Gotta love cambios

Wow, so many things changed this week! We have had so much success and I am so grateful for these next couple weeks to keep progressing and growing and learning the things that Heavenly Father has in store for me!

First off, we found out that Claudia was able to go to the registro civil and she was able to pick a date for her and Angel to get MARRIED!!! They are getting married April 24!!!!!!!!!! And she is going to be baptized April 25!!!!!!!!! We were so excited and I am can't believe she is finally going to get married and be baptized! She is so amazing and I love her so much!!

We also learned this week that.....Claudia doesn't live in our area. :( She lives in the area of the other hermanas, so Hermana Cerna and I aren't going to be teaching her anymore. :( It is sad because I have been through so much with her and we have grown so much together. But I feel very blessed because I will still be here in Cañada to watch her take these huge steps in her life! :) Jorge also doesn't live in our area, so they are going to be passing for him as well. He is doing good. :)

The one thing Cañada lacks is young people, especially in church on Sunday. Usually the primary has the same 3 kids every week, 2 young women, and 2 young men. They suffer because sometimes they feel alone and church isn't very fun. So we have all been focusing on finding kids and young people to bring to church, and it has been very rewarding. :)

First, we found Sheila. She is still doing awesome! She is praying every day and starting to read the book of mormon. She loves the classes and is applying everything she is learning. I love to teach her because she is so ready to be taught. She is super busy because she is working and studying, but she always finds time for us.

We also found three siblings this week: Aylen (12), Cintia (10), and Eduardo (9). They are the sobrinos of Jorge! And they are so amazing! We taught them about prayer and Eduardo said, "Oh, prayer is a dialogue with God." Haha, right? He is so great and they all understand. We were worried that their mom wouldn't let us teach them, but she was all for it. It was a miracle! We brought them to a family home evening and to church this week! They absolutely loved it and they told us flat out that they want to be baptized. We are so grateful for these great kids that are prepared. You never know who is ready to hear the gospel. :)

The other kid that we found is named Valentina. She is 9 years old. We were teaching her grandma, Marta, and Valentina was just sitting there listening. We asked Marta if she wanted to be baptized, and Valentina asked us if she could be baptized too! We said yes! I love kids and their amazingly strong spirits. I am so excited to teach them. :)

All of this ties in with the general woman's conference that was this week! It was so powerful about families. I know that it will be a lot of work to have a family, but I know that if the family is centered on Jesus, it will succeed. I am really excited to keep working and teaching people. I love this gospel!

Love,
Hermana Wood

P.S. I finally dyed my hair. I am BLOND. But really, super blond, I love it. :) Pictures to come!

The Atonement

Wow, I learned a lot this week. We had some awesome experiences and we had some really sad experiences. I'll start with something happy. This week, on March 3, 2015, Andres turned 65!! He lives alone, so Hermana Cerna and I made a cake and put a huge candle in the middle and went to his house and sang happy birthday to him!! He started crying and said that he had been all alone and that he was so happy that we remembered and that he loves us. It was so touching and I was so glad to be a missionary and to help him feel loved. :)

Our hunt for menos activos has once again been a success! We found a menos activo named Estela. She has been inactive for about 11 years. She has a daughter named Sheila and she has 18 years. Her mom went inactive right before she turned 8, so she was never baptized in the church. However, Estela has a super strong testimony that this is the true church and the only way we can live with our Heavenly Father again. We talked about how the gospel gives us clarity and purpose in our lives and we asked Sheila is she wants to be baptized, and she started crying and said yes!! No one has ever asked her to be baptized. She is so humble and so ready. She is so great. We are super excited!!!!!

But something really sad happened just after that. We had an appointment right after this lesson with Sheila with Jorge. They live on complete opposite sides of Cañada. We were so happy and full of the spirit when we left Sheila's house. We knew that we wouldn't make it to Jorge, so we called a taxi and payed $50 pesos to get to Jorge. We were so excited to see him. Earlier that day, we had started planning for his baptism this upcoming Saturday. We made invitations and the program and everything. I had all the faith in the world that he was going to be baptized this week. But...we got to his house and he was drunk. :( my whole world fell. I felt so sad. I couldn't believe that he had made so much progress, and then he threw it away and drank again. I felt all my faith leave me. I was so sad. When we got home, I just prayed and prayed. I wanted to know how this could happen. I was so sure that he would be able to overcome this trial and be baptized.

The next day, we had a service project for Jorge. All the members came to his house and helped cut his grass. As we were helping him, I felt such a strong love for him. I realized that my faith had all been centered in him. I had faith that he, alone, could overcome this trial. I realized that I only should have faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. Honestly, Jorge can't overcome this trial alone. The only way he can do it is through our Savior. I learned this week I only need to have faith in Jesus Christ, and He will make all things possible. I know that the atonement is real and that Jesus Christ knows us personally. He knows how Jorge feels and how to help him overcome. He also knows how I feel, as a representative of Him, and how to help the people that have confidence in me to receive revelation from my Heavenly Father specifically for them. I have a big responsability, but I know that through my Savior, everything is possible. I love you all so much and I hope you 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 :)

Lots of Food!

