Wk 92 - Hey Yall, yins, you all, all you people!

Companion: Elder Oettli
Area: Newark

Birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Ward Easter party 

Little golfin' on P-day

Howdy howdy!

What a week, what a week! Highlights were definitely my birthday and Easter! By the way, thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Sure love you all!

To finish off last Monday. We got to go and teach Ray! He's a homie! He's one of the nicest guys in the world!

Tuesday we had exchanges that went pretty well! I got to go with Elder Lee! He came out with Elder Oetlli and I! And half of the other mission! Haha But we had a pretty loaded day! We started off doing service for Sister Jones! It was sweet! We had a great spiritual discussion and came up with a plan to help three of her friends! And we had a sweet fire going! The rest of the day we had coordination, a lesson at Missi's house and a good visit with Matt! It's been real good!

Wednesday we had a split exchange! I got to go to Mt Vernon for the day with Elder Lowry! Gosh I love that guy! We got to go out to the Amish Members that were on TV! It was awesome! I got to go into their shop and everything! They're literally some of the best people in the world! They blast the tabcats as back ground music for all to hear! What saints! We also met like three new people to teach in like 10 minutes so it was awesome! We gave a sweet lady a blessing in the hospital who is super close to getting baptized! That'll be awesome! To finish the night we had a bom class and drove back to Newark!

Thursday morning we had some good service! We helped the Russell's rip a couple of bushes out and pick up a bunch of sticks! Let me tell you, pulling a bush out with out a truck is not worth it! But the rest of the day we just went out and hit the pavement!

Friday was bingo planning and a bunch of calls! Good times! Friday's are always loaded! That night we got to go to Ray's again. He's down a little bit more with smoking but he's gonna make it some day! We also had a super good lesson with the Williams and their inactive daughter and her nonmember husband. It's Colton's parents. They used to be very against the church but are slowly opening up! It's awesome!

Saturday was my bday! It was lit. We had 4 different people feed us cake and ice cream!! Holy, smokes it was crazy! We had the ward Easter party! We had another surprise party at Missi's! They're so good to me! They gave me presents and all! We went to the Schofield's after and had a good chat. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with Dominic! It was a party! We talked to a lot of people too! Being in public presents opportunities!

Sunday we had a good day at church! It was a great Easter service! After that we went from members house to members house! A couple of them had some non members and they wanted us to charge lessons so we did. The best one was when we did the pushups lesson and the guys mom who isn't a member started to cry because the spirit was soo strong! Easter is awesome! I love Jesus! 

Love you all! Hope you have a good week! 

Love Elder Smoot! 

'These sweet elders burned branches and sticks around my yard!
Thank you for sending us such wonderful young men!
Here they are with our two week old kittens!'

Wk 91 - The Beam is Up!

Companion: Elder Oettli
Area: Newark

Howdy howdy!

Well here we are another week down! Crazy how fast it's gone! I now have 99 days left! I can't believe it! But we just take it one day at a time! Well on that note, this week has been really good! Saturday night was the first night since last Sunday that it was just Elder Oettli and I in the apartment! Monday we had the Johnstown elders come and start an exchange. That night ended up being the brawl of the century between Elder Lee and Elder Henshaw! Haha! It was a good fair match!

Tuesday morning was pretty awesome! We had a flood of miracles with talking to one person after another. Sadly we had a couple of appointments fall through but it provided a way to talk to all of the people outside! I got to know Elder Henshaw pretty well while we were out during the day. He's a great missionary and it was fun day! That night after I picked up Elder Oettli we went over to the New Albany Elders to do a surprise exchange! It was pretty funny because we were locked out of their apartment for at least half an hour because both of them had their own showers and were taking a shower! It was pretty funny to surprise them!

To carry onto Wednesday we had a great short exchange! I went with Elder Smith from St. George! We had a pretty good time together. We taught a guy named William who was from Ghana! He was pretty cool but he definitely had some interesting points! But the Spirit was there and we had plenty of opportunities to bare testimony! We finished of the exchange with some good ol chick fil a!

