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Wk 103 - In Closing...

Area: Buenos Aires 
Companion: Elder De Los Santos

Well im sorry i dont have time to write you guys today! i just wanted
to say that im excited to see you all and hopefully i survive the long
trip home. Looks like me and Elder Stewart will go all the way back
together and im pumped. It has been a wonderful experience here in
Brasil, and a big part of it here in Teresina. I have really learned
to love these people and i have some new friends that i wont forget. I
am a little nervous to see you again though.... i feel like i dont
know anyone anymore! But you know that i love my family and cant wait
to get to know all of you again haha or at least thats what it seems
like ill have to do. Anyway just some quick notes about the week....
on friday i was doing an interview and andre was the kid, it was for
elder murray.... i asked him who he wanted to baptize him and he said
me. i didnt expect that at all and i think i asked him about 5 times
if he was sure, but yup i baptized him on saturday. When i was
entering into the water, i fell in!!! it was so embarassing. But, i
got back up and we still had the baptism and all went well. The week
was a dificult week to work because there were so many members calling
us over to eat! ah man it was tough but still, it was a decent week. I
cant believe its ending, and probably wont until im actually home.
Well, just know that i love you and am very thankful for your support.
Have a wonderful couple of days until i get there again! love ya,

Elder Smoot

Wk 102- Coming to the end

Area: Buenos Aires 
Companion: Elder De Los Santos

I still dont feel like i am ending my mission... it has been such a
long time that it seems like the end will never come. i guess we will
see how i feel next week. I am enjoying myself out here and am glad i
have served here.... it just seems unreal that it is all gonna end. I
enjoyed hearing your experiences during the week.. the rain sounded
nice and refreshing, cause its also been a long time since its rained
here. but your week sounded busy, so thats kinda how mine was. I feel
like i have a lot to do still and the time is just slipping through my
fingers. Last monday we went to a stadium here in teresina that Jean
took us to. its called the albertão. So thats why there will be a few
pics of that attached.

Tuesday we had our normal routine of district meeting. I like my
district so we have fun quick meetings and make them meaningful so its
pretty chill. We had lunch at josé and fatimas which was good... Then
we met up with a member named Rhuan who went to do visits with us. The
day was super full and we got a lot more done than i thought we would.
We went and gave a member a blessing that had called us and asked for
a blessing then went to talk to josina because she lives close by to
the member. It was a wonderful visit and it was cool because she is
already seeing the blessings of the gospel in her life even though she
is just getting to know the church. her son got a job and is now
working and its cool because she loves the visits and actually went to
church on sunday... we just need to figure out if she is gonna marry
the dude that lives in the same house, or no.... but other than that,
she progressed a lot this week. We then met up with domingos to do a
division, but this time my comp elder de los santos went with domingos
and i stuck with rhuan. We went and met up with another member, aline,
and we went and visited a bunch of people... some new, others were
less actives, but we visited about 4 or 5 people that night so it was
great. We then met back up with domingos and my comp and ended the
night... packed day.

Wednesday was an interesting day. We visited ana virginia again and
she is just getting worse... it really looks like she is on drugs or
is just really really strange... i dont know what to do, but it looks
like some members went there this week so hopefully we can help her
out. We visited Alcione after her baptism for the first time, and i
was super impressed with her progress.... She came in just super
happy, talkative, and just awesome, and i hadnt seen that before the
baptism. We couldnt get her to do the prayer, and this time she did it
voluntarily and man i was just happy as can be to see her doin well
after the baptism. Domingos is the man and constantly helps her and
keeps everyone on track in his family and those that are his
friends... i love that guy. Then he came with us after that to visit a
less active and his nephew so it was also a pretty good day.

Thursday was good cause the day started with lunch at fransisco
andrade´s house and he makes a lot of food. We ate sooo much. then we
visited josina which was great.. Later we met up with Ana karine and
eli to visit some people... we visited Edney who was a cool guy who we
used to visit a long time ago and he came to church on sunday which
was sweet! And we had a nice long walk to visit the members relatives
as well... it was a long walk home, but it was a decent day.

Friday was insane. We were in our room gettin ready for the day when
the other elder came in and asked if we could donate blood for a
member that was needing it... and she has blood type o+ so she could
accept any blood or something like that... apparently it was a little
11 year old who was gonna do a heart surgery and so we went to donate
blood in the morning... but didnt get out till 1 pm. It was a super
funny and fun experience and really didnt hurt bad... my arm was just
a little swollen afterwards. But we went directly to do an interview
of someone that wasnt even wanting to get baptized and had problems
with coffee, so i was a little upset because it was suuuppeerrr far
and we took a bus to get there, but we walked back to get to lunch at
4 o clock... man i was high cause we had just taken out blood and it
was crazy. lunch was good then we had to go do 2 more interviews for
elder murry and elder soares de souza.... They are doing awesome which
makes me happy.. anyway we went with jean and domingos to do a visit
and that was the end to the crazy and spontaneous day.

