Wk 24 - Weekly!

Companion: Elder Brumfield
Area: Mansfield

Parr's son Ammon. He's our favorite! Haha!

We ate at red lobster yesterday it was so good! 

Well not much of an exciting week but that's probably the earliest I'll ever go to bed for new years! Hahaha! we got to go and eat with the Parrs on new years and play some games just like Christmas! Ate some pizza and of course had a great time!

We found a new investigator named Brandon out in the freezing weather! He's my age and is about to get ready to head off to college! It's so crazy to think that if I didn't chose to serve the Lord I'd be in college! Haha I'm so glad I made the right choice! He's pretty cool. He wrestled and played football. We're supposed to meet with him this week. 

We had a chapel tour with one of our investigators who is preparing to be baptized on January 27th. His name is Charles and he's awesome! He has a wife and two little kids but he wants to investigate the church and make sure he knows it's right before he brings his family. I can respect that. He's awesome and we are very excited to keep meeting with him! 

We have been able to do a lot of service at Rae Melton. The horse place that gets to work with special needs kids. It's an incredible place! We clean a bunch of stalls, move a bunch of hay, fill a ton of water troughs. The place is so wonderful and it's so nice to be around horses! I love it! Eventually if we're still here we will get to help out with the classes when they start back up! It'll be awesome! 

Well it's absolutely freezing here. We fixed Darren's exhaust and I'm pretty sure I was 10 seconds away from getting frost bite on my fingers. It's currently snowing outside which is awesome! The cold comes in the wind! It's bad!  but we do our best to stay warm! 

Anyways hope you all have had a happy new year and have been able to create a vision for 2018! It's so important to set goals and have something to strive for! 

I love you all thanks so much for the support!

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 23 - Happy New Year!

Companion: Elder Brumfield
Area: Mansfield

Merry Christmas!

Light the World!

Opening one of the 25 Days!

Our pet lizard! A member gave him to us! 

Blurry but farewell and a good bye to this legend elder hopper!
After I took a bite out of his cookie! 

Our car

Our apartment

Well Christmas was wonderful! It was so good to talk to you! Not much has really happened since but I want to share kind of a cool spiritual experience with all of you! But first off hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I hope you have an even better new year!

On Christmas day we had a wonderful time! We went to the Parr's first, a nice family in our ward who's home makes us feel like it's our own! They're a great family! We got to play some games with them and play air hockey and all the fun stuff but right before we left one of their daughters asked us a question, which was "while being on a mission how have you grown spiritually?" that hit me. I tried to think back to what I was like before compared to now. After studies on studies and prayers and experiencing miracles, how could I not change. My testimony has grown exponentially. I hope and pray it continues to grow! I love this work. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now. I have gained a sure knowledge that the book of Mormon is true and I love it. There are times, looking back, that before my mission would have made me question what I believe. But because I have been able to serve the Lord I have gained a strong testimony that I can not doubt! So for this up coming year, think to your self how much you have grown spiritually this last year and how can I improve and gain a stronger relationship with our Savior? Whether it be through reading the Book of Mormon daily, no matter what, which I would suggest, or morning and night prayers, making it to the temple, or all of them. I promise the joy you will find will make this the best time of your life. Because I love you all that's what I want for you. 

Thank you for all you do! Love you!

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 22 - Mansfield OH!

Companion: Elder Brumfield

Area: Mansfield

Amish House

Well I don't even know where to begin except I got transferred to Mansfield Ohio! Clear up top of our mission about an hour and a half from my old apartment in Columbus! I absolutely love it here! For many reasons. 

1 I get to drive a car! it's a pretty nice car too! 

2 the apartment! We have a dish washer, washer and dryer, carpet, two floors! It's pretty nice. 

3 I'm out in the open! hahaha no more city! I actually get to see animals! haha. 

4 The ward is awesome! Everyone just makes it feel like home! We get fed just about every night. We even get coupons to go out to eat! 

