Don't Happy, Be Worry

Dear Mommy,
My title is not to make you worried or anything. Here in Argentina, lots of stores have clothes with English words on them. No one here knows what their shirts say. Usually they don't make sense at all, and "Don't Happy, Be Worry" was on one of the shirts this week. They are hilarious!

This week was pretty good. But Carina got super sick this week. She has a baptism date for November 14, so we are visiting her almost every day. She was really sick in bed, so we called the Elders to come and give her a priesthood blessing. Her son, Nacho, was in the room as well. He listened to the missionaries a while ago, but he decided he didn't want anything to do with them. The elders got done with the blessing, he had tears in his eyes, and he asked to have a lesson right then and there. We stayed with Carina and the Elders taught Nacho in the other room. We had two other lessons with both of them this week. Great experiences! We hope Nacho will want to change and keep having the discussions. Carina also came to church this week. :)

Something really weird is that we went to teach David this week...and his house wasn't there. Like, it doesn't exist anymore. Nothing is there. We are really confused and a little worried...He hasn't answered his phone or texted us back, so we don't really know what to do in this situation. Oh well, we will keep praying for him. :)

I had to go to Rosario this week to do tramites. Everyone has to do it here. It is kind of like customs so that we can be legal here! Techicnally I am still illegal...but that's okay. :) I have to go to Rosario tonight as well. It is fun because you get to meet other missionaries and go to the mission home...but other than that, it is pretty boring. But something amazing happened! We were waiting in line to do tramites, and this little girl came running over to me and my companion, Hermana Knapp. She told us she loved the way we talked, (because we were talking in English) and she thought we were just so cool. Then her sister and her mom came and talked to us. We told them we were missionaries and wanted to have missionaries come and teach them. They agreed. Guess where they live?? In our ward!!! :) It was amazing because we were all the way in Rosario and we found them there. The elders are going to teach them. They are such a cute family!

Halloween was this week! No one celebrates that here. But..we still wore orange and black. It also poured super hard on Halloween! We ran like two blocks to our house and we were completely soaked! It was super fun! :)

Other than that, this week has just been pretty normal! Lots of work to do and I am super excited to do it!!!! :)

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

P.S. Just in case you are wondering, potato bugs still exist all the way down in Argentina. :)

Un Bautismo!

Dear Mommy,
This week has been pretty long, but I have learned so much this week. I have learned that everything is in the Lord's hands and that we need to accept His will. I have also learned that you need to try your ABSOLUTE hardest to do His will and follow Him with everything you've got.

The sad new first...Hilen moved away and is living with her grandma for two months.....so she isn't in our area anymore, so she can't get baptized. :( Sad moment. Also, Inez and Maria Elena dropped us this week. They like the church and I'm pretty sure they have felt the spirit and the happiness...but they have decided they don't want to change. We have to acknowledge their wants and trust that somewhere down the line Heavenly Father will help them and they will remember what we have taught them. I hope that they will be okay and that one day they will want to be truly happy and follow our Savior.

We found David this week!!! We had a lesson inside his house and we taught him the restoration completely. He is just like Joseph Smith. He has a lot of questions and we answered them. He obviously works a ton and I don't know how quickly he can come to church and have all the lessons, but he has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and know the truth, so we are definitely going to keep working with him.

We had a crazy learning experience. We were walking along the vía ( I think that means railroad..I'm not sure. It isn't a very safe place to be, but it is much faster and it was in the middle of the day.) and we saw this boy about 16 years old. We usually don't just go up and talk to 16 year old boys..especially on the vía. So we said hi and kept walking...then Hermana Thornton and I looked at each other and we both realized we had the same impression to talk to this kid. We thought about it and decided to do it..but when we turned back around he wasn't there. We were both very sad and felt awful because we didn't follow that prompting. We went on with our day, but this kid wouldn't leave our minds. We wanted to find him so bad and follow this prompting. We kept praying in our hearts for some way to make this right. You wouldn't believe what happened. We walked around this corner and there was the kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was leaning up against a wall, almost waiting for us to walk by. We literally ran over to him and started talking to him. His name is Lucas. He doesn't live in our area, but he was very interested in the church, so we got his address and referred him to other elders. That doesn't happen. We found Lucas again!! I am beyond grateful for this experience and now I know to talk to every person I see because it was 1 in a million that we found this kid again. I am so grateful!!!

Finally, the Elders in our ward had a baptism! Her name is Jesica. She is the strongest, most amazing person I have ever met. She has such a sweet spirit. They found her and she got baptized three weeks later. She is literally amazing. She has a testimony that is stronger than many other people and she is ready to follow Jesus Christ with all her heart, might, mind, and strength. She is amazing!

We started clase de ingles this week. It is hilarious to hear all the people try to speak english. It is super fun!! I love my mission!! We have to other people with baptism dates now: Andy and Rita. Hopefully we can keep teaching and helping these people! I love you!!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Missionary Work at it's Finest

Dear Mom,
First off..Happy Birthday Chalise!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that you are 11 years old! You are so beautiful and I wish I was as cool as you. ;) I'm glad you had such a good birthday! There is also 88 days until Christmas, if anyone was wondering. :)

Missionary works changes so fast. You clap in front of a door and all your plans for the day change. Someone starts talking to you on the street and you visit them three more times that week. You are contacting and you find a menos activo that decides it is time to come back to church. It is crazy how many people are being prepared for us every day and how Heavenly Father places them in our paths. Through planning and relying on the spirit, it is okay for your plans to change and to go where Heavenly Father needs you to be.

Our investigators this week: We were able to find David again, which is awesome! He has such a crazy schedule, so we visit his house every day to try and find him. He has such a strong spirit and desire to learn. If we keep trying and trying, I know that we will be able to keep helping him. Fabricio doesn't always live with David, so we told the missionaries in the other area where his mom lives to visit Fabricio as well. He is such a stud because he is 12 years old and reading the Book of Mormon all by himself and wants to learn more.

Graciella is really progressing! She has lots of questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She has started reading the book for herself and I know that if she prays with real intent, she will know through the spirit, not her brain, that the book is true. It is important to know with your heart instead of your brain that this is the true church.

We also found another woman this week. Her name is Inez. She tries really hard to speak to us in English! Usually it is harder to understand her English than to just speak in Spanish, but she loves trying to use english. She is a teacher in her church, and now that we have been teaching her about the gospel, she told us she doesn't really want to teach at her church anymore because it doesn't feel the same. She definitely feels the spirit when she prays to her Heavenly Father because she has never prayed the correct way. It is has always been rehearsed prayers, but now she is actually talking to her Heavenly Father. It is so great to see her progress.

We have two sets of missionaries in our ward, us and a set of Elders. The Elders had a baptism this week of this adorable 13 year old kid named Alejandro! He has been coming to church with the Mathier family since he was 8 and he has wanted to be baptized for 5 years, but his dad kept saying no. However, he finally said yes and he was able to get baptized this week! Our ward was very happy and I am glad our ward had this opportunity. Missionary work is great!

I am very excited to watch conference this week! We are hopefully bringing all these people plus Patricia, Angelica, and Eva to the conference this weekend. I know that President Monson receives revelation for us in these days and that he will keep us all on track. I love you!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Such a Crazy Week

Dear Mom,
This has been the craziest week so far. I'll start back with last Monday. I was able to play soccer!!! I love soccer!!! I have missed it so much! We can't play with the elders in our mission, and girls literally don't play sports down here, so we haven't been able to do anything like that. However, we had a special pday where our whole zone got together and the sisters played soccer. I did score every goal...but it was still so much fun. I have missed it. Don't worry, I can still juggle the ball at least 50 times in a row. :)

We had a little bit more success this week in refinding our investigators. We found David and Grace again this week. They are both learning really well. David's son is very sick, so hopefully he can get better so that we can teach them both more about the plan of salvation. Grace is a little bit harder to teach because she knows the bible inside and out. She always has questions because everything she knows about the gospel is from Youtube. She really just wants to know the truth, and we told her to look on mormon.org and lds.org so that she learn what we really believe. The most powerful answers always come from the BOM, so we are trying to help her find her answers there. We found Carina again! She isn't living with her boyfriend at this moment, but she needs to be a little more stable before we up and baptize her. So we are working with her more this week.

This was super funny this week. I don't know why, but when we walk down the street, some guys hit on us sometimes. Like whistle, or say things that I, gratefully, don't understand. Anyway, Hermana Thornton and I were walking down a street, and we heard a cat call whistle. We have learned to ignore these and keep walking. But we heard the whistle again and again and again. So we turned around and it was a parrot whistling at us! It was hilarious!

It was really hard this week to find out my grandpa passed away. I am grateful that you were able to call me and tell me instead of finding out by an email. I am so grateful the the plan of salvation. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will see my grandpa again. I know that he with me and watching over me. I know that love can be eternal and that he will always love me and I will always love him. I hope that my whole family is doing good and that the funeral will be good tomorrow. I wish that I could be there, but I know that everything will be okay. Thank you so much for your love and support!!!!!

I love you!!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)