Wk 40 - Taking kids to school... In basketball

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Church bathroom Pic
(in honor of prom season)

Shout out to Mama for the bday package and the explosion! Hahaha
My birthday was awesome! Thank you soo much! We didn't do too much special other than going out to dinner but I opened up the package and it was amazing. I felt so much joy I even started crying. It was really weird! Hahaha 

Pine wood derby!

My cars on the right placed fourth! Hahaha
elder greens is the one next to me. "VERDE"

Hello family and friends! It's been another pretty exciting week, with lots and lots of good stuff, so prep yourselves, cause it's about to get wild...

So on P-day last week we went Bowling for a district activity, and then we went to have lunch and play some basketball with the Clearfork Elders. Then on Thursday, we had a small miracle. After District meeting, which was pretty darn good, we were supposed to go do some service for a less active Bro Rhea, but he called us like a couple hours before and was "just kidding just meet me at El Campestre instead of service today." So we got free lunch which was sweet! haha

Friday was one of the best days we've had in a while. No, not just because it was my birthday but that was a big part of it. For the morning and afternoon, we did some service for a member who owns a ranch, bro keck, and helped him build up his barn, putting up a sliding door. Then we had a gift card to Olive Garden, so we went there for dinner, and even got to give our waitress a card haha oh and she hooked it up with a free birthday dessert!!! After that we went to contact a little bit more at North Lake Park, and ended up getting challenged to play basketball by some teenagers who tried dissing on our beliefs. They were talking smack and were like "ya'll probably can't even play ball" so I was like alright play us right now. haha! Probably not the best thing I could have done but they definitely respected us after.  So we played a game against them and wrecked them. Then they were like nah that did not happen so they challenged us again, then it got even worse for them! hahahaha! It was so awesome. But no worries we were super nice about it and we told them we were having another basketball tournament in May so they should come to that. Then to finish that day we got invited to visit a part member family that we kind of lost contact with, and that was amazing. It was Rachelle and they got a new house they are gutting and rebuilding that we'll help them out with so they had a fire in the back yard and invited us for some smore's. That was probably the best bday I could ask for on a mission. 

Monday we had exchanges. I went with Elder Hepler, the 6'9" one, in Gallion. It was long, but it was a very good day and we got a lot done! I don't think I've ever been so bold with people and it felt so good and the spirit was very strong. That night we were messaging people on Facebook and we had a miracle. Joe is a guy that had come to both basketball tournaments so far and has been in the championship both times whom I have a good relationship with! He found me on facebook so I messaged him and told him we had another one coming up, He replied and said, 'Hey man, I just want you to know that coming to the church for basketball and you sharing that video has really made me think about growing my faith and I've been thinking a lot about religion.' When I read that I was shocked out of my mind. I ran around the apartment for about ten minutes! I've never been so happy for the work. Miracles have not ceased and I will testify of that. 

Yesterday we did some service for our housing coordinator. The Senior Missionaries in our district went home last week, so we got asked to help move out the rest of the furniture and things from their house. So we got to spend some time with the Gallion Elders doing that, then we went back to their apartment to eat some lunch. For the rest of the day we just did some studies and did some more visits.

This last week has been proof that by faith there is miracles. Elder Green and I have been praying for more investigators and for more people to teach. We thank you for all your prayers as well, they helped immensely! I'm incredibly gratetful for the blessings I've had this week, and hopeful and faithful for many more! I'm also grateful for the 18 years of life, so many people say oh geeze. Only 18!?!? Gosh you are so young. hahah! Not anymore I'm pretty much an old person! hahah But for reals I'm so grateful for it and it's been incredible. 

Love all of you so much! Thanks for the many, many  birthday wishes! 

Love Elder Smoot

Wk 39 - Mansfield is basically another home now

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Sad it snowed!

Shout out to mama for getting my
shoes there right before game time! 

Shopping today
got Elder Olsen in our district now and I love it.
He's a stud.

Bowling as a district

Pooped at the basketball tournament

me trying to play ball.

Basketball bracket

Don't worry mom I'm still safe it was just our neighbor.

My dinner buddy!

Brothers Crawford's for service and wearing his vest!

Well another transfer down and another one on the way!! I am staying in Mansfield for the fourth transfer so I'm pretty excited about that! It says that either they forgot about me or I guess there's still some work to be done!! hahaha I'm just gonna go with the second one because that sounds better in my head!!  But I get to be with Elder Green again and finish up his training! I'm so pumped!! Love this guy!! He's a stud! It should be a good transfer because obviously there's someone I'm supposed to meet!!  

Well a ton happened this week so I might not get to it all! But I still love ya'll so it's okay. Anyways we'll start with last Thursday, Zone conference! It was awesome! Favorite part was when President Stratford gave us a little pep talk on becoming the #1 best missionaries with our cars because apparently we're second but only to Cleveland who will be part of our mission in July! Lol that was pretty funny!

Friday aka Mansfield Madness! Our basketball tournament! We had a grand total of 6 teams and it was pretty sweet! It turned out way better than we thought! Not only was the tournament fun but we had a couple miracles. To start the night off we showed a video about prophets and I bore my testimony. A guy then tries to bash with us and I basically told him we'll talk later and I'll explain. Then we said a prayer and let the fun begin! It was sweet! We had no problems with it getting too competitive but it still was competitive enough to be fun! We all competed and there were some tough teams! We ended up taking second to some 25-28 year olds who were pretty dang good! It was me and Elder Green with an older gentlemen in our ward names Bro Cordre. He was pretty good. But we had to get a sub for the championship which we lost because he had to leave early. It kinda sucked but what ever, not too important. What was important was that before it started we set some restoration pamphlets out and Book of Mormons. At the end of the day three people took a book and about 5 or so took a pamphlet! It was legit! The guy that tried to bash us ended up becoming a new gator. His heart was softened right before our eyes!! He tried telling us there's no way there's a modern prophet. Lol God is the same everyday and always! 

After that we had exchanges and not much happened! It was a pretty fun day and we got back in contact with Rachelle and Braxton so that's awesome!

Had a pretty dang good Sunday. Church is always the bomb. Not much has happened. One exciting thing is this Saturday we have a pine wood derby! Because Layne is going and he's Alycia's son we get to go and compete! Hahaha we're pretty stoked! Well anyways, that'll be pretty exciting and I'll be sure to take pics of our sweet cars! Haha 

Love all you guys! Ya'll are the best! 

Also shout out to Elder Brumfield stepping it up to be a big Dawg zone leader! Hahaha what a guy! Love ya!

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 38 - Eye opening miracles on the tools the Lord gives us

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

We got to witness a baptism for April, the Sister's investigators,
and stand in on her confirmation 

Visiting Bro Rhea and I stole his glasses. I couldn't see anything. 

Elder Coons parking skills. 

Disc golf! There were two more but they left early

To be honest this last week or so has kinda been a challenge. Not with my companion or anything other than the work. I'm not sure if I've ever been more stressed because of the work. We pretty much lost our whole teaching pool and have had to restart! Although it's been pretty rough we've had a great time and a great companionship to keep things flowing. Most of all we've had a couple pretty awesome experiences, or miracles, over Facebook.

The first I'd like to share is reaching out to my cousin. If they read this I hope they don't mind because this was probably the best part of my week and I love them dearly. I felt very strongly that I needed to reach out to a cousin over Facebook messenger,. They had messaged me in the past and I wasn't sure what to do because I wasn't sure on the rules. It kept coming back to me so I decided to respond. Anyways they shared a very spiritual experience with me that taught me something very valuable, to pray. I know we are supposed to pray always but even praying over the "little" things makes a huge difference. I loved that and it is so awesome to have the tool the Lord gave us. 

