Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - Week 55

Hey! WEll............ I`m still in Villa Gonzalez........ Yep. I didn`t get transferred. I really thought I was going this time. But it`s okay. There must be more to do. I`m with my same companion again too. We`re going on 4 transfers together now. She finishes her mission next transfer. Soooo that means I`ll be here for at least 2 more transfers because when she leaves I`ll have to show the area to someone else. I was a little disappointed because I was ready to experience a new area, but God knows best. I`m gonna keep working hard. So this week has been really good. We`ve had a lot of fun making empandas and pizza as a district and we had an FHE this week with a member family. We watched a video of Jesus Christ and had popcorn and played games. It was really fun. We`ve also had a lot of spiritual experiences this week in our lessions. I don`t know if it`s just the people here, or all over the world, but the majority of the people, don`t keep their commitments. So when we find someone that actually will, we`re super happy. Well we contacted this lady a couple weeks ago. We invited her to pray and ask if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet (like we invite everyone to do, but no one ever does). Well she did it. We asked her to explain how she felt and she described the spirit perfectly. I love when people describe the spirit without knowing that it`s the spirit and then we can teach them about it. She said she felt weird, but good at the same time. Moments like that really strengthen my testimony because I can feel the Holy Ghost so strong through their experience. We`ve also met a lot of new people with potential. I`m going to try to contact old investigators this transfer to see if any of them are ready to accept the gospel now. We also had a very VERY weird lession the other day. We were trying to teach this girl about the plan of salvation and she started going off on weird topics like if we believe in aliens and Pres Obama is satanic, and that Haitians are happy when their loved ones die. It was really uncomfortable. No matter what we said to get back on topic and explain that these things aren`t important and that she shouldn`t believe everything she reads on the internet, she just kept going with stranger and stranger topics. Haha. It was hard not to laugh. It was pretty funny. Oh Elder Cornish from the Seventy is coming in a couple weeks to talk to us. He came when I was in the CCM. He`s super smart. I`m excited to learn from him. Wow Jamie is starting college!!! Good luck! I can`t believe it`s in the 20s already! Crazy! Sounds like you`re having a great time in Utah! It will be hard to go back home. That`s so cool you got to go to the Jordan River Temple Mom. That must have been an awesome experience. Well I love you all so much and am praying for you! Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf

 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014 - Week 54

Hey! Thanks for all the pics of Finn mom! He is just so cute. Wish I could be there with you all. Well it`s been a good week. We`ve had so many meetings. It`s been crazy. We had our training with Pres Douglas on Thursday which was super good. I learned a lot. After we finished, my comp needed to go to the doctor. So Pres and Hermana Douglas took us in their car. They were asking me how much time I had and I told them I had a year and they were shocked. Haha. Hermana Douglas thought I was still one of her new ones still. Time flys. But we got to the doctor and they were super difficult. The mission just got insurance cards for the missionaries, but they wouldn`t accept it. They had already made a contract with us though. Anyways, Brother and Sister Carroll had to come and pay it. But it was really late and they were about to close. We told them they would arrive in 5 min to pay but the doctor wouldn`t see my comp and left. So we had to go to another doctor. By the time we finished, it was 7:30 at night and the last bus to Villa Gonzalez had already left. Luckily there was another bus that passes close to Villa Gonzalez though so we just walked the rest of the way. It was a long day. Then Friday we had a sisters meeting and had training and played games. It was fun. We put a baptismal date with Eva and her daughters on Saturday for October 18 and they accepted. Hopefully it works out so my companion can have a few baptisms the week before she finishes the mission. So there`s a family in the branch that isn`t super strong that we visit every week. They come to church but almost always arrive like an hour late. So this week I bought the 2 daughters (11 and 14) One Direction notebooks, which they LOVE. And i told them i had a gift for them if they arrived at church before the sacrament was passed, but didn`t tell them what it was. They were dying of curiosity but i wouldn`t tell them. We got to church on Sunday and they were already there. They had gotten there before everyone. Including the branch president who always gets there like 30 min early. Hahahaha. It was awesome. I gave them their notebooks and they screamed and hugged me and went and showed the whole world. Haha. It was cute. Mariano came to church again this week. This time he brought the whole entire family though! We`ve been working with his wife, who isn`t a member. She has a lot of knowledge of the gospel already, but said she couldn`t go to church for some reason. But she came and their 4 kids as well. It was so great. So last night we had quite an interesting lession. We`ve been teaching a family for a long time now, Nefeti and Jesus and their kids. Well Nefeti is very receptive and her son too, but Jesus not so much. He wants answers to everything in the Bible and sometimes there just isn`t a scripture to share. Yesterday Nefeti asked us if they had to get married first to get baptized. We told them yes because of the law of chastity, etc. Well Jesus was not happy. He said that it didn`t make any sense because it would just be to please men and the law but they made covenants with each other and are a true married couple. We tried to explain that we believe in obeying the law of our countries, but he didn`t want to hear it. It was a difficult situation. He doesn`t believe in modern revelation so we couldn´t teach him about the temple sealing. I didn`t know what to say to help him understand. It was hard. But I think he just wants to believe he doesn`t need to be married by the law because he doesn`t have the money to divorce his first wife and marry Nefeti. But hopefully we can explain it better next week. Today we played baseball again. Well... the baseball players played. The sisters sat and watched. Haha. It was fun though. Tonight we`re have a small activity and watching a church movie and Nene is bringing empenadas. I`m excited! So yeah I think I`ll be transfered next week. I`m never sure though. This time I`m not telling anyone I`m leaving. Haha. But it makes sense for me to leave. If not, I`ll be here for a lot longer. But we`ll see what happens. So yeah I`m glad you guys wanna come at the end of my mission! It will be fun. It would be good to stay a few days. I don`t want to stay super long cuz it will be weird being a missionary still but not going to teach. Not many missionaries have their parents come. I`ve only heard of 2 or 3 so far. But it will be fun. Sounds like you`re all having a great time in Utah! So much family lives there. It`s great to get together. Hope you`re all doing great. I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf

Thursday, August 28, 2014 - Week 53

Hey! First of all... Congratulations Melissa and Ryan on your adorable new baby Finn! Can´t wait to meet him! And Happy Birthday Mom!! Hope it was a wonderful day! So... as you know, I didn´t write yesterday... Well it was because I was in Tamboril!! Pres Douglas gave my comp and I permission to go since we´re together and my comp will be finishing her mission next transfer. We went to visit Ruben and the kids, but Esther was working... but we got a call later on in the day that she came home early so we went back to visit her. They are doing great! Rwel is talking now! We asked if they were preparing to go to the temple to be sealed in November, and they are. A few months ago I sent them a poster with the Santo Domingo temple and wrote the date Novevmber 9 on it, since that is exactly a year after the baptism of Esther. Well I didn´t check the date or anything to know what day it fell on. It was so cute. Ruben and Esther were so concerned. They were like.. We don´t know what to do. Nov 9 falls on a Sunday! Haha. We told them to talk to the branch president and see if they can go a day earlier on the 8th. Ruben is already saving up all the money to go and everything. I can´t wait to see them sealed!! It will be such a special day. After that we went and visited a family in the ward The Morels. They are the ones that always fed us on Sundays. And of course they fed us yesterday too. :) Then we visited the Nunez family and after that the Rodriguez family. Abish still remembered me! They are all doing great! It was so good to go back and see people. I wish I had more time. But I was thinking.. I don´t know how you guys feel about it, but I´m thinking it would be fun if Mom and Dad came to get me at the end of the mission and I could show you around and be your translator. :) Haha. But.. we wouldn´t be able to go the beach or anything because I´ll still be a missionary. But once I get home I´ll start school and then have to work so it would be difficult to come back. I don´t know. It´s just an idea. Let me know what you think. But other than yesterday, it was a good week. We met a new guy named Daniel and he´s so awesome. His family lives in the US and he´s trying to get there too, but it will take a while. Anyways… we´re teaching him again today so we´ll see how it goes. On Friday we had the activity with Emily and Johan. We watched the Restoration with them and a few members. When we visited them on Monday to ask how it was, they said they didn´t have a single doubt about it anymore!! It was awesome! Emily is still nervous to be baptized, but in our next visit we´re going to set a date with their help so they can feel prepared with enough time. I think they´ll be baptized soon though. Saturday was the big branch activity! But…of course there was rain. When there is rain in this country, no one leaves their house. Not even to go to church. It´s really sad. But we still planned on having the activity with anyone that came. We had about 35 people. It was fun. We gave the certificates to the 2 sisters that earned them and played some games and everyone brought food to share. On Sunday, Emily and Johan came to church and Mariano the inactive we´ve been teaching. And his son who is also a member just moved back home to live with his dad so he came too. Eva and her family couldn´t come on Sunday because Chantel had the chickengunya and was in the hospital. But we visited them on Monday and she´s doing better. We talked about baptism with them. They had a lot of questions. We will put a baptismal date on Saturday. I finally got my notebook from Tamboril this week. It´s been going around to the people to write. But there are a few that haven´t written yet. But I have to get it going in Villa Gonzalez because I think I´ll be leaving in 2 weeks and my comp will only be here for 1 more transfer. But I asked the people that haven´t written to send me something to stick in it. Hopefully they do. Or I´ll have to send it back to Tamboril again. But that´s about it. I have to go because we have a training with Pres Douglas in an hour in Santiago. But I love you all!! Welcome to the fam Finn!

Hermana Woolf

 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014 - Week 52

Hey fam! How is everyone?? Wow I`ve been anxious all week to know if the baby had come, but this week for sure! And to hear about ANOTHER baby coming in the family! Congrats Scott and Maureah! And Laura engaged too! Wow so much exciting news! I wish I had something as exciting to share. Haha. It`s been a good week. Eva and her daughters Thamar and Chantel are still progressing very quickly. They all came to church on Sunday. The husband Martin still hasn`t been able to come for his work. He does the music for parties so the weekends are crazy. But we`re hoping one day he`ll be able to come. We were waiting a little to find out if he would progress as quickly as Eva but it doesn`t seem like it. So we`re just going to put a baptismal date and see what happens in the following weeks. A guy in the branch got home from his mission this week. 1 more priesthood holder in the branch! Yay! But our mission leader Nene just sent his papers in so we`ll be losing one too. :( We had a few great lessons this week. One with a lady in the ward about the Spirit. She`s super awesome and comes to church every week, but she had a baby out of wedlock recently and there hasn`t been any disciplinary action yet. She opened up to us completely and is scared to do everything necessary to be excommunicated, but we told her it was better to start the year now and not later. She really has a desire to change. She had an interview yesterday with the branch president. We also had a lesson with a lady and her husband about marriage. It`s hard to teach about something you know nothing about, but thanks to mom and dad I`ve had a great example so I could give some advice. We found out that they never say I love you to each other. Literally never. Her husband says he doesn`t like to say it. Like it doesn`t flow out in the right moment or something. lol. But we encouraged them to try to start doing it to have a better relationship. Really any marriage would have problems if no one showed affection. We also met a new guy this week named Alexis. He`s the cousin of Nene (mission leader). He`s super awesome and really interested. He was in a motorcycle accident over a year ago and couldn`t walk for 7 months. He still can`t walk barely at all. But he has the perfect attitude. He could say that God did that to him, but he thinks of it as God gave him a second chance and now he wants to serve him. But the only problem is that he has no way to get to church. He can`t go in motorcycle or bus. He would have to have someone come and get him in a car. Well... we have one single person in the church with a car... our branch president. But it`s a huge truck that`s used to haul stuff so to get in it would be super difficult. I don`t know what to do. But hopefully we think of something. He has a lot of potential. So we had quite an experience the other day. We were walking to an appointment and on the side of the road we found 10 brand new puppies abandoned!! It was so sad. We went and bought them milk, but we couldn`t just leave them there!! They were shivering and were so new they couldn`t even see yet. So we put them all in a box and found someone to take them to a vet. One nice woman that passed by, took one though. :) I hope they all find families! Well we planned the activity with Emily and Johan again for this Friday to watch the Restoration. And Saturday we have our big missionary activity! Sadly only 2 members will be getting certificates, but a lot of people participated. They just didn`t complete all the requirements. But it will be fun! Everyone is bringing a plate of their favorite food and we`ll have dominoes and volleyball. I`m excited. Hopefully lots of nonmembers come too! Well that`s about it. So excited to hear about my new nephew next week! And see pictures!! ;) I love you all!

Hermana Woolf

Wednesday, August 13 - Week 51

Hey everyone! How was your week? I can`t wait to hear about and see pics of my new nephew! I hope he comes this week! Congratulations Christina on finishing your half marathon! What an accomplishment! That`s so crazy that Jamie is almost off to college! Time really flies. It`s been a pretty good week here. I am seriously dying of the heat, but we`re half way through August now. Well we`ve had to let go of a few people this week. It`s hard when you love someone and want them to progress, but they just don`t. But God has his time for everyone. Maybe they will have more of a desire later on. Our RS president went out with us this week to have a few visits with inactives that we`re teaching. Mariano and his family, and Maria and Santo and their family. We had really good lessions with both families and have a lot of hope for them. Both families have attended church since I got here. Mariano came on Sunday with his kids. We`re still working with his wife, she isn`t a member. Eva is still progressing very quickly. She couldn`t come to church on Sunday because she had a guy working on her bathroom and she had to stay in the house while he was there. But her daughters came! They really love the church! Melina also came! She has changed completely. I`ve been teaching her my whole time here and she`s always had a desire to come back, but wanted to come back with her husband. He has less of a desire though. So she recently decided that no one would take away her blessings and wants to come every Sunday. Hopefully her husband will start to come soon. We`ve also been working with a less active lady Estela. Her son has been on a mission in Mexico and gets back this week! So we`ve been trying to help her come back before he gets here. It will really help her to have him in the house again and motivate her to do the right things. On Monday we planned an activity for Emily and Johan to watch the Restoration video and invited several members that are friends with them, but I don`t know what happened. They didn`t show up. We called, they didn`t answer. We passed by their house, they weren`t there. So we`re going to have to plan it again. We`re going to visit them tonight to see what happened. But we watched another church movie with everyone that came and had popcorn. It was fun. Yesterday we found a great new family! I love finding families. They seemed really interested. We`re planning another activity with Ivelice for next week. We`re inviting lots of members and we`re going to eat and have an FHE with her and her daughter. She told us yesterday that she has plans to give up selling lottery numbers the beginning of next month (because she`s already paid for the month). Then she`ll finally be able to come to church again!! She seriously knows so much and is progressing a lot. She just needs to go to church. Anyways, that`s about all that`s happened this week. Mom, so glad to hear you`re getting better. Hope the headaches go away soon. (I asked Stephanie about the money they receive for living expenses)…So with our money, we receive 3800 pesos (about $90) every 15 days. We use it for food, transportation, other things we need. It seems like so much but we all just barely make it to the next apoyo. Haha. I`m using the last of my money to write you guys. Apoyo comes tomorrow. :) We don`t pay for rent, but we share our water with our neighbors so we pay for that every other month, but we get reimbursements of course. Well I love you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Woolf