Week # 69 (Nov 23, 2015) How is it already Thanksgiving?

Hello one and All!

Thank you all so much for the support and love. I really don´t deserve all the kind words that I recieved. :) This week was much better in the sense of my attitude and mood. And we reached the standard of exellence in our mission for contacts. I think thats one of the only times i´ve done it so, go us! I can´t really even remember what happened this week, the time goes by so quickly. We had two companion exchanges; one with a brazilian new missionary who is adorable and gave me more enthusiasm to work and the other with a chilean who is adorable and is really good at not rambling and saying exactly what people need to hear. It´s something that a lot of missionaries do not have (me) and I want to get better. My companion is amazing and is helping me so much to be the best i can be and be super focused in right now. And not worry about what is going to happend after or about my career or about all the things that come after these few short months. We talked about how we have to focus on now or we will begin to just wish away the future. It´s definitely easier said than done but i hope to learn it well and make it a lifestyle. 

We had a fun adventure this week. The nurse called us at roughly 9:30 as we were running to our house saying that one of the sisters had fractured her ankle and we had to go be with her in the hospital in pto montt. So a million and a half calls later, a member helped us get there and we stayed the night with some other sisters that lived there. It was amazing how smoothly everything went seeing has it was a last minute not planned at all situation. Heavenly father really is in charge. Sometimes i find myself so worried about all the small stuff, but if i just stay calm, trust and do what I can, Heavenly Father always provides. And it´s always just fine in the end. #eternalperspective haha.

We had some complications with Marianela.....meaning we can´t find her. Literally. But we are praying that everything is ok. And hoping for the best. We gave her a little heart attack on her door just to show her we love her. There is power in just a few gestures of love. 

Sorry this letter is all over the place. I know god lives. The gospel is true. The book of mormon is amazing and is the word of god. I´m so grateful for my testimony and for all of you. And this time I have in southern chile. I hope all of you the best. Be well.

Love,

Hermana Smoot

Hermana Wyatt and I

Raining.....and raining. This is the life.

My tape ready compy

Our lovely view on the hills we get to walk up

Week # 68 (nov. 19) Esperanza (HOPE)

I wish i had had Aunt Vicki this week chanting, "We can do hard things!" Becuase this week was just that. Very hard. And i think I learned and grew more in one concentrated period of time than I have for a while now. I think, more than anything i learned a lot about the nature of my heavenly father and how he works to make us into what we need to be. And what he needs us to be for him.

Friday the 13th (ridiculously ironic) was one of the most difficult days I think I´ve had here. It may have just felt like that in the moment. But it was. This whole week was just full of walking....and walking...and putting forth every drop of effort to recieve....nothing. Then after a week of that friday rolled around and after a frustrating lunch with a member and trying to figure out a map for our sector (don´t even ask) I thought after so many downs, God would give us a really good lesson with some investegators that we were going to visit who were AWESOME. Like chosen, searching for the truth awesome. Because that always happens, after the bad, comes the good. So we went and lo and behold, the dad comes out with his book of mormon saying they aren´t prepared and don´t want to continue more. I turned away kind of in denial and shock and then within 5 minutes I started crying as we are talking to a woman at her door and then I just sat down on a swing and the water works came out. I just didn´t understand why it was so hard. And i was SO so so tired. It all just came crushing down. I think the only word to descibe would be hopeless. It just felt like there was no way out and even when this day was over, more bad things were just going to happen. I´m sure at one point in our lives, we´ve all felt a little like that. My heart just felt so heavy and worn completely out. But our loving heavenly father, in my lowest of lows sent gaurdian angels in a time when i needed it most. A time where i felt tired of being the hope and help that evryone else needed. The messenger needed the message...my companion sat down with me and we rested and instead of a scripture, read me the quote from Lord of the Rings when Frodo just can´t anymore and sam is there to say that there is still good in the world. When i calmed down enough to stand up and go get something to eat, a man in the store was super friendly with us and bought me a little chocolate. As we walked to our totally destroyed plans we found a couple that thanked us for our service and told us how brave we were and how impressed they were with all the hard work we were doing. And finally another contact saw us and started talking to us about his life. He´s lived in Jersey for 5 years and spoke to us in his broken chilean-jersey english about christ. And in a random street in the south of chile, i was given peace. he talked about how christ will never lave us even if we leave him, how christ is there even in the darkest of times. Even when we can´t see it. He is there. He is hope. I was almost moved to tears with the simplicity of his words. And as we turned away to go home, I´ll admit that i didn´t feel a sudden surge of energy nor a flodding burning feeling of happiness. My heart still felt heavy and exhausted. But i felt peace. And gratitude that my heavenly father sen angels to his missionary that is always sent to everyone else. I was amazing at the love and how involved our heavenly father is in every detail of our lives. And i´ll admit that even after 8 hours of sleep, the next day was still hard and a few tears were still shed. But little by little, prayer by prayer, i was able to see more and more light. Feel more peace, more hope. It´s just so funny how god works sometimes. After so much bad i expected some miracle to chenge everything around. An amazing day where everyone lets us in and the sun shines and the choir sings. And He is totally capable of that. But it didn´t happen that way. He gave me small and simple seeds of hope, exercising my faith, and patience and humility and letting me figure it out. What i know is that GOD LOVES US. More than we can understand. That is why there is bad in the world and that is why there is good. It´s all from him. And we are progressing and learning and becoming things that we can´t imagine. That is why giving up isn´t an option. Like Sam says, I  know Frodo that you can´t do this. But He can carry us. And there is always a little bit of light that´s worth fighting for.

