6 months??

Holaaaa desde Arequipa! 

Hope everyone had a great week! It was a little slower here this week, still knocking lots of doors and meeting members. We are gaining the support and trust of the members which is really nice because now they are working with us and helping. :) Slowly but surely in this area! 

Our pencionista and her family are the sweetest and just treat us like family. They have a cake business and make the best tres leches cakes! They taste a lot like grandmas tres leches :) Ah guess what? Tiffany from my other ward, it is her baptism this Saturday. And guess what? My zone leaders gave me permission to go!! Whooo I am stoked! 

Things are moving slowly but surely here. We have an investigator, Analia, who is 15 and great. We met her last week and she has been able to come to church these last 2 Sundays. Her best friend who lives in another city is LDS, and that was her motivation to listen to us. She is super busy with school, but in the couple lessons that we've had with her, she is making progress! She lives with her mom and her grandma who are super catholic. Her mom is always working and we haven't had the opportunity to talk with her yet, but hopefully this week we can meet with her :) 

Miracle of the week: When we were walking on Wednesday, we noticed a mom and her daughter who were staring at us. We went up to talk with them and introduce ourselves. We got talking, and turns out the mom, Julie, is a member but has been inactive for years. About 10 years ago she got a job where she had to work Sundays and with time, she went inactive. We shared a little message with her and she was so receptive. She lives in the area Belaunde which is the area next to us that shares our chapel. She's not a part of our ward, but we invited her to go to her church yesterday. She was so sweet and took a picture with us and left. haha. Yeah, then at church yesterday... when we were walking out of sacrament meeting, guess who we saw? Julie with her daughter!!!! She went to her ward and started to cry when she saw us!! She told us thank you and said that she "felt like she was at home". Such a sweet experience & super happy for her and her daughter. Definitely a big highlight of the week. :) 

Hope Aaron had the best birthday this past week and happy birthday shoutout to Savannah this week! You deserve the happiest day! Have the best week, all of you! xo

Alma 37:36-37

Hermana Wood

Pics: our bishop and his wife. Pday with the other hermanas to celebrate hermana Cejas birthday. The grandma (hna alais) mom (me) and daughter (hna cejas) haha. I was reading an article from the ensign this week and I turned the page to see this picture.. Megs you are famous! I was shocked!! haha I cut out this little picture and now its on my wall

Zamacola Week 1!

Hello hello!

Week one of Zamacola is in the books. What a week! Monday we had training with the other trainers, and Tuesday our daughters came. I have another Argentina comp! I guess I have something for the Argentinas-& I can't help but speak Spanish like an Argentinian haha. My companion is Hermana Cejas. She is so sweet. We are super different, but we get along well and she has a powerful testimony :) She is pretty shy, but she is coming out of her shell lots! I couldn't run with Hermana Alais because her knees are bad, but Hermana Cejas likes to run and we are able to run every morning! 

Our area Zamacola: The airport is in our area, so we can always hear the planes going in and out. The weather here is pretty much the same as Selva Alegre. It's winter here and pretty cold with wind in the mornings and nights, but during the day there's lots of sun. There are sooo many dogs in our area! We have to ask in all of our prayers for protection from the dogs, because they are so aggressive! Our pencionista is the sweetest! We live with her and she is a member which is really nice. She cooks all the classic Peruvian food, and it is super good. I am already the ward pianist, yay :) 

We opened this area, which means starting from scratch and starting from 0 means knocking lots of doors and  contacting the members. We set appointments with all of the leaders in the ward this week which helped a lot. The members always feed us some type of mate and we are trying new drinks every day. (Still haven't had soda my whole mission..blessed ha) From knocking lots of doors this week, everyone says they are catholic and we haven't had a ton of success, but just gonna keep working harder. Even on the days in the mission where we don't have tons of success, there are always miracles in each day. For example-Thursday we were knocking doors all day and no success. The day was almost over and we decided to go visit a member. We couldn't find the house, so we asked a lady in the street if she could help us with the address. She was super nice and helpful and when we started to introduce ourselves as missionaries after, she cut us off and said "Can you Hermanas come share a message with me this week?" We were pretty surprised but happily agreed and have our appointment with her tomorrow. :) Ha. Also yesterday-the patriarch and his wife live close to our cuarto. Patriarch and his wife didn't come to the church yesterday, so we had been thinking about them. We were walking to an appointment and passed the house of the patriarch and had a feeling that we should knock their door to visit them. Sure enough we entered the house and the wife of patriarch is super sick. She had been praying throughout the day that "The Hermanas from the church would come visit her". She started to cry when she saw us and explained that we were the answer to her prayers. I feel so lucky to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. It is such a blessing :) Hope you all have a great week! Praying for you always. xo 

Hermana Wood

John 5:30

pics: viewsss in our area, Happy birthday this week to my cute hija, typical food, aji de gallina

Turning into a Mama!

Hello hello! 

I hope everyone had a great week! This week was good. Sure enough, I am leaving Alto Selva Alegre :( Ah Alto Selva Alegre will forever have my heart. And hermana Alais too! She will be staying there. I am going to be training and opening the area "Zamacola". Super nervous but excited to meet my hija tomorrow! Today I am getting settled in the area with a temporary companion, and tomorrow the new ones come in. Hermana Alais will be my Hermana leader which is good, so she won't be too far! Ha. 

It was tough saying bye to the families of Alto Selva Alegre, I will miss them lots! Tiffany's baptism will be this month- I'm so excited for her. When we went to say bye to Tiffany yesterday, she totally surprised me with decorations, cake and all. The pictures will show the evidence ha, way too nice of her. Sorry we don't have much time today, but I will send updates of the new area next week :) As Teyo says: "live each day like its the 4th quarter and your team needs you!" 

I know that the mission is the best place in my life I could be right now. I am so grateful to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord here! Yes, there are tough days, but the miracles make it all worth it.

Have a good one!

Hermana Wood

Ether 12

Pics: Saying my goodbye to Yzma. I will miss these little kids. & pretty Arequipa

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 :)