Wk 36 - Hearing the music of the gospel

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Cool little park

Danny boy at church!

District pics

Hey everyone sorry I gotta make this one a little quick so it might be short, this week has been super duper busy but it's been incredible!! 

This past Sunday was sweet! We had Three investigators there, and two less actives that we've been working with since I got here! Danny who is an awesome man but has been really sick and unable to come came and we  sat by him and also our progressing investigators David and Eddie who are also on date for April 14th!! They are awesome and just have to come to church these next two weeks! They have been such a blessing to work with and have strengthened my testimony a ton! At church we taught the class with the sisters and asked a super good question and almost everyone got involved in answering it! It was so cool!!

Spiritual highlight of the week: Shout out to Elder Green for being an absolute stud and following the sprit. We have a super good relationship with a family in the ward who has been struggling with going to church. Thanks to Elder Brumfield we got really close with them and now Elder Green fits right in too. We had dinner with them this week and Elder Green shared the spiritual thought with them. He shared the Mormon message "The music of the Gospel" after a prompting. That video is incredible and if you haven't seen it, please take a few minutes to do so!!! That video really hit the parents and they opened up after that. The spirit was very strong! Follow your spiritual promptings and incredible things are to come!

I love you guys all dearly! Thanks for all you do! Hope ya'll have a wonderful week and a happy easter! 

I would also love to invite you to watch general conference and go into it with a question and pray to be able to find it! 

Love Elder Smoot 

(tagged in this photo by a family that feeds them alot!)

PS-The church is true, I love it. It doesn't get old, right when it seems like it might a new story happens! It's so sweet! You just gotta love it! I just wish everyone could know! This week while reading the book of Mormon I realized how bold the prophets were and how amazing the stories are of baptizing thousands. I keep wondering if I need to be more bold or what? haha Like I've been tempted to just straight up tell  people, " look this is the only way you'll live with your father again, take a chance and listen to our message, don't be stubborn!" haha I love the people and I want the best for them.

Wk 35 - Lean Mean BBQ Machine

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

District meeting

District bowling activity last P-day

Sweet sunset in Ohio

cool pics elder green got of me some how.
guess I'm a model 

zone Activity today

I won the bobbing in the pudding to find 5 gummy bears. 

it was a mess. 

Pretty awesome week this week!! President and Sister Stratford came to the Mansfield ward to speak Sunday. It was one of the best sacrament meetings I've ever been too! Sister Stratford gave a very emotional talk on the atonement, She shared the story about the lady in the movie "Meet the Mormons" the one who moved to Utah. She read out of a talk of hers and it was very touching and true. President's talk was very powerful. He related Alexander the great who had soo much power and land and what not that when he died it was all gone. Didn't matter a ton. But the one who did none of that, and had none of that. The one who's life was serving others, matters to this very day. It was Jesus Christ. He helped people feel loved. He atoned for all of our sins and because he did that, because us as members have that, we need to be sharing it with others. He challenged everyone to get involved with the missionaries and being missionaries. It was awesome! After church we had 3 meals that day. We're stuffed!

We are now having lessons with David and Eddie in the Morant's home and it's amazing! In the first lesson we had at their house we put them both on date for April 14th and he works Sundays but he was like "oh yeah Ill try to get them off!" It was awesome. We hope and pray everything goes as planned. Hopefully we can start doing it in more member's homes.

We decided it'd been sweet to start a basketball tourney at our church building in April to get people to the building. We have already invited a bunch of people. The day we started planning it we were out and about and drove past a park where some kids were playing ball so we stopped and asked if we could play. It was very awkward and it stunk asking but who cares. Anyways, we ended up playing them and Me and Elder Green killed them! hahaha! They were way good players, they just said you make it take it. So we got the ball back a lot and some how we didn't miss very many shots. It was kinda funny but we got them excited about coming to play in the tournament! It should be a good time!!! Elder Green played ball in high school and he's a stud!! I just have to give him the ball. 

The day before we played those guys the weather was way nice!! I was walking around in a short sleeve shirt and we decided to pull out the grill I got from the Hindbaugs in-laws, started up some charcoal and brought our couch out. I marinated some chicken that morning and cooked those up while Elder Green made some rice and we made teriyaki bowls and they were so flipping good! It tasted just like summer and heaven mixed!! hahaha but then it got cold that night and started snowing yesterday night and we woke up with two inches of snow this morning. Gosh dang, and I thought Utah was confused. 

BBQing 

Life is great. I love it out here. Thanks for all you do!

Love you guys! The Book is blue and the Church is True! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 34 - Greenie Elder Green for Saint Patrick's day!

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Right after I met Elder Green

moving brother crawford

Bowling today

I guess I'm pretty much the only missionary in the world that gets to say that and definitely the only Elder in the mission!! haha! We've seen some pretty awesome things this week! 

Studies are long but are always good. With training we have an extra half hour or hour to do some studies. It's so cool to see how much I've changed and learned in just a short time. I remember my training, not having any idea what was going on but now that I've experienced everything it's so cool to get a refresher on it. Kinda take a step back and see how I have been doing as a missionary. 

Elder Green has been awesome! He basically came pretty trained. He has a solid testimony and he's definitely here for the right reasons. I've learned so much from him already! He's from Kuna, Idaho, he played basketball, and baseball in high school. Pday has been a fun time!! 

One miracle this week was when we came back into contact with Phyllis. She's awesome, she reads the book of Mormon almost every day! We had a drop in lesson where she invited us in and we sat down with out preparing anything really. I decided to open up to a random scripture and teach a lesson based on that. It ended up being on the 10 commandments which was funny because she brought it up the time before!! 

Another really spiritual experience we had was with a man named Michael. He's an older gentlemen who can read. We taught him the restoration and read Alma 32 to him. The spirit was very strong and I told Elder Green not to tell anyone that I teared up, but too late now. Elder Green was also able to extent baptism for the first time. It was so powerful! 

My testimony has grown so much this week and my desire to serve keeps on growing! I love this work. I love this Gospel and how true it is! 

Love you guys, hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Smoot!

Wk 33 - Called to Train!

Companion: Elder Brumfield
Area: Mansfield

Been beautiful almost all week til now! A blizzard just hit! 

Basketball tournament Phil then brother Crawfords

Moving the Hinbaugs in laws! 

Selfies during service 

When the ward finds out we ate rabbits!
Haha it was chicken though! 

Pretty crazy week this week and a lot of things happened so I'll try my best to remember it all!! Starting with last week, Thursday we had zone conference! Oh my goodness it was easily one of the best ones I've had! It made me so excited for the work again! We talked a lot about the atonement. This whole week we talked a lot about the atonement. How significant it was what the Lord did for us and how he was the only one capable of doing it. It's amazing! I love it! We also talked a lot about member missionary work! President Stratford gave some statistics on it. 1 in every thousand people that we knock into or talk to get baptized on average. But it keeps going up with using a members name, to having lessons in members home to all the way to 660 out of every 1000 will be baptized if the member introduces someone to the missionaries and facilitates the lessons in their home. Oh my goodness! From .1% to 66% just by members being missionaries! I know what I'm gonna do the rest of my mission to be more successful in the Lord's vineyard!! If you want true happiness, help someone else find it! Bring the missionaries over and start introducing people!! 

The day after zone conference we got a call from a member who was a grandmother to one of our investigators asking us to come help someone move! We were like oh yeah of course! There ended up being Dave and Eddie there! Two of our progressing investigators that we lost contact with but found out there that his phone broke. But it's all good he got a new one and we're back in business all thanks to a member!!

Friday we went over and helped out Brother Crawford again! Mostly small stuff this week besides two huge vanities around his house and up the stairs!!! Both had two sinks and granite counter tops with what felt like about 10, 45#  weights in the bottom of it. 

Saturday was pretty crazy but a way fun day! To start off the morning we went and played some basketball! Clearfork had a 3 on 3 basket ball tournament that we decided to jump in on! We brought bro Crawford and an inactive member named Phil who's a pretty big boy!! It was a double elimination and we beat every team but in the championship game we lost then had to go give blood so we left without finishing! haha oh well! It was way fun! Sister Anderson signed us up to give some blood at the church so we went to do that for the first time for me! It was weird and not as bad as I thought! Haha I successfully gave blood! 

This last Sunday we haven't been able to find investigators all week so Sunday we really needed to find some! So after church we headed straight out to find some gators! Within the first 50 minutes we got all 5 new investigators and we hit the standards! Geeze if that wasn't a miracle, I don't know what is! 

Well Monday night we had just gotten done eating dinner and sharing a spiritual message with the Neundorfs when our phone started ringing and it was President! Elder Smoot, the Lord is calling you to train. Are you ready? Well that was pretty crazy! Guess I'm training and I get a new missionary from the Mtc tomorrow at transfers! Yesterday we had the train the trainer meeting and it was pretty good! I definitely learned a lot and I hope everything goes good! I'm very humbled, nervous, and excited for the trust that the Lord has put in me! I loved being Elder Brumfield's companion and I definitely learned a lot! He's a great missionary and I'm gonna miss him!

Love you guys! You're the best! I'll let you know next week who my next comp is! I get to meet him tomorrow! Have a good week! 

Love Elder Smoot 

We scared the sisters! 

Haha not nice I know but its okay it goes both ways. Much more to come. 

Wk 32 - Week of not much activity

Companion: Elder Brumfield
Area: Mansfield

District Activity! We got to play some wiffel ball and chair soccer

Brother Crawfords basement/man cave! our paint job!
and a huge TV with very nice speakers with a couch that has plug ins in it. 

Well this past week was very slow as far as progress. Time went fast but not much happened. 

Alycia and Andrew came with their three kids to the Blue and Gold Banquet, which means we got to go and it was pretty sweet because dinner came with it! After it we gave Andrew a chapel tour and he seemed to like it! Sadly, something is stopping them from responding to our texts right now so since then we haven't been able to set anything up. The Wynns, Eddie and David, some very solid investigators that we don't know where they live, their phone has either been turned off or they just blocked us. So we hope all is well and they'll be able to get in contact with us again! The work will still go on! 

This P-DAY was pretty fun. We had a district activity where we played wiffel ball! It was so sweet! We also played chair soccer, which is kinda like regular soccer slash dodge ball where the chair is your goal and if your chair gets hit your out until the person that got you out gets out. Yeah kinda hard to explain but shout out to Chelsea's example-some how I won a game with soccer involved! haha! Me and Elder Brumfield went and played disc golf and you wouldn't believe it but some how, some way I hit a hole in one this week! Hallelujah! Church is True! 

One pretty awesome experience that happened this week was in church. Sadly we didn't have anyone end up coming but a few days before, our Bishop had asked us to come in and share the message of the restoration to the priests. There was four of them and our Bishop. The same message we share as our first lesson to almost everyone we come in contact with, it's simple, it's bold, and the spirit is so strong. I love it. I have grown such a strong testimony that Joseph Smith was truly called as a prophet of God and that the same church of Jesus Christ that he had established when he was on this earth has been restored. I shared the whole story of the mirror, Jesus's church that he had was this big and glorious mirror, when He and those who held that authority where taken off the earth, the mirror (the whole truth of the gospel) fell. When a 14 year old prayed to Heavenly Father and the Church was restored, all the pieces of the mirror were brought back together into one beautiful restored mirror. The message is simple yet powerful. I love this work. I love the Gospel. I pray for you all. 

Love ya, have a wonder week! 

Love Elder Smoot!

Wk 31 - Back in the game!

Companion: Elder Brumfield

Area: Mansfield

 

pic with thee Tom Bauer.    Elder Roushe Elder Pantuso. 

Got to go to a baptism in Elder Brumfields 1st area.

801 squad Elder Brumfield and Elder Lamb

eye dr. had cool glasses for free.

Pretty solid week finishing with a BANG!!! Last week we started off pretty slow as in not much was happening. We had a bunch of return appointments and a lot of them fell through. There was even one lady that we tried to stop by twice because she "wasn't there" the original time we had set up to meet. So we came back that night when they said she'd be home. We walked right past her big glass door that we saw her and the first lady that answered sitting there watching TV. Stepped inside the apartment to knock on her front door. The dog started barking and she starts yelling shut up to the dog, never came to the door. We knocked again knowing she wasn't gonna answer and the same thing. So we walk back out and the blinds were shut! hahaha! Good ol' missionary work. It was kinda funny to be honest but whatever, we kept going. 

got soaked on a rainy day

Pdays are pretty fun as well, we started playing disc golf and it's a challenge but I'm finally getting the hang of it I think! haha we went down to Delaware, Ohio for a first zone activity! We played dodge ball and got to watch the "Best two years". One of my absolute favorite movies, and now I understand a lot more of it being on a mission which made it even funnier! hahaha gotta love it. 

Zone Activity!!
1 in dodge ball and a cereal bar!

Not sure if I told you guys but about 2 weeks ago or so we lost contact with Alycia and her boyfriend Andrew after sending over the word of wisdom pamphlet. It sucked, we were so close and she'd come such a long way and we thought we lost her but weren't sure because Layne their son was still coming to cub scouts and he was doing awesome! This last Sunday we both felt strongly that we needed to stop by that night. We hadn't seen her since then and didn't know how they would react. It was very nerve racking to go knock, which sounds stupid because we always are knocking, but we did it anyways. Andrew answered and let us in so we set up a time to meet again on Tuesday night. So last night, we brought a member and her dad who's a convert and we talked a lot about faith. One of my favorite scriptures is in Alma 32. It talks about just trying to trust the Lord. Being humble enough to just do it, "verse 27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

I love how it relates it to a seed. How such a small seed can make a very large tree. Then we talked about how they, having a desire to have faith in a relationship with the Lord, can just try to live the word of wisdom. Pray about it and see how the good Lord will bless them and their family. It was a powerful lesson and the spirit was strong. They seemed to have taken it in very well and we get to see them tonight at the church for a cub scouts banquet and show Andrew around the church because he hasn't been yet. We are very excited.

Anyways that was definitely the highlight of my week! Definitely finished with a bang, 

I love this work! I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary! 

The book is blue the church is true! 

love you guys! have a good week! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 30 - Happy Valentine's Day!

Companion:Elder Brumfield
Area: Mansfield

P day

Zone conference (from a few weeks ago)

Went out to eat at the Mansfield train with the Neundorfs!
Cool place! 

Well hello everyone, this has been a pretty solid week! Kinda slow as far as the work goes but soon to pick up! 

To finish last week we helped a member named bro Crawford start moving into his new house! His whole apartment is his man cave so we painted it with about oh Idk 5 or 6 coats of Grey. Then a stripe around the top that is red! It was dope! It was Ohio State colors! We got done, went and picked up a piano for his wife, and when we got back if looked terrible. We tried to fix it but it wasn't working. He ended up having his wife fix it because we weren't having any luck! Haven't been back since she's fixed it but we'll be over to help remodel that house so I'll get a picture! Haha

We taught David and Eddie again this week and they are so awesome! Its so great and they seem to be so ready for this gospel. They read all the way up to chapter 5 in first Nephi without us asking!  They prayed and they are just so excited and ready. They are already gaining a testimony! We hope and pray all goes well with them.

This last Sunday, we went to a members house, the Hindbaughs, it was their 12th a anniversary and of course you know they invite the elders over for dinner! What sweet people. They have a bunch of kids and so it's crazy. We get there and walking in we see him at the grill so we went over and he goes hey guess what we got some rabbits! On top of 3 dogs and 9 cats. No big deal right?! Yeah we'll they killed 2 rabbits and fed them to us for dinner! What a great anniversary dinner! It was not terrible but it was funny/sad some of the kids were crying before we had to eat them! Haha it was kind of a funny dinner to say the least. (once they fed us road kill deer and they snuck it and didn't say a word to their mother in law and she ate it!)

This week we also had interviews with President Stratford. He sent out a scripture to prepare to learn and read mosiah chapters 2-6. The chapters about king Benjamin and when he addressed his people. I wanted to share something that really hit me. It was sin Mosiah chapter 2: 41. It says "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

Love that verse, it really hit me how simple God's plan is. How he wants us all to have happiness all the time, and how he has provided a simple way for that! To follow his commandments and he will bless you. To have that faith to follow them and you'll be happy. I love God's plan. I know it's for each and everyone of us! I want nothing more than for the people of Ohio to feel that love!

Love you guys. Ya'll are the best! 

Also happy birthday to you Dad! You're the best! 

Love Elder Smoot