Hello!
So
it's really cold today. And by cold I mean 60 degrees. I have no idea
how I'm going to live in Utah again, cause I'm really gonna be cold
there. 
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Greetings everybody!
This week was awesome! Miracles, everyday.
Yesterday we got to go to an Interfaith gathering!
It was awesome! There were so many other people from other religions
there, and it was really kind of cool to see how they conducted their
worship services. I'm so glad I got to go. Also, Kevin came! That was a
blessing as well. It was just a good week. :)
I love
you all! Thank you for all your love and support! I hope that you will
let me know if I can do anything for you. Also, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
It's crazy to think that this is my second one on my mission.... :D But
that's awesome as well. :) The thought to day comes from President
Monson.
I
am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. I am
grateful for my companion, and all of her hard work. I am grateful for
this gospel and all the blessings that come with it. I am so grateful
for my Savior.
If I would like to extend an
invitation to you this week. :) Sometime during this week, say a prayer
of gratitude, only expressing thanks for the blessings that you have
received. I hope you will, because I know that as you do, Heavenly
Father will help you see even more all of the blessings you have been
given.
I love you!
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures!
1) The extent of my painting skills...
2) Palm trees. :)
3) Exchanges with Sister Bradsby!
Dear everyone,
Hello! This week has been super weird, but good. :)
So yeah.
:) We went on exchanges!!! :D I went with Sister Graham in the Westpark
and Woodbridge 1st wards. :) It was super fun! We got to go and tie
quilts at a service project. (Refer to paragraph one if you want to know
my feelings on that. :) ) It was super fun. We were able to see some
less-actives in their ward, and go contacting for a little bit. We had
dinner with one of the Senior missionaries in our mission, which was
super fun. :) We love her. After dinner, we went and did MORE SERVICE!!
It was AMAZING! :D I love exchanges, and service.
Thursday
we had zone conference with Elder Hamula! So good. So awesome. So many
amazing things that we learned. I loved every minute of it. We all got
to go and shake his hand, and then we just sat and learned from him, his
wife, and President and Sister Clark.
Some things I learned,
Don't get stuck in a rut of what you are used to doing. Let the Spirit guide you in lessons, contacts, during studies, always.
The
Lord has given us a pattern in all things, when we follow the Lord's
pattern, we will find not only success, but joy as well.
To
repent means to turn. When we sin, we are making a choice to turn away
from God. When we make the choice to repent, we are turning back to
him.
Quote from Elder Hamula: "One of your challenges
as young latter-day saints with a lot of energy, is your tendency
towards impatience. You must be patient with others, sometimes more
importantly, you must be patient with yourself."
Super good. :)
We
were able to teach a 20 minute discussion of the restoration with a
woman in our ward, and it was super good. I love teaching the
restoration. Having to do it quickly helps us to simplify, and make sure
we're focusing on the most important thing.
Due to a set of unusual circumstances, we attended zone conference the next day too. It was just as good as the first one.
We
had MLC with Elder Hamula as well, the day after the zone conferences
ended. It was great! He helped us to understand that we are a good
mission. We are doing a lot of good things, but it's time to take that
to the next level of good. To take it from good to great. He told us
that we need to laser in our focus, and make sure that we utilize
everything we learned at zone conference. It was super neat. We had
temple tours later that day, and I got to see Sister Hardin! (MTC comp.
:) ) She came and sat with us for about an hour and just talked with us.
It was so good. I love that girl.
On Sunday we had
stake conference with.... Elder Hamula! I've seen him everyday for the
past 4 days. I'm definitely not complaining though. It's been amazing.
It was an awesome stake conference.
That's about all!
It was a super uplifting week, and I look forward to the miracles that
come from it. My thought today comes from John 14:18,
I
think it is so amazing that no matter where we are, whether we're super
far off the path, or right in the middle of it, Jesus Christ will come
to us. He will never leave us alone, never abandon us. Whatever our
trials, he is walking with us, matching our every step. I know that no matter what, he will always be there.
I love you all so much. Thank you for your prayers and love. I am so grateful for all of you.
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures!
1) We thought this car was super funny. :)
2) Exchanges with Sister Graham!
3) The moon was super pretty at temple tours. :D
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Oh my goodness! This week was super amazing. :)
So Monday was pretty fun. We played Mafia as a zone. :D We have a great time together. I love my zone so much. 
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Happy Halloween everybody!!
Our
Halloween is kinda boring, cause we all have to be inside by 7pm. :) So
we'll finish P-day, go to dinner, then go play sports as a zone. Should
be fun. :) Kevin made us come by this afternoon, so we could trick or
treat at at least one house. :) He gave us candy and stuff. :) He's
funny. 
1) Service!
2) Trunk or treat with the stake!
3) Sister Peacock used to work at Coldstone, so I found one for us to go to. :)
Oh my goodness. Miracles are happening here in California. : ) It's been an amazing week. Simply wonderful.
Monday
was good, the usual stuff. Sister Dinning got to have dinner with one
of her favorite families, then we went and said goodbye to Kevin... :(
It was kind of sad, but she'll be okay. Plus we will continue teaching
him, and all will be well. :)
The next few days
were great! On Thursday, we saw Susan, and we talked to her for a
little bit, and after listening to what was going on in her life, I told
her about the Book of Mormon, and the peace that it brought into my
life. How it helped me feel closer to God, and how I knew that it would
bless the life of anyone who read it. She asked if she could borrow it,
and I told her that she could keep it. :) I wrote my testimony in the
front cover and gave it to her. It was a very sweet experience. I am
grateful that I can be a help in her life.
We went to the mission home to talk to Sister Clark for a little bit, which was really good. She told us when we were done, to go and find a miracle on Roosevelt, which is a street in our area. So I drove straight from the mission home to Roosevelt, and turned into an apartment complex that I have never been in before. I asked Sister Peacock which way she wanted to go, and off we went. So we started knocking doors. We first talked to a Persian man, who didn't speak much English, and gave him a Book of Mormon. At the next door we spoke with a woman from Afghanistan, who wasn't interested either. The third door we knocked on was on the second floor of a building, and this young woman opened the door. Her name is Arianna.
We went to the mission home to talk to Sister Clark for a little bit, which was really good. She told us when we were done, to go and find a miracle on Roosevelt, which is a street in our area. So I drove straight from the mission home to Roosevelt, and turned into an apartment complex that I have never been in before. I asked Sister Peacock which way she wanted to go, and off we went. So we started knocking doors. We first talked to a Persian man, who didn't speak much English, and gave him a Book of Mormon. At the next door we spoke with a woman from Afghanistan, who wasn't interested either. The third door we knocked on was on the second floor of a building, and this young woman opened the door. Her name is Arianna.
