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| apartment in Teresina |
Companion: Elder Lima
hey thanks for the emails this week... im sure glad jenna is ok. Let
me know if you hear anything else about the situation. It´s really a
bummer that it happened, but really mistakes happen and it sure wasnt
on purpose. That´s one of my biggest challenges is to let things like
this go, but you just gotta pick yourself up, brush off the dirt, and
keep on moving forward. Good to hear that Jade is doin good and Tayton
is in gear for baseball.. hopefully ill be there to see a few games
when i get back. So this week was... kinda difficult. but we are still
alive and healthy so i got nothing to complain about.
Tuesday we did not have district meeting..... one of the other elders
(elder mamani from bolivia) was transfered so he had to have time to
pack the bags... we had an interesting day. we had a member come with
us whose name is george. he is 18, but has a lot of troubles.. he
lived way out in the country with his mom for a while so he is way
behind in school.. but he´s kinda funny.... Anyway, it was a tough day because
really none of our investigators are progressing to well... the ones
that are, are always gone or live far away. so we took him and taught
some less actives and recent converts and made a lot of contacts,
which is hard as well because the missionaries have years here in this
area and all of the people know how to get out of a conversasion and
nobody is interested because they have already met with the
missionaries... ugh it has been a tough week.
Wednesday was talias birthday right? happy b day tal! We had a better
day.. we had a visit with a kid named mateus.. he is 15 and has known
the church for a couple of years. his aunt lives with him and hasnt
gone to church for 5 years. but he has gone to seminary and likes the
church... just his mom didnt let him get baptized yet... We had the
group of members come with us again.. we visited leonardo and larisse
who are doing well.. we marked their day for baptism on the 4th....
that´s if they get an answer that this is the church of god... im
hopin they will. We then had an interesting experience talking to a
girl named Manoela... she doesnt really believe in anything and thinks
there is a God... so it was a lot different then teaching a normal
brasilian who is die hard for the bible and what not... but it was a
good conversation, but very i dont know... wierd? not sure thats the
right word, but she asked for us to come back so thats always good. We
then were passin in the street in the front of Fernando´s house... he
was in his front room holding a box of matches and sweating... we
taught him the word of wisdom the night before, and i dont know what
is going on but i think we got to him a little bit.. though he didnt
go to church on sunday so its hard for him to progress. But that night
we taught him the power of the scriptures.. i just remembered that
primary music of scripture power keeps us safe from sin... and its
true. they are inspired words from inspired men to invite the spirit
into our lives so we have the power to resist temptation... that is
something that i learned on my mission.
Thursday we had our weekly planning as usual... its 2 hours of just
writing and talking.. i dont even know how we do it, but im still doin
it a year and some months later. Our lunch fell through and so we had
to go buy stuff... we later visited a man who is dating a single mom
in the ward. he is a good guy named Valdeir, and he likes the church
and believes its doctrine, but he does not know yet that it is THE
only true church and he said that was very strange to him that the
church would say that.... and it really is a strong saying, but it is
the truth. It is tough to believe, but it is the only one that has the
fullness of the gospel. At night we were supposed to meet up with the
ward mission leader... but he didnt show up. This week was full of
things not workin as planned.
Friday we had a cool lesson with Ana Carine, a recent convert, who
likes to study english. So we grabbed two liahona magazines and one
was english the other portugues and we read them together... different
but good. We passed by leonardo and larisse´s house where we taught
the plan of salvation. The plan really makes sense... like i dont know
how a person could be satisfied thinking that life ended at death...
it just doesnt sit right for me! i need something more. That is
another reason why im on the mission. Knowing the plan of salvation is
a huge blessing... so count your many blessings. It really would be
sad to not know the truth about this stuff... and its even sader that
hardly anyone has a heart open enough to hear and accept it.
Saturday we decided that things werent going to well and that we
needed to fast..... so after lunch we started and the day was pretty
horrible. It was a long day and the sun was hot. Hardly anyone was
home and there were a lot of people out drinking and yeah... we passed
in about 15 houses and only 3 or 4 were home or let us in. Im telling
you that it was pretty tough. I had a headache and i was thirsty, but
i know that the lord is by me every step of the way and that he passed
through worse... who knows. maybe i was just payin off a few of my
mess ups. I just know that the church is true and as long as im doin
my best, thats all i can do and thats all the lord expects of me.
Sunday. For lunch the member wasnt going to be home, so he dropped off
a pizza for us to cook.... we made it and it was pretty good. we then
went to talk with mateus and we asked his mom if he could go to church
with us and she let him... then we talked to fernando who said he was
going to go with his family, then last minute dropped out... I dont
know what to do. But church was good and once again president was
there, but sister dias wasnt. Anyway we had a good meeting we were
leaving and we were walking mateus and his brother gabriel home, and
president said, elder you need to get to know his family and bring
them to church... yeah that was the cherry on top to my awesome week.
We do know his family and he lives with just his mom who knows the
church very well, and his grandparents... It was a tough week, but im
still alive. hopefully we can get our baptisms in on saturday and get
the area moving.. also next week the ward is dividing so its gonna be
a ride.
hope all is well at home... i know this week was hard, but dont worry
about me, without the tough weeks, the good weeks wouldnt exist. Just
know that im tryin to do my best and im workin to get better every
week as a missionary and as a person. There is a lot of room to
improve, but ive come a long way since the start of the mission as far
as the mission goes and its only getting better.
