Wk 104 - My Last Weekly?!?!?!

Companion: Elder Cichoski
Area: Gahanna

Selfies with Elder Cichoski

Ball!

Bday call with Elder Oettli, or Bud in 10 days!
Shout out to him hbd!

Disk golf this week

our front door on fleek

Cutting hair! No worries, I cut the Mohawk!
it was just for fun

Elder Cichoski grilling chicken on pday

Bro Frazier showing us his lazy man swing

Holy cow! What a week! Here we are today preparing for our last full week as missionaries and representatives of Christ! I'd have to say I'm in a very unique situation at the time! Not many people can say that the last companion they had on their mission, was also that companion's last companion! This week was definitely the fastest week of the transfer! We had a lot of fun and we got to do some unique things!

This last Monday we had our last day with Elder Kamerath. That night we had our family home evening at the Sherman's place! The Mitchell's daughter brought this slushy stuff the was sweetish fish flavor!! It was incredible! Right after that we zoomed home and grabbed all of Elder Kamerath's stuff and loaded the transit van! The OSU Elders came and picked him up! We said farewell and then we were off on our own! That was a quiet night after that to say the least! But it was still a good day! 

Tuesday was a blast! I got to go on exchanges with the Nepali elders, but they came to Gahanna for English work! I was back in a trio with Elder Nye and Elder Garner! The day was awesome! We had a real good visit with Nick in the morning where we talked about his kids! After that we were the other elders'  third male and helped them teach a lady named Shanique who is getting baptized this transfer! She was actually someone we were teaching when we got here and we ended up referring her to them because they lived a lot closer! Now she's getting baptized! There's a saying in the mission, "when one area baptizes, we all baptize!" I love that saying because it's true! Every little thing goes into one's baptism!! After that the majority was spent finding! We drove out to Shane's for lunch and we got him some panda! Mm that was good! Then we had a good comp study and we spent the afternoon and evening in two separate apartments! Shane came with us after dinner and we found a couple of people! They even had an opportunity to talk to a couple of Nepali people! It was awesome! That day was a blast! It's always good to be with a couple of missionaries you know and love, especially when one of them was your mtc comp!

Wednesday morning we had a great district council! Elder Garner, of course, asked me the night before to give a twenty minute training on diligence! It actually turned out pretty bomb! I needed it and I really think the rest of the district needed it! But it was a very hot room to be in for district council, that's one thing for sure! The rest of the day we spent getting on the same page and setting goals for the transfer together. We also got a lot of the area book cleaned up and simplified as well as the apartment back together for two missionaries! We got out that evening and had a blast talking to people but no one really committed! Still a successful day!

Thursday morning we had to get a couple stuff done in the morning so we headed out and got boxes for our bikes and a couple of other things. My comp also had an appointment we had to leave the area for but that went well! On the way home we had comp study and Shane's before he came out with us! He's such a stud! We followed up with a few people and got in contact with some! We met one Mother who was awesome! Literally everything she said went hand and hand with what we share which was a big blessing! That night we also took a challenge to avoid sugar which is rough! Especially when Shane buys you a shake almost every day! That was my stupid idea! Haha but it's going good for me!!

Friday was sweet! We had a guy call us and ask if we could mow his lawn, so of course we ran over there! I got his old mower working that he though was broken so with his new and his old, Elder Cichoski and I cruised through it! After that we had a solid lesson fall through which was rough but we had a good time at the Frazier's ripping out a couple of tree stumps! I never new that could be so stress relieving!

Saturday was crazy! We dropped a lady we had on date, we bashed with a guy, he was going off on how God and Jesus are the same but then he continued to contradict himself by saying we were wrong and he never listened to what we said. But that's was a good time and I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to bare my testimony! We also got to watch Elder Whitcomb open up his call letter to California! He's a stud. We also got in contact with another guy who is our age, his grandma is pretty sick so we talked a lot about how God has a plan for each of us and about how He wants us to have eternal families. I'm so grateful for commandments, It hit how his life was rough and he was the same age as me! He'd just gotten out of prison after three years and had a kid on the way with his girlfriend. That's honestly sadly pretty common out here. Like I said, my testimony of God's commandments or "restrictions" as some say, has grown a ton!

Saturday night we went back to the Fraziers with our bikes. He's a huge bike guy, so he ended up tuning our bikes for us! It feels so solid now! It also was making noise before I came but when I left it wasn't! He's a miracle worker!

Sunday was a pretty awesome day! I love the sacrament! We had Nick and his kiddos come, we also had a lesson with his kids Ben and Maddy. Again we talked a lot about baptism. Ben is pretty far in the Book of Mormon. We talked about how it's a commandment from God to be baptized. They asked if it even said that in the Book of Mormon so of course we showed them just a few places even though it's basically on every page! We read part of 3 Nephi 11 with them. Where Jesus Christ himself, comes and ministers to the people of the America's, he commanded them to repent and be Baptized three times! The spirit taught a great parable that I shared with them. I asked them if they have ever been asked to take the trash out before, of course they said yes. I then asked if they did it the first time or the second, but the third time they know their Dad wasn't really asking, he means Business! I then related this to what Christ did. Yeah it was pretty bold but I definitely know that Christ meant what he said! After that lesson we headed to change and then out to Shane's! I got to grill a bunch of burgers and hot dogs for us, Shane and Cynthia, and the Mitchell's. We had a good night and a good time talking to Cynthia. One thing ended up leading to another and I ended up giving three hair cuts that night. I cut Brother Mitchell's and his stud muffin son Christian's hair, as well as Shane's. Two of them wanted buzz cuts so that made it easy! We definitely had fun doing it! I love Sundays!

Monday morning after talking to my lovely parents we had Elder Hale and Elder Morrow come over so I could cut Elder Hale's hair before he goes home! It turned out really good! After that we hurried and changed, shopped and zoomed over to the church for ball! We balled up with a total of 12 people! It was a party! But we played for four hours so I'm exhausted! Anyways it was a great last pday! Tonight we have a family home evening with a bunch of families! It's going to be a really good time!

Well I love you all! I'm blessed to know each of you and I'm grateful for your support and love. I'm very excited to see you again in a short week and a half after two years! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ! The church is true! I know that and I'll live that the rest of my life! I'm always grateful for the opportunity I have to bare my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ! Well see you in a little bit!

Love Elder Smoot!

Wk 103 - My comp got Emergency Transferred!!!

Comp: Elder Kamerath and Elder Cichoski
Area: Gahanna

Bomb fire on Sunday at Shane's neighbor's

Street contacting at the Easton mall on the 4th with Shane!

Good 'ol Shane!

The fishing homie!  

Howdy howdy!

Wow what a week! Well it's pretty crazy how fast time flies when you're having fun! Missions are awesome and I think anyone who is able to, should go!  My testimony of serving a mission has grown exponentially. I love the good Lord! Anyways, we had a pretty great week. Starting off with last Monday we had a sweet lesson with a guy named Gerald then we headed out to Shane's for family home evening! That was pretty awesome! The lesson we had was super sweet. He was one of the most genuine guys I have ever taught! Not only that but he's very normal! Has a family and a career, and he even has a car! Most the people that are willing to talk to us, if we're lucky, they have one of those things. Family home evening was cool, we got to play can jam with Nick and his kiddos.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day finding. We met one lady named Christina, she was pretty awesome, but other that not all that much went on! On Wednesday we had a pretty cool miracle! We were told we needed to get our car serviced so we headed to the nearest firestone! We had a member come pick us up and we had a solid member visit! Afterwards we went back to Firestone and we talked with everyone else that was waiting for their cars! We ended up finding a new guy to teach out of it! It was a big miracle! That night we saw a crazy storm as we ate at the cheese cake factory! Man that was my first time and it was soo good! Our waitress was also pretty legit! Haha It was a good day!

Wednesday morning we had district council! It was pretty awesome! The rest of the day we had a couple of appointments fall through so we spent the whole day finding! We knocked around our apartment and found a lady who said she wanted to meet but ended up missing her return appointment! We don't have a car for this week so after a hot long day of walking we went and got blizzards! On our way home we even got to change someone's tire! It was awesome! 

