Good week!

Well, here's to another week! My companion was really sick for a couple days, so we weren't able to work as much as we wanted, but we still visited lots of people and they are progressing a lot!

The people that are progressing the most are Maria and Pablo. They are adorable. We talked a lot with them about the plan of salvation and why we are here on the earth. Background story. Maria has 8 siblings. Her parents and 7 of her siblings are members of the church. A year ago, her parents went to the temple in Buenos Aires and got sealed together and to 6 of her siblings. Maria and Pablo went with them to the temple. Although they couldn't go in the temple, they loved the feeling they had outside the temple. They told us they both have the goal to go to the temple and be sealed as an eternal family with their three children. It was adorable to hear them both say that. I know that families can live together forever! Maria was able to come to church with two of her kids, but Pablo couldn't because his pants weren't dry because they washed them the day before...but he promised us he will come next week. :) We had a good lesson with Mica! She told us she loves the feelings she has when we are talking with her and she is learning about the gospel. However, she said it is hard to motivate herself when we aren't there. So we are trying to help her bring the spirit into her life by reading and praying and coming to church. I hope that she will be able to find the desire and really progress! Her boyfriend, Lucas, is now coming to church all the time, so I hope he will be a good influence on her.

Honestly, we weren't able to do much else this week because my companion couldn't leave her bed. But I learned a lot this week. I read about 200 pages from the book of mormon and I read a lot of Jesus the Christ and Preach my Gospel. I know that this is the true church and it has been restored to this time just for us. I know that Jesus is my brother and my Savior. He loves me and only wants the best for me. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Wood

Time is flying!

I'm starting to feel like all my other friends that are on their missions. They always start their e-mails by saying, "The time is going by way too fast! It's already Monday again? I can't remember what happened this week!" This is starting to happen to me. So...hopefully I will be able to remember and share the best things that happened this week. :)

We have been focusing a lot in menos activos. We went through our directory and charted out every menos activo, we have 300 of them, and we are trying to have contact with all of them. We found lots that are from other religions, and it is really sad to know that at one point in their lives they accepted the gospel, and now they don't have those blessings in their lives. However, we found some amazing people that we are working with now to bring them and their families back to the church!

The first one is the Flia. Mostajo. They are such a cute family. They are from Columbia. They have 4 kids. We have been trying to get them to church, and they came this week! We were so happy! They also brought the wife's dad, and he isn't a member, so hopefully we can help him out too. The other is a cute couple named Rodrigo and Celeste. They are both 28 and both menos activos. We learned that they have been trying for 8 years to have children, but she can't get pregnant. We shared a message that God is aware and loves us individually and that families can be together forever. They both came to church this week. I love this gospel!

Jorge is doing well! We visited him and he hasn't drinken all week!!! We are super excited for him and for his progress. He said that his friends came to his house and asked and asked him to drink, but he was strong and said no. He said they set up everything outside on a table with all the alcohol, and he said no, closed the door, and watched movie. I love it! He is reading the book of mormon everyday and praying for strength. He is super awesome and we are praying so hard that everything will go well!

Claudia and Angel are doing okay. They didn't come to church yesterday. :( So we visited them and rekindled their fire. They have been reading the book of mormon together every morning for the past month, but this last week, they didn't read. And then they didn't come to church. There is power in the book of mormon. It is a magic book. Every time I read it, I find new things and receive revelation from my Heavenly Father. I love it!

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Read the book of mormon!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

I love being a missionary!

Saying goodbye to Hermana Matias

Hermana Cerna!

Dear Everyone,
What a week. I am now training another missionary, Hermana Cerna! But..she came pre-trained. She is so strong and she can share her testimony with everyone she meets. I am learning so much from her. I love the way she uses the Book of Mormon to answer EVERY question that people have. I am learning to trust the spirit a lot more to try and find the people that are ready here in our area. It isn't very hard to do in Cañada, but I know that we can't do anything without the help of our Heavenly Father. I love being a missionary!

Update on Jorge. We went to his house this week and he told us that he hadn't drank or smoked for a whole week!!! We were so excited for him. He was reading the Book of Mormon every day and was so excited to come to church. We went to his house Saturday night to have a lesson.....and he was drunk. :( :( We were SOO sad! My heart hurt so much. When he saw us, he started crying and went back inside his house. It was so hard. We are going to find him this week and help him. Please pray for him so that he can have the strength to resist!!!!!

Claudia is still doing amazing! She is growing so much in the gospel. She is reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and she is now in 1 Nefi 20. She brings her scriptures to church every week and participates in the classes. She received her birth certificate in the mail this week, which means that they can go to the office and pick out a date for their wedding!!! And then she can be baptized!!! Whoo!!! We are so happy for her.

We had an interesting experience this week. We went to a menos activo. He told us about this dream that he had. He said that there was a huge crowd of people and he felt like they were all waiting for him do help them. He didn't know what it meant and he felt really frustrated. I felt in my heart and told him that the people in his dream were his ancestors waiting for him to do their work. He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said (in Spanish, but I'll write it in English) "That is exactly what it means. Thank you so much. How did you know?" I love the spirit! I had absolutely no idea what his dream meant, but we felt that he needed to do his family history work. We gave him a "My Family" pamphlet and he said he will start working on it. He also came to church this week. It was amazing! I love being a missionary!

Well, I think that's it for this week. I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)