We introduced ourselves, and asked if we
could share a message with her about Jesus Christ, and she asked how
long it would take. We told her that it didn't have to be long, and she
let us in!!!! :D So we went inside, and we were able to teach her the
Restoration. At the end of the lesson, I asked Arianna if she would
follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, and she said yes!!!
We set the date of November 20th!! :) It was a miracle. Oh my goodness.
So amazing. I am so grateful.
We had a ward chili
cook-off, which was awesome and fun. :) We saw some other people, and
were able to teach some more lessons. :)
Sister
Peacock is so amazing. She is just picking things up so fast, and is
such an amazing missionary, and she hasn't even been in the field for a
week! She also has an enormous amount of faith, which is absolutely one
of the reasons why we have been seeing so many miracles. I have so much
that I can learn from her. I am so excited to see what happens. :)
Yesterday
our car decided it wanted to break the Word of Wisdom and started
smoking. Something broke, and it was shooting oil all over the engine,
which I now know is bad. I had continued driving, thinking when we got
home we would check it out, even though I know virtually nothing about
cars... So we were carless for about four hours, cause they brought us
one of the the old mission cars that are no longer in use. It was sad,
cause we were looking forward to walking for a day. But all is well, and
we will not complain against our blessings. :)
That's
about it for today! I love you all! Today's thought comes from the book
of John, "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world."
Isn't it amazing that we have a Savior who has overcome the world for
us? The world offers loneliness and despair, while our Savior offers us
peace and joy. I'm so grateful for Him.
I hope you have a great week!
Love, Sister Wood :)
1) Sister Peacock and I have the same first initial. :)
2) We found this little guy in our car.... I named him Trevor.
3) My new companion!!! :D
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
This week has been great! :) Miracles are happening here in Irvine. :)
So Monday and Tuesday were pretty standard, so I won't bore you with those. (Meetings and things.)
Wednesday
I went on exchanges with Sister Graham! She is so awesome. She's been
on her mission for about 4 months, and she just gets it. She is so
solid, and I learned so much from her. We started off the day by going
to a recent convert's house. We talked to her about going to the temple,
and the blessings that come from attending. It was kind of cool,
because there is a huge language barrier, and it's obvious that she
didn't understand a lot of what we were saying. But the Spirit was
there, and she commited to go to the temple! So that was awesome. :) We
stopped by some LA's, and had a good time getting to know them. It was
just such a phenomenal day, and it was so fun getting to know Sister
Graham, and learn about her testimony. She's a great missionary.
Thursday
we had MLC! It was so good. :) I love MLC, especially when they give
constructive criticism about how we can be better as a mission. So good.
We had dinner with the Relief Society President, then went on splits so
that we could see Sister Romano and help the Korean Elders with English
class. I love English class. :)
Nothing big
happened on Friday or Saturday... Oh wait, some Sisters down in San
Clemente locked their keys in the trunk of their car at 7pm, and had no
way of getting them out, so they called us, (apparently this has
happened to Sister Dinning twice. :) ) So we went to the office and got a
spare key and drove it down. When we got there, we tried to unlock the
car, and we had the wrong keys! So we called the AP's, and they met us
in Mission Viejo, and we got the right keys. Then we took the Sisters
back to San Clemente, and got everything figured out. :) It was really
funny. :)
Sunday! Oh my goodness! We saw a
HUGE miracle on Sunday. :) So we have ward correlation every Sunday at
9:30 with our Ward Mission Leader, at 10:15, all the ward missionaries
come, then at 11 o'clock, we have to go to ward council. Church then
starts at 12:30. So this past Sunday, we didn't have ward council, so we
had roughly an hour before we needed to be back to the building. So we
walked around the building for a minute, then I said, "Hey, we should go
invite some people to church." Sister Dinning agreed, so we went. We
didn't have a set place in mind, so we were just driving around. She
pulled up by this one park, but there was literally no one there. So I
was like, "We should go tracting." So we drove around some more, and
wound up on this random street, somewhere in our area. We got out, and
started knocking doors. About the fifth door in, we saw this lady in her
backyard, behind a gate. Her dogs were super loud, so we couldn't
really say anything, when she says, "Wait, for just a minute!" So we
wait, and she comes out the front door to talk to us. We introduced
ourselves, and I asked where she was from, becuase she had an accent.
She's from Serbia, but she just moved here from Utah a few months ago.
She has a three year old daughter. :) We talked for a minute, and she
told us about her Mormon friends and how much she loved being around
them. We asked if she would like to learn more about what they believe.
She said, " I would love to. You all just have something about you. You
are so happy, and so kind. Yes, I would absolutely love to learn." OH MY
GOODNESS!!! IT WAS AMAZING! So we gave her a Book of Mormon, our
number, the address of the church, and got her information. Her daughter
is sick right now, but she asked if we would come back sometime next
week. :D When we got back in the car, I asked Sister Dinning, "What if
we hadn't gone tracting?" We thought about it for a minute, and said a
prayer of gratitude that we had been able to be where Heavenly Father
had needed us. It was incredible.
That's about
it! I love being out here, doing what I'm doing. It's the best thing in
the whole world. This weeks thought comes from President Hinckley. :)
"He
lives, the Eternal Son of the Ever Living Father. He lives, the Great
Creator, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Savior of the New, the
Wondrous Light in a dark and troubled world. He lives to bless us, to
teach us, to heal us, to touch our troubled hearts, to give substance to
our greatest dreams, to assure the immortality of our souls.” —Gordon
B. Hinckley
Enough
said, I don't think there is much I could add to that quote. :) Isn't
it amazing that we have access to such a being whenever we need him? He
is always right by our side.
I love you all! I hope you have a great week!
Love, Sister Wood :)
So this week was good!
Tuesday,
we had District Meeting! Good, as always. :) We were able to go and do
service for a nice elderly lady in our ward. :) She is super friendly,
and we had a good time helping her. I love doing service. We had dinner
with this one super awesome family, and that morning, we had asked the
Mom if there was anything specific she would like to share a message on.
She had responded with diligence, so we prepared a message on
diligence. After dinner and the message, I realized that something we
had said, had affected those kids. I know it wasn't me, or the words I
was saying, but the Spirit had touched their hearts. Sometimes, it's
easy to get a little discouraged, and think we aren't making any sort of
difference, but I realized in that moment 2 things. 1) It's not me
making the difference, that's why it's so important to have the Spirit
with us all the time. 2) I can do anything through Christ, which
strengtheneth me. I know that I'm here for a reason. We never know the
impact we are making.
Wednesday was really
good too. :) We taught Kevin, and talked about Priesthood, and accepting
God's will for us. It was a really cool lesson, and our Ward Mission
Leader came, and made it even better. Bro G. is super awesome, and just
brought such an amazing testimony. Inspired member-present lessons are
the best!
Thursday I was on exchanges with the
amazing Sister Bradsby. She has been in the mission field since this
most recent transfer, and I was totally worried about our exchange. I
always stress about them, even when I know I am doing everything I can
to be exactly obedient. But she came, and we had a phenomenal day
together. We contacted people on the street, we taught lessons, we were
able to go and do a few hours of community service, and so many other
things.
We went by a less-active that someone
had asked us to check in on, and when we got there, were instructed to
go to her room, where she had been sleeping. (She's really sick.) So we
talk to her for a few moments, but she is super out of it, and keeps
talking about the pain she was feeling. So I asked if she would like a
blessing. She said yes, so we called our Elders, (who are on bike...)
The conversation went like this, "This is Elder Oler." "Hi! Where are
you?" "Why?" "We need your help, someone needs a blessing." "Okay...
we're by the church." "How fast can you get to Hayes?" "Like 20 minutes.
But we'll pedal fast, so maybe 15. See you soon." It was super funny. I
am so grateful for the Elders. They're great sports. :) So they came
and gave the blessing, then one of them said, "If you don't mind me
asking, what exactly is going on?" And the lady says, with a totally
straight face, "I do mind! That is a personal question! Didn't your mom
teach you it's impolite to ask that?" I literally thought I was going to
be sick. The tension in the room was so thick. The Elders collectively
looked shocked, stunned, and one looked like he was going to cry. Then
she goes, "I'm kidding, you're totally fine." It was so funny. :D
It
was kind of cool, cause on our way to un-exchange, Sister Bradsby says,
"Today is what every day should be like. This is what being a
missionary is about." It was so cool. Such a good day. :)
GENERAL
CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!! I loved it so much!!! :D So many
amazingly good talks and inspiring messages. I loved them all. I loved
Elder Rasbands talk about remembering. It really inspired me. I can't
wait to do more family history work. Also the talk about Joseph Smith.
SO GOOD. It was all good. :)
Yesterday I was
able to sing in the Temple Music Devotional! It was a super neat
experience. I will include a recording, but don't feel obligated to
listen to it. :)
That's pretty much it. I love
you all so much! Thank you for all that you do! This weeks thought
comes from President Uchtdorf, in the Womens General Session. :)
Have a great week!
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures!
1)Sister Bradsby and I :)
2) The temple is so pretty!
3) Our zone had a hunger games activity where we threw nylons full of flour at each other. SO MUCH FUN! :D
Sunday, September 18, 2016
So now I hit my year mark in the field. Weird.
Tuesday
was transfers! But nothing happened in my companionship, so it didn't
really affect us. :) This week was kind of boring, well not boring,
because really, when is missionary life boring? I told someone today
that boredom was a choice, which I think is true. This week was just
normal.
We did normal stuff, taught Kevin,
talked to people about the gospel, we taught English, did some service.
Seriously, I think it was just like my other weeks. :) But it was still
good.
Highlights would be...
We
got to go and help a lady that lives in our zone boundaries move. She's
not a member, and she really needed help. So our whole zone came
together to go and help her. It was a super awesome experience, and she
kept telling us how much it meant to her, and how much she needed us. It
was just a cool manifestation of the fact that Heavenly Father is
watching out for all of His children. We're going back tomorrow to help
her again.
We stopped by one of the
less-actives in our ward, who we haven't been by to see since before I
came here. When we got there, she told us that she had just really
needed us to stop by and talk with her. We didn't do anything special,
we just went and listened to her. It was still a really cool
experience.
We had an awesome dinner with some
members this week. They both served their missions in Japan, (just like
my dad and brother in law) and they made these vegetable pancakes
called okonomiyaki. (I probably butchered the spelling) It was so fun!
It totally reminded me of when I had them at home, and was kind of a
tender mercy. Also, you never know when things from your childhood will
come in handy. I have sung a Japanese folk song, that I learned when I
was young, for different people at least ten times on my mission. I've
known this song since I was a little kid, and it has actually helped us
contact some people and help them be more willing to hear us, simply
because I knew this song. So thanks Dad. :D
Yesterday,
we had the opportunity to attend Hooman's baptism! If you don't
remember who that is, he is an investigator, now recent convert, that
the Elders found about four weeks ago. He is so amazing. It was so cool
to see him enter the waters of baptism. Seeing Hooman's journey, and
hearing his testimony, just helped me understand even more that the
field truly is white, already to harvest. It will happen in the Lord's
time, and when people are ready. Sometimes we're sowers, and sometimes
we're harvesters. But all are important. Both of the Elders who found
Hooman went home before he was baptized. Neither of them were able to
make it. But were they any less important than the missionaries who were
able to see him enter the waters of baptism? No. Not at all.
Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us I know it. :)
My thought today comes from Elder Holland.
"Heavenly
Father is anxiously waiting to answer your prayers, and fulfill your
dreams. But he can't if you don't pray, and he can't if you don't
dream."
I hope you all have the most amazing week. Don't forget to look for miracles, because they are always, always there.
I love you all! If I can do anything, please, please let me know. Thank you for your love and support!
Love, Sister Wood
Pictures:
We couldn't find our mailbox, so we just tried every single one until one opened. Of course, it was the second to last. :D
Sometimes, missionaries let other missionaries dye their hair... :/ But it turned out okay. :P
This week was really good. :)
I'm out of time, so I'll just share the highlights. :D
We
taught Kevin! I know I talk about him every week, but he's one person
that I think about all the time, just wondering about how I can help
him. He's still doing good, we keep trying to set a baptismal date, but
he'll do it when he is ready. On the flip side, the Elders found an
investigator a few weeks ago named Hooman, who is a body builder/ model
from Iran. He's super golden, and will be getting baptized in two weeks.
It's so exciting!! Hooman is so so awesome. :D
Tuesday
we found the backwoods of Irvine when we went to service. We went to
something called second harvest. It was super weird, super gross
service, involving expired food. But we were helping ( I think), which
is a plus.... But service is great, regardless of what you get to do.
Wednesday
was my birthday!!!! It was such a phenomenal day! Not a teenager
anymore, but when we went to English class to teach, everyone kept
commenting on how young I was... :) You win some, you lose some. :D A
member who had the same birthday as me took us to Olive Garden for
lunch, which was crazy fun. :) Then we went and learned how to do Family
History, from another member, then we went tracting. :) We had a
wonderful family feed us dinner, and we had cupcakes to celebrate. Then
we taught Kevin! Sister Dinning decorated the whole house, and I felt so
loved. It was such a good day. :D
Thursday we
had MLC, then did other missionary things, but at the end of the night,
at 8:10 ish, we were about to go contacting, (cause it's prime pros
time), but we felt like we needed to go to see a member of our ward. We
went by, and she told us how much she needed us to be there that night.