My new comp! Elder Brumfield! he's a stud. He's from Salem Utah and played baseball! We get along very well and are pretty much the same person some how! haha There hasn't been a dull moment yet and I don't think there will be! haha

There are 3 people on date, we are still meeting all of them and a couple recent converts that we've taught a couple times! But it seems like I've only been in the area for 2 days because I kinda have! haha! We went down to Columbus 4 days in a row and we drove 3 of the times! It gets old! hahaha 

1st day was transfers. 

2nd day was for a big zone conference slash half mission Christmas party! It was so awesome I loved it! 

3rd day, we went to the temple building for Ken's baptism in the Riverside ward who I was able to teach a couple of times! He is awesome! 

4th was for the missionary Christmas devotional! 

These are all day things so I haven't had much time here in Mansfield! But I love it here and I have a good feeling about this area! 

Most important, Merry Christmas!! I've been able to spend a lot of time thinking about how blessed I am to have the family and friends that I have! I wouldn't have it any other way!

I truly do love and appreciate you all. Thank you! 

Merry Christmas!

With Love, Elder Smoot

Wk 21 - Peace out Marble Cliff!!

 Companion: Elder Spencer

Area: marble Cliff 2

Our District

Elder Hopper's last district meeting

Funny magnet at a members home!

We went caroling at a care center

Package from Lana!
Sure love her! 

Well first off, we got news that I am being transferred! I'm headed out to who knows where! Haha! we don't find out for until tomorrow when we leave so I'll let ya'll know next week! I have been packing all day and cleaning and doing hair cuts so I have not had much time to email! 

Anyways it has been a wonderful week! Highlight of my week was getting to go with elder Barnes for exchanges in riverside! We got to have a car! Haha but for reals though it was so awesome! We had a day full of service and one lesson get canceled last minute but he told us he wanted to get baptized over the phone after about 2 or 3 years of investigating! He is on date to be baptized for January 20th! That was a miracle!

The Lord's is honestly the best thing, I love it. Even when it's hard, we miss home, our families, and much more especially around the holiday season. Elder Spencer gave a talk on Sunday that felt like it was for me because I needed a simple reminder of the original reason I really wanted to serve. It makes the work so much better. He talked about all that the Lord did for us. Bled from every pore, suffered, was crucified for me, for all of us individually, and because of what he did for me, giving two years of my life, giving every moment I have when I'm at home towards him is not enough. It will never be. But I know that I will build a stronger relationship with him as I diligently serve him. 

Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

I love that scripture and what a better season to remember what he did for us, and to remember to give a little back to our fellow beings and light the world!

Love you guys and I wish you a merry Christmas! 

I hope all is well! I'll let you know how transfers go! 

Love Elder Smoot! 

Mark Austin was in Columbus on a business trip
and guess who he saw?!

Wk 20 - Light the World baby!

Companion: Elder Spencer
Area: Marble Cliff 2

Train at the Library

Alrighty! Well pretty good week! Highlights of my week! One, light the world! Two, temple time! Other than that not much happened! Except I did sleep in my hammock! Probably the best sleep I've got! 

On Saturday the theme of light the world was about giving water because our savior gave us the living water. So we came up with the idea to give out water bottles downtown with other missionaries! We bought and got over 150 water bottles and walked around with them in a wagon to give both water and the living water/salvation! We also had a white board and asked people "I can help others see Christ's light by..." It was so awesome to see people get so happy even when it was freezing and they had to wait for a bus! It was such a great night!

Today for pday we've had a crazy day as usually. We started out doing laundry then had a member named Tom Bower pick us up to go to the temple for Elder Spencer's 18 month mark! It was such a great experience! I always love the temple and I would definitely recommend making time to go asap! Its always worth it!

A little spiritual thought. This week I was reading through 2 Nephi, where Nephi had to run in the wilderness from his own brothers. His elder brothers were out to kill him. The amount of faith it would take to continue to do what's right when your life is on the line! It makes me think, I know I don't have it that hard so any excuse I make for not doing the right thing is invalid. It's that simple, because of what Christ did for us and the example of our prophets, the Bible, book of Mormon, and today. I know I can do what Christ asks me to do on my mission. Even when it's hard, and when I'm discouraged. So no matter what you are going through remember Christ loves you more than you know, and he will help you through it! 

