Wednesday, December 17, 2014 - Week 69

 

Hey! One week until Christmas!! I´m sure you guys are gonna have a great time together! So it´s been a good week. A woman we’re teaching is doing great. She´s still going strong without coffee. I´m so proud of her. I really think she´ll be ready to be baptized in a few weeks. We had 11 people in church on Sunday, including a family we’ve been teaching. I was so happy when they showed up. We´re going to teach them tonight so we´ll see what happens. I really hope they continue to progress. We also have this guy.. i can´t remember if I´ve told you about him, but he´s super awesome. He´s come to church the last 2 weeks and says he loves it. We left him an assignment to read 3 nephi 11 this past week and he read it several times and had it practically memorized and prayed about it. So we put a date for Jan 24. He´s really awesome. We have our branch Christmas party on Friday! I´m really excited! We´re having a feast and the primary kids are surprising everyone with a run way show.. they have to bring all sorts of clothes... church, beach. formal, etc. I´m sure it will be super cute. Yesterday we had a multi zone conference for Christmas! Each zone prepared something to present. It was super funny. There were midget dances, skits, songs, videos. It was hilarious. We did a skit that a new kid just got to the mission Dec 24 and didn´t want to be there and wanted to go home for Christmas. but his trainer told him he would have the best Christmas ever and then we broke into singing winter wonderland mixed with don´t worry be happy and then he was happy to be in the mission. It was really cute. After all the performances we got a huge feast from Pres and Sis Douglas: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, salad, and candy cane cake for dessert! It was SOOO good. Then we had the meeting and learned about how to know Christ and how to become like Peter and then had a testimony meeting, and a musical devotional at the end. It was a great day. We had to sleep over with some other sisters in Santiago cuz we were far from home and there weren´t any buses to get back. So then today we went to calle de sol where all the tourist shopping is and did some shopping. I wanted to buy a tshirt but I didn´t find one i liked. I just did some shopping for our zone Christmas party next Wednesday. We´re doing a gift exchange and having a Christmas lunch and watching Christmas movies. It will be so fun. And since we´re the ¨princesses¨ we just have to bring the rice and they will all be bringing something else and chipping in 100 pesos to buy chicken. :) I guess it´s pretty good being the only sisters now. Haha. I FINALLY got my journal back from Tamboril. It´s been there for 9 months. Now i´m super stressed out to get it to everyone in just 2 months but I´ve already gotten it to like 4 people in 4 days so I just gotta keep bugging people about it. lol. Thanks for signing me up for housing. I´m convincing more and more people to go to BYUI here. Haha. I´m excited though. But just one week til I get to talk to you guys! Well I guess i´ll talk to you Wednesday by email and then skype on Thursday. lol. Love you all!

 

Hermana Woolf

                             Went to McDonalds today.

                      The house we painted last week.

                   Huge fruit that looks like a pickle


Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - Week 68

Hey! Wow December is going really fast! We´re almost in Christmas already! So in the mission we´re doing something really awesome. Have you guys seen the video the church put out for Christmas? I don´t know what it´s called in English. In Spanish it´s El es la Dadiva. He is the Gift or something? It´s really great about the meaning of Christmas. We´re giving out cards with information to watch it online to everyone and we have a DVD of it to bring to people´s houses. If you haven´t seen it, go watch it. And share it on FB if you want! They gave us permission to get on to post the link, but I feel too weird about that. And too much temptation. Haha. But go watch it! So it´s been a good week. Emily and Johan are doing so awesome! They are super active. They go to all the activities and come to church every week. Emily will be giving her talk this week in church so that means her mom and stepdad will come again! Another lady we’re teaching is doing really great too! Last week we talked about the word of wisdom and she told us she was drinking coffee every day. We put a goal with her to only drink 5 times this week. We went back again yesterday and she gave it up completely!!! She hasn´t even had it once in the whole week! She says her head hurts a lot but when she decides to do something, she does it. I am so happy. I was worried she wouldn´t be able to give it up before her date, but she is awesome. She has changed completely. She comes to church every single week and is progressing perfectly for January! More good news... We went to teach another man and his family on Saturday. We talked about the law of chastity. He needs to get divorced and then get married to his current wife. Well he said he has a goal to do it. Here to get divorced it´s 15,000 pesos which is like a million dollars for a poor Dominican. Well I made some calls and found a lady that is a member that does them practically for free. Like only 2,000 pesos!!! I´m so excited to tell him. He´s gonna be so happy! AND he said he will take another man (who needs a ride) to church every week!! The good news just keeps coming and coming. I feel so blessed. On Monday we had exchanges and I went to visit another family. They haven´t been progressing for some time now and I went with the plan to drop them. But I felt the spirit really strong to just explain everything very frankly and I put a goal with them for 2 weeks. They have to put in their effort for just 2 weeks to read the BOM every day, pray about what we´ve taught, and come to church. If in 2 weeks, they don´t have an answer, or we feel they haven´t put in their effort, we´re not going back. It was really hard. I really love that family. But that´s about it for the week. So for Christmas, I found someone with a webcam to be able to skype. I haven´t asked him yet about hangout so we´ll see if we can get it to work, but what time works best for you guys? I also need to talk to the elders and my companion to see what time they are going to talk to see when I can. But I promise on Wednesday I´ll have an answer. I didn´t know so many will be going there for Christmas! I´m sure it will be lots of fun! Haha yeah our zone is treating us really good. I gotta say though, it was weird in our meeting on Monday, just the two of us girls. Haha. But it´s good. We have a lot of cool people in the zone. And we´re already planning lots of fun things for Christmas together... gift exchange, Christmas movie and lunch, singing at a hospital. I´m excited! I hope you all have a great week! Can´t wait to talk to you soon! Love you!

Hermana Woolf

                       A girl in the branch did Hermana Woolf's hair...pretty!

                    The children who were in the Sacrament Meeting Program

                       Hermana Woolf's Thanksgiving feast!

                         Hermana Woolf's zone

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - Week 67

Happy December everyone! Wow it´s almost Christmas! It so doesn´t feel like it! I still gotta figure out how I´m going to skype you guys. But now 3 of the 4 of us in this area are Americans so I´m sure we´ll be able to figure something out. So yeah as you know today was transfers, but as you also know training is 3 months so I´m still with my daughter. I´m pretty positive I´ll just finish with her here. I CANNOT BELIEVE I´M ON MY SECOND TO LAST TRANSFER! :((((( And Christmas always goes by super fast so these last couple months are gonna fly. I´m excited to see all of you again, but I wish I could stay too. And I´m a little scared to go back to real life. Ha. Our zone like I told you is now, just us two sisters and 14 elders.. it will be interesting... my zone leader told me we would be the ¨princesses of the zone¨ but I´m pretty sure they´re just gonna wanna play football every week. Haha. But this has been a good week. We´ve done a lot of service. We helped build a house and we painted a house. (everyone I mean EVERYONE paints their houses in December.) It looks awesome though! When I can take a pic I´ll send it to you. Things are good with our investigators. We´re mostly focusing on Ivelice right now. I really think she´ll be ready in January. She told us yesterday that she feels she´s progressing toward her date. She´s come the last 5 weeks in a row to church. It´s awesome. Her husband is really happy. On Sunday we had the primary program! It was sooo cute!! There are only like 15 kids but they all did so great! Each one had to memorize an article of faith.. it was amazing. Even 6 year olds got up there and had their whole AOF memorized! And almost all of them had little talks, including Johan. He did awesome! His mom and stepdad came! It was really special. Yesterday was my daughter´s bday. I tried to make it special. I had the house decorated when she woke up with her favorite stuff... chips, twix, and soda. Haha. Then at night I surprised her in the church with a bunch of members. We ate sandwiches and had a cake and we sang. I think she had a good time. But sounds like everything went great for Thanksgiving and surprising Maureah!! Wish I could have been there! And you´ve got lots of activities coming up! I´m really excited for the Christmas Devotional! Well I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Hermana Woolf

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