A proposal

BOA TARDE !!!!

Well I have an announcement to make. Yesterday, I was proposed to...like honestly proposed to...in front of the church with people passing by. The twist is, it wasn’t a guy who proposed to me, it was a woman..our ex-investigator of 4 months to be exact. We only taught her the first 2 lessons before we realize she wasn’t really all there mentally and decided to stop teaching here. However because of her `love’ for me she has been coming to church every Sunday for the last few months. Although we thought that she had lesbian tendencies we didn’t find out for certain until last night when she told Sister G to leave, and for me to take her hands because she wanted to marry me. After refusing to give her my hands and telling Sister G to stand her ground, this woman yelled--`I want to marry you` (for the whole street to hear) and then ran off. The entire ordeal lasted about 10 minutes and afterwards I was so shocked that I called President H. After talking to him for a little bit, I felt a little bit better. I have to say I was expecting for my first real proposal to actually come from someone I loved or that was at least a man. My future husband will just have to accept the fact that a Brazilian woman beat him to the punch.it’s okay though. I was a little freaked out last night because she knows where we live and always shows up in weird places, but things will work out alright. The President told me to completely avoid her, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do!
?
Other than my proposal this past week was great! Yesterday, President and Sister H got all the sisters together for a Sisters P-day! We all met at the lighthouse, Cabo Branco, at 8:30 where we took a few photos and ate breakfast. Sister H is such a dear and made us all Cinnamon Rolls! They were delicious and it was just heavenly eating them! Afterwards we all sat on blankets under the trees, overlooking the ocean and had a lesson in the scriptures from Sister H. She talked a lot about the symbolism behind the word `east`` because we were sitting on the piece of land that sits out the farthest east in the Americas. IT was a really cool message and after singing a hymn, we were allowed to take photos and explore a little bit. It was so much fun! We ended up taking a lot of photos and we ran into some African scientists who quickly became our friends. They spoke a little Portuguese but spoke more English and French than anything. I talked to them a little in French, with my very limited vocabulary and they got super excited! It was so much fun talking with them in such a beautiful place! After taking pictures at a few beautiful places and buying an agua de coco, we headed off to lunch at PIZZA HUT!! Ok ok I know that Pizza Hut doesn’t seem like such a treat for you guys up there in the U.S.A, but for me who has been eating beans, rice, and chicken for 14 straight months....it was a piece of heaven. When we got there they started bringing the pizzas out and then they brought out BBQ wings!!! What a tender mercy. I felt like I was back in Georgia at a BBQ restaurant! Luckily a lot of the Brazilians thought the BBQ sauce was weird and gave their wings to us Americans! It honestly was such a blessing to have been able to eat at Pizza Hut! Afterwards Sister H let us pick up a few groceries and then we headed off to the President’s house for a testimony meeting, pedicure, and Acai! It was so wonderful to hear the testimonies of the other sister and of course, I bore mine. It turned out to be the perfect day. I even got a haircut. Sister Gordan knows how to cut hair and since my last two haircuts were ridiculous, she fixed a lot of the damage that had been done. At the end of the day, I just felt so lucky to be serving in a mission as beautiful as Joao Pessoa, Brazil. Honestly, this mission is richly blessed with beautiful scenery, kind people, and an amazing Mission President whose life is literally an angel! I’ll be really sad to leave here in April. What a blessing my mission has been in my life!

Well, I don’t have much time left on the internet, so I just wanted to share with you guys one last thing. I’ve been listening to general conference talks a lot and yesterday and today I listened to Elder Scott’s. One of the things he said that really hit me was this--``We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become.`` I have found that to be so true. I am making goals to be the person I want to become everyday. Down here so many people give us the whole---I’ll do it tomorrow-- excuse, but we know this life is short and one day our tomorrows will run out. Remember to always BE, everyday, what you want to become. Don’t put off anything for tomorrow. Thank you all for the support, advice, and love that you send. It is greatly appreciated. At times the weekly emails from you all are the things that lift me up the most. Have a wonderful week. I love you all!

com amor, Sister wood

Testimony!!!

