Wk 59 - Weekly happenings

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

Howdy howdy,

To start it off last Thursday we had a really good district Council! We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon! Why do we need to have a testimony of it and how does having a testimony help us in our missionary efforts!? I have to say the spirit was pretty strong! Right after the district council we ended up having to move the apartment out that the elders in Chillicothe used to be in before they closed the area, but we didn't know until right before so we ended up having to move everything out in our suits! It was also very hot! That evening we had a dinner appointment at the Detty's! We love going there! They're from out West so the food always tastes good! Haha!

 

Moving in our suits! 3 floors up! 

Haha promise I really wasn't mad!

Friday, of course to start he day we had Footer Friday for lunch!! For some odd reason this week they were spectacular! After weekly planning we ran up to Chillicothe for interviews with the Stratfords! That's always a good time! After that we headed over to the Cruses to go to the funeral with them. The funeral for the little boy I mentioned last week. I have to say it was the first non Latter day Saint funeral I have been to. Although it was half and half, our branch President conducted. It's sad because many of the people there have no idea about the message of peace that we will see him again. Afterwards we went out for dinner with the Maquindangs and Cruses to McDonald's! Haha it was a good time! 

McDonald's with the fam!

Early morning Saturday we went and helped the Cruses and Maquindangs set up for a yard sale! They had a ton of stuff. Later that day we went and stopped by Nathaniel to see how he was and invited him to church! He's going through a hard time and is very grateful when we go and see him! I hope he comes around sometime soon! That night we had dinner with the Pariseau's! That's always a good time! They're such an awesome family. Their dogs are fun to play with, they have two great danes and a chiwawa! all 1 and under. Haha 

Yard sale helping!

Highlight of Sunday was testimony meeting! The whole branch presidency bore testimony and each was wonderful. The grandfather of the boy who passed was the one that really hit me. He talked about the importance of teaching the gospel to our children. His son had a testimony of the gospel even though he wasn't active but through the experience of what they went through he knew his son would come back. It was really powerful. That night we had dinner with the Plymales and shared a message about abiding in Christ! It was sweet because they even asked for talks and references so they could learn and grow! What great members! 

Monday, in the morning we got to go to a members son's football game! The son is not a member but she wants us to teach him so we went to support him! It was fun to watch! Even though it got called early because of the heat! So we decided to go weed and lay mulch for one member and then scoop poop for another in the heat!! Haha I was dripping wet!! 

Scoopin poop!! For SISTA PLYMALE 

Ralph's sweet workshop! 

We looked like midgets in the window so we took a pic! Haha!

How'd I forget to mention that we got to make
homemade ice cream with Ralph?! 

Tuesday morning we finished off the barn at the Plymales getting all the cow crap outta there. Haha Then we had a meeting for our booth with the Allison's and got a bunch figured out and had a family history class to finish that night!! It was a pretty good week! Oh also we got a couple more tiny turtles this week! I think the big ones are getting smart! Haha!

Favorite chickens of the week

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 58 - The Lord works in mysterious ways

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

We found a chicken on a door!

Elder Nelsons first time to sonic on 50 cent corn dog day! 

Baby turtle

One of the members had a birthday party and had us 

over for dinner! It was a blast! 

Plymale's pond this morning! 

Service! This path was once covered now it's pretty!
 Helped out Ralph because he wanted a path for his walker

Elder Nelson cruising during service!

My turn on the scooter!

His chicken...

Howdy howdy!

