Just a little "fanfire"

Things are going well down here….except our baptism fell through AGAIN! We were all ready to baptize a family on Sunday, but the father got drunk the night before and the mom is having word of wisdom problems too. Satan really is working against us down here. This mission is already passing by too fast! I know I already said this, but the decision to serve a mission was hands-down the BEST decision of my life! I think I will cry for days when they tell me I have to go home in 15 months. I love almost everything about Brazil. I´m used to the weather for the most part and the food is bom de mais! ( that means WAY TOO GOOD!!!) Today I was thinking that missionaries have to have some of the best stories because so many random things happen on a mission. Today at lunch a fan almost caught fire. It threw sparks everywhere and was smoking BAD. The entire house was filled with smoke and it took a while for us to fan it all out. It was mildly funny. I have so many stories that ARE actually funny to tell you, but a lot of them will have to wait until after the mission and I think they probably won~t ever be posted on a blog. All I can say is that we have a lot of fun down here and nothing surprises me anymore! This morning I read Elder Wirthlins talk from conference last year—Come What May and Love it! I love that talk so much….mostly because the page in the Ensign has a chubby little boy smiling ..but he´s missing his two front teeth. So cute. That talk really does have a lot of great counsel though and helped me a lot today to just grin and bear things. Anyway…life is great. I am so happy to be blessed with such a wonderful family and perfect life!

It has been a great week!

Ola !How are you all doing?! I~m doing well. This last week was much better, in fact it was GREAT! I~m finally adjusting to the life of a missionary and really do love it! It is a lot easy to love life when you aren~t thinking about yourself. So this past week I stopped thinking about my pains and afflictions and focused on the work. It was awesome! I~m still exhausted every night and fall asleep before I hit the pillow, but the walking doesn~t bother me that much anymore. And I won~t ever get used to the sun so I just learning to deal with it! The hottest months here are October through January so I should be a little bit more comfortable after that! A 70 yr old investigator of ours said this was the hottest December she had seen in years and years. Nice. Things are going great though. I really love Sousa and absolutely adore the people here. We~ve made so many friends just by saying Bom Dia to every person we pass on the streets. The work is going okay. There are a lot of Catholics here who are very VERY into their religion so that makes things discouraging at times….but don~t worry all we do is allow people the opportunity to accept. In the CTM they told us a mission is primarily to convert the missionary and secondly to convert the people. I have to say I am more converted now than ever…which makes it hard when people reject the gospel. The other night we were teaching our last lesson of the day and I was teaching about the Book of Mormon. We asked the woman if she would read 2 chapters and pray about them, she took one look at it and said, `nope. sorry i~m catholic´. I couldn~t help but tear up. I held this precious book in my hands that has blessed my life more than any other book and people don~t even want to do something as simple as pray about it. It hurts, but my companion says I~ll get used to it. I love being a missionary though. It is turning out to be the greatest blessing of my life. The Lord has blessed me with so many tender mercies this week. He really does love and watch over His missionaries! This next Sunday I have to give a talk in church. 10-15 minutes of straight Portuguese!!!!! Ahh I hope I can do it! Pray that it will go well! My present to myself is to teach 6 lessons (which is a lot for here) and then eat Acai with my district. It should be great! So today is Pday and I have to tell you I just had one of the best meals of my life! The branch president here invited all 8 of us missionaries over for almoço and he made churrasco! Imagine the food at tucanos restaurant, but a million times better. All the missionaries were just in heaven. I seriously thought I was going to die from happiness…seriously…one of the best meals of my life. After we had all the beef and sausage we could eat, we ate tons of ice cream. It was just the best lunch ever! The members here are just the best. They feed us lunch everyday and always make themselves available to go with us to teach investigators. What a blessing! I~m getting used to the poverty here, but things still shock me from time to time. This past week we were walking through a neighborhood and had to watch our step because half of the road was straight sewage. It is going to be interesting when the rainy season arrives and all the roads are 1-3 feet deep in water. People still stop and stare at me when I pass, but I~m so used to it now that it doesn~t even phase me. I~ve learned to ignore the town drunks too. They only bother you if you acknowledge they exist. I don~t ever feel like I~m in danger though....Sousa is a very friendly place. I actually do have Pday next Monday so please tell everyone to write! love, sister wood.

