Week # 13 (Oct, 27 2014) My First Baptism!

Hello Dearest ones.

¿Como están? This week has been crazy and we feel a little destroyed...but hey! That´s a great feeling on the mission becuase it means that we´ve been working hard. 

I had my first baptism this week with our investigator Nicolas Saldivia. He is the 11 year old that is absolutely wonderful. It was so beautiful to be apart of a day so special for him. My companion and I got to sing for the service and plan the whole thing.....(hence destroyed...) But it was all worth it to see the smile on his face after the service. He is really shy, but he did tell us that he felt really happy. :) Also, The change in their family has been really beautiful to witness as his mom is reminded of all the things she learned and as the gospel fills their home with the love of christ. Ah. So beautiful. 

Also, GUILLERMO! Ah. People like him are the reason that we serve missions. Guillermo has had so much darkness in his life and now, he is literally a different person. He honestly wants to know everything about the gospel and feel the happiness and power that it brings to his life. During our lesson on the plan of salvation, after teaching him, he literally explained the whole plan, including the Fall and agency in about 2 or 3 sentences. Hna Figueredo and I were pretty much speechless from happiness. AH. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real. And makes everything possible. 

We are definitely tired and as always, there are days when I really don´t want to go outside and walk for miles and miles. But like all of Ashley´s letters, there are so many miracles in a day that make it all beautiful. Keep pressing onward in this gospel, becuase when we TRULY live it, and repent every single day to become better, God pours out his blessings upon us. 

I love you all and wish you the VERY best. Remember you all have divine potential and to enjoy every day of your life with the light of Christ. 

Love,

Hermana Smoot

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLY!!!!!!!!! You are the best! Give her a million kisses from me and tell her that I love her. :)

PPS I would like to make an official and public announcement that I have eaten chili in chile. Also, nobody knows what chili is here....funny. But it was lovely and it reminded me so much of my dear home where food is normal and not just meat, potatoes and bread. :)

xoxo

Happy Birthdy Lil bug!

Nico y su familia!

Week # 12 (Oct. 20, 2014)

Mi primero paquete!! GRACIAS (also, it took a little over a month and a half for future reference)

Mi primero paquete!! GRACIAS (also, it took a little over a month and a half for future reference)

Hola mi familia!!

Como estan?!! I love you all very much. Just to let you know. Also. HOLY COW THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH. It came and I was jumping up and down becuase chocolate and green smoothies. My inner battle between healthy food and my weakness for sweets: me in a nut shell.....my mother knows me too well.

This week was so fast. I´m done with my first cambio? What happened. It has been beautiful and I hope that I can enjoy all of them as much as I have enjoyed the first. 

In fabulous news: We are having a baptism this sunday! Our investigador Nico is 11 years old and we´ve taught him all the discussion and he had his interview in saturday and is ready to go! Even with just 11 years, we have been able to see such a change in his life and in the home of his family. He reads his scriptures and prays every day and just has a desire to be good. It´s amazing to see a change in a family through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of the miracle of change and the atonement, Hermano Guillermo (the one who had the drinking problem and relapsed)  and his family are Amazing. Miracles people. We went to their house last night and he was so excited to learn and understand. He even said that his brothers and sisters were teasing him for wanting to join the church and thinking he could change, and he stood his ground and testified of this church. WHAT? His wife said that they could really see the change in their home. All of them are working toward one purpose and trying to believe that their father can do this. The feeling is literally indescribable. To be able to see the miracle of the atonement in such a personal way is incredible. Change is real and very possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ!!!

I love this work. I am so grateful for this life that we have. Honestly, we are so lucky. If you ever feel sad, look around you and realize how many blessings you have. Because honestly family, you guys are ridiculously blessed. Like, ridiculously. Be grateful and give to others. This life is beautiful and we can do anything with the power of God!!

I love you all so much. Continue onward. Seguir adelante. :)

MUCHO Amor,

Hermana Smoot

 1.Hermana Figueredo...I just love her. (And don´t want her to leave this cambio. We´re crossing our fingers!)

 2.We went on a walk. Just take that view in people. UG. it´s too beautiful here.

Week # 11 (Oct. 13, 2014)

Hello wonderful loved ones!

I would just like all of you to know that I totally just wrote my mission president in Spanish. What? I´m awesome. That´s what. Actually no, basically I´m witnessing the Don de lenguas (gift of tounges) in my life more and more each day. And honestly, missionary work is absolutely amazing. It´s really ridiculously hard and crazy that I have the resposibility of saving souls here in Valle Volcanes in the Pichi Pelluco ward en Puerto Montt. I just pray that I can be an instrument in God´s hands and do what he needs me to do. But in all, the church is wonderful and the joy of the spirit is incredible. Inexplicably so. 

This week was really awesome and Super difficult as well. There was a lot of rejection and not a whole lot of actual appointments. Just a whole bunch of contacts and lessons in the street. Which are always fun. And really interesting. It´s crazy that some people don´t believe there is a god. It really doesn´t make a whole lot of sense to me. And also when people have all these questions and this church has ALL the answers but they don´t want them. Those moments are the most frustrating. But it´s ok. This is why we pray every day to find people that are ready.