Well this week was one for the books! Last Thursday we had an awesome experience. We were on our way to do some service and we're both randomly craving little caesars! So conveniently on our left there was a little caesars! So we stopped and ordered some pizza and wings, the wings are tiny so not even worth it. But after we order this guy walks in and I just kept looking at him and we kept making eye contact. It was almost like I knew him but I knew I didn't know him. He was a very skinny guy who had appeared to have a rough past, all I felt and could feel was love for him. I wanted to help him and I knew I needed to talk to him. I had no idea how because there was a bunch of people in there. Suddenly when he went to order he ordered something and didn't have enough money so I knew that it was my chance because he was a dollar short. So I said I'd pay the rest but then he realized he didn't have time to wait so he got a cheaper one that was hot N ready! So I sat back down and when he was walking out he thanked me. I decide to just ask him right off the bat if we could come by and share a message with him another time. He said yeah please, I need it. Can you come tomorrow? He said that and I was so surprised I was like yeah we can do that. He was staying at a camp ground and didn't know how to explain how to get there and talked quiet and I had a very vague idea of how to get to him but we said we'd be there at 11! The rest of the day we did some service mowing and weeding for another guy.

Friday the miracle continues! We left early so we could find it! We were lost and couldn't find it for about an half our when suddenly I knew the name of the camp ground and we looked it up and we took a wrong exit originally and we ended up finding him and showing up at exactly 11! Don't know how but we went straight to his spot! They live in this little motel type of room but we teach them outside. We had a very, very spiritual lesson! He really opened up and it didn't go as planned, it was better than we could have ever planned it! He was in tears almost the whole time. His wife and neighbor were there and his neighbor wanted us to teach his two boys and it was awesome! Still can't believe we even found him! Thanks to the good Lord for that! 

Saturday it still continues! We had a lesson first thing Saturday morning because he asked us to come back again! Again it was wonderful! He is going through a lot and has to work through a lot before he is baptized. I know he will be but it will be a long time! He was very grateful we came back, he told us it showed him that we care. Hopefully we can Baptize the whole camp ground eventually! Hahaha! After that we went and Mowed and had breakfast for lunch! It was so Heavenly! Brother Wilson makes such good food! 

Sunday was a little hard. First off, they didn't show up for church. Then later that day we had a little boy in the branch pass away which was heart breaking. We're very close to his family and we spent the last couple days trying to help them out and stay positive even though it's very hard. We are definitely praying hard for them.

Monday we were outside of a members house going up for dinner when Nathan, the guy we found, and his wife, pulled over to talk to us and say sorry for not coming to church, they had no gas! They felt bad and asked if we could come back! Which was awesome! Made the day better for sure. 

Tuesday we had a couple lessons and helped rip up carpet and put laminent flooring down at a members! My back hurts today for some odd reason! Haha! Today we had a district activity and we just played a bunch of games and had a blast! 

Well I love you all! Thanks for being awesome! The church is true! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 57 - On to the next one!

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

Zone conference with the Allison's

Howdy howdy, 

Hope ya'll had a great week! We sure did, and well 9 transfers down! It's crazy! Time is pretty precious! First off, I'm staying in Jackson with Elder Nelson! Should be a pretty good time! We got a lot of planning to do because we have a huge festival that the church got and put us missionaries in Jackson over! It's the first year and kind of a trial! So it's all up to us to make it look sweet and professional! Haha oh boy. It's in four weeks and it's all day everyday from the 17th to the 22nd! We have a lot of ideas to make it super successful so hopefully it all will work out as planned! We've spent quite a bit of time planning it this week and I'm pretty stoked I get to stay for it!

Well last Thursday was sick! We had one of the best conferences I've ever been to for sure! There was so many good things I can't even talk about them all! But some of my favorite things, we talked about a "belief window" what we believe is what will happen. If we have negative in our windows then how can we expect all good!? That was a super powerful training by President Stratford! Probably my other favorite part was when we talked about finding the elect! The things we can do as missionaries to find those who are prepared! It was so awesome! I loved it! That took all day Thursday but it was really really powerful! And worth the day for a huge faith and testimony builder! 

Friday was definitely miracle day! We got 5 or so referrals from the referral center at the church has during zone conference so we put it in to go contact all of them! We couldn't get in contact with all of them but most of them we sure did! We found 5 people on Friday and they were really solid people! Two of them weren't referals! We were walking up to a referals house and her neighbors were outside so we went and talked to this lady and she was very welcoming and invited us back. Then her son in law pulled up and was the same way and told us to come back to his place in oak hill! It was awesome! Another referal we tried to contact got kicked out of her dad's house an hour before we got there. Her dad answered the door and told us what happened and said good luck trying go contact her! Haha it was pretty crazy! But it was an amazing day!! 

Saturday, was a huge miracle day too! The highlight for sure was going clear out to this town called Radcliff! It's basically the smallest town I've ever seen and it's just trailers! But every person we met there was sweet! We had two referlas out there and had some great talks! Both said they'd definitely want to see us again and would make it to church not this week but most likely next week! So we'll see! Hope they're serious! good day though!

Sunday we finished it off strong had a good day! Sabbath day is awesome! We ended up finishing with going around to members! We ended up finishing with 7 or 8 new people to teach! It was so sweet! Huge miracle! Life is good!

Monday and Tuesday we did some service for a less active! Found a new person and not much else exciting compared to last week! Just living the life working hard and working to be consecrated missionaries!

Life is good as a missionary! I love the members here in Jackson! They make me feel at home and like they're family! 

Love you all very much and hope ya'll have a splendid week! On to T10! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 56 - Howdy!

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

I'm sorry I rode a horse on my mission! 

Couldn't resist

Exchanges with Elder Michels

buying Harry Potter legos

Legoing

All of the kid meal toys

Howdy howdy,

Hope everyone had a wonderful week cause I know I did out here in Jackson. Starting on Wednesday we went out to Wellston with the senior couple to visit a less active part member family! It was a pretty fun time! They had two adorable puppy pit bull mixed with American bull dogs. They were pretty chunky and hilarious to watch run. I was playing around with one when an older dog decided to nip my butt! Haha Kinda felt like I got grounded from having fun after that! Her husband who isn't a member is a prison guard! He had lots of insane stories he was telling us! I was laughing pretty hard about how crazy they were! But we ended up giving the wife a blessing before we left and she was so grateful. He works every Sunday and they only have one car so it's hard for her to make it to church! Hopefully we can figure out! 

Thursday, we had district council! It was really good! The whole thing was about unity and teaching in unity! It was awesome! After that we just tried to find people! We went and brought flowers to a young lady who was 93 and was the sweetest. We had a member tell us to go visit her so we did and she was awesome! Sweet lady. 

Friday may have been the craziest day for sure. Started off having some service fall through. We did some weekly planning and after we decided we were gonna go garage sale contacting! It was sweet and we passed out a book of Mormon because of it! Plus elder Nelson finished off his McDonald's toys serious of the incredibles except for frozone! But he also got a 40 dollar Lego set for 2 dollars and some missing parts. Haha! but it was Sweet! But randomly in the middle of the day we had a call from a member in Arizona that had a strong accent and he was trying to convince us that we need to go pick up his friend in oak hill and take her to Columbus. It seemed so fishy! But turns out it was legit and he got a hold of our branch President who was out of town and he kept trying to get us to break all sorts of rules! But our branch President asked us to go to the house and see what we could do but by the time we got there they had figured things out. I guess she was in a bad situation and people were trying to break into her house and what not but turns out she was living in her ex husbands house and is a drug addict and her ex husband needed her out because she was on drugs and wouldn't stop. We ended up having the coolest lesson with him and he is awesome! 27 and has two boys! He was really interested and wanted to hear more! So we're going to start meeting with him! It was so cool! Crazy how the Lord works! 

Saturday we mowed the Wilson and their neighbors lawn and had a lesson after. It was a pretty good time. We also gave her a blessing because she was having health issues and is now in a nursing home as of Monday. That night we had a couple solid lessons planned in.. or so we thought. The first one fell through so we went to another one! As we walked up I saw a note on the door the basically said Mormon boys, not interested, have a good life! Hahaha! I got a picture and I'll send it! Haha it was hilarious because we were with the senior couple, Elder Allison was giving me crap because I didn't knock so I was like you can if you want but it's a waste of time if she's gonna say no. So he goes alright if you get in the house next door, who was a former, well go knock it!  So we did and the guy answered goes come on in Elders! Haha This guy was awesome! He was like make yourself at home! Pointed out all his hidden guns in the room, gave us a pop and we had a good time. He's an old truck driver that doesn't get out much and he looked at me and said "oh you're just the right size" haha I was so lost. He was like "follow me!" So we followed him and he tossed me a couple of carhartt things and said take it and wouldn't let me leave without it. He felt bad about not giving elder Nelson anything so he gave him a sweater that is pretty big on him! Haha it's awesome! I didn't even know what to say. He was just like I need this gone!! Haha great day. 

The lovely sign that was left for us! 

Haha the senior couple ended up trying and got chewed out 

because they didn't read the sign! 

Elder Nelson wanted to try my new clothes on! Haha 

On Sunday church was awesome! We got to go to primary and have Elder Nelson read his story of Ammon book! That's always good! We had lunch with the Maquindangs and had dinner/a birthday party that night at the Cruses for Jr. Aka bro Maquindang! I love that family so two meals in one day was awesome! Haha it was a party.

Monday we mowed the Cruses lawn and mowed Jr property for him! It was a awesome! Later on that day we had a lesson with Jorge who is a preacher and it was Sweet! Well the end of it was... it started out as kind of a bash and ended up with bearing testimony. It's crazy how true that old saying is of "you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink!" It reminds me so much of missionary work! We can show scripture promise blessings bear testimony, anything, and what it comes down to is agency. That's why God's plan is perfect! Because he allows us to choose for our selves! 

Yesterday we had some exchanges! I went out to Waverly with Elder Michels! It was a good time! We found three new people for them and had a couple awesome lessons! Definitly love exchanges and learning things from other Elders! It's crazy how much you can learn!

Today we just hung out and did the basics! Haha not much else to do! My comp bought a 60 dollar Harry Potter Lego set, which if you ask me is pretty cool!

love you all! Hope you have a good week! 

Love Elder Smoot 

Wk 55 - Back again!!

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

Car show! Some one had a bug he could draw On!

Morning stretches

mowing in horrible heat!

Ralph let me cruise on his dope scooter! 

Fire chillin

Elder Nelson being Elder Nelson:)

Elder Nelsons kids meal toys this week!! hot dang! 

mirror selfies!

pretty lake we BBQed at!

Howdy howdy!!

So this week I don't have too much time!! But I wanted to do quick highlights of the week; the best parts of my life right now!! 

First off last Thursday was awesome!! We had a powerful district Council which was sweet!! After I got to go on exchanges with Elder Brumfield!!! I love being with that guy!! He goes home the 31st which is gonna suck!!! But we got some work done!! We stopped for some ice cream and some dude that wasn't even a member paid for it!!! What a homie! We were just dressed up and he was like, hey something tells me I need to pay for your ice cream! I didn't even know what to say it was so sweet!! The next morning, we went to go grab some grub and this lady that sat behind walked out of the restaurant and came back in and paid for our food and left!! We didn't know who she was and we didn't know she paid until like four waitresses were gathered around a table looking at us and we over heard one say that our meal got paid for and that we were missionaries. It was so cool because 99 percent of the time you get stared at by people wondering who in the world are they like we're aliens! haha! but it honestly made me so happy and motivated me to be a better representative of Jesus Christ!! We also got to help out on the Plymales farm again and do some fencing! It was pretty fun! 

Sunday was so sweet, had a very spiritual testimony meeting and everything about this branch is getting better. It feels like more than just a few people truly want the branch to grow, it is awesome!! This branch is about to take off! I can just feel it!! 