Love ya,
Elder Smoot
me know if you hear anything else about the situation. It´s really a
bummer that it happened, but really mistakes happen and it sure wasnt
on purpose. That´s one of my biggest challenges is to let things like
this go, but you just gotta pick yourself up, brush off the dirt, and
keep on moving forward. Good to hear that Jade is doin good and Tayton
is in gear for baseball.. hopefully ill be there to see a few games
when i get back. So this week was... kinda difficult. but we are still
alive and healthy so i got nothing to complain about.
Tuesday we did not have district meeting..... one of the other elders
(elder mamani from bolivia) was transfered so he had to have time to
pack the bags... we had an interesting day. we had a member come with
us whose name is george. he is 18, but has a lot of troubles.. he
lived way out in the country with his mom for a while so he is way
behind in school.. but he´s kinda funny.... Anyway, it was a tough day because
really none of our investigators are progressing to well... the ones
that are, are always gone or live far away. so we took him and taught
some less actives and recent converts and made a lot of contacts,
which is hard as well because the missionaries have years here in this
area and all of the people know how to get out of a conversasion and
nobody is interested because they have already met with the
missionaries... ugh it has been a tough week.
Wednesday was talias birthday right? happy b day tal! We had a better
day.. we had a visit with a kid named mateus.. he is 15 and has known
the church for a couple of years. his aunt lives with him and hasnt
gone to church for 5 years. but he has gone to seminary and likes the
church... just his mom didnt let him get baptized yet... We had the
group of members come with us again.. we visited leonardo and larisse
who are doing well.. we marked their day for baptism on the 4th....
that´s if they get an answer that this is the church of god... im
hopin they will. We then had an interesting experience talking to a
girl named Manoela... she doesnt really believe in anything and thinks
there is a God... so it was a lot different then teaching a normal
brasilian who is die hard for the bible and what not... but it was a
good conversation, but very i dont know... wierd? not sure thats the
right word, but she asked for us to come back so thats always good. We
then were passin in the street in the front of Fernando´s house... he
was in his front room holding a box of matches and sweating... we
taught him the word of wisdom the night before, and i dont know what
is going on but i think we got to him a little bit.. though he didnt
go to church on sunday so its hard for him to progress. But that night
we taught him the power of the scriptures.. i just remembered that
primary music of scripture power keeps us safe from sin... and its
true. they are inspired words from inspired men to invite the spirit
into our lives so we have the power to resist temptation... that is
something that i learned on my mission.
Thursday we had our weekly planning as usual... its 2 hours of just
writing and talking.. i dont even know how we do it, but im still doin
it a year and some months later. Our lunch fell through and so we had
to go buy stuff... we later visited a man who is dating a single mom
in the ward. he is a good guy named Valdeir, and he likes the church
and believes its doctrine, but he does not know yet that it is THE
only true church and he said that was very strange to him that the
church would say that.... and it really is a strong saying, but it is
the truth. It is tough to believe, but it is the only one that has the
fullness of the gospel. At night we were supposed to meet up with the
ward mission leader... but he didnt show up. This week was full of
things not workin as planned.
Friday we had a cool lesson with Ana Carine, a recent convert, who
likes to study english. So we grabbed two liahona magazines and one
was english the other portugues and we read them together... different
but good. We passed by leonardo and larisse´s house where we taught
the plan of salvation. The plan really makes sense... like i dont know
how a person could be satisfied thinking that life ended at death...
it just doesnt sit right for me! i need something more. That is
another reason why im on the mission. Knowing the plan of salvation is
a huge blessing... so count your many blessings. It really would be
sad to not know the truth about this stuff... and its even sader that
hardly anyone has a heart open enough to hear and accept it.
Saturday we decided that things werent going to well and that we
needed to fast..... so after lunch we started and the day was pretty
horrible. It was a long day and the sun was hot. Hardly anyone was
home and there were a lot of people out drinking and yeah... we passed
in about 15 houses and only 3 or 4 were home or let us in. Im telling
you that it was pretty tough. I had a headache and i was thirsty, but
i know that the lord is by me every step of the way and that he passed
through worse... who knows. maybe i was just payin off a few of my
mess ups. I just know that the church is true and as long as im doin
my best, thats all i can do and thats all the lord expects of me.
Sunday. For lunch the member wasnt going to be home, so he dropped off
a pizza for us to cook.... we made it and it was pretty good. we then
went to talk with mateus and we asked his mom if he could go to church
with us and she let him... then we talked to fernando who said he was
going to go with his family, then last minute dropped out... I dont
know what to do. But church was good and once again president was
there, but sister dias wasnt. Anyway we had a good meeting we were
leaving and we were walking mateus and his brother gabriel home, and
president said, elder you need to get to know his family and bring
them to church... yeah that was the cherry on top to my awesome week.
We do know his family and he lives with just his mom who knows the
church very well, and his grandparents... It was a tough week, but im
still alive. hopefully we can get our baptisms in on saturday and get
the area moving.. also next week the ward is dividing so its gonna be
a ride.
hope all is well at home... i know this week was hard, but dont worry
about me, without the tough weeks, the good weeks wouldnt exist. Just
know that im tryin to do my best and im workin to get better every
week as a missionary and as a person. There is a lot of room to
improve, but ive come a long way since the start of the mission as far
as the mission goes and its only getting better.
Love ya,
Elder Smoot
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