Wk 84 - Phenomenal Week!!

Companion: Elder Paul
Area: Newark

Elder Paul, Smoot, Ashcraft, Elder Bennett, Sister Bennett

Howdy howdy!
To finish off last preparation day, we had a pretty good night. We got to stop by the Williams and have a dinner and a good chat with them!! We ended up getting to talk to Colton, the 11 year old who just got baptized! That was awesome! After that we went to a brand new member who just moved in who is also a recent convert! His name is Pet! But sadly he works 6 days a week from 10 to 10! But he's a cool guy and wants to go to the temple so we'll see what we can do!
Tuesday we had exchanges with the Johnstown Elders! It was an awesome day! We got to go out and cut a couple huge trees down and pile them up! It was awesome!! I loved it! We got to teach a couple of JWs again but that literally goes no where so we're going to stop meeting with them soon! We had ward coordination that night which is always awesome! It was pretty funny, some how Elder Paul got my keys and left me and Elder Higgins at the church! It was pretty hilarious because he totally didn't do it on purpose but it was fun to give him a hard time! haha! Man, I love Elder Paul.
Tuesday night we got a pretty sad call from President saying that a missionary in our zone was going home tomorrow and we needed to get him to the airport. So we woke up Wednesday morning bright and early and went to Westerville to pick them up and drop him off at the airport! So now we found ourselves in a trio!! We have a third companion until about tomorrow. Its been a blast having Elder Ashcraft!

Thursday morning we had a half mission conference with Elder Bennett and the southern zones. Half hour before the meeting we met as a mission leadership council and talked about some of the things our zones may need. That was a pretty spiritual moment. It was pretty exciting. We went from there into the mission conference. Elder Bennett told us before hand, but he showed us his notes and he literally had nothing written down. He said he didn't plan for this at all. He's like- I'm strictly just trying to follow the spirit. It was pretty powerful. It was exciting. I guess the 4 main things he really talked about were 1- that we need to love. Love everyone. Not just certain people but we need to love everyone. We show love for the people we teach the people we work with and we show our love to the members because that is exactly how the Savior would do it. 2- how we can be better Teachers and how we can use the spirit to teach by asking inspired questions as well as helping find the elect in order to gather the twelve tribes. He talked alot about the 12 tribes and the gathering of Israel and how we have been reserved for this time on the earth. That was pretty powerful and a spiritual moment. 3-Alot of missionaries feel like our role is to invite and hope. Basically we invite someone to read the Book of Mormon then we leave hoping that they will just read. We hope! It's kinda hard- I've struggled with that forever, because I felt like there was something else. we just hope- it's like I can't have faith in someone else. I can have faith in Jesus Christ. He changed it to instead of inviting hope- to invite Help! Asking inspired questions- how can we help? can we send reminders, etc. 4-Be spiritually in tune- do everything we can do to qualify for the gift of the Holy Ghost so we can use it in all of our contacts and everywhere we go, especially when we work with members. If we do it right, we shouldn't have to be out finding. All of our finding should be done through members, but he also understands that some of our finding has to be done by just getting out there and grinding. One of the coolest things he said is that knocking is 100% effective because it's what the Lord sees. The Lord sees the effort we put in, even though you may not get very many baptisms out of it but you may get referrals from a member or whatever it may be. I thought that was pretty powerful. Thursday was a pretty awesome day! I got alot out of that!

MLC was the next day. Friday was the Mission Leadership Council. We basically recapped on everything and applied on how we can use it as leaders in our mission. It was pretty spectacular! It's been good. Also one last thing is that instead of spending an hour or 45 minutes in a home- whether it's a members or investigators- we should only spend 15-20 or at most 30 minutes in a home. We've been applying that and it's been very spiritually uplifting. After that we biked a ton of miles! We biked the whole night and didn't use our car because we were out of miles. It was pretty rough. We got to meet with Colton again. We talked to him about honesty and how we can be more honest. It was pretty special. Then we biked home in the pitch dark down a sketchy bike trail. We were like 2 minutes late, but we made it.

We biked all of Saturday and found four people that day. It was pretty sweet! We had some miracles and I swear it was because we applied every thing we learned and every single contact we had, each of them teared up. You just knew that they felt the spirit. It was really cool! It was awesome! We taught a few lessons. We biked downtown and my eyes got opened again just like they were in Marble Cliff. There were alot of homeless people, it was pretty sad. But there is some great people we talked to.

Saturday night was the adult Stake conference session. Elder Bennett was there. They had a recent convert speak as well as a returning less active. He gave a phenomenal talk. His wife was there and she isn't a member. She was crying the whole time. Elder Bennett talked straight to her, it was so cool. In this stake we also have 2 Amish families who are converts. They have been shunned from their community. They completely quit their life because they got ahold of a book of mormon and knew it was true right away. They made a decision together to leave the Amish and get baptized. It was spectacular. Elder Bennett invited them up and they shared their testimonies. It was really powerful. Even those meetings, Elder Bennett didn't prepare, he just followed the spirit. They didn't have anything but musical numbers to write down for the program. Elder Bennett invited anyone that if they had a prompting to message or call someone, they should just get up and walk out and do it. Don't postpone a prompting. It was sweet! Alot of people walked out. Even the Stake President as he was bearing his testimony and said he has a prompting to call his Brother in law- so he was going to get off the podium and go do it. He bore his testimony and left! It was awesome! Very Powerful moment.

Sunday at stake conference they reorganized the whole Stake presidency. Super powerful meeting. The thing that really stood out to me was how those men who were on the stand who have had alot of callings- when they share their testimonies its a knowledge- like I Know this is true! Something President Birch said that reminded me of Joseph Smith- he said 'I know that Jesus Christ lives and I know that Jesus Christ knows that I know that He lives'. The whole week was just phenomenal!

The rest of Sunday we worked spanish for a little bit- Elder Ashcraft is a spanish missionary. We taught a Spanish to English class- that was pretty sweet! Then we headed back to Newark and worked Newark for a little while and then had a member lesson. We were there for about 30 minutes. It was very strong. Then we gave one of the sisters in our ward a blessing. And had a good talk with our ward mission leader.

Today for P-Day we went to the Mounds with our ward mission leader's wife and a member from Zanesville. It blew my mind! I absolutely loved it! I'm sold that Jesus Christ very possibly visited Newark, Ohio. (I'll forward the documents they are going to send)
Then we played basketball! I'll let you go with that.

Love,
Elder Smoot

The Mounds

Wk 83 - Dog selfies!

Companion: Elder Paul
Area: Newark

I've sent a picture of this sign, but now it's in my area!!!!!!
We're gonna go knock it sometime!

Elder Lowery is with the glasses. Elder Shumway is the one without.
and Elder Allison is the one form Jackson

Howdy howdy!

Talk about starting the week of with a BANG!!!!! Wow! Monday night was pretty insane. Elder Paul and I had absolutely no other obligations for the first time and were able to just go out and work together! Never mind the absolute downfall of rain! Who cares? I know we didn't. We prayed, picked a street, and went for it. Our zone had a challenge out to find someone new to teach that had a dog and to get a selfie with the dog to prove it! (It's a fun thing we just started to keep the work fun) So we were determined! We stopped by a potential and she had a dog! She invited us back after talking to her for a bit at the door, but there wasn't an opportunity to take a selfie with her dog. So we started talking to everyone and knocking every house in hopes that they'd have a dog! We talked to a few people who were super nice and ended finding another person named Kim! She had two dogs but we didn't get a selfie so we just had to keep going. Mind you, at this point we were soaked! At one point Elder Paul had asked me what house the Spirit was telling us to go to, we both looked up and looked at the same house, I thought it was just because they actually had a porch light until Elder Paul pointed at it too! So after knocking one last house we ran over there and knocked! A nice lady named Jessie opened up the door holding a dog!!! So we were pumped, we talked to her for a bit and her husband came over a couple minutes into and we had one of the best first contacts ever! She worked at a nursing home and had seen missionaries visiting a member there before and her husband Jordan had always wanted to read the Book of Mormon! So we instantly clicked with them because they were in their twenties! They have one son that's a couple months old and they're awesome! They even let us take a selfie with their dog! It was sweet! After finding four we figured we should go stop by some members, the first member we stopped by wasn't home but he lived with a non member who ended up being interested! It was awesome! We ended up finding five in that night!

Tuesday morning we met with some JWs, that was very interesting. They were very confusing on what they were trying to explain to us but they aren't really willing to do anything so we'll see how long we meet with them. Later in the day we met with Randy who's a recent convert. The whole house was sick and he could hardly stay awake during the lesson. But he's such a stud! That night we had ward coordination which was awesome and also met with our bishop! This ward is awesome! They were very effective meetings! 

Wednesday, we drove an hour north to Mount Vernon! I love driving through the country! It was awesome! District council was great! After district council we started an exchange with those Elders! Elder Lowery followed me down form the North Zone so I got to go with him again! It was awesome! It was a great day! We got to take recycling to a place for a member and we even got a whole dollar and thirty nine cents!! It was awesome!! That night after an awesome dinner at the Halls, we stopped by a guy named Rupert and had a good talk with him then had another great lesson with Ray, who is on date and got him set up to come to church every week!! 

Thursday we found out we were done for with miles and that we were going to have to be very thrifty! So that was kind of a bummer!! But we had a good day any ways! We went back to finish the lesson we started on Tuesday with Randy. It was way cool and we talked a little bit about him getting the priesthood on Sunday! 

Friday we had a ton of stuff to get done!! We had to go to Zanesville to move some sisters into a different apartment that we were moving Elders out of!! So that was a way good start of the day!! Got to spend some more time with Elder Allison even!! They bought us Chipotle and at the same time we got a text about the communication change and it kinda blew our minds! But it was exciting. We got back and had to do a ton of stuff with weekly planning and all of that. That night we met with Colton who is an 11 year old recent convert! His grandparents are members and this kid is a stud! He also got the priesthood on Sunday which is exciting! It was a very busy day! 

Saturday was sweet. We had a lesson with a lady named Lisa! She was a Bible referral. We shared the restoration with her and she got the chills! She knew it was the Spirit and she knew it was true! It was sweet! We had dinner with the Argyles that night. They had some good deep doctrine questions which was fun to talk about!! 

Sunday was awesome! Church was way good! We got to participate in Randy getting the Priesthood which was dope! Then had dinner with one of my new favorite members in this ward, the Powells! Their house is sweet!!! It was a good time! Then we got to go with the Halls to a missionary fireside in Columbus! I got to see a lot of Elders that I've previously worked with which was a blast! 

Today has been great so far! We went shopping around and got to talk to my parents!! That was wild! Then went disc golfing and got to play ball after!! I love Elder Paul! He is a stud! 

I love the church, it is TRUE! Love you all! Talk to you next week! 

Love Elder Smoot

Surprise text of the week!

Wk 82 - Newark "Nurk"

Companion: Elder Paul
Area: Newark

Got this text:
I'm having diner with these two elders! My son was Elder Paul's companion-
It was so fun to meet them. Both are fantastic warriors in the Lord's Army

IHOP!

IHOP again!

Haunted Jail!

Out shoveling!

Halo Helmet dude!

Dope Halo Helmet!

On Thursday I got transferred and the first thing we did was unpack and go to a funeral!

 Friday! Friday was awesome! We had a ton of stuff to do and we got a bunch done! In the morning we went and got maintenance done and met a sweet guy named Zach who was the manager at the car shop. We set everything up to be reported over Google sheets and it's awesome! We had calls with each of the District Leaders to get to know them and introduce the reporting tools. It was super busy, tiring, and of course we had to take a break and get some Raising Canes! Its always good! We got to go to IHOP for dinner with one of Elder Paul's recent Converts which was fun! A cool story that happened was when we were walking in, I saw this ring that was pretty dang nice, just laying on the side walk so I picked it up and brought it in and gave it to our waitress. Like five minutes after, another waitress came walking out bawling to thank me for finding her ring! It was such a cool moment but also awkward because I didn't know how to respond! I guess it ended up being her engagement ring which was cool! It was sweet, even Elder Paul's recent convert teared up! After dinner we went and stopped by the Schofields who are now probably one of my favorite families in Newark for sure! They're sweet! They had 7 tiny little puppies! It was awesome! Their name is the Schofields! After that we stopped by a guy named Logan who has this sweet halo helmet! It was pretty cool and I'm excited to work with him as well!

 Saturday was also a very good day! In the morning we got to finish up some records and reporting tools in Google sheets which took longer than expected but it turned out very good and we are excited to use it! After we went and read a chapter out of the book of Mormon with a guy named Joseph who is a recent convert! He's a pretty cool guy and I think we're gonna be able to go to the temple with him this transfer! It's gonna be sweet! Then we met a guy named Ron who is also a pretty recent convert, it was pretty funny I had an idea that I got from primary about giving him a prayer rock so we excused ourselves for a few minutes and went and found a prayer rock! He was actually pretty excited! Saturday night I met Rupert who is an older gentleman. He was pretty funny, I guess he's leaving it up to us to find him a wife! The last thing we did was visit the Rines. They are the ones who I attended the funeral for. They're going through a hard time with the loss of the grandmother but it was a really good visit! I love that family already!

Sunday, we got to go to church! This ward is legit! This is the first ward that I've ever seen that has the new missionaries stand up to introduce them!! I couldn't believe it! I also was asked to stand in on a confirmation for someone I didn't know! Super awkward but the Spirit was strong! I met a lot of sweet people! It's good to be back in the country to say the least!! People actually wore boots to church! But the rest of the day Sunday we got hit hard with snow which was fun! We had dinner with the Glasers and afterwards we shoveled their drive! It was a good time! We ended up stopping by a referral who let us right in and we ended having a very interesting time to say the least! But it was a good day!!

Today was pretty sweet!! We basically went shopping, drove to pawn shops, the mall, and a haunted jail, ate Chipotle and that was about it! But it's been a great week and I'm really excited to be here in Newark with Elder Paul! There is yet to be a dull moment!

Love you all, hope you have a wonderful week!

Oh and fun fact, every one calls Newark "Nurk"!!

Love Elder Smoot

Wk 81 - Goodbye Dublin, Hello Newark!

Companion: Elder Collier
Area: Dublin

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Will you be my Valentine?

Howdy howdy,

To start it all of on Monday night, we went to taco bell and did some Facebook finding and contacted some people! It was pretty funny when one of the young men walked in. We're pretty close to him and he's going through a lot but it was hilarious because he was with a girl! He was pretty embarrassed and didn't even want to talk to us so we went and talked to him! It was pretty funny. After that we had a member text and ask if we wanted a pizza to take home so of course we ran over there and got ourselves a free pizza! After that we had a pretty cool lesson over the phone with one of Elder Collier's recent converts who's going through a very hard time. But it was awesome. He opened up and the Spirit was very strong! Great night.

Tuesday, we got to go on exchanges with the Worthington Elders, Elder Thomas and Elder Davis! It was an awesome day! We started driving over there when the housing coordinator called us and told us to come over to the Mission home with another set of elders to set up more bunk beds! So that was pretty convenient and we all got to go help for a couple hours and we got Canes for it! It was awesome! I was with Elder Thomas for the rest of the day here in Dublin. He's one of the happiest most Spiritual guys I've ever met. He's so awesome and very genuine! He's from Saratoga Springs! The night was awesome! We had a sweet dinner at the Kron's and after we went and picked Sam up, who it's Mitch's little brother, he just as much of a stud! We took him to see the Didiers and it was awesome! The Mom really opened up! It was a very spirit filled lesson! The day was awesome!

On Wednesday, the weather did not want to cooperate and decided it wanted to be about negative 20 or 30 degrees! It was crazy!! But on the bright side we got a lot of Facebook finding done because we couldn't go out unless we had a reason and we couldn't be outside for more than fifteen minutes! 

All day Thursday we had a phenomenal zone conference!! It was way good!! Right up front, in the beginning they shared a quote that I loved!!! "If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that's exactly where it came from!" said by the one and only, Brigham Young. I love it because of how true it is! God will never tell us there's anything bad or wrong with us. Another thing they talked about with that is how satan lives in the past, we can not dwell on it. In the training we gave with the Sister training leaders, after congratulating them on being by far the highest baptizing zone in the Stake, we felt a need to talk about diligence! I used an old parable that my father taught me about fires. But I related it to missionary work and how the more logs we use and keep in the fire, the brighter it will be. But as soon as we remove one log, or stop using one of the tools God has given us, the log will die very quickly and the fire won't be as bright. I also shared a story about fishing in the winter in the snow and freezing cold, and how that's a day I'll remember forever because I pushed through all the opposition and it ended up being a wonderful day!! We also got to have an hour meeting at the end with our stake president, President Welch, and Brother Feldschau. They are very determined to get the Stake to be the best missionaries and it's wonderful! Zone conference was amazing to say the least. 

On Friday we just did the usual for the most part with planning and all the reports we have to keep up to date! It was a party because it was Elder Colliers Birthday!! I ended up texting the Thomas's and they had us come for dinner and a party!! It was a blast! We got to play a card game that was like monopoly with a twist! It was way fun! They had a taco bar, which is Elder Colliers favorite! And they also had his favorite dessert!! It was a blast! 

Saturday we stayed busy just working the area! It was a pretty good day! Sadly nothing to significant came form it! But it was a good day!! 

Sunday was really good! We had a great testimony meeting and I even shared my testimony!! But we had the bishop's daughter share her testimony. She has been bringing a close friend to church the past few weeks and she bore her testimony on opening your mouth even with her friend there! It was awesome!! So we went to the youth class and her friend had some way good insights! It was sweet! So Monday our Bishop ended up texting us and asked about the process of meeting with a youth! So, sadly I'm leaving but it sounds like they will be able to meet with her soon! She's so ready for baptism! Sunday after church we went to the Thomas's for steak! It was incredible as always! That night we went out with Sam to the Didier's and watched the Restoration movie with them and they accepted a baptismal date for the 20th of April!! It's super exciting!! Sunday was awesome!!

Monday was weird because it wasn't pday! It was basically a regular day just out working and it was actually very warm! It's so much better when the sun's out! Monday night we went to the Mission home to pick up two missionaries to spend the night with us. They were with us until noon on Tuesday, so Tuesday morning we took them out to work!! When we dropped them off we got to get Elder Barnson to be in a trio with us for the day. We went out and worked until we had a stake Coordination with President Welch and Brother Feldschau. It was awesome! I actually enjoyed a meeting! But during the meeting the assistants walked in with Elder Bishop who they had asked if we could have with us for the night and take him to the airport in the morning. So it was a good night but three am came awfully early!! So now today, Wednesday, I have been up since three am. We got so much done so quickly! Took him to the airport, got back at about 5:50, then went and picked up Elder Wright form the mission home so he could be  with us until Friday, which was at 6. Then at 6:30 we went to seminary and taught the class and shared some experiences and did some role plays with them! It was legit! After that we got back and started pday! I packed a bit then we went and played basketball for few hours and now I'm here! This week's been awesome! I'm sad to leave Dublin and a stud of a companion, Elder Collier, but I'm stoked for what the Lord has in store for me and my new companion, Elder Paul in Newark! 

Love you all! Have a great week! Talk to you Monday!! 

Love Elder Smoot 

PS- I love when I get surprise texts from awesome members who take such good care of the missionaries!:

Here are two well-fed missionaries from the Ohio Columbus Mission!
Thank you for loaning your precious boys to us for two years.
Both Elder Smoot and Elder Thomas have wonder, pleasant spirits.

Another one I got today: 

Good morning! I had to let you know how great your sons are doing here

as missionaries and thank you for your mothering! They texted me at 5:15

this morning asking if they could come to seminary. We had a session of 

"school of the prophets," with them replacing Orson Hyde as teacher. 

They had to drop off a departing elder at the airport earlier so they were 

already up...so was I since I teach early morning seminary. They shared 

their personal experiences with the decision to come serve a mission, then

taught the class of 14 juniors and seniors how to share testimony of various

principles of the gospel at school, in every day conversation. They then taught

how to practice through role playing. It was a great morning! Your sons have 

been such positive influence in my own children as we've had them in our

home often. We all love them! They have grown so much in so many ways; 

it's just such a witness that this is the work of God! Sadly, Elder Smoot is 

being transferred this week, but we know there are lives to be blessed 

as he finishes out his work here in "the Ohio."