Saturday We had a good lunch at the furtados, they have their neighbor
getting home from the mission tomorow so it was fun to talk to them. I
read a talk from elder uchtdorf while i was waiting from the july
liahona about always being in the middle... it was pretty good to read
especially being at ´the end´ of the mission. We went and visited
josina, then some visits didnt work out so we went with jean and
domingos again and jean took us in his car to help a member out get
ready for a wedding that was going to happen in the church that
night... then we walked home with domingos from the chapel cause jean
went to the wedding... this week was full of adventure.

Sunday we had church and we passed by ana virginia´s on the way
there... but unfortunately she didnt come... but it was a good turn
out to church as far as investigators go... hopefully we can help them
a little more this week. We ate lunch at a members house then had to
book it home for a bit to do a little updating on the area book.. we
tried passing a few places during the afternoon, but they werent home
and at night we had a good family night at josé and fatimas house with
a bunch of members and an investigator... so it was a good end to the
week.

sorry it took so long today, we went with jean to some cool place that
he knows... it is like a gettaway place here close to teresina so i
will send some pics a little later of it... but i bought a bunch of
stuff as well so it was a great day..

I still cant believe ill see you next week! it wont sink in till im
actually home.. anyway, have a great week! cant wait to see yall.

with love,

Elder Smoot

Wk 101 - NEW PRESIDENT

Area: Buenos Aires 
Companion: Elder De Los Santos

ma boyz!! elder martinez, me, elder stewart, idk, elder iverson,
elder yorgason, elder spackman, elder murray, and elder deaver

elder stewart, me, pres and sis Siedschlag

-missão brasil teresina

elder barros, elder chagas, elder de los santos, me, elder tenório 

me and my comp

baptism pics--Alcione

last haircut.. today!

-sunday in church with the elderzz

GOD BLESS AMERICA! Happy 4th of July this week! man i miss the
excitement, but its all good. i wouldnt choose to be in any other
place in the world right now than where i am right now. I loved the
pics and seein the my nephew and neice... cant wait to meet them. It
still hasnt sunk in that the mission is ending... and it probably wont
hit me till im actually home... 2 more weeks. And as you know as well
we got a new president... President Siedschlag. I had a meeting with
him on tuesday and wednesday and i absolutely love the new president.
I was getting a little discouraged,  but i feel super aliviated and
happy at this moment that i am leaving the mission.. the Lord really
knows what he is doing.

My week was great. Tuesday we had a good district meeting, like i
already said my district is pretty sweet... We had lunch at José and
Fatima´s again... Still the only question is when they will get
married and all... this lunch was cool because fatima is usually a
really closed person and she came to us this time and said... lets see
if we cant fix this marraige thing so i can get baptized... It would
be pretty impossible now for her to get baptized before i leave, but
that doesnt mean that we lost... i am super happy that SHE is finally
saying that. We then went to teach Alcione and we explained how the
baptismal interview would be and all and i was just hopin and prayin
all week that things would go well with her. We then went out to elder
murray´s area to do an interview and it was quite a ways out, but
wasnt work grabbin a bus. We had a good interview and it was an old
man whose wife has been in the church for years, and he finally
decided to get baptized. It was a long ways home, but we made it...
tiring day.

Wednesday was a great Independence day for me! We started the day with
an awesome leadership meeting in the stake center.. this was the first
time we got to know the new president. The meeting was super good. I
was getting a little upset about just hearing about baptism, baptism
and baptism.... the assistants started doing the same thing at the
start, but then the president got up... He said that if we are
baptizing 30 people a month and the number of people going to church
doesnt go up as well, that was lost work. he said We are here to
convert people and not to convince people to be baptized.... I have
waited my whole mission to hear someone say that and i had never felt
so happy and comforted.. the Lord knew that i needed to see the new
president. Elder stewart was at the meeting too and ended up stayin
with me the rest of the day. We went and taught some new investigators
with some members and it went very well.. i think its kinda cool that
me and elder stewart passed in the same area...he is a good guy and
we´ve become good friends out here.to end the night as well we had a
little star spangled banner playin and a quick 4th of july party with
the americans haha nothin much though.

Thursday morning we had a ´get to know you´ meeting with president for
all of the elders in teresina and the small cities close by. Everyone
that came to the meeting felt really good about the new president and
im really excited for the mission and that i get to leave the mission
all happy like this and knowing that the mission is in good hands. The
president left and awesome testimony about how we just need to work
hard and how we arent perfect, but it is our decision to be better.
Mom like you said in your email, it wont be worth all of this time and
work if we go home to be the same person we came as. He really wants
to work on your personal progress as well as a conversion for your
investigator and i love it. He said that many of the missionaries here
have made many mistakes, but what we need to do is leave the past in
the past. Learn from it, but dont live in it. (that was an elder
stewart sum-up by the way.. gotta give him credit for it but thats the
message that president gave us). We then booked it to do alcione´s
interview which went well, then jean came and picked us up cause lunch
was at his house. We had an amazing lunch then he even took us back to
our area to work. We taught Raquel and left a good message about the
atonement... kind of the feelings i was having when president talked
to us earlier, then we taught José who is kelly, ana karine and eli´s
dad. we tried going to arlete but again ´wasn´t home´... i dont know
what to do with her... Anyway, that night Jean came and picked us up
with domingos cause we were close to domingos´s house and we went to
get some pizza at a members restaurant. the bishop was there so it was
the perfect way to end the night cause i needed to talk to the bishop
about the baptism and make sure we were all good to go and i love the
bishop in this ward as well. The area just keeps getting better and I
am super happy with the friends i made here. Domingos and Jean are
such good guys.

Friday we had lunch at maria do carmo´s, who is mychelly´s aunt. We
ate a bunch then taught a few people close by then domingos came with
us to do visits. It was kind of a long afternoon but the week was
going fast. We taught a new lady then ended at Fatimas. We talked a
little about prayer and fasting, and it was a good spirit and she was
crying a little, but i am just super confused on what needs to happen
with their marraige that im not sure what to do... but i want to
encourage them to keep working on it, even if im not here.

Saturday we had a good lunch, even though we kind of surprised the
member when we got there, they are all super kind and made us a great
lunch anyway. We then went with domingos and alcione to the chapel for
the baptism! The baptism went well and my comp baptized her as his
first baptism on the mish. It was a good spirit and afterward i had to
interview another investigator for elder murray. This time didnt go as
well and the interview took forever, but its all good. the night was
just some contacts and some cool people we met... we had a kind of
different experience with an alcoholic that stopped to talk to us. I
had never seen anything too scary or wierd on my mission but as we
were talking to this totally drunk guy that invited us in, we sat down
and as we was talking he freaked out for like 5 seconds then in a
wierd mumble he said, ´he doesnt want anything and he wont stop
drinking´ then came back to normal. i dont say that to scare you or
anything but i dont know but im pretty sure there was something in him
that wasnt him.. it didnt scare me really but i sure felt something
that i didnt like too much... haha just another way to know that God
exists and that the enemy will do anything to stop this work from
moving forward. it was good though because after he took us to meet
his mom and a few other neighbors haha so it worked out quite well.

Sunday was another great day. At church in the morning i had the
opportunity to confirm alcione during sacrament meeting and then elder
murray, elder de los santos and i were asked to give talk for the
sacrament meeting talks. They were all really good and it was funny
cause i realized that there were 3 foreigners speakin in church that
day haha. Elder murray talked about being a member missionary and how
it is just being an example and telling people that we are this way
because of the gospel, then invite them to get to know the church, and
thats where we came in. Elder de los santos gave a good talk and
talked about the promised blessings that god gives us when we follow
his gospel and we are missionaries... and the talk called ´was it
worth it?´ from the last conference. I talked for about 18 minutes
because i filled up the rest of the time and i talked about the talk
from conference called ´the vision to do´ by Elder O. vincent haleck.
I talked about how we need to aquire the vision of what the Lord sees
in us, accept callings from the bishop, and do our best to become the
best person we can be. We had lunch at the bishops
and like i said, these last couple of weeks we really gained a trust
with the bishop and he supports us 100 percent. Im lovin it. We took a
bus home to drop off our suits and take a quick shower cause it was a
hot day then we went to visit alcione to see how she was doin after
everything then we went to a family night at José and fátimas that was
with a bunch of members. It was good and we got a ride home. After we
finished the day and took a shower, i was out on the balcony talking
to elder chagas and a car pulled up and 3 drunk guys got out of the
car... 2 of them started wrestling in the street and man it was the
funniest thing i had ever seen!!! i should have filmed it... oh
well... but good times. They were all friends so they werent mad, but
they were so drunk and in the middle of the street. Anyway, that was
the end to the week

The week went by pretty fast... i cant believe my time is ending
here.. im just super glad that im gonna finish off super happy. i love
you guys and cant wait to see ya here in a couple of weeks.

até logo,

Elder Smoot

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