A Week of Pictures

Holaaa mi familia! 

Hope everyone had a great week. Definitely the highlight of the week was Junior's baptism! He is so happy. He is just the best! There was a super strong spirit in the baptism and ahh easily one of my favorite experiences from the mission so far. Tiffany will be baptized the 8th. Her family is all Catholic and she is scared that they are going to treat her different when she is baptized. But she knows that this church is true! She was crying during the baptism and told us that she could really feel the spirit. Their daughter, Luana, is 7 and Junior will be able to baptize her the next year! They are my favorite family :) 

We had more divisions with other Hermanas this week, and our leadership counsel, so there isn't a ton new from this week. We are looking for new investigators and contacting lots. We have transfers Monday. I don't know what I am going to do without Hermana Alais! I'm sure that we will be separated :( so sad! I took more pictures this week, so I think the week is better explained in the pictures :) Hope everyone has the best week!

xo

D&C 121:7-8

Hermana Wood

Pics: typical plate-lomo saltado. my wall. (don't worry I have a pic of my pals too that fell ha) Leadership counsel with the other Hermana leaders. Apples of all shapes and sizes here. 

Elder Poza and Divisions!

Holaaaa! 

2 shoutouts: Happy Father's Day (yesterday) to the best daddio in the whole world! and Happy birthday tomorrow to Kaleb! I am there in spirit celebrating these two special days with you guys :) 

Another crazy week here! With divisions this week, I had 5 different companions! Hermana Alais was my companion for only 2 of the days this week.. haha I seriously missed her. But we have such awesome Hermanas in our mission. I love divisions because I have the opportunity to get to know the other Hermanas better! 

This week we got to hear from another member of the 70! Elder Poza. He is from Bolivia and he came to speak at our stake conference here. Whoa he was a powerful speaker. I loved his talk so much that I am going to share a part of it here. Remember the "Forget Me Not" talk by Elder Uchtdorf? Elder Poza based his talk off of this talk and gave us 5 principles that we should never forget. 1. Patience. Our weaknesses will turn into strengths when we trust in the Lord. 2. Sacrifices bring blessings. If we are dedicating more of our time to the Lord.. more blessings. :) 3. Be HAPPY. Remember the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Everyone is trying to find the golden ticket and everyone thinks "Oh, I will be happy when I have the ticket!", but No!! there is happiness in everyday. Be happy now! 4. The reasons to live the gospel. It's not an obligation to live the gospel, but it's a way of life, and the way to happiness in this life. 5. The lord loves us. Never doubt that. :) I know I can work on these 5 principles and I hope you all can too! After the conference, Elder Poza with the stake president came to our pension, and we got to have lunch with Elder Poza! It was so cool to talk with him and get his advice.

Junior's baptism is this week!! Whoooo! He is so so ready. Yesterday, we had the stake conference 30 minutes away from our area in car. No one has cars here, everyone takes taxis. Junior couldn't pay for a taxi, but he knew the importance of this conference so he rode his bike there. He is dedicated! He shares his personal study thoughts with us in lessons and I am seriously learning from him! Tiffany has just a couple doubts that we need to work through, and her baptism will most likely be 8 de July. Tiffany always says: "I have my 3 missionaries. the Hermanas, and Junior". Haha. 

We also found a family this week! A couple with 3 kids and we have our second lesson with them today. We found them from contacting. I love contacting because its always such a surprise what is behind the door. A single mom and her daughter. A family. a lonely teenager. Or a catholic who is super frustrated that we are knocking her door, but hey its all a part of the experience :) Ha. Go have the best week! Praying for you always!

xoxo

Alma 13:28-29

Hermana Wood

Pics: la mama (hna Alais) y la hija :) In the mall there was fake popcorn & I miss popcorn. Bishop's new baby is an angel! & its winter here, so this is what we look like with our blankets during breakfast

Yayyy for Mary and Laura!

Hola! This week was a crazy and stressful one, but it was really good. We had a few splits with other Hermanas this week in their areas, and had to leave our area to help Hermanas with other things, so not a ton new, but Mary and Laura were baptized! And confirmed yesterday in church. 

Their baptism was so special. My favorite part was listening to their testimonies after, and they were just radiating light. This gospel changes lives! They are so happy and so faithful. I feel so lucky to have been a part of their conversion! Definitely the biggest highlight of the week :) Saturday, the day of the baptism, bishop called and asked us to speak in church the next day. We had hardly any time to prepare because of the baptism, but were able to pull it off and gave our talks yesterday. Also I got to play a musical number in church yesterday, My Heavenly Father Loves Me (piano), and after I played, Junior started clapping! He was the only one that clapped and I feel bad because he was pretty embarrassed after, haha but Hermana Alais couldn't stop laughing. 

Junior and Tiffany are doing well! Lots of contact with them this week and their baptism date is the 24th of this month. Tiffany's doubts have left and we are so excited about them. We started teaching a few other new investigators this week that I will give more updates on the next week. Love you all so much, go make it the happiest week!

Luke 8:43-48

Hermana Wood

pics: typical breakfast, baptism, and baptism invitations, Laura's Book of Mormon, Hermana Mojica and I reppin the medalions, Plaza de Armas with the best comp in the whole world!

Baby blessings and Elder Christensen!

Holaaaaa!!

Hope everyone is doing great! We had a good week here. :) We had the coolest opportunity this week to hear from Elder Christensen of the 70! He came to speak to our mission Saturday and the whole mission got to gather together. He was so inspiring and got everyone super pumped up. He really stressed the importance of studies, and the importance of Christlike love for everyone. His wife spoke to us too, along with President and Hermana Johnson, and the president of the Lima Temple with his wife. President asked me to play the piano and not only did I get to play the hymns but played prelude for a full 2 hours before! There is an elder in our mission from Argentina who plays the violin and he improvised on the violin with me for prelude. Ah gosh I miss the piano! Felt so good to play :) Fun to see all of the other missionaries in our mission too. Oh, but yesterday I was assigned to be the new ward pianist, so I will get to play more!

Mary and Laura had their baptism interviews and are all ready to be baptized Saturday! They are so excited. Yayyyy stoked for them :) Junior and Tiffany had to work like crazy this week and weren't able to come to church yesterday. They need 3 visits to church and they only have 2, so they won't be baptized this week, but very soon. We are seeing the adversary working lots with them, but we are just going to work harder! We have an investigator, Angel, who is 76 years old and is so awesome. His baptism is the 17th, he has had all the lessons and wishes he could get baptized this week, but he still needs to come to church one more time. 

Haha 2 funnies of the week-1. Yesterday in church there was a baby blessing. The bishop announced after the blessing that if there was any kid under the age of 8 who hadn't received a baby blessing, come to the front and their dad or the bishop could give them their blessing. Sure enough kids started walking up to the front. hahah So yes, yesterday was the Sunday of baby blessings. 2. We were contacting 2 days ago, and contacted a lady named Sylvia. She has a 4 year old daughter who was doing handstands in the house. Seriously the first kid I have seen do a handstand my whole mission! Hermana Alais flipped and was like Hermana Wood does this stuff too-all the time! (yeah don't worry I still do my handstands every night) Hermana  Alais made me show Sylvia a picture from BYU cheer and Sylvia asked me to do some type of trick. You can only do so much in a skirt, but I was able to tie my skirt at my ankles and hold a handstand for a few minutes. Sylvia loved it, but she loved our lesson too and we have a lesson with her tomorrow :) Yay for the opportunities I had to use my talents this week hahaha. Until next week! Love you all so much!

Alma 57

Hermana Wood

Photos: Fruit of the week, matching bracelets, its getting colder here in Arequipa, & Laura :)