Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - Week 44

 

Hey Fam! Guess what? I'm writing you from the CCM today! And I'm going to the temple in just a couple hours!! It was a total surprise. My companion needs to renew her passport tomorrow morning so we drove down here with Elder and Sister Carroll from the office today. I got to see one of my old teachers Brother Nuñez! My other 2 teachers aren't here anymore. :( I was really hoping to see them. But I saw President Freestone too and a few other familiar faces. Wow it just brings back so many memories being here. And to see the new missionaries that don't know a lick of Spanish. How far I've come. It still feels like I was here yesterday though. I'm just so excited to do a session in the Temple!! We're going to eat at the Walker's home first (the mission doctor) and then we'll do a 7 pm session and stay overnight in the CCM. Then in the morning we'll go get the passport renewed and head back to Santiago. Well nothing else I'm going to write will top all of this, but my week has been good. We've been contacting a lot again this week to have more people. On Friday we had a zone conference with everyone in the Santiago areas. It was great! We learned about how to have the powers of heaven with us (be obedient, be grateful, etc.) Hermana Douglas challenged us to start a gratitude journal. We need to write 5 things we're thankful for and why each day. She talked about a ton of studies of how people are so much happier and have less problems if they write in a gratitude journal every day. She said there used to be a ton of missionaries with mental problems when she got here and she had them start gratitude journals and now there aren't any. They all got over their problems. It's pretty cool. I'm going to start one. President talked about how we should ask dangerous questions in our prayers (questions that will force us to change when we receive the answer). For example, how can I have the spirit with me more each day? My question is how can I be exactly obedient? So after we have chosen our question we should first write down everything that comes to our minds even if they are totally crazy. Then we should pray and list all the things we wrote down and during the prayer write more things that come to mind. We can scratch things off if we need to, but after our prayer and after we have decided the things we need to do, we need to change those things. I'm really excited to do it. On Saturday I went to Mao (like an hour away) because my companion wanted to go to a baptism there which was her old area. It was pretty fun. I had to sleep on the floor though which was not so fun. I had back pain for like 2 days. Haha. But it was good. I'm glad I could help out my comp. On Sunday we had 8 people in the church! It felt so good to have a good high number again. I haven't had a high number since Tamboril. But a family we've been teaching my whole time here and before that is inactive came! I was so happy to see them! They came to our branch activity 2 weeks ago which I think really helped them to feel more comfortable to come to church. A lot of people recognized them and greeted them. I hope they come again next week. We have a few people progressing, but each of them have something holding them back. Ivelice like I told you can't give up her jobs right now until she's paid off her debt, but we invited her last week to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and she and her daughter read 7 chapters this week and remembered EVERYTHING. I think this will really help her have a testimony of the church. Emily and Johan have come to church like 7 or 8 times now and are so ready to be baptized, but like I said they are still very young. Johan is ready, but Emily is scared to make such a big decision. But they have a testimony of everything and know the lessions backward and forward that we've taught. So now we'll just have to wait until Emily is ready. But that's about it for now. Thanks mom for getting everything ready for the package! Well if there is room in the box, there are a few things I would like. Mints- it doesn't matter which kind as long as it's like the mint kind (not fruity). Also some like lemonade powder or gatorade powder if you know what I mean. Something I can put in water to have like juice. But thank you! We don't really have bugs because a guy comes to fumagate (sp?) every transfer. Once in a while a cockroach or lizard thouse. Laurette is back in FM1? She doesn't go to the singles ward anymore? Sounds like Jamie got lots of good classes. Why 2nd half of BOM first? That will be kinda confusing. Are there no spots open? That's great that Jaden can be with JD for a while. I'm sure he will have lots of fun. Happy Anniverary!! I'm so happy you guys got married 32 years ago and are my parents! Have a great day together! I love you all!! Off to the temple! :)

Hermana Woolf

                    All the sisters serving in the Santiago mission.

                       Fun with water balloons.

                      Ward activity...lots of neighbor kids came.

                        A Woolf howling at the moon.

                      A goodbye dinner for a missionary going home.

