Crazy Stuff

Wow, so much has changed this week. We had lots of changes. We were waiting for our leaders to call us all week, and they finally did. My companion is going to be a sister training leader and I am going to train!!!!!! I am super excited to receive a new hermana and help her become the person that Heavenly Father wants her to be. Her name is Hermana Cruz, a latina. That is all I know about her. I will meet her tomorrow. :) Wish me luck!

Since my companion left and I will find my companion tomorrow, I am with a different Hermana Cruz and Hermana Zepeda. I am in a trio for 2 days. It is really fun to teach as three and have the spirit just a little bit stronger every time. They received a message this morning that they both have to pack their bags because they are both being transferred to an area in Pergamino tomorrow morning. So after this, we are going to the house and we are going to pack everything that they have up and they are gone tomorrow. There are so many changes in the mission and we never know what will happen. But I know that this is church is directed by revelation and everything happens for a reason.

My scripture from last week I learned so much. I really was able to get to know my Heavenly Father more through His fruits. His greatest fruits are agency, His son, Jesus Christ, and our church. He loves us so much and He has given us everything we need in order to become as He is, a God, one day. He is the best. :)

My new scripture is in Matthew 16:24-25. It is amazing that that's what I feel like I am doing in my mission. He will help me every step of the way. I love my mission and everything that I am doing and learning! Thank you for all your love and prayers!! Have an amazing week!

We taught the primary this week and gave everyone name tags. So cute!
We took this picture this morning. They are the best!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Great Week!

We had a super normal, awesome week! We were able to teach a lot of people and I am loving every moment!

We were able to teach Martín this week! He is so smart and he really has the desire to learn more. He came to the church with information about his great-grandparents in order to do family history! and we also taught him the plan of salvation and he really understood it well. He also watched 4 of the 5 sessions of general conference in his house! He just needs to come to church on Sunday in order to progress more.

We found a couple that we are excited to teach. They are Lilia and Omar. They are in their 60`s are really open to talking to us. They let us in their house and showed us all the photos of their kids and grand kids and great grand kids. The family is the most important for them. We left them with a pamphlet to read..so hopefully they will read and we will go back to teach them. :)

We met a lot with the Flia. Llancafil this week. They are the best! We felt very inspired to make a timeline from now until 2033 in order to help them see what is really coming in the future. We put big goals, such as when their daughter is going to be baptized, when they want to get sealed in the temple, when they want to move, their 10 year anniversary, things like that. It helped them a lot to see the big picture and what they need to do NOW in order to obtain their goals. I remember when my daddy sat down with me and did the same thing for me, and I loved it because I knew what my daddy expected of me and the goals that he had for me, like when I was going to enter young women's, start dating boys, graduate from high school, everything. I am grateful for the example of my parents. :)

This week we ate lunch with members and we ate cow heart!!!!! But they didn't tell us what it was until after we ate it. But...I hate to say that it was delicious. :)

This Sunday in our ward we had a change in bishopric! Our bishop served for 7 years and now we have a new one! His name is Bishop Lescano. He is super humble and loving and I think he will be an excellent bishop here in Echesortu.

I love the mission and everything I am learning! I learned so much from my scripture this last week, Omni 1:26. I learned that they only way we can be saved, spiritually or physically, is through Jesus Christ. He loves us and knows us individually. He is there for us always, no matter what we are going through. My scripture this week is 3 Nephi 14:20. I already have it memorized... ;) We will see how the ponderizing goes.

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

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!

Blessings!

My stuffed animals kicked me out of my bed. ;)
My hair.

We had a super great week! We are learning a lot together and we are working well together. I am grateful for my companion because she is helping me become better. :)

We had lots of experiences to teach this week when we weren't expecting to. We were looking for a less active and we taught him and his friend. We ate lunch with a member and their friend was there too. We are also talking to lots of people in the street. It takes a lot of courage to stop someone in the street in a big city because everyone has lots of things to do, but I know that there are people here ready to listen...they just don't know it because they are super busy and really focused. ;)

We do have a less active family that is progressing really well! We found them last week. It is the Llancafil family. (You pronounce that Shankafill in Argentina.) They are a young couple and they have a 2 year old daughter. We taught them the importance of family prayer..and they started praying as a family. :) We invited them to church and Yesica, the wife, came to church! Now we just need to get Esteban to church. But they are great. Their testimonies are really strong, they just need the push to keep enduring to the end. :)

I loved the women's conference this week! I learned a lot about my self-worth as a daughter of a king. We are here to prepare to become Gods. One day, we will be in the position Heavenly Father is in. I know that the trials we face are difficult, but it is the only way to learn and become like Him. Like they said in the conference, "I repent every single day" and in the end, I will say, "Is that all I had to do?" Heavenly Father loves us so much.

