Baptisms!

"A spider tale"

Tudo Bem??!!! This past week FLEW by...this mission is flying by!!!! Last Saturday marked 4 months on the mission! Can you believe it?! the time just flys! Thanks for emailing the photos. I enjoyed them immensely. Send photos of all your adventures!!! So I~m writing a little bit earlier today because in a hour or so us Sisters are headed to Joao Pessoa for ´atividade das sisters´ tomorrow.....pretty much our activity is going to be eating churassaco and playing on the beach. LEGAL eh?! It should be wonderful and relaxing. The sisters only have an activity like this once or twice a year...so it really is a treat! I~ll tell you all about it in the next email...but just think of me tomorrow...while all of you are experiencing the cold, frigid weather of winter..I will be running on the beach!!! We had another baptism yesterday...a boy who is just the cutest thing ever. His brothers are members and he has wanted to be a member for some time...it was our pleasure to baptize him! He came to church with his hair combed and scriptures in hand and was just so excited. As soon as church ended, he jumped to his feet and ran to the baptismal font. It was the most adorable thing ever! I am starting to see what it will be like to be a mother one day. Yesterday in church I sat with 5 kids and trying to keep them all quiet and happy was difficult, but at the same time tons of fun. I brought cookies for them and a book of pictures that I bought in the distribution center of the Sao Paulo temple. They loved looking at all the pictures of Christ and the Prophets. One boy was so excited, when he saw a picture of Christ, that he grabbed the book and bolted down the aisle to show his primary teacher. I love the members here and it definitely feels a lot like I am home. So the missionary work is going well. Sister Leal and I work HARDDD. This last week we walked so much we were literally limping home we were so exhausted....but it is wonderful. We are teaching a few wonderful families right now, but one of our families is requiring a lot more work and patience. The dad drinks and smokes com força and it is destroying his family. He wants to quit so badly and prays for the strength to be able to overcome these addictions, but at the end of the day he yields to the temptations of the devil. It is so sad. I really love this family like they ARE my actual family and spent many nights thinking and praying about what I can do to help them. Please please for my investigators! So remember that spider you brought home from Peru? The HUGE one that looks like it could take on a cat and win? Well I saw one in the flesh this week. We were walking home from an appointment and sister leal pointed to the wall next to me and said `look!´...well when I looked I saw this spider about 3 feet away from me chilling on the wall. It was honestly the size of my hand....NOT JOKING. AS soon as I saw it I let out of scream and ran. I hope i didn~t wake up the people of Sousa with my scream because it was loud...but anyway...you would not believe the size of this spider....it was unreal. I took a picture of it, but the picture doesn~t do it justice. Anyway the elders played with it for a couple minutes and then it ran off. I just hope i never see one of those in my apartment! Well family I hope you enjoy the pictures....hopefully they get to you. I bought a card reader for the camera card and hope to send pictures weekly. Let me know if you get them or not! I~m so happy that you guys are helping out the missionary effort so much in georgia. Treat those missionaries like they are your children...because the people down here are treating me like I am theirs! Obrigada!have a wonderful week!

My first baptisms!

