Great Week!

1. my bouncy ball bounced up on top of the closet, so I had to climb up and get it. ;)
2. Us. We ate brownies and ice cream!
Hermana Christiansen, me, Hermana Robinson, and Hermana Fairbanks
3. #lashermanasdepergamino or in english #thesistersofpergamino It is super fun!

Well, we had a pretty great week! Everyone is doing well and I am super happy to be a missionary here! Maria is doing awesome! We went and visited her and she said that she is reading the scriptures and praying every day! She said that one day her mom was feeling really sad and didn't know what to do. Maria went to her house, got out the gospel principles book and started reading about the family. Then she went back and shared it with her mom and her mom felt a lot better. She is already helping other people! She is the best. We invited Pablo to really kneel down and pray to know if the chuch is true. If he decides to do it, I know he will receive an answer. We will see if he has the desire to know. :)

We found Amalia! She is going through some really tough stuff. She is trying to redo her house and her niece moved in with three little kids and it is really hectic, so she hasn't been doing very well at stoping smoking. But we told her that she can do it! We had english classes this week and her two sons came and then they played with the other kids, so maybe if we can help her sons have the desire to come to church, she will also have the desire. We will see. :)

Finally, we found a new family this week! Their names are Cesar and Eli. They have 5 kids..i think, but all of them are grown up, except for their little girl that is like 10. They are super awesome people. But they have had a hard life. Two years ago, Cesar and their son Nahuel were driving in the car...and they got jumped. The people killed their son and Cesar lost an eye. It was VERY hard for them. They are still suffering from the loss. It is so hard to deal with things like this if you don't have the gospel. They believe very firmly that Nahauel is in a better place now...but they don't understand why they have to keep suffering during this life. We were able to talk to them a lot about the plan of salvation and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus they can get over this super hard trial. Jesus understands exactly how they feel and He can help them. I really hope we can keep helping them. :) Also the hermanas from centro are staying with us in our house because they got kicked out of their apartment...so we are helping them out with everything and hopefully they will be all moved in by next week! Thank you for all your love and prayers! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

BAPTISM!!!!!

Wow, when one thing happens, everything happens. We have done so much this week and I am so glad that I was apart of it all. I am going to start with Monday, because there is so much to write.

On Monday, we woke up at 5:00 in the morning, caught the bus, and went to Rosario!!! We were able to go to the Monument for the Flag here in Argentina! It was so beautiful and huge!! I loved it! The best part was we were able to go to the very top of the monument and look over all of Rosario. It was so beautiful! Rosario is huge! The weather was perfect because it was a little overcast, so not a lot of people were there. We were also able to look at the Parana River. I just loved the whole day. It was a much needed 'vacation' and we had so much fun. :)

On Tuesday, we heard some very sad news. Do you all remember the woman named Maria Luisa that was really sick that we were visiting before? We found out that she passed away from her sickness. :( We walked for about an hour and got to the funeral home to go to the viewing. It was veyr sad to see her like that because we honestly have grown to love her so much. :( her whole family was there and we were able to meet some of them. We weren't able to stay for very long because after that Maria had her baptism interview. It went really well and the district leader said she could get baptized on Saturday! On Wednesday, we went to the funeral of Maria Luisa. The cemetery is so different here! Almost all of the graves are above ground. Or they make little houses and put the coffins inside. It was very different. We had a nice service in the morning and then we drove to the cemetery. She was actually buried underground. It was very different from the states because they lowered her into the ground with rope and threw all the dirt on the coffin while we were all watching. It was very drastic and really hard to watch, but I know that we will be able to see her again and now she isn't suffering. My testimony of the plan of salvation grows every day.

On Saturday, we had the baptism of Maria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) Her whole family and Pablo were able to come to her baptism! It actually went very smoothly and the spirit was very strong. I am so grateful that she made this decision to be baptized. She is setting huge example for her family that I hope they will follow. :)

On Sunday, so many amazing things happened. Maria was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and received the Holy Ghost. She honestly looked so different. She looked so content and peaceful. Everyone commented on how bright she looked and how happy. I loved to see the change. Also on Sunday, the stake president came and changed the bishopric. We have been working with this family the, Branchini family. About two months ago they started coming to church. On Sunday, Hermano Branchini got put in as the first counselor in the bishopric! and they invited us in to listen to the setting apart. It was so awesome to see how ready he was to have this calling and how excited he was to work. I love the change the gospel makes in people'e lives. Missionary work is so rewarding and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thank you all for your love, prayers, and confidence! I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Wood :)

RAIN!!!!!!!!

