8.24.17 Excerpts from Elder Hoffman's Home letter

So I just couldn't resist sharing Hoff's opinion of what happened with the pencil....

One fun thing was on Sunday when we were all waiting for dinner, we were all talking about the gospel and you know, confidential missionary things, and I accidentally tossed my pencil that I had in my hand to my companion while he was lying on his bed. However, I may have thrown the pencil way too hard, and in response to a comment that he thought was funny, and the pencil shot to his bed. I didn't know that I had that good of an aim, but the very tip of the pencil hit is forehead, and gave him a little wound. I guess we should all be a little careful? I think he is probably going to send an email home and let everyone know that he got some big, gashing wound on his forehead, when really you could barely notice the red dot:):) However, I'm glad he didn't jump on top of me and start beating me up because it looked like it hurt. My roommates and I were just breaking down laughing on the floor, because I was 20-25 feet away, and without even looking, I hit a my target. Elder Smiff didn't think it was too funny though, but he forgave me anyway. 

And how sweet is this....

I was with Elder Smith the other day, and we were on the computers doing some language study. While studying, we were all talking about Jesus and that he for sure must have a sense of humor. I had said that I can just imagine him being super happy and fun to be around. That not only is he a spiritual giant, but super funny all the time! I then turned to my kauban, Elder Smith, and said, "Wow, that sure sounds a lot like you!" I truly meant it too. I literally have the pinakanindot kauban sa tibuok nga kalibutan. He is always showing me what it means to be patient, when it is okay and not okay to laugh, how to love everyone, and still be funny, or at least think that we are. He also humbles me all the time, because even though I think I am right all the time, I come to find out that I'm not. Believe it or not, sometimes he is!!!:):):) I love to see how happy the gospel makes him. He truly is nearly a hingpit nga ehemplo ni JesuKristo para sa nako. I am so thankful to have him as my companion, and learn from him everyday. He has been though a lot, yet he has the faith to be here, to serve his Lord and know that this is where he is supposed to be. It is crazy for me to think that he already has total love for the katawhan gikan sa Philippines. He already loves them so much, and I can see it when he talks about them, and his excitement to go and serve. He will be an awesome missionary, and he already has totally changed my life, so the Filipino people better watch out or he might change their's as well!


You make a mom so proud Elder Hoffman!  Thank you for loving my son sooo much!!


Good luck on your adventure next week - Sir Elder Hoffman :)  

8.24.17 MTC

Maayo Buntag!!! So this week was pretty awesome so lets see if i can remeber everything that happened hahah. First of all we got our travel plans last week and Im sad to say that me and Hoffy will be splitting up just six short days from today. Im the only one in my disrict leaving in the morning so im going with mostly Tagalag people for some reason lol but I got some homies over there as well. I fly to LA and then sit there in the airport for 9 hours until my flight to Hong Kong leaves. So I guess ill be handing out some mga Bashon ni Mormon! haha joke lang maybe though but my flight to hong kong leaves after the flight for the people who leave after me to the slc airport if that made any sense hahah. But im so excited holy cow i cant wait to interact with these people and figure out what is funny to them(hopefully sooner than later), hahah but yea this week was pretty awesome. Had to say goodbye to my boy Kolly, so crazy how my boys are hittting the field before me because I still have one week in the Manilla Mtc as well. Me and Hoffy through down some good lessons this week and made some peeps cry you know. haha but still we only have one lesson left with both of our investigators which is kind of crazy because they are just our teachers role playing but I still love them and their willingness to do what we ask every day. I hope that the Filipinos are really this willing to put in the work for eternal life, which im pretty sure they are. I love my teachers so much and they teach me something new every minute, I will really miss their support as we leave. We had a testimony meeting last night for our last week and it was amazing to see how everyone has grown so much in so many aspects. I have seen  spiritual growth and growth in the language out of everyone in their own little ways which is a testimony builder to what the gospel can do to someone that hasnt ever received it before. We are an english poasa karon adlo busa ako wala kahibolo kon ko type sa Ingles but i guess it is okay hahah because im not talkiing in Ingles at all today. Hahah funny story i was laying on my bed a couple of days ago with my nose deep in the Book of Mormon and hoffy was talking uban our roomies across the room and he said something and I think i made a little interjection or something and the next thing i know theres a gashing wound in my forehead. The kid was 15 feet away from me and turned around and frisbey-threw a pencil in less than the time it takes me to blink and the very tip hit my head. How he did it? Wala ko kahibolo, but i was in shock for a couple minutes because i thought james bond had snuck into my room for a quick minute. Anyway this gave me the opportunidad to take a selfie of my wound and show off theee worst haircut i have ever received hahah. Also ill talk about one of our lessons... So we went in to talk to sister Ellie and the lesson wasnt going to great until we turned to an amazing scripture and we finished strong and before we left she stopped us and turned back into Sis Soleta and started crying because that was what she needed to here and we had no idea that kini kasulatan was the one that got her through her mish which is crazy. Sa espiritu santo works in amazing ways! So yea the week was good Hoffy is still throwing pencils at me so I just quiet him down by telling him how much fun me and my travel companion are going to have for the one day we are together hahah. Hope you all have an amazing week and i might get to email this tuesday before i leave but idk so just stay within shouting distance. Get on your knees and pray every night! Our Heavenly Father is listening and if you pray kinasingkasing, he will give you what you need. Love this gospel and the paglaum ug kalipay that it brings. Love you all and miss you.

