Wk 50!- Zone Training Week!!

Area: San Carlos
Companion: Sister Lara

All the STLs! (Sister Training Leaders)

at MLC  (Mission Leadership Conference)

This week has been really good!! Lets just say I had zone training last week. I was feeling really down so I got a blessing from President Lopez after and I can not describe how happy I felt!! I felt so clean so pure so incredibly happy!! Zone training was also incredible!! Because I felt so amazing! The training the next day went even better!!

I taught about overcoming obstacles. It was incredible the spirit that was there. We talked about Christ and talked about a lot of different things. People added and that was incredible and I cried (thought I'd gotten over that, but not yet, maybe never) but just what I'd experienced the day before I overcame Satan getting to me. Telling me I'm not good enough. These things really do happen!! I know that Heavenly Father is more powerful and the Priesthood is definitely power from God!! I know this church is true and overcoming obstacles is so important as a missionary and just in life in general. The more you are closer to God, the easier it is to overcome trials. Trust him!! Don't let your testimony falter!! :) I LOVE MY SAVIOR!! I LOVE THIS CHURCH!! I KNOW IT'S TRUE!!! :)

We also had permission to work with young women, so we worked with one that is Sister Melanie Ledewan. I am not sure how you spell her name but she's 16 and she is amazing!! We got on a tricycle and she was in the back and another sister was with us sitting in back with her and me and sister lara were in front. She started asking her about her family and she introduced herself as a member of the church and I just handed her a pamphlet and so she could give it to her. IT WAS AMAZING!! Even if we challenge members to do it they have a hard time, but she was so proud and happy! I turned to her after and told her good job!! and She was like ah!! I was so nervous!! But the sister accepted and is in a different branch but she gave her a pamphlet! and it was amazing!! I want to be like her!! Be a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ.

To be honest these little miracles that have happened this week aren't just people doing things. It's people putting their trust in God and having faith that he will put in their mouth what they need to say. It happened to me and it happened to melanie. I know the teaching I did on Wednesday wasn't from me, it was from God and I had the opportunity to be his instrument. I want to teach like that ALWAYS!! I prayed before that he would be able to teach through me because I was too nervous to give the training myself. But God did it for me :) I am so happy and lucky to be his servant and I know that not only me as a missionary is his servant but all of us as members of the true church here on earth are missionaries. I never want to stop! this work it's amazing!!

I know sorry... i sound like a missionary but it's the best work ever and I love it with ALL of my heart!! :) So grateful for everything we have and for this work and the love of my Savior, our Savior.

Thank you for all of your examples and for everything!! I wish I could feel as happy as I do now ALWAYS!! I will try, but i know the times when you are down make these times even better!! :) I love you all!! :)

Love, Sister Smoot

p.s. thank you for all the birthday messages :) love you!  

Sister Sefetti is now with me at MLC :) It made me so happy!! :) She is from my batch in the MTC if you remember :) I love her dearly and so grateful for her example!! :)

This was our trip home. Elder Crossland gave up his seat to a sister but the whole 3 and a half hours until about the last hour there were people standing. It was packed and they kept stopping and letting people on too. Only in the PHilippines! i love it!! haha

thank you for the package :) i got the flower off the top! I will take more pictures of my packages when i open them on sunday :) thank you!

 

 sister lara cut herself some bangs the other day :) haha love her!!

 

Wk 49: wow!! what a week!!

