Wk 76 - Happy New Year!!!! 2K19!!!

Companion: Elder Collier, Elder Olsen
Area: Dublin

Mitch Adios!

Adios Olsen!

Bathroom pic

New Year's Eve shopping lol

Selfies

Marriott bathroom break in "New Dublin"

Selfies on the top level of parking garages.
We went there Friday but no one was there to learn about Jesus!! 

Chasing geese

Howdy howdy!!!

Besides being a little sick for the first time in my mission this week, it's been awesome!!! Pretty eventful with New Year's Eve and Christmas all in the same week!! It was super good to talk to everyone! I loved it! After the call we were all starving and had no desire to cook, so we made what ended up being a terrible decision and ended up going out to find some where to eat! Not really thinking, of course we headed straight to taco bell, then to ihop, then realized that probably the only places that would be open are Chinese and Indian places. The first Chinese place was open but looked like a WAY expensive place so we passed it up and were like of the Chinese buffet, said it was cheap and good on Google maps so we went there. We walked in and were super excited. The chicken was basically dog doo-doo and was super soggy. Dessert was even worse. Our waiter spilled my water all over Elder Collier and didn't seem to know how to say sorry. So by the time we were done eating we were like well hey I guess we can't complain too much it filled us up and its cheap.... JUST KIDDING!!!! They brought the bill out and it was $18!!! HOW RiDICULOUS! They took the sign down and put the price in small writing on a white board. They jacked up the prices for Christmas and didn't even warn us!! Needless to say that sucked! But we made the best of it! haha Even though they wouldn't stop pointing at us and talking in Chinese! It was a bad experience but a great story!! I'll never forget 2018 Christmas on the Mission and getting robbed by a Chinese buffet.

Wednesday morning we had to go move some couches in our suits from a member's house before we headed to district council! District council was here in Dublin and it was awesome! We watched one of my new favorite GC talks! April 1979 "Following Christ to Victory" Hartman Rector Jr.! Such a good talk! Give it a read some time and let me know what you think!!  

So we started teaching a deaf lady later that day! She is so prepared to receive the restored Gospel. She has been searching for it for 25 years! Her Dad was a member of the church and taught her when she was young but her mom didn't want anything to do with the church. They split up when she was young but she remembered the things her dad taught her. She was doing family history one day and she found out that a ton of her ancestors were pioneers that came to Utah from Kirkland! It finally clicked for her that the church her dad belonged to and the one she was looking for was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. We have a missionary in our district named Elder Thomas that is basically fluent in sign language and he interprets for us. When we were teaching the first lesson we got through the first couple points and she stopped us and asked "is this called the restoration?" And we pulled out a pamphlet and showed her what it said and she responded "this is it! This is what my father taught me." It was such a cool experience. She accepted a date to be baptized and is now working with us toward that goal. She is the best. The Lord has been preparing her for quite a long time. I am thankful for the opportunity I have to teach her. That night we met with Daylon as usual and still just can't seem to figure out what it is that's stopping him from eternal happiness. We ended watching the mormon message, if thats what you call it, with Elder Holland giving the talk "The first great commandment" where Christ asks Peter if he loves Him three times and asks him to feed his sheep. So we asked Daylon after if he Loves Him and asked him what it is that's stopping him. He said he'd think about it so we will see this up coming Wednesday. Great day.

Thursday was pretty funny, it was pretty boring other than a guy that we found last saturday, when we stopped by he didn't answer so we called him. He answered then hung up. Then he texted us and said that we creeped him and he just said what he needed to say so we could leave him alone, and that we needed to delete his number and delete all of his information that he gave to us. Darn satan. 

On Friday we had the usual planning and emails and calls! That's always awesome, but then we had another awesome time with Melissa!! We met her at the church and gave her a church tour with our relief society president which was sweet. It was sweet!! 

Saturday we had exchanges, it was Elder John, Elder Olsen and I! It was awesome! Elder John is a stud. We played ball Saturday first thing at 7! There were 17 of us! Only Three of which were members! After we got to move someone out of our ward. The rest of the day, we had all the lessons fall through so we just found. We ended up having a best two years experience like when they go to the grocery store and find someone. We went to Chipotle cause that's what Elder John wanted and we found someone there!! hahaha It was a great exchange!!

Sunday was the last thee hour church!!  That is crazy!! Daylon came for the 28th time! haha It was a good meeting. We ended up coming home and since I had been sick all week and working through it I decided it's time to relax for a sec and try to get over it so I took a small nap and felt much better. After we went and stopped by a less active and went for a walk with their 15 year old. We had a way good talk and he is a stud. He is definitely gonna start coming every week. He is a stud. Then we had to say bye to Mitch! He's going to Brazil tomorrow morning for his mission, He's a stud and one of the most prepared missionaries I have ever met!! Love him and his family!! 

