happiness. family i want all you guys to know i love you all so much. there is not anything in this whole world that is more important than to return to our father in heaven. thinking about this a lot lately and about baseball. i have made the decision to focus on family and the gospel after my mission. baseball has been really fun and all but i have realized that there is more. 

2 weeks ago we watched this video that Jefferey R. Holland spoke at the mtc of provo. he talked about Preach my Gospel and how the program that we have is awesome. he talked about how before we had a problem with our program how all the lessons were memorized and nothing was really to find the needs of the people. he also said that Gordon B. Hinckley knew there was a problem because they were always focusing on the investigator and not the missionary. he talked about how the missionary needs to be converted and to have a testimony before they can convert someone else. he said that there were missionaries after their missions would fall away from the church because they weren't converted before and how could you fall away after preaching about it for 2 years. anyway this video was powerful and if you can find the talk on the internet and watch it i would like all you guys to watch this one talk. 

so i am on my fourth paragraph and i hope you are happy mom;) i just want to testify that there is nothing more important than to return with our father in heaven. i love all you guys so much! i hope you all have a good week and the story with jewel is awesome! i love spiritual experiences like that! love you fam!!:)

Elder Smoot

Wk 20 - New companion! /videos!

Companion: Elder Ramos
Area: Andalein

Andalein Zone Conference

ok so like every day this week was way fast! it is still weird to think that i am on my mission! it is weird to think how fast time goes! 

So i am getting a package ready for you guys! is there anything that you would like in it specificly? i got to say my favorite present is the one i am giving to Austin! you guys just have to wait and see! haha

On saturday i had a really cool experience and i was a good example of somebody that had really strong faith. My comp and i visited an old lady in our ward and she had been sick for the past 3 days and she asked us to give her a blessing so she could go to church the next day. i felt like i needed to bless her that she would feel better tomorrow so she could go to church. it was a spiritual experience for me and she said a closing prayer after we shared a scripture and in the prayer she said that she had no doubt that she would feel better tomorrow and that she could go to church! it was a cool experience for me to see someone with strong faith.

one funny story is there was a little fat kid up on a hill and we were walking back from lunch yesterday and the fat kid said to all his friends "LOOK the mormons!!!" they all had toy guns in their hands and they all started pretending to shoot us and it was pretty funny! 

all in all everything is good i love the gospel so much!! i know how important it is to continue to build your testimony everyday!!

Love,

Elder Smoot

New Elders in the house!

questions/answers:

*hows the new comp?!

he is cool i am going to send a video of him talking in portuguese for tanner 

*hows the weather?
it is perfect right now. not too hot and not too cold! 

*do you still get fed every day?

yeah every day except p day because we are in centro most of the day writing and buying food

*how is chile most different from here?

-well every one speaks spanish haha 

-you need to lock up your house and every house has a gate around it 

-well it is very dirty here. people just throw stuff on the ground! it is sad to see how people are here 

-i hate dogs here! there are too many dogs in the street and they always bark as you walk by so pretty much i just get barked at most the day. don't get me wrong i love being here!! 

-some people use horses and not cars. most people just get around by bus. 

-we yell to knock on doors! Ahloo!!! haha because everyone has a gate so we can't knock. at times there is a little door bell by the gate you can push! but there is a ton of different things! 

-some houses i cant stand up straight and i always got to watch for my head! haha

Wk 19 - This week was fast!

Companion: Elder Ramos
Area: Andalein

Good-bye to Elder Incil 

this lady was sealed in the provo temple and is a member in my area
(she lived in chile but only visited to be sealed)

I cant believe how big Dixie looks. i only remember her crawling around and thats about it! i would love if you would send pics of her kids!

It is kinda hard to remember all the stories that happen but don't worry i have them written in my journal so that's good! every day it seems there is something that happens that makes all the walking and all the talking to the people worth it. a couple days ago my companion and i we were just walking a ton that day and we were so tired and the sun is down by this time and we saw this lady and we decided to go and talk to her and we talked to her for 15 minutes or so and we shared about the temples and how she could do work for her family in the temples and we got an appointment with her this next saturday and was very interested! i hope all turns out all right with her!

