Thursday, December 19, 2013 - Week 17

Hey Fam!! How are you? Sorry I`m a day late on sending my email! I hope you weren`t worrying. Yesterday was a super crazy day and we had no time to go to the Internet Center so we got special permission to write today. How is everyone doing? Are you enjoying the Christmas holiday? What have you been doing? Those sugar cookies look good! Haha. I got your package!!! It is HUGE!! You didn't need to send me so much stuff! You are not allowed to send me another package for the rest of my mission. But thank you so much! I can't wait to open everything up! Thanks for sending my jeans! I've already worn them twice since Monday. Haha. Well it`s been another great week! Very very busy. On Thursday we had another consecha but this time it was in the area of the elders with us in Tamboril. They don`t have many people to teach right now so hopefully that helped. We`ve been having a lot of practices for choir to get ready for the Devotional this Sunday. It will be so great! On Monday we had a district meeting and I gave a lesson about how we can apply the Atonement. The Spanish is really starting to come. I`m not even nervous to talk in front of people anymore in Spanish. It`s not that hard anymore. So good news about one of our investigators, Lisbeth, is that she came back to be with Julio again and I don`t know what happened but I think she`s thinking about marrying him now? Who knows. We are going to fast with her and Julio on Saturday for her to make a decision. Julio already knows he wants to marry her. Hopefully it all works out okay. She is already ready to be baptized. Tuesday we had zone conference with the mission president and his wife and 100 other missionaries. It was great. It was all about Christ and after we had a 2 hour testimony meeting. Then after that we had an activity for people in all of the areas of the missionaries that were at the zone conference. Not many people came unfortunately, but Ruben and Esther and their kids came. It`s a big sacrifice to come all the way to Santiago when you don`t have money. It was a night of musical numbers and it was so beautiful. Okay so yesterday... wow it was crazy. We left in the morning for Santiago to play paintball... again. I didn`t want to play but my comp did so we went. Then we went to Pricemart to buy a couple things but especially so I could print the pics for my gift of the heart. Well guess what? The printer was broken... I had the package already to send and everything. Just missing the photos. So we went to the office to figure out a new place to print pictures. We had to travel across town to find one, got them all printed, went back to the office, and put it all together to send. It was past 5 by this point. Well then we had to wait an HOUR for a car to come so we could get back to Tamboril. It was so crazy. There were about 50 people waiting for a car and there were NONE. We had to push people out of the way to finally get into one. So we got back at 730 and there was no way we could go to the internet center. We went straight to our last lesson for the day. So another good thing is that our investigator Ricardo has a baptismal date on the 18th of January. He was supposed to get baptized last month, but like I said, his wife is the problem. Well I think they are going to get married and it will work out. We`re praying for miracles. He is so ready. He has a testimony of everything we teach. Today we painted his house! It was a big project and it`s not done, but it looks great. We have a Christmas dinner with our branch tomorrow! I`m super excited. And we have 4 dinners for Christmas eve. FOUR! I don`t know how I`m gonna do it. Haha. I can`t even eat one dinner here...It will be great to visit with the members though. We also have a dinner for Christmas. Okay so for skype, the time will be 1 in the afternoon. We get an hour to talk. I`m a little worried about it all working out okay, but they have computers in the mission office to use if it doesn`t. I don`t know anything about a calling card or anything so let`s just hope it works. If not, I`m sure we can find a way to call you. And yes DearElder still works for me. It`s free so that`s a good thing, but it`s fun to get handwritten letters too. Scott and Christina have used it quite a few times for me! Well I can`t wait to talk to you in just 6 days!!! I am so excited!! Remember 1 o`clock. I love you all so much!! Merry Christmas!!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, December 11 - Week 16

Hey fam! How´s it going? Wow I can´t believe you all got so much snow this week! I can´t even remember the last time that the snow has stopped us from doing things for more than a day or two. Sad that you can´t have the Christmas party! But wow 18 inches in Utah! I can´t even imagine. Jaden must be having fun though! Haha. So this week has been good. Not much new. On Friday we went out with the Elders in Tamboril with us to visit a bunch of referencies we had for them all day. Saturday we did service for a widow in our branch for a few hours which was great. Sunday we had choir like all day long. First we practiced with our branch and then went to Santiago to practice for the stake conference in 2 weeks. If I have to sing La Primera Navidad one more time after this... lol. But seriously. And then after that we were going to watch the 1st Presidency message together in the chapel with our branch, but couldn´t get internet. By the time we did it was near the end. I did get to hear Elder Nelson´s talk though. I´m sure I´ll be able to read it later. Also Elder Sotelo downloaded Skype on the computer in the church, found someone with a webcam and bought a microphone!! He is awesome! So hopefully it will all work out! I got on for like 6 seconds to make sure I remembered my username and password, but none of you were on. Haha. So it has been raining actually pouring for 3 days straight. The streets are flooded. It´s been crazy. We did service for a woman in our branch yesterday outside, and it was crazy. We were drenched after only a minute or so. But it was fun. The sun finally came out this afternoon. Hopefully it will stay. So David is having trouble coming to church. We told him we would set a new date when he started showing us that he wanted to go to the church. He has a girlfriend now and spends all his time with her. BUT we found out where she lives so we can visit her with him. And when he´s not home, we know where he is! hahaha. Lisbeth has been with her family all week so we haven´t been able to visit her. I´m not sure if she has made a decision yet about Julio. But we have this other investigator Catherine who is progressing SO fast! It´s amazing. She reads more of the Book of Mormon than we ask her to, she reads the pamphlets before we start them, she answers all the questions in the back which includes searching the scriptures for answers, she´s coming to church every week, and always has lots of questions. Her baptism is set for Feb 1! So I started Our Search for Happiness a couple days ago. I´m almost done, it´s very short. But it´s so good. It would be a great book to give to someone that wants to know more about the church. I am loving the cards from Aunt Sarah and everyone who participated! It is so fun!! And there are great talks and Christmas stories too. I love it! So something kinda funny happened this week. Okay it´s not funny. It´s sad. But pretty ironic too. So this inactive member´s home burnt down- like the entire thing. But the only thing that survived was her Book of Mormon completely in tact and a couple pics from her mission. How crazy is that!!!?? Maybe she´ll take it as a sign after she comes back from this horrible thing that happened. Ok to answer your questions: I don´t know Sister Webber but I´ve heard of her. Do you know what area she is in? Who else´s moms do you talk to? I have a water filter but don´t use it. I just drink the water from the bottles that we buy and only drink water from people that I know buy the bottles. Most people do. It´s much safer. I do drink some soda, but not a ton. A lot of people give it to us or I drink it if there isn´t water. My clothes are good. Several are getting pretty loose. The skirts are easy to adjust because I can just put a pin in them, but the shirts I can´t do anything about. So they are just baggy on me. But maybe I´ll try to find someone to hem them soon. But yeah I have everything I need! Thank you for sending a package! I can´t wait! And Christmas lights!? That will make it really feel like Christmas! Thank you! I get a ton of mail from everyone in the family which is great! Not much in the mail from friends, but they all email me which is great! Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you so much! See you in 2 weeks!!!!!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, December 4 – Week 15

Hey!!! How are you!? Sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving! Thanks for the pictures! I love getting pictures!! That´s so cool that you went to Texas Motor Speedway! That would be so fun! Are you preparing for Christmas now? Do you have the tree up and decorations? Have the chimes come out yet? Haha. Are you going to make sugar cookies and chocolate marshmallow rolls? We´ll need to figure out a time for skype soon. What is even the difference in time from here to there? I´m hoping skype will work out. Our branch president said we could use the computer in the church for more privacy, but we have to find someone with a webcam which might be difficult. I´ll do everything I can to make it happen though! We now have dinner plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas!! It´s rare here because people only celebrate Christmas Eve for some reason. But I´m glad we´ll have something to do. Thanks for telling me the new challenge! I´m reading Jesus the Christ right now which is so amazing! I don´t think I´ll be able to finish it in one month since it´s like 700 pages, but I´ll try! haha. I´m also studying the topic of faith in the Book of Mormon. Elder Bednar challenged missionaries to take a brand new book of mormon and pick a topic to study. It´s so cool. You can recognize so much more when you are focusing on one specific thing. People keep telling me that I should read the lectures on faith when I get home. Well this week was pretty good. So we are teaching this girl Lisbeth. She is progressing so fast. She already has a testimony and wants to be baptized. But of course there is a problem. She lives with this man Julio who is an inactive. Well they don´t have a great relationship. So she either has to get married to him, which she doesn´t want to do. Or be separated. This is the choice I´m pretty sure she will make. And if she does, that means she will move to Santiago to live with her family and we´ll have to pass her on to other missionaries. It makes me really sad, but her happiness is most important and I know she will be baptized wherever she is. I just wish I could be there. We had to move David´s date to the 14th because he didn´t come to church on Sunday. I really hope he comes this Sunday or we´ll have to move it again. But Ruben, Esther´s husband, received the Aaronic Priesthood this past Sunday!! It was great! And now he can baptized his daughter Rubi in February! She has the same birthday as me! He is so excited! I love that family. A couple days ago we had exchanges and I went to Santiago and another hermana came to Tamboril with my companion. Well they told me that Rubi was crying and crying that night because she thought I had left for good. Haha. So cute. We had an activity for our investigators on Friday. It was great. A lot of them came! We had a spiritual message and some games. It was a good way for them to meet some of the members and have friends. So we´ll get to watch the 1st Presidency message on Sunday in spanish of course. Haha. But I´m excited! We went to the zoo today!! It was not very cool, but it was only a dollar so makes sense. When you think about what animals are in this country, you can imagine that the selection of animals was not very large. There was literally a cage of cats and 5 cages of different dogs. Hahaha. So weird. So did anyone go see the Hunger Games yet??? Was it good?? What other movies are coming out for the holidays? Oh Mom have you posted on my Facebook yet about my address? (not that there is any rush. just because I think I said every 3 months? I can´t remember.) Well if you haven´t, could you put my email address too? Seems to be much easier for people. If you did already, don´t worry about it! Thanks so much for sending a package! You are so sweet! It will totally make my whole month (after getting to see you guys of course). Well I love you all sooooo much!!! I hope you´re having a wonderful holiday season. Talk to you next week!

Hermana Woolf