Blooper of the week real quick, we got our heads chewed off by someone for not mowing their lawn enough because when we went to mow it, right after we started lightning hit. So apparently it's our fault and we made the church look bad!! how awesome!! But hey it's whatever, whats more crap given to us gonna do?!?! Nothing! That's right we'll just get it done Monday!! haha So that's what we did! Then we went and had a fire with Ralph and his nurse and cooked huge hot dogs and huge marshmellows!!! It was a good time!! This week we also got to help put up a bunch of chain link fence for the Pariseaus!! Ate at their house after and played some cards and had a spiritual family night over there! I love that family so much!! They are awesome!!

 this is what I get when I leave my tablet at their house after dinner!! haha!

Also yesterday I had an exchange with Elder Coon!! It was a fun time!! We found probably the coolest person yesterday! She seemed pretty interested and she rides dirt bikes!! It was awesome. We shared some scriptures out of the book of Mormon and she completely agreed! It was sweet! 

Today we had a fun district activity!! Had a BBQ by a pretty lake and play corn hole and ultimate Frisbee!! Such a blast! Also, me and Elder Allison won the corn hole tournament!! 

Well love you all! I'm so grateful for you!! Hope you had a great week and have a better one this week!

Love Elder Smoot! 

Wk 54: All sorts of WILD'N

Companion: Elder Nelson
Area: Jackson

My first fish of the day!!
Felt so good to get to use a fly rod again!!

Elder Nelson's first fish!
Both large mouth bass!

Two red wing sun fish I believe
(At least that's what he said!)

The fly rod I got to use!

Fish number 14

& 15 on the day!

Elder Nelson & I! He got 4!!

Any fly that gets eaten up like this and is that lucky
deserves a special place on the hat!!

Howdy howdy!! 

Wow, is all I can say about this week! We had just about every up and down that comes with missionary work. So, starting with last Thursday, we had district council right off the bat which went really well, after we had a pretty cool, I guess you could say, planning meeting with us and the Senior couple, Elder and Sister Allison. We came up with a lot of solutions and ideas to help the Jackson Branch grow. After that we went to the Orton's for some dinner and half way through we started talking about coordination with the senior couple and we just decided to run to the Church right then and there!! The coordination was awesome! President Orton is a stud and has a strong desire to grow the branch. We ended up having to leave a little  early because we had another dinner appointment down in Oak Hill with the Detty's!!! I had never gotten the chance to really know them but when we walked in their house I knew it was gonna be a great time because they had a bunch of cowboy stuff around the walls!! It turned out to be one of the best nights!! We ate amazing food and then had a huge nerf battle with their two boys and the dad!! haha! I forgot how much fun nerf can be!! 

Friday was sweet as well. We got to go help the Plymale's on the farm. We carried around a bunch of stuff for them and even got to bring a bench down to their new dock, which is legit!! The best part was when we got to bring in some cattle and sort them all through the chutes to give them all some meds! That was a good time!! After they took us to Taco Bell and we had a great talk! The Plymales are sweet! After we had a conference call and got our weekly planning done! For dinner we got to go do footer Friday with the Cruse family!! 

Saturday was a long but good day!! In the morning we went with Elder Allison to stop by a gentlemen named Michael they had found a couple days before. We went over there with lawn mowers because we knew his mower was broken and he needed his lawn cut. So we knocked and noone answered. We kinda sat around for a minute checking out his mower because he asked Elder Allison if he knew how to fix it. When walking down the street comes Michael! He was so happy we were there and we got right on his lawn. Me and Michael mowed at the same time while my comp and Elder Allison watched then switched us later on. So I went and talked to Michael. By the end of the conversation he had opened up so much and was so ready to change. He has a lot of challenges to get through but he committed to a date the first time meeting him! It was so sweet! It blew Elder Nelson's mind when we left! We also got to talk to one of his friends for a while who was going through a hard time which was awesome but said at the end he wasn't super interested right now. Later on that evening we stopped by a guy named Matt who is a pretty sweet guy! He loves rebuilding cars and had a pretty sweet car he showed us. After this day we had a bunch of people who said they would be at church so we were stoked! 