Area: San Carlos
Companion: Sister Lara

our District!

us at our BML's house :) he's on the right side!
He's awesome!! (BML=branch mission leader)

Ok, so first i want to start off, sorry I'm on early today because I am going to MLC so i'm heading to bacolod for the meeting tomorrow. So we study tonight instead of in the morning :)

Second, i forgot somethings last week that happened that were kind of funny. Sister Lara and I broke a bench but it's ok because they fixed it :) but i sat down first and im bigger then sister lara and then she sat down and went straight through. hahaha it was funny. It just came out but it was funny, right before a lesson at someones house. We also taught a brother, that was asking questions as if he was a priest, found out later from our BML that he is the founder of a church... wow!! He wants to prove us wrong a little, but i've never met a founder of a church before!! AH!!! and i think that was it... haha

we went to people's park last monday :)
it was very pretty and nice

This week has been amazing!!! Our miracle that happened with brother Carlos practically just asking us if he could learn about Jesus Christ while we walked by has now come to church. He also invited a few of his friends to listen or are also so ready to hear the gospel. They came to church yesterday and they loved the feeling there. It was cool to see how excited they were to go to church!! I absolutely loved it!!! :) It made me so happy!! :) One of them also loves Bob Marley and he has his hair! haha I haven't taken a picture with them yet though. We are going back to them on Wednesday. But they are always asking questions and it was a miracle God gave to us!! They have kept all commitments we have given to them. Read all the pamphlets and started the Book of Mormon and stopped their word of wisdom in a day. I have never seen such a miracle happen!! This work is truly God's work. To be honest, if we didn't receive all the rejections we did, we wouldn't have found them because we wouldn't have even been close to that area. Sister Lara just decided we should go search for members there and we hadn't been going on that road before, but it was truly an inspiration from God and he took us there. :) I LOVE THIS WORK!!! IT'S AMAZING!! :)

I am so excited for MLC this week and for the chance to give a training on Wednesday also. I love how happy this work makes you and how much it lives you up from being so far down. It's incredible!!! :) I am so excited to work this week and to help people progress. Yes, I've had a few downs this week, but that always happens!! Just look at the things that happen that are incredible and the downs are so worth it!! They make those times even better!! :)

I love you family!! Thank you for everything you are doing and for your examples to me!! :) Keep being amazing!! I am so grateful for the family that I have!!! :) Have a wonderful week!!

those are all the sisters in our zone :) and our district! it's sister Legaspi and sister Tampos.
I was in my first area with sister Legaspi and sister tampos i knew her before but can't fully remember where... :)

Love, Sister Smoot :)

(I asked Jenna her thoughts on the atonement- because I teach Sunday School and that is the theme for the month):

the best way is to read preach my gospel. Look in chapter 3 lesson 2 principle 5 if it's numbered or just under the atonement there. and how old of people are you teaching? There is about his suffering in the garden of Gethsemane and about his crusifiction also. It depends on the person on how you teach it. Sometimes it is very simple and sometimes you go in a little bit more and sometimes just a lesson is on the atonement alone. But look in preach my gospel there may be another place also to find it but not off the top of my head. But I am so grateful for his atonement. It's something we use everyday for our mistakes and also for our trails as well. We can overcome anything if we become closer to Jesus Christ because of his atonement by reading the scriptures praying and doing the simple things and following the commandments.

oh... I am in a bit of a rush for time and the atonement is huge, but i'll write a little, but I am so grateful for the Atonement. I really do use it everyday to become better. The Atonement is something I have a hard time grasping, but I grasp a little everyday. It's what I turn to when I have hard times. The closer we are to Christ the more we can use it for overcoming our hard times in life, like being far away from family and home. Homesickness is real and so are trials and guilt and mistakes we make, but I know that through the Atonement we can overcome that. We can receive forgiveness and become happier in our lives. The Savior is my best friend and my life and my way to return home again in the end. I am so grateful for him and his atonement. I have a hard time thinking of dying for one persons mistakes and trials and yet he died for the whole worlds mistakes and trials. I am so enormously grateful for his Atonement, I wish i could express it in word and over email its even harder, but I love my Savior Jesus Christ and am incredible grateful for what he did for us. Thank you to my parents to teach me and help me learn how to use the atonement. And now I get to figure it out and experience it here everyday. :) 

Wk 48: Abigail's baptism!

Area: San Carlos

Companion: Sister Lara

Abigail our convert and Luana a child of record :) so cute!!

This week has been a little bit better. I honestly haven't been turned down so much! Neither has Sister Lara. But it's truly a blessing in disguise because now we have time to go look and search for new people. We found a less active on friday and invited him to church. He said he was active, but turns out he isn't and he came to church on sunday!! It was amazing! Like all he needed was to be invited back. It was amazing!!

We also found some investigators that wanted to come to church yesterday but they said that one of them wasn't there so next sunday they will come :) They were right by the house of the Less Active. We also had someone walk up and ask us if he could hear about Jesus Christ because he loves Jesus Christ and he said see and showed us a big tattoo that he has on his arm of Jesus Christ's face with thorns. We were like yeah brother haha and we prayed and gave him a pamphlet, said we are going to come back wednesday. It was incredible. A place Sister Lara hasn't seen much but just down this one path, we met these 3 people miracles! :)

We got some more rejections but it truly did open these wonderful opportunities to be able to go search for the elect people who are ready to hear the gospel. I am so excited to continue!! :)

I am so stoked and cried a little watching Jade's video of him opening his call. Thank you for that! I am so happy to be able to be serving and he's so lucky to be able to go serve!! He will be truly an amazing missionary!! :) I am so excited to see what miracles he performs :)

 I love this work and it's truly a work of God!! :) I know Joseph Smith is a true prophet and he truly saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and am so grateful for it! So happy our family has been so close to the gospel also. We are truly so blessed to know the truth!! :) I love you all and am so grateful for you!! :)

Love, Sister Smoot

                                  outside :) the street

and the street we always call for a tricycle on :)

  down the street from our house :)

____________________________________________________

we have a shower head but we just use the bucket here.
and yes that is our toilet :) haha funny huh! i love it :)

(questions about the cockroaches and rats in the house!)

yes dad we spray them and they just take a bit to die and usually when we see them they are dying or dead then we just sweep them out and i don't know about the rats there aren't the huge ones for what we've seen though just the normal sized ones. It doesn't bother me too much unless they surprise me or are running fastly around but it's only happened a couple times and i just spray them :) haha

inside our house

Q: Are you staying away from the rats & the cock roaches?

A: yes haha you think i'd get close to them?! haha :) the other day i was studying and there was a crockroach on the wall right next to me! I just jumped and screamed a little but it's ok :) then i moved my chair haha but it's dead now because of permitheran and the only time we see the rats is when they come and get into our garbage and we can hear them upstairs running

Q: Are you enjoying being close to the beach?

A: it's not really a beach just seaside but it's nice yeah :)

Q: Can you see the beach from your apartment/house?

A: i am going to try :) i took some just for you!

Q: Can you send us pictures of your new place both inside and out and the view of the beach?

A: i will for sure :) the sea pictures i took are blurry it didn't really work but i'll try to send one or two

 

the beach :) 

i am not sure if but hope they work ok :) 

these are the best ones 's really beautiful!!

Wk 47 - What a week!!

Area: San Carlos
Companion: Sister Lara

Sister Lara & Sister Smoot at
Saturday District conference meeting

This week has been kind of a rough week. We have gotten turned down so many times! (i didn't know philippinos could turn people down) but 2 times we've been told not to come back this week, because they are their religion, so it's pointless for us to come back. Then the person who was interviewed last sunday for baptism last saturday told us fridaynight that he had doubt and didnt want to be baptized. So he dropped out and then our baptism next saturday told us on saturday that her mom didn't give her permission which she lives with her lola and her mom is in bacolod and her lola who will also be baptized on march 8.

Anyways, on the bright side our baptism this saturday is on still :) she talked with her mom and sister lara did too over the phone and she said ok, now that she has a little understanding. Then the little girl said she didn't want to anymore because she thought she had to confess her sins if she was baptized or something and then we told her to pray and then she came and said i want to be baptized. This was all within saturday night and sunday. So we got interviewed sundayand will be baptized on saturday. She is 8 and is amazing! Her name is Abigal :) I am excited for her! So that helped our week end a little better :)

Other than that, we are slowly trying to help our investigators progress and come to church. They are all doing pretty good but some that we thought were really progressing didn't come to church yesterday for what we saw but one that doesn't want to be baptized came to church with our recent converts but sister said he's done that before. so i guess we will see what happens :) Hopefully we can talk to our canitate, JR, to see if we can help him again want to be baptized (he was suppose to be baptized saturday) but anyways, its been a week of fighting against Satan.

