WEEK 5

Dear Mom,

The weeks are all mixed up here. The 6th week starts today on P-Day, so I am writing about what happened in week 5, but technically this is our last week in the MTC!!! It absolutely blows my mind! The weeks slowly sped up and now they are going by so fast. I hope they slow down a little bit once we get to Argentina, but I am realizing how fast time flies. I only have 17 months left on my mission. I have to make the most of it and continue to learn and grow. I had lots of great experiences this week and I am going to share some of them. :)

We finished up with TRC and we had a great last lesson with Javier. We asked him why he wanted to be baptized. He started to give us some doctrinal answers, but that's not what we wanted. We asked him again why he specifically wanted to get baptized and he shared with us his the testimony he has gained about faith and that Jesus Christ is our example. Then Hermana Leavitt and I were able to share our testimonies as well and it was a very spiritual lesson. I learned a lot from TRC: love, lots of doctrine, spanish, teaching well with a companion, and following the spirit. The spirit is the third companion and we need to prepare.....but we need to follow the spirit. I realize that these are very basic things that I learned, but the MTC is the foundation for the rest of your mission and I feel like the MTC has been very good for me. Lots of fun times and happy memories. :)

We had some awesome devotionals this week! Jenny Oaks Baker, Dallin H. Oaks' daughter, is a very famous violinist and she came and talked to us on Sunday. She told us of some experiences where she has learned about her relationship with Heavenly Father and then she played us some songs. My favorite was "Amazing Grace". They were so beautiful and I loved the spirit that they brought. Music can be used for such amazing things.

On Tuesday, Bonnie L. Oscarson came and talked to us!! How cool is that? It was so great and she told us about her mission and the missions her children have served. They had some awesome stories as well. The best thing I learned was when you pray to Heavenly Father for something, the situation usually doesn't change. But what can change is your attitude. Heavenly Father can help you to feel happy or peaceful in a terrible situation. You can remember why you are serving the Lord and find the tender mercies in your life. Heavenly Father's hand is always there, you just have to look for it. For example, I wasn't having a very good day yesterday and we were walking along and we saw the cutest little hummingbird flitting around these beautiful flowers. It made me so happy. It just reminded me that God's hand is in everything and He knows me. He is always with me. In a talk by Brad Wilcox, he said the grace of Jesus Christ isn't some light at the end of a dark tunnel. It is the light that is with you that leads you through the tunnel.

I have had an awesome last week at the MTC!!!
My District's Motto: Stay calm and go to Argentina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

P.S. At the end of the devotional, Hermana Leavitt and I went and talked to Sister Oscarson because Hermana Leavitt knows her nephews. After talking, Bonnie L. Oscarson GAVE ME A HUG!!! How amazing is that!!!!! It was so great! :)

WEEK 4

Dear Mom,

This week was a little bit longer because I was sick a little and we have a ton of new investigators. We are teaching both our teachers, a missionary from our district, and our TRC progressing investigator. A little bit more about TRC. So on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we go to his "house", which is another apartment because we are on West Campus, and we teach him. Everyone in my district has different investigators. When my companion and I found out that we were teaching Javier, lots of people were worried for us because he is known as a hard investigator. He knows the ins and outs of the bible and he is actually a mormon, so he knows that questions are difficult to answer. We have been praying, studying, and thinking about Javier the most out of all our people. On our lesson last Friday, we taught him about faith in Jesus Christ. He says that he has faith. So we asked him to act on his faith and be baptized........and he said yes!! The unteachable has been taught by us! The spirit was so strong and I felt so great. He still asks us some crazy questions, but he accepted baptism and lots of people are blown away that we were able to commit him! It was a great experience. :)

Another interesting thing was Hermana Leavitt and I got a letter in the mail that said we were going to have to switch investigators because the times weren't matching up or something. When we first started teaching Javier, I would have been just fine with switching. But when we got this letter, I realized that I didn't want to switch. Javier meant something to me and I wanted to help him. We went and asked to keep Javier. They did a lot of work, but they made it so we could teach him again!! I was so happy. I never thought I would have begged to keep teaching Javier. It was a big learning moment for me. I didn't realize how much he meant to me. It was a cool experience. :)

I am very grateful that you were able to get in contact with people in Salt Lake about my visa and my fingerprints! We got to ride in a police car to the police station and they used this super advanced machine to do my fingerprints. No ink or anything. It was lots of fun and we are now friends with Officer Judd. :)

This week, we had a district meeting and we went around and shared a cool experience or a testimony. I shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It goes all the way back to ninth grade. I have always loved the Book of Mormon and all the stories. At the end of the school year, my seminary teacher wrote "I am a witness of the Book of Mormon" up at the top of the board and said to come write your name on the board if you are a witness of the Book of Mormon. I thought and thought about it, and then I decided that I was a witness and that I could write my name on the board. I loved that feeling. I have never lost my testimony and it continues to grow stronger every day.

My testimony in Spanish:
Yo se que Dios es muy amoroso. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi salvador y mi redentor. El Libro de Mormon es veradero. La iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es veradera. Mediante la fe en Jesucristo yo puedo volver de Dios otra vez. Te amo!!!!

Te amo,
Hermana Wood :)