Sunday was good but a little rough because 0 people came to church and we had so many say they would! Church was still good regardless. After we gave Ralph the sacrament. Then had an amazing dinner at the Maquidang's with the Cruses and a member from the Chillicothe ward who is a Philippino also and brought Korean BBQ! It was quite tasty! Elder Nelson shared his children's book about Ammon cutting off the arms of the bad guys who where scattering and trying to take the flocks. Except it was funny because he made his flocks of chickens rather than sheep!! The pictures were pretty awesome too!! 

Monday, the highlight was definitely spent with the Pariseaus! They're so awesome!! We did service for them later on in the day our at their farm! They have a bunch of goats, chickens, dogs, ducks, and all that good stuff. We helped clean up a bunch of stuff, shoveled a bunch of gravel, ripped like four things out of the ground which were a pain! My companion could have helped a little more had he not been so distracted trying to catch and hold chickens! He got to hold his first chicken that day! haha! After they gave us some pizza and we got to have family night with them! That was the best!!! We played phase 10!!! Sister Pariseau got like 3 Phases ahead of everyone right off the bat so of course I started doing anything I could to stop her, and I skipped her like 4 times in a row and she threw a bottle or two  or four at me and started chasing me as a joke!! haha! It was so funny!! It some how got me in first and her almost in last so it was totally worth it!! hahaha That was such a  good time! !

Elder Nelson and his 'hairy headed chicken'-
as he called it

He got up but wouldn't come back down!
You can see the dog through he stairs! 

The other dog was barking while lying down!!
haha! huge threat!

Tuesday was also a pretty darn good day!! We got a list of people who no one knows and they wanted to clear up the records so we are trying to contact them!! The first house we went to was out in the middle of no where!! We went up the driveway and this house was sick!! It had a huge garage but they also had an outdoor bar which is just the thing you want to see at a members... Oh, and two dogs that were barking their heads off!! So we slowly got out, trying to calm the dogs down and eventually one went and hid under the front porch, and the other wouldn't stop but it layed down on the front porch so we figured they didn't care, kinda wrong! My comp was flipping out that the one under the porch that we could see was waiting to bite him as he walked up the stairs, after about ten minutes of telling him he'll be fine he stepped right next to the dogs face, even though he had about 4 feet both ways to go, and it nibbles twice on his foot and made him freak out!! He barely got his foot so right away we both started dying laughing and he was like I knew it!! haha! After driving to find more members we ended up passing someone's house we've been trying to teach and I've wanted to stop by for a long while. Her name's Lisa and I talked about her a while back. But we stopped in and had an awesome conversation with her and talked more about our beliefs and she loved them!! Hope she can commit and just try to see what it's really like!! We drove back to Jackson after that and were going to stop by a referral, when driving past Walmart in the middle of the road we see a box turtle trying to cross, about get hit! So we pulled over and remember Nephi, the Pariseaus son had lost his turtle and wanted another one so we grabbed it and called his mom and she was like, yeah bring it over!! So we made his day!! He was so happy! After that we got a referral from a member that we were going to stop by named Laura. They asked if we could get flowers and bring them so we did and turns out Laura is a 93 year old widow who is the sweetest lady!!! She was getting ready to go to bed so she invited us back!! It was such and awesome time meeting her!!! 

Nephi and his TURTLE we found him!

Elder Nelson does chicken time every night after 9!
He asked me what I wanted this week and he did it! It was sweet!

Well over all the week was pretty awesome!! I definitely have a lot to be grateful for!! Even though it can definitely be hard and frustrating at times, you gotta just stay positive!! 

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!! 

Love Elder Smoot