Monday, November 28, 2011

Wk 69 - My Week

--olson was pretty tired at lunch.. poor guy

-eu, elder cunha and elder black

--happy thanksgiving

--Batismo Ione

--tchau amaral!
Area: Parnaíba
Companion: Elder Cunha

Well sorry its gonna be quick... well i hope. I dont have a ton of
time. But.....

Tuesday my new comp got here... his name is elder Cunha. he is from
Florianopolis, Santa Catarina... He is a good guy. We got home and hit
the ground runnin after lunch. We visited Raimundo and João, we met
some members, and we went out to drink some Coke... pretty tiring
day... its always a little wierd at the start with a new comp, but you
get used to a new one pretty quick.

Wednesday we met João Paulo and Nayara in the morning.. We had lunch
at Luziano´s restaurant, and jonathas, 15 year old member that got
baptized like 6 months ago, left with us. We visited brendon, who is
progressing well. he has 14 years and his sister has 16. It was a good
visit about the day of the lord and why we go to church and how it
will help us. We met William´s mom, vera, and she was pretty cool..
very religous woman and loves our visits.... so that was cool. we met
Joelda and Elder Cunha got to know her a little and we talked about
having faith means that we act. We then met with Vitor and Ione, if
you remember from last year were trying to get married.... well they
were planning on Thursday to get married finally and ione get
baptized!

Thursday... HAPPY THANKSGIVING. mom thanks for the package.. i did
make the rest of the pies there and i made the mashed potatoes and
stuffing... turned out really good! everyone enjoyed it. We had a good
lunch, we met up with nonato, with raimundo and joão again, then....
we had Ione´s baptism!! it was a memorable baptism... she was truly
someone that was so prepared and knew exactly what she was doing... it
was awesome. We met up with one more person named viviane and she said
she would go to church on sunday... and she did!

Friday the missionaries in Sobral came to parnaíba to have zone
conference with us. Me and elder cunha met up with elder black (from
centerville utah) and elder sessions (from boulder, CO). We drank some
coke with them and they went to the bus station and we went and
visited some people and ended at Teresa cristina at Mayza´s and
savio´s house... it was fun.

Saturday we bet with brendon one last time and he did end up going to
church on sunday, we made a cake for vitor and ione who was baptized
and we had english class on saturday... it was good. we drank some
more coke and made some pasta at home... good day... if you cant tell
my comp loves coca-cola!! haha

Sunday we had a great day at church. Ione got confirmed and i had a
nice suprise... i had to give a talk haha. It was funny. he mentioned
to me that he might call on me, but said it jokingly... then the hour
came and said, our first speaker will be elder smoot.... yeah luckily
i only had to fill in 5 minutes. I just talked about conversion to the
gospel of Jesus Christ... We had lunch, we visited william and his mom
and it was very good. We then went to chagas who invited two people to
church! it was awesome. we had a good 7 investigators at church and it
was a good meeting. We had some dude stop us in the road, some drunk
dude, it was funny. He told me that he had a pistol and everything and
asked if our church accepts assassins... haha i told him i had a
pistol and have shot one too... he stayed quiet then said.. ´are you a
bandit too?´ so everyone here that has a gun is either bandit or
police... so i had to be one or the other... but i just said i was
from out of the country and immediately he became my friend and we
talked about video games and stuff... he wont remember a thing but it
was funny.. we taught joelda again and it went well.... and at night
we went to go fill up a soccer ball at joão victor´s house and it had
a little hole... so the rubber insine stuck out then exploded! it was
so loud. Anyway that was a bang to our last night... and finally... p
day.

WE cleaned this morning and then some! our house is very clean at the
moment. We ate lunch, then played some soccer... decent pday... but im
tired... as always.

Love yall

Monday, November 21, 2011

Wk 68 - My Comp is gone

-last goodbyes to Elder Arrant

-joao paulo got some church clothes

Nayara´s baptism

-Missionaries in parnaiba

-Bruno... we decorated his christmas tree

-view from the top of the hotel

-one last view of the city
Area: Parnaíba
Companion: Elder Arrant

What a week.... mom i am tired too... i don't think it matters where
you are or what you are doing, there is always something to do... it
is exhausting. this week especially cause my comp was getting ready to
go home! and can i say, i miss the snow! that was a good video... i
almost felt cold just watchin it.

Well this week started as usual with the district meeting and stuff...
our lunch was cool this day though. there was a District activity that
was a Feijoada... a type of bean mixed with meat stuff-very common
food here. So we went there and got food there for lunch. There was
soccer, fishing in the river, a cool little shower thing, beach
volleyball court..... and we couldnt do any of it haha. But it was
cool. We met up with teresa cristina there to talk to her a little...
she wanted to get baptized, but it didnt work out because her parents
pretty much said they were gonna get the police to the church to stop
her.... yeah the police are kind of corrupt here, you can bribe them
to do whatever. But it was alright. we ended up making some peanut
butter bars later and gave it to some investigators... we visited
joelda and it was a good visit. It was funny cause she started saying
that maybe she´ll join the church (her sister is a member now) and how
it would be wierd cause she has always been catholic... anyway, we
hardly said anything... she was saying it all alone.. and for many
people it starts like this. she said that she used to think we taught
nonsense, then she started to listening and she is slowly changing...
its cool.

Wednesday we had a member give us money to make lunch... so we made
beans, rice, and chicken.... basic brasilian food haha. and of course
with a coca cola to top it off. I then went on a division with elder
Yorgason... He is in Branch 4. He is a good guy from West Valley. We
fixed his door of his house, taught some people, then taught an
english class... on the way home we grabbed a pastel. Do you know what
that is? i dont know what they have at home anymore... but anyway, it
was a fun division... elder yorgason is a really good guy.

Thursday i went back to my area, we had lunch at bruno´s. We ended up
helping him decorate for christmas by setting up his mini tree... it
was pretty awesome. We then went to William (the 50 cent wannabe) and
his sister italana´s house and talked to them... its funny cause they
said they like it when we come cause they feel different. they keep
calling us to come over and we´ve only gone a couple of times. We then
went to joao paulo and nayara´s house.. so a few weeks ago nayara came
out and answered the door and said that she never wants to get
baptized... i guess when i was on the division she said she wanted to
get baptized saturday! it was crazy.. she just started going to church
on her own, made some friends, and now she wanted to get baptized...
cool. She had a doubt about joseph smith, so we brought the film the
next day. We met up with teresa cristina at bruno´s and made
sandwhiches and watched the legacy. it was a good day.

Friday we went to branch 4 to do a baptismal interview, Elder arrant
is district leader, then we came back and went to lunch at luziano´s
restaurant thing. We had a member named jonathas go with us during the
day to visit beatriz, joao paulo and nayara (where we watched the
restoration film), some random people in the street, and we ended at
joelda´s where we watched the joseph smith movie... it was awesome.
Joelda had a lot of good questions after the movie and after watching
it a couple of times i love the frase at the end that says, `Shall we
not go forth in so great a cause?´ Its just a true statement.... Our
ancestors went through soo much more than us... why cant we just do
our part to keep this work going...

Saturday we got up, cleaned the baptismal font, interviewed nayara,
then they invited us for lunch so we stayed to eat lunch at their
house... we now have a pretty good friendship with the whole fam.
After lunch we had the baptism and we made some cookies for her and it
went well. we had our english class and we ended at irmã lourdes house
to give her a blessing.. good day as well.

Sunday was Elder Arrant´s last day here! we had church in which nayara
was confirmed and arrant confirmed her and i blessed the sacrament...
i was thinking it is pretty cool how many youth we have at home... a
dont know when the last time a missionary ever blessed the sacrament
in our ward haha. We spent the day teaching a little, but mostly
saying good bye to everyone... we saw nonato, raimundo, teresa
cristina, Bruno, mayza, joelda, prado, antonio and osailde (family of
david), irmã lourdes with joao victor and jorge lucas, and joao paulo
with nayara... it was an exhausting day! my comp finished packing up
and i was out.

Today i went to the bus station early with my comp to drop him off!
he´s headed home! so you´ll have to go visit him or something cause i
sent some stuff home with him! he was a great missionary and im gonna
miss serving with him. so i did get a call on my way to the
internet... i will stay here in parnaiba and be a junior comp of Elder
Cunha! he is an awesome guy from the south of brasil so im pretty
excited. he is from a city close to Florianopolis.

Anyway have a good one! love you all.

elder Smoot

Monday, November 14, 2011

Wk 67 - Elder Bednar...


Teresina Brasil Mission

Mayza´s house with Teresa Cristina and a few others

bus ride to Teresina

Helton came to say hi while we stayed overnight in Satélite

We had a quick stop in Campo maior... and as we (with Iverson)
were there i saw Eliane and Raimunda passing on a motorcycle! We took
a quick pic then we had to head back to the bus

bridge in Parnaiba

...just climbing some rocks!
Area: Parnaíba
Companion: Elder Arrant


HAHa man that was awesome to hear about Brett... he´ll do a good job
on the mish. it is pretty tough at the start, but you get used to it
and learn a lot with time. I hope you enjoyed Cali dad... that looked
like a little fun.. and i do know what you talk about when you talked
about the peace you feel in the temple.. in the mtc that really helped
me. Well keep me updated on mike anderson and whatever else is going
on... and i loved the pics! thanks.

This week we had a great experience to see Elder Bednar. We had
district meeting on tuesday to talk about that a little and we focused
on two talks he gave us. one was a leadership conference he did in
2006 called learn by faith or something... the other was a conference
talk called Ask in faith.... They are great talks if you wanna look
them up. Anyway, we went through the daily routine of lunch, then we
went to visit Brendon and Beatriz... they are brother and sister and
are 14 and 16 years old... decent investigators, but they havent gone
to church recently so it has been tough. We then visited Ribamar, a
less active, and we taught him about prayer, scripture study, and
going to church will help him get back on path... we ended up going to
get Nonato, raimundo, and joão and brought them back to ribamar´s
house to watch the joseph smith movie. . it was awesome... Nonato bore
a very simple, but awesome testimony and it was just very...
peaceful.. i dont know. i liked it though. To end the night we went to
Antonio and Osailde´s house and we talked to their son Neto a little.
I guess their daughter is in Teresina living with her boyfriend....
Neto is a free mason and i dont know what else he does... but he has
some pretty insane stories haha. It was a lot of fun there.

Wednesday we visited João paulo and we talked about scripture study...
something that Elder bednar said is that we are preparing our
investigators, as a parent prepares a child, to leave them.. so that
they dont depend on us as their testimony, as we dont depend on our
parents for everything anymore. i just feel that joao paulo isnt there
yet... which makes me nervous. somehow we need to help our
investigators use their own agency to gain a testimony and maintain
it... it´s tough work! But it is good. We had lunch that was far and
then some... then we had to go all the way back. We visited William,
someone that visits our english class, and we asked him if he knew
there was a prophet today, what he would ask him... he said ´i would
probably ask the lottery numbers so i could win.´ Yeah not the
greatest investigator. His idol is 50 cent... and he is a skronny
little man haha cracks me up. he is the opposite of 50 cent. Anyway,
we then went to Mayza´s house to teach Teresa Cristina. We taught a
little bit of english, then we watched the joseph smith movie with
them and a few others. The girls were pretty much crying by the end,
but it was good because mayza talked about her own baptism and how it
helped her.... when we were leaving, teresa said that she wants to get
baptized before elder arrant leaves.... it was awesome! just that she
needed to tell her family who probably wouldnt like it... We had one
more visit with Lester who is about 40, divorced and really wants to
follow christ... he has been to many different churches so we taught
him a little about joseph smith and all.. it went very well.