Thursday was the fourth!! Happy for everybody! God Bless The USA! We have a training visit/ exchange with Elder Millward and Elder McNeal! It was a such a good day! Right off the bat, in the first hour of finding, we found three people! Two of then were Puerto Rican and the other guy was a fisherman! God is too good to us! It was really good to have a full days of work!

Friday was weekly planning and mowing Shane's lawn! We celebrated the fourth that night, out at Shane's with a bunch of fire works which were fun to watch! Even though fireworks are illegal here in Ohio, everyone does them!!

Saturday morning we went and played street ball in the heat and humidity! I had never been so sweaty on my mission! Let alone dehydrated! And in case you were wondering, shade doesn't help that much with humidity... Saturday night we experience some great miracles! That night we went to these new apartments and found four new people to teach! It was a great blessing! Miracles are real, and they do happen!

Sunday was so refreshing! We had a wonderful sacrament meeting! I realized it was my last fast and testimony meeting so of course I had to bare my testimony! We also taught the 16-18 year old class! It was a blast! After church we went out to Shane's and had dinner with his sister Cynthia! He had me grill the steaks and they turned out super dreamy! We had a super good lesson with Cynthia afterwards and she's committed to read the Book of Mormon! That good 'ol life changing book!

This morning we got a call from President Stratford telling us he was gonna pull a quick one on us. He proceeded to tell us that Elder Kamerath was getting moved! It was kind of a bitter sweet moment! I sure love that guy and I'm grateful I had a chance to serve with him. He left this evening. For his last pday we played ball with a couple of members, I swear with this heat and humidity, sweat is a whole new thing! Haha!

Well I love you all! Hope you have a wonderful week! I'll see you in a quick two!

Love Elder Smoot!

Wk 102 - My Last Zone Conference!?

Companions: Elder Kamerath and Elder Cichoski
Area: Gahanna

Howdy howdy!

Hey everybody! Happy Fourth of July this week! I love America and I love the day we get to celebrate it! I hope everyone has had a wonderful hot week!! Well to start it off with last Monday, to finish off the day we had family home evening at the Sherman's! It was pretty cool. The ward does a combined fhe with a few families and they have us come and invite whoever. It works out great for fellowship! We had a good spiritual message with some chicken tacos to finish the job! That was a pretty fun night.

Tuesday was a pretty solid day! In the morning we had a couple lessons fall through but that's just life! We had a lesson with a guy named Ulysses! He was pretty funny. He is an older fella but he went off telling us a lot of history with gangsters! It was pretty funny to see Shane talking with him about it because who knew that Shane knew it all too! After that lesson we headed out to Shane's neighbor to get a little more work done on that nasty house! We've done some good work on that house!! It's still pretty disgusting in there! That evening we went to Nick's house and got to have a lesson with his girly Toni! That was my first time meeting her! She was pretty cool and had a lot of good questions! Who knows, maybe she'll come around someday soon! 

On Wednesday morning we went back to the house to finish off a couple big things to get it ready for the next step. We ripped out a tub which was pretty fun! We also got to destroy a couple more walls so I guess I can't complain too much! We were asked to give a twenty minute training in zone conference so we spent all of this time preparing it and it was going to be really good! Then the next day we ended up not even giving it! Oh well I guess! But the rest of the day we spent the day finding! It was a pretty solid day.

Thursday was a pretty special day! I had my last zone conference! It was a pretty good meeting! I'd have to say my favorite training was probably by Elder Thomas! He gave a training on "Self-Worth"! It was really good! One of my favorite quotes from his training was, "you can't wait until you're perfect to love yourself!". The other quote was pretty profound! He took to scripture Matthew 22:39 which says, "Thou shalt love my neighbor as thyself". He made the point on how he justified that a few years back, "well I hate myself so I can't hate my neighbor!" Then of course we all started laughing because we all knew that wasn't true doctrine. But then he switched it up. "Thou shalt love thyself as thy neighbor". That was pretty powerful. A lot of people don't struggle to love thy neighbor. A lot of people are always willing to help other out. But a lot of those people struggle to love themselves, and they struggle to help themselves out when they need it. God loves you, you have to think about how God feels about you. It was a very inspiring training and it was something I definitely needed! The rest of zone conference was pretty solid as well. At the end of everyone's mission for the last zone conference they have the opportunity to give a brief ninety second testimony. In all honesty it was pretty cool. It definitely doesn't feel like it's my time. It really hasn't hit and I don't think it will. Everyone else was crying and even if I tried I was just too happy and I couldn't cry. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve a mission for the Lord! 