It has rained SO much this week! I honestly can't believe how much it has rained. There are so many houses that have flooded and so many people that have had to been evacuated. Gratefully, we are doing okay. My umbrella broke, so I bought a new one today. Hermana Christiansen's umbrella got stolen, so she bought a new one too. Not a lot of people came to church on Sunday, because everyone that needs to walk to church couldn't make it through the rain. Maria and Pablo's house didn't flood, but every where around it is flooded, so they didn't come to church. But they told us they were all ready to come and really want to! I hope they can continue to progress and reach their baptism date!

We had interviews with President this week. We had them as a companionship, not individual. We talked about all the goals we have for this month and how we are going to get them. He talked to us a lot about vision, goals, and then plans. You need to start with the vision. What do you want to accomplish in general? Where do you want to get to? And then you make specific goals. How you are going to accomplish the vision. Finally, you make the plan of how you are going to accomplish the goals. It is so important to plan ahead and not just shoot and hope for the best. Heavenly Father is a God of order. He does everything for a reason. I know that this is how He wants us to plan and progress, and I'm glad I am learning this now in my mission.

Like this:
VISION
1.

GOALS
1.
2.
3.

PLANS
1A.
1B.
2A.
2B.
3A.
3B.

The other thing that is important to remember is WHY we do the things we do. For example, in Alma 43:9, it talks about the purpose for why the Nephites were fighting. I only have a book of mormon in spanish, so I'll just write it in spanish. It says, "Ahora bien, el propósito de los nefitas era proteger sus tierras y sus casas, sus esposas y sus hijos, para preservarlos de las manos de sus enemigos; y también preservar sus derechos y sus privilegios, sí, y también su libertad, para poder adorar a Dios según sus deseos." We do these things to protect our families and our freedoms from this world that is going a little crazy. We need to plan now for the future because Satan is working ever harder. I know that we need to be strong and ready to fight for the things we believe in. The gospel gives us the eternal vision necessary to progress. The prophets help us make the goals. Our personal study and prayer allows us to know the plan, the how, in order to accomplish all we need to do. Jesus is what makes it possible. We just need to keep moving forward. No matter what the problem is, we can know the answer. Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers. I know this is His work and we are just instruments in His hands. I am where I am supposed to be and everything I am learning will help me in the future. I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Wood

Good week!

Well, here's to another week! My companion was really sick for a couple days, so we weren't able to work as much as we wanted, but we still visited lots of people and they are progressing a lot!

The people that are progressing the most are Maria and Pablo. They are adorable. We talked a lot with them about the plan of salvation and why we are here on the earth. Background story. Maria has 8 siblings. Her parents and 7 of her siblings are members of the church. A year ago, her parents went to the temple in Buenos Aires and got sealed together and to 6 of her siblings. Maria and Pablo went with them to the temple. Although they couldn't go in the temple, they loved the feeling they had outside the temple. They told us they both have the goal to go to the temple and be sealed as an eternal family with their three children. It was adorable to hear them both say that. I know that families can live together forever! Maria was able to come to church with two of her kids, but Pablo couldn't because his pants weren't dry because they washed them the day before...but he promised us he will come next week. :) We had a good lesson with Mica! She told us she loves the feelings she has when we are talking with her and she is learning about the gospel. However, she said it is hard to motivate herself when we aren't there. So we are trying to help her bring the spirit into her life by reading and praying and coming to church. I hope that she will be able to find the desire and really progress! Her boyfriend, Lucas, is now coming to church all the time, so I hope he will be a good influence on her.

Honestly, we weren't able to do much else this week because my companion couldn't leave her bed. But I learned a lot this week. I read about 200 pages from the book of mormon and I read a lot of Jesus the Christ and Preach my Gospel. I know that this is the true church and it has been restored to this time just for us. I know that Jesus is my brother and my Savior. He loves me and only wants the best for me. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Wood

The Lord's Hand

Dear Mommy,
This week has been a little bit harder than the others, but we have still had miracles. If you see them as miracles, then they are miracles. Look for the Lord's hand in your life because I know it is there. Look for the little things. :)

We have amazing success while we go contacting from door to door. The first man we found this week was Leondro. During our companion study that morning, we were reading in Alma 22 about the father of King Lamoni and Aaron the missionary. In the story, Aaron starts teaching and the King believes everything Aaron is saying. They talk about God, the plan of salvation, and our Savior and the King believes every word. We wanted to find a King Lamoni. We prayed for it, and then we went out contacting. We knocked on this door and Leondro came to the door. We told him we wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ, and he said, "I'll open my door for Jesus." (obviously he said it in Spanish, but I translated it just for you. ;)) We started talking about God and that he is our Heavenly Father. He asked us who God was to us and we bore our testimonies about our Heavenly Father and that we are children of God. He loves every single one of us individually. He told us we could come back and we were so excited! He is our Rey Lamoni.

Another time we were contacting we found this woman named Grace. In Argentina, lots of people have speakers on the outsides of their houses. It was raining pretty hard outside and it was late, so we didn't think many people would walk through the rain to open their doors for us. But we rang the doorbell and Grace came on the speaker. We introduced ourselves, and she told us to hold on for a minute. She walked through the rain, came to the door, and let us into her house! That never happens here. We sat down and tried to teach her the first lesson. For some reason, she wasn't really understanding what Hermana Thornton was teaching about Jesus and the Great Apostasy, so then Grace turned to me and asked me to teach her. I got super nervous because if she couldn't understand Hermana Thornton, I don't know why she would be able to undertand me. But I started teaching about Joseph Smith. I told her the whole story and then I recited the First Vision to her. Her eyes filled with tears and she said, "Oh, good. Now I understand." I know we found her because I needed to have this experience. I can testify that Joseph Smith is a profet of God in two languages and I know that he saw what he said he saw. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and restored the gospel to this earth once again. I am beyond grateful for this experience.

This week has been hard because our baptism for this Saturday dropped. She started living with her boyfriend again and she has stopped talking to us. We don't know what do for her, but we are praying for her and hoping she will start talking to us again. We love her and want to help her be happy!

The other thing is that we find all of these incredible people that want to learn about the gospel, but we have a hard time finding them again. We make citas with them, but they aren't home or they don't have time. We have people to teach, but we can't ever find them to teach them. We trying to figure out what to do, so if anyone has suggestions, let me know. :)

I love you so much!
Love,
Hermana Wood :)

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!

WEEK 4

Dear Mom,

This week was a little bit longer because I was sick a little and we have a ton of new investigators. We are teaching both our teachers, a missionary from our district, and our TRC progressing investigator. A little bit more about TRC. So on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we go to his "house", which is another apartment because we are on West Campus, and we teach him. Everyone in my district has different investigators. When my companion and I found out that we were teaching Javier, lots of people were worried for us because he is known as a hard investigator. He knows the ins and outs of the bible and he is actually a mormon, so he knows that questions are difficult to answer. We have been praying, studying, and thinking about Javier the most out of all our people. On our lesson last Friday, we taught him about faith in Jesus Christ. He says that he has faith. So we asked him to act on his faith and be baptized........and he said yes!! The unteachable has been taught by us! The spirit was so strong and I felt so great. He still asks us some crazy questions, but he accepted baptism and lots of people are blown away that we were able to commit him! It was a great experience. :)

Another interesting thing was Hermana Leavitt and I got a letter in the mail that said we were going to have to switch investigators because the times weren't matching up or something. When we first started teaching Javier, I would have been just fine with switching. But when we got this letter, I realized that I didn't want to switch. Javier meant something to me and I wanted to help him. We went and asked to keep Javier. They did a lot of work, but they made it so we could teach him again!! I was so happy. I never thought I would have begged to keep teaching Javier. It was a big learning moment for me. I didn't realize how much he meant to me. It was a cool experience. :)

I am very grateful that you were able to get in contact with people in Salt Lake about my visa and my fingerprints! We got to ride in a police car to the police station and they used this super advanced machine to do my fingerprints. No ink or anything. It was lots of fun and we are now friends with Officer Judd. :)

This week, we had a district meeting and we went around and shared a cool experience or a testimony. I shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It goes all the way back to ninth grade. I have always loved the Book of Mormon and all the stories. At the end of the school year, my seminary teacher wrote "I am a witness of the Book of Mormon" up at the top of the board and said to come write your name on the board if you are a witness of the Book of Mormon. I thought and thought about it, and then I decided that I was a witness and that I could write my name on the board. I loved that feeling. I have never lost my testimony and it continues to grow stronger every day.

My testimony in Spanish:
Yo se que Dios es muy amoroso. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi salvador y mi redentor. El Libro de Mormon es veradero. La iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es veradera. Mediante la fe en Jesucristo yo puedo volver de Dios otra vez. Te amo!!!!

Te amo,
Hermana Wood :)

July 30, 2014

Dear Mommy,

Hi! It's p-day again! I can't believe I have been here for two weeks! I am so glad that I have chosen to serve a mission at this point in my life. Someone at a devotional did the stats from 1930 until now, the probability of living in the latter days is 1 in 100,000. The probability of being a hastening the work missionary right now is 1 in 1,000,000. That blew my mind. Heavenly Father has saved us for this time. He trusted us enough that we would choose to follow Him with our whole souls. It isn't even a question to me as to why I am on a mission. I love my Heavenly Father more than words can describe. I will not let Him down.

The devotional this week that really hit me was the talk we got to watch after the devotional. It was given by Elder Bednar in the MTC on Christmas a few years ago. He taught us about the character of Christ. In every situation in Christ's life, when the natural man would turn inward and care about Himself, He turned out. After He had gone through the hardest trial ever, the Atonement, He reached out and healed the guard's ear. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He made sure His mother was taken care of and asked God to forgive them. when any normal human would have turned inward, He turned out. For me, there is no more "I want." I am trying very hard to focus on others, especially when things are hard.

Yesterday after the devotional, we got back to our classroom. This is how our seats were before the devotional.
H. Sheppard      H. Christiansen      me      H. Leavitt      E. Slavens

E. Nord      E. Frandsen      E. Bluth      E.Jackson      E. Manning

I sat in the very front and I loved it. When we got back:
H. Sheppard      H. Christiansen      E. Manning      E. Slavens      H. Leavitt

E. Nord      E. Frandsen      E. Bluth      E.Jackson      ME

Everyone else stayed the same, except for us two that moved. Our teacher moved us because E. Slavens and E. Manning haven't been trying at all so he moved them to the front and put me in the very back corner. I sat down and I couldn't even see! I'm assuming I was already a little stressed out and this hurt me more than it should have. I was starting to cry, but I was hold it in. Then Brother and Sister Price, branch presidency, came over and saw I was struggling. They took me in the other room and I started crying a lot. She cave me a big hug and told me it was okay. They understood that this wouldn't work. Brother Price gave me a blessing of comfort and also he blessed Grandpa inadvertently, which comforted me too. They said they would help me figure it out. After I tried to turn out they way Christ did I wrote all the girls letters and they liked it. I probably should have tried to react differently, but the natural man is very real. The choice to be like the savior is a hard one sometimes, but always worth it.

Now for your questions:
1. Yes, my whole district is going to Rosario. We are finding out that this is very rare, so we are grateful. :)
2. Yup. I'm leaving August 25. And I found out I'm supposed to come home Jan. 12. School starts Jan 11.....so you better have some classes picked for me. I promise that I will have some input when it gets closer. You accidentally put 815 on one of the dear elders. Make sure you put 814.
3.No word on my Visa.
4. I wrote the Bishop a letter.
5. Thanks for including Taylor, Devin, and Clouse! I want Tanner and Ryan to be on there, but I don't know their addresses. I'll find out. And Liz said she didn't get my letter, so could you check that?

Those pants are both perfect! Thank you so much! I'm going to try and send some pictures...hopefully it works.

Te amo para siempre!
Hermana Wood :)

WEEK 2

Dear Mom,

This week flew by! I learn so much every day and I'm just trying to retain it all. We have officially learned everything I learned with my three years of Spanish, so now I have to study even more to make sure I still understand what is going on. I'm very grateful I took Spanish.

This week was great. We have been teaching our teachers. Haha, that sounds so funny. Our teachers pretend to be investigators that they have taught or have known in the past and we teach them discussions. Then they turn back into our teachers and tell us what we did wrong. It's kind of funny, but it is going pretty well. My companion, Hermana Leavitt, and I committed two investigators to baptism this past week! It was crazy to feel the love Heavenly Father has for these people. If I feel this good about teaching my teacher, I can't even imagine how amazing it will be to teach a real-live person. We are starting TRC tomorrow, which is a program that the MTC has come up with. We get new investigators and it is role play too, but some of the investigators are real. It kind of scares me, but I know that the Lord will help us. We will always be inadequate until do our part and then leave it all to the Lord. He knows that person and will teach them through the spirit.

I sang in the choir this week. We sang, "Hurrah for Israel." The choir director explained to us that we, as missionaries, are gathering the 10 tribes of Israel. They are everywhere and they are waiting for us and we need to find them. If we listen to the spirit, then He will guide us and direct us. John H. Groberg, the author of "The Other Side of Heaven", came and taught us about bearing our testimonies. It doesn't have to be over the pulpit on Sunday. We can bear our testimonies by:

1. What we say

2. What we do

3. What we sing

4. What we pray

5. What we write

6. Who we are

Bear your testimony through everything you do. I promise you will help someone around you. Thomas S. Monson said, "You can't measure the influence of good."

I love you!

Love,

Hermana Wood :)