Thursday was went back to brendon and beatriz to watch the joseph
smith movie with them... so far it has worked everytime. they
understand what is going on a little better and it just brings a good
feeling into the room... awesome movie. We invited them to get
baptized and they said yes... but they still didnt go to seminary, nor
to the church so its gonna take a little more time. We got a call
later from our investigator lester that said he had feelings he
shouldnt talk to us anymore... we just told him to go to church on
sunday and see how he felt after that.

Friday.... 11/11/11. Cool. We tried to visit in the morning... but
they werent home. we pretty much got lunch, came home, went to the bus
station, and headed to teresina. We ended up staying in Satélite for
the night! good memories but i was missin my right hand man elder
bailey.

Saturday we got up early, got all ready and i called up my friend
Helton! He came and said hi and rode the bus with us to the center...
He said that he is going to conference this spring... so he´ll
probably stay at our house FYI. He is an awesome guy and it was good
to catch up with him. We went to the stake building to wait for elder
bednar. I saw a bunch of people that i hadnt seen for awhile... for
example elder robertson, elder martinez, elder larsen, elder
stewart... ah man it was sweet. i´ve made a lot of friends out here.
Elder Bednar and his wife came as well as Elder Godoy and his wife...
and if im not mistaken i saw Rasmussen (the presiding bishopric)
sitting on the stand... he didnt say anything though. It was a great
meeting. We all left feeling a lot better. He talked about those two
talks that he sent to us. He let us ask questions and everything... it
was awesome. he said that teaching is more than just standing up and
talking. we need to listen, observe, discern, and then as guided by
the spirit, we should talk. I dont know how to explain everything he
said, but it was 3 hours of just awesome. We had lunch, then we headed
home on the bus.... We had a quick stop in Campo maior... and as we
were there i saw Eliane and Raimunda passing on a motorcycle! We took
a quick pick then we had to head back to the bus. Made my day! We got
back to parnaiba safe and sound and got home at about 11 30 ish.

sunday i was pretty tired. church was good though. lester ended up
coming and he was very happy. He said he always feels good in the
church and had a good time. Teresa was there as well and was excited
and nervous to tell her parents her decision about baptism... We
talked to joão and Raimundo in their house... they werent able to go
to church so we went to make sure they were good. We also visited
Nonato down there... we started teaching his new friend Moisés... he
seems interested, but most of the people around there have drug
problems so it looks like it might be a little difficult. We had
teresa cristina call us and.... her parents pretty much rejected her.
she was crying on the phone a little and was very sad. I dont know
what to do now cuz her mom doesnt want us there.... We had our next
appointment fall through so we went to another house, but we ended up
just talking to this lady we met in the street. Her relative was there
and was all drunk haha it was funny. he gave me i think 3 cups of
coffee while we were there, Water, and Guaraná Soda, but i was too
scared he spiked it or something that i just handed all these drinks
to the lady we were talking to... she thought it was funny too. the
guy kept giving me head buts and telling us to bless him.... and he
went on doing a bunch of funny things.. never gets old. And that was
the end of our week.

today is my comp, elder arrant, last p day here... so we went to the
center to buy some stuff.... i got some stuff that ill send home with
him so if you want to go to his homecoming, i know its far, but he
will have some stuff for you guys... probably just another hammock and
some other stuff haha. But it will be on the 27th. So, he´s pretty
much the excitement recently... my comp leaves next week and i will
get a new comp during the next week..

Well thanks again for the updates... hope you have a good one.

Love ya,

Elder Tanner Smoot

Monday, November 7, 2011

Wk 66 - Parnaíba....

me and the skull i found

me gabriel, and geovana at church

me and bob marley again!

me and elder arrant on top of a hotel.

halloween with joelda, josieda, and michelle

Area: Parnaíba
Companion: Elder Arrant

well it was a good week here in parnaiba... my comp only has 2 weeks left now!