Óla! Well this week flew by so fast ! Things are going well down here. After Sister H recovered from food poisoning she got sick again. She is highly alergic to Cajú and someone made her Cajú juice this past week for lunch. Just as she was finishing off the big glass of juice the irmã said she hoped the cajú juice wasnt too weak. Sister H said her eyes just got big and she started praying that nothing would happen. When she got home after lunch she told me what happened and because were on our way out to lunch, I told her to call me if she started to feel bad. Well at the end of our lunch we got a phone call from her asking us to run to the pharmacy and buy anti- alergy medicine. Luckily you can buy just about anything you want over the counter here and we bought some powerful stuff and then raced off to our house. When we arrived home we found Sister H sitting on the hammock with the face and lips the size of a watermelon....ok ok..it wasnt like the actual size of a watermelon, but it sure was dang big. On top of the ridiculous swelling she also was beet red and covered in splotches. She took a lot of medicine and after a day was back to normal. We were really happy that the juice wasn't super strong because the last 2 times this happened Sister H almost died in the hospital. Sister H said that it was just poetic that she would have another alergic attack before she ended her mission. Besides the random sickness here and there in our house we are all doing great! About the parasite....I don't even know for sure if I have one, but they will give me worm medicine at the end of my mission so dont worry...I´m GREAT! I did get bit by a dog this week, but thankfully I pulled my hand away as he bit me and it didnt break the skin. I just have a nice purplish-black bruise on my hand that will soon go away. It definitely got my heart pumping though. This week we worked way hard and marked another baptism for the end of the month. The best thing about this week was definitely the Spirit. We made it a goal to just start talking and keep talking with our investigators until the Spirit told us what to say. At time the conversation got long, but it was an awesome experience. Some of the best lessons I´ve given on the mission were this week. It really helped me to know what it means (more than ever) to be an instrument in the Lords hands. Several times when I was teaching with the Spirit this week, the Spirit was teaching me as well. It is just the coolest experience ever to be edified when you are edifying someone else...all made possible by the Spirit. Our teaching just really reached a new level and it has made me very excited. It has completely changed the way we work and I know it is effecting other people as well. Last night I stopped to talk with a man and his family in the street. Turns out they were strong member of the Assembleia de Deus and just wanted to Bible Bash, but I resisted the urge to smack them over the head with the scriptures and started bearing my testimony to them. As soon as I started bearing my testimony you could see the hostility leaving their eyes. By the time I was done talking they talked about how they always thought our church was cool and even invited us to come by and visit them. Honestly, no one can argue with a testimony. This week I read an article by Elder Ballard that talks about testimonies. He said when a person is truly converted he or she can not resist the urge to not bear their testimony. I´ve thought a lot about that this week and have started to apply it a lot more in the work. Yesterday was fast Sunday of course and I bore my testimony....afterwards 3 of my recent baptisms bore testimony. ...the gospel is a marvelous thing , the Atonement is a marvelous thing, change is possible, the Atonement works.... I was thinking yesterday of a way to explain how I feel when I see people I taught bearing powerful testimonies and i figured that mom and dad must feel like that way when they see us kids bear testimony. It is a feeling that overpasses almost all other happiness. Anyway after our testimony meeting was over several of the members came up to me and told me that when I leave I will be deeply missed. Some of the members thought I had been transferred because I wasnt in church last week (recovering from night in the hospital) and were so happy when they saw I was still here in Tibiri. I will deeply miss the people here in Tibiri when I go home. I was thinking about my return home during church yesterday and about how much I will cry when the stake president asks me to take off my missionary tag. I´ll definitely need a few boxes of kleenex....but after thinking about that I realized that if I serve a worthy mission I won't need the tag anymore (until i serve a mission with my husband at least)...I wont have to point to my tag and tell people I represent Jesus Christ, they will see it in my countenance. I´m really happy that I made the decision to be a missionary and that I´m making the decision now that I will always be one. The joy that comes from the things of this world is just pitiful in comparison to the joy that comes from sharing the gospel. I´m very grateful that I had this time to discover that. Anyway after our ward was over we went to the afternoon ward with our investigator Cintia who will be baptized at the end of the month. We sat on the back row and as the meeting went on and the people started to bear their testimonies I started to have a desire to bear mine. The room was full of people that I have gotten to know and love in these past 8 months....even though they arent in my ward, you know how i am...I talk A LOT to EVERYONE! Well the Spirit just started bugging me to bear my testimony and I finally got up and did it. I first asked the ward to forgive me for taking their time to bear my testimony and then I just started talking about how much i have grown to love them so much during my time here and that they were my very dearest of friends...then I told them I just had a big desire to give them the best present one friend could give to another...bearing pure testimony. After that the Spirit pretty much took over and I honestly have to say it was one of the purest and best testimonies I have given. After I ended my testimony the bishop bore his and said after Sister H leaves he´ll just tell the President to put me into their ward. He also told me how much the ward loved me. It feels good to be loved! WEll I have to go now. I hope you are all well and going great. Never be afraid to bear your testimonies!!! I LOVE YÁLL!!!!! Tchau

The crazy life of a missionary...

Well this week was....interesting. After a super spiritual day with Elder Bednar last Monday things just kind of got a little crazier. Tuesday Sister G and I did splits because I had to stay with Sister H's newbie in her area while Sister H was in a training meeting in Joao Pessoa. So I stayed with Sister Arruda in the area Municipius and Sister G stayed with Sister Oliveira whose companion, Sister Pozete also went to this meeting for people who are leaders and are training newbies. While I stayed in Municipius, Sister G in Tibiri had quite an experience....they ended up being 5 feet away from a man when he was murdered. They were walking on the main street in Tibri at 3:00 in the afternoon when they heard a huge blast near them. They covered their ears and kept walking, but soon turned around to see what had happened. Thats when they saw a man with a gun run away and another man (who they had JUST passed) lying dead on the ground with two gunshot wounds to his head. They ended up waiting there until the police came but were told since they don't live here they can''t be witnesses in court. The man who ran off has yet to be found unfortunately. He was an ex-prisoner who killed this other guy because of drugs. Honestly all the violence down here is linked with drugs. It is extremely rare for an innocent person to be killed...so don't worry! I´m just so glad my dear companion didn't get hurt. Just another testimony that the Lord protects his missionaries! After that incident the week went pretty smoothly. We marked 3 baptisms and worked super hard. I definitely was extremely exhausted every night and slept really well this week.

Mother's note: The next part of the email was rated "D" for disgusting so I will skip to the ending:

Sister H got really sick from eating tapioca from a street vendor and at about 11pm Saturday night I called up President Hall and asked permission to take her to the hospital. After talking about her situation he let us go and we raced off to the nearest `hospital`´. When we got there they put Sister H on IV fluids. It was quite a night for Sister H.... I just wanted to cry looking at her. She was in soo much pain and everything was violently leaving her body. We ended staying there for the entire night and we didn't sleep at all. At about 5:00 am she felt well enough to go home. After arriving home at 5:30 we slept for a long long time. Unfortunately because of spending the entire night in a hospital without sleep my cold got a lot worse, but I ended up sleeping it mostly off yesterday. Sister H is doing a lot better today. It is funny that I took her to the hospital for the same thing she took me to the hospital for 5 months ago. Anyway I will have so many ridiculous stories to tell you guys when I get back. Living an extremely poor life is very ridiculous, but fun. We decided that poor people have a lot more fun and interesting experiences than rich people. Rich people´s lives are so normal...for them to have fun usually means them getting into trouble....anyway. I´m content to be poor for the rest of my life. It is so much more interesting. Well things are getting back to normal now (i hope!) and I´m ready for another week full of hard work! I´ve been listening a lot to the conference talks on my ipod and you guys just have to read the priesthood talks....They are AWESOME. Honestly after listening to all President Monson´s talks during conference (Priesthood, Relief Society, and normal sunday session) I just have such a stronger testimony that he is a prophet of God, called to guide and direct our lives in these last days! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the cold weather! HAVE A GREAT WEEK