I do want to testify though of fasting. I fasted saturday just for some miracle to happen because we were turned down so many times and now abigal turned around and is getting baptized and her mom accepted and everything! So amazing!! :) I love this work here and how many little miracles happen each day.

Thank you for everything you do! I look forward to a good week this week :) Have a wonderful week and Happy Birthday to DAD!! Love him so much :)

Love, Sister Smoot

At the Sunday session of District Conference

..with an investigator

The choir that sang at the District conference

(Answers to my questions:)

(your new apt.)

in this apartment we have rats. we don't use the upstairs there's a ton of rats we hear them all the time and they sometimes get into our garbage. we have cockroaches like crazy and mosquitoes i'm getting bitten again but am trying my best not to be even with bug repellant the get me. but i'll keep putting it on.

(need a new memory card?)

i don't know... i think i am ok i think i still have a couple more. i'm good for now though but i do have another full memory card i want to send home maybe i cna give it to sister sinema again to put in her package so it's safer.

(who is regie that got baptized: Angela (fromBata)posted it)

regie is her exboyfriend in manila haha he did come and i met him and he continued teaching in manila and got baptized. She highered her expectations of a boy she wants to marry and next thing i know he's coming to visit and has a baptismal date. haha the elders taught him while he was in bata

(valentine's day?)

they all wear red haha... no just kidding. not really anything special everyone works here always no matter what holiday. but we did get a gift from recent converts :) cute! they weren't baptized while i was here though but the are a cute family :)

(do you have a view of the ocean- or sea?)

if we walk to a certain area yes we have a view in our area and there's a little island too that's in our branch but the elders have that area you have to take a little boat to it but i didn't take a picture i didn't have my camera with me. but it's a little different. we aren't in a subdivion but we do have a gate :) it's a cute house with two huge mirrors inside!

(the dress you're wearing on the sunday district conference-and you both match in your orange!)

i got that dress for 150 pesos at an okai okai (thrift stores here) and yes our favorite colors are orange. she changed before we went there so i was dressed first ;)    (150 pesos= $3.36)

They rented a truck to bring members to the Conference

Wk 46- SAN CARLOS!

Area: San Carlos
Companion: Sister Lara

This week has been really good. I know for a fact we have been called of God and he loves us so much. We have had little miracles happen this week that are amazing! I love being here! I was super sad to leave Bata, but I know and am excited to serve here in San Carlos. 

My companion is Sister Lara, She is from Davao city (i don't know how to spell it) but she is incredible! She is a convert from the church when she was baptized when she was 18 years old and is just always happy, smiles and so bright. She will hit a year on March 15 and will be 25 on March 13 :) She is also going home in september. She arrived the batch before me :) She is an incredible missionary and I am so excited to continue to serve with her.

We've had little miracles happen and one i will just tell you about real quick because i don't have a tone of time. (mom wrote me two letters and i read the one i was suppose to print out first oops sorry) but we have a member who has a less active son and we had an appointment close to them we walked by her and said hi and went to go to our appointment that we had. Nobody was home so then we went and OYM'd a family and then returned and the wife was home but the husband who we'd scheduled an appointment with wasn't, but we shared just short to his wife and then when we were leaving we had a little bit of time and Sister Lara stopped and said lets go back to this member. We did and we finally met her son which i guess they'd been trying to meet for a while. But he's a working student providing for his family (which rarely happens here if you are in school you don't work but their father has passed away) but we sang with them and he was almost in tears and his mom bawled and bore a testimony that was amazing! The spirit was so strong. no he didn't come to church he had class at 10 but i know that one day he will be able to come back and want to come back. 

I love the little miracles that happen each day and i now if we trust in the lord he will ALWAYS be there for us to help us. I love this gospel and love this work. JADE, YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE YOUR MISSION. Never let the hard times get you too far down because like everyone says, there are times that make up for it and it's truly incredible!! Just continue!! :)

I love you all family and am so grateful for your missionary work and so happy you had the missionaries! Love them support them and help them be successful in their work. :) Love you all!! :)

love, Sister Smoot

the boy is our baptism. but we haven't taught him since i've been here. she said they schedule times to teach him at the church. He's 18 and is amazing! i loved his testimony :) 

(other answers about new area):

it's wonderful! haha my apartment i forgot to take pictures of our apartment but i will and the other pictures i took won't load. so we'll see what i can do it won't register that i have plugged in a card. it's really pretty we are on the edge by the sea.

my companion is amazing! so happy! we both go home in september. Her birthday is march 13 she hits a year on march 15my birthday march 16 and a year on the 27. cool huh!! haha she is a convert and is amazing! She is from Davau City. She's so happy and amazing! I'm making her speak english  this week :) haha She is very talkative unless she trys in english she always slips into cebuano or english but i love her to death!! i love it! :) 

yes i am in san carlos 2B is our area we are with the zone leaders in this branch. 

yes the climate is pretty much the same as Bata- it's just hot :) haha but sometimes it gets cool at night it's nice :) but pretty much the same. 

my cebuano??. it's about half the same (as ilonggo). but some words have a different meaning. like karon means later in ilonggo but now in cebuano. Then like prayer is pagpangamuyo in ilonggo and pagampo in cebuano. words are just different but the format is the same so i understand about half the time but i'm catching on really fast with god's help :)

we do exchanged every transfer with each sister and we only have 4 sister so 2 companionships so only twice every transfer :) so not very much. but it's amazing. We just call and check up on them also about once a week it's fun :) but two of them are transfering so we may only have two until the end of this transfer but they already did exchanged this transfer so just after the 26th i think we will do them again. 

i'm trying to send pictures but it won't register that i have a card in it's saying insert a removable disk when i try. 

Wk 45- STL ko na, Going to San Carlos and speaking Cebuano!! AHH!

Area: San Carlos
Companion: Sister Lara

(we received a short email) 

AHHH!!!! i am transfering today, just found out to San Carlos and it's Cebuano.. I'm also becoming an Sister Training Leader. I have never been so nervous but i know that doubt is opposed to faith. I will be going to galo at 12 to go with my new companion just to talisay because we have  missionary leadership training tomorrow and then i will travel to san carlos with my companion. I don't know who she is yet but i will be with a short term missionary for a couple hours and will probably eat lunch with her before but i will email longer later today when i find a minute. just know i love you!!

Sister Sinema sent these!
Sister Smoot and Sister Hogge- Sister Hogge returned to Tacloban mission

Elder and Sister Sinema! 

(then another one later)

I don't have much time to write because we have to leave now, but I will just tell you Sister Lara is now my companion. She is amazing!! Super nice and sweet!! I am excited to get to know her and learn so much from her and how to be a Sister Training Leader! I am so excited to be able to serve the missionaries and people in San Carlos! :) 

I am nervous to speak cebuano, but it's ok :) I know the Lord will help me because this is his work for sure!! :) Tonight I will go and stay in Talisay which is right next to Bata my previous area and then go to Missionary Leadership Conference tomorrow before heading back to San Carlos. My luggage and everything is still in the mission office, I haven't yet gone to San Carlos, but tomorrow I am excited to see it! :) Sinema's will be taking us there tomorrow. :) 

Love you all!! Padayon na gid kamo!! 

Love, Sister Smoot :)

ps dad yes i would love to be companions with sister smoot too... hopefully one day soon but we'll see what the lord has in store :)