Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - Week 66

HEY! Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! Wow you guys have 2 dinners! You´re going to be STUFFED! Haha. Been there done that. Christmas last year was so crazy. 3 dinners the same day. Thanks for all the pics! Looks like you´re having a great time in Utah! And you even got snow! I really wish I could see some snow right now. lol. Well the baptism went great on Saturday! We went to go pick up Emily and Johan and their mom and it was so cute! Emily and Johan opened the door so happy and looking so good! Johan had his hair slicked with a white shirt and suit coat and Emily with a super pretty dress and her hair done. I forgot to take a pic. :( We got to the church and they immediately changed into their white clothes. But I got some good pics. They both shared their testimonies afterward and Johan said he wants to be a missionary one day. :) Their mom came again on Sunday for the confirmation and had a great experience! She hasn´t been to church in like 7 years so that was awesome! And Sunday is the primary presentation so she´s coming to see Johan and then next week Emily has a talk to she´ll have to come again! Maybe she´ll just end up coming back all together! We have high hopes. We also got Alexis to church!!!!!! Wow it was so awesome! We asked our inactive that´s coming back a little to take him and he said yes. It all worked out great and Alexis had a great time! He wants to go every Sunday and be baptized! Wow he is a golden investigator. Ivelice came again to church. We went yesterday with a returned missionary that´s friends with her and he helped a lot. We got a reference from a member from another town of this guy that lives in our area and we went and visited him for the second time this week. He is AWESOME! This friend gave him a Book of Mormon before we met him and he´s reading it a ton. He was explaining to us about the plates and Joseph Smith and everything. He has so many questions. At the end we had to cut it off cuz we were going so long, but we think he has a ton of potential. So you know how I told you that Nene was leaving this week? Well he was supposed to leave on Tuesday. So we planned a huge FHE with everyone in the branch at his house on Monday night. Well he got a call Monday afternoon that he had to go right then. He came and said goodbye to us and then left. It was so sad. We´re gonna miss him a ton. Well transfers are next week, but training is 3 months so we won´t have changes. But the zone will be changing a ton. President is white washing the other 2 sisters areas so now we´ll be the only 2 in the zone with 14 elders. :( But it will be good. Well, have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am SOOO thankful for all of you and love you!!!
Hermana Woolf

                   Emily and Johan's baptism!

                       HLJ rings (CTR)

                     A visit to the beach in Puerto Plata

                       with Sister Farris

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - Week 65

Hey! How´s it going? It´s been a good week. Emily and Johan are SOO excited to be baptized this Saturday! The members are really getting them involved. The primary is having their presentation on the 30th and Johan has several parts in it... singing, recite an article of faith, and a small talk. Emily is already signed up for a talk in church in like 2 weeks! Haha. But they love the church and I know they will stay strong. Their parents are coming to the baptism and confirmation Saturday and Sunday. Their mom is a member and has been in a loooong time.. years. So I´m hoping this will be her chance to feel the spirit again and decide to come back. Their stepdad hasn´t really participated much in the church up to this point. I´m not sure if missionaries have ever talked to him, but he seems a little interested so we´ll see what happens. I would love to help that family be in the gospel together. I´ll send pics next week of the baptism. We´ve had some very important talks this week with some people we´ve been teaching for a long time. I think we´re going to have to let go of a lady and her family. I love them so much, but they don´t seem interested in progressing. They aren´t putting in their part. But we put a baptismal date with another woman on January 10. I really think she could be ready. She´s come 3 weeks in a row now to church! She´s progressing a ton! So there´s this lady, I´m not sure if I´ve told you about her. We contacted her house a couple weeks ago and she is PERFECT! She´s looking for a religión to join and is super interested. Well this week she told us that she´s also studying with a Jehovah´s Witness and the lady told her that she has to choose between us... She has a ton of time with this woman so she felt bad. When we visited her she started to say that we couldn´t keep coming but wanted to continue. By the end of the lesson she was really unsure what to do. We told her to come to church on Sunday and then make her decisión and she wants to come. She said she feels really good when we teach her so I hope she feels something special in church if she comes. She would be an amazing member. A man we’re teaching couldn´t come last week to church since he had an operation but he wants to come so bad! His brother has diabetes and didn´t treat it and so now this week he has to get his leg cut off. Alexis says if it´s before Friday, he´s coming to church. He´s paying a taxi if he has to. But we´re going to see if Mariano our inactive can take him. We´ll see. He really wants to be there for Nene´s last Sunday. I hope he can come! We´re getting really sad that Nene is leaving next week. He´s come to be a really good friend. It will be weird when he´s gone. I hear you´re Friends with him on FB now mom. Haha. He´s funny. He´ll be a great missionary though. Today I got to go to the beach for pday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´ve been waiting my whole mission to go! We went to have a sister meeting and got permission to go to Puerto Plata. It was so fun! I´ll send pics next week. I´m totally burnt. Haha and you guys are freezing. So funny. All the plans to come get me sound good. It´s weird to think about it. I feel like I still have lots of time. But I know 3 months are just gonna fly. That will be good to leave Sunday morning. We can go to church. I think it would be best to stay in the CCM the night when we go to the temple because it´s a long drive. And it´s like 200 pesos or like 5 bucks for all of us. Haha. super cheap. Look into the tourists sites that Pres Douglas told you. I don´t know anything about that. All I´ve heard are áreas that are pretty, but I don´t know what to do there. But we´ll figure out the details with time. Congratulate Laura for me! And Chelsea too! That is so awesome about the seminary kids and the breakfast! I´m sure you loved that Mom! That was really sweet! I love you all so much! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - Week 64