Food that we cooked! We eat everything with Mayonesa.

Our torta that looks awful but was delicious!!

I found Hermana Christiansen!!! :)

Wow, this week has been quite long. We went to Rosario two times. Once, was to practice singing for the choir, and the other was to have a special conference with Elder Avila! He is part of the seventy. Presidente and Hermana Zanni and Elder and Hermana Avila talked to us. And wow, did I learn a ton. This is the part that stuck out to me:

In 3 Nefi 17:9-10 Jesus is talking to the people in the Americas. He says that the people that aren't sick need to bring the people that are sick to Him so that He can heal them. And AFTER the non-sick people bring the sick people to Jesus, they can be with Him too. I learned that we can't be with Jesus unless we bring someone else with us. We need to help our fellow man. We need to serve and love everyone around us so that we can all be with Jesus and we can all feel His love and partake of His sacrifice for us.

I also learned in D&C 101:55-57, Heavenly Father needs His WHOLE house in order to complete His work. He doesn't just need missionaries. He needs young people, he needs mature people, he needs all the members of the church to come together and help bring to pass His work. I loved it!

After we had the conference, we went to an unlimited buffet. It was so delicious! I tried octopus for the first time, and it was so good! I also learned that an egg roll is called an empanada chino here. So funny!

Thank you all so much for all your prayers!!!! Jorge did super amazing this week! This weekend in South America was carnival. Everyone drinks and parties for about 3 days. Jorge didn't drink at all and he came to church!!! Can you believe it?? We were so happy for him and we are praying his baptism is soon! :)

Claudia and Angel are now having problems. I don't know why. They both came to church this week, but something happened and now Angel says that he isn't going to come to church again.....we are trying super hard to figure out what happened and how to help him. Please pray for them!

Valentina and Marcos are doing well! They really understood the plan of salvation this week. They progress slowly, but they are progressing. And they have a hard time going to church because they are really old, so next week we are going to focus on getting them to sacrament meeting.

Hermana Cerna loves to cook! Which is super good because it is super delicious..but bad because I think I'm going to gain like 20 pounds this transfer. ;) But it is super fun and I am learning a ton! I love it!!

I love you all!

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 :)

Cambios!

I have way too many stuffed animals. I love it. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Wow, this week has been full of changes. First off, we found out this week that there are only going to be 2 missionaries here in Cañada! Hermana Thornton had an emergency transfer for Santa Fe, so her mini missionary went home to Rosario. We also found out that Hermana Matias is leaving tomorrow. :( She is getting transferred to Santa Fe. I am going to be finishing the training of an hermana from Spain! No one knows how to pronounce her name, so I will tell you all next week. :) I am super sad that Hermana Matias is leaving because I love her so much! We have had some amazing experiences together. I also feel a ton of responsibility because I have all of Cañada now! And my compañera is really new...so we are going to see how this week goes. :)

We had some miracles this week. I will write about a few of them:

First, we have this amazing investigator named Jorge. He was the other hermanas' investigator, but now he is ours because they left. He came to church this week! He has been trying for a very long time to stop drinking, and now he is finally making progress! We are hoping he will be baptized 28 of February.

This Sunday was absolutely amazing. Jorge came to church, Claudia came to church, and two other investigators as well! We also had a complete menos activo family and 3 other menos activos in sacrament meeting. Andres received the priesthood and is going to pass the sacrament next week!!!!! I love to see his progress! He really is super amazing. Also, during sacrament meeting, there was a huge storm outside, and the power went out. But we kept on going and it was super funny. :) And then we got to walk all around Cañada in the rain. I loved it!

But this was the biggest miracle of all. Remember Valentina, the cute little old lady? Well, we visited her this week. Usually when we go, her husband, Marcos, gets up and goes in the other room because he doesn't want to listen. But this week, we went in and he sat down and started talking to us. He asked us a bunch of questions and then he told us something. He said that since he is old, he can't see hardly anything. He hasn't been able to read for a very long time. But this past week, he picked up the restoration pamphlet that we left for them and tried to read. And he could read it! He read the whole pamplet two times. He tried to read other things, and he couldn't see anything. He said that God was trying to talk to him and that he wants to come to church next week. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and he immediately said yes. Wow. This was the biggest miracle I have seen in my mission and I am so excited for him!!!! I am so grateful to be on my mission and to be in contact with such amazing people.

Oh, something else happened this week. It was raining really bad, and we were getting off the bus to go to district meeting. I slipped and fell and got banged up pretty bad. I had to go to the hospital to make sure that everything was okay. I recommend NEVER going to a hospital in Argentina. But don't worry, everything is fine and dandy now. :) I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!