Treinadora

Ok Ok, so this week I got a huge shock. I received a call Monday morning from one of the assistents telling me that I had been called to train a new American sister who arrived Tuesday! Imagine my surprise! I´ve only been senior companion for 1 transfer and now I was called to train an American! I about died of anxiety. Americans always get trained by Brazileans, and Brazileans by Americans...the only case I know of is when I was trained by Sister Young. Anyway, I got so nervous because usually the Americans arrive from the CTM not speaking alot of English. So yesterday I arrived in the mission office at 9am to be trained with the other trainers by President and Sister Hall. 7 or 8 elders were there to be trained as well and I was so happy to see that almost all of them were my good friends from other areas in the mission. The training was amazing. The Halls are the coolest people ever. It is such an awesome experience just being close to them. They immediately bring the Spirit into any meeting they attend. After the training I ate lunch in the Presidents house with Sister Hall and her daughter. They were my companions for the day! Neat huh?! After lunch we picked up President Hall and his assistents and went to the airport. It was so cool to see my new companion coming out of the plane! She looked so excited and I couldn't wait to meet her face-to-face. When we met all the missionaries we all took a picture together and then went back to the mission office for another meeting. This meeting was really awesome and during the meeting President Hall did something really cool that made me feel good about myself. He told the new missionaries to look at their companions...and then he said---These are the best missionaries in this mission. I chose the best missionaries in this mission to train you guys, learn from them and follow their examples. I felt so humble when he said that. President Hall told me many times this week that he trusts me a lot and everytime he says that I feel the desire more and more to never lose that trust. Anyway about my new companion! Her name is Sister G and she is super cool. Shes from San Jose, California--. She went to BYU for 3 years and studied journalism. She is such a cutie and way excited to start working. This transfer will be awesome. I´m still here in Tibiri---so I´ll officially have at least 6 months here after this transfer---but I´m excited. I wanted to stay. I love this area and the people. It is a great area to train. The only sad thing that happened this week was saying goodbye to Sister De Oliveira. When she packed up her backs I started crying. I really loved being her companion. I hope one day you can meet her. She is just one of the coolest people ever. She was transfered for an area on the other side of the city so I´ll get to see her in zone meetings and conferences. goodness I forgot to finish about what happened yesterday. All of us missionaries ate dinner in the mission home and it was just awesome. The mission home is soooooo beautiful. It is on the 9th floor of a super nice apartment building and has views of the ocean. During dinner I had so much fun talking to all the missionaries. It is rare that we all get together so I was running my mouth the entire night. I´m going to miss these people so much after the mission! Sister G and I spent the night in the Presidents house and left this morning for our area. It is weird. I only spent 1 day in Joao Pessoa, but I missed Tibiri a lot. I think I will stay here a long time. Anyway things are going great. Pray that I´ll be a good trainer...honestly pray hard. I´m still a little scared. well I hope you guys dont die in the heat up there. it is cold down here...like 70 degrees....which honestly is cold for us. I got used to the steaming hot weather and now that it is 70 degrees with an ocean breeze I´m using a sweater at times. Stay cool up there and continue to help the missionaries. Tell people to write me! Until monday!!!! LOVE YOU!!
love, sister wood

July 19, 2010

Well this week was...I dont know...normal I guess. Not much to report. The work went well all week. Last P-day we spent the day in Joao Pessoa with Sister Hall. She is such a sweetheart! Returning to Tibiri was a little hard after the splendid day we all had together. Tuesday started out normal, but turned out to be a day full of laughter. Sister H decided to dye her hair blonde during the time we have for lunch. She chose the best salon possible, but lets just say things didnt turn out that great. SIster De Oliveira and I were resting after eating lunch when Sister H and Sister Machado walked in. Goodness what a sight! The lady dyed her hair ORANGE. I´m not joking. When we saw her we almost had a heart attack. literally. Luckily Sister H knows how to handle difficult situation like these and didn't freak out. We returned to the salon, but the woman refused to fix her hair for free. We went to every salon in Tibiri, but no one would dye her hair on the same day because there was a risk that her hair would fall out. We ended up buying hair dye in a box and dying her hair at home. Before Sister De Oliveira started to dye Sister H hair, we all prayed very fervently that her hair wouldn't fall out and that she wouldn't be bald. ..and luckily the prayer worked! Her hair is kind of destroyed now because of all the chemicals, but at least it looks normal. We were very grateful that her hair returned to a normal color because on Wednesday we had interviews with President Hall. Imagine what would have happened if she had arrived in the mission office with orange hair. Goodness....but honestly it was hilarious...but just made me that much surer of the fact that I never want to dye my hair. So this week we had another close miss. We were teaching a young man that lives in an area of Tibiri that doesnt have a lot of lights.....in reality it is almost completely dark after 5:30pm. When we left his house we started walking towards the dark street that we always walk in to get to another part of the city. When we started walking towards the opening of the street, the Spirit told us to turn around and go the other way. We listened of course, because we´ve had a lot of close calls recently. The next day when we returned to the house of this young man his mother was so happy to see that we were okay. She told us that 5 minutes after we left her house she heard gun shots. Turns out that 5 minutes after leaving her house a gang of drug dealers showed up on motorcyles and murdered a man in the same street the Spirit told us not to enter. If we hadn't heeded the whisperings of the Spirit, we might have been in the middle of the street when this all happened. I´m very VERY grateful for the promptings of the Spirit. Honestly the Spirit is everything in the life of a missionary! Unfortunately a lot of people here end up being murdered. It is kind of an area/state/ country without law. Another interesting thing happened this week in the house of Leo, our investigator. I found out his dad´s profession is to assassinate people. His dad kidnapped a gringo a few years ago and ended up murdering him....BUT luckily he doesn't live with his dad. He only sees his dad once every month or so! Que bom eh?! Hmm....what else happened...this week. OH Sister De Oliveira and I were walking in the street when we passed by a man and his wife fighting in the street. the Man threw a T.V. out the door and yelled a lot of things I didn't understand and when he saw us laughing at him he called us jehovah witness prostitutes. It was very amusing. Well. the mission is great. My mission president is awesome. My interview with him had me feeling the Spirit immediately. Honestly he is called of God to lead this mission! This week will mark 10 months on the mission. It is all passing by so fast. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. Because of this mission I know more than ever that the church is true. that we have a living prophet on the earth today, and that God hears and answers our prayers. Stay faithful, happy, and enjoy the weather up there in the States!

A busy and happy missionary ☺

THis week was great...as always right?! The beginning of the week was a little difficult because I ended up working two areas. Sister Hayes and Sister De Oliveira were sick and I ended up teaching with Sister Marchado for 2 days. She has 3 weeks on the mission, but teaches well so it turned out to be great! In celebration of World Cup, last monday us 4 missionaries played soccer with some members and investigators. It turned out to be awesome! I actually played really well and now have a little bit of a reputation as a soccer player! It was great though because our baptism for this week, Lidiane, played with us and brought her brother Lindenberg and 2 cousins. She ended up making a goal even! Lidiane was baptized Saturday night and it turned out to be a wonderful service. We baptized her brother 3 months ago and he is preparing for a mission! He cant go until next year, but is going to start accompanying us on our lessons along with Lidiane! Another recent baptism, Severina, is just a dear and is progressing rapidly in the church. She just shows up at church every Sunday and automatically looks for a way she can help. I really have fallen in love with this area.. Who would have thought?! Oh Severina showed us how to make truffles this past week! So I have officially learned how to make truffles that look chique de mais or professional! I made mint chocolate truffles and gave them to the bishop, president and sister hall, and many other people. Everyone who has eaten them has LOVED them! I´m really picking up some amazing good recipes that I´m excited to make for you all when I return. So as you know I´ve been working on spanish recently. I´m officially reading El Libro de Mormon everyday and understanding 95%. I have progressed a lot with spanish because it is extremely similiar to Portuguese. I hope to be semi-fluent when I return to the U.S. hmmm....what else can I say?! Oh today we spent the morning and early afternoon with Sister Hall. We helped her organize some things and afterwards we all made empadinhas together---a type of dessert that I cant wait to make for you guys! She also gave us all lunch! It was great! Afterwards we met up with Elder Engh and Elder Oliveira to eat açai .Elder Engh was in my district in the CTM and is like my brother! I was so happy that President Hall let all of us eat açai together! Afterwards I bought some fabric to make 2 dresses. The rainy season has been a little hard on my clothes. THe major part of the clothes I brought on the mission have been ruined by mold or random stains. When it isnt raining it is sunny and windy and the wind throws sand and dirt on your clothes. I´ve been using the same 4 outfits for the past month or so, but recently have been buying fabric to make new clothes. A lady in my area makes dresses for 15 reais...about 8 dollars. . I´m doing well though. We have a couple baptisms for this week and they are all awesome! Well got to go! Have a great week and know that I pray constantly for all of you. I love you all so much!

Com amor,
sister wood

p.s. continue to help out the missionaries in any way possible and tell people to write me letters!!!!

Well, I´m already breaking my promise to right long, edifying emails, but this week President Hall wanted us to write him an email telling him about ourselves. My email to him used up a lot of the time! BUT I´m doing great! This week was awesome. We taught a lot of really cool people and were protected from harm AGAIN! Sister De Oliveira and I were walking home this past week in a street that was really dark when three men started to walk towards us. No one else was in the street and it really was very, very dark. When started walking towards us I KNEW they were with the intent to rob us, but at same moment I felt an energy shoot through my body that I can’t explain....I felt that yes they wanted to rob us, but that the Lord was with. I honestly felt Him protecting us. When they started to surround us and one of them pulled something out of his pocket (couldn’t tell if it was a knife or not...it was too dark) I still didn’t get scared. I somehow knew they wouldn’t succeed in robbing us. When the men were within 3 feet of us, they all of a sudden decided to leave us alone. They didn’t say anything....just walked away. As soon as they left Sister De Oliveira asked me---``Wow. Did you feel that? The Lord just protected us big time.``It was an interesting experience and another testimony to me that the Lord protects his servants. Yesterday was an awesome Sunday. One of my recent baptisms passed the sacrament for the first time. He showed up at church in his white shirt and tie and got so excited for the opportunity to pass the sacrament. He did such a great job and I was so proud of him! I got even prouder when he bore his testimony afterwards. It is one of the best things in the world to see the people you baptized bear testimony about the church, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith! We have a few baptisms for the next week, one of which is Elenilson. We came to his house with the intent to teach his mom. We ended up teaching his mom, him, and his 2 brothers. During the lesson I realized he was paying a lot of attention to our message. When I talked about the First Vision I looked at him and it was as if his eyes were being opened. He got so excited. He spent this past week talking to his friends about the gospel. After our first visit we told him we would pass by the next day at 6:30 to talk with him again. When we arrived at his house at 6:30pm his mom told us he woke up at 7:00 am and ran into the kitchen so worried that he had missed our visit. We laughed and told him we don't even wake up until 6:30 am and don't leave the house until 10:00! It was so cute to see who worried he was! He really is an elect! Anyway. things are going great. I have a new mission president--President and Sister Hall. THEY ARE WONDERFUL! There aren’t words to explain how great they are. They´ve only been here a few days and I already LOVE THEM! Well anyway have a great week. Love you all, Sister Wood