Hi everyone! How are things going? This week has been really good. We´ve had some of the highest numbers I´ve had my whole mission. We´re working really hard. When Elder Cornish came a while ago he told us we should try having an invitation day in our branches and wards so I decided it was a good idea. I talked to the branch president and we set it up for last sunday. We invited the whole world and the members too and we saw the fruits! On sunday we had 98 people in church (our normal attendance is like 65)! It was SOOO awesome! People just kept coming and coming and we had to keep getting more chairs from other rooms. Our chapel was completely full! That was one of the coolest experiences I´ve had in the mission. Just us had 7 investigators and 7 inactives there. I hope the members felt really good too and will want to continue inviting people every week! I really want to hit 100 one week. Emily and Johan are continuing to progress and will be ready for baptism next Saturday! They are really excited! They even gave us a reference of one of their friends and she came the first sunday. A lady we’ve been teaching came to church again on Sunday! We had a super good talk with her yesterday asking her what she believed and how she felt and she honestly has a testimony of everything we´ve taught her. We asked her to pray about it with real intent so I´m hoping she´ll get an answer this week. Mariano came with his whole family on Sunday! Alexis was going to pay the taxi (300 pesos which is a ton for them here) but he hurt his foot and couldn´t come. Yesterday we had a zone conference with all the missionaries in Santiago. It was so good! We heard from Pres and Sister Douglas and the assistants and a few others. I learned a lot. And we got a Thanksgiving feast! The class we´re doing with the members is going really well. We do lots of practices and games to help them get involved and I really think they all are more confident to be member missionaries now. And they´re doing their homework and giving us references. :) Today we had another Santiago activity in the abandoned airstrip. It was really fun. The English class is going well. We had like 8 in the class this week. It´s mostly kids or teenagers but we also have a Haitain investigator of the elders come because he´s learning Spanish. But everything is great. Sounds like you had a great time with your FHE and the cooking class! Wow they´re just now getting snow in Rexburg? I thought they would have had some already. Looks like it was a lot though! Thanks for the pics. I´m glad Chelsea had her baby! He´s so cute! Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - Week 63

Wow we´re in November already?? The months are flying! Thanks for all the Halloween pics! Everyone looked adorable! No one did anything here, but I bought some chocolate to celebrate. Haha. But this week has been great! We´re working really hard and seeing some of the fruits. We had 2 investigators except baptismal dates for the beginning of January but both need to get more of a desire to come to church still so we´ll see what happens. Emily and Johan are rockin it! They are brother and sister. 11 and 14 years old. Their mom is inactive but she´s going to come to their baptisms and confirmations so hopefully that will spark an interest to come back. She´s super great though! She´s really supporting them, helping them wake up in time and everything for church. I think they will stay strong. They both bore their testimonies on Sunday! I got the rings by the way! They are SOO cute! Thanks Mom! They will love them! Ivelice came this week to church! It was a total surprise! Anyways it was awesome! She left her colmado and just went. And she wants to go this Sunday too! Another that we’ve been teaching hasn´t come for a few weeks now. We haven´t been able to visit him. But we found out this week that he´s been working on Sundays so he couldn´t come. But Sunday was his last so he´s going to come this Sunday. He sent his kids to church though on Sunday. Another man we are teaching is so awesome! It´s such a hard circumstance because I can´t do anything. He wants to be baptized, but we can´t put a date because he can´t go to church... But he´s gotten to the point where he´s going to try to pay a taxi to go! That is dedication! I really hope it works out! So we had a service project on Saturday because it was the national service day. What did you guys do by the way? We went and built a house for a lady in our branch. Her house collapsed a few weeks ago. We had so many members there and non members too helping. It was so awesome. They got the whole house up by the end of the day! It was amazing! I started an English class this week. Everyone has been asking me to do it, so me and another elder are doing it. Only 4 came the first time, but hopefully more come this week. We had a meeting for the new missionaries yesterday. It was quite an adventure to get there. It has been raining SOOO much! To cross the street yesterday, I had to cross a river up to my knees. They don´t have drainage systems here. But we got there okay. The meeting was super great and I learned a lot about training. I´m glad my companion is very strong. Several of the other new girls were crying and saying they wanted to go home, etc. Pretty sure I was one of them too. Haha. But my daughter is doing really good with everything. And she´s progressing each day. We had to go home after with the assistants because the buses weren´t going out for the water in the streets. But we got really lucky because today was beautiful with lots of sun! We went to the monument with our zone and also to Wendys! We had so much fun! Also something cool happened to me last week! I ran into one of my old investigators from Tamboril! She moved to Santiago while I was still there and I didn´t hear from her again so I didn´t know what was going on. Well she told me she´s going to church in Santiago now and she wants to be baptized! She wants to go back to Tamboril to do it since she knows people better there. It was such awesome news! There really are people that you have an impact on and maybe never will know. I hope it all works out for her! So sounds like you guys have a big week planned with lots of fun stuff! It´s good to keep busy! Mom, don´t send me anything  for Christmas! If anything, the only thing I would want is some more little toys to give out to kids for Christmas. I ran out of what you sent me. But nothing else. I love all you guys! Get to see and talk to you next month! :) Have an awesome week!

Hermana Woolf