Who knew?

Why did I think I was going to be able to end my mission peacfully? Haha, well, that thought was a little off track because this week was crazy! We did so many things and lots of stuff happened and I am going to try and share it all with you.

First. Haha. Well, once upon a time, we live in a building that needs three keys to enter. One for the main door, one for the bars in front of our door, and one to open the door to our room. Oh, and before we had a rule that we couldn't take the cell phone out of the house, but this week the changed it. And we have to be in the house at 8:30. So on Wednesday, we went to leave the house. We took the phone, locked the bars and the door, and left the building. We went and visited everyone we needed to see...and we realized that it was 8:20 and we weren't going to make it home in time. So we started running. We ran in the middle of the street in Rosario, in the bike lane, because it was faster. We ran and ran and ran, and we finally got home. When we got there...we realized we didn't have the keys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were stuck in the middle of Rosario without keys or money. But, THANKFULLY, we had the phone! So we called the elders and they said we needed to go to the hermanas in Parque Urquiza and spend the night because there wasn't anything we could do about it in the moment. We called the landlord, and he didn't have a copy of the keys or anything. So we called the hermanas, and they paid the taxi that we took and we slept with them for the night. It was hard to sleep because you could hear the bats outside all night and the doves in the morning. but that's beside the point. Then in the morning, we called the elders and they said they were going to meet us at our house. So we took a taxi, and they paid for it, and we got there. Before they called the locksmith, we pushed all the doorbells of the people to see if they could open the maindoor. One guy said yes and came down. We explained what happened and he said a woman had found some keys yesterday!!!!! We quickly talked to the woman and she said she found them in the keyhole of the main door! I left the keys in the door! Hahahaha. I felt kind of stupid, but blessed that we didn't need to pay lots of money. we made copies of all the keys and now we are okay. Oh my gosh, so funny.

Second. One night, we opened the window to go to sleep, and a butterfly came in the room! Obviously, being me, I couldn't sleep with a butterfly in the room. So I started jumping on the beds trying to reach it and put it outside. Hermana cruz tried to help by hitting the butterfly with her towel. But...she hit it so hard, that she let go of her towel and it flew out the window! Then in that moment it started raining and pouring and we couldn't find her towel. but don't worry, i got the butterfly out of the room. We found her towel the next day soaking wet, but we found it. :) Third. We had the Christmas dinner here in our ward!! Melisa and Guillermo were able to come!!! They told us that their son is okay now and he is with them, so they are very happy about that. The primary did the nativity and the youth served the food for everyone. We had to leave, but after everyone danced and had a great time. It was very nice!

Fourth. Yesterday we had consejo de barrio with our bishop, and we were so surprised becuase we taught him the new plan from the area and he put everything in practice! We gave him a copy of the Action Plan with the vision, goals, and plans, and he made a copy of it and gave it to everyone organization so that each one has a vision for the ward and how they are going to help the ward grow. I loved to see the fruits and I know that they are going to keep progressing here! It makes me happy!

Fifth. This morning Hermana Cruz and I went to the Monument! It was so beautiful because there was no one there and the sun was behind the clouds. I love Rosario and I love being a missionary!

Those are the stories from my week. I hope you all have an amazing week with everything that is going on with Christmas and families! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

A Savior is Born

No one ever thought they would see me with an apron... ;)
Alfajores!!!!!!!!!!

We put up the christmas tree.
Yay for Christmas!

In Spanish, it is "Ha nacido un Salvador" and we are sharing this video with everyone, just like we did last year with the little cards! It is so much easier to talk to people in the street when we have something in common. This is what we say? Missionary: Hi, we have a question. Do you celebrate christmas?
Person: ......yes.......
Missionary: Oh, really? Us too! We have a present for you. It is this little card. Right here is says, "A Savior is Born". For us, the Savior is Jesus Christ. And for you?
Person: Yes, Jesus, for me too.
Missionary: Perfect. Here is a web page that you can enter and watch a 2 minute video about Christmas and Jesus Christ. We would love to pass by and answer any questions you have...etc.

It works so well. Because they are basically obligated to say yes, and the spirit comes because we are talking of Jesus. The people really feel the spirit of Christmas, because here in Argentina it is really hot during Christmas and no one decorates, so it is different, but when we talk about Jesus, they feel it.

This week was my last fast sunday here in Argentina. I was feeling a little down and I fasted and prayed to have at least one investigator in church on Sunday. I was praying and praying, hoping that we would have one, because here it is hard to come by. When we got there, there were a TON of people that were in the church. It turns out that a company here had a work party in Rosario, and everyone from Buenos Aires came here for the party and the members came to church on Sunday. They invited some of their associates to come to church! 6 investigators! We also had a baby shower and some of their family members came that weren't members! Can you believe how much Heavenly Father answered my prayer and fast? I know He listens to us and hears our prayers. When we put in our part, He will always bless us. It was a miracle.

Carina is doing well. She was all ready to come to church, but her sister-in-law wasn't able to watch her shop, so she couldn't leave the shop. But she really wanted to come. We taught her the plan of salvation. I love teaching her because she loves to learn and understands. I think my favorite part of the lesson was when I asked, "So, Carina, were did you live before this world?" And she said, "I lived with God as a spirit and I came here to be tried and tested so that I can live with Him again." Wow. She is amazing.

Melisa and Guillermo are trying to figure everything out with the judges and policemen and I will tell you if we hear anything about them. I know this is His work and His glory. To help us become like Him. We already made the decision to become a God one day because we made covenants with Him...and that's why we have trials. So that we learn how to become like Him.

We were able to talk to our bishop about the new area plan and he was so excited to put it into practice! He is so humble and willing to work for the Lord. I am grateful to be here and help this ward.

Oh, the best thing that happened this week was Hermana Olga taught us how to make alfajores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, they are delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I now have the recipe and obviously we are going to be making some alfajores. ;)

I love you all so much!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

First Transfer!

Christmas!

Last day in Mayoraz!

THIS is how happy I am to be in Cañada de Gomez!!! :) :)

​I made a graph of all the birthdays in our ward. There were a ton in December!!

Oh my goodness, I am so happy! I got transferred and I am now in my second area! It is called Cañada de Gomez. It is a tiny, little town and all the people are so humble. They are all so ready to accept the gospel and I am so excited to be here and teach them. And I love my new companion! Her name is Hermana Matias. She is 20 and she is from El Salvador. We get along so well and I already love her! I am so excited for this transfer and to work with her. It will be amazing. :)

In the two days that I have been here, we have already had some success and some awesome miracles! We found a woman named Claudia. She is the girlfriend of a recent convert named Angel. He was baptized about a month ago. We went to visit Angel to have a lesson with him and Claudia was there. We started talking to her just about the church in general and the blessings that she can receive and SHE asked US if she could be baptized! She wants to be baptized really bad and start a new life with Angel and just be happy. She is amazing! :)

I don't have much more time, but I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Christmas

Both views from our Christmas Skype!

Happy Christmas!!

This SUPER AWESOME slug. It was huge!

Hermana Knapp, my favorite. ;)

You know you speak too much Spanish when you directly translate "Feliz Navidad" into Happy Christmas and tell your latina companion that that's what all the people say in the United States. Oops...Merry Christmas!! ;)

Wow, so much stuff happened this past week. We had lots of activities and lots of amazing lessons. The spirit is so much stronger during this time of year.

The one investigator I want to talk about this week is Belkys. She is so prepared and amazing!!! I love her!! We had a lesson with her this week. We told her that there were certain ordinances that she has to perform here in this life so that she can live with her husband again. We held up a picture of Jesus Christ being baptized. She took one look at the picture and said, "¿Vos sabes que yo quería bautizarme en este forma todo mi vida?" Translated: "Did you know that I wanted to be baptized this way all my life?" Wow!!!! We quickly told her that she can be baptized this way and her face just lit up. She has a date now and she is SO excited to be baptized!! She is 70, and she is still super healthy. She is going to walk to church with us this Sunday. She wrote it down in her calendar. ;) She is so cute and so great and so ready.

Last Saturday, we went to an old people's/disabilitated home with our whole zone and Presidente Zanni and his family to clean and sing songs. While we were there, it started to rain super hard and the home started to flood! It was super good that we were all there because we all started bailing water and helping the workers. It was sad to see, but it was good we were there. :) Then we ate cookies and sang and talked to all the people. Afterwards, we ate empanadas and played games in the stake center. Super fun!!

We also had our ward Christmas party! It was super duper fun! We had 18 investigators come to the party!!!! :) It was amazing and super delicious! I had my first pollo asado! It was so good and so fun. :)

Tonight, we are going to have a cena with some members in our ward and with the Elders, and then tomorrow I am going to skype!!! It will be 7:00 a.m. in Utah. I am super excited!! I love you all!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

General Conference!

Dear Mommy,
This week has been so great. Before I tell you about conference, here is a list of things I did this week:

1. I survived my first transfer in Argentina!
2. I learned to do the bridge with face cards
3. I drank caffeine for the first time in my whole life...it was coca cola. It was super gross.
4. This woman randomly came up to us and told us her whole life story about how her husband died and how she loves her family and then she just walked away. We were so confused. So..we literally stalked her for about 8 blocks to see where she lived until she walked across the street and out of our zone...so then we had to stop.
5. We made a Christmas tree out of a chain that has the number of days until Christmas (80 days, by the way)! We are very excited about Christmas.
6. I watched General Conference! I watched two sessions in Spanish and two in English. I hope that I understood the Spanish talks and that they talked about what I actually heard. ;)

Now, about conference. I don't have a lot of time to write, but my favorite talk was Richard G. Scott. I loved the list he gave! Pray, read the scriptures, have Family Night, and go to the temple!! I love the temple and I miss it so much! Make sure you go to the temple all the time. If we do these things, we will qualify for blessings and personal revelation and peace in our lives. I am very grateful for all the talks and the opportunity to learn and grow. It was a great week! All our investigators are progressing really well. We found two new families and we have citas with them this week. We have lots of people now and things are really picking up! I hope that you all had a great week!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)