That evening we had an appointment with a guy named Mark and his wife Raven. They were pretty cool and they loved the idea of the BoM! After that we had a member support visit with the Giacalone's! They're sweet!! I guess they moved here like a week before I did! But it was a solid day. 

Friday we met a dude name Davion who was our age. Literally right when we got out of the car first thing in the morning, he was right there and was super happy to talk to us. We were going to meet with Nick at his place when we met him. We had a good lesson with nick but I have to admit, the highlight of it was when we gave his crazy dog Boo a rope to play tug of war! That evening we met with a guy Elder Hunter and I found on exchanges. It was pretty cool, I found out that he loves horses which made my night because almost no one in the city loves horses! 

On Saturday we had a blessed day! I got to go with Elder Nye and Elder Pakwal! Elder Nye I've been with quite a bit but to introduce Elder Pakwal, he's the first missionary who is from Nepal and who has been called specifically to speak Nepali on his mission! He's a walking miracle! He grew up in Nepal and moved to Utah when he was twelve. He ended up being baptized at the age of 14 I believe. It's a pretty cool story. We had a super good day. We only knocked on 8 doors but 7 out of the 8 they invited us right in. Those people are awesome! They always offered us drinks and one of them even gave us some way good Nepali food! Except that same person called me fat! Haha It was pretty funny because she meant it in a good way! But that was a great day!! 

Sunday was a pretty good day. I love the sacrament! It's a huge blessing. We had Nick's kids come to church! After church we had a linger longer and we had a good time and an opportunity to talk to his kids about baptism! We will see if they decide to or not though! That night we got to grill out at Shanes! We also got to talk to his sister which was awesome! It was a blessed day!

Well I love you all! I hope you have a great week! This definitely doesn't feel real the fact that I have such a short time left! 

Well see you in a few! 

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 101 - Broken Ankles?!

Companions: Elder Kamerath and Elder Cichoski
Area: Gahanna

Howdy howdy!

Quite the week for learning! This whole week has been one thing after another just trying to learn the lessons that God has for me this transfer. Well last Monday we got to finish the night up at Brother Poole's house for "Family Home Evening". I guess it's usually a pretty big thing but literally almost no one showed up! But it was a good night.

On Tuesday it all started out pretty normal. A good planning session and out the door by ten. We had to stay close to the apartment because we were waiting for Elder Allison to call us to drop off a mattress because for the last week I had been sleeping on a cot. A broken cot... Haha! So we went and knocked a bunch of doors just down the road by the library. The first door we knocked this guy answered who looked about twenty and he seemed super solid. We taught him the restoration and all was well. Later on down the road his mom came and got mad, I guess he said yes out of fear. That was too bad. After we hit every door in those apartments we headed over to the library. We got some frozen hot chocolate which was super good! Elder Allison finally called right before lunch so we headed home and got the bed right before we grilled out! We have a pretty nice grill so we made some good 'ol hamburgers. We decided to get creative and put Mac n cheese and eggs on them! What a treat! Haha! After lunch and comp study we decided to go street ball contacting. So we drove over to an outdoor court and saw a few guys playing ball. So we started playing them and beat them the first two games. We started to teach them after the second and it was going well. They asked if we would play one more so of course we were like, "yeah!". As we were getting out on the court I decided to go 1v1 with Elder Cichoski. I crossed him up so hard we were positive I literally broke his Ankles! We thought it was broken so we went to three different places until we finally found a place that had an x-ray tech on the job! Turns out it isn't broken. Alright alright fine. I didn't actually cross him up. But the rest of that was true. Up until the point we went one on one. He was just trying to dunk it and he landed on the edge of the court that was like a two inch edge. He dropped pretty hard too. He thought he had broken it because he'd broke that exact ankle in the past! After getting the other guys info we ran to get him back to the car. He, no joke, passed out on the way back to the car!!! Elder Kamerath was carrying him in his arms when he dropped so that was convenient! But a couple urgent care visits were fun. They x-rayed him and told him it was just a sprain. So we celebrated with Canes Chicken and that was the rest of the night!

Wednesday we had district council in the morning! The doctor had given Elder Cichoski crutches and told him to stay off it for a few days. At district council we had to give our car up. District council was pretty good! We have ten Elders in the district! After district council we got canes again... Then we gave our car up. To be honest this whole week got wrecked because we have no car, and a companion down. It was pretty rough and definitely not as fast paced as I'm used to and how I wanted my last transfer to go...  But there's a lesson in every aspect of life! So the rest of the day we just tried to stay productive and eventually we got so stir crazy in the apartment that we ended up having Shane pick us up so we could get better wifi!

Thursday was a huge blessing! We had exchanges with the zone leaders, Elder Blake and Elder Hunter! I got to go with Elder Hunter! He's a stud from Idaho. We had a blast! We ended up getting to do some service! We started out weeding Shane's flower beds. Then cleaning some of his gutters and trimming some bushes but we got tired of doing small things so we decided to ask if he had any big projects! So he sent us to his neighbors. Boy was that a project! They were gutting a house and they hadn't started at all. They are going to turn it into a garage! That night we biked past the airport going to an apartment complex, we literally watched 3 planes take off and land! Airports are a lot bigger on a bike! That day was sweet! We found three new people! I found a mini guitar in that house, and a Frisbee disc on the side of a very busy road! What a blessing!

Friday was a follow up day, Elder Kamerath and I went back to that house and did some demo. We punched about four holes in the walls then we took a sledge hammer to them! It was sweet! We also ripped a bunch of carpet up. But after that we weekly planed, and had a good few lessons and even found a couple more people! 

 

Saturday we found a couple more people. Sadly, we didn't get out as much as I wanted because Elder Cichoski is still in a lot of pain. But God still provides and we found a couple more people! It was awesome! We also went to a members 1 year old's bday party! There was a ton of non members and we had a lot of good gospel centered conversations! It was a great day! 

Sunday was sweet! We had three people at church and we had an incredible sacrament meeting thanks to the Giacalones! They were definitely the big hitters! Their talks were super deep and a lot about how when we do God's will, the hard things are soon recognized as learning experiences. "In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in God's eyes, there are no such things as tragedies." 

After Church we had a great lesson with a busy guy named Matt at a Duncan Donuts. The lesson was awesome, we talked about the book of Mormon and afterwards he just texted us and told us how happy he was, and how he was going to dig into the book of Mormon. It was awesome! So hopefully you'll hear about him in the future! After that we grilled out at Shane's house and had come follow me. I love the Sabbath!

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

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 100 - Gahanna Banana!

Companions: Elder Cichoski and Elder Kamerath
Area: Gahanna

Smoot-Kamerath-Cichoski

Howdy howdy!

Gahanna is a party! I think one thing I should probably start off with is introducing our boy Shane Poole because he's with us just about every day!! He's a convert of about a year and a half and he loves doing missionary work. He literally will knock doors with us! It's nice because we're also in a trio and we can split off with him and knock twice as many doors! It's a huge blessing!

Well to start it off with last Thursday! We had transfers! In the morning we got to say bye to a couple of my loved ones! Missi's family and the Mclaughlin's. What great people. We then headed into transfers and I literally felt like a shrimp when I met my comps! Elder Cichoski is 6'5"! Elder Kamerath is just a little bigger than me which is crazy! Haha! I love them both! They're complete studs! We've had a good time so far! Elder Kamerath went to East high in Salt Lake and Elder Cichoski is from Oregon! We got picked up by Shane and another member. We helped the other elders in our ward move in then got sandwiches then unpacked and hit up a lesson with Nick, a recent convert that night!

Friday was a pretty good day. We started out in the morning finding and having a good time. We met a few cool people! For weekly planning we got monitored by a guy in Salt Lake. That went very well for the most part! In the evening we had a member meal with a part member family and it went pretty well. We had a good conversation about God and families with them! Then the rest of time we spent finding!

Saturday morning we did some quick service shoveling a lot of dirt. Then went to many appointments that day and even found two new people! We got to split up with Shane so Elder Kamerath and I found a couple of super solid people! It was a good time!