Another facebook miracle we had was with a lady named Mary. I felt like I should look through the market place on Facebook and see if anyone was asking for help. Most of the things were job opportunities of course but about five minutes in I saw someone offering someone twenty dollars to help them move into their house  in Akron! So we messaged her! hahaha Told here we'd love to help and she was like we?? This is for one person and we're like its okay we'll do it for free! hahaha We are missionaries, that's what we do! She responds saying umm I'm not comfortable with that, there is a lot of red flags coming to my head from this!! So, of course we didn't really think of it that way then we explained a little more and we said oh we understand no worries. Promise we weren't trying to do anything bad, were just missionaries from the Lds church, we live in Mansfield... ect. and she was like what's the address of your church??? haha so we told her and she responded like thirty minutes later, "hey I just called the church, turns out you guys are actually members! Sorry for freaking out!! hahaha" So we ended up getting her number and giving it to the missionaries in Akron, who in July will be in our area, and they went and helped them move the next day and got to teach them!! Holy smokes that was exciting! I know love Facebook for an even more exciting, righteous purpose!! hahaha Who knows maybe I'll get to meet that lady some day and serve in her area!! 

Anyways, today was pretty fun! All the elders in our district went shopping together and went and got disc's for disc golf, gave a couple haircuts to them, and went and played disc golf! Made for a sweet day! 

Love you guys! Have a good week!!

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 37 - General Conference!

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Amish country

Elder Green and I gettin buggy!

an Amish goat!!!!

Weather was bad this week! Ohio please stop snowing

Mama V with the Easter gift

Pretty average week with a crazy exchange to finish it off! Last week on Thursday we took a wonderful country drive out to Marion Ohio for interviews!! It was sweet! It was raining and very scenic! Right after we had district meeting! That's was pretty exciting but it pushed lunch back like two hours and I didn't realize eating lunch at noon everyday how much my body was on a schedule! Haha I could have sworn my stomach was gonna eat its self! That night we went and gave Sister Vidra, who we call Mama V, a blessing because she just got admitted to the hospital. She asked me to give the blessing and it was so wonderful how at that moment I tried my very very hardest to rely in the spirit and I don't really know what I said but she loved it! Gosh I love the Holy Ghost!

Friday was really just a bunch of studies and administrative stuff. Not too much happened other than having a great lesson with David and Eddie! Well we thought it went great but we haven't been able to get ahold of them these last few days so we really hope they haven't given up! We really want the best for them!

Saturday and Sunday! Holy smokes! What a powerful powerful general conference! It was incredible and the announcements as they were announced were so powerful I instantly knew that things were supposed to change and get better! We had a pretty cool experience. We got to watch 3 of the sessions in the hospital with Mama V! Saturday afternoon we went and watched it at the Hindbaughs and that was a party! Haha! Love those guys! Got to cuddle with their big dog so that was nice cause I didn't really have a choice he just kinda jumped on me! For Priesthood session we had a BBQ at our church with all the Priesthood! How great are our leaders!? Holy cow! I loved General conference, and this year for the first time I didn't even doze off once! How crazy is that? 

Monday we just did some service for a man in the ward who can't do much on his own but he was  a funny guy so it was well worth it! Had a good talk and dinner with the Nuendorfs for missionary Monday! Then went and gave a blessing with them as well! It was pretty cool!!

Tuesday we had exchanges!! It was pretty exciting! The day kinda started slow up until about 15 minutes into lunch we got a call form Elder Hepler and Elder Green, who were working in the same area. Didn't realize we missed like 13 calls and finally felt it. We were told they were locked out of the apartment and in attempt to get in Elder Hepler tried to open the window and shattered it and started bleeding!! So we sped home and helped them out. On our way back to an appointment we heard a lout "pop" and about ten seconds later a low tire pressure light came and we had a popped tire!! So we switched it out got it to the shop and dropped the tire off, went to the lesson and straight back to the shop. Had dinner and went to an institute class they have in Clearfork! It was pretty awesome! and a good experience! Crazy day of events but a good one!! haha!

Today we went back out to the Amish people, it was pretty cool! He even sang us a song out of their hymn book!! Very nice awesome people!! 

Love you all!! Hope ya'll loved conference as much as I did!! I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love Elder Smoot