The start of this week, my comp and elder olson went to teresina, so i
was with elder amaral. On monday we were in my area and we had a
halloween family night. it ended up being pretty awesome! we had them
get some watermelons and we treated them as pumpkins and took
everything out and carved them... it worked out great! we had a lesson
about how the dead will rise again because of the ressurection... it
was fun.

Tuesday we went to elder amaral´s area (still in the same branch). we
visited some people... and at night we had a family night in which we
watched joseph smith, prophet of the restoration.. something like
that... it was really good.

Wednesday i was still with elder amaral, but this time we went to my
area. we actually ate lunch at home... and when you have it at home
you are kinda lazy... but we made rice beans(whats a meal without it!)
mashed potatoes, and eggs... pretty lame. But it was a rough day of
work too... it was a holiday so noone was home! we did talk to
Raimundo, an old less active that came back, and his brother in law
joão. we walked a lot and later talked to our friend prado.. he is
supposed to paint some t shirts for us... but still hasnt. hopefully
we´ll see them this week.

Thursday i was back with my comp... we had lunch at joão paulo´s
house.... we were passing the other day and his mom asked us to come
over for lunch.. so we did! she made us fish... here you just kind of
cook the whole fish, eat the skin, and try to avoid the bones... its
alright though. We visited João and raimundo again and after we talked
to Nonato who is lovin his life after baptism... he always just
answers the door with a big grin now.... it is awesome. we then met a
less active that stopped us in the road... his name is ribamar. and
there are about 4 brothers and sisters of his that are all less
active.. it was pretty cool to meet them... they still havent come
back though.... hopefully next sunday. The rest of the day was pretty
tough... so we stopped and taught this group of girls that always
stops us in the road... so i have to admit. there is something called
snakes here in brasil. they are girls that go after missionaries and
it is insane... like they are shameless and hiss at you and stuff...
every once in a while you can teach them, but most of the time you
just keep going.. cuz its not worth it. they love americans especially
blonde hair blue eyed... ask any missionary that has passed in brasil
about them.

Friday i officially had 1 year and 3 months... kinda crazy but kinda
not... ya know? sometimes it feels like it´ll never end... the next
you think its going way too fast. It was a very long and hard day...
we ended up walking a lot... then a handicap guy took us to his
house... i knew him from the first time i came here... he is about 45
yrs old. we had to agree or he can get really upset. We went and he
has this sweet old lady that takes care of him... and he cusses her
out quite a bit.. its sad. But she gave us food. it was very nice. We
finally got out and went and taught Joelda. We gave her a talk to read
called Ask in Faith by Elder Bednar... from a conference that already
happend... It is a very good talk.. so i hope she reads it. We then
visited Prado to see how he was doin... he has all sorts of medical
problems... so its tough sometimes.

Saturday we had a cool lunch and after the person showed us her
grandma´s workshop of where she makes Hammocks.. they are a lot of
work. very cool, but super expensive. We visited Nonato, and raimundo
again... (they live close to eachother) and then it was time for
english class. i taught the advanced class while my comp went out with
a member and worked. At night we went to mayzas house to eat pizza! it
was awesome.

Sunday was decent. At church o João Paulo and nonato got confirmed. We
had a good lunch then we visited João paulo and his sister was
there... Nayara came to church without us calling.. im hoping what her
brother is doing is influencing her too. We visited Brendon, another
cool investigator, and his sister beatriz. We had a good lesson about
how keeping the commandments will make us happy.. it was good. We then
went down to bernardo, a member, house and talked with another member
that was having some difficulties... anyway, it was a good end to the
week.

I am doing good and just trying to survive out here haha its good
though. My comp only has 2 more weeks and this weekend we are going to
teresina to see elder Bednar! pretty cool huh?

Good luck to yall. love ya