Hermana Smoot

Hermana Smoot
Hermana Smoot

Monday, April 27, 2015

Week #39 (Apr. 27) A slightly erruptive week... Volcano eruption!

Hello world!

This week was just horribly boring.....knocking doors, talking to people, more door knocking, volcano calbuco errupted, more talking to people. 
Oh, that´s right, A volcano errupted! Ok, sorry for the (bad) humor. i know that you guys are freaking out with the lack of information. But just know that we are actually totally fine. We were in a lesson with a less active when she looked out the window and said "THE VOLCANO IS ERRUPTING!" And we all ran outside and started taking pictures. Then the sister started flipping out becuase her husband was in is farm a lot closer to the Volcano. Then our district and zone leaders called us frantically saying "go to the church! go to the church! right now!" So we said a prayer to calm down the hermana that we were with and booked it to the chapel. We met the elders there and watched the progress of the volcano and took pictures. 



This was in the nigh with the sunset. Obviously freaking out. :)
Meanwhile our bishops and stakepresidents were calling presidente obeso and we were just kind of waiting, wondering what woud happen. That night we all got the news that we would be staying in member´s homes. So our bishop came and picked us up and we went to a member´s house to stay the night. The next morning a lot of the ash had already blown over to Argentina and everything had alread died down. We spent the day visiting the members and giving service and making sure that everyone is ok. The only thing that really got hit was all of the farms in Ensenada, an area a lot closer to the Volcano. It´s far away, but in our ward and there were some very less active members who were affected. A whole bunch of volcanic rock/sand just filled everything up. It´s like being snowed in, but with 3 feet of sand and rocks. But we´ve actually seen a lot of miracles. The elders we able to go and serve the family and they came to the church on sunday. And are staying next door. But what´s really neat is that there are so many people now who are really thinking about god and about the things that matter most. And the fact that nobody died and they all have their family member´s there. We were just a little scared, but everything is fine. And it´s been a really great conversation starter as well. :) 
I hope that everything is going well with all of you. The church is so true. I´m so grateful for the opportunity I have to bear my testimony every day of the truthfullness. And each time i do, my testimony strengthens that much more. I wish you all well and hope that there are no natural distasters that come your way. :) but remember that everything happens for a reason. God is in charge!
I love you all so much!
Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Smoot!

Vlcanos!

This was in the nigh with the sunset. Obviously freaking out. :)



Monday, April 20, 2015

Week # 38 (April 20, 2015)

Hello World!

This week was super fast....and slow...but really time is passing so fast and I can´t believe it´s almost MAY. What. Happy birthdy Kenna! (they don´t celebrate cinco de mayo here. Nor in mexico found out. But I will be eating mexican to celebrate. don´t worry.) haha

Winter is officially coming here in the lovely country of Chile. So while you are all enjoying some extra rays of sun, I will be enjoy more rain. There isn´t really that crisp breaze and changing leave colors nor snow here. So its just getting a lot colder and raining a lot more. Yaaaaaaay. But it´s fine. We survive. I have rain boots and an unmbrella. Lots more door knocking yesterday and apart from entertaining ourselves with spanglish 20' questions in the rain, we´ve been finding various people and hoping and praying that they will progress. :)

We visited a VERY less active family this week and saw some miracles. They haven´t been to churh in a long time, but always recieve the missionaries. So we were on the brink of stopping visiting them becuase they wouldn´t progress. But his brother from the other ward in pto varas, who is active with his family, wanted to visit him with us. So we had a lesson with his brother and sister in law and their family. And we had a pretty intense lesson (charla franca..) talking about what is really stopping them from going to church and a testimony of his brother. We tried to just tell them how much we love them and how much the sacrement is going to help them in their lives to be parents and help their children grow and learn with the spirit. They told us they would go, but I still doubted a little, as they had sid the same things earlier. We told them we were going to pick them up on the way to church, just to make sure. On sunday morning, we were walking to church and had forgotten to stop by their house. So we ran back trying to find thier street. Both of us are pretty new to the area, and they just barely moved. So we were running around trying to find it, already late and ended up not being able to find there house. So we just went to church, without and investigater or less active and LATE on top of it all. But when we entered the chapel, I sat down a little stressed and tired. And i looked over and the entire family was sitting there. They came!!!!!! I was serously in shock. And another person who I was sure wouldn´t come also came. And stayed all 3 hours. I was humbled to realize that god really works in mysterious ways. Even though there wasn´t a single investigator in the chapel, Heavenly father was still working to touch the hearts of the people here and bring to pass the work of salvation here in Pto. Varas. 

God is present. He is here and loves us and works through us in mysterious ways.  LOOK for them. Miracles are there. I love you all so much and wish you the best this week!!!

Love,
Hermana Smoot!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Week # 37 ( April 13,2015) I have officially moved to Puerto Varas-So lovely!

New Area: Puerto Varas ! I LIVE IN THE PRETTIEST CITY IN CHILE!!!

New Companion:  Mi compy. Hermana Ralph (from Florida, Hawaii and Utah (now) :)


Hello lovelys!

What. A. Week. Seriously last week was general conference. What happened. 

I have officially moved to Puerto Varas, which is one of the loveliest most touristy towns of the mission. (google it, it´s gorgeous) And I love it. 

We live behind some members who have a little tiny home in their backyard. And it´s super adorable. And clean with running water, mom. Ok, so sometimes we don´t have hot water.....and there´s no oven. But it´s still adorable. My area is pretty big and a lot poorer than my other. With more drunk men at night....and in the day. But don´t worry, we follow the spirit and avoid certain parts in the night :) But my ward is incredible. They are all really enthusiastic about the work and the bishop and ward mission leader are really dedicated. (we are going to see miracles) 
We live next to a family..the HUGE Cortes family. Mom, it´s like if the whole Woolf family lived in one ward. They make up half of it. But they own a fruit farmers market and WE GET FREE FRUITS AND VEGETABLE WHENEVER WE WANT!!  It´s literally like a dream come true. I´m basically living the dream here in the mission. My companion is super awesome and likes to work hard is slightly timid, but only around people we don´t know, and really adorable. We´ve been having a lot of fun knocking doors in the rain. There are TONS of less actives here and a lot of our work is dedicated to them. There aren´t a ton of progressing investigators....yet. :) That´s what we are working towards. So if you all want to pray for the Colon ward and that we can find people and families that are prepared, feel free. We are praying and fasting a ton to find them. And obviously working our little tails off knocking on doors and talking to whoever will listen. 

We are working specifically towards helping reactivate Sofia,  vicente´s mom. She wants her son to be baptized but she´s not totally active. And he can´t get baptized without an active parent. So we are working toward helping her get active and get a calling. But we are already seeing miracles. OF what i heard, she used to be really stand-offish and anti-church. But she came and stayed all 3 hours and participated and is making friend with ward members and wants to have family nights with people. And it´s super awesome. And I can feel more miracles coming.
I love you all SO MUCH. i hope everything goes well this week and that Kenna isn´t too sunburned from her cousin cruise. (so jealous. SO) 
Heavenly father is watching out for each and every one  of us. Just trust him and study his scriptures and pray to him. He will be there. Have a beautiful day and god bless you!

Love,
Hermana Smoot



We went to Volan Calbuco


This is from our open house at the church in Pichi Pelluco.



Our apartment is adorable Love it- Its a tiny kitchen, bathroom and room with 2 beds. but adorable ;)

 I Found the fattest bear dog. We´re both strugglin (Ally is totally hilarious here! I can just hear her voice as she is saying it)

Gorgeous rain gear. Just...gorgeous. 


Monday, April 6, 2015

Week #36 (April 6, 2015) So many things! Leaving Puerto Montt! after 8 months in one spot!



My lovely missionary roomies!
The open house. We made little flags and felt so official. :)

Easter Activity. ( with the ZLs in our ward)
SO many things happened this week I have no idea where to start. But first of all I´M LEAVING PUERTO MONTT!  I know. It´s hard for everyone to believe. :) But yes. I´m am going to Puerto Varas, which is a grand 20 minutes from puerto montt and is actually where Marcelo Santana is from. So hopefully we will all be able to meet up one p-day. I´m going to miss their family so much. Actually I´m going to miss everything so much. Including the lovely hermana McClary.She is the best. (At least we´ll see each other after the mission) But I´m really really excited to have new doors to knock new people to meet a new ward to love and change. It´s hard, but really really good.

Also, for the chruch easter video we had a church open house on tuesday to show some exhibits and the video at the end. The sisters started out contacting everyone (According to elder nelson, the sisters are missionary work´s secret weapon) So we again talked to everyone and their dog to get them to come into the church. :) And we saw miracles. After a while we went inside to show the video and there was a girl there named angela. it was just her and us in the chapel. She moved up to see the TV better and then before we could even push play she told us that she had felt something so different here. Something that she had never felt before but the she really really liked. And she wanted to know how she could join. LIke, join the church. I couldn´t really believe it. But we talked to her and told her that this really was the truth and how amazing it was that she could feel it so quickly. She doesn´t live in our area, but it was amazing to see the power of the spirit affect someone so strongly. THE CHURCH IS TRUE PEOPLE!

Also, we had our easter activity. Which was really fun and a lot more stressing than I thought it would be. BUT, it all turned out after making about 100 mini cupcakes and decorating and inviting the whole world. We are hoping that the ward starts having more activities, because it doesn´t really happen a whole lot here. But DANIELA came and really enjoyed herself and met a lot of the members. Including her neighbors which we´ve been trying to make happen for weeks now. Miracles really do happen with lots of prayer and work. :)

Lets talk about conference! Wow. I´m serious conference is the best thing ever. Especially when the santana family lets you watch two whole sessions in ENGLISH. It was the best thing ever. On sunday we watched both in spanish but Daniela AND her boyfriend Julio came!! They really liked it and on tuesday we are going to have a lesson on chastity so that they can get baptized. It was absolutely amazing because we haven´t been able to find Julio becuase he works a ton. But we found them sunday morning in their house and the two of them came in the afternoon. It was such a miracle. 
 I really have a testmony of the prophets. They really teach us what we need TODAY. And I was able to recieve a lot a answers to a lot of questions. I challenge you all to watch or rewatch the sessions and really look for revelation. It´s there but you have to put in a little effort as well. I love this gospel. Things aren´t always perfect and I am so far from it. SO far. But that is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We put in our effort, (Always falling short.) And his grace is always sufficient to lift us up. I love you all and wish you the VERY best week. 

All my love,
Hermana Smoot


This is Hermana Zoila (cat lady) She´s missing the giant pink flower in her hair.