Aug 7: Last Testimony

Well ... this is it ... I can`t believe I've gotten to this point!! This mission has absolutely changed my life! and I couldn`t be more happy with the work I've done. I love my Savior and I love this gospel! It`s perfect!! We have a merciful and loving God that loves us and has given us directions step by step to receive our salvation. When we apply and act on the gospel we truly progress. I know that this gospel is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and Redeemer and that He LIVES!!! He suffered for every sin that we've made. He has felt every guilt, sadness and pain. I love my Savior for what He has done for me. He has restored his gospel on this earth for our benefit. I am eternally grateful for Joseph Smith and the simple desire he had to follow the path of God, to know what was right. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that together with the Bible we have the fullness of the gospel and knowledge needed on this earth. I know the priesthood is the power of God here on the earth to bless the lives of His children. The Plan of Salvation was created for each of us to make it home to our Heavenly Father. I know that there is life after death and I am determined to give it my all in this life to make it to the Celestial Kingdom! I know that families can be together forever and that`s what I want! 

I love this gospel! I love my Savior!!!

I`ll be getting home Wednesday Aug16th and I`ll have my homecoming Sunday Aug20th at 11am at 900 Eaglepointe Drive, North Salt Lake, Utah. That same night I

`ll be having an open house in my home 634 mountain view circle, north salt lake, Utah. You`re all invited! 

I`ll see you all soon ❤

Hermana Smoot

July 31: Watching Seeds Flourish

Alrighty. We`ve got this email and one more! SO WEIRD!!!!

This week was crazy!!! we`ve been running around trying to do so many different things!! We planned and had a branch activity of a Talent Show!! It was super fun and everyone enjoyed it! Our members showed every different kind of talent. Some sang some played an instrument, there were some that even cooked and brought their talent to share (the best) haha and at the end we all ate homemade pizza!! It was super fun and super hectic but the members seemed to enjoy it and that`s the most important! 

This week we also had a baptism! His name is Angel and he`s 13 years old and he is so smart and so bright! His mom Liliana was a less active and as we helped her start to come back to church he wanted to come. His mom is now the primary president and on Sunday Angel was confirmed and receive the priesthood!! All of his aunts and uncles and cousins are members so we had a lot of people come to the baptism. His dad isn`t a member, so he chose his uncle to baptize him. It was precious!!! My favorite part was to see the smile on his moms face! 

We found an amazing new investigator this week!! Her name is Cristina. When she was little she had a Mormon friend and came to church all the time! As we taught her the first lesson she mentioned Joseph Smith and told us the whole story of the Restoration! This lady is 60 years old!! she was super super excited to read the Book Of Mormon and then she also came to church with her husband and grandchildren the next day! It`s amazing how God plants these seeds and years and years later this desire and the spirit is ready!!! I LOVE to see how the Lord prepares his children for his kingdom. For example, 50 years ago wasn`t the time for Cristina but now after certain experiences and knowledge, she`s ready to follow her Savior and to really walk in the way of God. 

In preparation for the Talent Show we went around visiting less actives to invite them! And that`s how we came across Eric and Milena. Eric is a less active that stopped coming to church about 3 years ago when his aunt died in a motorcycle accident. His girlfriend Milena isn`t a member but they have the cutest little boy Santi! Milena has listened to the missionaries multiple times but has never done much. Just listened.  When we passed by we started talking with them about how they were doing and they told us that this past month they had been reading the scriptures every night as a couple and saying family prayer morning and night!! I about fell over dead! We started talking about the things they needed to do to be an eternal family. They put goals to get married here in August and they also came to church!!! 

I love my Savior and I love this gospel and the peace and joy it brings into the lives of ANYONE who has the desire to follow him! I know that the Book of Mormon has the answers to our biggest and deepest questions. I know that our Father in Heaven is watching over every one of us and knows us perfectly. I am forever grateful for his personal attention to me and to each of his children. 