SOOOOOO BATIZA!!!!!! Oi !!!!!!!! So after weeks and weeks of hard work we are finally seeing some results!!! I had my FIRST BAPTISMS this week. We baptized a couple (who we helped get married back in December) and a girl who´s aunt is a member of the church. We baptized all three of them on Sunday and it was just a marvelous day! The president of the district here baptized them and they were confirmed on the same day. It was wonderful to see how happy they all were and of course we were happy as well!! We have a couple baptisms planned for this next week so hopefully all will go well with them! Goodness I love it here! Yesterday we had zone conference in Mossoro, a city about 5 hours north, and goodness gracious was it hot! The conference was in a chapel and it was so weird. I´ve been having church in a classroom or house for so long it felt like I was entering a temple instead of a chapel. Conference was fantastic as always and the whole day I just kept thinking over and over…there is no better preparation for life than serving a mission. I have learned so much while I~ve been here….things that can~t be taught in classrooms or universities. I~ve learned about the joy that comes from hard work…I~ve learned about what it really means to love the people you serve. Goodness I love it here…I can~t wait for you to come down and visit at the end of my mission and see how wonderful this place and these people are! During conference yesterday Sister Fernandes talked a lot about the importance of familias and I think I will definitely hit the ground running with the whole dating thing when I return from the mission. The single life is definitely fun and I will miss it, but I need to grow up after my mission and forget about all the places I still want to visit and all the crazy things I want to do. It was good to think about the family I have and the family I will have in the future. President and Sister Fernandes are just absolutely wonderful in every way. It is impossible to say how much love and respect I have for them. They just love the missionaries so much and know exactly what to say to us to make us work harder and be better! I will definitely be sad when they leave in June! Well lots of other things happened this week, but I don~t really have time to write about everything…. I am keeping a journal though and taking pictures from time to time! I heard about the earthquake in Haiti. How sad! I wish I could help the people in Haiti someway, but all I can do is pray for them….but prayer definitely works. Well I hope you all are warm and cozy in the United States. I have to admit I~m glad I~m not experiencing the same temperatures as y´all. Stay warm, and I will try to stay cool. Love you all and pray for you daily!Com todo meu amor,Sister Wood

If it ain't grass, it's mud!

Tudo bem com voces?! This past week went by so fast and was really different because of the transfers that happened. We have only 2 people in our apartment now and it is strange, but good. I love being companions with Sister Leal, but we both miss the other sisters. The first thing we did with our apartment was rearrange everything and make more space. Our apartment is much more enjoyable now than it was before! The missionary work is going well….still no baptisms. We´ve prepared over 6 or 7 people for baptism (taught all the lessons, had the district leader interview them,etc) but something always happens at the last minute and people back out. It is very frustrating at times, but I~m learning to deal with it. Feelings of frustration only come from the adversary and so I am determined to stay happy and continue to work hard! This last week Sister Leal and I worked so hard….as a result we met a lot of wonderful people that are ready to hear the gospel. I think we will have a lot of baptisms this transfer….I hope we do at least! I~m continuing to make friends with the people of Sousa. We know a lot of people already and make new acquaintances every day. I love absolutely love it here! I miss my friends and family for sure, but I will be so sad when I leave this place in 15 months. I honestly feel such a love for the people here, probably because they are such a loving and friendly people. The weather has cooled down a bit these past couple days. I think we are heading into the rainy season which I am looking forward to. I think I might have said this a million times already, but I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I get to study the scriptures for 2-3 hours everyday and get to serve people for the rest of the day. BEST LIFE EVER. I am so thankful for the opportunity because it has changed my life and will continue to do so I am sure. So I have a million different stories to tell you guys when I return, but I thought I would share one funny story that happened to me this week. We (Sister Leal, 2 members from the branch, and I) were teaching a man whose wife is a member of the church and they live on the outskirts of town near the gypsies. After we finished with the lesson we were walking back and saw a bunch of kids playing soccer. Sister Leal said to me ´make a contact and invite them all to church´. I said `com certeza eu vou` (with certainty or heck yes I will). Just as I said this one of them kicked the ball over in my direction. Eager to get them to like me I decided to run after the ball and kick it back. Oh goodness…what seemed like a good idea was definitely a bad idea! I was running full blast after this ball which was rolling through an area covered with ´´grass`´…well it certainly wasn’t grass. Before I knew it I heard a big PLOP as my feet sunk deep into some mud. Unfortunately because of the momentum I had built up from my running my legs didn~t stop until I reached the middle of the mud pit that honestly looked like grass from a distance. Well as you can imagine I ended up being covered with mud..BUT I did kick the ball back to the kids. As I tried to get back to dry land Sister Leal and the two members were doubled over with laughter. I have to admit it was the funniest thing ever….but the story continues. After I was back with the others we had to decide what to do because I was absolutely covered in mud (luckily my skirt was black). We decided to return to the house we had been teaching at. As soon as we arrived they all started laughing and ushered me into the ´backyard´´ to wash off. The backyard was actually a chicken and turkey pen. Anyway… before I knew it I had four people grabbing my legs and arms and washing me down. Oh goodness I wish I had a picture of all of this…four people scrubbing me furiously, me standing there looking helpless…all while surrounded by tons of disturbed chickens and turkeys wondering what we were all doing. After the washdown…the woman who lived there brought out her perfume. I forgot to mention that the mud wasn’t just mud…it seems like it was also the place that animal excrement ended up at times. Anyway…I smelled before they washed me down, but not after….but that didn~t matter to this woman. She started spraying me down with this perfume (whoever made this perfume should be shot ) and I kid you not she sprayed me at least 30 times with this stuff...and it was STRONG! I tried to run after the first couple squirts but ran into a clothes line and then some chickens. Oh goodness..it was just hilarious. Everyone had to walk far away from me because I smelled so much. Anyway…this is just one of the stories of this past week and it isn’t even the best one! My journal is packed full of stories and I~m sure I will have many more to tell you before I return home! Serving a mission is definitely an adventure!....Gotta to go! Love you all so much!!!!!Tchau, Sister Wood