Today was good! We got to move a bunch of stuff into an area that was opening up so some sisters could move in! We went with the assistants and helped move them in. Afterwards we came home and hung out for a bit then went and Elder Olsen said bye to a family from one of his previous areas, the Greens! They're awesome and I hope I get to serve in their area some day!! Tonight we're just having a blast! Its been a good New Year's eve! 

Well I just wanted to also give a quick shout out to Elder Olsen! Man, I'm not really sure where to start but I love this guy! He's been such a good example to me ever since I met him. He's always been a real homie no matter what. He's definitely a huge blessing that has come from serving a mission. I'm sure gonna miss him for the next six months after we send him on his way on Wednesday. Can't wait to live it up when we get home! 

Love you all and Happy New year!! It's crazy to think my black out year is gone tomorrow!! Time flies when you're having fun and it goes even faster when you're having fun serving the good Lord!! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 75 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Companions: Elder Collier and Elder Olsen
Area: Dublin

Haha! We actually didn't mean to take this Pic!

Pj models

Howdy howdy!

Well hey first and foremost it's basically Christmas! So Merry Christmas to all! Well to start it all off, this week was a pretty solid week or should I say like 5 days! Last Wednesday night was legit! We had a lesson planned with a Hispanic guy who only spoke Spanish who just got here from Mexico! We found him on Tuesday night and Elder Valdez did all the talking! Well mostly. I felt pretty prompted to share a brief testimony on Jesus Christ! So I did! I asked Elder Valdez if he could translate and he did. Taking only one year of Spanish I was pretty surprised what I understood in the lesson but obviously not too much because I didn't know why I was to bare my testimony on Christ. After the lesson Elder Valdez told me that it was perfect timing and what I said was right on the money for him because he knew very little about Christ! So we set up another time and referred him to the Spanish missionaries in the area. After that we ran to the church to have a lesson with Daylon and the young men were playing a game called war ball! It was so sick! It was basically dodge ball but you're on your own team, you have like half a gym and there's one ball. When you get the ball you can't move but you can throw off the wall and let it roll to move closer to more people! It was sweet so of course we joined in and got Daylon to come play as soon as he got there! Daylon jumped right in and had a blast! It was so sweet! He loved going to young mens! It was a wonderful night!

Thursday we woke up bright and early and had to get Elder Valdez to New Albany by 10 so he could get his new companion! So we drove him in and brought him and his comp back to get back to their area and car, then waited for those coming from northern part of the mission, specifically my new companion Elder Collier who is a stud! We've had a way good time and I look forward to being with him for another good six weeks! But we ended up getting home from transfers around six. We cooked some dinner and went to the Dieders to introduce Elder Olsen and Elder Collier to them! That was a fun night and a good visit with them as usual! They also were making Christmas desserts and loaded us up!! I was not feeling too good that night even though they were way good!

Friday was a long day of planning and follow up calls! That's literally all we did until dinner but we were actually super effective and got a lot done! We had dinner with our Bishop and his family which was pretty good! Then we got to walk Biscuit! That's always a good time! We went and shared a message with the Nagys after that and stopped by some other people who have previously been taught. Good day!

Saturday we had one of the best exchanges! Elder Olsen and I went with Elder Day from Salt Lake who had only been out a whole two days in the field! This guy is a stud! Needless to say we were both pretty blown away with how prepared he is. He was willing to talk to literally everyone! We tried to find the most awkward and challenging situations like stopping a car from backing up to chasing the car and even standing strong in what we know is true when we had a "saved by grace" lady tell us we were wrong. I couldn't have asked for more perfect teaching opportunities. One of many things about him that impressed me was how humble he is. He's was ready and willing to learn. Everything we did and said, he paid careful attention to and better yet he applied it. I honestly can't say enough about how much of a stud he really is. We ended up having an incredible day and saw a lot of miracles! We knocked into a Spanish investigators house...  We ended finding four people and three of them were on the last night! It was awesome! We had such a good time! I loved it! I look up to Elder Day and Elder Olsen a lot!

Sunday was a blast! One hour of church! Haha That was weird!! We had an amazing steak and potatoes lunch at the Thomas's house! They're always good and basically a perfect family! We had a lesson after with one of the guys we found on exchanges which was good! He's a good guy but we aren't sure how fast he'll progress. Good guy though! Sunday was awesome cause we ended up hitting the standards of excellence which is always a good feeling!