Keep moving forward!!! Hold to the iron rod and NEVER let go!

 I love you all and i`ll see you soon!!! 

Hermana Smoot

Oh and I`ll be getting home August 16th and my homecoming will the Sunday Aug 20th at 11am at 900 Eaglepointe Drive, North Salt Lake. 

June 12: Being His instruement

Kylie and her companion Hermana Marin

This week we had a miracle baptism!! To understand the story, you need to realize that in San Martin EVERYONE is family!!! literally!! some one's cousin who`s the brother in law of their life long friend. idk it get`s kinda confusing! But anyway. Our mission leader is the brother in law of our Branch President, and in this family about half are members and half are not. They have a little nephew named Benjamin that is 9 years old. He always comes to the church activities and loves the church! He comes and helps us clean the chapel on Saturdays and says his prayers every day and knows more than any of the other kids that are in the branch. But the trick is that this little boy isn't a member. For years he`s wanted to get baptized but his parents don`t give him permission. Last Sunday in ward council a comment was made about Benjamin and i was determined to baptize him this week. We went to their home that night with the branch president and his wife, ( the wife of the branch president, Hna Tapia, is sisters with the mom of Benjamin, Gisela) it turned out to be one amazing lesson!! at first Gisela didn`t want anything to do with us, she was super distracted and wasn`t paying attention at all. But we asked Benjamin why he wanted to be baptized and asked him to share his testimony. Gisleas eyes filled with tears and we were able to put the plans in concrete that Benjamin would be baptized on Saturday and that Gisela and her husband would also put the goal to be baptized. So the whole week we were running around like crazy trying to prepare for this baptism!!! It came to the day of his baptism and he showed up in a little suit!!! (that`s like unheard of! We have members that don`t even own suits!) He was just the happiest little boy! What a great testimony it is to know that everyone has their time and through the Holy Ghost their hearts can be softened.

I know that this gospel is true and that it really can change lives. Our Savior lives and loves us. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. God is listening to every prayer and every plea. APPLY  the gospel in your life!!! it`s the only way to true happiness! 

i love you all till the worlds end and more! 

have the bestest week!!!

lots of love

Hermana Smoot

May 8: "Finding Strength Beyond my own"

First off  -  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you for your fasting and prayers and your thoughts! Really, I can feel the hand of the Lord helping me through this trial and I can feel all your love radiating from home! Million thank yous for all of you! Really it means the world to me to have such amazing people as an influence in my life! YOU`RE ALL AWESOME!!!

So, a little update on what happened this week. On Tuesday I went to the doctor and they still aren`t quite sure what is going on. They put me on a bunch of pills and a strict diet of NO wheat (bread, noodles, flour etc.) and NO dairy (milk, yogurt, ice cream, butter etc.) so I’m kinda stuck here eating veggies. ha-ha nothing more. it`s a little difficult but at least he didn`t say I couldn`t drink Coke!!! After they told me they want to do further tests to really figure out the problem. On Thursday I got my blood drawn ..... and for those of you that know me I HATE BLOOD!!!! I was so nervous and freaking out cause every time I’ve gotten my blood drawn before, I’ve passed out. This week wasn`t an exception. I was hyper ventilating before they even stuck the needle in! ha-ha the mission nurse had come with me and helped me a bunch but ya. I passed out. Afterwards the nurse was telling me that I went so white and I wasn`t making sense in what I was saying! After they gave me a lollipop and we walked out to go meet the other sisters that were waiting for us. They started laughing at me cause I wasn`t making any sense ha-ha but we went and got some French fries. I was weird and dizzy the rest of the day and I still have a bruise from where the needle was! But now I can check that off my Bucket List -  ¨Get Blood Drawn in Foreign Country¨ CHECK  - ¨Pass out in Foreign Country¨ CHECK

I'm getting to know the mission nurse, Hermana Lett, really well

Like 3 mins after I came too after passing out

 Now we`re just waiting for the results to come. But with the diet I’m on and the pills I’m taking I am feeling better. Good enough to leave and work more! It`s crazy cause there`s sometimes where I barely have strength to get out of bed, but I’m so stir crazy in our apartment, I tell my companion I’m fine and we leave to work. When we`re out in the streets working, I CAN`T FEEL A THING! I`m able to work and talk to people and teach and not have the pain as a distraction. But the second I enter the apartment, I feel it all again. I know that the Lord is helping me and that all my prayers and your prayers are being answered because I can really feel the Lord supporting and helping me day after day fulfill my calling as his servant! 