This is also something I learned. I am a missionary. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I am on His side. We chose in the pre-mortal world to fight with him to help save our brothers and sisters. It is our responsibilty to share the gospel with others who don't know that Jesus Christ died for them and that there is life after death. All we need to do is open our mouths and share our testimonies. I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

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 :)

Rosario. Vamos.

That is a hot dog. Yes, it comes with fries on top. Hermana Ribeiro!

Well, I will be the first to say it is VERY different working in a big city than in a little tiny town. Really different. But it is a good different. I am learning very different things here that I wouldn't learn anywhere else.

To be honest with you guys...we don't have hardly any investigators. We are working a lot with menos activos and helping them come back to church. The problem is that when people live in a big city, they are always busy. They are always working or buying something and get home super late at night. So...they are never home when we go to visit them. It's not that they don't want to listen, it's just that they literally don't have time to listen. It is kind of a problem.

We are teaching the Fuentes Family. They are less actives. The mom is in the process of getting a divorce and in the whole process stopped going to church. The members didn't help her out very much, so she slowly stopped going. We are teaching them the missionary lessons so that they can remember the testimonies they have and remember the importance of keeping the commandments and coming to church. They are super great and I hope we can keep helping them. We also taught Hermana Olga. She has started coming back church, but she has a problem with smoking. It is super great that she has come back and wants to make the change because that is the first step in the process. I know that she will be able to do it and we are here to help her. :) We are also looking for a new apartment. Our apartment is really small and has no ventilation.......so we are searching. We found a couple that we like, so we are going to hopefully move pretty soon.

On Sunday, I was able to gave a talk here in my new ward. I talked about that the Book of Mormon always talks about the missionaries. It tells about the stories and the conversions of the people and the miracles that they performed. But......if there were missionaries that whole time...obviously there were members. And what did the members do this whole time? I talked about Amulek, Abish, and Aminadab. Amulek left with Alma the missionary and helped share the gospel. Abish ran from door to door sharing her testimony. Aminadab (Helaman 5:35-42), a less active, was able to testify what the missionaries said and the investigators were able to pray and get rid of the darkness. These people were normal members that shared their testimonies. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and missionary work. It isn't just for missionaries. It is for everyone.

My companion is teaching me so much. She is so humble and willing to work. She will do anything the Lord wants her to do. She is so patient and loving. She told me she wants to learn english, so I am teaching her. This will be her third language. She is awesome!!!! That's about it. I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

NEW transfer. NEW area. NEW companion. Let's go

I got my package!
The girls from Acevedo. :)
This super funny kid named Jeremias from Acevedo that always talked to us in English. so funny.
TOBY!!!!
Hermana Christiansen. i love her.
A little bit of the fields on the way to Rosario.

Hello, everyone! I'm sure you are all dying to know what happened this week. So I guess I will tell you. I got transferred! My area is called Echesortu. It is right smack dab in the middle of Rosario. WHOO!! I am finally in Rosario!!! It's better that way because I am in the Rosario, Argentina mission. Echesortu was the first ward created in Rosario, so it is huge and all the members are super great! My companion is from Brazil. Her name is Hermana Rebeiro. No matter how you guys pronounce it, you will say it wrong. Because even I say it wrong. The correct pronunciation is in portuguese, and I can't even start to try and say it correctly. But she is so great. She the 6th of 6 children. She is 20 years old. Her closest sibling is 17 years older than her! Her and two of her sisters are the only members of her family. She is amazing and so humble and I am super grateful to be here with her! It is funny sometimes because neither of us are talking our first language, but spanish is the only way we can communicate. :) She does want to learn english, so I am going to teach her a little bit.

Echesortu is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gigantic. Enormous. The biggest area I have had. I have only been here for a day, but I feel like I will never learn the streets. They all look the exact same because they all have big buildings and tons of cars and people. A completely new experience. I have already seen things that I will never forget. I am grateful for Heavenly Father's protection, especially as a missionary. I know that if we are obedient and follow the spirit's promptings, we will be fine. Don't worry about me, I am just telling you. :)

Funny thing. Hermana Cerna went to Acevedo to be with Hermana Christiansen! Haha, super funny.

Anyway, I honestly don't remember what I did last week in Acevedo, so....I don't have much more to write. Thank you for all your love and prayers! I love you all!!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood