Wk 96 - conferencia general

Companion: Elder Stallings

Area: Tome´

the mini cambio with elder jensen in andalién(lorena, ignacio, diego)

walking up a stairway in tome´

this past week has been an incredible week and i feel so lucky to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth. this past week has been amazing and i will tell you why.

this past week i had the opportunity to have a mini cambio with elder jensen. i lived with him when i was in chillán and he is now the AP. the assistants actually work in my first sector i had in my mission in andalién. i had the opportunity to go back and see all the people i knew way back at the begining of my mission. i visited a yound man named ignacio that i had the priviledge to baptize and his mom. i saw them almost two years after and seeing them still going in the church as active members. it was so amazing the feeling that i felt. it was amazing to see them happily living the gospel. it was a really cool experience. 

i have to say that the priesthood session was incredible. it is crazy to think that before i thought at times that the general conference meetings would never end and now by the end of a session i am wanting more!! haha it is incredible to see the work of the lord go forward!!

love you guys and it seems like lil chief is doing good!! 

have a wonderful week and tell trenton that he will be serving in the best mission in the world!!!

elder smoot

Wk 95 - semana santa

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

by the way the pic of the shirt is some shirts we made for the zone.
 i thought they were pretty sweet!! haha

well to start off i want to wish chelsea a happy birthday yesterday!! i will give you a gift soon:) haha 

well this past week was pretty good!! that is cool that now we got a baby horse!! yoohoo it is so weird to see pics of the fam, everyone looks older (in a good way). haha

we have an investigator that we have found named arturo. he is 80 yrs. old so he has his experiences in life haha but he is way cool!! he didnt come to church because he had to drop his daughter off at the airport sunday morning... but he will go this next week to general conference hopefully!! 

one experience that was really cool this past week happened yesterday. there is a kid that lives in a different sector but is always in our sector at his grandmas house. his twin brother is a member and preparing to go on a mission but his brother was sick and he asked us to give him a blessing. my comp did the first part and i did the blessing and by the end of the blessing he was crying. he has shared with the missionaries for a long time but has gotten close to getting baptized but after the blessing he said i am going to get baptized. it surprised me and it was a humbling experience to see that my comp and i were just instruments in the lords hands and the spirit touched his heart. i had never seen him cry before then and so we past him the number to the sister missionaries in another sector and we will make sure he calls them to meet with them. i will let you know what ends up happening with camilo. 

i love you all and have a great week.

elder smoot

(pics from the mission blog)

Wk 94 - conferencia de estaca

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

pics from the week....

a weird fruit called nona

dodgeball

this past week we had stake conference here. the zone of tomé is part of the zone of penco so i was able to see a lot of familiar faces from the last sector that i had in penco. it was really cool!! 

today we did a zone activity with all the zones close to concepción. it was sick!!!! i enjoyed it very much. it was funny seeing some kids using their hands that usually just use their feet to play soccer!! haha 

with juanita she was still smoking so we had to let her go. manuel he didnt go to church this past week because we had to travel to penco to go... but this past week we found 2 new people!

cristina is the girl that speaks english and has a family. (we only speak in spanish with her when we talk about the gospel it is a lot easier for me) we also found arturo and he is an old guy that had lost his wife and we taught about eternal families with him and he will be going to church next week. 

i am doing really good and i am super happy to be here!! today we ordered shirts for the zone and we wanted to do something cool so we got shirts that are the under armor fabric and we took them to a place that is going to put the air jordan symbol with air mormon around it. i am sure they will turn out pretty sweet!! 

a couple of weeks ago i ran into a guy that was from guatemala and he knew an elder bentley so i am pretty sure he knows kaden bentley and he told me he is an assistant in his mission. it was pretty cool to hear that!! its a small world!! haha 

well, love you fam and i hope you guys have a great week!!

elder smoot

Wk 93 - St Patricks day?

