Feliz Navidad!

Merryyyy Christmas!! I hope you all have the happiest day! I feel so blessed to be a missionary this Christmas season and give everyone my favorite gift. Here, Christmas eve is the huge day. At midnight everyone eats their turkeys, panetones, and hot chocolate. and the FIREWORKS. There are a million fireworks that were going off all night, so safe to say we didn't sleep, but it was fun listening to all of them from our room. :) Then Christmas is more of a normal day, it's just that the people don't have to work. So excited to see your faces in just a couple hours!

 It was a good week here. Hermana Liza and I contacted like Crazies this week. With our "light the world" Christmas cards, we were giving them out to anyone and everyone, and as a result, we were able to meet some good potential investigators. We are teaching a girl named Gisel, 23 years old, who is golden. She was a referral that came from a girl in our stake. She has always been catholic, but has never really gone to church, or participated in her church. She is studying here in Tacna and lives by herself. She is awesome-for example, when she got her Book of Mormon this week, we left her a little homework: a chapter to read, and 2 hours later she called us saying she already read the chapter, and telling us all about it.She has a bap. date for the 6th of January and we are so excited about her! She has been able to go to church, and she's already progressing lots!

Also this week-we had to take that bus ride to Arequipa and back, because we had leadership conference! I love leadership conferences, because president always just gets us so pumped up. ha He is the best.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Remember the reason for the season. That HE came to this world. That HE loves us infinitely. That HE can bring us more peace than anything in this world. It amazes me how generous our Savior is. Because when we turn to him and give him all that we have, he blesses us 1000x more than we could ask for. He knows us perfectly and is always there with his arms open to us. He's the greatest gift, and I just love him. Talk to you all pronto!

Hermana wood

1 nephi 9:6

Photos: tacna, mm alfajores, and helping our pencionista prepare her turkey, you can tell from my face that it wasnt the easiest process.

Me Voy a Tacna!

Transfers, and I left Arequipa..!!

Just got off our 7 hour bus ride to Tacna. My new area is Primavera and my companion is Hermana Liza from Chiclayo, Peru. She has been out in the mission for 15 months and I just met her, but she is super sweet. Wasn't expecting these changes, ha especially the week before Christmas, but I am really excited! It was tough leaving Mirador--the members and converts, but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else :) I dont know too much about Tacna, but we are as far south of Peru as you can get. We are touching Chile over here! It is super hot, dry, and flat. We are stoked to get going to work and finding people to teach! Can't wait to see your faces in just a week-navidad! Lots more updates then:) Have a great week, I love you all!

xo

1 Nephi 3:7

pics: We did the coolest service project this week with the YSA. We took christmas (food, toys, games, etc.) to lots of these people who don't have much, and as a turnout of the activity, we got 40 referrals! such a success. and saying bye to Rocio-one of my favorites

White Christmas

It was a white Christmas week! (not referring to the snow.. its summer here..) because Liliana and Dariel were baptized!!!

Ok I don't even know if I have talked about Dariel with you guys? He's the cutest little 9 year old. In his family, they're all members, but have been a little inactive in the church the last few years. But now they are back in the church and we have been working with little Dariel who was also baptized Saturday! He was gonna be baptized the 16th, but his mom called us Tuesday and said "why not on Saturday instead?" So yes he is a member now. :)

The day was so special for Liliana too!! She was just beaming. Quite a few investigators came, members, and some other elders to support. Everything turned out perfectly. She said there weren't words to describe how happy she was and she just felt perfect when she came out of the water. In her testimony she shared how she has been been empty for 28 years. But now she has found the truth. And she has never felt so filled with happiness :)

The gospel CHANGES LIVES. It is the happiest ever. I feel so blessed to be a part of Liliana's conversion! Saturday was the best Christmas gift! Sorry running low on time today, but more updates next week. I love you all, have a good one!

xo

Hermana Wood

Pics: Helped one of our fav fams set up their cute tree, the big christmas tree in our area, Hermana Alais-christmas conference, and baptisms

Tis the Season

Hello hello! I hope everyone had a great week! This week was a real happy one.

Yay for December! Ya know how Liliana´s baptism was going to be the 16th? She told us on Saturday she can't wait any longer. She just wants to get baptized now.. so she will be baptized this Saturday!:) She is so ready. Stoked for her! Bishop announced it in church yesterday, and Liliana invited literally the whole ward to her baptism. She is the BEST.

Juan Carlos is still doing great, but he is just scared to be baptized. He wants to be baptized, but he still doesn't want to put a baptism date.. it's weird, but we´ve got lots of faith with him.

Last week we contacted a lady named Rosibel in the street. She is from Colombia and lives with her boyfriend and little baby girl. It was really cool-this week we had a lesson with her and we talked about the Book of Mormon and it was great. But the most interesting part-the final prayer. She had told us at the beginning of the lesson that she has a brother and sister living in Colombia, but didn't say anything else about them the rest of the lesson. I gave the final prayer and it was so weird.. while I was praying I felt the need to bless her sister in Colombia. I don't know why, but I prayed for her sister in Colombia, and the spirit stuck a few other words in my prayer too. When the prayer finished, I looked up to see her crying. She said "how did you know about my sister?" I just looked at her speechless wondering if I said something offensive or wrong. She said that her sister who is a single mom, lost her job 2 weeks ago and doesn't know how she is supposed to provide for her family. Her sister needs a lot of help, and my prayer was an answer to Rosibel's prayers. I am SO grateful that the spirit is the teacher and not us. Experiences like this, build my testimony more and more everyday. Rosibel is awesome and is so interested! She just needs to get married so we are working with that.

Sad news: Andrea moved:( but the other missionaries are visiting her in her area!

Did you all see the Christmas devotional yesterday? We got to see it and I loved it! I loved how sister Franco said the Christmas is the time to GIVE. 1. love, 2. service, & 3. forgiveness. Let's all focus a little more this month on giving these 3 things. And you have all gotta follow the light the world calendar from the churches website! Those little service opportunities each day will prepare us better than anything else for Christmas.

Go have a happy week! and your Spanish homework for the week is one of my fav quotes from Elder Maxwell: "Cada uno de nosotros es un posadero que decide si tiene lugar para Jesús!"

Hermana Wood

Matthew 1

Pics: p-day soccer with the district and look at that view, when you don't have a knife so you cut with dental floss, and the prettiest view

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Hermana Wood