Also, can I just mention how lucky I am to have my companion. She is the kind of missionary I want to be. She just sincerely loves and enjoys every moment of her mission and is SO focused on her purpose. I´m pretty sure she would give her whole life to missionary work if she could. (she is halfway done at this point and hates when I remind her that.) :)

At the end of this week we decided to fast for all of our investigators, specifically Hno Guillermo. He has been having a really hard time stopping his addiction to Alcohol. (Like anyone who has been drinking their whole lives) It´s just incredibly difficult becuase his family doesn´t really believe in him and he feels really alone. So we have just been doing everything possible and praying like crazy that we can figure out how to best help him. Because it is WAY over our heads at this point. But we did see so many miracles from our fast. For example, in the street, almost everyone we talked to and all the doors we knocked were almost strangely nice. Like, I thought my companion knew them from before. And one girl just let us into her house before we even introduced ourselves. What!? Heavenly father gives us so many miracles to lift us up. So the week ended well.

I challenge all of you to really look for miracles in each day. Heavenly father loves you so much and your lives and INCREDIBLY blesses. I know that more than ever when I meet broken families and homes. Count your blessings becuase you have more that you know. Like Ashley said, EXPECT MIRACLES. :) (Also good luck ashley in your last cambio....I don´t know what that word is in english....exchange? Algo asì.

I love you all and pray for you every night!! Tenga una BONITA Día!!! 

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Smoot

P.S. Fleas. Fleas.....fleas.

THIS is puerto montt. I get to look at this every day people.

The ugliest statue in puerto montt. I don´t really understand it. Apparently there is some song that goes with it. It´s really famous. But hideous.

A birthday party for one of our investigadores. We eat too much.

And also this. Just an average every day view of the lovely Hna Figueredo 

week # 10 ( Oct. 6, 2014) Angel the Atheist/fleas/conference

Hola Familia,

First of all, SORRY ASHLEY! I didn´t realize that hadn´t been sending my letters to you. I love you so much and pray for you every night! You are totally my example and if I can be half the missionary that you have been, I will be set for life. :) You are beautiful.

This week was another week of work, trying to understand/speak spanish, and this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ. I really love living the life of a missionary. It´s really hard at times and sometimes/all the time I just want to take a nap and watch a Disney movie and eat peanut butter, BUT I absolutely love that my life is so in line with Christ´s life. And all my thoughts lead to gospel and I get the chance to love so many people and do so many wonderful things. And LEARN so much. Ugh. This is the best.

First of all, funny story: We were walking down the street and stopped to talk to a child of god that chose to dress slightly differently/emo and his black hair covered his eyes and all that jazz. We asked him about his relijeous beliefs and he said "No hay Dios" or "There is no god." We tried to talk to him about the fact that there is a god and he loves you! But he just kind of smiled like we were idiots. Woot. But the funny part, though is that his name is ANGEL. I really wanted to ask him if he had any idea what his name meant. Oh. Good times.

Also, another FUN fact. Pulgas. Fleas. They are a thing. And that thing is biting me in the night. But mother, no se preocupe. Don´t worry. I am fine and living and they aren´t very bad and I´m using the Avon oil and all that Jazz. We had intercambios...over exchanges (sorry..don´t know missionary terms in english) But I stayed in overnight at our sister training leader´s house and her bed had fleas. So I may have brought them back. But they really aren´t super bad. They are just more present in the warmer weather that is starting to appear. But it´s just the mission life!

Conference was this weekend! As you all should know. What an incredible opportunity. Conference is the best people. If you didn´t watch, GO DO IT RIGHT NOW. DON¨T EVEN FINISH THIS LETTER. If you did, good job. Now go do it again. Until april conference. :) I was really hoping and praying that I would be able to watch conference in English but it turned out that there isn´t enough internet power in the chapel and we couldn´t connect 2 computers. And it was only me and sister Harvey (the other newbie) that wanted english. So it didn´t happen. We did get to watch saturday afternoon at a member´s house, but the rest were in spanish at the chapel. And I´m not going to lie, I was mad. I wanted to shake someone and tell them "Do you realize how important this is to me as a missionary!! You don´t understand!!" So I sulked through the first session on sunday morning. But it´s never good to be angry and we can always learn something from hard experiences and anger and difficulty. I realized how selfish I was being and how ridiculous my anger was. I was in a comfortable chapel on a mission with members who were gaining valuable spiritual experiences. And I can speak a little spanish. I can still learn. So the spirit softened my heart and I just decided to pray for the ability to understand for the second session. And guess what? Prayer is real. What? I didn´t understand everything, and I was still struggling to translate and internalize, but I still learned and felt the power of the prophets. People, this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have modern day prophets. The more we focus on others and try to be like our savior the more we learn and the more we ENJOY our lives. And that is the purpose of our lives. To have joy. :) So learn from your trials and setbacks, put your faith in the lord and love life. Because it is a blessing and you have the knowledge of this gospel!! 

I love you all and pray for you! Have a beautiful day!

Love,

Hermana Smoot