So I just wrote a long email and the computer messed up and didnt send it so this one will be shorter. Next week is my last Pday before Christmas because Pday is on Christmas day the next week after that. For Christmas you will have to call a chapel here in Sousa. Preferably in the afternoon or evening. In the morning we are busy with members and studying. Things are going ok in Sousa. These past two weeks have been the hardest weeks on my life..hands down. I~ve lost count of how many times I~ve cried, but I think the worst is over for now. It is just hard to remained composed when your feet and knees are killing you, you have horrible sunburns despite the fact you use sunscreen, and the people never keep commitments. They people are so nice here, but never read or pray about the things we teach. It is frustrating. BUT things are looking up. The last two days I~ve been slowly returning to my joyful, energetic, cheerful self. Yesterday was interesting. Fast sundays in branches are probably always interesting. There aren~t very many people to bear testimonies so of course almost everyone went up. I bore my testimony in broken portuguese, but it was good. Several people told me afterwards that they only bore their testimonies because of mine. That was nice to hear. The members here are great. Everyday we eat lunch with a different member and it is always delicious! We eat some interesting things at times, but i like trying new foods now. Sousa is definitely a different place....way different than anything I am used to. It is now normal for me to see naked children running in the streets and playing in piles of trash....we see this several times a day. Animals roam the streets....they are honestly everywhere! Horses, donkeys, cows, chickens, and this last week we were walking along and out of nowhere this big pig busts starts walking across the main street in town. It was adorable though because about 7-8 little piglets were following right behind her. The sunsets here in Sousa are indescribable....seriously beautiful in everyway! Also the moon is amazing here at night.. It is so close. at times you think you could almost reach out and touch it. The other night we were in a super poor neighborhood underneath the full moon watching the neighborhood kids do capoiera...a brazilian fighting/dancing type of thing. They were so good!!!!! A guy from town teaches them everyweek and he was AMAZING. It was just a lot of fun because they made us introduce ourselves and then we all started clapping and chanting to the beat of the music. It was just a great experience!Ok well I have to go. I hope you are all doing well. Love you all,sister wood some scriptures that have helped me out a lot! Moses 6:31-34 Romans 8:35-39 Job 23:8-12

New area: Sousa

Goodness gracious a mission is hard! This past week was good, but extremely EXTREMELY hard. I´ve never been this tired in my entire life. My first week at the CTM I thought I knew what the words `hard´ and `tired´ meant.....well i didn~t. We walk all day every day in full sun and ´get absolutely drenched in sweat. I don´t know how many miles we walk, but it is definitely A LOT. At night I fall asleep before I hit the pillow. I don~t really mind the heat too much though...I´m quickly getting back the tan I lost in the CTM. Don~t worry though...I wear sunscreen everyday...mission rule, but even with that I get darker. My feet are trying to adjust to the mission and they are taking their sweet time. I have been wearing my chacos and thank goodness I brought them. They are the best! However, I still have blisters and every night my feet are so swollen I can barely remove my shoes. Today I put on a different pair of shoes that were a little big at one time and had to squeeze into them because my feet are so huge and puffy from walking. The sisters here assured me that the pain and suffering will eventually pass, but that my first transfer will be difficult. One of the Sisters was nice enough to massage my poor feet a couple times this past week. What an angel! The people here in Sousa are very nice. Every person we have talked to is willing to hear our message...but at the same time everyone here is EXTREMELY wishywashy. People say they will do something and then don~t....it is the same story over and over and over again. THe poverty I~ve witnessed while here is Sousa is absolutely incredible. I about burst into tears several times this past week just seeing the things people go through...but don~t worry I~m getting better at holdly back the tears. Some of the children here look like they are about to die of starvation...they are just so extremely skinny and have the swollen belly that is a dead give-away for severe malnutrition. Some places have no doors and the roofs are very crude. However, in the actual city of sousa people get along ok. Yes they are still very poor, but they have running water, doors, and usually a metal gate in front of their house. I´m pretty sure I won~t see carpet until the United States...or feel AC again. THe members here are nice. We are in a branch of about 60 members and it is located in an old building that looks like it could fall apart any minute. A new chapel is being built and it will be completed next August. The members fix us lunch everyday and usually it is delicious....rice, beans, and chicken! There was one lunch this past week that scared me a little. I have no idea what I was eating and didnt dare ask. All I know is that the first bite tasted like vomit BUT I said a quick prayer again over my food and after that I enjoyed it immensely. THe Lord can definitely bless us in all things! The food here is pretty darn good, definitely different but very good. When we have had a hard day we go and get Acai sorvette, which iS AMAZING!!!! Oh goodness...words can~t described how good it is. It is kind of like a mix between sorbet and icecream and is made out of the acai fruit. They put it in a bowl and cover it in granola, bananas, and sweetened condensed milk. DELICIOUS! When you come down you have to try it! I~ve tried a lot of fruit juice down here that is really different, but good! If you havent sent off my package yet be sure to include some american candy! Load up my ipod with lots of church, christmas, and classical music. One girl down here has one and it is amazing how just listening to music for a few minutes can lift your spirit and somehow make everything all better. Well I just miss guys so much! I have to admit I cried a lot this past week, but how can we know the good without the bitter huh:??! KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS!!love you,sister wood

Joao Pessoa-Here I come!