Thursday I got to go with Elder Green! My trainee! He's such a stud and he definitely has grown in the last fifteen months! Sure love that guy! We got to do some finding and service together! We were out at the Powells and we ended up lifting a thousand pound beam to support the roof! It was a project and a half! 

Friday was a great day! We had zone conference which was a very spiritual experience! Sadly they took away knives so we can't have them any more... That's a bummer but it's all good! That night we had the Mt Vernon Elders stay the night so we could head down to a Coshocton clean up in the morning! 

Saturday morning we headed down to the Coshocton clean up and cleaned about a mile of trash along the train tracks! I flipped Elder McInnes in the middle of the tracks for a video on a drone which was sweet! Then we headed to a gardening service project in Newark with some of the ward members which was fun! We picked up a bunch of rocks and I even got to till the garden! The rest of the day we had lessons until we went to the Powells for a minute to meet their son! Saturday was a good day! 

Sunday we had a solid day at church! I sure loved it! Shirley came again! It was awesome! We even had a good linger longer after church and got to meet the Weight's son from college! 

Today we just walked around and enjoyed to stores because it was freezing outside! But I sure love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

Love Elder Smoot!  

Wk 90 - 4 of 4 General Conference

Companion: Elder Oettli
Area: Newark

Hammocking!

Cambridge District!

We did a role play and I was supposed to be
bottle feeding my baby so I used Elder Oettli! 

Elder Lowry and Elder Jones- being themselves

Elder Hepler- being him

teaching the kiddos- and
they tackled Elder Oettli!

Howdy howdy!

Well this week was awesome!! I'm pretty sure we found someone just about every day!! It is insane how busy we are but thats what it's all about right? I wouldn't have it any other way! We had three exchanges in a row! 

Monday night was pretty sweet! We ended up finding one guy named Kevin who was pretty open and invited us right back then we had a solid lesson with five kids!! Two are recently baptized members and the other three want to be baptized! It was pretty crazy teaching that many kids but it actually turned out really well and the spirit was very strong, except when Brother Williams popped his wound vac off of his stomach on accident which caused some great stress in the home!! It was a solid way to finish a great day! 

Monday night we started our exchange with the assistants! Elder Hepler and I went on yet another exchange! We might as well be companions! But it was a super good day! It was very busy with lesson after lesson but we still managed to find a few new people to teach! Oh how I love miracles! Probably the best part of the day was meeting an elderly women named Pinky! She had bright pink hair and everything was pink for her decor! We also got chewed out by a guy who claimed we believed in the wrong thing. He was holding a sign on the corner of a busy road that said "Jesus died for you" so we stopped to take a picture with him. But sadly he wouldn't let us, so we bore testimony and let him carry on! It was another great exchange with Elder Hepler.

Wednesday was another great day! We headed down to Zanesville for their district council which was way good and we went on exchanges with the Cambridge elders right after! My trainee Elder Green is in Cambridge so that was fun to see him! But I ended up going with his companion Elder McInnes! He's such a stud! I got to talk to him a lot because we did a lot of work out in the country so a lot of driving! But it was super good to get to know him! We talked to some pretty awesome people! Cambridge is awesome! Although there was one lady that flipped out at us because we knocked on her door at eight o'clock when it was still bright out! People these days! Gotta love em! 

Thursday we had another exchange with the Mt Vernon Elders! I got to go with Elder Jones which was a blast from the past because I haven't served around him since we were in the same district in the mtc! He's a stud though! It was good to get out and  be in the very fortunate warm weather we had!! We got some panda express which makes every day good! Then we finished the night playing basketball with some non members and some returning members which was awesome! 

Friday we finished up exchanges in the morning with some bingo! We got to do service with Lelah and the rest of the wonderful people in assisted living! It's always a party! After that we stayed busy planning and making calls! After that we met two more new people to teach! It was a blessing! We had another great lesson with all of the kiddos! It was a good time and they pay attention! We also make them teach the lesson back to us! It's awesome! Then we stopped by Randy's that evening and had a good lesson with him! Friday was another solid yet busy day! 

Saturday and Sunday were the bomb and easily the best days of the week! Saturday we got to watch General Conference out at the Powells! We got to help them demolish some arches that were on the front porch so they can build a new one! That was a lot of fun! 

Sunday we got to watch it with the Halls! General Conference as a whole was amazing! It definitely added to my testimony that there is a living prophet on the earth today! What a blessing! I love God, He's way too good to us! 

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

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 89- No More Meals!

Companion: Elder Oetlli
Area: Newark

Our apartment!

Hammocking!

Lelah's Church Boys!

Howdy howdy!

Well to finish off last Monday it was pretty awesome! We went and picked up Randy to take a couple of people the sacrament! It was his first opportunity to bless and pass it so it was a cool experience! We stopped by Lelah and also Cyndi! It was pretty funny but I felt a little weird about it because one of them gave us a shot glass when we asked for a small cup... Haha! But it was a good night and we finished it off by talking to Randy's Aunt Shirley!

Tuesday we got picked up first thing that morning and headed straight to Mission Leader Council! We left at about 8 am and didn't get back until around 5 or so because traffic was crazy. We had a pretty good meeting! We counseled about a bunch of things but we came to the conclusion that we needed to sacrifice some things! We ended up deciding to end member meals. Instead we just have the lesson with no food! At first I honestly wasn't too happy about it but the Spirit definitely softened my heart and helped me to know that it's the next step! We also were asked to put a stop to district activities! But it's whatever! I can do it with ease with the time I have left! But the rest of Tuesday was good, we went back and had dinner, then we ran to ward coordination! We ended up announcing the no more dinner thing and it took a bit but it went way better than we expected! Gosh I love this ward! 

Wednesday for the first half of the day we got to train Elder Ashcraft how to be a district leader! Probably the best part was doing a role play where he was supposed to correct me. So we went in the gym and I was waiting time playing basketball with a lose tie and no tag! So I bet him if he wins then I'll go and work but if I win I get to keep playing. So he played me thinking he'd beat me and I wrecked him! So when we evaluated we made sure he never would bet because it's against the church! I was pretty funny! But he's a stud and we got his first district council planned out then we got to get back to work! We knocked a pretty elect/well off neighborhood and talked to some good people! We had a pretty good dinner with the Sessers which was fun. They aren't members yet but we had a pretty good lesson on tithing!  It was a great day and a good day to be with Elder Ashcraft! He's a stud! 

Thursday was a day full of meetings! We attended four district councils in a row and had interviews. That was a good long full day! It was awesome because in every district council we talked about what more we could sacrifice to show the Lord were grateful! It was very motivating! That night we had the Mt Vernon Elders come for a mini exchange and they helped us hit all of our appointments with basketball and an appointment with the Weights who are members. 

Friday morning we got to play bingo again!! It's been so awesome! The elderly people there are starting to love us! We're getting to know their name and according to Jessie they always talk about Lelah's church boys! Its pretty awesome! Then we always have a lot of stuff to get done and we're packed the rest of the day! That night we had dinner with the Jordan's which went super good! They're awesome and are opening up more and more! I sure love those guys! 

Saturday was grind time! Back with Elder Oetlli hitting the pavement hard! It was an exhausting day! We talked to a bunch of people and we were out in the rain all day! We had a good dinner appointment as one of our lasts with the Browers! It was sweet! 

Sunday we had a great service! Shirley, or mama, came to church!! It was her first time and we were stoked! It was good to see her there! But the rest of Sunday was good. We visited Ron in the hospital and had our last dinner appointment! We then ran out to re interview one of Johnstown's people for baptism who had a concern. I got to interview him again and it was awesome! He showed true repentance to me. It was a good thing! We finished the night off at the Schofield's and shared a good message with them! The good 'ol flower and penny! 

Today was fun! We went and played a few games of bowling and little did I know my arm was very out of shape for it! haha But it was still a blast! We'll I sure love you guys and wish you the best! Have a great general conference week! I'm stoked!

Love Elder Smoot!