Miracle on Belgrano Street

Dear Mommy,
I can't believe it has only been two weeks here. It feels like I have been here forever. Like I have never done anything different than preach the gospel to the people in Argentina. I love it. I love sharing the gospel and sharing my testimony. It is the best feeling in the world. I love that our Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever in whatever language you speak.

We had some pretty funny and amazing experiences this week. Every day is an adventure and I hope I can remember everything that happens.

First off, we wanted to get our map enlarged so that we wouldn't get lost so much. We took it into this little store and she enlarged it for us. We asked how much it was and she said, "Cincuenta (50)." We assumed 50 pesos, which is a lot, but we took out 100 pesos and handed it to her. She asked if we had anything smaller, and we did...but not enough to pay 50 pesos. So she takes the 100 pesos and gives us 99.50 pesos in return. It was only 50 cents, not 50 dollars!!!! We paid $100 for something worth 50 cents. We felt really bad because we took all of their money...so we probably won't go back there any time soon, but that's okay. :)

We had a special meeting this week where President Zaballos of the seventy came and talked to us. He gave the most amazing analogy. I didn't quite understand it in Spanish, but my companion explained it to me, and it is awesome: You can count the seeds in an apple, but you don't know how many apples will come from that seed once it is planted. You can count how many people you teach or how many baptisms you have, but you never know how many lives one person can touch. He was a convert to the church, and now look at how many people he is helping and sharing the gospel with. It was an amazing analogy.

We had a miracle this week on Belgrano Street. It was about 8:45 at night, so we were heading back to our house. We hadn't had a very good day because most of our citas had dropped and we only taught 2 lessons that day. We were walking back through a park and this man and his son were walking towards us. It was late, so we weren't going to say much, but they stopped us on the road. He told us that 20 years ago, some missionaries had taught him the first lesson and he wanted to know more about the gospel!!! He told us what he remembered about Joseph Smith and the Libro de Mormon and that he had felt something very different about us than any other church. We were dumbfounded and we have a cita with him tonight!!! We gave him a Libro de Mormon and invited them to church and they were so excited. They are a miracle. I am so excited to teach them and get to know them more tonight and this upcoming week. I know that the Lord is watching out for us and wants us to succeed. We have to put in our part, and He will definitely help us out.

We had an amazing week this week. And...I tried the ice cream here. That was a bad thing to do because it is SOOO good! I love all the food here and the ice cream! It is just so great! :)

I love you!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

ARGENTINA!! :)

Dear Mom,

You will never guess where I am at! Well, you probably will considering the circumstances...but I will tell you anyway. :) I am in ARGENTINA!! Can you believe it??? It is so super great and incredible! I have loved every single second here and I can´t wait for more.

For starters, my new companion is Hermana Thornton. She is from Spokane, Washington. She has been on her mission for 4 months. 4 months. And she was called to be my trainer. Usually trainers have been out for at least 6 or 12 months, but she got called to be my trainer. She definitely has the gift of tongues, but there are still moments when we are walking the streets and we don´t know what is going on..........which is sort of a problem. But she understands way more than I do, so we are progressing pretty well. We also get lost sometimes. The streets here are actually numbered really well, but she doesn´t know the area very well because it is a new area for her too....It is interesting and we are learning so much together. It is super great. People ask us all the time if we are from the United States because of our accents. They speak castellano here, which is a different dialect of Spanish. They slur everything together. But we are working on it and hopefully the Gift of Tongues will kick in a little more. ;)

I am loving it here! I actually understand quite a bit. I can definitely communicate and help out in the lessons. All the members here tell me that I am doing better than lots of missionaries that have come through here. So that makes me happy. :) We have an amazing ward. We have 70 active members that come to church. They are so great. The best is Hermana Carlota. She is our mom. She takes care of us, feeds us a lot, and does our laundry for free. She is so great. The members have a calender where they sign up to feed us. We have lunch every single day this month with different members. They are so great!

They only eat lunch here. It is the big meal of the day. Then they take Siesta. Siesta is pretty sacred here. Everything closes down and we do our studies during Siesta because everyone is asleep. It is super funny.

Now, for our investigators. I taught a lesson the very first night I was here! We taught Eva. She is going through a divorce and she has two daughters. She works at an old folks home and she works every Sunday morning. Coming to church is the only thing holding her back. We are hoping that she can try to work something out. We are praying for her.

Next is Carina. We taught her on Thursday and we committed her to baptism!!!! She is getting baptized on 13 de Septiembre. They have taught her for a while, so I am excited to be here for her baptism.

We found Lucrecia while we were contacting. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation because her Grandma just passed away. It was really hard for her. I told her that families can be together forever and that there is a plan for us after death. We are going back tomorrow to teach her again.

Those are the ones I can think of right now. I love it here in Argentina. We teach a lot of lessons and we get to know lots of people. One thing I don´t understand is when the Catholics tell us that our religions are exactly the same. They are not. We have a plan and we have the same church that Jesus Christ organized when He lived on the earth. We have another testament of Jesus Christ. We can know for ourselves if this gospel is true. I love being a missionary and being able to walk right up to people and say, "I have a message about Jesus Christ that will bless your life forever." It is so great. I probably forgot a lot of your questions, but I don´t have much time left. We are playing frisbee and making tacos today for P day! It will be super great!

I love you!!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

These are Hermana Thornton´s pictures. I´m not very good at taking pictures. The guy with the mission call is Niko. He was a convert and his year mark is the month. He got called to Columbia!!!! It was super great!

Argentina Rosario Mission

Dear parents:

The Argentina Rosario Mission has received excellent missionaries this week. President Zanni and I are very happy to welcome them. We thank you for the great support you give to your children in this great work of the Lord.

Sister Wood arrived safely. You will now be able to communicate with her on Monday (Preparation Day) through email.

We thank you very much for your collaboration. We know that your daughter is an excellent representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We thank you for the support your daughter provides.

We have also attached some pictures of Sister Wood with her trainer, President Zanni, and myself and another with her group. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for your love and support.

Yours truly.
Sister Zanni