Wk 100 - FESTA JUNINA

--street art

-sweet bike

--fire in the street... festa junina tradition

-my district... elder soares de souza, elder murray, me, and elder de
los santos

-just another pic cuz we is good luukin

some friends from the ward

-at the judges table

-Bishop Cruz

Area: Buenos Aires 
Companion: Elder De Los Santos

Hey yall. Whats happenin? Im still here... still the same way... but a
little better. Im just tryin to make the best of the time i have
left!! Sounded like a basic summer week for you guys... but man i am
pumped to go swimming! seven peaks or wherever... i miss water haha.
Baseball is always good as well... sounds like it is non-stop! So
thanks again for the pics, videos, and news... i love it. Good thing
there is only a few weeks left cause i am sick of writing weekly
emails to you! ;)


My week was good.... but ive had better. oh and just real quick... I
realized that some weeks back was fathers day at home and i didnt say
anything to dad! My bad. Fathers day here isnt till august or
september... but i just felt a little ungrateful. so Dad thanks for
everything! your a great example to me and your other boys. anyway
just a cool experience. last monday we went to family night at
Domingos and Marcyjane, if you remember me and elder lima baptized her
some time back, gave the lesson on the second coming of christ... and
it was so sick. It just made me happy to see how far she has come
already... maybe im not baptizing every week but i sure hope those who
i have baptize will stay firm.

Tuesday we had district meeting. I gave a doctrine about the day of
rest... being the sabath day. Really basic and easy, but in the preach
my gospel it explains very well in chapter 3 lesson 4 and promises
many blessings to those who keep the sabath day holy. Also gave a
training about INVITING others to come unto christ. i focused on the
invite part and how when we teach a lesson we need to invite the
investigator to do something every time... read, pray are good tools
to help the person repent and come unto Christ... It is really amazing
how here at the end of the mission everything really is just put
together in my head. i feel like i have learned so much. We had lunch
at jose and fatimas and went to the marraige office with them... we
didnt get much done though... i think they forgot a document or
something... not really sure what happened. anyway, it was a little
stressful. BUT, we did get to teach alcione after that who we have
marked for the 7th of july to get baptized and its pretty solid... so
that was a good lesson... we then walked out to teach a young man
named luca then a woman that we have been teaching- josina. We had two
members with us as well helping us teach. but then we had to book it
to the other end of our area cause we had an appointement with kelly,
eli, and ana karine´s relatives... it was a long walk (like 50 min in
total) but it was worth it. We had a decent lesson but the spirit was
good and they said we could come back... not bad. That night we got
home and one of the elders just started crying. I guess his dad died
like 7 years ago and he just broke down and was having a hard time...
he asked me to give him a blessing and it was really simple, but a
really strong spiritual moment. To this day i dont know half of what i
said in that blessing, but very few times in my life i had been so
guided on what to say and how to say it. It was amazing to see how
things would just pop into my head as i was speaking. So that was a
little testimony builder to me.

Wednesday was alright, we ended up going to Milton again cause its
been awhile... i really have a hard time letting investigators go...
We didnt make really any progress with him, but i just cant stand to
see people not accept it..... i gotta stop going back though cause it
goes nowhere. We made a few contacts in the road, then went to Arlete.
Arlete was doin good till this day and we had it all planned out for
him to come on friday to the ward party and meet the bishop and all...
so till wednesday it was all good.

Thursday we had pizza for lunch... there is a cool member that makes
some pretty good pizza, so that was lunch..(still not papa johns
though). We kinda had a long day, but we visited ana virginia who isnt
doing so well... physically nor spiritually... so we really got to
help her. And we visited rosilene who is another recent convert and is
awesome. We then were going to have a missionary meeting and the
church, but the ward mission leader didnt show so we walked with elder
murray and elder soares de souza for a bit and then waited for the
bus... but jean passed by and gave us a ride home... he literally
saved my night cause i was gettin a little upset cause we waited more
than 20 minutes for the bus and we had to go home.

Friday we had lunch at domingos, then alcione came and we taught her
about the commandments and the specific blessings that come from
living each one... so far so good with her. We then went and visited
raquel who we saw in the road the other day... she said she would come
to church on sunday... but as always, something came up that was more
important. We had a nice long walk to get some investigators to go the
ward party with us and we got to the ward party... It was festa junina
again!! just like a year ago. It was an awesome ward party and the
ward was super awesome with us (they made the elders the judges of the
food contest) and the bishop was there and talking with us and it was
a great activity with lots of investigators,  food and dances... good
stuff. We even got a ride home from a good hearted member to put the
cherry on top.

Saturday we woke up, did some exercises at the place close to our
house then cleaned the house a little and got ready to go when the
assistants showed up. They sat down and talked to us for a bit and
said that from an ´unknown source´ said we werent studying on time and
what not... i was up ready and studying but my comp was organizing his
stuff when they came in so they got mad at me cause my comp wasnt
completely ready and yadayadayada... man i dont really like the
assistants and one of them doesnt really like me. They look for whats
wrong in the situation instead of what you are doing good and what you
can do better... its never a ´good job elder´ its always a ´elder we
cant have this happen... dont do it again´. Anyway, after that whole
thing they went to go meet the new pres... i still havent met him.
Anyway at lunch it was good stuff and i ate a lot... like a lot of
food... i dont know how or what i do, but i have had days that i could
down quite a bit of food.. others no but most yeah. We visited arlete
and she told us she didnt want to get married anymore... kinda seemed
like they had a fight the night before and they didnt come to the ward
party... so that was pretty disappointing to hear. It was kind of a
long day of draggin the feet around but we did meet a less-active
named marcelo and his brother in law claudio who were pretty cool
guys.. they didnt come to church on sunday, but hopefully they come
next week. It was Fátima´s birthday so we went and wished her a happy
birthday and there were some friends over at their house so one of
them gave us a ride home cause our house is pretty far away.

SUnday we had church and alcione came which was great. I really hope
she stays solid till saturday cause for now its all good. We had lunch
at domingos then he came with us to visit Edney who is a good family
friend of kelly, ana karine, and eli. He is a stud, but still hasnt
come to church on sunday. We then visited another man named diesse who
was a dude we met in the street one night helping him push a car that
had stopped or was out of battery... he is a good listener.. but not a
super good doer.. but we´ll give him another shot at this. It was a
tiring week but we made it home safe and sound.

One more week and im still happy and healthy so i dont have much to
complain about. Gotta keep a smile on, take a deep breath, and make
the best of your life. love you guys.. MAKE it a great week!

Elder Smoot