Christmas eve was awesome! Had a lesson fall through earlier today and had two dinners! It was awesome! I'm stuffed! But all in all it's very weird not having snow. It doesn't feel like Christmas to me yet, but I guess it kinda has to cause its gonna be too late! but anyways Love you all. Merry Christmas again and I hope you have a wonder Christmas day and remember the true meaning of Christmas! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 74 - Good Bye Will

Companion: Elder McNaughtan
Area: Dublin

Saying bye bye to Elder McNaughtan 

Temple time!

Temple with Herbert!

Christmas Package!
Thanks Mom and Dad!

Day 1

Exchanges in Polaris.
Took a Pic with this tree cause the guy opened and was mad we were at the door 
so I just asked if we could take a Pic with his tree in the back yard!!
Haha he lightened up after that!

!

interesting art!

Elder Valdez being Elder Valdez hahaha

Ducks at the apartment

Howdy howdy,

Hey everyone, well this past week and a couple of days has been crazy! Especially this week!! Hahah So after last pday we start Elder McNaughtans last full week! It was pretty crazy and I think it finally started to hit him as real. He's such a stud and he kept working though which is good!

Tuesday! Tuesday morning we had to help the housing coordinator move a trailer into storage! After that we ended up doing a lot of knocked and walking. We struck out that day, meaning we had three lessons planned and all three fell through! In the morning we made a video for the zone which only took about a half hour but it was pretty funny. We also had dinner with the Matthew's one last time before they moved back to byu Idaho because he finished his internship! That was. Good time, it was kinda weird having dinner with people only a couple years older than you! Haha 

Saying bye to the Matthews after the blessing!

Wednesday we had a pretty good day. We started the day off with comp Study because the rest of the day busy! We had to update a lot of stuff for reporting which was nice to get done. After lunch we went and knocked for a little while then ran to the Mission office to help them fill a trailer with packages and commissary for the north zones Christmas conference! Parents sure love their missionaries! Hahah Later on we had dinner with a young family named the Buttars. They had one little boy who was dying to fly his drone the whole time! Hah it was pretty funny! We had a lesson fall through and then we ran to Daylon lesson! Right before Daylons lessons we got a call from brother Matthew's asking for a blessing. They were supposed to leave for home in a day or two and he wasn't feeling good at all so we ran over there and gave him a blessing. He was feeling better right away! It was awesome! Then we went back to the church and had a lesson Daylon and Muhommad! It went pretty well! After we played then in basketball and beat them of course. Haha They're so fun to play. 

Thursday was quite a day! We went on an emergency exchange with Polaris! We showed up at their door right as they were leaving for the day! It was pretty funny! I ended up going with Elder Reed and were looking to work hard! We got dropped off in a neighborhood because Polaris is a bike area and we started walking! Pretty soon the best part of the day happened! Haha We hadn't had anyone willing to talk with us until we were on a corner deciding where to go! We saw this lady on a run! So in efforts to opening my mouth I just yelled and asked if we could give her a card! She stopped and was like what? So we ran across the street and started talking to her! Haha it was awesome! She was like give a half hour run and come to my house down their on the corner! Hahaha but we didn't have a third male so we asked if we could do it after lunch and bring some more missionaries! Haha She was like for sure! It was awesome! We ended up having a sweet restoration lesson and she was pretty excited and wanted to learn more! Her grandma ended up being there and she knew a lot about the church because growing up her grandma was a member. It was funny she kept baring testimony to her grandaughter just as much as we were! Hahahah so the day was sweet! We ended up finding 4 people! That was just the biggest miracle! We came home later that evening and got to go walk biscuit, the Stratfords dog! Haha That was good as always! 

Friday was sweet! We had our Christmas conference! We had all the South end of the mission there. There was a lot of missionaries! We did a service project where we made blankets and then played some games. Got our shoes polished and had some spiritual stuff as well! It was a blast! 

Christmas conference!

Elder Jaster and Dooley

Elder Olsen and McNaughtan!!

Saturday! What a blessing Saturday was! Early morning basketball with a bunch of non members! That's always good! We talked to a couple guys there and brought up the church they seemed like they might be interested but it'll take some time before they commit to meeting! It was sweet though. Saturday night was incredible. We got to go to the temple!! Herbert Ndeki the guy i got to Baptize in my first area. He was getting endowed and asked me to be his escort! He just gets happier and happier! He loved the temple! It was such a great experience! Love that man and I love the temple! It was awesome! 