Sunday was awesome. It was weird to have church at 12 but it was awesome! The ward is sweet! There's a lot of good people but it's weird to come into the ward knowing I'll only be there for a max of 6 weeks! But there is definitely some awesome people! The rest of the day we had another meal but out at Shane's house with his sister! We got some fat steak and bratts! It was awesome! We finished the night playing some ball with a kid across the street from us! It was pretty fun! 

Today was sweet! We had a chill morning and then Shane came to take us shopping! We went to a few stores and got some good stuff! We got a family night out at Shane's tonight with a bunch of people! It'll be fun! 

Well I love ya'll! I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Elder Smoot! 

Wk 99 - Last Week In Nrk!

Companion: Elder Oettli
Area: Newark

Bro Eppich!

The Halls gave us cookie dough ice cream and
brownies for my going away!

Chilling with the Halls!

Pretending to drive the Hall's jeep!

When you have three big boys, you gotta
body guard the little guy! 

Lol cut Elder Norris's hair!

Howdy Howdy! 

Monday was a blast! We had a solid pday then that night was awesome! We had two other companionships double into our area! We had the training specialist Elder McInnes and Elder Watkins who are both home now, as well as Elder Davis and Elder Green. The reason being is that Cambridge is now shut down so they didn't have a reason to work in Cambridge! But that was a fun night!

Tuesday was a solid achievement day. We got a lot done. We had to prepare for zone conference as well as get weekly planning done! So we did that and we also got to trio up with the other Elders! I got to go with Elder Davis and Elder Watkins! They're both studs and it was a blast to get to know them a little better! We found a couple of people and had a good time doing it! That night we split back up and had coordination

Wednesdays exchange was awesome! Elder Davis is a stud from Vegas! He's a genius and he also paid for his mission by playing video games! haha That was fun to talk about. The cool part is that he also played sports! We found a couple people early on in the day after cleaning up the house the Elders are moving into. So that evening we tried some creative ways of finding that didn't work too well, like going to the park that for some reason no one was at! 

Thursday morning we headed to a sweet zone conference! We all got the brand new tiwis so that was a bummer because they work really well! We also had an hour long training on vehicle safety! But it was a solid day. That night we brought some OSU Elders, Yukihiro and Johnson back with us because we were going on an exchanges the next day. So for the second time that week we had six elders sleeping in our apartment! It was also my last time playing Thursday night ball. It was a lot of fun and I'll definitely miss it! 

Friday was sweet because in the morning we headed to campus for our exchanges! Campus is fun for a day but you sure do a lot of walking and walking and walking! hahah But I got to do a baptismal interview for someone on campus and we got to play soccer after it! I was with Elder Yukihiro who is in training but he's a stud! We found two really solid people that day! 

Saturday was just the two of us so it felt very quiet! But we had a few lessons and quite a bit of time to find and to follow up! Sunday was also pretty uneventful other than going out to the Schofield's and playing corn hole!! That was legit! I'm sure gonna miss family nights at their place and how the house was always a party! 

Monday was jam packed! In the morning we went and deep cleaned the Elders apartment. We took a break and had a couple of visits to got to! We went to Josh Stephen's house. That guy is a stud and I look up to him a lot! After that we went to Joseph's house! That was interesting and we had some concerns that ended up getting solved. After that I cut Randy's hair! We called it "Project Tame the Mane!" haha It looks a lot better. Before the day was over we got transfers figured out and we got the other Elders moved over. Life is good!

Cutting Randy's hair!

On Tuesday Elder Thomas got put with us because his companion was headed home. I love having him with us. He's clean and he's a stud. In the morning we went and weeded Cheryl and Matt's house. It looked really nice at the end. We also got to play with their grandson which was sweet! Love that little man. We got to teach Ricky after that surprisingly. That went very well. He hasn't been open to talking to us since I've been here! 

Today was spent packing, shopping and playing disc golf! 

Well here it is ladies and gentlemen, The end of the transfer has come and it's time to start my last transfer. I got the news last night that I will be moved to Gahanna Ohio. I'll be in a trio with a couple of studs. I'm really excited for this and I'm excited to finish strong! 

I sure love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Smoot!!