This week in my studies I was reading about Moses and the house of Israel when they left Egypt. What a miracle!!! Something that I had never noticed before was that every time there was a different plague on the people of Egypt, the Pharaoh came to Moses and said ¨I`m sorry I’m sorry I will let your people go it you stop the plague¨ so Moses speaks with God and the plague is stopped. And just like we all know, Pharaoh still doesn`t let the people go. Then after they are finally set free and they come to the edge of the Red Sea, the house of Israel is filled with gratitude! But the moment they see the armies of Pharaoh coming to kill them, they begin to murmur and blame Moses. They say that it would`ve been better if Moses would`ve left them all in Egypt to work for Pharaoh than to be freed and then killed by the army. How interesting that in so little time, the people of the Lord that had just been giving thanks for the blessings they had received and the miracles they had seen, turn against their prophet. How often do we do this? We turn on our leaders, our bishops, our General Authorities, or even our Heavenly Father and say that it`s because of them that we are suffering. 

I challenge each of you to make it your personal goal to, through EVERY circumstance, look for the blessings of the Lord and maybe even the hidden miracles that are happening every day. The moment that we can have that humility and gratitude in our hearts ALWAYS is when we are really going to become disciples of Christ. 

I love love love you all!! 

have one amazing week okay?

Hermana Smoot

One of the little kitties of a member 

Yummy cookie baking!  Yes that's right I was cooking and I didn't burn them!!! #MIRACLE

May 1: Short and Sick

      This week there´s really not much to tell. I´ve gotten pretty sick these past couple days which has forced us to be in the apartment a lot. The problems I´ve been having have gotten more and more serious even with the medications I´ve been taking. Tomorrow I´m going to the doctor and getting some tests done to see what it could be. We´re pretty sure it has something to do with my intestines but hopefully we can find a way to fix whatever I´ve got. But it´s all just even more of a motivation to work harder with the time when I do feel good enough to leave the apartment!

      This week with the little time we had, found a new investigator named Gabriela. She has listened to the missionaries before and her sister is an active member in the neighboring branch! We entered her house and she ran into her room and walked out with a Book of Mormon, sat down and told us that she knows the church is true and that she loves the Book of Mormon!! I about fell over dead! haha The problem is with her husband and her 2 sons. They don´t like the church and refuse that she goes. Every time we have a lesson with her it´s when no one else is home because she doesn´t want to cause problems in her family. She cried as she expressed her problems to us and told us how bad she wants to be baptized! We´re working a lot with her to help her introduce the topic of the church to her husband and maybe inviting her whole family to a church activity. She´s amazing!! We set the goal with her to read the Book of Mormon every day with a question in mind of how she can help her family come closer to the church. I´m really excited for her! We´re gonna get her baptized!

      I´m sorry this letter is so short but I love you all and I hope you have a successful week! 

hermana smoot

Mar. 20: NO RUNNING WATER AGAIN

FFaaaammmmmmmmmmmily and fFFFFFrriiiiiennnnddsss!

How you all hangin in there? haha 

This week was an adventure ... haha our apartment building went 2 days without running water and then 3 days without hot water this week. So that means we were back to heating up the water on the stove and showering out of a bucket ... again haha ya it was a deja vu of my first couple months in the mission and it`s was kinda funny! My poor companion was kinda in shock but then we just ended up laughing about it! 