It is weird here on the mission. i am so happy but always so tired! haha but honestly i dont think i have ever been happier in my life. on the mission over time that you have experiences you realize the importance of decisions, family, and well the church on the earth. I couldnt be more grateful to have all my familiy on the path to return to live with father in heaven! i am so grateful for all you guys! 

i will try and send another video hopefully it will work!! have a wonderful week family!

love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Smoot


some questions/answers:

*tell us about your new companion? 

my companion is Elder Ramos and he is awesome! he is a good guy and i feel like we will get along! he cant really speak english and can understand english but we only talk in spanish it is just easier for both of us. he is from Sau Paulo Brazil! He has been out 11 months

*How's it working out with 6 Elders in your house? 

it is crazy i just work out and get in the shower really fast so i am not last haha

*tell us about the people you are teaching now?

we are trying to find people right now and so only less actives right now

*how big is your ward? how helpful are the members in helping the missionaries? 

about 150 people attend but there is so many less actives and we have a lot members that go to the lessons with us

*do you use that bug spray I sent you? How bad are the fleas? 

yeah i dont really have a problem anymore

Wk 18 - Conference!

Companion: Elder Incil
Area: Andalein

i make pancakes almost everyday in the morning

all are members in front of the church

I learned so much from Conference and it was a way good experience! i don't know why but conference is so much better when you are on your mission! i have to share something for tayton because he popped in my head when actually i don't remember who said it but it talks about studying the scriptures daily and how you can be safe from the effects of satan through daily scripture study. i have a huge testimony about that and how that helped me to be better my senior year of high school. i just want you tayton to have daily scripture study and i promise you that it will bless your life.

All right i will get to your guys favorite part of a funny story! this week we were eating lunch with bishops family and the bishop has a little son and he doesn't like corn at all. his mom fed him corn and someone said hey is that corn and the kid didn't realize he was eating corn till someone said something and so the kid started gagging and just lost it!! haha! i was laughing so hard because elder Hancock cant stand throw up at all and he was plugging his ears and looking away and he almost lost it as well. anyway i thought that was pretty funny and i wanted to share that!

Family i want you guys to know those 4 tools that elder Holland talked about is something you guys can do to strength your testimonies as a family. there is nothing that would bring me more joy than to know that my whole family has strong testimonies in the gospel. I did enjoy the video that you guys did for me. i was able to watch that today and i had no idea the zone leaders were doing that for the missionaries. i enjoyed the part where Austin was speaking spanish it was pretty sick! 

anyway i love you guys so very much and i know how important it is to have a growing testimony everyday. hope you all have a wonderful week. 

con amor,

Elder Smoot

one interesting thing i want to tell you- they opened a new sector and because we have a big house we are going to have 6 elders living in the same house so that will be crazy!

Wk 17 - Baptism!!

Companion: Elder Incil
Area: Andalein

pretty much the sign says hi family!

this is the kid ignacio that i baptized

check out this big plate of meat i was definitely in heaven for a while there

As you saw in the picture i do actually enjoy the food here!

So this past week my comp and i had 2 baptisms which is way exciting because this family had been coming to church for 2 months now and now they were finally baptized! it is cool because they really want to go to the temple as a family as well. gosh when we talk about the temple i like thirst to go to the temple and it sucks because i cant go right now! haha i think one of the first things i am going go do is go to the temple here in about 20 months! haha it is fun to talk to people and see people feel the spirit!! 

I had a really cool experience this past week or i think it was this past week! the weeks kind of blend together but we were teaching this person who was baptized recently and she had not been making good decisions and i have never seen her in the church once since i had been here but we teach her all the time. we talked about her life in this lesson and how nothing in this world is more important than returning to our father in heaven. there was a lot of silence in this lesson where i think the spirit taught her and not us as missionaries. it was cool because we didn't say anything and she started crying because the spirit was so strong. it goes to show as you let the spirit teach and you give an opportunity for the spirit to teach people will feel the spirit. 

another story that is pretty funny. so you guys know that i look like a giant walking down the street with my companion and we were walking down this street and 2 kids were playing soccer and they all stopped and stared at us as we were walking and one of the kids pointed and said LOOK its BIG!! and my comp and i started laughing and it was pretty funny! 

but this week was good and time flies here and I love my family more and more every day!! and it brings me joy that i know my family can be together forever. 

Love,

Elder Smoot