Happy Christmas!

We had a fantastic week! We were able to have lots of lessons this week and the ward is continually progressing and working more and more to help the less actives and investigators feel welcome and bring more people to Jesus. It is always great to see the fruits of the labor!

We had a great family night with Melisa and Guillermo because another family invited them to do it with them! We talked about goals and how it is important to prepare for the future and if we put God first, He will always help us. Then during the week we had another lesson with them and we taught the plan of salvation. It's like their world made sense now. They loved what they learned and they both accepted to be baptized!!!! How amazing, right?? I love them and I am grateful to be here teaching them!

We are finding new people and families to teach, but I feel really good about the work we have done here. I know that the future missionaries, ward members, and investigators will be grateful.

We are going to have a pretty crazy week this week! We have lots of activities, tramites, and Christmas to do! I can't wait to see all of you! I would like to end with a couple scriptures.

"Wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream..." (Jacob 7:26)

"I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: "But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be unto thee..." (3 John 1:13-14)

"And now I bid unto all, farewell..." (Moroni 10:34)

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Once again from my companion. :)

The Christmas tree we are going to give to a family tonight, inspired by the Christmas tree my mom gave to me.

Week 1

Well, I am here with my new companion, Hermana Cruz! She is from Mexico City, Mexico! She is 22 and the 2nd of 4 children. Her whole family is members and she is super obedient and excited to be here in the mission! We have worked so hard this week and little by little we are seeing the results. We were able to visit lots of menos activos this week. We also recieved about 4 references this week! That means that the members are starting to work and are sharing the gospel! I am super excited about that! One crazy way we found new investigators this week is there was a family and they needed to start their car...but it wouldn't work. They started pushing and pushing the car, but nothing happened. So we offered to help push the car, and magically it started working! :) We are going to visit them this next week. :)

I was able to study my scripture this last week and it really helped me to forget myself and go to work. I thought of a story that I heard here in the mission:

A young man went to the place that makes crosses. The kind owner recieved him warmly and asked him what he was looking for. The young man said he came because his cross was too heavy to bear and he wanted another one. They started walking among the crosses. He saw some that were very small, and other that were gigantic. As he kept walking, he didn't see one that quite fit him. As he rounded the corner, he saw the cross he wanted. It was a little beaten around the edges, medium sized, and perfect for him. He looked at the owner and said, "I found the cross I wanted!" And the owner said, "That was the cross you started with. Now, take up thy cross and follow thou me."

I love this story. Every single one of us has different trials, everyone has a different cross to bear. But every single one of us can take up our own crosses and follow Jesus Christ because He knows how our crosses feel on our backs. He knows how painful it is to put one foot in front of the other, day after day, longing to just sit down on the side of the road and call it quits. That is why the last step in the gospel of Jesus Christ is endure to the end. If Jesus had sat down on the side of the road in the garden of gethsemane, none of us would have the amazing privilige of living with our heavenly father again. We have experiences to learn and grow. I am learning a lot here in the area and I know it is for a reason. I love my mission and I wouldn't trade it for the world! My new scripture is 2 Nephi 25:26. I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

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 :)

NOS QUEDAMOS

p-day especial para las hermanas

Cousin "IT" She does it better than me...because she has WAY more hair than me. ;)

Inside of the house

Well....something completely crazy happened this week. Hermana Christiansen and I both stayed here in Acevedo! We were both completely sure that one of us would leave and we were telling all the members and investigators that one of us would leave...but then we both ended up staying for another transfer! Haha, we are super excited to be together! Obviously there is more we need to do here together, so we are going to do it!

We had a crazy week! On Tuesday, we went to Rosario and had a special p-day for the hermanas! There are only 36 of us in the misssion now. It was awesome to get to see some of my old companions and meet new people! I feel really old in the mission. We learned that we shouldn't compare ourselves and we are all special daughters of God. Sometimes that is hard in the mission because you look at all the great things the other hermanas are doing...but you need to remember tha God has a special plan for you and you are learning exactly what He wants you to learn. I don't know if you all remember Claudia from Cañada, but Hermana Cerna told me that she is pregnant! How crazy! I miss all the people in Cañada so much!

Then on Wednesday, we painted a house for a member family! It was lots of fun and it turned out really nice. :)

We had some super great lessons this week. We are aiming to have lots of baptisms this transfer because all of our people are progressing well and I really feel like lots of them can make it to baptism this transfer.

The first one was with Amalia. She is amazing! She was basically testifying to us about the family and how important it is to have a close family and to defend the family in this crazy world. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and we started reading one verse each..but she just kept reading and reading. Then she apologized, but she said she just couldn't stop because she loves reading the Book of Mormon. She is awesome! We are also trying to help her stop smoking. It it awesome.

Maria is doing great! She is all moved and everything is a lot calmer. We programmed her for August 22 and she asked us..."Can't I get baptized sooner?" We want her to come to church a couple more times, but I am sure she will get baptized. I have never had someone that wants to get baptized as much as she does. We also found this man named Ignacio! We talked to him the other day, but we were able to have a lesson with him this week. He is awesome. He has a daughter, but she doesn't live with him because he is separated. The elders passed for him before and he remembers a lot from what they said. He really wants to change his life. In the first lesson, we told him that if he could be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God, he would see changes in his life. He quickly agreed and accepted a baptism date as well. Super exciting!

We had 13 less actives at church this week! I don't know why, but in all my areas I have had lots of less actives that come to church. I feel like they are more important because they have already made special covenants with their Heavenly Father and they need to keep them. It is super awesome to be a missionary! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

Have Noche de Hogar!! (Family Night)

Our House

This week has gone by so fast! It goes so much faster when you have lots of activites planned and have lots of people to teach!

In this area, Hermana Christiansen and I have been focusing on having lots of Noches de Hogar! That is family night. We have had noche de hogar with active members, part member families, less actives, and investigators! I love feeling the spirit with the families and helping them progress as a family, not individually. Heavenly Father's plan is not that each of us individually makes it to the celestial kingdom...His plan is that the FAMILIES make it to the celestial kingdom, dressed with all the covenants and ordinances necessary that are only found in the temple. When you have this perspective, it makes it a lot easier to help others and love them. All you want for them is to progress. We have about 3 or 4 noches de hogar every week.

This week, we had an awesome noche de hogar with the Familia Vega. They are an active family, but they are struggling to do the little things, like praying and reading the scriptures every night. We shared 3 Nephi 4:10. It talks about how the nephites won the battles. I would write it down...but I only have my spanish scriptures, so not many people would understand it. Basically it talks about putting God before everything and you will go with the strength of God into battle. I know that the scriptures are for us and every single scripture can be applied to our lives.

We also had a noche de hogar with the Familia Fusco and the Familia Bonavita. The familia Bonavita is trying to come back to church and the familia Fusco is their friend that is helping them. This noche de hogar was super fun because we talked about how to share the gospel. Our mission president gave us the great idea to teach the members how to be missionaries! We teach them the mission lessons and help them practice. It is lots of fun and I love hearing the testimonies of all the members. It is awesome!

Then...on Saturday, Hermana Christiansen got really sick and we didn't leave all day. So...I finished the Book of Mormon..again. :) The biggest thing I learned is that miracles come through faith. There are miracles everywhere. Honestly, if a person has faith in Jesus, miracle will happen. I know that if we can have faith, the miracle will come. I have seen so many miracles here on my mission, and I know that if I can keep the faith, they will continue to come.

After church yesterday, we had a noche de hogar with the Familia Branchini. They were less active as well, but now they are coming to church. However, they have two old sons that don't live at home anymore and aren't coming to church. They were there Sunday, so we were able to have the noche de hogar with them. They also both brought their girlfriends, who aren't members. Best noche de hogar ever! We taught the restoration and both of the girlfriends accepted the invitation to be baptized! I love when God puts amazing people in our path. The cutest thing was when Hermano Branchini said to his sons, "And you can both prepare so that you will be able to baptize your girlfriends!" So cute! I hope that we can help all of them progress.

Also, this week was independence day here in Argentina! 9 de Julio! We had a super big primary activity in the stake and Carmelo, Susana, and Maria all came with all their little kids. It was so great to see them there! Everyone is doing super awesome and I love the growth that is happening here! All of the members are becoming more involved and happier to help with the Lord's work. I love being a missionary and I am super excited to see what else happens! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood

Go Acevedo!

This week was super long because we were trying to help Maria get to her baptism date...but Satan was working really hard this week. Background on Maria. She is 23 years old. She offically got married in January of this year. She has three little kids and they are all from her husband. She got married so that she could get baptized, but then she didn't have time to go to church because her littlest kid was born and he had complications with his birth. But now, she has everything under control and she wants to come to church and get baptized. So we were super excited and trying to get everything ready...but her mom stepped in. It was a little interesting. Her mom is a member as well. But she said she wants Maria to more consistently go to church and have a really strong testimony before she gets baptized. Obviously, that makes sense. So we told Maria to pray about when she should get baptized. She didn't tell us the answer in time this week in order to get her interview done, but she told us she really wants to get baptized and that she is ready to do everything to get baptized. We are super grateful that she feels this desire so strong to make these covenants with God. So we were waiting for her at church...but there was a HUGE storm Sunday and she gets to church by walking. And she can't walk in the rain and thunder with her three little kids, so she wasn't able to make it to church. But we are going to visit her this week and hopefully wihin the next couple weeks she will be baptized. :)

We haven't been able to find Carmelo for a very long time because now he works all the time. Susana is a little discouraged because she can't be baptized until they get married, but Carmelo doesn't have any time. I am learning how important families really are. If you and your husband and wife aren't on the same page, no one is happy. Neither of them can progress without the other. The family and marriage is ordained of God. It is super important. :) You can pray for them both.

We have been visiting lots of people that are less active...but not because they want to be less active. There are lots of members here that are old and sick and literally can't leave their houses. It is so sad to see them suffering and being sick. Imagine someone old that is sick and times it by 5. And Argentina is about 60 years behind the united states medical wise. And most people's children here don't support their parents when they are old. It is super hard to see the people. But I really feel the love that Jesus feels for them. I know He is aware of them.

Here is just one example from this week. On Thursday, we met this woman named Maria Luisa. She has been confined to her bed for the last two years and will be until she dies. When she was younger, all she did was serve the Lord and the people around her. She is a very good person. She feels very sad to have to end her life because of the awful sickness she has that the doctors can't cure here. We were just talking to her and we told here that everything would be okay and that she was a daughter of God. And she just started crying. Without even thinking, I immediately got up from my chair and started stroking her hair. I wiped away her tears. I told her it is okay to cry. She was so grateful that we came because she told us we were sent directly from God. I loved that experience and the love I felt for this woman I have never met in my life. I love being in the Lord's hands and doing what He would do if He were here.

Fun part of the week. I was trying to ride my bike, like I always do..and I ran into a barbwire fence. I have a really nice scar now.

Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Wood