Tuesday night we had a little family home evening with our cute little investigator Luciana. Her mom and sister didn`t want to come :( we helped her out with her English homework and then we watched the Restoration video and she loved it! She said that it all made sense, so we gave her a book of Mormon and she said she would read it. Her best friend that`s a member, Fernanda, said that Luciana told her she feels kinda weird in the church when everyone is in skirts and dresses and she`s in pants, but Luciana hasn`t worn a skirt since she was 3. So Hna Evans and I went through our closets and took out 2-3 skirts each and shirts that could fit Luciana and we gave them to her in the FHE. She was so happy and super excited to come to church! 

We`re back into full swing with the Capilla Abiertas again!!!!! wahooooo i love these!!!! This past Saturday we had one in one of the neighboring areas, Rivadavia (which is actually one of my old areas) and it was amazing! the members were working so hard and brought all of their friends and family to come and hear the message! There were so many people and i loved seeing all the old members and converts that i had in that area again! It honestly made me so happy to see them all so happy in the church and together 😊

On church on Sunday we got to teach the primary again!!! wahoooo i love doing that! We taught them about prophets and after they all had to draw a picture about what prophets do. they were all there happy as can be chatting away like the little kids do, and then this little sassy 7 year old girl screams, in English ¨What the F!¨ .... uhhhhh my companion and i looked at each other so confused cause we couldn`t believe that we had literally just heard her say that! I was just so taken back and she just didn't think anything of it!!! We asked the little girl where she had heard that, and she said ¨From the one rapper guy¨ oh wow..... 

here`s a scripture that i love! 

Philippians 1:20

According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing i shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!! I LOVE MY COMPANION!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! but most importantly I LOVE MY SAVIOR AND HIS RESTORED GOSPEL!!!!!!

i hope you all have an amazing week!!! 

Hermana Smoot

Mar 27: Stomach infections and Cat fights

A cat fight broke out in relief society, I taught my companion how to use a bidet and I have a stomach infection ... I LOVE ARGENTINA!!!! haha

Not gonna lie this week was awful  ..... First I found out I have a stomach infection and was glued to the toilet for 2 days straight .. that was lovely and then my companion came down with a fever and so we spent a good half of the week in the apartment or walking around like zombies. That just called for a lot of study time and a lot of companion bonding timing haha like how I taught my companion how to use a bidet ... But hey! on the bright side we had a Capilla Abierta here in San Martin and it was awesome!! I loved seeing the members work together and bring all their friends and family to the church to learn about Christ! 

Our cute investigator Luciana just continues being the cutest! Saturday we helped her with her English and I taught her how to play a little bit of the piano! When we asked her what she remembered about the Restoration she told us every detail! all the way down to the Priesthood! I was honestly so happy I had little tears running down my face! She`s reading the Book of Mormon almost every day and you can see it changing her. Luciana and her sister Sofia both came to church yesterday but we`re still trying to work with her mom who's a little more difficult .... but we`re getting there :) 

Alma 26:12 ¨yea, I know that I am nothing. as to my strength I am weak, therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things¨

I love love love you all and hope you have an awesome week :) 

Hermana Smoot

kylie.smoot@myldsmail.net

Luciana and her mom

Picnic by the lake 

My future roommate at BYUI Hermana Starke

Mar. 6: Kisses and changes

Me and my new American companion Hermana Evans

This week i got a new companion that i love!!! Her name is Hna Evans and she´s from Payson, Utah and we haven´t stopped laughing since she got here! But we we´re laughing even harder when on her first night we were knocking doors and started talking to an old man that was watering his dirt. (I´m not kidding. watering his dirt. that´s a thing here and i still don´t know why) He´s was kinda weird and then it just got real weird when he looked at my plaque and said slowly ¨Hermana Smoot ..... Jesus Christ! ahhh Just let me give Jesus a little kiss¨ AND THEN THIS CREEPY OLD MAN KISSED MY PLAQUE!!!!!! honestly in the moment i didn´t realize what was going on, and when we walked away Hna Evans and I looked at each other and just started laughing so hard!!!! I cannot believe that happened!!! ya that was definitely an experience i´m not gonna forget...

This week for our ward family home evening we did a movie night and watched meet the Mormons. We had so many members bring their nonmember friends!! I was especially proud when most of the people that brought friends were the youth! What little missionaries! From these people that came we got to know 2 sisters named Luciana and Sofia. They had a lot of questions but when we explained the Plan of Salvation and Luciana (18 years old) told us all about the problems she´s been having and that she´s suicidal ...... uh ya. but she´s been praying and feels so much better! They even came to the youth activity on Saturday and watched the face to face devotional with Pres Eyring and Elder Holland!!! 

We´ve been working with this one less active couple, The Arrojo family. He used to be in the bishopric and now he´s inactive and smokes and drinks. This past Friday we talked to him very bluntly about the Word of Wisdom and i have never walked out of a lesson so heart broken. He admitted to us that he´s knows he´s doing stuff that´s breaking the commandments and that he needs to stop, so we told him we´re gonna set a date as a goal for him to stop and he said ¨no no no no i don´t want a commitment¨ We explained how it´s a commitment to God not to us. They have goals to go to the temple and the wife is suffering because she is seeing how this is effecting him and her and their salvation. We talked about that with the knowledge he has and with the errors he´s committing it´s one of the worst things he can do because he´s not acting on the knowledge. He said he wants to stop but he´s not gonna do anything about it.  ahhhhhhh i just wanna slap some sense into him!!! 

This week i was reading the story about Moses and the people of Israel in Numbers 21:5-9. Those people we´re given the easiest way to be healed, just to look at a snake on a stick, but they we´re so stubborn they wouldn´t do it! God gives us the easiest way to follow him and to keep his commandments, and if we just look we can be healed in EVERY aspect!!!! Are you going to act all look? 

i love love love you all!!!!!!

con todo mi corazon y amor de Argentina❤❤❤

Hermana Smoot

My convert Joana that I had not seen since July - I ran into her while getting ice cream.  So happy I almost started crying.

Me and Hermana Evan and Luciana and Fernanda at the baptism

I can make American food now that I have an American companion !

The San Martin Zone - the sisters are always outnumbered!  

Feb 20 : Disappointments and Hope

SOOOO - Kylie’s emails keep getting shorter and shorter.  I think that means she gets busier and busier.  I’m putting a few of her last few email’s together here. She is in a new area where she says “I`m just gonna start by saying that this area is very very complicated in every way haha But little by little we`re progressing and able to find the chosen children of God! When I got here we had investigators that hadn`t been taught in 2 months (that`s not okay) so first and for most I said that we had to visit every investigator that they had and basically see if they wanted to progress or no. In this process we`ve dropped a good 15 people in the last week and we`re searching and searching to find new people to teach.”

So she has her work cut out for her.  ALSO SHE HAS TO WEAR PANTS - her mission president gave them the choice to start wearing long skirts or pants.  Every sister choose long skirts.  For whatever reason the mission president come out a month ago and said all the sisters HAVE to wear pants unless they are at church or a meeting so Kylie says she is being obedient ……

Her letter this week:

 WOW this week I hit 1 year in the mission and it is so weird!!! ahhh to think that just a year ago I started and that in 6 months I`ll be at home .... 😬 WHAT???? i`m not gonna think about it haha But this week was prettty interesting. We had a baptism planned for this last Saturday and our investigador disappeared into thin air. He doesn`t answer our calls, didn`t come to the lessons that we had planned with him sooooo that kinda sucked and we`re kinda lost what to do with the kid cause we don`t know where he is ... ya darn. 

Thursday night we had a dessert cookoff and it went so well!!! almost all the members came and we had less actives and investigadors be the judges. There was music and everything and they all loved it! We had prizes for everyone that participaded and they all loved it! One of our members Hna Alonso, all of her kids are inactive but some of her kids and grandkids came to the activity and she was so so soooooo happy!!! 

We also went and visited our mission leader and he`s a baker and bakes thousands of loaves of bread from his house every day from machines that are like 60 years old!!! we helped him make bread for 3 hours for service and it was so much fun!! 

Sunday we taught the primary and it was so stinkin cute! i loved teching them! sunday night we went to visit a less active named Mirta. We were sitting there talking and she pulled out a turtle!!! heck ya!!! i`ve never seen anyone in argentina have a pet turtle before! So obvisouly i took a picture of the cute guy, and then he peed on me .... ya i don`t think he likes me to much .... 

sorry there`s not much to say this week haha there was a lot of meeting and my companion was sick :( 

i love you all so much and hope you have a good week :) 

sending love from argentina!

Hermana Smoot

Jan 30: Rural San Martin

HOOOOOOOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS

This week has been a rollercoaster .... ha-ha So Monday night we had a family home evening with some members and it was basically a big birthday party :) there was cake and everything! But Tuesday morning I had transfer :( We were in the terminal waiting for the bus and some of my members and investigators came to the terminal to send me off! It was probably the most fun part of my birthday ha-ha it was just a 45 mins ride to me new area San Martin. My new companion is Han Assis that´s from San Palo, Brazil! 

She’s super sweet and has such a big heart! But once I got to my area the problems started rolling in. I´m pretty sure I’m not even allowed to talk about what´s been going on in this little branch but let’s just say it´s a complete mess. 2 years ago, San Martin used to be a ward with about 150 people attending every week, and now we´re just a little branch, with 40 attending, if we´re lucky, and a billion less actives and some people excommunicated ..... ya. We don´t have many investigators and they haven´t had a baptism in a year and a half. It´s gonna be a lot of work in this area. 

My area is SUPER big and a lot of dirt and farms. We don´t even live in our area so we have to walk at least 30 mins to enter our area and then another 20-30 mins to our closest investigator. Let´s just say I’m crossing my fingers that I drop weight this transfer! Every day when we leave in the morning, it´s already like 100 degrees at 10 in the morning but for the past 3 days we come back to the apartment at night drenched because there´s these HUGE rain storms we´ve been having!

We have this investigator named Nicholas. Last week he just showed up in church!  He works with one of our inactive members and came to church with him. After church, we had a little lesson with him and he loves the gospel! In the first lesson, we set a baptismal date for the 18th of February and he committed to stop smoking! IN THE FIRST LESSON! We then had a lesson with him on Wednesday and talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and invited him to read the introduction and the testimonies of the witnesses and Joseph Smith. On Sunday, he came to church again but alone this time!!! And he`s slowly smoking less and less and is already half way through with reading the Book of Mormon!!! He comes to every activity we invite him to! He lives an hour away in bus but he absolutely loves the church and the people. The poor guy has a terrible situation at home and he says when there`s people drinking and fighting, he goes to a park near his house and prays and reads the Book of Mormon!!! AHHHHHH isn`t he awesome!!!! We`re really excited for him!

This week I read a talk that`s called ¨Loving Others and Living with Differences¨ by Elder Oaks and it`s one amazing talk! Right now, we`re having a lot of problems with members that don`t get along so I’ve been studying a lot about charity and love and patience so that I can help them better. This talk is very inspired and I hope you can all take some time to read it! Here`s some quotes from the talk that I love ...

¨Seek to be Meek and avoid contention¨

¨Loving-Kindness is required, but a follower of Christ - Just like the Master - I’ll be firm in the truth. ¨

¨Kindness is powerful, especially in a family setting¨

¨For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he turnth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is ... my doctrine, that such things should be done away¨ 3 Nephi 11: 29-30

I love you all till the worlds end and more!!!!

oh, and thank you again for all the birthday emails! I’m sorry for those of you that I still haven´t responded!!! I´m getting there I promise :)