Week 49 (April 24, 2017)

My companion and I got ice cream cones but hers had Oreo in the bottom and mine had kit kat!!

Pictures in a park

This week was a really good week.  Yesterday Raul came to church and was finally able to be confirmed!!  And every time we asked him how he is he always tells us HAPPY! which makes us so happy too. and we feel like we have finally done our moto of the mission, which is "teach repentance, baptise converts". And we feel like he is not just baptised, but a convert!  He seems like he is doing so well and he also recieved the aronic priesthood yesterday too!! We are so excited to see what happens next.

This week we also had a work visit (visito de trabajo) aka exchanges, or splits, and Hna Gilson from SLC Utah came with me and my comp went to their area. but it was so fun to be able to learn from and talk with her about life and the area and pretty much everything haha. but I learned so much from her. and earlier this week my motivation level was getting really low. and I just didnt feel like doing anything. Obviously i still did, but it was a struggle and I was still really stressed out all the time. Well she told me something that one of our asistents to president told her. "we dont need to worry.  If we do what president says, and are obedient, god will bless us and we will see those miricles. So dont worry." and it changed my whole perspective.  Before I was so worried about meeting our goals for the week which  had not been and it was frustrating, but once we stopped worrying about the numbers, and started focuses on the people the stress lowered and the numbers went up and we were able to contact and find so many new investigators! we still didnt meet our goal but it was a drastic change from last week. and that work visit was an anwser to prayer!  We have been working with the list of members and visiting members that we dont even know who they are, but it kind of makes it a game looking for them and if they arent home, contacting the person who is! Lots of references and it has been amazing!  I am so excited to see what happens. and for the first time in a long time, I am not overly stress out. so its been a good couple last few days.

I know this church is true and the book of mormon is true! and I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that we have those downs so we can have an even higher UP!  The mission is an on going roller coaster, but its ok, because that is how we can learn and grow so all is well.  I am so greatful for this opertunity to be here. Time is flying by so fast! The mission is long, but it goes by quick!  

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Hna Smoot

Week 48 (April 17, 2017)

My new companion and little Anne :) Happy Easter Sunday!

Rauls Baptism

Hermana Parra and I went to this cute restaurant last week for lunch and we actually ate sandwiches for lunch (grilled cheese and ham!) which like never happens and strawberry orange juice that was delicious. My stomach was happy (as Hermana Parra always says :) )

Well, First off, Happy Easter yesterday!!! I hope everyone could have some fun with the family and celebrate the resurection of Jesus Christ and focus on his atonement this holiday.  Here in Peru, Easter (Pascua) doesnt really exist. In church they talked about the atonement, but it was also fast sunday, due to general then stake conferences.  And no one had cute decorations or anything. It was like it was just a regular sunday! which was a little disapointing, but to celebrate my comp and I are going to attempt to color eggs today for pday.. we will see how that goes. haha 

But dont you worry, Easter is not about eggs, and bunnies and candy, and family, its about remembering christ and remembering his sacrifice and his atonement for us! And I am SOOOOOO greatful beyond words for the sacrifice he gave to me, and to you and to all of us.  Thanks to him we can become clean and repent of our sins! and we can one day return and live in the presence of god in a perfect state! Happy and live with our families forever!! and so for that, this year and a half I am away, missing all the holidays, if christ did that for me, I can do this for him in an instant. This work is not easy, but I loved what a return missionary in our ward said: ''This is not the best to years OF your life, but this is the best 2 years FOR your life. ''  and it is absolutely true. I am learning things that I never would have been able to learn on my own in my house. And I know that all our efforts will not be wasteda and if you are serving others, you are serving god, who will BLESS you beyond belief.

This week was Transfers!!! And my comp moved to the other side of the mission in Wiesse, (by my old zone!) and the comp in her new area came here. so they basically switched places!! but my new comp is Hermana Plaza, from Colombia! and just finished her 12 week training, so she has been in the mission about 4 months with the MTC. She is 19 And she is amazing! and I am excited for what this transfer will bring! my first comp who is younger than me, and so far all my comps have been from a different country!! Ecuador, Mexico,  Paraguay, Peru, Argentina, and now Colombia! how cool is that!

Also, this saturday, (2 days ago) Raul got baptized!! which was amazing but when sunday morning at 8 am came around for sacrament meeting to be confirmed, he didnt show!!! his phone was dead and so we could not contact him. But we stopped by later and he said that he had been helping his friend (carlos) out with cooking something for a project he was working on. They are called Apollados, where you make food and then sell it for really expensive and people by it out of charity. its really interesting. But he feels bad and will be confirmed this next sunday. 

We also had a training for my comp this week with president for all the people who just finished there 12 weeks, and it was amazing as always. I love our mission president!!! he is the best.

I hope you all had a wonderful spiritual fun easter sunday, and know that I know this church is true and that this gospel brings so many blessings if we are obedient and happiness!!

I love you all,

Love Hna Smoot

Week 47 (April 10, 2017)

McDonalds!

This is Raul!

Zone Picture

Well, this week was a pretty normal week.  On pday last week was zone pday and so at the church outside is a bball court of cement and we played soccer, and volleyball and I did some pirouettes which its been so long since ive danced that before everyone got out there I did some turns and jumps and stuff and it was so much fun. but before that my comp and I and 2 other sisters went to MCDONALDS for lunch. yes that was a thing that happened. And all they had that was chicken was chicken nuggets. So ate got that and it was acutally pretty gross. So dont think I ll do that again. haha but thats because its "fake chicken" ground up re deep fried. but the real chicken breasts are pretty good.

ANYWAY. This week was also an emergency multi zone conference for this half of the mission and then the next day was the other half.  We found out monday night and it was on thursday. But it was all about how we need to work with faith and try our best and if what we are doing is not working, we need to change. Not tomorrow, but TODAY.  Also he showed a clip from the movie Facing the Giants, which we are allowed to watch on a Zone Pday, so I hope to be able to do that. but go watch it because it looks really inspiring and good! 

This week Raul came to our Stake conference we had which our mission president and his wife and the Peru Lima Temple president and his wife all spoke at it!  It was really amazing and president Godfrey spoke on how we should not be scared or embarresed to share the gospel because the gospel it like a medicine that can fix any problem. That does not mean we still wont get sick, but we will find solutions! And so we must share this with everyone and not be scared or embarresed because this is there salvation!!!

But we are really excited because this coming Saturday is Rauls baptism!!

Also today is the last day of the transfer. so like always, we will find out tonight at like 10:30.

I love you all and am so happy to be here and so very greatful for this wonderful opportunity!! I KNOW this church is true and that the book of mormon is true!!

Tengan una bonita semana, have a beautful week,

Love, Hna Smoot

Week 46 (April 3, 2017)

With the Sisters

General Conference!!

La Mordida

Cake Face

Wow, well this week was a pretty good week. Tuesday, they celebrated my birthday in the district meeting with the zone with cake and singing happy birthday in english then in spanish and then as I was going in for a little bite to do the tradition ''la mordida'' where you bite the cake, then someone pushed my head in farther so the cake got ALL OVER MY FACE. I just thought it was hilarious. but we definetly got a picture of it.

This week was a Zone Conference with president and he taught us so much about how to help our investigators find there testimonies, because a lot of ours wanted to be baptized, but didnt have testimonies yet. He explained that they have to be the ones to say it, but we can help guide them by asking how they feel when reading the book of mormon. If they feel good, peace, happy ect while reading, or hunger for more, using a scripture, thos are fruits of the spirit. which is from god, and therefore god is responding that the book of mormon is true and therefore joseph smith translated it and restored this gospel and therefore this church is true!! It really strengthened my own testimony as well!!  

Which General Conference was also this week!! Which I absolutely loved!! I asked if we could somehow watch it in english, and my leaders said no, because president wanted us to sit with our investigators, and learn spanish... so although somethings i kind of missed or didnt get it, I still loved conference and I could feel the spirit. I absolutley loved the prophets talk, which had english subtitles! so i understood every single word! and how powerful it was. STUDY THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

Also Raul had his 2nd interview this week and all is well and so he will be baptized April 15, 2017!! which is one week after transfers.. But we are so excited for him! And he basically stopped talking to Carlos, because Carlos was trying to convince him other wise and he didnt want that in his life, so they still talk, but not a lot. I am so glad he relized satan was working through carlos.

I love this gospel and I love being a missionary. Even though its SO hard at times, I know it will all be worth it in the end. and I know that when we obey gods commandments we recieve BLESSINGS!!! so I am so excited to recieve even more blessings in the future.  I love you all so much and know this church is true.

Love, Hna Smoot