My Letter Home

Dear Mom,
This week was a little bit slower on the progressing side of investigators, but we still had lots of lessons and I hope we are still helping people.

We had lessons with Inez and Graciella (Grace) this week. We asked both of them to be baptized, but both of them are very well educated and it is obviously a big step for them to accept a fecha, but they said that they want to keep reading and praying and tell us when they are ready. Hopefully that is soon. :)

One of the new families is the Familia Avila. They are a reference of the Familia Carlotta. Hermana Carlotta's son, Albino, and their son play on the same soccer team and they are really good friends. We were talking to the mom, Liliana, about the sons and she commented on how nice and kind and loving Albino was all the time. He was always well behaved and never got into bad stuff. He was a very good friend for her son to have. Albino didn't even know what an impact he had on this entire family by just being himself. Our lesson with them was really good and we have another this week.

We found Carina again this week! We literally haven't been able to contact her for the last month. We asked her why she didn't get baptized and what was holding her back. She proceeded to tell us her entire, beautiful testimony and that she really does want to get baptized. We gave her another baptism date for November 14, and hopefully she will realize that she wants this enough to sacrifice and get married to this man! He really is great, so we are trying to figure out why they don't just get married already. That's our next goal with her.

We realized this week that we say some pretty funny things while we are walking around the streets of Argentina, so we decided to create a quote wall. Probably no one else will think our quotes are funny...but we think they are hilarious. :) Por ejemplo:

H. Thornton: ¿A donde vamos?
H. Wood: El mundo de los espíritus. (because that is always the answer when we are teaching the plan of salvation.)
(about 5 minutes later)
H. Thornton: Hermana, ¿A donde vamos?
H. Wood: Well..are you ready to die?

I don't know if any of you will understand this, but it was pretty hilarious. :)
Also...........I bought hair dye. Yup......we'll see how that goes. :)

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Missionary Work at it's Finest

Dear Mom,
First off..Happy Birthday Chalise!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that you are 11 years old! You are so beautiful and I wish I was as cool as you. ;) I'm glad you had such a good birthday! There is also 88 days until Christmas, if anyone was wondering. :)

Missionary works changes so fast. You clap in front of a door and all your plans for the day change. Someone starts talking to you on the street and you visit them three more times that week. You are contacting and you find a menos activo that decides it is time to come back to church. It is crazy how many people are being prepared for us every day and how Heavenly Father places them in our paths. Through planning and relying on the spirit, it is okay for your plans to change and to go where Heavenly Father needs you to be.

Our investigators this week: We were able to find David again, which is awesome! He has such a crazy schedule, so we visit his house every day to try and find him. He has such a strong spirit and desire to learn. If we keep trying and trying, I know that we will be able to keep helping him. Fabricio doesn't always live with David, so we told the missionaries in the other area where his mom lives to visit Fabricio as well. He is such a stud because he is 12 years old and reading the Book of Mormon all by himself and wants to learn more.

Graciella is really progressing! She has lots of questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She has started reading the book for herself and I know that if she prays with real intent, she will know through the spirit, not her brain, that the book is true. It is important to know with your heart instead of your brain that this is the true church.

We also found another woman this week. Her name is Inez. She tries really hard to speak to us in English! Usually it is harder to understand her English than to just speak in Spanish, but she loves trying to use english. She is a teacher in her church, and now that we have been teaching her about the gospel, she told us she doesn't really want to teach at her church anymore because it doesn't feel the same. She definitely feels the spirit when she prays to her Heavenly Father because she has never prayed the correct way. It is has always been rehearsed prayers, but now she is actually talking to her Heavenly Father. It is so great to see her progress.

We have two sets of missionaries in our ward, us and a set of Elders. The Elders had a baptism this week of this adorable 13 year old kid named Alejandro! He has been coming to church with the Mathier family since he was 8 and he has wanted to be baptized for 5 years, but his dad kept saying no. However, he finally said yes and he was able to get baptized this week! Our ward was very happy and I am glad our ward had this opportunity. Missionary work is great!

I am very excited to watch conference this week! We are hopefully bringing all these people plus Patricia, Angelica, and Eva to the conference this weekend. I know that President Monson receives revelation for us in these days and that he will keep us all on track. I love you!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)