So they are letting me email today! Yay! I~m in my first real area, Sousa which is about 8-9 hours west of Joao Pessoa. I arrived in Joao Pessoa yesterday at about 1pm with about 6 others elders--4 brazilians, 2 americans who were in my district. Joao Pessoa is BEAUTIFUL! The pictures definitely don~t do it justice. I felt like I landed in a tropical paradise! After landing we went to the mission home where we had meetings until about 6:00. Then we had a wonderful dinner at the Presidents house where I met my first companion, SIster Young. Yes she is american. She has about 3 months left in the mission field and speaks amazing portuguese. I just hope she has patience with me! We spent last night in the mission home and then jumped on a bus at 9am this morning headed for Sousa. Sousa is in the middle of a desert and from what I´ve heard one of the hottest places in the mission. I guess I will find out tomorrow! I thought I new what poverty was when I drove through Sao Paulo, but this place is POOR. Many of the houses are about the size of our dining room, and some are just made out of sticks stuck in the ground and covered with black tarp or pieces of sheet metal. And I´ve never seen so many farm animals loose in my life. There are random horses, cows, goats, and chickens that just aimlessly walk the streets. It definitely is a different world down here. I´m very excited though and in good spirits....but please pray for me A LOT this next week because I know it is going to be tough getting adjusted to everything. My companion and I are opening a new area I guess and the church isn~t way big here, but it will be! We live in a nice apartment with two other sisters who are extremely nice! The only sad thing I have to report is that it sounds like Christmas will be late this year for me. The mail is slowwwwww down here and because the postal system is almost constantly going on strike all letters and packages are sent to the mission home in Joao Pessoa. (so my mission home address is my permanent address for my entire mission) I think we only get our mail every transfer...so every 6 weeks I guess. My companion has been waiting for a package for a month and a half! Ill be ok though...át least I get to call you on Christmas!!! Here we have full sun. Luckily at night the temperature goes down quite a bit and there is a light breeze...It is probably only 85 degrees outside right now...very nice compared to midday. My last week at the CTM was awesome! I was asked to give the closing prayer in the fireside on sunday and was worried because it is always a member of the area seventy or a mission president who speaks. Anyway I probably shouldn´t have worried about giving a prayer, but I was...During the fireside I tried to plan out what I was going to say, but then just decided to ask the Lord to bless me and pay more attention to the speaker. When the time arrived for me to say the prayer...I calmly walked up to the stage and the prayer. As soon as I closed the speaker and his wife along with the CTM president and his wife all jumped up to congratulate me. They kept saying, ýou are ready! you are ready. They said my accent was perfect and I was overjoyed, but the praise didn~t end there. As I went back to my seat to collect my things people kept coming up to me and complimenting me on my prayer. Several people said they opened their eyes during the prayer to see if I was really the one speaking...because I guess I sounded like a native brazilian. The elders in my district said as I walked off the stage the head of every brazilian elder popped up...they were all amazed i guess! ha ha.. Anyway, over the next 2 days, no less than 20-25 people came up to me and complimented me. Now I say this not to brag, because I really dont speak portuguese than well, but to show you that the Lord does bless his missionaries with the ability to speak this language! See what is possible with the Lord~s help???!!! Well I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Obviously they don~t have it down here, but it was never one of my favorite holidays...so I dont think I´ll miss it. Like I said I´m doing great. It is wonderful to FINALLY be in MY MISSION! It is awesome to know that I was called to teach these people for a reason. They all seem so happy despite their poverty. The Lord really does bless all his children with what they need to be happy in this life. ~Well I hope you are all in good health and doing great. Sorry that letters will be few and far between. At least emails will be weekly! Give everyone my love and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can~t wait to get your email next monday!!!

Last time in CTM

Photo from Luciana Fonseca Fiallo....(right of Ariel)

Sister Wood & Her District

November 18

This past week was good for the most part. We~ve progressed a lot in the language and I feel confident about leaving the CTM next Tuesday. Proselyting in Sao Paulo was an adventure. They dropped us off next to a Catholic Cathedral in the downtown area. Since it is next to a church you would think the area would be great for proselyting....not hardly. The street and plaza were full of illegal venders. Everytime a policeman drove through, everyone packed up their things and hid/ran. It was the most amazing thing to see about 50 illegal venders all of a sudden pack up in 5 seconds and then as soon as the police left the set up shop again. Compared to our proseltying in Casa Verde, Sao Paulo was SOOOOOO HARD. Wow...I~m crying just thinking about it right now. Hardly anyone would listen to our message and those that did only talked to us because we were blonde americans. I think I got more cat calls and vile looks than I~ve ever gotten in my life. I felt more like a piece of meat than a missionary. After 2 hours of getting cat-called, Sister Gricius and I just had a good cry once we returned to the CTM. It is so frustrating when you have a message that you know with all your heart is true and you know it will change a person~s life for the better, yet no one will give you the time of day. The mission will be full of days like that though. I will have my highest highs and lowest lows while on the mission....and I~m looking forward to them both. I~ve grown so much in these past 2 months and I know the next 16 are going to be just as influencial! I love the mission. I can~t believe there was a time in my life that I thought about NOT going on a mission. What a mistake that would have been. Well. My next email will be from Joao Pessoa...and I think my pday will be on Monday once I get there.

Well I~m out of time. Thanks for all the cards in emails. I live for them.
Got to go. Love you all!!!

love,

sister wood

p.s. we did have a blackout here in sao paulo, but the CTM has a generator so we didn~t have light for about 3 seconds...the rest of sao paulo though was completely dark that night!

"Dancing in the Rain"

OLA! Another great week...and once again almost zero time to write.....this is going to be super fast! The CTM is still going great. We are down to about 130 missionaries here which is sOOOO different from when I arrived (400 missionaries). THere are 168 missionaries stuck in the Provo MTC waiting to come to Brazil. There are MAJOR visa problems going on and the president~s wife said many of them will be reassigned to state side missions. SO SAD. Anyway I am very blessed because the VISA problems started happening about 1 1/2 weeks after I left the U.S.! They are only expecting to get 1 american missionary before the end of the year! Crazy!

So since I leave to Joao Pessoa in less than 2 weeks I would probably start sending mail to my Joao Pessoa address! I~ve gotten two letters this week from missionaries serving in Joao Pessoa and they told me a lot about what I am to expect....HOT WEATHER, LOTS OF BUGS, and VERY VERY POOR PEOPLE. THis is really going to be interesting, but I am so excited!!!!

Today we went to the temple again and it was wonderful! I forgot to tell you mom that the temple is surrounded by gardenias...the smell is possibly the best smell in the world...and everytime I walk by one I think of you!!!!

THis Friday we are going proselyting in Downtown Sao Paulo and I am so excited. It is going to be quite an experience so look for to my email next week for the details!

I have brazilian roommates and they are the best! We speak Portuguese with them everytime we are in the room and it is really helping our pronounciation.

I~ve officially become the pianist my branch....and I~ve been playing for musical numbers! All those years of piano lessons are finally paying off!!!

THe poverty in Brazil never ceases to amaze me. Today I saw houses that roaches shouldn~t even live in. And then when we were driving on the highway we passed a boy sleeping on a piece of cardboard in a trash heap. So sad. I~m sure I~ll see worse in Joao Pessoa because everyone tells me Sao Paulo is the richest city in Brazil.

This past week has been pretty much nothing but straight studying. I wake up an hour earlier everyday just so I can fit all my studying in for the day. The amount of information we have to know is overwhelming!!! I~m exhausted everyday, but in a wonderful way. I love being a missionary though....I~ve never been happier or closer to my Savior. When I~m not studying, I~m eating, sleeping, or playing volleyball! We have an hour for gym and I~ve been playing volleyball since I got here. I~m still not very good, but definitely improving. I play with my district and a group of brazilians. SO much fun. My district is honestly my family and I can~t wait to hang out with all of them when I get back! They bring me so much joy and I~m going to be sad when I say goodbye to them in a couple weeks!

Since I~ve been here I~ve made friends with all the branch presidents and CTM presidency. This last Sunday so many of them gave me such wonderful advice about the mission and I just have to say I love elderly missionary couples! They are the best. One branch president told me a quote I really liked and that I think fits me:

Life isn~t about waiting for the storms to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain.

Time is up! Yikes! I love you all and miss you!!!

love,

sister wood

"Getting my feet wet"

Another great week, but this email is going to be short... they give us so little time. I have LESS than 3 weeks until I leave this place and am getting nervous/excited.

One exciting thing about this last week is that we went proselying! Scary!! Actually it turned out to be an awesome experience. They let my district loose on the streets of casa verde with 4 Books of Mormon a piece. SIster Gricuis and I met so many cool people. Some were interested, some weren~t....it was just nice to get to know people. Our portuguese was pretty darn good and people kept complimenting us on our languages skills! SInce I~m an outgoing person I made sure as soon as we were done talking to one person, we immediately started talking to another. We talked to old ladies, old men, young men, mothers, fathers, children, teenagers....everyone! The best experience of the day is when we were walking up a hill and I saw a woman with her two children coming down. I was a little nervous to talk to her, but I quickly gained the confidence I needed. I stopped her and talked to her about her family for a few minutes and then talked to her about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. She was so attentive and had the cutest little girls---ages 3 and 8. During the message I looked down at them and there they were staring up at me with their cute little faces just waiting to see what I would say next. Towards the end of the message I started talking about the love of God for us. I looked into their eyes and all of a sudden felt a rush of warmth overcome me...and I realized how much God really does love his children...all of them. When I realized this I started to tear up and the lady did too. Through my tears I bore my simple testimony..it went something like this: I love you. I don~t know you very well, but I love you..because you are a child of God and he loves you so much. I know I don~t speak Portuguese well, but I just want you to know we have a God in heaven who loves us. Because of that love he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is so very precious to me. It has blessed my life and the life of my family so much, and I know it will bless yours.