Wednesday, June 18 - Week 43

Hey! Well we had transfers today.. but nothing new. My comp isn`t training so we`ll be together another transfer. I kinda thought I would leave, but I think President wants me here a little longer, especially with our whole plan with the members and everything. But I`ll probably be transferred next transfer. So on Saturday we had our big branch activity! It was super fun! We had over 100 people!! (Most of them were kids from the neighborhood. Haha.) But some of our inactives came and investigators! It was good so they could meet the members and feel more comfortable. We`ve been contacting a lot this week so there isn`t much new. But one of the people we contacted was very interesting. It was actually kinda scary for us the things she was doing, but I won`t go into details on that. Haha. But we found a super great family to teach (well as far as I can tell from a first visit). We`re going to visit them again next week. One of my good friends from my CCM group got transferred to Tamboril today! That`s 3 from my group now that have been there. But really not too much new this week. Mom that`s so exciting that you got called as seminary teacher!!! Do you know which age group you`ll have yet? Who else is teaching? Who is the new president? What classes did Jamie sign up for? What other classes is she looking into? For a religion class, try to get Elder Whalquist. He goes SUPER fast so it`ll probably be hard, but he`s the best teacher I`ve had so far of all my classes. That`s so exciting about the Spurs!!! I had no idea what was going on this week, but on Sunday I was teaching a family and the kids were giving me updates and told me that the Spurs won the championship the next day! And who ever said the Spurs were too old??? :)  So yeah I`ve heard about the mosquitos. It`s been more of a problem in other areas, but they are going to pay for all of us to buy repellant (even though it doesn`t even work for me). So when I go to Santiago next week I`ll buy some. I`ve been lucky not to get sick so far. Hopefully it continues. Well I hope you have a great week! I love you all! (sorry this is a short one. Hopefully I have more to share next week. Ha.)

Hermana Woolf

                          Crammed in a car!

                      Hawaiian haystacks in a pineapple.

                               Reunited with first comp!

                          Flowers from President Douglas

Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - Week 42

Hey! How`s it going? I have had a super great week!!! I don`t know where to start so I`ll just go in order by day. Haha. So with this new goal of ours to visit the members, we`ve really been getting lots of help. There are 2 sisters in the branch that go out with us to do visits every week. One on Thursday for 2 hours and one on Saturday for 3 hours. It`s been so good. It really helps to have their friends teach them. On Thursday we had a reunión de consejo. I can`t for the life of me remember how to say that in English. It`s the meeting for all the leaders in the branch. Mom you go to it. Anyways, our branch president is awesome, but he really needs the help of everyone else. He talked pretty straight forward to all his leaders that they need to start helping in the missionary work and helping people feel welcome and how to help our little branch grow. I think people were a little shocked, but it was super good. I hope they all took it to heart. On Saturday we went out with 2 sisters to visit some inactives. We went to one of the sisters houses after and she happened to be killing a chicken when we arrived (that is normal here… they kill their own chickens and cook them). It was sooooo disgusting. She slit it`s throat and it was flapping around for like 30 seconds before it finally died. It was so sad. They she plucked it and started cooking it. They even found an egg and 4 soon to be eggs and they eat those!! EWWW. After taking pics I had to get out of there fast! Lol. We didn`t have the consecha on Saturday because our branch was going to the temple and wouldn`t be able to help us so we`re going to do it another day. This Saturday we have a branch activity that we planned. We`re going to have lots of water games and food and we`re inviting EVERYONE. It should be fun. On Sunday 3 of our investigators went to church! Emily, Sonya (a new investigator) and Jose Manuel. All the members were really welcoming. We couldn`t teach Jose Manuel this week, but we`re going to put a baptismal date with him as soon as possible. Afterward we went to eat lunch at our branch president`s house which was so fun! We ate rice chicken and beans, and garlic bread, and bananas, and cake!! It was so good! That night we went to visit a family in the branch that we`ve been visiting for about a month now. When we started visiting them, the husband didn`t want to participate, wasn`t going to church consistently, they weren`t having FHE or praying or reading their scriptures, and the wife is excommunicated but still goes to church. Anyways... it`s been an interesting process. Slowly the husband has started to participate and like I told you last week, they have started doing their FHEs and praying. Well on Sunday he spoke with the branch president and said he wanted a calling in the church (which he has never accepted in his 10 or more years as a member. AND he told us in our lession with them that he has a goal now to get sealed to his family in the future and baptize his wife when her year is up and his daughter that is almost 8!!! Just 2 months ago he was inactive!! I feel so good. I don`t know if we had any part in it, but if so, I`m so glad we`ve decided to focus on the members. Also 2 nonmember husbands of women in the branch came to church! It was a super great day. Monday we had exchanges and I got to be with my grandma of the mission for a day! (our mom is our trainer, our grandma is the trainer of our trainer). On Tuesday we got to do some service with the American dentist that came! He doesn`t know any Spanish so he needed translators. So we went to this little school and he did check ups on kids and we translated for them. It was so fun! It felt good to be the one that could talk to both people and be able to translate everything. I also had the dentist check out my tooth. He said the filling looks really good and there`s not really anything I can do to prevent a root canal, but he said for now it`s fine. I don`t need to go to the dentist. But he said if I start having the pain every day and need to take medicine for the pain, then I should go. Right now it doesn`t hurt that bad and it`s not every day so I`m going to wait. I`m glad I could get it checked out though. After that our mission leader went out with us for 3 lessions with investigators. He`s preparing to go on his mission so it`s really good for him to go out with us and the elders. So yesterday (the reason I couldn`t write) we had a sisters conference with all the sisters in the whole mission! It was so fun! We ate pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, played some games, and then had training for a few hours. 12 sisters spoke about how to seize the day in different ways. EX: with gratitude, with love, with boldness, with service, etc... Then we ate lunch which was super fancy! Hawaiian haystacks IN a pineapple! Then Pres Douglas spoke to us and gave us each a rose! I think they will be sending you pics. And then we ate chocolate fondue with fruit, donuts, cake, etc. Pres Douglas told us that in Feb 2013 this mission only had 14 sisters. Now we have 64! It`s amazing! Well that`s about it. Haha. Okay that was a lot. Sounds like you guys have been super busy too! How does it feel Jamie to be graduated now?? How weird that no more of the kids are in high school anymore. Sounds like the banquet was fun! How was the baseball game? Happy Father`s Day dad on Sunday! I`m so glad you`re my dad! I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, June 4 - Week 41

