Week of Changes

Wow, this week has been super crazy! There have been lots of changes, some good and some bad, but everything will work out the way Heavenly Father needs it to. :)

First off, Claudia didn't move to La Pampa!!! :) :) Angel and Claudia found a house that is super close to the capilla and they are going to stay in Cañada!! The only problem is that their house...is in the area of the other hermanas. They are still in our ward, but they live in the other area. They are going today to find all of Claudia's documents and hopefully they can get married soon. :)

Hermana Matias' ankle still hurts, but we went to Rosario and Hermana Zanni bought her inserts for her shoes so that she can have more support. She paid for everything! And then she took us out for lunch! She is the best and really loves us a lot. It was super nice of her to help Hermana Matias. :)

Hermana Rodrigues also went to Rosario for her knee...and the results weren't good. :( She has a stress fracture in her knee cap and she has to go home to get surgery. :( We are very sad because we don't want her to leave! She is a super great missionary and she will be able to come back to the mission after she heals. And since Hermana Rodrigues is going to leave....Hermana Thornton is going to be with us! We are going to be in a trio! I am going to be companions FOR REALS with Hermana Thornton AGAIN!!! What?? Haha, this never happens, especially with your trainer. We are super excited to all be together and have lots of experiences together. :) We are going to have to work in both the areas for about 2 weeks, and then we will see what happens next transfer.

I want to take some time and write about our other investigators, because we have a ton. I will write about a few of them.

The first is Martin. He has just a few problems. He smokes, drinks, is addicted to illegal drugs, gay, and a prostitute. Only a few problems. However, he is at a point in his life where he literally has nothing left. He doesn't have any money, family, or anything to live for. Last Sunday, we walked into the church and he was sitting there, waiting for church to start. Ahh! It was a miracle! We talked to him this week and told him he really can change and can have a new life. He now has a baptismal date and we are super excited to work with him. I can't wait to see the change in him. The atonement is real!!

The next investigators are a couple named Luis and Norma. They have two kids and aren't married. Norma cooks really good food and cooks bread every week. It is so delicious!!! We are going to cook with her this week. Norma really loves the gospel and wants to learn more. Luis has a harder time accepting the fact that there is only one true church. But they come to church almost every Sunday because they feel good and they love to learn. We are trying to help them receive answers that this is the only true church. Pray for them so that they can pray and receive this answer!

The next one is Valentina. She has 86 years and she is such a sweetheart. She is married to Marcos, and he is super sick right now. This week, we got to her house and she was about to leave. We asked her where she was going, and she said, "I'm going to my boyfriend's house." We were all like, "What??" She began to tell us all about this man. He has 76 years and he is super handsome and they have a secret place. We totally believed it all because she was super serious! And then after like 10 minutes, she told us that it was all a joke. Haha, is was super funny. She is super great. We have to take things slow with her, but she is learning and progressing a lot. :)

Anyway, this week has been super good! I've learned a lot and I am excited to see what this week brings! I hope everything is going well for you all! I love you!

6 MONTHS!!

Can anyone believe that I hit 6 months this week??? I can't even begin to think about it. This time is going by SO fast. I don't ever want it to end. I love being able to talk to EVERYONE about Jesus Christ and His love and sacrifice for every single one of us. I love sharing His love and I love Him. :)

This week was hard because Hermana Matias' ankle has really been hurting. :( I went on divisions with Hermana Thornton a lot this week. Honestly, I know why I am here in Cañada. Hermana Thornton and I can really work together and teach because we have already been companions. God works in very mysterious ways. And the work in Cañada hasn't stopped, despite the injuries. :)

We received some sad new this week. Claudia and Angel are moving to La Pampa (where Claudia used to live). They are moving because they are having problems getting all the documents Claudia needs to get married and they don't like the house they are living in right now. So they are going to leave Cañada de Gomez. :( :( We were very sad when she told us. But right after that, she told us, "I already know where the chapel is in La Pampa and I know where all my documents are. We are going to move, get married, go to church, and I am going to get baptized, no matter what." Wow. She is amazing. She is going to be a HUGE miracle for the missionaries there. I am so excited for her and her new life. I am glad that I got to be apart of it for a couple weeks to help her find the true gospel and happiness. :)

I love Cañada! Our other investigator that is progressing a lot is named Irma. She has a complicated life. She has 4 little kids under the age of 7. Her husband is in jail, and she had to get married to him so that they could visit. Her mother is in dire need of blood transfers and she isn't doing very well. (Just a side note...don't tell people what blood type you have. Because you shouldn't go around giving blood to people.) She has a ton of faith in Jesus Christ and is really searching for the truth. This week we were finally able to teach all about the restoration because her kids were sleeping. It really caught her attention and she is going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She is super great!

We are also teaching lots of menos activos because there are about 300 in the branch! Our goal is to help Cañada become a ward again. We are here to baptize, retain the people who just got baptized, and reactivate the people that aren't going to church. We need to do all of these things in order to help everyone and help this place. We are super excited and happy to be here!!

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Baptism! :)

We had my first baptism this week!! Whoo! It was super stressful because we had three weddings in our branch Friday, the day before the baptism, so everyone was at the temple in Buenos Aires. A few people were still in Cañada, but it was raining like crazy, so lots couldn't make it. :( And we had divisions with the capacidadoras from Friday to Saturday, so Hermana Matias and I were trying to plan the baptism over the phone because she was in Rosario and I was in Cañada! However, despite all of this, we still had the baptism, and it was super amazing! His name is Andres. He has such a strong testimony and such a strong spirit. I know that he will continue to be such a strong member of the ward and he will help this branch grow a lot. I am super grateful to my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be in Cañada and to be part of his baptism! The funniest part though was he forgot to close his mouth when he went under the water, so he drank a lot of water....but he made it into a joke and said, "As least I am clean on the inside too!" Haha, he is so great. :)

All of our other investigators are doing awesome! Claudia is fantastic! We taught her the word of wisdom and she has already quit smoking! She is reading the Book of Mormon every day, she comes to church every week. She just needs to get married! And then she can be baptized! She is awesome and I love teaching her because she understands. She gets it. It is awesome. :) We learned this week that she isn't from Cañada. She is from a city really far away called La Pampa. I thought about when Claudia, Hermana Matias, and I were all in heaven in the premortal world and when she left to go to the earth, we said, "Bueno, nos vemos en Cañada!" It's funny how everything works out. I know that we are all here in Cañada for a reason and it is so great to know that that reason is to help each other follow Jesus Christ and to grow together. :)

This week was super good! The other funny thing this week was I also went on divisions with Hermana Thornton! It was super weird to teach with her again, but it was so much fun! I love her!

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

My Fingersssss

I burned myself with hot oil while were cooking.....obviously I am not a very good cook. ;)

Hermana Madera

New apartment

Hermana Matias!

This was our lovely lunch today with me, Hermana Matias, Hermana Thornton, and Hermana Rodrigues. We made the empanadas by ourselves! And..everyone drinks out of bottles like that here. Don't worry, it is just Tang. :) ​

Our pizza. I don't know if you can tell...but that isn't cheese. Those are noodles. And scrambled eggs. And hot dogs. Yup...we were quite adventurous that night. It was actually delicious.

I have officially changed my name to Hermana Madera. Madera means Wood in Spanish. It is so much easier for everyone and they all remember me. ;) I love this new area! It is so great. It has been hard this week because we couldn't leave the apartment the 31st or the 1st because of all the parties here and we had Zone Conference yesterday. We only worked 4 days last week, but it was still amazing!

Update on Claudia. She is doing amazing! She came to church yesterday and she loved it. Angel and Claudia decided that they are going to get married so that she can be baptized! :) We are going with them tomorrow to figure out all the papers. She is super amazing and she understands the importance of the gospel in her life. She can feel the difference when she reads the Book of Mormon and when she doesn't. She is so loving and super ready. :)

We also have another man named Andres. He has a baptismal date for the 10th of January. He has been on vacation for all the parties these past couple weeks. He came back this week! We found him on Friday. The first thing he told us when he saw us was that he wasn't going to go to church on Sunday because he was so tired from all his vacations. We were really sad and we told him to pray and that we would come back Saturday. We prayed really hard for Andres all night. Saturday we found him and he told us that the night before, he received an answer from God that he needs to go to church. His heart completely changed. It was a miracle! We are super excited for this week and hopefully he will be able to be baptized this week! :)

We found lots of other people and we are going to visit them this week. Hopefully everything will calm down after the parties and we will be able to find all of our other investigators. I am super happy and super excited! :)

Love,
Hermana Wood :)