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

i did forget about st patricks day and thanks for reminding me mom!! haha well i just want to tell Jenna happy birthday in a couples days!! i think you will be turing 22? i dont know i forget. haha but love you jenna!! 

well this past week everything was going good with juanita and she smoked!!! gosh dang!!! it was pretty frustrating but its all right!! manuel the other investigator that we had leaves at times he just goes on trips. i told you this before that his wife doesnt like the mormon church so she likes us but not what we do i guess you can say. haha so we are still working with them. 

the other day we started talking to a lady in the street and she had a baby in her arms. she started speaking english to us and turned out she had gone to the united states before and she spoke really well!! we talked to her in english and it was kinda hard to talk about the gospel in english!! haha we went by the other day to her house to visit her and she was just leaving her house she we couldnt share with her but we have an appointment with her wednesday so i am excited about that!! 

i am doing really good. we as well played soccer this past week and it was sweet!! i do enjoy playing soccer! haha 

but i love you guys and i am happy that we are sealed as a family. 

oh yeah and by the way yesterday we had a satellite conference from utah to the whole country of chile. it was the first time that i have seen that happen but russell m. nelson talked in spanish. i didnt even know he knew spanish! haha they talked about the temple, reading the scriptures, and the sabbath day. it was a great conference! 

love you guys and have a great week!!!!

elder smoot

Wk 92 - milagro con juanita

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

still hasn't fixed the black spot on his camera lens!...sorry Elder Stallings! ;)

this past week has been pretty good! there is this lady that has almost 3 years sharing with the missionaries and she knows every thing is true but just has a problem with smoking. we had a plan to put in some money and buy a vaporizer. i had a doubt in buying it so i called the assistants to see if that was all right but they said yes that it is all right. she is only going to use this vaporizer until she doesnt have desires to smoke. she only is using the vaporizer until she gets rid of her addiction. we have seen a miracle this past week because usually she smokes 18 times a day. we were able to get this vaporizer thing this past week and she has only smoked 2 times in 3 days. the last time she smoked was 2 days ago. if she can go for 2 weeks without smoking which i know she can do it she will be able to be baptized  March 19!! pretty cool!! i am excited for her!! 

I love this gospel and i have seen how the atonement has helped juanita have the will power to stop smoking. it is incredible how she has completely changed her attitude about believing she will be able to stop smoking! every thing is going good with my comp and me. we are happy and loving life!!!:) 

i know as well that all the people that are going through a hard time should rely on the atonement of jesus christ. we dont realize at times that we have a saviour who understands every single thing we feel. I know he can help us be calm and even feel love for those ones that are hard to love! 

i love you guys and i know that this gospel is the thing that matters. have a great week!!:)

elder smoot

Wk 91 - otra semana en tomé

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

my comp's toenail fell off!

this past week we have found some new investigators but none are willing to act yet. one of the investigators is elia and she is a family member of another member. thats why i feel like she could be good. manuel this past week went to church and he has fecha for the 26 of march. the problem with him is his wife doesnt like any other church besides hers. i hope one day she will have a change of heart. 

one thing that was really cool is this past week we had the opportunity to listen to elder bednar and he talked to all the missionaries here in the sudamérica sur region. he taught along with his wife some really important parts. i learned a lot from him and i felt the spirit really strong in the conference. i know he is an apostle of god. it is crazy his ability to teach. it was funny too because he would say some words in spanish and it was pretty funny. he had a translator by his side the whole time and it was a great experience. 

i played soccer this past week here in tomé and some members visited me from my past sector valle hermoso in penco. 

it was a great week and i am looking forward to another great week.

elder smoot

Wk 90 - ¡Cambios!

Companion: Elder Stallings
Area: Tome´

hermana moraga finished her mission. (she was in our zone)

well this week went by really fast. well this past week we got permission to go on a little trip with the ward. we had to come back after lunch to work but it was really fun. it was by a little river and i brought a frisbee so we played with that. there was a frisbee in the house when i got to the house. 

diego the recent convert will be giving his first talk sunday which is cool. i have given 2 talks in the ward and i gave a talk yesterday actually. i talked about having a broken heart and a contrite spirit. it was pretty cool. its crazy that before i used to get nervous to give a talk now i like doing it. 

we also played a little soccer this past week. we played against a ward called dieciocho(18). they brought some members and we played against them and it was a good time! i am still loving soccer! 

a story this past week was when we were going to play soccer we had to go look for a less active to bring him to play soccer with us. we were walking up this hill called cerro navidad and we saw this guy passed out and drunk. normally we just ignore them and keep walking but these twins that leave with us a lot one of them said hey elder smoot you cant just leave him here he could get robbed. i was thinking you got to be kidding me i aint touching this guy! haha i thought about it and we tried to wake him up and he kidda woke up a little to point in the direction of his house. my comp and i picked him up and pretty much carried him to his house. when we got to his house a family member left the house and thanked us for having brought him to the house. after doing that one of the members said now dont you feel good? and the truth was that i did feel good. it was a cool experience! but this past week was way good! 

i am excited to get started with this new cambio i know it will be a great one!!

elder smoot