I love you all and i´m doing really really good right now. Actually, we fasted with Marianela and she quit smoking! We´ve got only a few more complications but she should be getting baptized in a couple weeks. Thank you for all of your prayers. I love you so much and wish you all the best week ever!

Love,

Hermana Smoot

Week # 67 ( Nov. 9, 2015) Saving Dogs whilst saving souls

CAMBIOS. Transfers.

Hna Wyatt and me. The SUN is starting to come out

This. Week. Has. Been. So. Long. But so darn lovely. I have a wonderful companion that leaves in December and is doing everything possible to make this the BEST six weeks of her mission. It´s helping me so much to focus. She is basically the best, most obediente human ever. So we are seeing miracles. And coming home So tired But in the best way possible. I am grateful. 

This week was full of news and olds and memories. And some hilariously miraculous situations. First the funny

Once upon a time we were doing contacts and we saw two girls chasing their chubby little dog up the street. And every time they called her name, it would run farther up the street. So we decided to help. And after about 10 minutes of running and chasing, I grabbed her gave her to the girls (thanks Hermana Braithwaite for teaching me to love dogs more than i did before) And we striked up a conversation and got down their information. So, even though knocking on doors is super fun.... there are always MANY ways to find people to teach. Including rescuing puppies. 

I´ve also been introduced to a lot of new responsibilties as a sister trainging leader with trying to catch buses and checking on houses and doing a lot of other things that I hadn´t really thought of. Yesterday, we had to go to a town a 20 minute bus ride from pto. Varas and we were already running super late. So we were going to call the sisters that we were going to meet when i realized i totally forgot the phone in the house. And we had never been to where we were going. So without knowing what to do, we both just said a silent prayer and trusted. We got out and ended up finding a guy who onle a call center and had met a ton of missionaries. He let us use his phone and we were able to meet up with the sisters on time. I´ve had so many experiences like that where i get so stressed out about so many little things that we have to do and the situation just seems impossible. But after prayer, we move forward with faith and it ALWAYS works out. Heavenly father provides a way for situations to have a beneficial outcome. Whether it means what we wanted in the first place, or what he wanted us to learn in the end. 

I´ve been thinking a lot about the will of our heavenly father and just giving everything up to him. Even all the little things that aren´t bad, but in the end don´t help me focus on my purpose. My companion has seemed to really mastered it, even though we are both in the process. But it´s amazing becuase for the past few days we´ve been able to help each other to complete those personal goals. I hope it can continue and I pray for the strength to do it. I´m NOt perfect and never will be but it´s our heart that heavenly father wants. Just the pure desire to do his will and the loyalty that we have to that promise. And then he knows that we will make mistakes becuase that´s part of this moral state that we are in. But we just have to give him our heart. 

Sorry I just keep missionary ranting. Just  know that I love this work and I love all of you. I hope that all of you are trusting in him. The gospel is beautiful and simple and I know it´s true. 

Have the most beautiful week!

Herman Smoot

Also, Puerto Varas es hermoso! (beautiful)

This is blurry but its the fat dog that we saved

Week # 66 ( Nov. 2, 2015) Treasure

A family night while Marianela´s daughters were visiting! She says that we remind her of them. She is adorable.

Oh, ps. I cut my hair and i love it. 

Hello one and all!

This transfer is coming to a close and I can´t really believe it. I know i frequently talk of the time, but it´s just becuase it flies SO fast. 

This next transfer i will be staying her in Pto Varas and my lovely companion Hna Braithwaite is going to llanquihue. (tears. sniff) BUT it´s actually really cool because I was called as Sister training leader and i will be able to have exchanges with her. YES! I´m actually really nervous and excited about the new assignment. Even though i´m nervous to be that example, i know that the lord will qualify me. I´m really working on just being "fiercly loyal" (as Ashley says) to the lord and just do his will. When you are on his team you do what he wants and you see miracles. Even if I´m still very imperfect and quite rough around the edges. We can do this together.

This week was a roller coaster,  but hey, what´s new. :) We had two AMAZING days and 5 not so good ones, but as they always say, I really only remember the good. We had zone conference and are really focusing as a mission to have more faith and the be more spiritual, including a three month reading of the book of mormon. What better way to end the mission? On top of that, we found the coolest people this week. SO prepared. We have been knocking a lot of doors and finally have been finding. There is a family that we found that studied with the Jehova´s Witnesses for a long time but in the end didn´t join. They said that the felt something was missing. The mom, Soledad, said that she knows that there has to be a true church and she is just searching to find it! WHAT since when do people actually say that. They recieved us really well and our message and are going to be praying. They are willing to take the risk.  

Marianela is doing great. She picked a baptismal date for the 28 of November and we are working toward it. I think she is finally getting it in her mind that she can really quit smoking by herself and with god. She is on her way and, as the picture shows, is trying to teach her little girls about it too. :) She humbles me so much.

Can we all just realize how incredible this gospel is. The more I study it and the more that I meet people that don´t have it, the more precious i realize it is. This week our ward took their trip to the temple. Most people here go about once a year and save up for it and take a long weekend, and a 15 hour bus ride to make it there. In testimony meeting a couple stood up and bore fervent testimony of the blessings that they had felt. The sister had gotten baptized a long time ago and her husbad was inactive for a long time. But he became active this last year and they were able to get sealed this weekend. Everyone was in tears to hear that pure testimony. What a blessing we have. A gift. There are literally 10 temples within a couple hours of my house. I hope to take advantage of that when i get home. Take advantage of it now! The gospel is wonderful. We are children of god. We have purpose. Jesus Christ died for us. We can be truely happy. Take a minute to think of all the blessings. :) They aren´t few. I love you all so much and I love my heavenly father. I am grateful for this gospel. To be a missionary. To have really really difficult days so that i can love the good ones. 

....I´m missionary ranting. :) I just can´t help it. 

Have a beautiful week and treasure the knowledge you have. LOVE YOU!!

Week # 65 (Oct. 26, 2015) Superlatively lovely

Superlatively lovely

We had lunch with this crazy boy and he put on his dad´s nametag. Future missionary!!

it was warm enough to not wear TIGHTS. you don´t understand the freedom that i felt.

We went to the most beautiful farmhouse with hermana Patricia. She is hilarious. Also, we. ate. so. much. food. They do like their cooking.

WIND! I seriously love my companion so much. She is the best.

They say that when something happens three times it´s means it´s a superlative or the most that it could be (big, better, BEST) and our three miracles on wednesday pretty much made for one of the best days of the mission. 

1. We had a lesson with a (VERY) stubborn less active that said, upon entering her house, that she didn´t want us to come anymore. She just was tired and didn´t want to try anymore. I don´t know why, but i felt that really something we could say would change her mind...and that scared me more because THAts a lot of pressure. But i just prayed super hard that we could say something to touch her heart. And i can´t really remember the exact words that we said, but suddenly after my companion´s powerful testimony, she said softly, "ya. i need to go to church....I´m going to go to church." I almost had a heart attack. WHAT. But then she said. but not this week....next week. Just to be stubborn haha. But i was amazed at the power of the spirit.

2. A father of two let us into his house and is really searching for the truth and had so many questions. He wanted to come to church yester day but went out of town. But we really feel good about him. 

3. The biggest of all this week: We had lunch with a family that has an inactive son. They are MORE than active in the church but his son just got lost. He came and ate with us and up until that moment we didn´t know very much about him. We were joking about how he can speak english very well and didn´t really want to show it. But then suddenly he just started talking and, as he was shaking, told us everything that he was going through. He poured out his trials and weaknesses. His problems with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sexual orientation and the fact that he just wanted to be happy, but felt like his heart was just shattered. As he talked, my mind was racing about how in the world I was supposed to help someone like that. But we just listened and i prayed SO hard to just give him some comfort. And I´m acutally not really sure what we said, but we spoke directly from the spirit and cried and bore testimony of the power of the atonement and that the only real happiness comes from that power of repentance and the relief of our burdens. As we were talking, suddenly my companion said, ¨do you want to fast?" And i was like, "what? this kid doesn´t even pray, how is he going to fast?" But then we explained it and he said yes. And right there we started a fast together. When we went back the next day, not everything changed, but there was definitely a different light on his face. And i really think that was so crucial in this path the he is now on. Yesterday we challenged him to pray every day, and even though he was reluctant, he is willing to try. I just pray he can make it and be healed. I know the atonement is more powerful that ANY sin or problem that we have. Grandpa Smoot explained it to me one time that it´s like being in a hole. And some of our holes are a lot deeper than others. So deep that we can´t even see the light at the top. But if we can even jump just an inch. A centimeter. Excersise our faith just a little and trust him, he will pull us out. Always.  

I know that christ lives. I know that´s one of the main reasons i am here. So that people can feel the love of god and the redemptive and rescuing power of the atonement. There are still hard days. Actually most of the days this week were really hard. But heavenly father does that on purpose and everything will be for our profit and learning. We just need to trust, look for the light, and move forward with faith. :)

I love all of you so much. Thank you for all the support!!! I really can´t tell you how lucky I am to have a family like you.  HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY LILLY. She is so big. Can´t wait to see all the pics of her pinterest birthday. hahaha. :) 

LOVE YOU!!!

Love

Hermana Smoot

Week #64 ( Oct. 19, 2015) Sacrifice Brings forth the blessings of Heaven

Sacrifice Brings forth the blessings of Heaven:

If i had a dollar for every time I sang that song, i would be a very rich missionary. This week was lovely. We are still having slight problems with health but as of today the four of us that live together are doing well. It´s actually a blessing that there are four of us becuase we can go on splits when someone is sick and it works really well. haha. I put that song as the title today because I really have felt it. The harder the work is the more blessings that just seem to pour out from heaven. I can think of a few examples the week:

1. OUR BISHOP came to a mini ward council meeting that we are supposed to have every week. Our bishop has a very busy work schedule and can only come to church every other sunday and it´s pretty darn difficult to have a ward council. So we did a fast for him and we are seeing some fruit budding. We are getting there! The ward members here really are amazing.

2. We were on our way to lunch (this was a morning where i didn´t really feel good) and we had about 20 minutes so we knocked on doors. A man opened his door and was super intersted in what we were saying and we have an appointment with him. He gave us a couple references of his neighbors and is going to invite his girlfriend to come listen this week. SO cool.

3. We gave Marianela the challenge to read 3 nefi 11-27 (Earthly ministry of Christ in the Americas) and when we called yesterday she said that she has almost finished! And we gave it to her a week or so ago. She is doing well. But we are still working with the smoking. Thank you so much aunt paula and grandpa and everyone who has given advice and support for her situation. I´m sure she is feeling so many prayers. 

4. The coolest part of this week was yesterday. We went to church and a member came up to us and said that someone had come to church by herself and wasn´t a member. We went up to her and apparently has been looking at a lot of churches and always passes by our chapel. So she just decided to come. Her name is Carmen and is really awesome. She had to go to work and couldn´t come to the classes, but we set up an appointment. I have a good feeling about her. It was amazing. I didn´t think stuff like that actually happened. 

So, as you can see, there are many a blessing to count from heaven for all the sacrifices that we make. Whether it just be a friendly smile, making an extra effort to pray or read, or talking to someone. Heavenly Father smiles at us at all we do and and think he´s just waiting for opportunities to shower blessings upon us. :) So sacrifice a little and the windows of heaven will open so much that there won´t be room to recieve the blessings.

I love you all so much. I can´t thank you enough for the support an love that I feel. You are all amazing and are helping so much in this grand work. Have a beautiful week!!

I love Pto Varas! 

Week # 63 ( Oct. 12, 2015) Caminar mas que Mormón

There is a saying here in southern chile when someone walks a ton and is super tired. "we walked more than the mormans" :) That saying was validated this week. We finally left this week after my lovely case of bronchitis and becuase we hadn´t left for a while, we didn´t really have any appointments. Also, our sector is SO big. So, we walked. And walked and walked. Literally, on saturday we did not enter one house and were walking from 11 to 9:30. Minus lunch. We almost died. BUT the day was super super pretty. And we were able to find a few people. And bond through hardships as companions. haha. 

The work is going well here in Pto Varas. We got a little sneak peek of summer these past few days and it was So pretty. (photos will follow) Marianela is doing OK, and is progessing slowly but surely. She said that after her daughter went to conference with her she said "Mommy, i´m a mormon" or "yo soy mormona" she´s five and has a little lisp so it was adorable. She really wants to progress but just has to stop smoking. We are doing everything we can to help her so now it´s just in her hands. I know she can make it. 

We also had a super cool contanct/lesson with a inactive soccer coach thanks to my awesome sporty companion. We found him washing his car and he had a shirt on that said "coach" so we started talking about soccer and he is a professional trainer that has lived in the United states for five years. English plus soccer plus the spirit and my comp was on a ball. Seriously it was one of the coolest lessons ever. My comp totally compared the gospel to all the rigor of sports and that it´s really in our hands to follow the commandments and heavenly father is yelling on the sidelines cheering us on and knows exactly what we need. and When we follow it, we are always better off. It was my miracle of the day. I really think he is going to progress. 

Life is great and I´m honestly just trying to enjoy it. There are ups and downs and upside downs, but the work goes forth and I am his instrument.
I hope that your week is full of tender mercies and that you enjoy it. :)

I love you!!

Love,

Hermana Smoot

Yes i totally took that picture. And yes almost all that you see is our sector....apart from the volcano.....

veggies for district meeting.