Letter # 63 (August 10, 2014) What? 24 new investigators? UM Is this real life? Cool story

This week was great ... Isn't that how I start all letters? It was a little surreal to get a missionary from Ally. I can't believe she is now a missionary. Of course I can believe it because she is the most amazing, dedicated, beautiful, spiritual, talented, humble, and sincere woman on the planet (except for you mom), but it's crazy that she gets to experience everything I'm still living.  It really is like a mini life full of ups and downs at a pace of 100 miles per hour.  She will do amazingly. YOU ROCK! KEEP GOING... THE LANGUAGE WILL COME, PROMISE!! 

Last week we found 24 new investigators... so this week was a lot of follow-up as we continue trying to find new investigators. We have a lot of families which is such a blessing and so much more fun to teach. Harder to schedule, but so much more rewarding while teaching.  The family that Sister Jenna Smoot helped us find led us to 2 other families and they all came to church yesterday!!! Last Sunday night we asked a neighboring, active couple to come teach with us and they became friends with all three of the families. So yesterday, they went and picked up all the families and walked to church together. It was cool to see the conversion of the active members increase as their joy from missionary work was visibly planted on their faces! This couple, the Villarez couple is actually an inspiration. Last year, brother was not a member and addicted to several word of wisdom substances. They have 1 boy who was 8 years old but died tragically in march of this year.  He was hit by a truck on the main road while walking home from school.  He was getting ready for his baptism the following week.  This active mother, Sister Villarez, relied fully on the Lord for comfort and this inspired Brother Villarez to fully listen to the missionaries.  As a result, brother turned his life around and is now our most active and powerful recent convert in our area.  The two of them are praying for another child, and in the mean time are serving the Lord and preparing to be sealed in the temple next year!   They have such a powerful testimony of eternal families and living the gospel standards and are a huge help with the three families in their village.  It was so cute to see how happy they were teaching their new friends about the church and sitting with them in Sacrament Meeting. These are emotions that cannot be bought or traded. This is what missionary work is all about!

We also have a good success story this week named Brother Aldin.  He is 19 years old and works at a tire shop on the main road where we pass by multiple times each day.  A couple of weeks ago, he approached us all smiley and bright (not to mention he is super tall, like taller than me, probably over 6 feet).  We were new in the area and thought he was already a member because he has a special countenance, but he invited us to teach him the next day. We showed up and he wasn't home. We tried back multiple times, but he was never there. Finally this week, we saw him again and he said he was out of town, but back for good and asked us to teach him again. Our lessons with brother Aldin are so smooth and purely guided by the spirit to a completely prepared individual. He is so excited about the gospel and completes our sentences before we can even teach him about the restored gospel. I don't know how he knows, it's like he has a connection to his pre-earth-life self. He accepted a baptismal date for Sept. 6, 3014 and came to churchyesterday too. 

I know missions are different all across the world with lots of different measures of success. But no matter where we are, the pure and simple happiness and peace that the spirit brings is the same. Even with the so called "Big Successes" and "High Numbers," my favorite parts of the mission are the small and simple moments during lessons when we as missionaries and the people we are teaching, connect with the spirit through the spirit of conversion. I love this work and my mission and everything I have experienced. I'm so grateful for the hard times, even though I don't want to go through them again. I know they have made me the missionary and the person that I am right now.  I wrote in my journal one night that I don't want to tell anyone how hard missionary work actually is, or maybe no one will go on a mission. Haha. But the good times more than make up for the bad, even though they are more scarce and for shorter periods of time. I am just learning how to appreciate and enjoy those small moments and spending time to be grateful as we work through and learn from the bad. I love this gospel and the simple but deeply meaningful message of repentance. Renewal, refresh, refine, relearn.... improve, polish, grow. I love it. I love our Savior, and I love all of you! I hope we all have such an amazing week this week as we grow closer to our Savior each day! 

Lots of Love,

Sister Smoot 

Letter # 62 (August 3, 2014) Jenna and Ashley do exchanges! Best week EVER!!

This week was the best week of my entire mission!  This is not an exaggeration. I was companions with sister Jenna Smoot from Wednesday - Thursday.  What a tender mercy from the Lord.  I was not the one to assign the exchange, because I knew that I would be biased and, of course, put us together. But since Sister J. Smoot is training a Filipina, Sister Madronio felt it would be better if she was paired with her so that she could help her with the Language.. etc. So Sister Smoot and Sister Smoot invaded our area here in Paglaum (The city of HOPE), and we shared a message about Families. But really.

 Cousins Sister Smoot and Sister Smoot

We took all our pictures on Sister J Smoot's camera, so just steal them from her. 

First of all, Sister J Smoot is one of the best sister missionaries here in the world because she literally has the love of Christ with her at all times.  She is so loving to everyone, and I am so glad I got to work with her. Even though we haven't really seen each other throughout the mission, our Ilonggo is the same. We have the same accent when we talk. It must be a Smoot thing!  I really loved out companionship study and we both joked that we will have to keep having companionship study even when we get home. We really had a day just filled, overflowing with the spirit. 

Sister Jenna Smoot also helped us find a couple of miracles in our area.  The area were we were working was kind of a dead area - progressing. But I really just felt like it might have potential, and had only been there once before. When we walked into the little area, we just started talking to everyone in our path, singing for them, talking about families, praying with them, and setting up return appointments. The first couple were not interested, but enjoyed the singing. As we started going farther into the area, I saw a really really old lady (over 80 years old) sitting on a bench. I just said hi, not thinking we would teach her, because sometimes old people don't understand us. But Sister J Smoot has a lot more faith than me, and started talking to her. This Sister, Sister Primitiva, grabbed Sister Smoot's arm and started pulling her down the trail. I giggled a little and followed them as we walked to the house of Primitiva. She walked REALLY slow, but as they were walking they were talking about life. I trailed behind and saw another lady stare at us strangely than start laughing at us. Sometimes it hurts when other people laugh at us, but instead of getting upset, I just talked to her, and she started following too. so there was this awkward trail of people following this little old lady on this really twisty and muddy trail. But as we were walking, I was able to talk to the second Lady, Sister Celiz, about her family, and she asked if she could sit and listen with us. 

As we entered Sister Primitiva's home, we shared about FAMILIES, but also about the gospel and how it blesses us. I'm not sure Primitiva understood what we were saying, but it didn't matter, because Sister Celiz was listening with her whole soul. She started crying half-way through and couldn't stop. She was literally led by the spirit to follow us down the trail in into the lesson and asked how the gospel could bless her own family. while I was saying the closing prayer, I kept thinking about how we didn't extend baptism to her and it wouldn't leave my mind. But I was thinking, "oh man, it's too late because we are saying the closing prayer." After I closed the prayer, Sister J Smoot just looked up at sister Celiz and extended the baptismal invitation... and she accepted! We bore our testimonies and closed again with a really neat hymn. 

It's really fun to sing with someone who is not tone deaf, let along jenna who is amazing at singing.  It really invited the spirit and it was tangible and sweet.  After the lesson we were talking and laughed about the fact that that was the first time we had both extended baptism after the lesson. Isn't that the coolest thing about the spirit? It will tell us what we need to do in the moment that we need it. I am so grateful for the miracle that Sister Smoot brought to our area. Upon returning to their home last night, we met the whole family and they all committed to baptism too. 

This work is truly amazing and just full of miracles every day. I love you all so much! This letter seems to be more jumpy than others... sorry. Just know that I love being a missionary, and it was even more fun doing it with a good friend, and family member, my cousin Jenna!. 

I think Jenna and I are connected for life and will forever be the crazy cousins in the corner at family parties speaking our weird code language perhaps while playing with rats and lizards in the dirt. Haha. I love you all so much and I can't believe Ally is a missionary now. I love you too Sister! I hope you all see the miracles each day, because there are so many!

Love you lots!
Love, Sister Ashley Smoot

Ashley has 3 1/2 months left and gets home in November. (96 days left)

Pictures from Last Week

 Me and sister De Castro eating Marang. You split open the skin of the fruit, pick off each round part, spit out the seed. Super sweet and super good.

Last week baptism. Daina (Pregnant. She just had her baby on Saturday night)

Vince Arbie

Letter # 61 (July 27, 2014)

Hello Family!!!

It's so neat that Ally will be able to have so many miracles every day starting this week. I can't wait for her to figure out her own flow of mission life. She will be the best Sister Smoot ever! Congratulations!!

This week we were still trying to revive this area. It used to be one of the most productive areas in the mission, but as I got here it was about to die off. We are still struggling getting more investigators and getting people to church but I've learned a lot about appreciating the small miracles every day.  I know this mission experience is a lot different than others and there are some missionaries who go their whole missions without visual success, but there is always success in each special moment of the day.  Believe it or not, there are still insecurities about teaching skills, language skills, learning how to completely follow the spirit and so much more that it seems impossible to be that perfect missionary... but then I remembered that I just need to keep swimming and make sure I am swimming up instead of in circles.  The Lord gives us weaknesses so that we learn how to so fully trust in Him and do things His way. Plus I am able to learn more humility.  Through our weaknesses, we also learn to have Faith that things will still work out if we do our best. If I have confidence and faith in the Lord, my weaknesses and insecurities don't matter.  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, on the straight and narrow upward path towards our Father in Heaven.  

Last week we met a young women who has a little girl. I thought at first she was 23 or 24, but she said she just barely had her 18th birthday.  She is a single girl with a little baby who is 1 year old.  She was completely Catholic, a little stubborn/moody at first and only wanted us to use the bible. So I opened up the bible and we read about prophets and the life of the Savior, I tried to just focus on the Love of God to dissipate the contention. I don't think she has actually ever read the bible, but reading it to her helped her feel the spirit and then as we read the Book of Mormon, she was able to recognize that same spirit.  She said all her friends told her not to listen to us because we don't believe in Jesus Christ and we don't believe in the bible. She then said that she will now testify to anybody that we are actually good people who love the Savior and read the Bible.  It was kind of intense to see such a turn around in her demeanor. She started out very on edge, but at the end of only a 20 minute lesson was touched to the point that she wanted to meet with us again! I know it had nothing to do with what we said, and had all to do with the spirit she felt as we read the pure and simple words from the Scriptures.  At the end of the lesson, she asked if she could read in the book of Mormon on her own! This is the same sister who said she didn't want to learn anything but the bible 20 minutes earlier.  We gave her a copy and scheduled a return appointment.  I learned again how important it is to see people for their eternal potential. If I would have just judged her, as I was inclined to do, as someone who was not interested and didn't want to talk to us, I would have missed the fact that she is really just a girl who is lost and confused and scared in this world. She is searching for peace and guidance just like me, and is only the same age as my little sister. When we returned to our scheduled appointment, she wasn't there and we weren't able to contact her or find her until last night again. When we arrived, the neighbors told us that she wasn't home again, but we taught some little kids in the street so that we didn't waste our time going to that area. At the end of the lesson with the kids, she came out of her house with her book of Mormon and the Restoration Pamphlet! As we taught her the restoration, she kept telling the principals before us and had almost memorized the pamphlet. She had also read in the Book of Mormon. She still is not sure if it is true, but this Sister Leslie has a very pure intent and I know she will come to know too that this is true.  I am excited for her and for her future and for her relationship with the savior. We all need comfort, we all need guidance, we all need the Love of the Savior, and how lucky am I that I get to teach another soul how to receive this. I really am the luckiest. I know that this Gospel gives us everything we need to be happy in this life. It's still hard and tiring, but we are still happy. How is this possible? We are so blessed, sometimes we don't even realize how scared and hopeless we would be without this message. I hope we never forget it! I love you so much, and the only advice I can give to Ally, is to remember that every soul is precious in the sight of God. Never judge anyone and give everyone a chance to hear it. Everyone you see or talk to needs this. Talk to EVERYONE and give them the chance to accept it. We can't force people, but we give them all the chance to be happy for eternity. I love you all so much and am so grateful that you taught me how to be happy and successful in the spirit. Love you ALL!

Love, Sister Smoot

Letter # 60 (July, 13, 2014)

Hello Family! July 13, 2014

This has been a crazy week. I got to start out by going to MLC: Missionary Leadership Council. There were really good trainings from President, the Assistants to the President, and from some of the Couple Missionaries. We also got really good food, as I'm sure you were able to see all over facebook :) Then we are able to train our zone from the trainings in MLC. I was a little nervous to give the training to Bacolod South zone because almost half of them have already been zone leaders or STLs, including Sister J Smoot. But when I got there, I was also surprised to see that the assistants also came to join our zone meeting.  But As soon as the meeting started there was a really strong spirit in the chapel, so the trainings went really well. Plus is was really neat to sit next to Sister Smoot. She is so mature and a spiritually powerful missionary. She seems so much older than me and wiser, so I'm grateful she's in the zone. She is also so happy, she just spreads her happiness to everyone! I love sister Smoot!

The whole week my companion was sick (different illness every day). So I spent the whole week figuring out our area with some of the sister ward missionaries here in Paglaum. It really helped me to grow relationships of trust with them and the members and we even got some really solid referrals from the ward members. It's a good thing I was able to connect with the ward this week and find all of the investigators and recent converts, because Sister De Castro was transferred this morning. I'm back with SISTER MADRONIO! We were together in Cadiz.  She is one of the sweetest companions I've had and I'm excited to be together with her again. We were only together for a couple weeks, so this time we get longer with each other as STL's. She will be so great and I'm excited for our work ahead. She's a really hard worker and loves being a missionary, obedient, and kind... so what else can a companion ask for. WE WILL SEE MIRACLES! No matter what problems are in a companionship, the spirit takes over as long as both companions work hard and love the Lord. Part of our assignment as sister training leaders is to have the highest key indicators out of all the sister while also going on exchanges with each companionship for one day every transfer. We get to help them with their area, but from what I've heard, we learn more than they do because the sisters in this mission are incredible. I'm excited to learn from them too!!! (Especially Sister Smoot). :)

My third day here in Paglaum, we found a family. They are the Clarito Family. I think I mentioned them last week. I was able to teach them again on Saturday. It's hard to find a time to teach them because they are all so busy and want to be taught together, but we will be able to teach them at least every Saturday. The father is very involved in the learning too, but they are all learning together. Sometimes in families, only one or two are interested and the rest are just "listnening," but I love this family, because they are all learning and involved and helping each other.  On Saturday, I was able to extend the baptismal invitation to the family, but mainly looking at brother J, the head of the family.  They were all silent and I thought I was going to burst just waiting for their answer. I waited for the spirit to work on them for what I felt like was 5 minutes, but probably only 1. He finally looked up and said that he knows that this is the path his family needs to take. He said that if it was just up to him, he would get baptized tomorrow, but he asked if his family could take time to discuss it together.  He wants them to all stay united. I was caught between wanting them to all discuss it right then so it was all decided, and letting them have their time. The spirit helped be calm down and stop being so intense, and I followed the desire of Brother J. We invited them all to church the next day with the promise that they could learn God's will in His house of worship. I had kind of mixed feelings after the lesson. I was worried that maybe some of the family members were not on board, but I also couldn't deny the spirit that we all felt and the sincerity of brother. I just decided to have faith and trust in the Lord that in proper timing, everything would work out. Sunday morning I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. I was planning on teaching about missionary work and an invitation to give referrals or something... but the thought of Tithing kept coming to mind and one of my personal experiences with tithing. I knew better than to stick to my original plan, so I just gave a talk based on this spiritual experience and it turned into a talk about the love of God and how we are obedient to the Lord, because we love Him. In return, we get to better feel His love too AND experience blessings. It was really neat to be able to be lead so clearly by the spirit.  It's one of those times that you know you are doing exactly what the Lord wants you to do. I was even able to learn from some of the things I said. That moment will be cherished. I felt the actual love from the Savior for ME. Of course I believe that the Savior loves everybody, and I teach and help people recognize it every day. But for some reason, it's harder to apply it to myself. I tend to be really hard on myself and only see my weaknesses and a lot of the time just feel completely inadequate. But as I testified of God love for them, I was also able to testify of Gods love for US. As I shared this, I felt His love for me too. Sometimes I just need to humble myself more to the point where I fully trust that He loves me. Even if nobody in the whole ward learned from my talk, I was able to learn a message for my lifetime. I sat down and listened to the other message. But I was still kind of sad that the Clarito family didn't come to church. Right after the closing prayer we walked out to the foyer to help people to their classes, when Brother J. and is 10 year old daughter walked into the Chapel!! I was so excited, I thought my heart was going to burst. Just one more manifestation of God's Love. Our bishop is once again amazing. He had an interview with Brother J. to help him get adjusted to the ward and welcome him as an investigator. He said he will bring his whole family next week, but they had work in Bacolod yesterday. He said he couldn't wait another week to go to the TRUE church, so he just came with his daughter. We are excited for the miracles brother J will be able to receive along with the entire Clarito Family. What amazing miracles are around us every day! 

I know that this is the True church from our Savior. I know that this is His plan for all of us to be happier and really feel His love. If we haven't yet gained a testimony, or even if our testimony is wavering about that love, we can always follow His invitation and ask through prayer. Each day as we read and pray, we should be able to feel of that love and share it to others! Don't stop following the savior, remember HE LOVES YOU! This is the way to be happy forever! Remember that I love you too! I pray about you a lot! Have a good week!

Love, Sister Ashley Smoot

Face book Pictures from Mission president Lopez this week 7-14-2014

Letter # 59 (July 6, 2014)

Hello Family!

This has been a crazy week. I got to start out by going to MLC: Missionary Leadership Council. There were really good trainings from President, the Assistants to the President, and from some of the Couple Missionaries. We also got really good food, as I'm sure you were able to see all over facebook :) Then we are able to train our zone from the trainings in MLC. I was a little nervous to give the training to Bacolod South zone because almost half of them have already been zone leaders or STLs, including Sister J Smoot. But when I got there, I was also surprised to see that the assistants also came to join our zone meeting.  But As soon as the meeting started there was a really strong spirit in the chapel, so the trainings went really well. Plus is was really neat to sit next to Sister Smoot. She is so mature and a spiritually powerful missionary. She seems so much older than me and wiser, so I'm grateful she's in the zone. She is also so happy, she just spreads her happiness to everyone! I love sister Smoot!

The whole week my companion was sick (different illness every day). So I spent the whole week figuring out our area with some of the sister ward missionaries here in Paglaum. It really helped me to grow relationships of trust with them and the members and we even got some really solid referrals from the ward members. It's a good thing I was able to connect with the ward this week and find all of the investigators and recent converts, because Sister De Castro was transferred this morning. I'm back with SISTER MADRONIO! We were together in Cadiz.  She is one of the sweetest companions I've had and I'm excited to be together with her again. We were only together for a couple weeks, so this time we get longer with each other as STL's. She will be so great and I'm excited for our work ahead. She's a really hard worker and loves being a missionary, obedient, and kind... so what else can a companion ask for. WE WILL SEE MIRACLES! No matter what problems are in a companionship, the spirit takes over as long as both companions work hard and love the Lord. Part of our assignment as sister training leaders is to have the highest key indicators out of all the sister while also going on exchanges with each companionship for one day every transfer. We get to help them with their area, but from what I've heard, we learn more than they do because the sisters in this mission are incredible. I'm excited to learn from them too!!! (Especially Sister Smoot). :)