Well after I had us both in tears, she gladly took the Book of Mormon and told me she was going to read it with her family that evening. Before they left we showed the daughters the pictures of Christ in the front of the book. They were so excited. It is so easy to see why God loves the little children...they are so innocent and uncorrupted. Anyway it was a wonderful day. We gave away a total of 5 Books of Mormon ( i had an extra one) and 2 DVDs---finding Faith in Christ and The Restoration. I can~t wait to get out and proselyte again. A week from Friday we are going to Downtown Sao Paulo to do it!! yIKES!!!

Well I wish I could write more...but I~m out of time. I~m doing great...in good health, love this glorious work!!! Eu amo voces!!!

Ate proxima semana!
Sister Wood

A happy missionary!

Another great week at the CTM! I love it here and am sad that I~ll be leaving this place in 4 weeks! SCARY...not really. I~m excited to hit the streets of Joao Pessoa and preach the gospel. I loved the gospel before the mission, but since I~ve been in the CTM I~ve come to think of it as a precious gem that is sacred and brings so much meaning to my life. Without it I would be lost....but luckily I know about what God and Jesus Christ did for me. I know exactly why I am here on earth and where I am going after I die. What peace that brings to my soul!

Elder Scott came last Friday Elder Jensen came last Friday to speak to all the missionaries and I got to shake his hand....ok ok...all the missionaries got to shake his hand, but I still feel special. He taught us some hard lessons and after it was over I felt like I needed to change A LOT in my life. It was amazing though.

So Mom I forgot to tell you something! You know those two jumpers you made for me??!! Well you~ll never guess, but all the sisters here adore them! Everytime I wear them I get SOOOOO many compliments and people tell me I am so lucky I have a mother who sews for me and they are right! Also another thing that will make you happy....I~ve been playing the piano in sacrament meeting and next week I~m going to be playing prelude music for the devotional with a member of the seventy....pray that I don~t faint from fear!

You will both be happy to know I am still your sunshine. Every day we go around our district and gives compliment to someone. Every time I~ve been complimented it is always something like: you are so happy, you love life, I think it is impossible for you to frown, etc. Ha ha....I~m trying to stay as happy as possible and it is easy since I study the gospel and portuguese everyday.

Today we went to the temple again, but today was a little different. On my way into the session, I grabbed a pair of headphones so I could listen to the session in portuguese. When I walked in with them I could just see all the missionaries kicking themselves for not thinking of doing that before. After the session, which was AMAZING, I had so many missionaries come up to me and tell me that next week they were going to do the same thing. They were very thankful for the idea!

THis past weekend we had TRC (training resource center) where we had to teach members the first lesson. When we got to the door of the classroom where our members were, sister gricius said....I~ve heard that they sometimes put investigators in these. Well that made me so nervous, but I put a smile on my face and wished for the best. We went in and taught the first lesson and it went so great! After we taught the lesson we had to get feedback from a teacher and he said we did fantastic...but everyone has to do it two times...so the second time we went in to teach the same lesson and then one of the investigators asked about the plan of salvation...I looked at sister gricius and then at the investigator and went straight into the second lesson. It was amazing. 30 minutes of straight portuguese...with few mistakes. Our instructor was over the moon! TOday we are going to pass out a book of Mormon hopefully!


30 seconds....gotta go. thanks for the emails. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

I'm [glad] they called me on a mission!

E ai Belezas?!!!! (that means; whats up beautifuls?)

Another great week in Sao Paulo!!!! This last week we had a record number of strange food choices. I don~t even know what half of them were, but most of them were good. We ate some orange stuff today at lunch that one person thought was carrots, another thought was squash, and my companion was positive they were plantains. I thought they were potatoes with cheese....but who knows what they were....it will always be a mystery. Last weekend I was so excited to see they had popsicles for our dessert. When I sat down I realized they were corn flavored popsicles. the variety of food down here is endless. Luckily the corn popsicle was fabulous and I wish we had them in the U.S.!

So guess who is coming to the CTM on Friday??!!! ELDER SCOTT and a member of the presidency of the 70....I forgot who. Anyway, an apostle only comes once a year and I feel so privileged to be here when he comes! Better yet, Friday is also Sister Gricius's birthday!!! I~m so glad she is going to shake hands with an apostle on her special day. I'll tell you all about it next week!!So tomorrow it will be officially one month since I left the U.S.A! Crazy how time flies! I have a month left from this Saturday....which excites and scares me. Thanks for all the letters and support. I LOVE getting letters and every letter I get I cherish...so thanks for sending them regularly. I~m trying to answer back as quickly as possible...so be patient with me!!!So mom you~ll be happy to know I joined the CTM choir....I actually joined it about 2 weeks ago and it is way fun! It really helps out with the portuguese pronounciation!

This last week has been so much fun mostly due to the fact I have made friends with a Brazilian sister from Fortaleza who is a SPITFIRE! Oh my goodness we have so much fun together. Don~t worry, we aren't irreverant or break rules, but we definitely have the loudest table at all the meals. She will try to joke with me in english and I joke with her in portuguese. As a result the languages are coming a long great for both of us. I absolutely love portuguese. last night I talked with this sister for a good 20 minutes without messing up too much.

Since I'm away from my family for 18 months, my district has become my family...and boy do I love them! We have the BEST district in the CTM and I~m not just saying that. Several people (missionaries and teachers) have told us that it is true. So this past Monday our district was teaching the 1st lesson in portuguese and one elder (Elder Omer) quoted the first vision. One part says: pairando no ar....which means above me in the air. Elder Omer accidentally said parirando no ar...which means freaking out in the air....then another person said ´parirando no ar....which means to give birth in the air...which is bad enough by itself, but considering the next words are: behold this is my beloved son...it could be taken wrong. Every day something like that happens and we get quite an ab workout laughing until we cry. My district is great though...we all help each other out with the language and work as a team on everything...its awesome.So I set a CTM record for the most flashcards any teacher has EVER seen. I have about 1800 flashcards and hope to have 2500 by the time I leave the CTM. I carry them around everywhere and constantly am studying them. They~ve really helped out quite a lot!!

My first week here I was given this quote that I thought you might enjoy: Many young women are serving missions. Many are preparing to serve. Not because they aren't married or have nothing else to do; but because they have a desire to serve and therefore are being called to the work. The reason so many are going is because in the next generation, Heavenly Father will be sending His Priesthood Army to earth and wants to send them to mothers who have been properly trained and taught in the gospel. What better training can a young woman have than that of serving a mission.~~Pres. Hinkley. Cool quote huh?!! This mission is definitely shaping me into a better woman and person!

Oh and just a suggestion. If you are out of ideas for what to do on monday nights for FHE....maybe you guys should start doing the Preach My Gospel lessons! They are simple, yet awesome!!!

K, my time is up. I love you guys so much and miss you, but I am so happy I'm hear. Last night at the devotional the member of the 70 who was speaking had us all sing: i hope they call me on a mission. I remember when I used to sing that in primary and can't believe I'm here. What a dream come true. The Lord truly answers prayers, the gospel is true. Have a wonderful week and keep the letters coming!!!

Love y'all,

Sister wood

This weeks email is going to be SUPER short because I have only 20 minutes today. Sometimes I think P-day the busiest day of the week! This morning we went to Policia Federal to get IDed and fingerprinted. It was quite an experience. While I was waiting I talked to a guy from Costa Rica. Unfortuntely my number was called before I could tell him anything about the gospel. Life as a missionary continues to go well. I can~t believe I~ve already been here 3 weeks. People say time flies when you are having fun, but I disagree....time just flies all the time. I~ve never worked this hard in my life and can already tell what a difference it is making in my life. This past monday I taught my first solo lesson in Portuguese. It was stressful, but as soon as I started talking the words just flowed. It is amazing how quickly the language comes. With the Lords help all things are possible! When I finished the lesson my teacher told me I did a terrific job on it compared to most of the other missionaries! I was so relieved. I~ve been feeling under the weather for the past week and I think it is due to the constantly changing weather. One day it is sunny, the next it is cold and stormy. The thunderstorms down here are so severe sometimes I wonder if the CTM will just get blow away! Anyway...I think the constant change in pressure is to blame for all these headaches I~m getting. Dang it, only 12 minutes until I get kicked off this thing! There are so many things I want to tell you about, but just don~t have the time. I have honestly grown so much in these past 3 weeks. Everyday I just wonder what I~m going to learn next. Sometimes I feel like I can~t be stretched anymore, but somehow I manage to with the Lord~s help. Last night we got to watched a talk that Elder Scott gave in the Provo MTC in August. It was awesome. It was mostly about obedience and listening to the spirit. He shared some absolutely wonderful stories and made me realize that I am going to be so safe in Joao Pessoa...as long as I follow the promptings I get. Let me tell you a little more about my companion Sister Gricius. She knows French and German, has an MBA, and is a professional celloist. She is ambitious and extremely driven and I absolutely love her to death. She tones down my craziness and I help her loosen up every once in a while. I still see sister dunn around. She and I definitely have a lot of fun together...sometimes too much fun, which makes me thankful we aren~t companions. Well I know I haven~t said much, but my time is up. I~ll try to exclude more details in next weeks email. In the meantime keep sending letters. I seriously almost cry from happiness when I get letters in the mailbox. I~m trying to write back letters, but i only have about 2 hours a week to write so many people! Thanks for all the emails and prayers. It is nice to know there are so many people praying for me!Love you,Sister Wood