She told us about her life, and her struggles, about her journey into
the church, and her life before and after. It was so amazing, and such a
testimony building experience for me.
Friday was pretty standard, so not much to say there.
Saturday
I was on exchanges! We had a District Blitz in Northwood, and we got so
much done! I and my temporary companion handed out 5 copies of the Book
of Mormon, which was cool. :) No one super interested, but lots of
seeds planted. It was really good. We went and did service with our
zone, and painted some ladies house. I only got a little paint in my
hair, which was a blessing. We contacted some referrals, but again,
seeds, but no real interest. :D It was a super busy, but wonderful day. I
love talking to people in the street. :D We also got transfer calls!
Sister Dinning and I will be continuing as companions and STLs in
Northwood. :) I'm so grateful that I get to keep working with her. :)
Sunday
we had church and the temple music devotional! Sister Dinning sang, and
did a beautiful job, I will be singing on October 2nd, which should be
exciting.
That's about it! The thought for this week comes from President Ucthdorf. :)
"I
like to think that from heaven’s point of view, there are no borders.
God sees each of us as His children no matter where we live. He is our
“homing impulse.” We feel drawn to Him because He is our Father, and
heaven is our home.
He sees us not only as a
mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees us
as His children. He sees us as the being we are capable and designed to
become."
I love you all! Remember that you are a beloved child of Heavenly Father. He loves us all more than we can comprehend!
Thank you so much for your love and support! Have a phenomenal week!
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures from my birthday :)
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
So many miracles this week! I love being a missionary. :)
We
had dinner this week with the bishop and his wife. I feel so blessed to
be in a ward where there are so many missionary minded people. Everyone
is always asking and seeing if they can help us. Our ward missionaries
always want to come to our lessons, and I am just so grateful for all of
them! Bishop Dougherty is so good. :) We had a lesson with Kevin, and
it went super well. The member that we brought with us was so inspired,
and was able to really help Kevin understand some key principles of the
gospel. :)
Tuesday we had Sister District
meeting! I love getting together with the Sisters in our zone and
learning about the gospel together. :) We also had to go to Mission
Viejo for a little bit, but on the bright side, I will be singing in the
Temple Music Devotional on October 2nd. :) Which is kind of cool,
because a year ago, that was my first Sunday in the mission, and we went
to the temple music night. Memories. :) We taught the Book of Mormon
class, which is always fun. We read Alma 9 & 10.
Wednesday
was zone conference! WE GOT TWO NEW COUNSELORS!!!! They introduced us
to our new Mission Presidency!!! President Clark (President, not new),
President Galland (Just barely got released as Bishop in Laguna Beach),
and President Hobbins (from Rancho Santa Margarita)!!! We are so
blessed. :) So many cool trainings and lessons were learned. I am so
grateful for these wonderful men. We taught Kevin again! Unfortunately,
he looked at some anti material. :( So we will keep working with him.
Thursday
was so busy! We helped some Sisters move apartments, then went to a
lesson with a LA, which was super good! We took her visiting teacher
with us ( who has never been able to meet her), and introduced them. It
was kind of a tender mercy. We had dinner with an amazing woman, her
daughter, and her daughter's non-member boyfriend. It was super cool.
The message we shared really seemed to affect him. It was really neat to
see. :) We also had ice cream with a candle in it for Sister Dinning's
Birthday. :) Our stake is trying to help missionaries teach 20 lessons a
week, so they are having us practice teaching the entire Restoration in
20 minutes. :) So we had our first practice lessons! It went really
well! We received a lot of pointers, so hopefully, the more we practice,
the better we will get at teaching. :) Members are the best.
Friday
was pretty normal. Studies, Weekly planning, DLC, Temple Tours, then we
were invited to go to a fireside where John Bytheway spoke!! It was so
so so awesome! :D He's great. He talked a lot about Pressing Forward.
Something he said really stood out to me. He said, "When you look at
Lehi's dream, what is the great and spacious building built upon?
Nothing! It's floating in the air! What are we told to build upon in
Helaman 5? The rock of our redeemer. If we build upon the principles and
standards of the world, we will eventually fall, and great will be our
fall. But if we build on the foundation of Christ, the devil can have no
power over us." It was super cool. Also, when we were wondering a
little bit why we needed to be there, I started talking to someone I
knew from Newport, and they asked what ward I was in, then they asked us
to go and visit their inactive friend who happened to live in our ward
boundaries! Such a miracle.
Saturday we did
the Harvest Pack! Such a cool experience. It was an all day service
project, where we packed meals for people who don't have enough to eat.
We packed over 200,000 meals in about 8 hours. It was such a fun
experience. Also, Kevin came, and stayed for 6 hours! We had such a good
time, and it felt so good to be helping. I love service. :) It was also
inter-faith, so we were able to interact with a lot of people of other
religions.
Yesterday, we sang in church! Then
after church, we were introduced to a girl, that is friends with one of
the priests in our ward! The Elders taught her once, but then both of
them got transferred out of the ward. We asked if she would be
interested in being taught again, and she said yes! So we will be
meeting with her this week. :) We also picked up two solid potential
investigators last night. We are so excited to see them progress. :)
I
love you all! Thank you for your love and support! This week I say
goodbye to my teenagerness. (Not a word, I know) I look forward to the
maturity that comes from being in my 20'
s! :D Just kidding, I don't think it will feel much different. :)
Have an awesome week!
Love, Sister Wood :D
I'm so sorry I didn't email last week! I really lost track of time, then our hour of email was up! So sorry about that.
This
week was so amazing. Well, I was sick last week, but now I'm better,
but then I shared it with my companion... True comp unity. She is now on
the mend, which is definitely a good sign. We still saw miracles, even
in the midst of our affliction though!!
Northwood
is so amazing. I love this ward. Getting transferred is always hard,
and of course you miss your last area, but if you look, you will be able
to see that Heavenly Father's hand is in it. I know that I'm supposed
to be here.
Tuesday we had district meeting!
We got an AMAZING training on humility and confidence. It was so cool to
see how the two link together. Some things I learned,
-When we are humble, we can have confidence in the Lord.
-Sometimes the things you want to be taught, aren't the things that Heavenly Father needs you to learn.
-We
CANNOT do His work without His help. It is His work, not ours, so why
are we surprised that we will need his help? However we absolutely will
be successful in His work with His divine help and guidance.
