Wk 10 - Out with the old in with the new!

Companion: Elder Spencer
Area: Marble Cliff 2

Corn fields in Ohio

Bye bye elder Woodworth

Killed my comp haha!
(he went home Friday)

 Elder Spencer! He's from Delaware and he's been out 16 months! He's way cool.
 He's a cool guy. Loves the work and loves to enjoy it.

Well I killed Elder Woodworth on Thursday and brought Elder Spencer back to Marbella Cliff as my follow up trainer! He's alright I guess. haha jk he's awesome! He loves to enjoy the work! We got a lot of big things that are really gonna happen!

Jaimie and Max are doing great and we love watching them learn and grow! Nicky kinda had some concerns and kinda has been avoiding us but hopefully we'll be able to help her work through those! We brought a man named Herbert to church with us, he lives in German Village which is probably the nicest area in our area and we taught him on Saturday for the first time! He's such an awesome guy and we've already set it up for him to watch conference at a members house! It was funny, the ward we're serving in does a general conference tradition where they play Frisbee golf at 8! They announced it and Herbert looked at me and was like "I want that" hahaha! He's African and it was hilarious! So we're going with him to that too! And he was so excited to go to church again and committed to being baptized! 

Yesterday after church during personal study we got a call from the APs saying they had some good news! They had a member of about 3 years say that her sister called and wanted to be baptized and come to church that day! Haha but she explained how it worked and she was like well send the missionaries my way! So we got her info and went to her house that night! She was Golden! Elaine is her name and the reason she wanted the gospel so bad was because she saw how much it changed her sister for the better, Their mom had passed away 41 days before that and she wanted to be the best she can and be a better mom for her 5 year old son! We taught her the first lesson, the restoration. Two parts of the lesson I wanted to talk about. First we asked her a very simple question of "what would it mean to you if the church that God had on this earth when Jesus Christ was on the earth, was on this earth today?" She instantly answered well of course I would go! It made me realize how special our message really is. I knew it was amazing before but to someone who hasn't had it their whole life, how much that would mean! It was so awesome to see that! The other thing I wanted to mention is it came up that you know there's so much hope and blessings as you follow Him. We mentioned that as she sets that example for her son that he could be baptized and someday maybe even serve a mission like we were and teach people about Jesus Christ. She suddenly got very emotional in a happy way and wanted to know more. We asked her to be baptized next Month on the 28th and she was so excited to do that! We are so blessed to have her and be a part of her conversion! 

Another really cool thing that is going on in the marble cliff is we've felt that we should start a class to teach people about Mormon beliefs. We started this process Saturday night and decided we'd do it every Monday from 7-8. We made fliers and have a room in the library to meet in! We aren't expecting too many tonight but we're excited to get it going! Hopefully we can help more and more people realize that God's kingdom has once again been established on this earth! 

A cool flier we made for our class

God is good, God is great, this church is true and I love spreading that wonderful word! 

Love ya'll so much. Hope all is well and that you have opportunities to spread that great word as well. And if you don't, find them because who's to say that you have to have a tag on your shirt to do so! 

Love yall! Talk to you Monday!

Elder Smoot

Sloopy's! I did it in 2:45
 Sadly I took second, an elder who isn't here had 2:40. I'll beat him someday.

*We are watching General conference at a cool members house in their theater! And they promised food for all the sessions and they're awesome.

*(silly request)  I would love a roll up putting green with a hole so we can mini gold in the apartment at night when we are bored! We're about to head to a thrift shop so I'm gonna get a gold club and a ball! Haha I want to be able to take it with me from area to area! 

(then later...)Mom you aren't gonna believe what just happened! We booked it down to the thrift shop and I found a putting green (the one I wanted), a golf club and some extra beater shoes that are slip on! All for 15 bucks! I'm so pumped! Hahaha!

Heading home from the thrift shop!

Wk 9 - Man down Man down!

Companion: Elder Woodworth
Area: Marble Cliff2

the car we got on Exchanges
and they had a deer on their porch! 

