A hike to a cave on P-day.

Wednesday, April 23 - Week 35

Hey Fam! Wow I`ve already received 3 testimonies from Scott, Maureah, and Christina!! Great job! I loved reading them!! And Christina and Rob have shared their testimonies with their neighbors! I`m so happy everyone is doing missionary work this month! :) I don`t have much time this week to write mine, so I`ll send it next week (the last day of the month) Haha. But don`t worry. I`ve been sharing my testimony every day. :) Well this was an interesting week. With it being Semana Santa last week, NO ONE was in their homes. Literally no one. They all go on vacation during this time. So we did a lot of walking... Also everyone drinks, a lot, during this week. It`s kinda sad. No one really knew why they were even celebrating. Church was also very empty. But it was good cuz I had to give a talk! Haha. No jk. Well we don`t have too many progressing right now, but there are a few with potential. There is a woman named Anavel. I`m still unsure if she`ll progress or not, but she wants to come to church so we are going to go with her this sunday so she feels comfortable her first day. Also a lady named Araselis. We had a lesson with her yesterday that was really good. We read from 3 Nephi 11 when Christ came to the Americas and invited the people to come touch the marks in his hands and feet. The spirit was super strong. We`ve been teaching her for a while and she hasn`t come to church but she realizes that she needs to go and make time for it. I hope she progresses. We really are helping a few inactives here. They are starting to come back to the church which is great! Hopefully we find more and more people like them. This week we have had SOOOOO much rain!! The streets have been flooded. The canal overflowed today! But it`s been kinda fun. Walking in the rain and mud. Haha. For me it`s better than the hot hot sun. There are a lot of places in this country that don`t have electricity 24 hours a day which makes it hard to teach lessons at night. Lol. But it`s an interesting experience. I got letters from Suzie and Kendall Semones this week! And a girl named Lauren Lively? I`m not sure who that is, but it was a sweet letter. They wrote them in youth conference. I love hearing from people. So today was so crazy! We had missionaries from our zone and another zone come to our area to go to a cave. I had no idea how far away it was so I wore my vans. We climbed a mountain for 4 hours to get there!! Oh my gosh it was horrible. And the guy who was guiding us forgot where it was so we walked way more than we needed to. Here, there are no nice paved paths to walk. It`s all rocks and sticks. My feet are hurtin` now! But we finally got there and it was a like an underground cave. It went down for 30 feet! Only a few went it cuz it was pretty dangerous. But there was also another cave close by that we got to go in that was pretty cool. I am so tired though. Haha. I`ve never gone on a hike that difficult before. I`m gonna sleep good tonight. :) But that`s about it for this week... Sounds like you all had a great Easter! That is so sweet that you made Easter baskets for the missionaries! I`m sure that made their day! I still haven`t heard anything about Rubi. I know she was supposed to have her interview on Sunday but Hermana Navas said she would call me when she knows when it`s going to be and she hasn`t called yet. We`ll see what happens. Mom don`t worry about my mosquito bites! Haha. I really haven`t gotten that much. The dark spots are from bites I got at the beginning of my mission. And I already got hydrocortisone cream that I`m using and it`s working well. But a lady in our branch is going to get me some cream that are specifically for marks or scars. So don`t worry about sending any! Wow sounds like Jamie had a great yes day! The nickel drive sounds really fun! And wow a visit to Ryan and Melissa! That`s awesome! I`d love to see her senior pics when you get them! I can`t wait to talk to you guys! I hope it works out to skype. I still have to figure out how or where. I think the office might allow missionaries to do it from there. Plus it will be the week of transfers to I might be with a different companion then. I`ll let you know when I have more info. But I love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, April 16 - Week 34

Hey! Thanks for your letters this week! I love hearing about what`s going on with everyone. Well this week has been pretty good. I`ve felt kinda overwhelmed these past 3 weeks in this new area because I feel like no one is progressing that we`re teaching. I just want to start completely over and find new people. But my companion has been working with all these people for a long time so I can`t just drop everyone. So I`m trying to help a little. We`ve talked about which people we could let go and have done so with like 5 or so. Also only 1 person had a baptismal date planned when I got here so I´ve been inviting everyone for specific dates. I know they all won`t work out, but everyone should know that baptism is the goal and should be working toward that. We`ve started contacting a lot too whenever we have time. I hate contacting, but it`s the only way to find people. We contacted this lady named Nefeti and have been teaching her each week with her husband and kids. They are super great. They know a lot because they have been attending another Christian church, but haven`t attended for 2 years. Her husband I think has the whole Bible memorized. Haha. He quotes tons of scriptures to us. I hope they progress. I like them a lot. I`ve had a few funny experiences this week. Lol. We were given a reference to teach a lady. We`ve gone a few times and it`s been fine. But this last week we taught about the Plan of Salvation. We started explaining the different kingdoms of glory. We explained in much detail how great the Celestial Kingdom is... that we can live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our families and will have complete happiness. Then we started explaining the Terrestial Kingdom. She said, ¨I want to live there!¨ We were a little confused and again explained that the Celestial Kingdom is where we will want to live. We asked her ¨Wouldn`t you like to live with God?¨ She said, ¨I`ve never known him before. I don`t care.¨ Ha. Then we said, ¨And what about your family? You won`t be able to live with them in the Terrestial Kingdom¨. She said, ¨That`s okay. I like to be alone.¨ Haha. By the end we couldn`t even convince her that the Celestial Kingdom was better. She is determined to live in the Terrestial Kingdom... It was pretty funny. Another experience.. we were teaching this family that are recent converts. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and reading from the Introduction. I read the part where Joseph Smith says that it is the most correct book of all the books in the world. Then I began bearing my testimony holding up my book (which doesn`t have the title on front) saying that I know it is the most correct book there is. Then the man said to me with lots of excitement and curiosity, ¨which book is that!?¨ Hahaha. I guess I should be a little more clear when I explain things.. I thought he knew we were talking about the Book of Mormon. He was ready to accept and read whatever book I had in my hand though. Lol. Sometimes people can be so funny. Well this week I got to watch the Saturday Morning session of conference! I loved Elder Holland`s talk! He`s always my favorite. Wow his testimony at the end was so powerful. We had an FHE this past weekend with Ivelice and with the branch president and his wife, the mission leader, and another family in the branch. It was really great. We talked about the path we are on that Ivelice is in the process of baptism and will continue to make more covenants and we talked about temple marriage so they can aim for that. Then we had a huge feast! Everyone brought stuff. Rice, yuka, chicken, and cake for dessert. It was great. I hope she continues to progress now that her husband is gone. I got your letter Mom! Thank you! I love the bookmark and HLJ sticker!! :) So cute! I also got Robin`s announcement from Sister Pratt. I feel bad that I`m going to miss her wedding. Could you try to find her address so I can at least write her a letter?  I heard from Hermana Navas today. She said that Rubi has her interview this Sunday and hasn`t been drinking coffee so maybe next weekend she can be baptized, but will let me know. Oliver is going to church every week and reading his scriptures and giving up things in his life to be baptized! Ricardo has plans to get married and is praying about a date! Katherine is staying strong and received a calling. Esther is a seminary teacher! Wow seems like everything is so great there! Sometimes I wish I could still be there and see everyone and help the work there, but I know my time is now in Villa Gonzalez. I`m going to keep working hard and hope for lots of miracles. So Dad, it`s about an hour from Santiago (the ride always feels much longer though.) I would say the branch is a little weaker here. Not too many people in church on Sundays. But we`re trying really hard with the inactives here. So yeah Mother`s Day is in less than a month!! Can`t wait to talk to you all! I`m sure there will be a way to skype again! I`ll try to go somewhere with better internet connection this time though. Yeah we`ll be eating at a member`s house on Easter. They don`t even celebrate Easter here though so it won`t be anything special. Haha. They celebrate something called Semana Santa here. It`s like Easter, but it`s a celebration for the Catholics. We got to see a parade on Sunday. All the Catholics were walking in the street and there was someone dressed as Jesus. It was pretty cool. But every Sunday we switch off eating with two different families in the branch so we`re always fed! We really only eat with members on Sundays.  We have a washer but for some reason our neighbor uses ours too... a lot. Haha. so it`s hard to find time to wash clothes. But it`s fine. Wow sounds exciting about One Acts! And Jamie got an award! That`s so awesome! I hope they keep advancing! Daniel is engaged!!?? Man there are so many people I want to talk to but I don`t have their email or addresses. I`m so happy for him! Wow Jamie is having a yes day huh?? She`s more persuasive than me if you don`t even know what things she will ask for first! Hope you don`t get robbed of all your money! Hahaha. Well now that I`ve written a novel, I better go. Haha. I love you all sooo much! Have a wonderful Easter!!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - Week 33

 

Hey fam! What a relief! I thought I had missed Easter! Haha. Not that I`ll be celebrating with Easter eggs. But at least I can think of Christ more that day. General Conference was great! I didn`t get to see the first session. :( We went to watch in our church building and there were problems with the internet. The second session on Saturday we got to watch, but the internet was so slow there were pauses every 30 seconds so it was a little hard to focus. Haha. But Sunday was much better. A technician from the stake came to fix the problem so it was up and running perfectly on Sunday. A member brought their laptop for me so I could watch in English. :)  I loved Pres. Monson`s talk about loving others! Pres. Uchtdorf`s was super good too! . We had a couple investigators and inactives there on Sunday. On Saturday NO ONE watches. I couldn`t believe it. Only the branch president and his wife were there with us. Kinda sad. But this week has been good. I`m slowly starting to remember where everyone lives. Haha. There is a lot of work to do here. We only have 1 person that is progressing toward baptism. But we`ll see how it goes. But the one that is progressing is great! Her name is Ivelice. She met this guy Gabriel on the internet several months ago and he`s a member. Well he lives in Espana so he came here to meet her and they got married a couple weeks ago. So now she`s taking the lessons. She has a lot of potential. She`s been coming to church with him every week. She has a baptismal date for the end of this month. Gabriel has to go back to his country next week though for the rest of the year for his job. I hope she stays strong while he`s gone and continues to go to church. Her daughter is progressing super fast too. I really want them to be baptized together. But the problem is that Ivelice owns a colmado and the only way she can go to church is if she leaves her daughter to run the colmado... They are really poor and need the money so I`m not sure what to do. The ultimate solution is that she closes it on Sunday because it`s the Sabbath day, but for right now it`s not an option for her. We`ll see how it goes. We visit this family that lives next door to us. The mom Yuvi is inactive, but her 2 kids Any and Oscar got baptized like less than a year ago I think and are active. They are so awesome! Oscar tries soooo hard to say my name. Haha. Every time we go to their house he practices to himself. No matter how hard he tries though, it always comes out Hermana Golf. Hahaha. It`s so funny. They are great though. So we had our Pday Santiago today. I finally decided to buy the scripture cases. I tried super hard to work down the guy selling them and I think I got a pretty good deal. It`s 2700 pesos or like $65. I`m going to have a picture of the DR Temple on one of them, done in laser. And the other will have the DR flag. He`s also throwing in a cover for my hymnbook. I`m excited to get them. He`s going to bring them to me in 2 weeks so I`m gonna take out some money from my card to pay him then. So I asked Pres. Douglas if I could go to Tamboril to see Rubi`s baptism and he gave me permission, but only if a member goes with me and another member stays here with my companion to continue working that day. It doesn`t seem very possible. We`re lucky to have 1 lesson a week with a member. They don`t help us very much. I don`t know how I could find 2 to help us the whole day. But I`m gonna try. I really want to be there. I`m having a sister in our branch start to mend my clothes. There are a few shirts and skirts that I can`t use anymore. I`ve just brought 1 for now though to see how it turns out before I bring the rest. Hopefully it works out.

 Wow sounds like you guys have been busy with lots of activities! Sounds like lots of fun! Let me know how one act goes! I wish i could be there for that breakfast! haha. Oh I love the scarlet pimpernel! That will be so fun!

Thanks for sending pictures! I love them! Good luck with the challenge this month! I promise to participate too. Haha. I love you all!! Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf

 

 Old shoes and new shoes!

Wednesday, April 2 - Week 32

Hey Fam! How`s it going?? Okay so this month`s challenge is to share your testimony. First, to learn how to say it in Spanish, and send it to me in an email. And second, to share it in English to a nonmember. (I couldn`t decide between 2 that I wanted to do so I combined them.) :) I learned how to bear my testimony in 1 day in the CCM. I`m sure you can do it in a month. :) It doesn`t have to be super long, but you can`t cheat with the internet! So my new area is great! It`s a lot like Tamboril just a little less country. But we`re literally right next to the mountains! I love it! This area is super huge. But it`s all flat so we don`t get tired. In Tamboril it`s all hills. So here even though we walk a lot, it`s not hard. My house... well it`s not the greatest. But we have all the essentials, electricity, water, etc. I just got super lucky in my other area because our house was HUGE and super nice. But it`s fine. It`s just to sleep right? The members here have been so welcoming! I already feel comfortable here. The branch is really tiny though. I feel like there is a lot of work to do here. My companion is really nice. She only has 2 transfers left after this and this is only her second area! She was in her first area for 11 months! Anyways, I think she`ll be leaving after this transfer. So I gotta learn the area super quick! Haha. She organizes the days so well. Every day we have a specific part of the area to go to and only teach in that part. It`s SO much better. In Tamboril we had to walk a ton between lessions because we didn`t plan well. We were having like 4 lessions a day. Here we have like 7 a day!! What a difference! I feel like I`m using my time so much better. So... question. Did Easter already happen?? I have no idea when it is. That would be sad if I missed it. Maybe it`s this weekend. Speaking of holidays, you totally got me Mom with the prank! You should have seen my reaction! Mouth open and everything! I forgot about April Fools Day. Hahaha. That would have been horrible. Sounds like you did some good pranks Mom! What were their reactions?? Wow you guys are replacing the base boards!! You`re just fixin the house up super well!! Wow I can`t believe we`ve been in this house for almost 20 years. It`s been a great place to live! So I didn`t get to see the Women`s Conference. :( I hope I can at least read it. We all went to the church to watch it on Saturday, but it was so slow because so many people were on the site that we didn`t get to see any of it. I don`t know how it will work this weekend. The branch president says we`re going to watch it in our chapel and a technician from the stake is going to come to help us. But that means he has to experiment on the first session in Saturday. If it doesn`t work we`ll have to go to the stake center to watch it. I hope it works! Did I tell you the church is literally our next door neighbor?? It`s on the same street as our house. I love it! We`ve been inviting EVERYONE to come to conference. We testify of living day prophets every day. This is the best way to know if what we`re teaching is true or not, to see the prophet for yourself. I hope some people come. We had our first zone meeting on Monday. It`s literally all latins. Haha. Just me and one other sister that speak English. It`s good though. I`m learning Spanish much faster. lol. We have plans this transfer to go as a zone to a cave, and a waterfall. I`m super excited! Thank you SOOOOO much for the shoes!!! Wow I can`t believe how fast you got them to me!! I`m sure you didn`t know this, but you got a smaller size (not sure if it`s a size smaller or just not Wide) but they are perfect!! It must have been inspiration. My other shoes were a little big and these new ones fit me so perfect! And thanks for the pens and snacks and letters! It was so fun to open! Now you really can`t send any more packages for the rest of my mission! Anyways.. I think that`s about it. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful Conference weekend!!

Hermana Woolf