Wk 4: Week #4!! wow!!

Brother Theobald

 Future Philippinos

-Hiligaynon & Cibuano districts

 Philippine Sisters!!

 NgohNgoa Leih!

 The best artist ever!

 Best Things Ever!!

 Elder Stagg & Elder Evans

 Our Zone

 Sister Weight

 Sister Weight! Love her!!

Sister Lindsay & Pettyjohn

Family!!

So first of all....tell Grandma I am not trying to not see them! I just had a very short lunch and had to go early to class and I was confused at where they were at with the letter and trying to hurry so if you could this send me a letter like today or tomorrow the same day one and let me know where they are :) that'd be great!!

Okay, so Monday we chilled, wrote letters and taught Joey (Bro Theobald). And committed him to baptism!!! So cool!!! :) He agreed to work toward it. It was way cool!! :)

Tuesday, we taught a lesson to Resli (Sister Salway), it was a little rough, she had to be Resli, but the night before her dad was running in the Boston Marathon and finished 15 minutes before the bomb went off, then that night we had a devotional and Elder Richard G. Scott spoke!! He literally was speaking straight to me!! He also gave us an apostolic blessing!! Way incredible!! I wrote it down in my notes :) but i don't have them.

Wednesday, Sister Mullins got a blessing because she was sick, had another rough lesson with Resli. Le'ts just say we don't know how to explain things in Hiligaynon... but it's getting better!! Joey's lessons are amazing and Resli's are a little rough this whole week. We were practicing approaches also this day and Elder Evans is the man!! hahahahaha he had an approach where he would sit there and and say man this is a really good book!! and another one he just stood there and turned to Elder Stagg and say Hi!... i don't know how to explain it in writing but it was soo funny!! He seriously makes me laugh all the time!! :)

Thursday, we had TRC and It was so awesome!! Honestly TRC is awesome!!! :) I absolutely love it!! :) We felt the spirit a lot! and gained a lot more gratitude!!

Friday, We committed Joey to baptism for real this time!! it was cool!! He was silent for like a minute and a half and then said yes!! IT WAS SO COOL!! I love it!! :) Then i walked out and literally almost ran Jessica Foster over!! I was like ah! sorry then I said AHH JESSIE!! :) it made my day :) I love her so much! Then we taught Resli again and our 20 minute lesson went for like and hour and we were struggling through what to say between Catholics and us. It's hard to explain some things.

Saturday, was just a normal day! But it was our teachers last days!!! Sister Weight brought her peas from Toy Story 3 and they were so cute!! Then we had a fun day with her! Learning language and everything! Then we had our lesson with Joey for the last time and it was spiritual but I felt so bad because after he told us that he was acting the way he was because of Narcolepsy (no idea how to spell it) but i felt terrible!! Anways, then we had an INCREDIBLE lesson from Brother Theobald!! it was incredible!! :) A little language then spiritual in English, then he said the closing prayer and it was in Hiligaynon so I didn't understand his fast speech, but it was incredible!! He blessed each of us in his prayer and the spirit was so strong. Me, Sister Nielsen, and Elder Stagg and brother Theobald were bawling. And Elder Stagg's tears made it look like he wet his pants! haha so funny! but coolest experience ever!! We also gave both our teacher some funny cards :) It was awesome!! I will miss them!!

Sunday, was a good Sunday :) We went to sacrament meeting then breakfast. We had Music and the Spoken Word and Relief Society and the 2nd counselor in the general primary presidency spoke to us! We also had the new general young women president there! It was way cool!!  then watched mormon messages and went on a temple walk (this is what we do every normal sunday) then came back, went to dinner and devotional was BYU men's chorus!! It was way nice!! I miss choir and music!! haha Also, said bye to the departing districts in our zone going to the Philippines! I will miss them!! They are speaking Cebuano going to Tacaloban!! I love them to death!! 

This morning I went to the temple and we did Initatories (however it's spelled) and that was way cool! I haven't done them yet since my own!! :)

Anyways!! I'm going to try to send pictures this morning!! I don't have much time left!! I love you all!! Palangga Ko Kamo!! :) 

Love, Sister Smoot!! (Jenna)

-All ready for bed!

(taken by Sister Lisonbee- Branch Presidency member's wife)

Wk 3: WOW!!! Week number 3!!

me and Janessa Gray!!

the girls in our room our first week here! 

(yes, my shoes are awesome in front!;)

ok! today has been an incredible week!! :) holy cow!! No time (this may be shorter if i can shorten it... so i can send pictures)

Monday, Taught our first lesson to another investigator... Joey Roma. He is incredible!! We are finally teaching without notes!! Shouldn't have been, but was at the beginning! We were last and were almost out of time so it was short! but so incredible!! :) and before that it was just p day... :) haha

Tuesday, Today we taught another investigator, Resli for the first time. This one was a little rough, because the first investigator, Joel and Joey are the same teacher and he talks a ton, which i sometimes get lost in what he's saying in Hiligaynon, but Resli doesn't talk much. Our first lesson was rough but it's gotten better. :) Another Devotional!! Can't remember who spoke, but it was way good!! I wrote in my journal that it was very spiritual :) haha

Wednesday, we taught both resli and joey and joeys was amazing and I can love him so easy. resli i am having a hard time making it real, i think. But I'm working on it and praying hard to love her, because these truly are real people they are acting as. We taught Joey how to pray without notes!! It was a little rough, but so entirely incredible!! The spirit was so strong, another short lesson because we were almost out of time going second, but we prayed then he prayed. Joey seems to be really easy making it real and it made me want to seriously help him come unto Christ!! This was a lesson I talked a lot more in! I sometimes get scared to talk, but the Lord gave me confidence and helped me be able to speak to Joey! It was amazing!! :)

Thursday, I actually clicked with Resli!! I taught her about prayer also!! It was cool because we knelt down to pray, and she's Cataliko, so we didn't describe it in Hiligaynon that well, I guess because knelt and prayed for her then asked if she would pray like I did with Joey, then she said she didn't exactly understand and remember how or something like that so we went and got a paper and pen and wrote it down for her, then had her try again. She started reading every word we wrote down, oops!! Good thing we had her try to pray before we left so then I explained it better and she did it the easier way this time!! It was so cool!! This is the moment when it literally made me so excited and made me love her as God loves us soo much!! I felt that excitement!! SOO COOL!! :)

Friday, i didn't write much in my journal cuz it was late (sorry days blend together so i have to go by my journal, but i did learn more about the Philippines from Sister Weight and had a lot of spiritual moments in class with Brother Theobald! Such a cool day!! We also did companionship inventory which we have done a couple times, but soo cool how it seriously helps you connect!! :)

Saturday, was such a long day!! First, we had gym in the morning and i ran a mile then we played volleyball, just keep it up in the air volleyball which we play like everytime we have gym lately, and it's SO FUN!! :) We made it to 80!! It was sweet!! Anyways, I just have to say how awesome our teachers are! We had class before and after dinner and it was a long day... so they taught us head, shoulders, knees and toes in hiligaynon!! It was sweet!! I can't remember it though, or i would tell you! I wrote it in a different notebook!! haha i'll memorize it for next week :)  or something... um... we also played a game to help us memorize ako (I), ka (you).. ect. I can't remember it all or how to spell it even though spelling isn't suppose to matter.. anyways it was fun!! :)

Sunday!!! Incredible day!! Finally a normal sunday!! We have sacrament meeting at 7:30 for an hour and then go to breakfast then to relief society at 10 and music of the spoken word at 9:30 but in relief society we had Mary Edmonds speak and she was so funny!! So SO funny!! but such an incredible testimony!!! I loved it soo much!!! :)

Last night, I read mom's letter and it made me cry... I'm so glad I will see you all again in 18 months :) I love you all to death!! I'm grateful Emily can be so close to me today too :) She was at the temple this morning also, I was sitting in the chapel and I had a feeling to look up and there's a design on the ceiling near the front that is a huge flower and it looks like a forget me not flower :) SO INCREDIBLE!! :) I love my Heavenly Father and I Know he loves me and I know Emily is here helping me :) She's also doing incredible work in Heaven! I love her to death :) I'm so grateful for her help :)

Love you all!! I'll try to send pictures in the short time I have left :) you're the best!! :)

Love Sister Smoot (aka Jenna) 

Lacey Monson saw Jenna at the MTC! 

