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 :)

6 MONTHS!!

Can anyone believe that I hit 6 months this week??? I can't even begin to think about it. This time is going by SO fast. I don't ever want it to end. I love being able to talk to EVERYONE about Jesus Christ and His love and sacrifice for every single one of us. I love sharing His love and I love Him. :)

This week was hard because Hermana Matias' ankle has really been hurting. :( I went on divisions with Hermana Thornton a lot this week. Honestly, I know why I am here in Cañada. Hermana Thornton and I can really work together and teach because we have already been companions. God works in very mysterious ways. And the work in Cañada hasn't stopped, despite the injuries. :)

We received some sad new this week. Claudia and Angel are moving to La Pampa (where Claudia used to live). They are moving because they are having problems getting all the documents Claudia needs to get married and they don't like the house they are living in right now. So they are going to leave Cañada de Gomez. :( :( We were very sad when she told us. But right after that, she told us, "I already know where the chapel is in La Pampa and I know where all my documents are. We are going to move, get married, go to church, and I am going to get baptized, no matter what." Wow. She is amazing. She is going to be a HUGE miracle for the missionaries there. I am so excited for her and her new life. I am glad that I got to be apart of it for a couple weeks to help her find the true gospel and happiness. :)

I love Cañada! Our other investigator that is progressing a lot is named Irma. She has a complicated life. She has 4 little kids under the age of 7. Her husband is in jail, and she had to get married to him so that they could visit. Her mother is in dire need of blood transfers and she isn't doing very well. (Just a side note...don't tell people what blood type you have. Because you shouldn't go around giving blood to people.) She has a ton of faith in Jesus Christ and is really searching for the truth. This week we were finally able to teach all about the restoration because her kids were sleeping. It really caught her attention and she is going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She is super great!

We are also teaching lots of menos activos because there are about 300 in the branch! Our goal is to help Cañada become a ward again. We are here to baptize, retain the people who just got baptized, and reactivate the people that aren't going to church. We need to do all of these things in order to help everyone and help this place. We are super excited and happy to be here!!

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Cockroaches!

Argentina is doing weird things to my hair. It's super great.

Family Nights at their finest. ;)

I had to prove to myself that I can still get ready and look nice. ;)

A purple Christmas tree just for you. :)

Don't worry, I am pretty sure that we are always going to have some sort of problem in this house. This week was cockroaches. Every night we came home there were cockroaches! And I am talking HUGE ones. The ones that you have to smash at least 7 or 8 times until they are finally dead. And Hermana Cuchiparte does not like animals or bugs or anything, so I, once again, am in charge of killing everything and making sure everything stays out. Haha, it is a great responsibility to have. ;)

We taught Hermano Enrique twice this week. He really is a great guy, and he knows basically everything about the gospel, because he has been going to church every sunday for 5 years. We asked him if he would be baptized, and he told us that he would be baptized the 30....of February. Ha ha. Not funny. We are trying to figure out what is holding him back and how he can make this step. He told us he knows this church is true, but he doesn't want to be baptized. We are going to keep praying to figure out what he needs.

About two months ago, we found this woman named Belkys, but we could never find her again..until this week! We were walking down the street and for some reason, I remember her, so we went and clapped at her house (we don't knock, we clap). She came to door, looked at us, and quickly let us in. We were very surprised and grateful. She told us that her husband died 5 years ago and she still misses him very much. We started talking about the plan of salvation. We got to the part about the spirit world and we read Alma 40:12. She started crying and told us she knows this is where her husband is. I was able to testify with all my heart because I know that the spirit world is real. I know that there is life after death and that my grandpa is still with me. I started crying, she was crying. The spirit was really strong. She offered the last prayer and she prayed so sincerely and was so grateful for our visit and for the knowledge of where her husband is now. We have another lesson this week and I can't wait to teach her.

The final thing is we are working with lots of menos activos. We had two menos activos families that came to church this week because we visited and invited them! They are just as important as the investigators and I was super happy to see them there!

The work our our Heavenly Father is moving forward! Make sure you are on the train and you are constantly trying to help it move forward. There is always something you can do. :)

I love you all!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)