Area: Newark
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| Elder Paul, Smoot, McIness, & Merrill |
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| Elder Paul & Elder Smoot |
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| Elder Paul, Smoot and the Halls |
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| Elder McIness- with Bisquit (Stratford's dog) |
Howdy Howdy!
Wow what a week!! Nothing much really happened after pday last Monday, we just went out finding! But Tuesday was a rocking day! In the morning after we did our morning schedule, we ran to the library for a discussion with the Jws. They didn't even show up! It's all good though I wasn't really in the mood to meet with them. Plus we also got a lot of administrative stuff done that we didn't have time for! After noon we went over to Ray's and had a nice chat with him. I love that man so much! We came home to get Elder Ashcraft's stuff all packed up and loaded in the car because he was going to get a new companion that night. When we were out at the car I ran to go check the mail and there was a nice lady and her son with a sweet dog who were getting their mail at the same time and we started talking! We ended up setting up a time to give her a Book of Mormon! It was pretty sweet! From there we went to the Williams to have a lesson with Colton who just got baptized and Brysen who is working towards baptism! It was pretty awesome stuff. We headed to ward coordination after that and that went way good as always! Then we headed home to meet The assistants and Elder Ashcraft's new companion Elder Valdez! That was a pretty solid last day!!
Wednesday was so good! We had the Cambridge Elders here for exchanges! I got to go with Elder McIness! He's a stud!! I was companions with Elder Collier right after him and Elder Collier were companions so we had a lot to talk about! It was awesome! In the morning we biked a whole half a mile out to Ruperts and had an interesting chat with him. He wasn't very willing to pray specifically! You don't get answers to your prayers when you don't pray about something specifically. I'm pretty sure it's because he knows it's true he just doesn't want to change which is pretty sad. After him we all got to go out to the Powells for service which was legit as always! We split logs the whole time from one of the huge trees we cut down last time! It was awesome! They even gave us some pizza after! After we got home we went to go bring Tia, the lady at the mailbox, a Book of Mormon when we got stopped by a nice lady named Julie! We just said hi and then a whole conversation started from there and ended by giving her a Book of Mormon! She was super excited and grateful. She has known a lot of members and was excited to learn more! After we went to young men's and had a discussion on being a missionary and how we survive with the small amount of money we get and what not. It was pretty fun! Afterwards when we were on our way home at about 8:45, we drove past this house with some big dogs out and out of the corner of my eye I saw a cigarette lit up. I had a pretty strong promoting and in all honesty I had to fight it for a bit. But then I ended up turning the car around and we went back! Elder McIness and I jumped out to go talk to this person! It was a huge miracle. We ended up talking to her for a while. Her name is Gracie and she was telling us that she's been through a lot! But she knows God can help her and she told us she wanted to get baptized and that she used to go the our church! It was crazy but long story short is she knows she needs to get baptized because of her 11 year old cousin Colton who was just baptized has been telling all of his family how it helps! Crazy how the Spirit works! We called Kevin Williams, the grandpa, after and I'll never forget how happy he was to hear that the Spirit lead us there! It was a huge miracle and we referred her to the sisters because there is rarely a third male in the home. It was awesome!
Thursday was a long but great day! We got to attend four district councils, one after the other, have lunch at Panera Bread with President and Sister Stratford, and interviews!! It was a great day! They were each very uplifting and the majority of them were about the things we discussed with Elder Bennett and how we can better apply them. My interview with President Stratford was a very spiritual experience and I love that man a ton! He's with out a doubt a man of God! We got a ride home with the Mt. Vernon Elders and got to go on a short exchange! Elder Lowry and I went out and stopped by a couple people that were close, Julie and Tia. Then we went to some out door basketball courts to see if anyone was open to coming to play ball with the ward at the church! Well there we found Derek at the dog park next to the court! He wasn't able to come last week but he said he'd come this Thursday! We will see though! He was a pretty cool guy!
Friday was a pretty packed day. It started off pretty normal with planning and updating records and all of that until we got on calls with the Assistants, we got a text saying that we were able to go up to Mansfield at that moment to say good bye to someone I was very close with. Mama Vidra, she's been sick for a while and now she finally has been able to graduate into the next life. I felt a lot of peace and relief as I was up there. We had to go on an emergency exchange and I got to go pick up Elder Green, the stud of a missionary I trained in Mansfield and we got to go together. It was good to be there for Brother Vidra and it was definitely a blessing we got to see her one last time before she passed just a short few hours after we left. I definitely would not have felt peace if I did not have a testimony of the plan of salvation that Heavenly Father has for us. It was definitely a special day.
Saturday in a nut shell, we had a lesson with the jws that we've been meeting with and they gave us one of their Bibles. We ended up dropping them and inviting them to read and pray! There's no other way they'll find an answer unless they actually want to know! We had a good chat with Ray about baptism later on in the day, which was really cool. That night we had a good lesson with Colton at the Williams! They always have a snack for us! Some fudge or what ever but it's always good!
Sunday we had three people come to church! Ricky, Jeanie, and out of no where, Logan came! That was pretty sweet!! He even commented in the second hour! That night was way cool! We got a referral for someone on the Dennison Campus! It was sweet!! That College looked way sweet!! We found the referral's dorm and called him up because you needed a key to get in, he ended up answering and running down to meet us! Turns out one of his old roommates was just pranking him and signed him up as a joke! The best part was that he was actually interested when we explained a little more because he had some friends that were members form back home! It was pretty cool and we set something up to meet with him! After him we were walking and we ended up walking up this sweet hill! It almost felt like I was in the mountains again!
Monday was pretty solid! We didn't have anything set up until later on so we just stopped by a recent convert named Joseph for a bit and talked to him about the temple. We found and had a dinner later on with the Schofields! We got to teach their son Luke who hasn't been baptized and talk to the parents about getting sealed! Which is coming up! It was a great day!
Today we got to go to the Temple!!! It was awesome!! The Spirit is always strong and I love the peace that comes from it! We went with the lovely Halls of course and had a great time! I love Newark, I love being able to serve the Lord! The church is amazing and true! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Smoot
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