Sunday Elder McNaughtan gave a talk in church on Jesus Christ and how He is the light to the world! It was a way good talk! Elder McNaughtan is a great guy! After church we had our apartment inspected and we passed! We keep it clean! Haha We had dinner at the Angelo's house! It was awesome they had grandkids there that reminded me of my crazy neices and nephews so I felt right at home! Hahah it was awesome! After we took Mitch to the Deiders! We read 2 Nephi 31 with them! Its one of my favorites! It teaches the whole gospel of Jesus Christ! They loved it. They are so solid and such an awesome family! I love going over there!

Monday to sum it up Elder McNaughtan needed to pack, so I did a lot of cleaning and contacting and got stuff done. It was a good day. We had dinner with the Hanks which was pretty good. After we had an insane night... So we were supposed to pick up three missionaries form the mission home to spend the night at our apartment. We got there and they big van and trailer was late of course. But turns out the neighbor had a bird fly into the house so President was over there trying to get it out and asked us to come help so while we were walking over there the assistants showed up with the big van and had me back the trailer in. Turns out the trailers lights were dragging on the free way and exploded and long story short the trailer no longer had lights. So President asked me to stay and re wire the trailer! Haha We ended up needing parts so we came back on Tuesday morning after President went to the store and Elder McNaughtan and I put it back together! We got it working like a charm! I think you'd be pretty proud dad cause it nearly looks professional now! Hahah the rest of Tuesday was crazy. We dropped everyone off and next thing you know Elder Valdez is my comp for a couple of days. He's from Mexico!! Just south of Texas! He's a Spanish missionary so we worked our Spanish areas yesterday! It was pretty cool! I didn't and couldn't really do anything... Hahah later that night at nine we got to the Mission home to pick Elder Olsen up! We got to see the transfer board which was sweet so I found out I'm getting another stud named  Elder Collier I'm stoked!

Splicing the wires!! Sadly I didn't take a Pic of the final project...

Well it's been a crazy week and I look forward to another crazy one! Love you all! Hope you have a great week. Remember the church is true and to light the world! Merry Christmas! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 73 - Christmas!

Companion: Elder McNaughtan
Area: Dublin

set up for the ward party!

Temple trip with Daylon

Howdy howdy!

Well another great week in the books! To finish off last pday we had a lesson with Kimberly! It went pretty well and she's going through a hard time. The best part was that Daylon, the one we're still teaching, came out with us. Not even a member but he came and bore powerful testimony on prayer. Idk who the lesson was for but I guess both! It was awesome!

Tuesday we had exchanges up in Mansfield!! What a day! I was with Elder Lowery! He's such a stud. We started the day off with service at the Roth's. I'm glad they remembered me! Hahaha it was a pretty fun time and they fed us lunch after. It was freezing cold and we gotta help cut a tree down! After that we went and got some homemade remedy stuff from the Andersons cause Elder McNaughtan wasn't feeling too hot. It was this nasty vinegar stuff that they use and since he did it we all had to do it. It was nasty! Then we got to have dinner with the Morrants! It was way good to see them! After, we stopped by a return appointment that they had and they ended up not being home but the roomate invited us in and we had one of the most powerful first contact lessons I've had on my mission! We tied the gospel into his life so good thanks to the spirit. It was awesome! He invited us back so Im excited to hear about him! We also got back in contact with David Teeter to finish the night off! It was sweet! They came so far and he was so surprised when I showed up! It was a great day!

Morrants!

visit to the old apartment

Teeters!

Wednesday we went to Elder Pay's District council! It was awesome! We went on exchanges with them right after and I got to go with Elder Michels again! We brought them down to Dublin and had a good day! We racked a couple of single ladies yards and found a couple of people and had a great lesson with Daylon that night! He's getting closer and closer.

Thursday we were still on exchanges for the first part of the day and ended up getting Canes before we took them back to pick up their car from the shop! We ended up getting to trade them our Malibu for an electric blue rav4! Haha it's so sweet! Way better car! 

Friday was the usual! Until we went with Daylon to the temple! That was sweet! He enjoyed it and definitely felt the peace from just walking around it. It was awesome! We also got to meet with the Dieders again on Friday. It was pretty sweet! We had a good chat with them and invited them to the ward party.

Saturday was very busy! We had basketball with a bunch of non members at 7 then making meatloaf for the ward party at 9, then we ended up helping set up the ward party after that. We also had follow up calls right after that! It was crazy! Haha but then it slowed down until the party. We had Daylon come to the party! The Dieders came down sick which was a bummer but life is life. The party was awesome! They tied the grinch into the true meaning of Christmas which is Christ. It was pretty cool! 

Sunday was pretty good to be at church. We had two there which was a blessing. We had three people to find on Sunday and through reaching out to formers and potentials in the area book we did it! Then at 8:50 we had one left to find! Then after praying we knew where we had to go! So we went. The guy that we thought about didn't answer but the best part was, someone we talked to in the past pulled in at the exact same time as we were leaving. She became the last new we needed to reach the standards! What a blessing! 

Well, miracles haven't ceased! 

Love you all! Hope you have a good week! 

And merry Christmas!

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 72 - Officially Christmas Season!

Companion: Elder McNaughtan
Area: Dublin

 

Sam's Club! 

Under 100 I think that's good!!
Should last the rest of the month!

A pink Rav?!

Watching the Devotional and
sewing Christmas cards together at the Didiers

Elder McNaughtan's last haircut

Howdy Howdy,

Well it's been a pretty solid week!! Lots and lots of miracles! So starting with last Monday night we had a sweet dinner with the Matthew's! It was a pretty good night! 

Airport!

This guy is apparently a member!!
Haha found us on a bathroom break and wanted a Pic!

Shopping at dicks! 

Video call district council

Tuesday was a very early morning and we did something I never thought I'd get to do on the mission! We ended up having to get up at 3:30am to drop Elder Allan off at the airport! That was rough but honestly kinda fun. It made the rest of the day pretty hard to stay motivated but we ended up going on exchanges and I was with Elder Brinkerhoff so that was a great motivation! He's a stud! Probably the best part of the day was the evening! It was freezing cold outside and we saw some miracles. We had a sweet dinner then it was snowing as we hurried to an appointment with Mitch Thomas to a referral named Kimberly! We ended up having a sweet lesson with her and she seems to be pretty solid! She used to go to the Church a long time ago but stopped going. She liked it but she moved or something. She's a pretty sweet lady and we get to meet with her tonight so that'll be fun! 

Wednesday we got called out to go move a washer and a dryer for the housing coordinator which is always a blast. Then after we video called into Mansfields district Council which was pretty fun!! Elder Winn is a stud and a great district leader! It's nice getting to learn a lot from so many people! After we tried by a bunch of people in our area book. We did that until Daylon's lesson that evening and that went pretty well!!! It was crazy! He had some good questions and it was pretty spiritual. He even had one question that he answered on his own. He asked if because we believe we can become like our father that we believe we can become Gods, therefore we believe in multiple God's which contradicts the Bible. And we explained to him that we only worship one God and it doesn't go against the Bible. He looked up 1 Corinthians 8:6 to show where he was coming from then he read the verse before it that stated exactly what we said. We just died laughing. He just reads a bunch of stuff on lds.org so he even asked about Kolab! Elder McNaughtan and I both thought we'd never teach that on the Mission but I guess it happened! haha! We gotta play some ball after so thats always a good time! 

Thursday was a sweet day!! We got to have interviews with President and Sister Stratford!! Those are always the best and I always leave feeling 1000 times better than I did before because they're so uplifting! After that we got to have dinner at a retirement center where they get fed every night. It was pretty interesting but it was a good time. We had an amazing plan of salvation lesson with The Didiers, we had Mitch and bro Talentino there who grew up catholic and really contented with them and shared powerful testimonies. They are awesome people! We had to move their date to January because of some health issues but we're excited for them! 

Friday was good as always, just a bunch of admin stuff! Follow up calls and some miracles! We had a lesson with a girl Elder Jaster and I met and have been talking to over facebook! She ended up going to an activity in a Spanish branch and got really interested, we sent her light the world and she instantly posted it on facebook!! It was awesome! So we went and taught her the restoration and she loved it. It was pretty cool! We had dinner with the Niuypaulus at Chipotle that night!! It was sweet!! 

Saturday morning we went and played basketball with a bunch of non members!! It was so fun!! I love playing with a bunch of hood rats. There's like four members and the rest are just ballers! It's awesome. The rest of the day we lit the world!! We were gonna go rake leaves but it was pouring rain so we thought of another way! We made a bunch of my special cookies and dropped them off to a bunch of members. It was sweet, the members loved it and were super grateful! 

Fast Sunday! Church was awesome we had two people come and enjoy church. Fast and testimony meeting was pretty good!! After church we went and gave Gwen, a recent convert, a blessing. It was a good experience. We  got to go have stakes for dinner at the Thomas residence which is always unreal! Love that family! Needless to say it was a great day.

Today we got to go to Sam's club and just relaxed for the most part! It's been nice!! We ended up doing really good last week with our key indicators! We had 3 on date, 2 at church and 7 new people! It's awesome experiencing miracles! 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!! 

Merry Christmas!! 

Go out and LIGHT THE WORLD!!!

Love Elder Smoot 

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