Same place, new companion

So today we had transfers, but I stayed in the same place with a different companion. Sister Leal is my new companion and I~m so excited that we were put together! We lived in the same apartment together this past transfer, but had different companions. She is the sister that massaged my feet my first few weeks here when I was still getting used to my shoes. I love her to death and am looking forward to these next 6 weeks. This last week was good….a little disappointing. We were all set to baptize a family and then they decided they couldn~t give up alcohol and coffee. And we had a man that was going to get baptized this past Sunday who was called into work at the last minute and couldn~t come to church and be baptized! How frustrating! BUT I~m in good spirits…even if people don~t care to know if the church is true, I know it is true! I love being a missionary and today I was thinking that my time here is passing by too fast. Before I know it I will be on my last transfer and then on my way home. How strange that will be! So the missionary work is definitely physically demanding and this week I felt it! Yesterday I~m pretty sure I had heat exhaustion. It was one of the hottest days I have experienced here and I was already sick with a fever and terrible tension headache before we left the apartment. After walking a couple hours in full sun I started to feel extremely sick and exhausted. I stopped sweating (which is definitely a bad sign here!) and tried to drink plenty of water, but felt nauseous every time I drank or ate anything. After a while I felt like I couldn~t walk any further I finally told my companion we needed to return to the apartment. I don~t remember much of our walk back to the apartment…I just remember I kept telling myself—don’t faint, don’t faint! Just put one foot in front of the other!. When we got home I collapsed on the bed and took my temperature (101 degrees…not too bad, but definitely a fever). My companion told me I needed to take a cold shower and cool down because I was extremely red. After taking a cold shower I took a 2 hour nap. I felt so bad about having to return home early…but I think I would have fainted if I had continued to work. Anyway…I am a lot better today. The fever is gone, but I am still nursing a bad tension headache. Health really is such a blessing. Hopefully I will return to full health soon! Despite the little health problem this past week, everything is great. We have made friends with so many people in Sousa and are preaching the gospel as much as humanly possible. On Monday Sister Young and I broke our record for number of lessons in one day. Goodness gracious we worked hard that day! It is wonderful to work hard everyday….when we aren~t doing anything it is so strange. I hope this work ethic I have acquired here will return home with me. Well I~ve got to go! I~m glad you all are well. I will write again on Monday. My pdays have been all over the place recently because of holidays, transfers, etc. Love you ALL!!!!! Boa semana para voces!Com amor,Sister wood