Great Week!

1. my bouncy ball bounced up on top of the closet, so I had to climb up and get it. ;)
2. Us. We ate brownies and ice cream!
Hermana Christiansen, me, Hermana Robinson, and Hermana Fairbanks
3. #lashermanasdepergamino or in english #thesistersofpergamino It is super fun!

Well, we had a pretty great week! Everyone is doing well and I am super happy to be a missionary here! Maria is doing awesome! We went and visited her and she said that she is reading the scriptures and praying every day! She said that one day her mom was feeling really sad and didn't know what to do. Maria went to her house, got out the gospel principles book and started reading about the family. Then she went back and shared it with her mom and her mom felt a lot better. She is already helping other people! She is the best. We invited Pablo to really kneel down and pray to know if the chuch is true. If he decides to do it, I know he will receive an answer. We will see if he has the desire to know. :)

We found Amalia! She is going through some really tough stuff. She is trying to redo her house and her niece moved in with three little kids and it is really hectic, so she hasn't been doing very well at stoping smoking. But we told her that she can do it! We had english classes this week and her two sons came and then they played with the other kids, so maybe if we can help her sons have the desire to come to church, she will also have the desire. We will see. :)

Finally, we found a new family this week! Their names are Cesar and Eli. They have 5 kids..i think, but all of them are grown up, except for their little girl that is like 10. They are super awesome people. But they have had a hard life. Two years ago, Cesar and their son Nahuel were driving in the car...and they got jumped. The people killed their son and Cesar lost an eye. It was VERY hard for them. They are still suffering from the loss. It is so hard to deal with things like this if you don't have the gospel. They believe very firmly that Nahauel is in a better place now...but they don't understand why they have to keep suffering during this life. We were able to talk to them a lot about the plan of salvation and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus they can get over this super hard trial. Jesus understands exactly how they feel and He can help them. I really hope we can keep helping them. :) Also the hermanas from centro are staying with us in our house because they got kicked out of their apartment...so we are helping them out with everything and hopefully they will be all moved in by next week! Thank you for all your love and prayers! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

And even more rain...

Selfie
Amalia gave us her cigarettes!
KID DAY! All of the other pictures are from this activity.

Well, this week has gone by pretty fast. We had a lot of progress with our investigators this week and we are working toward the baptism this Saturday! Update on Amalia! We were able to visit her this week! We had a super powerful lesson with her. She told us she believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and that is why she accepted the Word of Wisdom! We asked her to stop smoking and she gave us her cigarettes right on the spot! We gave her the program from the church to help her stop smoking and she is very excited. She hasn't stopped completely, but she is smoking a lot less and progressing really well. Yay! Maria is the one that wants to get baptized this Saturday! It is a little sad, because her husband, Pablo, isn't listening very much and isn't ready to be baptized this Saturday. But Maria wants to get baptized, sí or sí, so we are going to help her. She will have her interview today and we will go from there! Wish her luck! Pray for her!

We had a super cute activity this week! Here in Argentina, they celebrate Kid Day. But they celebrate big. We had this super huge activity where all the little kids dressed up and all the adults as well! We dressed up as princesses with wands. But by the end of the night, we had given our crowns away to some cute little girls. We had lots of less actives at the activity and Maria came with her little kids! It was adorable and every time we feel closer to the ward. It is super fun. :)

It has been raining a ton, but thankfully, nothing has happened to us. We are safe and sound. None of the members in our ward got flooded, but many many people did. It is hard to watch the people suffering, but there are so many people that are helping. I am grateful for the service they are giving and I know that they will be blessed. That was my week! Have a great one!

Love,
Hermana Wood

PS we are in Rosario right now because Hermana Christiansen and I are going to go to the Monument here in Rosario!!!! Pictures to come next week!!!

NOS QUEDAMOS

p-day especial para las hermanas

Cousin "IT" She does it better than me...because she has WAY more hair than me. ;)

Inside of the house

Well....something completely crazy happened this week. Hermana Christiansen and I both stayed here in Acevedo! We were both completely sure that one of us would leave and we were telling all the members and investigators that one of us would leave...but then we both ended up staying for another transfer! Haha, we are super excited to be together! Obviously there is more we need to do here together, so we are going to do it!

We had a crazy week! On Tuesday, we went to Rosario and had a special p-day for the hermanas! There are only 36 of us in the misssion now. It was awesome to get to see some of my old companions and meet new people! I feel really old in the mission. We learned that we shouldn't compare ourselves and we are all special daughters of God. Sometimes that is hard in the mission because you look at all the great things the other hermanas are doing...but you need to remember tha God has a special plan for you and you are learning exactly what He wants you to learn. I don't know if you all remember Claudia from Cañada, but Hermana Cerna told me that she is pregnant! How crazy! I miss all the people in Cañada so much!

Then on Wednesday, we painted a house for a member family! It was lots of fun and it turned out really nice. :)

We had some super great lessons this week. We are aiming to have lots of baptisms this transfer because all of our people are progressing well and I really feel like lots of them can make it to baptism this transfer.

The first one was with Amalia. She is amazing! She was basically testifying to us about the family and how important it is to have a close family and to defend the family in this crazy world. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and we started reading one verse each..but she just kept reading and reading. Then she apologized, but she said she just couldn't stop because she loves reading the Book of Mormon. She is awesome! We are also trying to help her stop smoking. It it awesome.

Maria is doing great! She is all moved and everything is a lot calmer. We programmed her for August 22 and she asked us..."Can't I get baptized sooner?" We want her to come to church a couple more times, but I am sure she will get baptized. I have never had someone that wants to get baptized as much as she does. We also found this man named Ignacio! We talked to him the other day, but we were able to have a lesson with him this week. He is awesome. He has a daughter, but she doesn't live with him because he is separated. The elders passed for him before and he remembers a lot from what they said. He really wants to change his life. In the first lesson, we told him that if he could be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God, he would see changes in his life. He quickly agreed and accepted a baptism date as well. Super exciting!

We had 13 less actives at church this week! I don't know why, but in all my areas I have had lots of less actives that come to church. I feel like they are more important because they have already made special covenants with their Heavenly Father and they need to keep them. It is super awesome to be a missionary! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Be Strong!

Happy 4th of July from Argentina!

Oh, I totally forgot what we did this morning! We went with the other hermanas and we ate waffles!!! And smoothies!!! It was absolutely delicious and lots of fun!

The Relief Society celebrated my birthday!

Susana, Estefania, and Mailen

And we 'milked' an alfajor. That means that you suck milk through the alfajor. It didn't work very well, but it was delicious.

This week we were able to work a lot and we found lots of people that we haven't seen in while! We were able to find Susana AND Carmelo! It was super great to see them. Carmelo is pretty stressed out about work and money and things like that, so he was a little distant...but I hope that we can help him. Susana is doing well! She is reading and praying every day. She always loves to listen and learn more about the gospel. They are still waiting to have more money to start the papers to get married, so it is just a waiting game. It is hard, but I know we just have to put it in the hands of the Lord and He will make everything right.

We found Amalia!! It has been forever. She was super sick, she was in bed for 15 days straight. However, that gave her a LOT of free time, and she started reading the Book of Mormon! She is about half way done. We taught her about the plan of salvation, and she loved it. Her husband passed away about 3 years ago, and she found a lot of peace to know that her husband is okay and that she will see him again. I was able to share my testimony of the plan of salvation because I know that I will see my grandpa again and that we will be a family forever. I love teaching her because she accepts everything so easily. It's like she already knew it. I love it. :)

Silvina had her baby! So we are finally going to be able to teach her this week.

And Maria. First off, we were able to talk to her and with her husband and her husband wants to be baptized as well! We are excited for them to progress bother. But..Satan works so hard. When the investigator makes the decision and truly wants to be baptized with a date and everything, he starts working. First off, we were going to have a family night with her and her cute family this week, but her little baby got a bad ear infection, so they couldn't leave. Then Sunday in the morning..her dad had two heart attacks and passed out twice. They took him really fast to the hospital and they started helping him. They think he has a clogged artery. They told us it was super scary and obviously that is the reason they didn't come to church. It is very difficult.

On a fun note, we did lots of other stuff this week! We helped paint a house! It was lots of fun. We also had divisions this week. I was with Hermana Robinson. We came to our area so that we could use the bikes...but she is about as tall as I am and she didn't reach the pedals on Hermana Christiansen's bike...so we walked. I actually felt pretty good! What a blessing! I hope that everything will keep getting better and I will be able to walk normal. That will be a great day. We also had the 4th of July! Haha, we actually had to stay in the pench in the afternoon because there was a soccer game. Argentina vs. Chile. But...Argentina lost. So..that was kind of bummer. They went into penalties and everything. Maybe some day we will beat them. ;) The relief society also had a fun activity and they celebrated all the birthdays of the people in June! So they celebrated my birthday! That was awesome!

And good luck to all my friends that are ending their mission this week! I literally can't believe it has been two years! You are all awesome!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Dedication of the Cordoba Temple!!!

This week was a little slower because I had to stay in the pench a couple days to help my knee heal, but I am doing a ton better and I actually walking now...so that's a plus. I am grateful that we are still helping and finding new people, despite my injury.

Update on Carmelo and Susana. They are doing good! They love everything we are teaching them...but they are having a problem. They are actually from Santa Fe and their address is still in Santa Fe. So they need to change their address to Pergamino before they can get married here, or they need to go to Santa Fe to get married. So...they aren't going to get married June 13th, but they are excited to progress and figure out the best way to get married. It will be good for them because now they have to fight and progress and really put in an effort to get married. It will be good. :) And Susana is scheduled to have her baby girl this next week! We are excited for her!

We found this adorable woman named Amalia. She has two adopted sons named Damian and Angel. Damian is 19 and Angel is 15. We taught her about the restoration and about the book of mormon and she loved it. She said that so many things in her life make sense now and she is excited to keep reading and learning more. She accepted a baptism date too, so we are excited. This week, she invited us to each lunch with her, so we went and met her kids. We invited them to the activity we had Friday, and they came! They instantly became friends with the other young people in our ward, and they had lots of fun. We are excited to work with this family. :)

We had such a cool and spiritual experience yesterday. We were able to attend the dedication of the Cordoba temple in our chapel! We watched all three sessions of the dedication and it was so special. Everyone in Argentina is so excited to have another temple here. I feel spoiled rotten. From my house in Kaysville, I think I have about 8 or more temples within an hour of my house. The people here were crying with joy because they have a temple 4 hours away now instead of 8 hours. We are so blessed to have so many temples so close and we NEED to go to the temple as often as we can. Please go as a family and find your ancestors that need your help. I know they are waiting for you to do their work. The temple is so special, and the dedication was super beautiful. "Hosanna, Hosanna, a Dios y al Cordero!" It is so beautiful.

I think that is it for this week. I have so many pictures to send...but we had to come to Rosario last night for special p-day today with the other hermanas and I forgot my cable...so next week, I will send them. I love you all!!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood-