Wk 49 - Land of the Man and Back!

Companion: Elder Blake
Area: Jackson

Baptism!

Alycia's baptism!

Tom at the baptism

Saw Bishop Talaga!

Got to stop by the Vidras! 

Swagging with Tom!

Dinner

Got 'em

Cows at Plymales! 

Elder Blake got a little tired of not catching anything 

but he got one eventually! Haha jk jk 

Plymales pond! 

Service on Friday at the Plymales!
It was so dope! 

Me and Zion at the fireside,
he took elder Blake's phone and took a pic haha! 

Another pretty exciting week here in Jackson!! I feel like everything on the Mission is just crazy but you just gotta love it! 

Thursday! We had a pretty good district meeting that basically was all about the Brothers cracking down and clarifying all the rules in the handbook! It was pretty shocking and crazy! It's all good though, anything to find more and teach more people about the wonderful gospel! It made for a long day driving over an hour and forty five minutes or so then sitting in a meeting all day and getting home about 10 pm! It was crazy! We did get to go out to tgi Fridays and got all you can eat appetizers for Elder Mitchel's Birthday! That was so good! 

Friday, we had a great lesson with Cheyenne and the Spirit was very strong! At the end we both felt prompted to ask her if she wanted a blessing and she got so excited and was like yes please!! So we gave her a blessing and it was pretty awesome! 

Saturday was a day to go down in history! I got to go on another exchange with Elder Brumfield and go back to Mansfield which was a very long drive but we got to spend time with the Tom Bower!! We got to go attend Alycia and Layne's baptism!! We both spoke too! It was so cool and good to be back for a while! Tom took us out to Der Dutchmans all you can eat restaurant which is straight homemade Amish food! It was very good! 

Sunday! Sadly Cheyenne didn't show up to church or her interview so we're gonna have to push her baptism back. We only had one investigator come to church and that's because of Ralph, which was sweet!! He's an older gentlemen and he has home assistance! So he brought his nurse! Before church they watched Motab, Ralph gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so excited to be there and Ralph secretly told us to come over after church and teach her! It was legit! So we did and she was awesome! But she lives out of the mission so we're gonna stay in contact and refer her over! 

Monday! We mow lawns for a less active and 2 of their neighbors and the members we borrow mowers from once a week! We ended up helping a young family mow theirs as well! They were out mowing so we ran over and helped them! They were awesome! So we ended up finding 3 new investigators doing service! It was sweet! 

Tuesday we had exchanges with Chillicothe 1 Elders again! Elder Dover was my comp for the day and we went out and had a blast! It was his last exchange on the mission! We got 3 very solid investigators that day! One lady was clear out in the middle of no where but look where the spirit brings you! She was so happy we came and she opened right up and is excited to meet with us! Hopefully her husband, who is a cop, is just as cool and interested as well! 

Today was legit! We went out to the Plymales to fish! I caught 3 pretty small ones! haha Large mouth and two blue gills! Were going back out to set some hooks for some snapping turtles so hopefully we catch them!! Apparently he's caught some up to about 37 lbs in his pond so we're hoping we do the same! 

Spiritual thought! Sunday night we had a wonderful quad stake fireside by Diana Holsier! My goodness it was so good! All about member missionary work! One meeting for the missionaries and the second was for members and missionaries!! YOU HAVE THE RESTORED GOSPEL!! YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU!! WHY WOULD YOU EVER KEEP THAT FROM ANY LOVED ONES?!?!  She made member missionary work seem so easy! And it is, but it's very hard and awkward at first! Just find ways to invite or even just talk about what you believe, share a simple testimony! Your life will change forever! 

Love ya'll very much!

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 48 - Week was literally LIT

Companion: Elder Blake
Area: Jackson

          Tacoma time after a storm

Just talking to some homies wanting for our food at rallys! 

Famous Jackson Bubble 

Morning Time

Service

grilling in a rain storm

Facebook finding

Hikin'!

Our pday morning hike  

Hey Y'all!

This week was absolutely insane! I can't even comprehend much of what has happened. To start off I guess I will share the miracle that we have experienced. 

So as a mission we had been promised that each companionship would be able to baptize before July 1st or the mission change if and only if we worked hard and were obedient. We had not been able to find anyone yet and it's basically been very very stressful. We needed someone who had already been to church because it's a requirement to go to church at least three times before baptism. On Thursday we started the day out with a wonderful district meeting  We had our interviews with President Stratford later in the afternoon around dinner so we spend the whole day doing studies and Facebook finding in Chilicothe to save miles and over an hour of driving. We knew that afterwards we didn't have a whole lot of time to go out and teach and find but we felt we needed to go to a place in our area called McArthur. It is at the furthest point of our area but we felt it was the right place. So we go and talk with people in our area book who had been to church because we had 2 Sundays left before June 30th! After talking to or trying by everyone in the books with no luck in the actual town, there was one family who had investigated in the past and they were even further but we just decided, you know, we're already up here might as well visit them. So we did. We went to find the Dad who had been to church 10 times and we ended up finding Cheyenne, his fiance who had been 2 times in the past!!! She was a former but is so ready for the gospel. We were able to teach her and apparently she has had some dark events happening in her life and feels like baptism is the way to go. She came to church and is now going to be baptized on June 30th. She was able to answer most the questions and understand everything that was even taught in gospel principles. We are very excited for her! I don't know if I've ever seen anyone so willing to change their life around that fast! It was such a miracle!!! 

Friday, We got a call to do some service for a member we've been dying to help! He's a dope Filipino guy who has about 8 acres and mows half of it! He took us out to his property and I got to mow half of it! It was so sweet and turned out to be a pretty long day and needless to say I got pretty burnt! haha!

Also this week we went on exchanges with two of the sets of Elders in our District. Saturday I went with Elder Klinkowski up in Chillicothe! He's form Cache Valley. He's such a sweet guy! I Literally only knew one Elder in my district before I got here but now I'm getting to know them all and they are so sweet! I love them so much! I learned a ton from Elder Klinkowski! He's such a stud and only in his training! That day we met a ton of people and found a couple of investigators. He had been struggling with being happy because of homesickness and that day after we talked to someone he was so happy and said this right here is the most joy I've felt in my mission! That made me soo happy! 

Sunday was a day of Miracles!! We had Cheyenne show up to church and one other potential investigator! My goodness we thought that was incredible because this area was very slow and hasn't seen anything in a long time! We also had about 3 or 4 less active families show up that we've been working with! It was so crazy and a great father's day! Happy Father's day Dad! 

Monday, we did some service at the food pantry and took care of some things. It wasn't too eventful but it was a good day. 

Tuesday was exchanges with Elder Michels! He's from Arizona! Pretty sweet guy and he's hilarious! It was such a fun day in Jackson! We doubled in here so we got to go do service and some Facebook finding with Elder Blake and Elder Coon. We ate like kings that day. We had pancakes for breakfast, pizza hut buffet for lunch, which is very good. Didn't even know they had that! Then dinner we grilling out and a crazy thunder storm! Was crazy but we were covered by our porch! We marinated a huge sirloin in gatorade and BBQ sauce! It turned out incredible! Then had some sonic half off shakes for dessert!

Today we went for a beautiful hike with those Elders and got everything done! It's been a sweet day!

Well this week we have been really focusing on faith and that if we even have the faith of just a Mustard seed anything can happen. I know this to be true but we also need to have patience for when we have patience we are able to see what God does with our faith. I've definitely learned from this. This goal was very humbling and while praying to know if we could really do this I just felt an overwhelming feeling that I just needed to trust the Lord, leave it in his hands! He's got our backs! Man has he ever had our backs this week! 

I hoe you all have a great week! I love you all and hope you know that! 

The Lord loves you and knows you! Trust Him and have faith in Him! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 47 - Jackson

Compaion: Elder Blake
Area: Jackson

Elder Bond and Elder Goode 

Came out with these two and they are awesome! Love them to death! 

They are headed down to the Cincinnati mission! 

Got to see them at the District leader Meeting.

Beautiful Jackson and the almost mountains.

My flask got frozen and Elder Blake thought it was hilarious! Haha!

Stopped by a members shop! 

Golfing!
(My tag is on my pocket no worries.)

Elder Blake made cinnamon rolls! 

Taco pics in our driveway! 

He's still hanging out with us! 

Our humble abode

Howdy! This week was quite insane! Not because anything super crazy happened but just crazy busy and a lot of ups and downs and all the way arounds! Wednesday night, we met some pretty cool people! A couple young families that hopefully progress! 

Thursday, I had a district leader meeting clear in Powell so we drove and picked up another Elder and went on exchanges and drove to the meeting! I learned a ton and felt so motivated after to be a good District leader! All in all we drove about 4 to 4 and a half hours so it was quite a day! After 9 we gave the Chillicothe 3 Elders a call to see how their day was and no answer, around 10 they gave us a call back saying they were checking out of the hospital with President and Sister Stratford. They got in an accident, the driver blacked out and drove into a ditch! It was crazy! They both got mild concussions but they're fine now so that's good!

Friday was my first district meeting! I planned a few days ahead and went back to look and all my notes were gone! So I replanned of what I remember and right as I finished they got erased off my notes in my tablet again! So I used paper the 3rd time so that was crazy and I kinda got nervous because of that, then as we were walking in the assistants and the zone leaders came pulling in to surprise visit! We knew the zls were coming but 2 in 1? That never happens! Haha! Well it ended up turning out really good and I learned so much! It was a good meeting! That night we had a meeting and dinner with the branch president and family! He's legit! Haha

Saturday, we got to mow a lawn for a less active and their two neighbors! The week before while mowing, Elder Blake's mower ran out of gas so we asked them and they gave us a gas can, so he put it right in and kept mowing. We'll 5 minutes later the mower died and wouldn't start so I went and checked the gas and it was the mixed gas! We were like oh shoot were done for. Because we used members mowers and we mow their's too! Too bad we don't get paid or we'd be rich! Haha but I finished with my mower and we got it all drained out in hopes of it clearing out we let it dry out for a week and we're gonna put regular gas back in and see if it works. Come last Saturday we tried it and it started right up and worked like a dime! Miracles! Haha!

Sunday was a good day! Planned my next district meeting and had dinner at a Members and let me tell you, fillipino food is soo good! We have 4 members that moved here from the Philippines a while back and they're so sweet! They feed us once a week! 

Monday we tried finding formers all day, and we went to the southern part of our area and no luck! 

Tuesday, same as Monday but we found two new people who lived in a formers home and moved in a while back! 

Today! We went to the driving range with our next door neighbor and it was awesome! Sweet guy! 

Anyways! Love y'all so much! Thanks for all you do! 

Keep The Lord in your heart at all times! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 46 - Jackson intro.

Companion: Elder Blake
Area: Jackson

Exchanges with Elder Brumfield!

Taco time!

Was definitely a good throw back! 

The drive on exchanges

This sweet member families kid!
We blew up his 6 ft. Ball! It took a while! 

Chinese Buffet

Hey ya'll! This past week has been pretty crazy!! An emotional roller Coaster with being transferred but it'll all be good because it's the Lord's plan and this is where he wants me! It was hard to say bye to the people I've been working with for the past 6 months but the nice thing is I'll get to go to their baptisms most likely! But I've been dreaming of coming to Jackson since I got here because I found out on the ride form the airport that there was one truck in the mission and it was a Tacoma! So desires and prayers are heard!! haha !I get to drive the taco!! We even get to off road because people live clear down dirt roads! It's the coolest area!!!

Elder Blake is my new comp!! He's a great guy! We definitely aren't the same and it was a little weird at first but we're starting to get along quite well and I gotta feeling it's gonna be a great transfer!! 

Thursday we had dinner with our Branch President and his family and they're awesome! Amazing people that basically do everything for the branch as I've found out. He's President and she's the primary president. Awesome, very young couple. 

Friday! We did a lot of Planning and administrative stuff for the day, than night time came around and we had a pretty cool experience! Sister and President Orton gave us a referral of a close friend and said to make sure they didn't know they sent us! So we showed up to the house and the Dad was outside and came up to us and was like gosh I thought you were JWs! hahah! But asked what he could do for us and so we started to share the message of the restoration. At first he was like nah, but then at the end he goes, "I'll ask my wife what she thinks and who knows maybe you'll see me at your church in a couple of weeks! It was sweet! But there's more!! We get a text from Sister Orton of a screen of the people we just met saying that we stopped by. We were like sweet! Well, at least they know how to find us again!! 

So we kept going then we got a call from the zone leaders saying that we needed to come up to their apartment asap, which is an hour and a half away! I guess they had something come up the day we planned so we ran up there and when we got there we got like 12 screen shots of the people we just met asking Sister Orton about the gospel!! So now we have dinner at the Ortons tomorrow with the family!! It was so crazy what member missionary work can do!! We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Saturday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders! Elder Brumfield and Elder Morse!! It was a party! I got to spend the day with Elder Brumfield and boy oh boy that was a blast from the past! It felt like we were the same people but we grew a lot and became better missionaries and it was so cool to feel and see the change in such a short time!! Love that guy, it was a great time!! 

Sunday we drove back to Jackson early in the morning to go to church! Turns out there's only about 40 active members in the branch and they all branch out of about 4 families!! Great people! Should be a good time! We also gave a member the sacrament after who is in home health care. He was a sweet Ol man who has such a great spirit! That night we had an amazing dinner!!! There's a Phillipino family in the ward and they had us and some extended family over and we got to eat some amazing Phillipino food!! It was so good! The family is so awesome and it was so awesome to hang out with them for a little bit! 

Monday, we worked our tails off trying to find people. We got to see Ralph again and helped him go and pick up a recliner and set it up for him and he was so happy! It was awesome!! That night I met the investigator who's on date but sadly it might have to be pushed back because she's going through some things! 

Tuesday we continued to work hard and found a little success with one new investigator! Hopefully they will progress! Not much else just trying to go by a bunch a people!

Well all we did today was clean and shop eat and chilled at the church! The church is very small and doesn't even have a gym! So that's weird! 

Well, things should hopefully be picking up! We'll stay busy and have a good time! 

Love ya'll! Have a wonderful week! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 45 - Goodbye land of the Man!

Companion: Elder Green
Area: Mansfield

Goodbye to the Andersons

Goodbye to the Neundorfs

Goodbye Elder Olson

Service for the Crawfords

The Parade

We eat like kings! Haha!Tgi Fridays!
Got all you can eat wings! The members are awesome!

Post by the Kecks: 

Always a great day with Elder Smoot and Elder Green. 

Thank you both so much for all the service you give us!

Well my time is ticking and it's ticking fast! Pretty good week this week and it's just been a drag leading up to transfers because I knew time was coming to an end here! I really didn't want to leave. Starting last Thursday we had a pretty good day, we gotta play more basketball with some investigators that night and it's turning out pretty dang successful! Who knew we'd get work done and have a ton of fun!? Hahah! The people we keep inviting are bringing more and more friends who have began to be open to our message! Gives us lots of teaching opportunities! It's awesome! 

Friday! We got weekly planning done in the morning then went to our "dinner" appointment for some incredible breakfast food for lunch! Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, orange juice! Man, I was stuffed, and did I mention chocolate chip pancakes?! My favorite! Haha! Then we finally finished working on their mower and it ran so dang good after!

Saturday we got to play some more ball in the morning after doing highway clean up with the Clearfork ward. That was pretty crazy and gross but we still had a partay! 

Saturday night! Saturday was one legit night! We needed three more new investigators to hit the Standards 5 weeks in a row which is pretty hard! So we prayed for a miracle! We went to contact a referral and we decided we needed to park a road over and walk to contact some people outside playing giant jenga! So we walked up and they were drinking beers and all that good stuff and playing music and were kinda offish at first but then we started to really connect because we asked them some good questions! Eventually they started really talking and opening up and asked us to hang out for a while and chill with them so we could talk! The mother of the house was undefeated at giant jenga at this point and challenged me to play her. I think I got like four Grey hairs while playing because we got so far we had to stand on a dang table! I ended up winning- so they went back to their original colors! Phew! She was pretty up set and she wouldn't put a lesson on the line! I said if I win we get to share a message with you and she said no! Haha!it was pretty funny! Then we played four games of corn hole and of course we won all four! But because we were there more and more people kept coming and we got two new investigators by 9 o'clock and they're pretty solid! So of course we left at nine and thought we better hurry to contact this referral and as we walked to our car a street over from his house he was like hey are you the missionaries and were like yes we sure are! He was sitting in a neighbors driveway talking and we got a new gator out of him! If we didn't park over a street we never would have met him that night! We were so pumped! Amazing night! 

Monday, or Memorial day was pretty awesome! We had a city parade we went to and hung out with people! We saw Alycia and it was good to see her again but also very awkward. We're happy her son is still in boy scouts because that's what saved her last time! We got to help David out with his house he's rebuilding. Helped make a floor for his shed! That night we got to go to a graduation party and play volleyball and badminton with some nonmembers and members! It was sweet! 

Tuesday, we got to do some service for the Vidras and had dinner at the Crawfords! That was basically the highlights! Haha still a great day though! Night time after nine we got a call from President Stratford and I guess the Lord wants me to be a district leader now and I am being transferred to Jackson, Ohio! My dream area! Haha! It's down south in the real country! I've wanted to go there since I got here because they have a Tacoma and they live in a house! How sweet is that!? Haha! that'll be an experience and I gotta learn a lot so we'll keep ya'll posted!

One last pday! Did some hair cutting and spent some time with the clearfork elders! Gotta rope the dummy and had a great day! Sad it's the last but the Lord needs me somewhere else!

Love y'all so much! Hope the week was and will be good! 

Love Elder Smoot