CTM week 2

was so happy to get an email from you!!!! I tell you letters and emails are everything to me! Everyday when the mail comes all the missionaries crowd around the mailboxes just hoping that they received a letter. Life in the CTM goes on as usual. I love it here, but it is so hard. I would definitely say it is harder than college. I wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 everyday and go to bed around 10:30. By the end of the day I am so physically, emotionally, and spiritally exhausted that I fall asleep as soon as I hit the bed. The past two weeks have had their ups and downs. The first couple days I loved it, then I hated it,...now I love it again. Last week I was so frustrated that I broke down and cried in my classroom. Luckily my district had already left the room to go to other meetings so I didn´t embarass myself, but my teacher Sister Filhao was there. She comforted and told gave me some really sound advice about the mission. I absolutely love my teachers. They both served missions in Brazil and luckily Sister Filhao served in Joao Pessoa so she and I have been chatting it up constantly. I found out a few interesting things about Joao Pessoa this week: 1. that there are rats the size of dogs up there... no joke. rumor is cats and dogs get attacked by these rats all the time...and the get into people´s houses a lot!!!! 2. Joao Pessoa is tied with Belem and Manaus for the poorest mission in Brazil. 3. Joao Pessoa is CURRENTLY the highest baptizing mission in the WORLD!!! Crazy huh?!!! I~m so excited to go there!!So last night a member of the 70 came to speak at our devotional. In the beginning he was searching the audience for a person to bear their testimony about the first vision. He pointed in my direction and said ^you sister!` I kept looking around for who he was pointing at and to my utmost dismay he was pointing at me! Serves me right for wearing a hot pink shirt when I am surround by a sea of black suits! Anyway..he asked `how do you know first vision happened? were you there?` I told him very matter-of-factly that I wasn´t there and frankly that I didn~t need to be. I said it so matter-of-factly that now everyone thinks of me as the sassy sister missionary. Anyway Ive been getting nonstop compliments on my comments since then. Even though it played out well I~m going to wear a black shirt at the next devotional! So my companion and I have 3 pet dogs...named Pato, Gusho, and...well we haven~t named the last one. They live in an alley outside our window. Everyday I whistle at them and they affectionately bark back...actually they just bark at me...but it makes me happy. Today I got to go to the temple again. It was awesome. It takes about an hour to get there and on the way there I saw a lot of interesting things. The poverty here is amazing. We passed by a trashy park and I was amazed when I saw a large family sleeping on sheets of cardboard with a hardcart parked next to them all. The crazy thing is...Sao Paulo is sooo rich compared to Joao Pessoa....which is kind of scary. The smell in the air here is soooooo weird. Everyday the air has a different smell. Since today was P-day I was able to walk around the city a little bit and I got stared at everywhere. Honestly....i should dye my hair. The attention is getting a little ridiculous. We got to watch conference in english this past week and it was awesome!!! We also got to watch the Relief Society broadcast. It was all so inspiring and uplifting. The language is coming along very well. My companion and I study so hard and are really seeing a lot of progress. This past weekend we taught a lesson in portuguese which most people don~t do until their 4th or 5th week! We have quite a reputation for being studious....and oddly enough I also have a reputation for being crazy and a spitfire. I love it here though. Everyone is so nice and I love the portuguese language....so beautiful. My district is awesome. Last night we just decided to use some free time to sing hymns and it was so neat. They are seriously like my family!The food finally caught up with me. It tastes wonderful but does some weird stuff when it hits my stomach. I~m hoping that it will eventually stop making me sick. Oh dad will appreciate this...I~ve had a ton of exotic fruit since I~ve been here....papaya, mango, passion fruit, and a type of pineapple that is white and tastes 10X better than the pineapple we have in the states. The Brazilians at the CTM are so cool, but tend to get a little flirtatious. This past week a BRazilian elder wrote me a letter telling me how cool I was and then he said he didn~t have a girlfriend....yeah not really sure how to answer that one. The BRazilians and Americans have such a great time together though. The brazilians try to learn english for the 3 weeks they are here and some of them can form complete sentence. This last week one brazilian guy walk by me in the hall and said, ´Hi sister. I like your eye´. I was so confused for about 5 seconds and realized he wasn~t just talking about my one eye, but both....I had a good laugh over that one. Well I´m out of time. 30 minutes a week is such a small amount of time to tell you very much about my life. Oh please excuse any grammar mistakes or spelling errors. I~m losing my ability to write in english..and to speak it. So sad. yet. Also post my email on my blog so people can write me. People can email me at this email, but I can only email you from it. Well I just love you guys and miss you! Being a missionary is super tough, but so awesome! I love the gospel and absolutely 100% know it is true!!! Talk to you next week!!!Love ya,Sister Ariel Wood!!!!

Brazil doesn't know yet what hit them!

It is finally p-day which means I can finally write you!!! YAY!!! This last week has been super crazy and pretty hard. When people told me the mission was hard they definitely weren´t kidding. I realize now all a person can really say about a mission is that it is hard because there aren´t words to express the feelings and things you experience on a mission. Even though it is tough, I´m absolutely loving it. I wake up at 6:00am every morning and work my rear off all day learning the lessons and Portuguese...and then I go to bed exhausted every night at 10:30pm. The portuguese is coming along great. Luckily I have a very studious, but fun district. We work hard and play hard! Compared to the other districts we are blowing the language out of the water. Today we went to the Sao Paulo temple and had an awesome time. It has to be one of the most beauitful temples. The inside has tons of stain-glass and gold leaves engraved on dark wood. It is just a very classy temple. Anyway, it was a great experience and I can´t wait to go back next week!Ok....I don~t have much time but I wanted to tell you a little about my first couple days here at the CTM. Flying down here I sat next to a super hot Canadian guy who has traveled to every country in south america. Anyway, we talked about the gospel and really had a great conversation...for maybe 4 or 5 hours. He turned out to be an atheist though so I didn´t try to give him a Book of Mormon. FLying into Sao Paulo was crazy. I got to see a lot of the countryside from the air and it was absolutely gorgeous. Once we landed my nose had quite a feast. I don´t know if I´ve experienced that many good and bad smells at once before, but it was interesting. I definitely turned heads in the airport. I was walking in from of all the elders with my suitcases and they thoroughly enjoyed counting all the guys who checked me out. With this blond hair I definitely stick out biggggg time. Today we went out of the CTM and walked around the nearby streets. Some people just stopped and stared.... I feel like a sideshow freak of some kind!!! ha haWell my companion is named Sister Gricius. She is super cool and we get a long just great. She has a MBA and already speaks 3 languages so she definitely keeps me on my toes and motivated. Oh so if you want there is a website called missionties.com I think. You can send emails to them and then they will print them off down here. Everyone tells me it is a lot cheaper than letters and also that you guys can write as often as you like. And I just have to say, letters are GOLD around here. Missionaries wait around the mailboxes like sad puppies everyday just to see if they got anything. I would definitely love some news from home!! I LOVE everything about Brazil!! However, the people and the Brazilian food are the BEST!!!! I absolutely am obsessed with the food down here. The first few days my comp and I realized our waists were rapidly expanding so now we have cut down on the portions....but honestly....BEST FOOD EVER! OHHH and the PEOPLE ARE FABULOUS! I have never met so many kind people!!Well my time is running short. Just know that I´m doing well, but definitely need your prayers. The mission will be the toughest thing BY FAR that I´ve ever done. I can´t count the number of times a sister has come to me crying this week saying that they are having a bad time and that they don´t think they can do it anymore. I haven´t broken down yet, but I´m sure I will. Just send as many letters as possible!!! I love letters. I´ll write again next wednesday. It cost 2.00 to send letters so I~ll probably stick to email. Post this to my blog please and have Pec unregister from cramster...just tell her the login is my email with the same old password.Love you ALL and Email you again soon!!!!!Love,Sister WoodP.S. LETTERSS

So Long, Farewell

Hey guys!!! This is the first and last post I'll be doing. From now on this blog will just contain emails that I send to my parents. They will be posting them on here weekly and when they receive pictures they will also be posting them.

Well I am OFFICIALLY a sister missionary now! I was set apart on Sunday and have been trying to behave myself since then. My bags are all packed and even though I'm nervous, I'm ready to go. I know I'm going to have some amazing experiences down in Brazil and grow to love the beautiful people. Write me letters from time to time! My MTC address for the next 9 weeks is:

Sister Ariel Kathryn Wood
Brazil Joao Pessoa Mission
Brazil Missionary Training Center
Rua Padre Antonio D'Angelo 121
Casa Verde
02516-040 Sao Paulo SP
Brazil

After that I'll be in Joao Pessoa, so write me at this addres:

Sister Ariel Kathryn Wood
Brazil Joao Pessoa Mission
R. Deputado Jose Mariz, 515
Tambauzinho
58042-020 Joao Pessoa- PB
Brazil

Thanks so much for all the love in support! Pray for me and definitely believe I'll be praying for you!!! LOVE YOU ALL!