Love you guys! I'm very excited for this Christmas season! 

Remember to serve! Light the World! Always smile and have a great week! 

Love ya'll! 

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 19 - Turkey Bowl!

Companion: Elder Spencer
Area: Marble Cliff 2

At the temple last week with Herbert and Elaina

and Brother Messer

Hey ya'll! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I know we did in the 614! We woke up and president sent an email out earlier that week saying we can play Turkey Bowl! That was probably just about the best news yet! Haha we got to play right outside of the "shoe" (Ohio states stadium) it was such a beautiful sight and playing on turf again was so nice! It was our whole district and the wards we are in, with the OSU elders who get to stay on campus! We had two games going and it was such a good time!

After that we had district meeting! It was probably one of the best ones yet. We talked a lot about addiction recovery and how much of a change it is for our investigators to completely change their lives for some of them. I couldn't help but think of how much of a stud Herbert was. How he was able to stop within a couple weeks after having that habit for so long! Then to not pick it up again! Someone related it to our missions. We sign up to keep all of these rules for two years. Wake up at 6:30am everyday, follow a set schedule be home by 9 and in bed before 10:30pm. Imagine if in order to be member we had to follow that for the rest of our lives. It would be so hard. We can't really know how hard it must be for someone one but it's a good thing God does.

After that we went and got ready for meal number one! We had a member in the Riverside ward invite us over for dinner and service because we didn't have a dinner yet! The Hesslers are the ones who invited us and they are so awesome! Funny family to be around! The food was so good! I'm so glad Mormons cook the same potatoes everywhere! haha! For service we got to help him build a compost for up to 600 bags of leaves over the winter. He's a professional gardener so he goes and collects all the leaves on everyone's yard and puts them in his back yard. We put in over 80 bags in it the first day! I love doing service!  especially when it's fun.

Meal two at Brother Burchett's! Riverside Elders came with us for this one too. We had much more turkey and pie and pretty much went into a food coma and watched some Mormon videos! It was such a fun day!

 

Friday not much exciting happened, except Brother Burchett went Black Friday shopping for me! haha he got me some Hammocks! They are pretty sweet! So that's been fun! haven't been able to find a place in the apartment but I have tried it out! 

Saturday night we went on our exchanges with the ZLs. I switched elder Penny places and went with Elder Curtis to Westland! Elder Curtis is from Bountiful. He's a stud, I definitely learned a lot that day. We taught one family where it was so hard to stay focused! They had a couple kids who distracted one parent at a time! haha it was kinda funny and a good skill to learn I guess! It was also the OSU VS Michigan game so absolutely nobody would answer. We had to get their oil changed so I now know what its like to have a car as a missionary! haha kinda! I'd have to say the biggest thing I learned was just how to be a better missionary all around. In a day to day aspect. We also got to start a fire for some people in their ward so they could have a pioneer experience and they made scones over the fire! It was nice to start a fire again! 

Eating the scones! They had honey all over them!

Sunday we had church of course. We had an investigator there but turns out he lives in Reynoldsburg like two blocks out of our area so we had a lesson with him after church and had those elders come! It was an awesome experience! After we had dinner at the Yearslies! It's so good, it always feels like home there! 

Monday we had a lesson with an amazing returning inactive member who came to church this last sunday. She's a sweet old lady named Vickie. We had a member from one of Elder Spencer's past areas come by the name of Tim! He's such a great guy! He's been a member for 3 years and is so willing to serve! We got to do some more service with the Hesslers and dinner of course. haha then we had another good BOM class with Herbert teaching! it was so good of course!

Tuesday we got to do some service again at the clothing Distribution center. There is some people that got kicked out for being so rude and they are not welcome back! haha funny how people are so rude when you are just trying to help them! 

Anyways I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I'm so grateful for all the people in my my life! My family and friends and all they do for me! You guys are the best! 

Sure do love you all, thanks for being there for me and being an example to me! 

Love ya'll! 

Love Elder Smoot