Wk 2: woohoo!! Week 2

 In our room!

 Our district: Sister Nielsen, Me, Elder Stagg, Elder Evans,

Sister Mullins, Sister Safeti

 The GUAPO sign! 

(what they do in the Philippines for pictures)

 Our Sunday walk! Love the fresh air

waiting for conference to start!

Wow!! I can't believe I've been here for almost 2 weeks!! This is crazy!! Ok well it has been an incredible week!! I got better from being sick!! And packages are a lot once we found out we couldn't have candy (other than hard candy) in our classrooms so i have to leave it in the residence until i get home and then i'm not hungry then, so yeah! Anyways, this week...

Monday, was p day so i went to the temple, did laundry, and emailed :) then we wrote a few letters, which i didn't get sent until later, but you know! That night, we taught Joel who became one our teachers later in the week after teaching him one or two more times after. His name is Brother Theobald and he is awesome!! Return missionary from the Philippines and he is an awesome teacher!! One that makes you want to be a better teacher!! Sister Weights is who we've started with and she's definately someone who is easy to relate to! She's incredible too!! I love my teachers!! This night hahaha sister Sefetti (from Figi the girl in our district) asked us all what tribe we were from and everyone answered except for elder Evans and so she asked elder Evans  where are you from? and he said this little town a like an hour from las vegas haha and we all start laughing and he was like oh duh you wouldn't know that, do you know las vegas? and we laughed harder and then he was like america?? so we all are like dying... it was hilarious ! Then once we calmed down and could talk, we told him what we were talking about and he was like oh!! and told her then she said ok! But being from Figi, she doesn't even know where Las Vegas is or what it is so it was funny!! :) anyways good laugh for the day!

Tuesday, we had our normal day with a devotional at night which we have every sunday and tuesday. It was Brother Ringwood and wife from the 70. He talked about enduring to the end, it was wonderful!! After the devotional we had a little district meeting, but because it was our first, we combined with the other new district also going to the Philippines and after. It was way good! We all shared our testimonies and what we learned!

Wednesday, our service project day we went and vacuumed the main building! All missionaries have different assignments. haha that was early in the morning and what we will be doing every wednesday morning. It was a normal day again. We taught Joel for the last time and (we didn't know it was our last time) and I was sick and luckily sister Rosedall ( i'll tell you about her later, but she is a sweetheart) came in with us and bore her testimony so that was a good spiritual lesson at the end after struggling through it, but it was good :) I enjoyed it!

Thursday, another normal day! I finally sent letter this day! It was definitely a good day!! The end of the day brother Theobald taught us for the first time and he is honestly so spiritual! Like I told you before, he is incredible!! The spirit was soo strong!! :) It was incredible!! I also got a blessing a couple days before this but i wrote it in my journal this day to help me get better and it helped a ton!! Honestly, I was a little homesick being here, but ever since that blessing, it helped a ton!! and I am getting over my sinus whatever it was cold and it's incredible! Honestly the power of the priesthood is amazing!!!! :)

Friday, was an incredible spiritual day!!!!! It made me so happy and just one of those days you feel like you are so happy and practically floating!! We had 2 teachers that taught that were incredible!! Brother Theobald and then Brother Oldroyd (who subbed for Sister Weight) but the spirit was so strong all day!! I honestly was so happy!! When we went back at 9 30 we were so happy and Brother Oldroyd told us a story about "Tuod-ka?" which is like "you serious?" or "really?" it's pretty funny!! I guess if you don't say something like "Tuod?" when someone is telling a story in the Philippines even if they say they went to the store to buy shoes they think you are bored or think they don't believe you! So they always say like really! I promise i went to the store to get some shoes! Then we were sayin that and ran out to say it to the girls in the room next to us after putting our pajamas on and forgot to put the wood in the door and you have to unlock the door everytime you go in haha so we are both in basketball shorts and t-shirts and get locked out of our room because we are the only ones in there so we borrowed shoes and borrowed jackets and went to the front desk in a building you aren't suppose to have cassual clothes in unless doing service you can wear jeans, but here we come in in basketball shorts to get a spare key to our room. It was funny!! Anyways, it's been a spiritally high and uplifting and funny week!!

Saturday, OH MY GOSH!! Incredible!! I love conference!! Like I said, we do breakfast, conference, lunch, conference, dinner, watched priesthood/yw sessions and it was amazing!! Then after, when we went back to our room for the last 45 minutes (can't return to residence til 9:30) we had a spiritual devotional about the whole day. We are all bearing our testimonies and I'll admit, i cried. oops but it was incredible!! I shared about in the yw broadcast, Uchtdorf was speaking at the end and he said that when we return to our Father in Heaven he will embrace us in his arms! It honestly made me so happy!! It made me think immediately of Valorie King and Emily Austin, thinking they have been embraced by the arms of our Heavenly Father. It was an incredible thought! After bearing our testimonies we knelt down and prayed (which we usually do as a district morning and night) and right when the prayer started I felt like we were floating, and I knew Emily and Valorie and our Father in Heaven were there! Emily had her arms around me and I wanted to open my eyes and see them so badly because I KNEW they were there!! It was honestly the best experience ever!!

Sunday, was another spiritual high with General Conference!! It was INCREDIBLE!!! Same schedule as Saturday and that night we had our sunday night Devotional! and BYU Vocal Point came!!! It was incredible the spirit they brought and how much they told us how much of a spirit we had here as missionaries!! It was incredible!! They are amazing singers and each of them are return missionaries and soo very spiritual! It was cool!!!

Monday, I've gone to the temple started laundry, changed, talked and now I am emailing :) haha

Honestly, It has been a wonderful week!! I absolutely LOVE the MTC and the spirit we have anywhere we are!! It's incredible what a mission can do to you!! I'm serious!!

Kabalo ako nga magtuod sa Simbahan ni Jesucristo sang mga Santos sa Ulihing mga Adlaw. (I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true) I truly know that it is and I am so grateful for this church!! Mom and Dad Thank you for being parents that are so strong in the true church and for raising me in it!! I don't know what I would do without it!! Thank you soo much!!

Sa ngalan ni Jesucristo, Amen. (In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.) Just a couple phrases I know for a fact! I don't want to tell you anything wrong, but those are two I'm pretty sure on :)

I love you family!! I love this church!! I love life!! I am so grateful for everything I have! I am soo lucky!!

Love, Sister Jenna Marie Smoot :) (haha I AM a mission for our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ) 

(other info:)

yes i got the easter basket! I love the ring it's perfect!! it gets a little tight when my hands get swollen, but it fits the same as my CTR ring but on my middle finger :) it's perfect thank you!! and yes I got my recommend!! They looked me up at the temple! Thank you for that by the way! It was an answer to my prayers!! I was about to write you then i opened the package haha.. 

umm.. we ended up not getting any new roomates so we have 4 empty beds in our room. Teachers we have two, and i think that's all.. we started off as one but then one of the 'investigators' became out teacher i can explain it better later. language is good! It's a very cool language! Frustrating at times, but very cool... i'll write something in my letter for you and yes i send the pictures wrong last week haha but i think i know how to do it now so we will see if it works! um...

I see a ton of people i know! Ryan Mulford, London Lazerson, a ton!! I just don't get pictures with EVERYONE because we can't carry big bags around... I may want a small one like really small... but I don't know i'll let you know! um I am definately feeling better... my ears are clogged though like they were a long time ago once i got that cold... My cold is pretty much gone other then my ears and a cough and runny nose here and there... but it's cool :) my ears are kind of annoying though! sorry I am trying to hurry I hope this makes sense!! 

candy i can't really take anywhere but my residence and we are mainly only there on p day and before 7 am and after 9 30. I can only have hard candy like life savers and mints and mentos and stuff... so don't send too much more... I am struggling eating what I have! They give you enough food that I'm not hungry. Sleep... It's hard going to sleep at 10:30. waking up is always not the best for me and sister nielsen.. but we are doing it! :) haha you do so much you become exhausted each day! 

my camera is working good and i am taking a lot of pictures :) yes i took the right stuff.. advice for ashley... pack SUPER light!! I didn't and i wish i did! honestly it's like you want to match and look cute but it doesn't matter and my teacher (sister weights) she said make up is sometimes a distraction in the Philippines and they think you are pretty anyways because you have white skin! so just a note :) i have enough boxes for now to send stuff home in i'm going to try again to send stuff home but i didn't have time last week so we'll see... 

I did watch the thing after conference and i saw Nate church!! It was cool :) and Josh Brown!! awesome!! I'm so happy for them!! I love them!! :) haha I keep seeing people i know on tv in mormon messages and around the mtc... i feel like i'm in a spiritual junior high/highschool after college hahaha it's funny. 

I'm so happy for Tayton! Tell him good job!! I wish i could watch him play! But i will when i get home :) and tell jade I hope he gets better!! I'll pray for him!! Tell him not to ruin his arm :) But no I love the packages! I love hearing from you!! I feel special when I get a package or even a letter!! Letters would be good :) I'm not sure what to do in the stuff in my packages anymore because we can't have food in our classrooms other then what i told you! haha 

Sister Nielsen is wondering if one of those passport things i got for the airplane to go under my clothes if you could get one for her and she'll send her money or something! Unless you know where you got it and they have one in AZ?? maybe?? haha I don't know! just let me know! I'm not sure why dear elder isn't working! Tell dad just to write a letter and have you drop it off at postmart or something so i can read it! :) 

Literally thank you for everything mom!! I'll write about my day in another letter now!! you honestly are the best!! I'm the luckiest daughter in the world to have parents like you and dad! I never really realized how fortunate I am to have parents like you!!

:) Sister Smoot!! 

Wk 1: hello!

Our purpose-

out of the Preach my Gospel

Jessie works at the MTC!

Sister Nielsen & Sister Smoot

Jenna with Sister Hailey Johnson

MOM!! :)

Uh yeah I'm getting use to it haha :) (being called Sister Smoot)  Mom! This place is literally the best! I miss home, and it still is surreal that I am a missionary and that's awesome!! My companion is honestly the best companion I could ask for!! Sister Nielsen is incredible!! She's actually the new coordinating sister :) She's truly incredible!! I'm going to send pictures in an email after this. Plus I have an hour to email now :) It's sweet!!

My schedule is the same every week but every day is different, if that makes sense. It's just jumbled. Literally everyday we start out with planning, then it consists of study, class time (classroom instruction), personal study, companionship study, gym and more class, and sometimes in the class we teach an investigator. I will try to tell you what I did everyday, but honestly it all kind of blends all together.

Wednesday we got here, walked our bags to the door then the elder took my bag down the sidewalk while I went inside, got my name tag (by the way my name tag is in English!! My mission use to be English speaking but now it isn't, but the church is in English, so it's kind of like a logo-our teacher told us that the other day) then came back out a different door to our luggage and to Grandma Smoot :) and then another sister walked me to my room dropped off my luggage and went to class. The first day of class and most of every class was straight Hiliguynon! I was so confused!! I was like wow!! But she would throw in English words here and there so we would kind of understand what she was saying. I'm starting to understand a little bit or at least recognizing words here and there and can't really remember what they meant. Anyways, back to wednesday, we went and did a little presentation thing where we went to like 3 "investigators" houses and it would start with 2 missionaries knocking on the door and then they would leave and we would talk to the investigator with a big group of missionaries as if we were one companionship (just by raise of hands) it was way cool because we literally were like wow! This is crazy! Like it really hits you like this is what we are going to be doing and you have no idea what people can say!

Thursday was a day as I said above with all the things listed that we do everyday. We also met our Branch President which is incredible!! My district by the way consists of 6 missionaries. 2 elders and 4 sisters. Very small :) They will be in pictures so you should know who they are! The other group of missionaries that is going to the Philippines, a few to Iloilo, just have 2 more elders than we do in their district, and that's where the girl from Texas that we met is. I blanked on her name, I'm sorry!! But Thursday was good, but super long!!!!

Friday was the same thing but during one of our class times we taught our first investigator and that was rough. We kind of wrote down yes and no questions and Joel (our investigator) would go off asking questions, and obviously we didn't know the language that much at all so he repeated himself a few times and the words we picked up were Joseph Smith, Christ, and Redeemer. I think he was asking who was the Redeemer but I am still not sure. But it was an incredible experience!! It's way cool! So we have a teacher and then another Hiliguynon teacher (usually a return missionary from somewhere) will be an investigator he taught on his mission in Bacolod and try to act like him. It's really cool! Because you really have to learn how to make it seem legit and it really does!! It's incredible!! I'm still getting use to it!

Saturday was the same thing, we taught our second lesson and it went a little better. I feel like we tried to listen to him better and we figured out how to say we spoke little Hiliguynon :) haha it was pretty funny!! Anyways, it's been really good!!! I'm know how to begin and end a prayer and I need to memorize the rest, my testimony is the same as the prayer I know how to begin and end and some parts in the middle but I need to memorize the rest.

Sunday was incredible!! Had a lot of meetings. My companion got called as a coordinating sister and so she was in meetings part of the day, so i was with other sisters at that time. We had a testimony meeting, usually our sacrament meeting at 7:30 and then went and got in line for the big Easter sacrament meeting where about 100 elders passed the sacrament to everybody in the MTC and the Presiding Bishop (Bishop Clausse and his wife from France) came!! It was incredible :) They were fun to listen to!! We went back to our classroom and watched some of the mormon videos I think... or something! We studied, then went to dinner (this is what i can remember) then went to a devotional and Sheri Dew spoke to us!! She honestly is so incredible and has such a strong testimony!! I had no idea she wasn't married though!! Crazy!! She's a very incredible and inspirational lady though!! It was very fun! After that we went and watched any movie we wanted to! We went to The Call! A talk given by Elder Uchtdorf and his wife spoke too!! They are sooo funny!! Watch those talks if you get the chance :) I loved them!! Then we went back to our classroom for a half an hour, planned for today, then left!

Today (Monday) I got up at 5:15 got ready super fast, came and put my laundry in and ran to the the temple for the 6:20 session! It was crazy!! Then we came back, went to breakfast, got our laundry, saw Jessie!!! :):) I asked some sisters cleaning and a guy working came up and called Jessie over it was the best :) Now I'm here getting laundry and emailing :) the only place you can email without being in a dress, even though I'm in a dress but it's one of the two places you can send pictures :)

Food is actually not bad! It's pretty good!! Just have to give yourself a variety, my roommates are incredible!! They (other than my companion) are all leaving tomorrow morning! Only here for two weeks going English speaking, one's going to Cali and I can't remember the others. They are all so cute and incredible!! I love them to death and sad to see them go! We only have 3 other sisters in our room they are a trio. I have them in pictures in our room with a few extra people! I think... I hope you enjoy this!! I hope it's detailed enough for you!! :)

I have seen a lot of people I know!! Hailey Johnson, Sam Harris, Nick a couple times but haven't gotten a picture with him or maybe I did but you'll see most of them in pictures :) and yes I have WAY too much stuff, I will be starting to send stuff home probably get stuff together today if I have time :) I love you mom!! you're the best!!

Thank you for being incredible!! :) Just keep being you! I'm so glad I am on a Mission. I'll send something in my language in a letter I'll probably write today! I love you!!

Love, Jenna :)

P.S. Show dad this email also... I don't have a ton of time to write him all the same detail so this is for him too :)