 

So the pics theres a couple weird selfies that Hoff took of himself (guess he hasnt mastered it from my teachings), then my roomie stole everyones matrases and put it on one bed frame so that was sweet hahah. I promise that we still do work tho hahah just goofin for a second.

 

Press forward in faith

-Elder Smith

8.24.17 MTC Pics

Selfie showing off pencil wound

The Hoff

Mattress Mahem

Hoff Nose Hairs

8.17.17 MTC Aayo Pamilya!!

Hello people of my family its good to be emailing yall this brisk morning from Provo. I'm glad to say that two weeks from yesterday i will be taking a 12 hour flight to Hong Kong, along with a three hour flight to Manilla. I cant wait to get there and it couldnt come faster I honestly feel like i love the Filipinos already which I dont know how that works lol. But this was a good week we got a lot done and had a lot of cool experiences. We had two more apostles come, M. Russell Ballard on Dominggo and Neil A. Anderson on Tuesday which was so sick. The spirit is so strong when these people come to teach to us and you can tell that their words are directly from our Heavenly Father who needed us to hear those messages as well. So those talks were awesome and we are still teaching our two investigators like every day which can be cool and sometimes not so awesome when the lesson doesnt go so well but its still awesome for that experience. My kauban is pretty much back to normal now after three weeks almost of being sick so thats good, but he got one of our teachers sick so she isnt too happy. I had to say bye to my boy Boren this week which was really sad but I know hes off to doing amazing things in Philly! Ive been hanging with my other boy kolly a lot and I cant believe that he leaves this Tuesday, so crazy! But yea this week was pretty normal other than that, Ive come to realize what prayer really means to me and I hope to use it in a more meaningful way from here on because it is such a great tool that God gives us to get help and strength from him in our times of trial and trials of our faith. My district is good and my boy elder K(our new DL) from the pics is callin me melvin lolllll like from the Madagascar movie i think which idk what to think about that but he drew a pic of me in one of the devos so that was pretty sick lol. He has the whole district calling me smelvin now hahah makes me laugh. Anyway I hope yall have a good week and remember that through prayer anything is possible. The Book of Mormon is awesome! Love you all

press forward in faith

 

So somewhere in these pics is the picture elder k drew of me and elder k. Then we got me looking like a ghost with that on point selfie. Then we got our whole room together holding the Texan Wadsworth. Then we got a pt 2 selfie in the mirror with most my district.

-Elder Smith

8.17.17 Pictures

The holding of the Texan Wadsworth

District Selfie #2

Ghost Selfie #2

Elder K

Melvin - aka Paker

8.10.17 MTC Video Hoff Impersonation

8.10.17 MTC Pics

The Hoff supporting the local team??

Dynamic Duo

District Sistas

Da boys in the district

No idea



Hoff's impersonation of PK

8.10.17 - Aayo Pamilya!!!

