Wk 14 - What's up??

Tanner posing on a Donkey powered trailer.

Another Donkey photo (No, I won't use the biblical term for this animal).

Elder Smoot doing another Backflip

Tanner and his District in the Sao Paulo MTC.

Elder Smoot and Elder Stewart in the Brazil MTC. Elder Stewart was scheduled to fly out with Elder Smoot, but Visa Delays kept him at the Provo MTC for a while. They finally meet in Brazil.

The Track at the Brazil MTC in Sao Paulo

Area: Parnaiba

Companion: Elder Passarin

IM AN UNCLE!! its so weird to see pictures. It just feels like my mind wont let me beleive it really happened and so everything feels like a dream now! So ill give you the low down about the week real fast and what happened.

Last monday we did the normal and on our way home from the grocery store we say a member and went to go say hi. So we ended up talking for like ten minutes, and she had some friends with her. They were kind of off in the background and they are all about 16ish 17ish i think, and anyways when we were leaving we said bye and shook all their hands and i got to this one girl and she wouldnt let go. It was soooo awkward. But seriously she held on for 30 seconds and then i had to use my other hand to get her to let go. Man i really dont like it but its happened a couple of times and i just dont know what to do! So anyway my comp just kinda let things happen becuase he was mad at the time. Then we got home and played with a spare mattress we had for the rest of Pday. we would surf across the floor on it and just have a little fun in the house.

Tuesday we had the normal district meeting, then went to lunch at a members. It was a lot of fun and i got to play with the guitar they had. That night we went with a couple of guys in the ward to another members house and studied the bible and pretty much how you can bible bash and win. i was pretty much confused the whole time but my comp loves it. So that was actually kind of cool because the guy that was kind of leading the discussion has almost been every religion out there and so he knew it very well.

Wednesday i received my mission tie letters that you thought would be in the mission home when i got there (sure glad we didnt do that!). Those were from conference time... so even though they were old, it was nice to read. For lunch we had lunch at a member named Bruno´s house and he asked me what music i liked... later that day he gave me a CD haha pretty cool. Guess ill see how that is in a couple years. And this night was pretty frustrating because a big group of girls we were teaching all turned down baptism... it was hard for them becuase all their family is in Maranhão and are all catholic so they were here for school and it was too hard for them to change while they were gone.

Thursday i dont remember exactly what happened, but things were going good and then our last house we were at, my comp just lost it again and told me not to talk to him and whatever. I dont know why, but i was just smiling and lovin being there that day, even though my comp lost it... So ya that was an eventful day.

Friday we had splits and i went over with Elder Logan (Beach). We had a good time and man it made me thankful for my area. His has these sandy roads and we dont have any like that and it was even a little bit more poor of an area i think. So the day went on and then elder logan realized that he was missing the cell phone. We started walking back out to the area we were in earlier, which is about 45min walking, and i just said a quick prayer in my head, and seriously within 30 min, the member we were with earlier comes up with the phone. He said he just kept calling and someone finally picked up. I still dont know where it was. So the lesson here is that prayers are answered. Sometimes i think, was that the prayer i said in my head or was it going to happen anyway? I realized its important we recognize the lords hand in all things, so my prayer was answered. And the whole day i spent with Americans! that was pretty cool for a change.

Saturday I came home from my split, because we spend the night at the other house, and i was super happy to be back in my area, and my comp was like way excited to have me back too. We had a really good day and i just was happy, and it makes a big difference in your day. That night there was a couple in our ward getting married so we went and got some cake after and stuff so that was nice.

Sunday was a pretty good day, even though it was fast sunday. I had the opportunity to bless the sacrament and i even bore my testimony! it was kind of hard, but it wasnt bad. I just feel like i dont have a lot of vocabulary right now. I can speak alright, i just feel like im saying the same thing over and over again. The same phrases ya know? but all is well, at least it gets me by.

Today i am a little bit later because my comp wanted to go to the grocery store this morning and then eat at this government owned lunch place that only costs 1 real. It wasnt super good, but it was alright. So now we are emailing and what not.

Thanks so much for the pics of my nephew! he be lookin good like i thought! Congrats Talia and Austin! I am excited to see him in 2012. Good stuff. And i did read some of Taylors letters. It sounds so similar to mine its crazy! And man sometimes the mission seems like its flying, and other times its so slow! but whatever it is, im here till the end.

Well its been real,

Elder Uncle Tanner Smoot