My third day here in Paglaum, we found a family. They are the Clarito Family. I think I mentioned them last week. I was able to teach them again on Saturday. It's hard to find a time to teach them because they are all so busy and want to be taught together, but we will be able to teach them at least every Saturday. The father is very involved in the learning too, but they are all learning together. Sometimes in families, only one or two are interested and the rest are just "listnening," but I love this family, because they are all learning and involved and helping each other.  On Saturday, I was able to extend the baptismal invitation to the family, but mainly looking at brother J, the head of the family.  They were all silent and I thought I was going to burst just waiting for their answer. I waited for the spirit to work on them for what I felt like was 5 minutes, but probably only 1. He finally looked up and said that he knows that this is the path his family needs to take. He said that if it was just up to him, he would get baptized tomorrow, but he asked if his family could take time to discuss it together.  He wants them to all stay united. I was caught between wanting them to all discuss it right then so it was all decided, and letting them have their time. The spirit helped be calm down and stop being so intense, and I followed the desire of Brother J. We invited them all to church the next day with the promise that they could learn God's will in His house of worship. I had kind of mixed feelings after the lesson. I was worried that maybe some of the family members were not on board, but I also couldn't deny the spirit that we all felt and the sincerity of brother. I just decided to have faith and trust in the Lord that in proper timing, everything would work out. Sunday morning I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. I was planning on teaching about missionary work and an invitation to give referrals or something... but the thought of Tithing kept coming to mind and one of my personal experiences with tithing. I knew better than to stick to my original plan, so I just gave a talk based on this spiritual experience and it turned into a talk about the love of God and how we are obedient to the Lord, because we love Him. In return, we get to better feel His love too AND experience blessings. It was really neat to be able to be lead so clearly by the spirit.  It's one of those times that you know you are doing exactly what the Lord wants you to do. I was even able to learn from some of the things I said. That moment will be cherished. I felt the actual love from the Savior for ME. Of course I believe that the Savior loves everybody, and I teach and help people recognize it every day. But for some reason, it's harder to apply it to myself. I tend to be really hard on myself and only see my weaknesses and a lot of the time just feel completely inadequate. But as I testified of God love for them, I was also able to testify of Gods love for US. As I shared this, I felt His love for me too. Sometimes I just need to humble myself more to the point where I fully trust that He loves me. Even if nobody in the whole ward learned from my talk, I was able to learn a message for my lifetime. I sat down and listened to the other message. But I was still kind of sad that the Clarito family didn't come to church. Right after the closing prayer we walked out to the foyer to help people to their classes, when Brother J. and is 10 year old daughter walked into the Chapel!! I was so excited, I thought my heart was going to burst. Just one more manifestation of God's Love. Our bishop is once again amazing. He had an interview with Brother J. to help him get adjusted to the ward and welcome him as an investigator. He said he will bring his whole family next week, but they had work in Bacolod yesterday. He said he couldn't wait another week to go to the TRUE church, so he just came with his daughter. We are excited for the miracles brother J will be able to receive along with the entire Clarito Family. What amazing miracles are around us every day! 

I know that this is the True church from our Savior. I know that this is His plan for all of us to be happier and really feel His love. If we haven't yet gained a testimony, or even if our testimony is wavering about that love, we can always follow His invitation and ask through prayer. Each day as we read and pray, we should be able to feel of that love and share it to others! Don't stop following the savior, remember HE LOVES YOU! This is the way to be happy forever! Remember that I love you too! I pray about you a lot! Have a good week!

Love, Sister Ashley Smoot