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 :)