Hoy! Good morning yall its been quite the semana here at the mtc and probably the funniest ones yet. My kauban elder hassle hoff (hoffman) has been sick for almost two weeks now with a soar throat and he lost his voice for a couple of days but much to the dismay of our teachers, hes gotten it back. But anyway frickin love that kid im learning so much from him and he has many admirable traits that makes everyone happy when they are around him, and he says the craziest stuff lollll. One of our co-teachers sister anderson frickin has a quote book for the kid! like unsa?????!!!!! one day hoff came out of the bathroom and was like "magbati ka sa bago lalaki" hahahah that went in the quote book imma make yall translate that one lol. But things are good we are teaching every day and even though i dont feel like im progressing as much any more in the language my testimony has been growing stronger. So we were just chillin in the sunday devo four days ago you know and they had asked us all to watch character of christ again even though id seen it like three times. anway i sat down and i felt somethin was up and then near the end of the video this dude asked for some help so my boy hoff stood up and he broke the news to them what they would be doing. Lol his face when he came back to sit down was unreal. So of course i made the kid tell me what was going on and he did after some convincing and i straight up was like "MAO BA!!!!!!!?????"  hahah but anyway the movie ended and it went straight to a camera feed of the overflow room WE WERE IN. and guess who walks in, flippin Elder Bednar and his wife i was fli[ppin out holy cow i had never been that close to an apostle like that. that was pretty neato and he answered some questions and got on his way but he always has something inspirational to say. We taught some more TRCs this week with the same girls from last week and they love us nbd. they mostly love my kauban i think because they always say he is cute and bis dak. (but you know they cant get away with calling me cute cuz im a grown boy up in here). hahah but they said that my language had improved so much and that made me happpy. also s/o to my mom for getting me my mp3 cuz me and my roomies have been jammin to some moana hahah so fun. Im so grateful for the scriptures and i have felt something special from Our Heavenly Father and its reassuring to know that he is always there, on our left and on our right. anway hope you all have a good week and make an effort to change another persons day for the better. Also i forgot to talk about how this illongo district just left yesterday and they were all zone leaders and stuff so they had to call new peeps to fill the spots. hoff got taken out by one of the branch presidency so i thought he might be a DL or something but hahahah he was called to be the music director! straight cashhhh hahah and he let me know after his little intro meeting with the old director that he call a chorister for every week and guess who that is, yup me. hahah its chill tho im just going to wave my arm around make some hymns pretty bumping and others slower lol. also these sisters straight up came up to me and hoff last week and showed us this pic that she drew of us. We didnt ask her or anything but she really likes us i think and they all called us the dynamic duo(or maybe hoffie is just telling everyone that to get the word around). But yea that was pretty legit and also i have loved the weather here lately, we had a lightning storm last night during class it was awesome. It really made me happy and i realized that if we take advantage to those little things God has given us, our acknowledgement of our blessings will increase and we will understand what it means to be grateful. hope yall have a good week and i love you all so much.

press forward in faith

-Elder Smith

 

 

So idk what hoff is doing in the first pic honesty but the hes reppin byu so i dont really care. in the video hes trying to look like me lol(he wishes he looks this good). the drawing is what i talked about from before and those are the sisters that did it. Then i finally got a pic with my boy kolly(and boren again ughhh). Then that group pic at the temple is our district, love those boys so much!

 

NS - Having trouble with the pictures again.  To follow....

 

Pictures from 8.3.17

Connor Bailer & Parker

Elders Wadsworth & Rogers

Selfie with Kauban (companion) Elder Hoffman

Elder Afelle (Aussie) Stuck outside the showers



Connor Bailer, PK, Jake Boren

Elder K from Hawaii - doing ???

Week 2 in the MTC

Kamusta ka!

Hey everyone this is Elder Smith comin to you from very early in the am here in the MTC. This week was great though! Got a lot done and am starting to feel better about everything so that is good. Me and my kauban have taught a lot this week to our P.I. and taught two different lessons yesterday which was awesome. In our second one to Roque we both felt the spirit strong and when we came out of it we looked at each other and both said that that was our best lesson yet which was awesome. If i didnt say last week our first investigator who actually looks like she is phillipina(because she was born there), turned out to be our next teacher so that was kinda crazy and took some time to adjust but the role play actually isnt that hard to get into if you are makapokused. I had to say goodbye to my buddy connor this week as he took off to Canada which is sad but at the same time its awesome to have elder boren and with our new addition of yesteray elder koeliker who i saw last night. I worked on the tours yesterday and was a little dissapointed that none of you took the opportunity to come see me;) but i just stood there for four hours smiling at people as they walked by which was kinda tiring but i got a good break from class. elder boren and I have the same exercise time which is awesome but ever since last week he hasnt come back to play ball which me and my kauban do every day mostly(I think his ankles are a little sore still). Anyway I hope all is welll because everything is going good here, just under four weeks out to my departure from this place and I couldnt be more excited to serve the people of the philippines. The language may be hard but i have come to know that even that cant shake my testimony and my love for Jesus Christ. Hope you all have a good week and hit me back if you can im sure none of you excecpt maybe grandpa are up right now anyway. 

The goofy picture is the two other elders in my room wadsworth and rogers. Then we got connor me and boren. I want yall to figure out whats going on in the first picture because i still cant but that is my dancing buddy elder k from hawaii. I caught elder afelle stuck outside the shower a couple days ago without a key hahah love those aussies. The selfie is me and my kauban elder hoffman who is awesome and is helping me so much since he is already basically fluent in bisaya. The other selfie(im good at it huh) is in our study sesh in the new buidling since we never get to go over there at all. 

Love you all!

press forward in faith

-Elder smith