It was just super good. :) He also tied the training into contacting, which was neat.
Later
that day we went and did service for a woman who got baptized this last
Saturday. It was so fun. While we were packing, we were talking about
the commandments, and she just kept talking about how excited she was to
enter the waters of baptism. Her baptism was absolutely beautiful.
She's so fun.
We also had the opportunity to
go on exchanges with the Oak Creek sisters. They are so amazing! Sister
Peterson came to Northwood with me, and we saw so so so so so many
miracles. We started off the day by teaching English to some Korean
people with Elders from the Anaheim mission. That was so much fun. Super
cool. :) We had a lesson with a LA in our ward, and she just opened up
to us, even though I've only met her once before. We shared with her the
Mormon Message, "The Will of God", and the Spirit was so strong. We
went tracting! Tracting to me is super fun. I love being able to talk to
people. We were able to give out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, at 3
consecutive houses, which was super cool. We also found some people who
are interested in learning more, so hopefully, we will be able to share
more of this gospel with them. At the end of the night, we had a lesson
with an investigator here, named Kevin. He is just the sweetest man. We
took some ward missionaries with us, and it was absolutely perfect. We
showed him the "Patterns of Light" video series by Elder Bednar, because
he has been struggling to recognize answers to prayers. It was so
good.
We were able to see a few more
less-actives, and I am just trying my best to get to know the members
of this ward better. :) There are so many amazing people in this area,
and so many people who are just waiting to hear about the gospel! (Some
of them simply don't know it yet. :) )
We went
to a baptism in our zone on Saturday for Lisa, and it was so amazing!
Kevin came, and at church on Sunday, he was telling out ward mission
leader that he felt like he needed to get baptized!!!! He followed it up
with saying that he didn't know what church he needed to be baptized
in, but it is a huge step in the right direction. Such a huge miracle.
I
went to my first MLC on Thursday! We read a talk called "Out of
Obscurity" by Neal A. Maxwell, and it is so cool. If you have an
opportunity to read it, I would highly recommend that you read it. So
good.
I think that those are the highlights of
this week. Heavenly Father has so many miracles waiting for us, if we
just accept them and look for them. They are there. I know it, I've seen it.
The thought for this week comes from Joseph Smith:
I
know that as we treasure up the words of God, we will learn to love and
appreciate them more. This week my challenge to you all is: Before you
read the scriptures each day this week, to pray for a love and an
understanding of them, and of what you read. I promise that if you do
this, your day will go better, and you will have a better study
experience.
I am so grateful for all of you! Thank you for everything! I love you all lots! Let me know if I can do anything for you! :)
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures!
1 & 2) Korean class!
3) A member had a hammock. :)
Monday, August 22, 2016
This week has
been great! I think all of my emails start that way, but it's always
true. :) Monday was fun. I love P-days. :) We saw Kevin! Kevin is the
best! I wish we could help him recognize his answer. But we will keep
praying for him, and keep teaching him. He has such a sincere desire to
know about this gospel. He wants to know the truth, and he wants to get
an answer. He is so good.
So on Tuesday, we had an
interesting day, we went and did Temple Tours for another set of
Sisters, which was so fun. I <3 temple tours. :) We gave a training
in ZTM that we had to plan for, so we did that, then went to an...
interesting dinner. They are a super cute family, but they are crazy!
The dad just kept yelling at the kids, then finally the two year old
yelled back, and said, "WHATT?" It was super funny. Then they sang us
some scriptures, and we had a good time together. We went to BoM class,
which is awesome as always. Then we had ice cream with our ward mission
leader and the Elders, because one of them went home this last
Wednesday.
Wednesday! We gave a training on
Law of the Harvest! If you have not read the BYU speech "The Law of
Increasing Returns" By President Eyring, please go read it, cause it's
really good. We had a few lessons with less-actives, and just had fun.
That is something I'm super grateful for is that Sister Dinning and I
just have fun with each other. It's pretty hilarious. :)
Thursday,
we went to SAN CLEMENTE!!!! I SAW THE OCEAN!!!!! A Sister in our
mission currently can't walk, so we were able to go and help them out
all day. It was so much fun. I loved being down there again. I love
Sister Downs, and we just had a full day. It was so good.
Fridays
are kind of boring, cause we have a bunch of meetings then temple
tours. BUT, they are still great, because there are no bad days in
missionary work. :) If you're doing the things you're supposed to, even
if things don't go according to plan, there will always be something
good to find in a day. :)
Saturday... Was
awesome! I was on an exchange with Sister Kwok, in the Chinese ward...
First thing we did was go and have a lesson with this family that the
Sisters are teaching. Some lessons were learned.
#1- Sister Wood does not speak Chinese.
#2-
Even if you don't speak the language, the Spirit can still touch your
heart and let you know that truth is being taught. <- That was weird
because I was sitting there, not understanding a single word, when every
once in a while, the Spirit would poke my heart and be like, "Hey, that
was true" and I would sit there, and think, "That's cool, I wonder what
their talking about." It was super interesting.
#3-
The interpretation of tongues is REAL. I didn't suddenly understand
what was being said, but there was one moment when Sister Kwok was
teaching, and I had this thought, "She's teaching them about the tree of
life." Then after the lesson, I asked her, and she looked at me and
asked how I had known that. It was so awesome!!!
#4-
I received no culturing (don't know if that is a word) in Utah. They
invited us to stay for lunch, to which we agreed! But then they put an
entire deep fried fish with the head and everything on my plate. I just
looked at them, then looked at the fish, then the fish looked at me, and
I wanted to cry. I had no idea what to do, or how I was expected to eat
the fish. So I just watched Sister Kwok, and followed suit. Side note-
you don't have to eat the bones, but Sister Kwok did, so I did too....
It was a super interesting experience. But good! We also had tofu,
eggplant, cabbage, and rice.
Sister Kwok
worked for a little bit on translating an article from English to
Chinese, we contacted for a while, contacted some referrals, then we
were headed to dinner with the Chinese Ward Mission Leader.
It
was a great day, and I learned a lot. I'm grateful for all of the
experiences and the funny moments we had. Quote of the day: "Is dinner
going to be like lunch?" "No, the WML is white, it should be American."
:D It was a superb day!
Kevin came to church! Also, we taught Gospel Principles, which was super fun.
Such
a good week! Lots of blessings, and lots of miracles. This weeks
thought comes from the talk I was talking about earlier, "The Law of
Increasing Returns"
"I pray that you won’t let
the world nudge you toward spending your futures now. There are some
things you should work for and expect results now. But along with
getting early harvests, I hope you’ll work and wait for the late ones.
That will take seeing the law of increasing returns as an opportunity,
not just a test. Delayed blessings will build your faith in God to work,
and wait, for him. The scriptures aren’t demeaning when they command,
“Wait upon the Lord.” That means both service and patience. And that
will build your faith."
I know that some
blessings come early, some come late, and some don't come til Heaven.
But the Lord has a time and a season for all blessings. He knows what we
need. He wants us to be happy. I am so grateful for delayed blessings.
I love you all so much!! Please let me know if I can do anything for you. Have a great week!
Love, Sister Wood :)
1) Our District Leaders... :) Our District is called the Relief Society cause we have more Sisters than Elders. :)
2) My exchange with Sister Call!
3) We saw some more missionaries while they were in Irvine. :)
I'm so sorry I didn't email last week! I really lost track of time, then our hour of email was up! So sorry about that.
This
week was so amazing. Well, I was sick last week, but now I'm better,
but then I shared it with my companion... True comp unity. She is now on
the mend, which is definitely a good sign. We still saw miracles, even
in the midst of our affliction though!!
Northwood
is so amazing. I love this ward. Getting transferred is always hard,
and of course you miss your last area, but if you look, you will be able
to see that Heavenly Father's hand is in it. I know that I'm supposed
to be here.
Tuesday we had district meeting!
We got an AMAZING training on humility and confidence. It was so cool to
see how the two link together. Some things I learned,
-When we are humble, we can have confidence in the Lord.
-Sometimes the things you want to be taught, aren't the things that Heavenly Father needs you to learn.
-We
CANNOT do His work without His help. It is His work, not ours, so why
are we surprised that we will need his help? However we absolutely will
be successful in His work with His divine help and guidance.
It was just super good. :) He also tied the training into contacting, which was neat.
Later
that day we went and did service for a woman who got baptized this last
Saturday. It was so fun. While we were packing, we were talking about
the commandments, and she just kept talking about how excited she was to
enter the waters of baptism. Her baptism was absolutely beautiful.
She's so fun.
We also had the opportunity to
go on exchanges with the Oak Creek sisters. They are so amazing! Sister
Peterson came to Northwood with me, and we saw so so so so so many
miracles. We started off the day by teaching English to some Korean
people with Elders from the Anaheim mission. That was so much fun. Super
cool. :) We had a lesson with a LA in our ward, and she just opened up
to us, even though I've only met her once before. We shared with her the
Mormon Message, "The Will of God", and the Spirit was so strong. We
went tracting! Tracting to me is super fun. I love being able to talk to
people. We were able to give out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, at 3
consecutive houses, which was super cool. We also found some people who
are interested in learning more, so hopefully, we will be able to share
more of this gospel with them. At the end of the night, we had a lesson
with an investigator here, named Kevin. He is just the sweetest man. We
took some ward missionaries with us, and it was absolutely perfect. We
showed him the "Patterns of Light" video series by Elder Bednar, because
he has been struggling to recognize answers to prayers. It was so
good.
We were able to see a few more
less-actives, and I am just trying my best to get to know the members
of this ward better. :) There are so many amazing people in this area,
and so many people who are just waiting to hear about the gospel! (Some
of them simply don't know it yet. :) )
We went
to a baptism in our zone on Saturday for Lisa, and it was so amazing!
Kevin came, and at church on Sunday, he was telling out ward mission
leader that he felt like he needed to get baptized!!!! He followed it up
with saying that he didn't know what church he needed to be baptized
in, but it is a huge step in the right direction. Such a huge miracle.
I
went to my first MLC on Thursday! We read a talk called "Out of
Obscurity" by Neal A. Maxwell, and it is so cool. If you have an
opportunity to read it, I would highly recommend that you read it. So
good.
I think that those are the highlights of
this week. Heavenly Father has so many miracles waiting for us, if we
just accept them and look for them. They are there. I know it, I've seen it.
The thought for this week comes from Joseph Smith:
I
know that as we treasure up the words of God, we will learn to love and
appreciate them more. This week my challenge to you all is: Before you
read the scriptures each day this week, to pray for a love and an
understanding of them, and of what you read. I promise that if you do
this, your day will go better, and you will have a better study
experience.
I am so grateful for all of you! Thank you for everything! I love you all lots! Let me know if I can do anything for you! :)
Love, Sister Wood :)
Pictures!
1 & 2) Korean class!
3) A member had a hammock. :)
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Heya!
Man,
this week was so good! So many good things happened! So many amazing
experiences!! I absolutely adore being a missionary. Seeing Sister
Coombs prepare to go home in a few weeks has made me realize something.
That I want to be a missionary forever. It is the best thing in the
entire world.
Monday was good! We had dinner
with the most adorable old lady in the world. Her and her friend were
there and they performed some songs for us on the ukulele. It was
seriously the most adorable thing ever.
We saw
Paul on Tuesday! it went really well! We are still trying to get him to
the temple. :) We went and visited some Less-active members of the
church, one of which has been inactive for the past 20 years, and we
were pleasantly surprised! She was super nice, and invited us to come
back at a better time. It was awesome! We had dinner at one of the
Bishoprics house, and it was so fun! They had just gotten back from a
trip in Samoa, so it was super fun to hear about that. I just love these
people. So much.
Thursday we had ZTM!! I loved it so much! We received quite a few trainings, so highligh
"Becoming True Millennials" by President Nelson. So good. If you haven't read it, go and read it. :)
"Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles."
Those were my favorite. :)
We
also saw a RC that we haven't been able to meet with at all this
transfer! Such a blessing! Then we went and saw Pilar, who I love
dearly. :)
Friday we met with an investigator
in our ward, who we also haven't been able to see all transfer!! She is
super awesome! She wants to be baptized, but has to work through some
concerns first, like most people. But it was super awesome! We had
planned to talk about faith, then we started the lesson, and we went in
another direction, and she asks, "what does it really meant to have
faith?" and I was like, "Oh, my scriptures actually happen to be opened
to a chapter all about faith, let me tell you!" (Alma 32) I didn't
actually say that, but when she asked that, Sister Coombs and I just
looked at each other and smiled, because we knew our nightly planning
had been inspired. Which was cool. The lesson went really well!
Hopefully they will see her again next week. We also were able to share a
message of comfort with her granddaughter, who's dad had just left. It
was all around a wonderful experience.
Saturday
we went and did service for this 86 year old woman in our ward who was
moving. So much fun. :) Everytime we walked back up the stairs she said,
"You two are wonderful, you just need to sit down and rest, and drink
some water." This lengthened the process significantly, but it was still
good. We had lots of fun. :) We had dinner with a LA, then were able to
go to a baptism that another companionship in our zone was having. :)
Then we got transfer calls...
I will be
leaving Newport Hills.... :'( But Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I
am glad I got to serve here at all. So grateful for these people.
Telling them in Ward Council was super hard. "But you just got here!"
Was the common phrase. It's all good though. :) I will be going to
Northwood in Irvine with... Sister Dinning! My old roomate! Man, that's
going to be exciting. :D Sister Coombs will be in a trio for her last
week with SISTER PHINNEY & Sister Rudy, and we might be rooming with
them!!! I would die of happiness. I'm so excited that she is coming up
to Newport. It's gonna be great!!!
Yesterday
was very bitter-sweet, and full of lots of goodbyes. Who knew you could
get so attached in 6 weeks.... It's good but hard. I'm excited to keep
moving forward.
That's about it! The thought for this week comes from Alma 32, cause that's where I am in the BoM.
"
41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it
beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with
patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and
behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.
42
And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the
word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by
ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet
above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white,
yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit
even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.
43
Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your
diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to
bring forth fruit unto you."
I love that in
the space of three verses, it says faith, diligence, and patience, three
times. I think that it might be important. :)
I love you all lots!! Thank you for everything! Have an amazing week!
Love, Sister Wood
P.S.
The reason for my subject line is because I have decided to make that
the motto of my mission/life. I will give more explanation later. :)
Friday, July 29, 2016
Whelp, it's week six again... So yeah. :)
This week was great!
Life
is wonderful here in Newport Hills. I love this area and the people
here. It's amazing to have the temple in our area, where we can pass by
it on our way to appointments. It always reminds me of the end goal. Of
why we're out here teaching people. It's so they can go inside the
beautiful temple, and participate in the ordinances there. It's a good
reminder. :)
We were able to to meet with some
of our recent converts this week, they seem to be doing well. We are
currently trying to get them to the temple to do baptisms for the dead!
Hopefully they will all be going soon. :) We invited Paul to pray and
set a date for when he needs to go. So hopefully, they will be on their
way.
Pilar is amazing. She has such a strong
testimony, and knows that this gospel is true. I am grateful for her and
her strength. I love the fact that when she doesn't understand
something, she goes to the scriptures and the prophets words! It's such a
good quality of hers. I'm grateful we have the opportunity to teach
her, even though a lot of times I feel that we learn more from her than
we are able to teach. I love her. :)
On
Wednesday we were able to give a training on being a successful
missionary. I loved studying for this topic and being able to share it
with our District. In PMG it says that "your success as a missionary is
measured primarily by your commitment..." I thought that was so cool!
Our District is so awesome! So many wonderful missionaries that we get
to interact with. :) District 55 for life! :D
Windows
are the best! We had an interesting window this week, where when we got
to the street we had felt prompted to be at, there were no houses
there. Not a single house. We stopped for a moment, looked at each
other, laughed for a minute, then decided to pray to see if there was
somewhere else we needed to be. We both felt strongly that we needed to
be there, so we decided to write some uplifting messages in chalk, and
talk to anyone that passed by. When we finished, we felt like we had
done the right thing. I am grateful for Heavenly Father. Even when we
can't see the big picture, or the rest of the puzzle, he knows. He knows
exactly what is going on and where he needs us to be. When we get out
of the way and follow the Spirit, Heavenly Father will guide our feet
the the proper place at the proper time.
We
were able to see a LA in our ward this week. Our encounter was...
interesting. She may be bi-polar, and potentially drunk at the time of
our meeting, but we don't actually know... We prayed with her a lot, and
did the best we could, but when I looked at Sister Coombs to see if she
had any idea of what to do, she just looked as lost as I did...
Anyways, we'll probably be going back to see her this next week, but we
are going to call first. :)
We tried to stop
by a family where one of the children over the age of 8 has not been
baptized. When we got there, the family wasn't home, but we were able to
talk to the Nanny and give her a Book of Mormon. That was a cool
experience. :)
On Saturday, I was able to go
on an exchange with Sister Wolterman!! It was so good to be back with
her again. I am so grateful for her. For her example and influence. I
always know how much she loves me. She is such an amazing missionary,
and I learned so much from her. We had an opportunity to go to my Sister
District Meeting, and learn about Virtue. I love the idea and principle
of Virtue. It is powerful, and a wonderful thing to strive for. I am
striving to learn more about Virtue and have it be a more prominent
focus in my missionary work. Sister Wolterman and I had a good time
together, and were able to talk to a lot of people about Heavenly
Father's divine love for them.
We were in her
area, and we had a window, where we went up and asked people if we could
sing to them. It was really hard! I don't think I have ever put myself
out there like that, but it was awesome! It felt just like old times.
She played the guitar, then we sang I am a Child of God. We were able to
give out quite a few copies of the Book of Mormon, and got over 80
contacts. It was so so so so so so cool!
If I
had to say one thing that I learned from our exchange, it would be that
we all do good things each day, and we need to stop and take a moment
to "appreciate the sunset" in ourselves. I'll expound more on that
later, but I'm out of time. I am so grateful for the time I was able to
spend with her. :)
We also met one of the
investigators in this ward! His name is Don, and he wants to be
baptized! He has some things that he wants to do/ work through before he
gets baptized, and wants to be baptized in December. But he is willing
to meet with the missionaries, which seems like a step in the right
direction. We also set up an appointment with another one of the
investigators in our ward!!! We are finally making some progress with
them! I'm so excited!!! :D It's going to be a great week. I just know
it.
Thank you for all that you do!!! You're
wonderful! If there is anything I can do for you, or anyone you know,
please let me know! I love you all!!!
Love, Sister Wood
Pictures!
This was Sister Coombs and I's window. :)
Wow, time
goes by so fast. It's weird. I feel like I was just emailing yesterday.
Well it was later in the week, so that might explain it a little bit. I
don't know. Anyways...
This week was really good! We
got to have a lesson with Paul this week, he's so... interesting. But
he's nice, and loves to learn about the gospel, so we have a good time
together. :) We had interviews with President and Sister Clark... THEY
ARE SO SO SO SO SO SO AMAZING!!!!! I know I said that last week, but
it's even more true this week. They are so cool. So nice. So wonderful.
All things virtuous, lovely, and of good report... Seriously, I can't
tell you how much I love them. Main things I learned from them,
A
successful missionary is not someone who baptizes the world. A
successful missionary is someone who does the very best they can to
follow the Spirit and do the will of the Lord. Someone who loves the
people they serve, and does all they can to help them. Numbers don't
define a successful missionary. A missionaries commitment to Heavenly
Father defines a successful missionary.
When
we make mistakes, we need to let them go. We don't need to be hard on
ourselves. Letting things go is a crucial part of the repentance
process.
They are so cool. I could go on
forever about them, but nobody has time for that, so I will let you all
imagine for yourselves how amazing they are.
I
love doing Temple tours!! They are never boring. This week in the
Temple Tour saga, we met the person who baptized the missionary mom from
Meet the Mormons! His name is Ron, and he's super nice! (Pictures to be
included. :) ) It was a super funny experience. We also got to go to
ARP, but we didn't really know why we needed to be there, but we had
prayed, and felt like we needed to go, and and at the end of the class,
one of the people said, I am so grateful that the missionaries are here,
because they give me so much hope. It was a super cool answer to our
prayer.
On Thursday, Sister Coombs had MLC, so
I was able to go on a mini-exchange with Sister Cannon. She's super
sweet. :) We had a great time together. Pilar had surgery, so we went
and helped her for a little while on Thursday. She was super out of it,
but she's so funny. It was good to be able to help her. I love her so
much!
There is this super awesome lady in our
ward named Sister Howard. She is so nice. She fed us on Friday, and is
just the kindest person I have ever met. She has a son on a mission in
the Philippines, and is so nice to us. It was so cool to talk to her and
get to know her. She has so much love to give. Sister Coombs and I
walked away from her house glowing, because we felt so loved. It was
such a cool experience.
We have some super
solid potential investigators who we are trying to meet up with. I'm so
excited to see them progress. Also, Bob and Sandy from Marblehead went
to Church!!! That was super exciting news. :) We are just trying to talk
to everyone, and are focusing on finding. Yesterday we chased down some
teenagers who wanted Books of Mormon, but we hadn't been carrying
enough for all of them, so we had to run to the car, then chase them
down to give them to them. It was funny, but totally worth it. Transfers
are just a few weeks away, which is super hard to believe...
That's about it! Thank you for everything you do! I love you all so much!
Love, Sister Wood :)
1) Us with Ron :)
2& 3) I love the temple! And my nametag. :)
Sunday, July 10, 2016
So this week was so so so so so much fun! So many cool things happened.
Last
Monday, after P-day was over and we had finished dinner, we just
decided to contact for the rest of the night. :) We wandered around a
little bit, talked to the people that were there, but nothing was really
happening. We had kind of a rough moment, then started walking down one
road in the flower streets, and were walking by this house as a guy
walked out. We started talking, and felt prompted to talk about the plan
of salvation, and he stops us, and said, "You know, you guys have
really good timing. My dad passed away two days ago, sure I want to hear
what you can teach me." What a miracle! I felt so bad that his father
was gone, but grateful for how open his heart was to the message of the
gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and will hopefully be meeting with
him soon.
We had a window on Tuesday on this
tiny little street. I'm talking like 300 feet long. A window is pretty
much an appointment with God, saying that we will be in a specific place
at a specific time, which we pray about during our weekly planning
session, and we ask him to help us find those whom he would have us
share our message with. We got to this place, and we were like, are we
really going to spend an hour here? But we both felt like it was right,
so we started walking up and down this tiny little street, talking to
people as they came out of their houses. We met Kevin! He was super
interested, but was only home on lunch break and had to go back to work.
He was also YSA age, so when we meet with him, we will have to pass him
to the Elders. But it was a super huge miracle that we were where we
needed to be, when we needed to be there.
I've seen that so many times this week.
Like
later that day, we stopped at a less-actives house, and there was this
huge impenetrable gate. There was no way we could get in, and there was
no doorbell! So I just kind of stood there staring at it, trying to
figure out any possible way to get past this barricade. While I was thus
pondering, the garage door opened, and the woman we were looking for
came out! We were able to talk to her, and get to know her a bit, and
she told us to come back whenever. So cool!
We
met some super nice people in our ward. There are so many good people.
They are absolutely amazing. I am so grateful for them. Also, I love
sitting at the temple tour tent. Especially now that it is summer. So,
every Wednesday from 3-7, and every Sunday from 12:30 to 2:30, I get to
meet people who are visiting, or who simply want to learn more, and tell
them about the significance of the temple. I get to share my testimony
of it with them, and feel the Spirit that comes from just being by it.
So so so cool. I love it.
We had zone
conference this week!!!! AND WE MET PRESIDENT CLARK!!!!! He is so
amazing. He and his wife are WONDERFUL. Seriously, they are so amazing. I
am so grateful for them. They are gah, just so amazing. I can't say it
enough. They are going to do so many amazing things in this mission.
I
WENT ON AN EXCHANGE IN SOUTH COAST!!!!! It was so so so so so so much
fun!!! I was able to see so many people that I love. It was so good. I
miss them so much. But they are in the very best of hands, so it's okay.
Sister Brown, Sister Cannon, and I had such a great time together. We
were contacting at the duck pond, and we went up to this family, who
Sister Brown thought was Hispanic, so she started speaking with them in
Spanish, some of them looked like they were getting it, but one of them
definitely was not. After a minute, he looks at her and says, "I'm so
sorry, I do not speak that language..." We found out that he was from
Egypt, and spoke Arabic, not Spanish... Sister Brown was blushing so
bad... :) It was so funny! He was super nice, and interested, but we
didn't have any Arabic Book of Mormons with us, so we gave him our
number, and as we walked away, Sister Brown was like, "We didn't get his
number!!" So I was like, "Well, we better go back and get it!" It was
awkward, cause we're awkward, but it was worth it, because we got his
number!! :) We had dinner with Dave, and had a grand time. It was such a
good day. Plus, my two temporary companions were amazing, and so fun to
be with. :)
Sunday was good! We went to
church, did temple tours, then went to stop by some new move-ins... We
thought we were stopping by Sister Marchand, but she turned out to be
BROTHER Marchand whose name was STEPHANE, not Stephanie. So that was
awkward... But his fiance might be interested in learning about the
gospel, so that's cool. We had the temple music night, and had a
fabulous time.
Yesterday we partied like it
was 1776, because 240 years ago, Great Britain gave birth to
AMERICA!!!!! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! I know it's late, but better late
than never. :) We had a great day! Pancake breakfast with the ward,
meeting an area 70, shopping, singing patriotic music.... It was great.
:) We had to be in by 7, so we had a zone activity, which was super fun.
It was such an awesome day. At the end though, the Elders were like,
"There's a surprise for everyone outside!" So we went outside, and they
bombarded us with water balloons! It was still fun though. :) Anyways,
that's about it! Sorry for the long email!
This
week I have learned that when we align our will with God's, that is
when we will be happy! When our plans and his plans don't match up, life
can be kind of hard, but when we submit everything, and know that he is
omnipotent, he will make of us more than we ever could.
I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Love and prayers always,
Sister Wood :)
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