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 :)

Baptism! :)

We had my first baptism this week!! Whoo! It was super stressful because we had three weddings in our branch Friday, the day before the baptism, so everyone was at the temple in Buenos Aires. A few people were still in Cañada, but it was raining like crazy, so lots couldn't make it. :( And we had divisions with the capacidadoras from Friday to Saturday, so Hermana Matias and I were trying to plan the baptism over the phone because she was in Rosario and I was in Cañada! However, despite all of this, we still had the baptism, and it was super amazing! His name is Andres. He has such a strong testimony and such a strong spirit. I know that he will continue to be such a strong member of the ward and he will help this branch grow a lot. I am super grateful to my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be in Cañada and to be part of his baptism! The funniest part though was he forgot to close his mouth when he went under the water, so he drank a lot of water....but he made it into a joke and said, "As least I am clean on the inside too!" Haha, he is so great. :)

All of our other investigators are doing awesome! Claudia is fantastic! We taught her the word of wisdom and she has already quit smoking! She is reading the Book of Mormon every day, she comes to church every week. She just needs to get married! And then she can be baptized! She is awesome and I love teaching her because she understands. She gets it. It is awesome. :) We learned this week that she isn't from Cañada. She is from a city really far away called La Pampa. I thought about when Claudia, Hermana Matias, and I were all in heaven in the premortal world and when she left to go to the earth, we said, "Bueno, nos vemos en Cañada!" It's funny how everything works out. I know that we are all here in Cañada for a reason and it is so great to know that that reason is to help each other follow Jesus Christ and to grow together. :)

This week was super good! The other funny thing this week was I also went on divisions with Hermana Thornton! It was super weird to teach with her again, but it was so much fun! I love her!

I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Hermana Madera

New apartment

Hermana Matias!

This was our lovely lunch today with me, Hermana Matias, Hermana Thornton, and Hermana Rodrigues. We made the empanadas by ourselves! And..everyone drinks out of bottles like that here. Don't worry, it is just Tang. :) ​

Our pizza. I don't know if you can tell...but that isn't cheese. Those are noodles. And scrambled eggs. And hot dogs. Yup...we were quite adventurous that night. It was actually delicious.

I have officially changed my name to Hermana Madera. Madera means Wood in Spanish. It is so much easier for everyone and they all remember me. ;) I love this new area! It is so great. It has been hard this week because we couldn't leave the apartment the 31st or the 1st because of all the parties here and we had Zone Conference yesterday. We only worked 4 days last week, but it was still amazing!

Update on Claudia. She is doing amazing! She came to church yesterday and she loved it. Angel and Claudia decided that they are going to get married so that she can be baptized! :) We are going with them tomorrow to figure out all the papers. She is super amazing and she understands the importance of the gospel in her life. She can feel the difference when she reads the Book of Mormon and when she doesn't. She is so loving and super ready. :)

We also have another man named Andres. He has a baptismal date for the 10th of January. He has been on vacation for all the parties these past couple weeks. He came back this week! We found him on Friday. The first thing he told us when he saw us was that he wasn't going to go to church on Sunday because he was so tired from all his vacations. We were really sad and we told him to pray and that we would come back Saturday. We prayed really hard for Andres all night. Saturday we found him and he told us that the night before, he received an answer from God that he needs to go to church. His heart completely changed. It was a miracle! We are super excited for this week and hopefully he will be able to be baptized this week! :)

We found lots of other people and we are going to visit them this week. Hopefully everything will calm down after the parties and we will be able to find all of our other investigators. I am super happy and super excited! :)

Love,
Hermana Wood :)