More canes haha! we only went twice jsyk

Gotta have more cow bell at canes last week with riverside elders- elder Winn 

My desk

Service at bro burchetts house
yes, we did flower beds

Ribs baby!

Smoke house with bro burchett

my pressies chip dip with cheese

Canes canes and more canes.

elder Woodworth ripped his pants falling off his bike

Service place

Well I kill my trainer tomorrow! That's kinda weird! I'm so excited for him and he's been such a great influence to me, to make me want to be a better missionary myself and to continue to be a brighter light in this world so good luck in life Elder Woodworth! Haha. And with him I made it one transfer all thanks to the Man up stairs! I'm just grateful for those he has put in our path and those who are willing to listen. It's a blessing in my life to see how someone who was lost can change their life and suddenly be that much happier! 

It's been a week and a half since last p day but honestly I don't know if I remember much of it! Haha! last week I got to go out on exchanges with Elder Hepler who I came out with! We got to use a car and boy was that nice! Haha we taught one man who had served a mission then removed his records from the church some time after and remembered the joy he had when he had the gospel. He wanted to be re baptized and feel the love peace and joy again! 

The other man we taught was kind of hard to teach. He was married to a convert and had been investigating the church for a couple years now. He said every missionary he's met with has told him the same thing but he wanted to find out his way. Which was to find proof the book of Mormon was true. He had been doing research and felt like he didn't have enough. All the sudden the spirit told us to be very bold. We told him that you aren't gonna find that it's true if you don't read it for yourself. You aren't gonna know its true if you don't pray to know with the right intent. You aren't gonna know its true until the day or the moment you decide to take that leap of faith and decide to do everything the missionaries ask you to do and to figure out for yourself that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one and only true church! It was cool to see his response. He kinda just sat there and was like well I guess you're right. Maybe I do need to just try it. I hope and pray that he does take that leap of faith and that he will do so with the right mind and a pure intent of knowing. 

I now know for myself and I won't forget that no matter how much we go through and how much we struggle in life, as long as we can take the courage to work as hard as we can for ourselves and put faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, He will never let us down. That doesn't mean our will and God's will, will always be the same but we can always learn and always take time to sit back and count our many blessings! 

The scripture 4 Nephi 1:3: 'And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.' My Father asked me what I thought the heavenly gift was, and through study I thought it was really cool to think and read about. The first part of it basically is that saying  we are all the same, and we are, we are all children of God. We all are here to learn and to grow and to become as he is. In order to grow and to learn we have things on this earth that are there to guide us. One being the atonement. What a great blessing that is, we couldn't go anywhere without it. Two being temples and baptism, making promises with the Lord in our lives to follow him and his example then the opportunity to renew our covenants each and every week! But what this all leads to is Exaltation, the opportunity that we have to become as he is and to live with him again. To live with him and our families for eternity, that is God's greatest gift and all we have to do is do our best to follow his example to keep our promises the best we can and try our best to be exactly as he is! 

I love this gospel and the many blessings it brings to my life. I am grateful I get to share this plan with his children each and everyday for the next two years! I love you guys and I pray for you! 

Keep reading the good word, keep doing good things! Hope ya'll have a good one!

Love Elder Smoot! 

*sorry you don't get to know who my next comp is til Monday because I don't know til tomorrow! Kinda a bummer! I have some ideas because as far as I know there's only two follow up trainers and one of them has already served in Marble Cliff!  It's true though you definitely can learn something out of all of your experiences! And right now that's what is helping me stay positive and keep a big cheeser on my face! Haha it's so weird killing my trainer the first transfer, haha he said he hasn't seen it his whole mission! Kinda weird! But glad you had a good week! And thank you soo much for the letter! That made my week and yes I already have the magnet up! Haha love it! Thanks! Love ya! 

*I'll tell you more about it but the place we're going is sloopies. It's on Ohio State campus.They have a breakfast of Six chocolate chip pancakes stacked and the missionaries have a challenge called sloopies challenge and I'm gonna break the record today!  I've been practicing but I hope I beat it! Haha oh and it's loaded with peanut butter! Don't think I mentioned that! There is no internet but hopefully we'll be back by six! If not I love you guys so much! Yall are the best! Hope you have a good rest of the week! And I'll let you know about transfers Monday! 

Wk 8 - More Miracles!

Companion: Elder Woodworth
Area: Marble Cliff 2

 the lucky deer named Stanley in the zl apartment
..and America

Ohio schedule

winter!

 shirt I ordered from the mtc

Packages! Haha yes!

 twin vets

James fell asleep on me in priesthood

Chipotle

just went to this church by our house. So pretty inside! 

Elder Bagley our zl one I was with on exchanges this week.
Should a talked about those but they were really good I learned a ton from him! 

We ate at canes! Really good chicken!
Elder Curtis me elder Bagley elder Woodworth.

Well this was another pretty good week but to be honest time is kinda going by fast so I'm not sure what all happened this week or the rest! Haha but we did have a great miracle this week, and we also had a lot of meetings.

On Thursday we had zone conference. At zone conference we got face book. 
We talked a lot about how we should use it to reach out to those investigating. There were some really cool and inspiring videos shown and I'm excited to see the work grow. We've already had many miracles in the mission and it's definitely helped us stay in contact with some of our investigators. I love President Stratford's testimony. It's so powerful and strengthened mine every time.

 On Friday we had our follow up training meeting. He had two powerful talks/presentations. The first one he told us a story about his mission.  His president, elder Ballard, gave him a call and told him his new comp needed help. He was determined to turn his comp's mission around. They worked so hard until they finally got a baptism. After the baptism the lady that was baptized invited the district over for a meal, so they went and some how he ended up in her above ground pool in his shirt and tie. He bore a very powerful testimony on how much he grew from that mistake. His president found out of course. He told us why he shared this story and it hit me very hard. He explained that on our missions we can not get casual. In life. We can not get casual because the moment we get casual we mess up. That stuck with me ever since and I hope I can apply that throughout my mission. After the first meeting we split up and the trainers went to a class room while the trainees went together onto campus because we were at the institute building! Me Elder Goode went out for 15 to 20 minutes together and found 3 people to refer! It was so cool! We killed it! Then after that we had lunch and had a final meeting on the becoming a consecrated missionary talk by tad r callister for missionaries. The day before, the APs asked me to speak on a section of the talk along with a couple other missionaries. I talked on "putting negativism and sarcasm on the table". Strangely enough that's something I had been focusing on! My testimony definitely grew I as I bore my testimony and I'm so grateful for that. It was definitely a wonderful meeting. 

But not much else happened this week except blessings with Jaimie and Max her son. Last Monday we gave her a call. She answered and told us she was starting to doubt everything. She was this close to giving up right before we called.  On Tuesday we sent her a talk "my peace I leave with you" and she said the feeling she got from it changed her. We encouraged her to continue to pray and read and that God would watch out for her. This week her husband, who was jobless, found a job. She said they prayed once as a family for the first time ever. Max who needed new shoes which they could not afford, the librarian randomly brought him a pair of shoes. After she had those thoughts she turned and asked the Lord and he blessed her, she new that he did. It was amazing to see and to feel her testimony. And the day we met her she smoked over 20 cigarettes a day. She's now down to 4, she has come to church 2 times and Max was able to come as well. She is so excited to follow the example of Christ by being baptized with her son Max. It won't be easy but it'll be worth it. We hope and pray that her husband will open up as she sets an example. 

I'm so grateful for the spirit, for the testimony I have gained. I'm so happy I'm doing the Lord's work and I would not be able to do it without him by my side picking me up when I fall down. I love this gospel, the truthfulness of it. Thanks you for all that you guys do for me.  And  Anthony (who came to church last week but not this week but is still trying to be closer to Christ)  always likes to say, have a blessed week! 

And also we have been very blessed this week we had Nicky and James come to church as well. That's 4 investigators at church 2 weeks in a row. That's a huge miracle. James is on the street but looking for a change in his life. Nicky in ywca but she has been looking for the truth since she was 4 and is already making changes to come closer to church. 

Great full for Gods many blessings in this life. Love yall! Talk to you next Wednesday! (transfers are next week, so Pday is Wednesday)