Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - Week 73

Hey everyone! Wow today starts my last transfer in the field. Unbelievable. I know these last 6 weeks are going to fly. I´m still with Hermana Harden so it will be a great way to finish! I just ordered my plaques with all my comps and areas on the back to bring home with me! I should be getting my dead letter soon. :/ We have some fun plans for our pdays this transfer. Maybe Tamboril and maybe the temple, a fun zone activity for my bday which luckily falls on a wednesday, and a trip to monte cristi (really pretty areas with beaches). I´m excited. We had a very long week with lots of trips to Santiago, but it was great. On Friday we had a sister conference with all the sisters in the mission. They spoiled us so much. We had a huge breakfast, drew ourselves on paper, played some games (including one where me and 17 other girls had to hold pipes and have other sisters walk over them. I was super sore the next day. Haha. Hope they send you pics of that), then I gave a talk on how embracing the differences in my companions has made me a stronger person (the theme of the conference) and 29 other girls spoke, we had a super good lunch, watched the errand of angels, had dessert, and then Pres and Sister Douglas gave us all real pearls from the phillipines! It was awesome! After the meeting we had to rush straight over to one of the elder´s areas in our zone to do a consecha (help them contact new people because they white washed it). It was fun, but I was exhausted by the end of the day! Then on Saturday we had to go to ANOTHER sister meeting in the morning and when we got back, we were soooo tired. Luckily the elders were very nice and filled up the baptismal font for us. :) That night was so great! So many people came to support Ivelice. My daughter (sister I trained) got permission to come too. We sang more holiness give me and the spirit was super strong (mostly cuz my comp is a killer singer). Ivelice shared her testimony at the end and she did so good. It is really strong already because she finally made the decision for her,  not for anyone else. She already has plans for her sealing next year. (really wanna go! but probably not possible. Ha.). Geresly her daughter came! It was sooo great! She came to church for the first time too on Sunday! We´re really hoping to baptize her next month! We took Ivelice to a fireside by Pres and Sister Douglas about temples on Sunday in Santiago. I think it was really great for her. Thanks for sending me Grammie´s obituary. I hope the funeral went well. I´ve been thinking about her all week. My companion was so sweet and left me a flower and note on my pillow Thursday. So excited to see you!! The time will be here before we know it! I love you all!!!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - Week 72
Hey. Wow I´m kinda overwhelmed right now with the news about Grammie. When I left for the mission I thought maybe it was possible that I wouldn´t see her again, but just recently I was thinking that I´m almost done and I would get to see her when I get back. It was a complete shock to hear of her death. I know you were always telling me she was sick, but she´s always gotten over everything. I really wish I could have said goodbye. She has had such a big impact in my life. She was such a wonderful person and loved everyone. I´m gonna miss her a lot. I wish I could be there for the funeral. Pass along my love for everyone. Well other than that, it´s been a good week. Ivelice is so amazing! We taught her last week about temples and she really wants to go. The branch is going in a couple weeks and she´s gonna try to go! How awesome is that?? I´m gonna ask President if maybe he´ll make an exception and let me go too since I´ll be in my last transfer and it´s on a Wednesday so I wouldn´t miss proselyting time. Maybe he´ll say yes. She´s already talking about her temple sealing in spain in a year! I´m so happy for her. Just 3 days until her baptism! We talked to her yesterday about getting her daughter to go now to church with her. It´s hard with the colmado, but her mom offered to give up selling food in the morning to stay and help so she can go too!! I hope it works out! She wants to be baptized too, she just needs to start going to church. If it works out, we talked about having her baptized Feb 28, 2 days after Gabriel comes and I´ll still be here! I´m hoping for a miracle! We finally found a man we've been teaching in his house after a couple weeks without seeing him. We had a super amazing lession about the word of wisdom and he agreed to live it. He was kinda ify about going to church for a couple weeks while he´s figuring out some stuff, but we shared with him a passage of scripture when Christ is speaking the nephites and tells them to put the kingdom of god first and not worry about the morrow. The spirit was really strong and at the end of the lession he decided he wants to go in Sunday. He is such a great person and I know he´ll be blessed if he goes. Sunday was a really great day. We had lots in church and then ALL of our plans went exactly how we had planned them which is very difficult to make happen. Monday was a holiday here so we went to Yuvi´s house and made tacos with a bunch of people. It was really fun. I felt an earthquake this week! First one of my life! It wasn´t very big though. We´re having another sister conference with all the sisters in the mission on Friday. I have to speak! Welp. I hope it goes good. Transfers are next week. I hope there aren´t changes, which I don´t think there will be. Hermana Harden is so great! I´m having so much fun! Thanks for finding out the info about classes. I have an interview with Pres Douglas this month so I´ll have him do the ecclesiastical endorsement. I hope it works out to sign up when I get home. That would be great. Well I gotta go. I´ll be praying for everyone. I love you all so much!!

Hermana Woolf

  Toys we sent Hermana Woolf to give to children. She said they loved them and even cornered her in the janitor's closet at church when they found out she had toys.

   Went out with 8 necklaces, now has 24...people keep giving them to me.

                       Oscar loves his cars

                          Branch Christmas party

                      The girls in the runway show

       

                      Making sugar cookies

 

                    Christmas Eve zone activity

       My gift from our gift exchange...candy and a DR bracelet

                 Christmas Eve feast

 Had a fever...neighbor cared for me including giving me cactus to put on my feet...cold and slimey!

            With new comp...Hermana Harden...from Denton, Texas!

January 2, 2015 - Week 71 (no email on week 70 due to Christmas)

Happy New Year family! 2015!!!! It was so great to talk to you all on Christmas! Everyone looks great! I think that was and is the first time I´ve felt trunky in the mission. But not too long from now I´ll get to see you all! My companion and I got a special transfer. They called us on Sunday to tell us my companion would be leaving the next day. But anyways, I´m with an American now!!!! Her name is Hermana Harden. I actually met her on FB before we left on the mission cuz we found out we were going to the same place. She just has a transfer less than me. And she´s from Denton! Her family moved though since she´s been on the mission. But we get along SOOO well. We both worked in movie theaters, her mom worked at GTE/Verizon, from the same city, like all the same stuff, both served in Tamboril, etc. This is the most fun I´ve had in the mission up until now. I´m so happy to be with her. But everything else is going great too. Ivelice has her baptism next Saturday! She´s so ready. She finished reading all the conference talks and is in Alma in the BOM. We did a practice interview with all the baptismal questions and she passed everything. I´m really excited! Hermana Harden and I are gonna do a special musical number and Ivelice is going to bring her daughter! I hope it´s a really special day. We just have 3 more visits before then. Another man we are teaching is really progressing too! He came again to church on Sunday. He has a date for the end of the month, but we haven´t been able to visit him for a couple weeks so I don´t know what will happen. We´re gonna try though. But maybe it will end up being in February. New Years Eve was really fun! We had a zone activity and ate and watched movies and played sports and then we went to a members house for dinner and at midnight there were fireworks SUPER close to our house that we went out to watch. Yesterday was pretty crazy still in the streets. Lots of partying and drinking. Our numbers kinda stink this week, but that´s how it goes during the holidays. I just ordered a special plaque with all my companions and areas on the back for when I go home. First time it´s hit me how close I am to finishing. 1 transfer goes by super fast. But I´m getting ready (still not ready, but getting there). haha. I wanna work hard until the very end. No regrets. Well looks like you all had a ton of fun together from all the pics. Wish I could have been there! Looking forward to lots of fun times together when I get home. But, I love you all!! I hope you had a wonderful new years.

Hermana Woolf

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