CONFERENCE!!!!

Hermana Bushman and Hermana Zepeda came to stay with us to watch the conference. :) Good times.

Fotos from our district meeting :)

Wow, we had a great week! We are really seeing the miracles here. I will tell one highlight day from our week and then I will talk about conference. :) On Thursday, Hermana Zanni, the wife our our mission president, decided to accompany us to all our lessons that day!!! It was amazing to be with her and teach with her! We were able to teach lots of people. We taught Hortencia, the menos activa of 30 years. She really felt the spirit and she said, "Wow, who knows. You guys might just get me to come to church." Haha, it was awesome. For her, that is a ton of progress. We read 2 Ne. 31:20-21. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way we can live with Heavenly Father again. I love her!

Then we taught an investigator! Martin! He is about 30 and about a month ago, he randomly walked into the church and said he wanted to learn more. We tried and tried to find him, but we never could. On Thursday we found him! We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized. He said yes! We are excited for him! I hope we can keep finding him and teaching him. :)

Then we were able to teach Paula with Hermana Zanni. She is like 25 and she is coming back to church. We taught her the restoration and she started crying. Something I loved that Hermana Zanni said was, "I didn't ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. I ask my Heavenly Father if He really showed himself to a 14 year old boy and called him to be His prophet. And God responded and said yes." It was very powerful and different from anything I have ever done. I loved it! It was an amazing day. Now for the conference. :)

Wow, I have no idea where to start. I loved it all. I was very blessed to be able to watch it all in English with the other missionaries from the states. The spirit was very strong and I received lots of answers to my prayers. I loved that all the apostles, prophet, and the other leaders were in sink. Everyone taught about the same, basic principles. Faith, repentence, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. It is the path that Heavenly Fathe has given to us to be successful in this life. And it is all centered on the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I loved the testimonies of the three new apostles, Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevensen, and Dale G. Renlund. They were so basic and so simple. The scripture in D&C 1 really descibes them. I am so grateful for prophets, seers, and revelators today.

I think my favorite talks were by Russell M. Nelson and David G. Durrant. I learned what kind of woman I need to be in these last days. A woman that is strong and willing to stand up for what she believes in. We also learned that the largest group of investigators are the children. We need to listen to the spirit and act on the promptings. I also loved PONDERIZE. Haha, he was so proud of his new word. But it is a great idea. This week I chose Omni 1:26. I am going to ponderize it this week and I will tell you more about it next week. :)

Our other miracle this week is after the Saturday conference, we visited the Flia. Llancafil to see why they didn't come to church. We went in and started the priesthood session for them to watch and invited them to come to the sessions on Sunday. AND THEY CAME! Yay! We were so excited! Yesica and Esteban both came. I love the changed we can see in the people when they accept the gospel in their lives. It was an amazing week and amazing conference! Everyone please pray for Thomas S. Monson so that he can have the strength to keep going. He is called of God and Jesus Christ is leading our church today! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

We also had zone conference with Presidente Zanni. So much stuff happened this week that I completely forgot. We learned a lot about Preach my Gospel and the importance of reading it every day and focusing on our investigators. It was great!

Little Miracles

You will never guess what I found this week.
A STREET WITH MY LAST NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never thought I would see that. How cool.
This is Nalany's grandma and her cousin, Josefina. :)

I am learning to look for little miracles. It is hard sometimes...but my companion and I are doing something really fun. Every night after we plan for the next day, we sit down and shout out the miracles of the day for 3 minutes. After every miracle, we both yell, "YAY!!!!!!!!!" It actually helps a ton to see the Lord's hand in our lives every day. Our miracles have increased as we have begun to look for them. I will tell you about a few of them. :)

We found a woman named Hortencia. She is less active for 30 years. She is married and has 3 kids, and none of them are baptized. She is really nice...but she didn't really have desires to come back to church. We were talking with her in her house and out of no where, my companion said, "Hermana, have you done your family history?" She said yes. What???? She said when she was 14 years old she loved family history. She found all the way to her great grandparents. And that is without technology. We were shocked. We told her that she could come to the church during the week and do family history for free and that there are people to help her. She was shocked. She got so excited and she said, "Well, would you look at that. Maybe I will come to church." Never in my life I thought she would say that or have interest in family history. My companion was very inspired to ask her. We hope she keeps progressing!

Another miracle is we went to eat lunch with a member named Violeta. She is 35 and got baptized about 3 years ago. She lives with her mom. Her mom is not a member. She has never sat down and listened to us share a scripture (which we always do after we finish eating). But this time she sat right down and listened to us very attently. She shared with us an experience of when she and her husband were driving down the road and they ran out of gas and they were literally in the middle of nowhere. They didn't know what to do. A few minutes later, there was a car. They flagged it down and told him their problem. He said he had a little car of gas in his car he could give them. Crazy! She said this is one of the reasons she believes in God. We were so happy that she talked to us. Maybe we will be able to teach her! :)

Other little miracles happened like we ate super yummy Peruvian food and we found our phone when we thought it was lost forever. It's the little things. :) We also found out that the mission office is trying to help us move!! We found an apartment and they said they are in contact trying to rent it. yay!

Something really important that a less active taught me this week is that salvation is PERSONAL, not INDIVIDUAL. Yes, everything depends on how you act while you are here on this earth, but you can't do it individually. You need to serve others. You need to help others grow. You need to fulfill your calling. You need to visit the sick and afflicted. And that is why it is personal and not individual. :)

Keep shining bright. I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)