Wow I can`t believe it`s June already!! The time goes by so fast. Sounds like you guys are really busy with lots of fun things! I`m glad the recital went well and lots of people went! And seminary graduation too! Dad you must have worked really hard for that! 46 is a ton! I`m glad you got my letters! And pretty quick this time! I was worried it would take forever since the letters I sent at Christmas did. Thanks for adding those friends on FB Mom. Did Ivonne tag me in a photo? She might have put more than one. But the one with us on the couch... that`s her and Elizabett. We got some sad news this week. Elizabett moved to Santiago. :( I really wanted to see her baptism. But that`s okay. 2 lucky missionaries will get her now. My tooth hasn`t been hurting me really. It only hurts every once in a while. But I`m going to see the American dentist like on the 9th I think. I`ll talk to Hermana Douglas. Thanks for asking about the ecclesiastical endorsement. I`ll ask Pres Douglas closer to the time if he can do it. Haha I didn`t even know there was an earthquake until now. Dad, for companionship study first we always sing, pray and recite the missionary purpose, the first vision, D&C section 4, and D&C 20:37. Then we read from the mission manual and talk about what we learned in personal study. Then if we have time we study from a book called 12 semanas. It was for our first 12 weeks but Pres. Douglas asked us to keep studying it. But it`s been a pretty good week, minus Elizabett moving. We had training on Thursday from Pres and Hermana Douglas which was SO good. We learned about how to help our investigators meet their baptismal goals and a scripture chain to use to help them understand how to receive answers to their prayers. I learned a ton. Afterward we had our interview with Pres. Douglas. We explained how we wanted to start focusing more on the members. He was totally on board. He said we could do 2 visits a day to members if we wanted, which is a ton. We started doing some visits this week with our RS President and it was really good. One of them that we`ve been visiting has starting having FHE every week and praying with her family every day! I really hope we can help each one of them. We`re going to start teaching the missionary lessons to each one so that they know the main doctrine of the gospel. Our area and the areas of the elders here are struggling though with investigators. In just the last month my comp and I have let go of over 20 investigators that weren`t progressing. So all the missionaries in our zone are going to come to our areas on Saturday to go contacting to find new investigators for us. Each companionship will contact at least 3 houses so we will have a TON of people to visit next week. Hopefully some of them will progress. Ivelice still can`t go to church for her jobs. But she told us this week that she`ll have paid off all of her debts in 2 months and then she`s going to drop the jobs and can come to church. So we`ll just have to wait for her. Jose Manuel is still progressing so we`re going to put a baptismal date for him next week. So we visit this guy named Nelson, a less active. Well he LOVES to give us stuff. Usually it`s mangos or avacados (2 things VERY popular here. They grow on every tree). But this week he told us that he`s waiting for his chicken to get a little fatter and then he`s going to kill it, clean it, and give it to us. Hahaha. It was so funny. We had an FHE on Monday with the Elders and a few of their investigators and had a barbeque! It was so good! I gotta figure out what kind of sauce they use on their chicken. Anyways... today we had a zone activity! We got permission to watch some movies so we watched 3! Haha. It was way too much, but it was fun. We watched Despicable Me 2, Brave, and the Croods. I hadn`t seen the Croods before. It was pretty good! We also made tacos! :)  It was fun. Well that`s been my week. I`m glad you all are doing well! I love you! Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf