Last email

So I can´t believe this is the last email I will be sending from Brazil. Time has flown by way too fast this last transfer. The week I was a little sad because I felt like time was slipping through my hands, but I´m very excited to see the family. It has been a short and long 18 months, but I´m ready to come home. President H talked with me and said the Lord is pleased with my work here in Joao Pessoa and with my mission and that I did what I came here to do...and now it is time to go home. Hard words to hear, but Brazil will always be here and I can visit the people I´ve come to respect and love for the rest of my life. A mission is an experience that few people get to have...and it is the best experience. I feel so blessed for the opportunity I had to serve in this wonderful mission with these wonderful people.t President and Sister H are literally angels. They have made such an impact in my life because of their wonderful examples and their willingness to serve the Lord. I´ll never to be able to thank them for the help they´ve given me on the mission. The other day I tried to think about how my life would be without my mission and it was impossible. I was meant to serve a mission. I knew it on the day I received my patriarchal blessing. It was something I had to do before being a wife, mom, etc. It will be hard to leave Brazil, but I´ll get all my crying out before coming home. I love Brazil, I´ll always love Brazil, but I´m accepting the fact that my time as a fulltime missionary is over for now. I´m hoping that one day I´ll serve here with my husband. who knows! This past week was pretty good. I got a call on Monday saying that I had to be in Joao Pessoa on Tuesday for a training...so we picked up a bus at 5 am on Tuesday heading for Joao Pessoa. It was worth it though. I got to see Sister G, my daughter (who I trained), and Sister De Oliveira who is just one of my favorite people in the world. The training was amazing. President H and Sister H bring the spirit into whatever meeting they attend. We got a special treat this week. One of our investigators was baptized by President H. Sister H is a good friend of this lady and when we marked her baptism she said she wanted Pres. H to baptize her. He is a pretty busy man, but we called him and he accepted the invitation. I have to tell you it was an AWESOME experience watching President H enter the baptismal font with Neide. The Spirit was super strong and it definitely isn´t everyday that you see your mission president baptizing one of your investigators. Awesome. But yeah.. the week was good. This week is my last full week as a missionary. Sad. Next week I´ll be home. Next monday isn´t p-day so you won´t receive an email from me...this is officially the last. Tchau, sister wood

Oii!

Oi! Well this week FLEW by! Today I woke up and couldn´t believe it was Pday again! Crazy! My week was pretty good though. We have zone conference in João Pessoa and it was exciting to travel to a big city for the first time in a while. The conference was awesome! I felt the spirit so strong during the entire thing and I was just so happy that I have such a wonderful mission president. President H and Sister H are amazing and are doing miracles in this mission! What a blessing it is to be working her with them. Since it was my last conference I got to bear my testimony in front of everyone. It was good. My goal was to not cry, so I had to make them laugh a little. As we sang the mission hymn I began to feel the reality of the fact that I´m going home soon. It is a good and bad feeling....but as Elder Wirthlin said....Come what may and love it! That is just what I will have to do. I´m nervous about coming home, but I have to do it. I´m hoping to stay here a few more days before going home. The chapel here is Guarabira will be dedicated April 10th. The night before the dedication we are doing a big theatrical performance with the youth. We started practicing the skits last night and it is going to be a great show! ALL the VIPs from Guarabira will hopefully be there and it will be a chance to show the community what me believe and also show how fun it is to be a member of the church. All the skits have to do with the topics from `For the Strength of Youth``` and each skit has a music. I´m in charge of all the musical numbers (if i stay) and it is quite a chore but I´m excited for start putting everything together. I asked President H to stay on a little while longer, but he still hasn´t approved anything. He got excited though when I asked him if I could stay, so we will see how everything works out. At conference President H took us four missionaries aside and told us how proud he was of our work here in Guarabira. He said we are doing miracles. That felt good to hear. I don´t know if we are doing miracles, but we are trying our best. Our attendence was awesome yesterday (again, whooohooo!) and the members are helping out so much. Last night I was talking with Elder Siquiera and he said....``it is amazing the difference huh? the members are so much happier now than when we arrived.`` I agreed with him. The Lord has really been preparing these members to be able to receive their new chapel! The missionary work is going a long great. THe members are giving us so many references that it is hard to visit all of them. Yesterday a member came up to us and said---we have 4 families for you to teach this afternoon´´´.....we felt a little overwhelmed because of our other appointments and said that the elders would have to teach some of them. After lunch we headed out to the countryside where these people were living. It was a lot of fun. One family had so many animals walking around that it was a little hard to know get distracted. During the lesson chickens, pigs, and goats kept passing by and I beginning to think i was on Noah´s ark, and not in Brazil. The families were cool though. One family told us that crocodiles live in their lake. Every once in a while when one of them kills a pig the family gets all riled up and goes on a crocodile hunting spree. It was a lot of fun to hear all their stories! Well I have to go! I love you all and hope you are safe and in good health! See you all soon!


Love ya,
Sister Wood

oii!!

Bom Dia. Now that I´m getting close to coming home I´m feeling lazy while writing emails.... This week was good though. We worked super hard and I have to say it was difficult because of the sun this week. The sun was literally frying our skin this week. I never knew how hot the sun could be until I came to Northeast Brazil! It is ridiculous! We taught a ton of lessons this week, with few results....at the same time we were kind of expecting this because this week is CARNAVAL! Officially the wickedest holiday that exists on the face of the earth (that I know of) is Carnaval. It is 1000X worse than any other holiday! Luckily almost everyone goes to the beach, but a few people still stayed in Guarabira to party. Despite Carnaval, we still had a good amount of people in church. We are really doing great though. I´m crying more than usual these days because I´m quickly realizing that my time as a fulltime missionary is coming to an end. BUT I´m excited to see my dear family! I´ve learned so much on the mission. I´ve feel like I´ve learned more here than I could in a million lifetimes. I´m excited to apply all these things in my post-mission life. It should be great! Continue to be member missionaries and help this work go forward! Pray for missionary opportunities and the Lord will bless you all with the ability to touch someone´s life! That is one of the coolest think i learned on the mission....that being a missionary does not end! of course I won´t be able to teach lessons like the missionaries, but I will be able to give references and share my testimony with everyone! I have lots of missionary goals for when I return. Well, I gotta go! I hope you are all doing great and in good health! I love you all! Love, Sister Wood

February 28th, 2011

I´m writing this to you all while drinking an agua de coco in the Lan House here in Guarabira. Too bad I can´t bring it back with me to the U.S.! ..anyway...It is a beautiful, but hot day. This transfer started off well. I´m really excited that I stayed with Sister Vênia. I really don´t have that much to say today. We worked hard this week and are ready to work even harder this week. I stopped losing weight, which is a good and bad thing. I want to get skinny. It is starting to sink in that I´m leaving Brasil soon. Yesterday in church I started crying a little just thinking about how I am going to be able to say goodbye to these people. A few people came up to me afterwards and told me how much they would miss me. I really do love the members of the branch....such sweet, special people. I´m trying to use my time wisely because soon I will be headed home. I really don´t know what more to say. I´ll be home soon and be able to talk with you all....so the whole email thing is losing its shine. Just know that i´m doing well...I´m in good health. I hope everyone is doing great. I´m excited to see you all! Have a great week. Love you, Sister Wood

Last transfer-same place

TODAY officially I officially start my last transfer on the mission! Crazy! I´m not ready to come home and the closer April 6th comes, the more I want time to slow down....but like it or not I´ll be home in 6 weeks. Last night the branch had a small party for us because we were POSITIVE that one of us 4 missionaries would be transferred out of the area. Well we got the call and none of us were transferred! I was overjoyed and in shock....I asked President H about 5,000,000 times to stay in Guarabira this transfer with Sister Vênia and I just can´t believe I got my wish! Usually it just doesn´t happen that way on the mission. When you are loving your area and your companion, they switch you to a hard area with a dificult companion. I lucked out this time. I´m really grateful that the Lord and President H granted me this wish! Another big blessing was that we stayed with Elder Siquiera and Elder Jay. They are awesome missionaries and I definitely consider them as my brothers from another mother. They take such good care of us and really know how to help out the branch. It will be an awesome last transfer!

Well the transfer was about the only exciting news I have about this week except for the fact that I lost 7 pounds. yeah.....I got sick with a HORRIBLE case of the flu last Tuesday night and ended up sick in bed for 4 days. It was horrible, horrible, horrible. Needless to say, by the end of the week I wanted to die. Sunday morning I luckily had enough strength to get to church and to work afterwards, but by nighttime I was feeling sick again and running a high fever so I went to bed as soon as we got home. Unfortunately because of the fever being so high and uncomfortable I wasn´t able to sleep and just kept feeling sicker and sicker until about 2 am when I started crying and woke up Sister Vênia. I was dying of thirst but felt completely incapable of moving so I asked Sister Vênia to get water for me. After she went back to bed I just continued to get worse until I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up. I ran to the bathroom just in time and then.....I started throwing up. Anyway to make a long story short. I continued to throw up a lot until about noon when I was finally about to keep liquid down. The Elders brought me agua de coco and it took me 4 hours to drink it all, but by the end of the day I had finished the coco and eaten 4 crackers. The entire week was pretty rotten because I was sick...also 3 of our baptisms fell through! FRUSTRATION! BUT.... today I am feeling much better and skinnier. I´m taking lots of medicine to restore my digestive system and pretty soon I´ll be 100% healthy so no need to worry about me! Sister H took such good care of me! She is an angel. She called me all the time to check up on me and really helped me out a ton! The Elders as well were angels! They never got tired of picking up agua de coco, medicine, food, giving blessings, etc. Also my companion never got tired of my requests and was always ready to help me! Also several branch members called me, visited me, stayed with me and brought me food during the week! Being sick isn´t too bad when you are surrounded by angels!
Well I hope you all are in good health and safe and HAPPY! I´m happy! I´ve got my side-kick Sister Vênia with me until I end my mission in this beautiful area! We will see the chapel dedicated and hopefully watch the first general conference transmitted to Guarabira! Sister H put me in charge of organizing a choir for the dedication and it will just be an awesome experience to see all this coming together! I love Love LOVE you all and hope you are working hard to establish the Lord´s kingdom on the earth. The church is true. It is a fact that Christ lives and directs this church. The Book of Mormon is true and it was written for us. I feel so special when I read the Book of Mormon knowing that all those ancients prophets labored tirelessly to engrave these beautiful gospel truths so that we could be happy. As they saw their people being destroyed because of their iniquities, we were their hope.....that one day people would come to earth who wouldn´t reject the Book of Mormon and the Man of whom it testifies. I feel so honored that we were born in these latter days....that we have the promise that the work of the Lord will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." Remember who you guys are and what your potential is and what the Lord expects of you! I like a quote once told me, ```Jesus is coming, look busy``

Love, Sister Wood

Short again...

Happy Valentines Day....in the U.S.! Here it is June 12th! But I hope you are all feeling the love! alright this is going to be fast. AGAIN. sorry! This week was good. We worked hard and the sun about killed us, but it ended alright. We only had 108 people at church because it rained. :( It was a little bit of a downer, but this next week will be better. Saturday night I was asked to talk to the Young Women about Personal Progress and it was just such a great experience. I got to remember my days as a young woman and hopefully gave some helpful advice to these amazing girls. One bad/ interesting/ slightly funny thing that happened this week.....The Relief Society President in the branch talked in church yesterday and it was a mess. She used to be a member of another church, which is a fairly lively church where lots of shouting and taking of the Lord´s name in vain occur. All I can say is that when she got up to talk I started to pray....the more she talked the more I prayed. She spent the entire time pumping her fists in the air, yelling, shouting Hallelujah, and telling people to repent. Goodness gracious, it was a mess. I have never felt the need to run out of the room while listening to a talk in church before, but yesterday I was looking nervously at the exit. If we hadn't had investigators at church I would have thought the situation funny, but our investigators (2 of which would be baptized this week) said they felt extremely uncomfortable and nervous during her talk. I got a little mad afterwards and will be talking to the branch president tonight. This is almost a weekly occurrance that she scares the inactive people we are reactivating and our investigators. Anyway. that's how it is sometimes....the amount of apostasy in these out of the way areas is ridiculous at time! But either way I love Guarabira and I love the branch. This week we got to go in the new chapel with President and Sister H! It is beautiful! I was able to play the piano a little bit and I thought I would cry just having the chance to touch a piano. so great! But yeah. things are going well. the work continues as usual. I hope you all are doing great and in good health! LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, Sister Wood

132!

So guess how many people were at church yesterday 132!!!!! We blew our goal of 120 out of the water! WAHOOOO!!! The Elders, some members, and us worked our tails off all week and we reached our goal! President and Sister H were there yesterday along with the district president and they were just thrilled at the turnout! We almost didn´t have enough room for all the people on the benches! All I can say is that I thanked Heavenly Father a LONG LONG time for this miracle! It was so great. Almost all of the inactive people we took cookies too showed up and it was just a party! I haven´t been that happy or given that many hugs in a while! It was great though to see the results of our work. The chapel will be dedicated in the middle or the end of March hopefully (the city has to inspect it and declare it safe or something)...so a few weeks before I come home. I hope I´ll stay here to see the chapel dedicated. Either way I´m happy that the good folks of Guarabira will have a chapel soon. President H talked yesterday to the branch and said it really doesn´t matter whether we meet in a beautiful chapel or the house we are currently meeting in.....the gospel is the important thing...it honestly is the only thing that really matters. He compared the chapel to a box that holds the thing that is most precious...the pearl of great price.

Well This week was super busy and lots of things happened that I would like to talk about, but my time is up! I hope you have an AWESOME week!

Tchau, Sister Wood

A little bribery goes a long ways....

Well this week flew by! Goodness the weeks are flying by faster and faster! This week we worked SOOOOO HARD! I slept like a rock every night, which was actually really nice. The weather alternated between hot and sunny, to pouring rain the entire week. After it rains the air gets so thick and the humidity just kills me. The other day I was walking in the street and waves of heat just started to hit me. I felt like I was in a sauna. I looked around for something like a car or a machine that was putting off all this heat, but there wasn´t anything. It was just that hot. I couldn´t believe that I could feel like I was honestly in a sauna while walking in the open air. I really can´t complain about the heat though. The missionaries in Manaus have it was worse. I talked to a member who served in Manaus and he said the temperature up there in the Amazon is just unreal. As he talked about the weather, my desire to go there one day withered and died. Sometimes I think that walking in the heat all day is miserable, but a lot of other missionaries have it worse! In attempt to bribe people to go to church this week I made 5 batches of chocolate chip cookies and little laminated cards with the scripture from D&C 59:9-10 about the importance of going to church. We took them to at least 35 less active or inactive members and it was quite a task. We went to all of the neighborhoods in Guarabira and walked so much that we had to almost crawl up the stairs to our apartment. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor and the climb at night up those stairs almost seems impossible at times. I´m trying to give 1000% of myself in these last months of my mission and am pushing the limits of my physical endurance. The Lord definitely blesses His missionaries with strength. At times I feel like I don´t have the energy to go on. We walk up and down these huge hills everyday that zap our physical strength, and teach lessons by the spirit which zaps even more energy out of us. At times I am comforted by the fact that Lehi, after having had a vision (a great spiritual experience), fell upon his bed from exhaustion. I feel like that sometimes, but like I said...the Lord strengthens us! I´m sure I´ve had angels help me up these hills a few times! The branch is doing well here in Guarabira. I love everyone here so much! And luckily they love us! Everything is going great for us. I love the area, I love the branch, I love our investigators, I love my companion. I love everything, and therefore am worried that things will change in the next transfer! Either way I´m going to enjoy these last 9 weeks I have in Brazil. I never again will have these types of experiences. I will never again be able to serve a mission in this way. I´m so grateful that I was able to serve! It has been one of the biggest blessing of my life! The things I´ve learned here in Brazil are difficult to explain. I´ve never felt closer to the Savior. I never realized how merciful He is and how infinite His love is for us. The church is definitely true. Heavenly Father´s desire is to bless us, but we have to do our part to deserve these blessings. I am more convinced than ever that there is no experience that compares to a mission. I will be a better mother and wife because of the things I learned here in Brazil. This week was filled with many other activities and experiences but my time is ending and I need to end this. I hope you are all doing great and staying firm in the gospel.

Boa Tarde

This week flew by! The weeks are passing by faster and faster! We taught a lot of great people this week and I´m really loving Guarabira. It started to rain this week and kept on raining. Since Guarabira is all hills, except for the downtown, all the water goes to the same place--the center of the city. The downtown turned into a river and I just could not believe that people are used to this type of flooding. Honestly, we were walking and I couldn´t see the sidewalk or street...it was just all completely covered in water. A member told me that last year it got to be about 3-4 feet deep in the downtown. CRAZY! Anyway it was fun running around in the rain trying to teach people. I got completely soaked and felt cold for the 2nd time in Brazil. Rain or shine though when it hits the weekend the people down here party it up. We were invited to a recent convert's house for her mother´s birthday. When we got there everyone was drunk except Nice (recent convert) and it was an all out mess. Honestly people are just super retarded when they drink. We didn´t stay there very long thank goodness, but it was long enough for a guy to try and kiss my hand. I don´t know why, but brazilians get more romantic when they are drink. very strange. Anyway later that night a man drove by us on a motorcycle and fell over all of a sudden. As soon as he stood up it was easy to tell he was extremely drunk. He couldn´t even stand up straight and here he was trying to drive a motorcyle. Unfortunately this happens so much. The drunk driving laws don´t seem to exist down here, because on the weekend everyone seems to be wasted. I definitely know the Lord protects us, because with the amount of drunks on the road we should have been run over a long time ago.

Well this week they put in the garden at the new chapel. It is getting to be so pretty. It should be completed in a few weeks, but we won´t be able to meet there until we have 4 consecutive sundays of 120+ attendence. This week was 110, better than last week but getting closer to our goal. I hope to see the chapel dedicated before I go home!

Well since I´m getting closer to finishing my mission I´ve started to look at all the goals I had when I started the mission. One of those goals was to have a very close relationship with the Savior. I definitely feel closer to him than ever, but I decided there is much room for improvement. I decided until the end of my mission that I would study all the references in the topical guide about Christ. I started this week studying the titles: Advocate, Antemortal Existence, Antemortal Appearances, and Postmortal Appearances. Even after studying these 4 titles I have felt like I´ve made leaps and bounds towards getting to know the Savior better. I´ve been writing all my thoughts in a separate notebook and am excited to see how close I´ll get to the Savior in these next 10 weeks before I come home. The level of the spirit I feel now that I´m studying the Savior and His life has tripled and I feel like I am well on my way to having a stronger relationship with him. I felt extremely touched while reading the references about how Christ is our advocate with the Father. It is amazing that someone who never sinned or hurt anyone, took upon himself the sins and iniquities of every human being and on judgement day He is at our side pleading our cause. How many people would do that?One scripture under this topic touched me profoundly and I felt that one day he will plead my cause in the same way. In D&C 45 it says::

``Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him---saying, Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified. Wherefore, Father, spare those my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.``

When reading those words I felt and still feel the intense love and mercy that Christ has for us. He died because of our sins....because of the stupid things we do everyday...and yet he still loves us so much that he will stand by our side, pleading our cause. Now that is pure charity.

While studying about the postmortal appearances of Christ I remembered a joke someone told me on the mission. Why did Christ appear first to Mary, a woman? Because if he had appeared to a man the world still wouldn´t know he resurrected. Yeah, by word of plane, phone, etc still isn´t as fast as word by woman. Well I hope you all are doing great. I´m doing well, so no need to worry about me! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the cold weather. Thanks for the prayers!

Love you all!

Sister Wood

Sweating in Guarabira

howdy to all you guys up there in the cold cold north! It is BLAZING Hot down here.....honestly burning hot hot hot! Yesterday Sister Venia and I were climbing a hill at noon and we thought we were going to die. Honestly, the only reason I didn´t give up and fall on the ground is because the ground is way hotter. Honestly I don´t know how people live here at times in this heat. I take a shower and before I even get dressed I´m sweating profusely. I´m very excited to go back home and have air conditioning. This week the military police gave us another ride into town and feeling cold air for 10 minutes was just a tender mercy of the Lord. A lady today told me she has so much respect for us....because we walk in the sun all day....for free....helping people to have better lives. It really doesn´t seem like that much of a sacrifice though....only in the noon-day sun. Things went well this past week. We are working a lot more with members and less-active members right now than investigators. The chapel is getting close to being finished, but President Hall refuses to dedicate it until we have 120+ attendence for 1 month. Last week we worked our rearends off trying to get everyone to church and there ended up only being 95. This week we worked even harder and only 92 people came! So frustrating, but at the same time about 20 less actives came this week that hadn´t been in a while....just a lot of active members were out of town. Either way, we will reach our goal of 120! I want to see this chapel dedicated before I leave in 11 weeks.

Well things are just going normal here. I finished the Book of Mormon in French last week. It was awesome. I love French. Seriously want to learn that language. Next time we go to France I´ll be the one trying to communicate in French, not Mom! I´m now concentrating my study on the Book of Mormon in German. It is definitely harder (at least for me) than French. However it is coming along. I´ve already read 50 pages of 1 Nephi and it is amazing how quickly you can catch on to a language. Still it will only be after a lot of studying that I will ever understand German. I´ve also been studing a lot of Spanish grammar and talk to myself in Spanish all the time. This week while teaching I accidently said a few things in Spanish....I guess thats the risk I have to take! I just hope I continue to study languages for the rest of my life. There is something so fun about picking up something to read, understanding nothing, studying it daily, and little by little unlocking the keys of the language. I still can´t believe I´m coming home in 11 weeks. I´ve been getting really nervous about coming home. This entire week I´ve been exhausted because I haven´t been able to sleep very well. I lay down at 10:30pm....and then begin to think about the uncertain future...and I start to get nervous and scared. It will be really really weird for me to come back. I hope I take it well....and I hope I stop being nervous so I can sleep! Well. I hope you all are doing great and in good health. Continue doing the things that are right! This is the true church! No DOUBTs! The plan of happiness is perfect and God loves us so much. In sunday school we talked about evidences that God loves us... Truly having my family is the biggest proof (besides the atonement of Christ) that God loves me! Stay warm and stay safe!

LOVE YOU, SISTER WOOD

It IS true!

We had transfers and I stayed in Guarabira with the same companion--Sister Vênia! We both were super excited when we got the transfer news. The members here in the branch did a going away party in the chance that one of us 4 missionaries would be transferred. They made a HUGE cake for us and one by one went up to the front of the room and told us how much they respected and loved us. They thanked us so much for our work in the branch and even though I knew I was staying I still cried thinking that someday I will have to leave these people. At the end of the party we got the phone call. Elder Siqueira at first said that Sister Vênia and Elder Jay had been transferred, but then he said he was just kidding. Ahhh you just can´t play with our hearts like that! Everyone was super excited that all of us stayed and still gave us little `going away` presents...even though no one was transferred. I´m so happy I´m staying in this area. I really hope I end my mission here. Guarabira is a tiny city that has everything you need and our area includes a lot of other cute out-of-the-way towns as well. I´ve loved visiting these cute towns and the wonderful people that live there. I found out that my "daughter", Sister G, got transferred to Pombal. It is super close to Sousa and I just love the people there. When I was in Sousa the missionaries were just starting to work in Pombal and now they have a thriving branch there. I got the chance to visit Pombal at the beginning of the mission and am just so glad that my daughter will be working out there in the hot hot desert with such wonderful people! She will do a lot of good out there! So this past week or so has been good. We´ve been working a ton!! With the new chapel being built and nearing the end of construction President has asked us to work on increasing the attendence at church. We´ve been working a lot with less actives and new members and it has been great.

This last Sunday the Elders baptized a wonderful young woman who I just love to death. Her name is Raisa and we had the opportunity to teach her a few times with the Elders. The first time she came to church she stayed with me the entire time and we just really hit it off! She is such a mature and smart girl and really was looking for the truth. When the elders were teaching her, the pastor of her old church came and pretty much tried to lay a smack down on the church and call her to repentance. This made her a little uneasy about her baptism, but the elders talked with her a long time and she decided to be baptized. On the night of her baptism I got to share the message and shared 2 Nephi 31:20 with her. I told her it was mom´s favorite scripture and talked about how mom was an example of a woman who lives this scripture and because she lives it, it has blessed her life. I talked with her about the importance of enduring to the end. I told her that things would be hard and that there would always be opposition, but this is how we follow Christ--putting one foot in front of the other and following in his footsteps. After the message she was baptized. When she raised out of the water she had a stunned look on her face. As she walked passed us going to the bathroom to change, I gave her a thumbs up but she totally didnt see it. She didn´t look at anyone and looked just super stunned. After she returned and the meeting was over she called me outside to talk. She told me that when she came out of the water a completely new feeling swept over her...a feeling she had never felt before. She said she was just shocked that she could feel that way. She continued to talk about a peace and happiness that she had never felt in her life or even knew existed. As she sat there she just kept saying--``Sister wood, IT IS TRUE, IT IS TRUE!. I believed that everything I was taught was true, but now I know it!`` It is moments like these that I just never want to stop being a missionary. There is such a joy that comes when someone repents, or when the veil is removed from someone´s eyes and they gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

This past week one of the highlights of my week was teaching two young men who are atheists. Ok, you might think that it is weird that I enjoyed teaching atheists, but I did. Allan and Vinicio are two young men very disillusioned by religion and think that science and religion are opposites. The first lesson with them lasted 2 hours, but it was great. We talked about our purpose in this life, our potential, and our divine nature as children of God. I tell you I never thought I could feel the spirit so strong talking with someone who doesnt even believe in God. The Spirit was very present during the 2 lessons we had with them. Their biggest doubts have to do with wanting physical proof that God exists. I talked with them about the things that testify to me that God exists-- nature, my family, the hope and joy that we feel with each new day that begins, etc. I looked at them directly in their eyes and started to testify of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and of the love that They have for them. I told them that even though they didnt believe in God, He knows them and they chose to follow His Son in the premortal life. As I bore testimony to them I started to feel the love the Savior has for them....now this isn't abnormal because we often feel this with our investigators---but this time it was so powerful, so pure that I was just shocked. Here I was sitting in front of two young men who were proclaimed atheists and yet I was feeling God´s love for them. At the same time I felt, very clearly, that they were two very special sons of God. Honestly God loves everyone, even those that deny his existence. When I told them about the love I was feeling I could see it in their eyes that they had felt this love before.. from their Father in Heaven. I´m so grateful that God shows his love to everyone---the Christians, the Muslims, the atheist, etc. I don´t know if Allan and Vinicio will ever be baptized, but I have faith they will sometime in their lives. God´s plan is a plan of mercy and even though a person denies his very existence....``his hand is stretched out still``

Well this email is getting long so I´ll wrap it up with a few other things that happened this week. Sister Venia and I were invited to lunch at the Army Base/ Police Station by a member who works there. When we arrived in the dining hall I felt like all the eyes in the room were glued to us. Women are few and far between at this place and definitely two missionaries in the middle of a bunch of policemen and army officers would cause a stir. It was quite a lot of fun and the guys kept fighting to get a spot next to us at the table. The whole experience was a lot of fun and at the end 2 police officers gave us a ride home in the police truck. This is actually the 2nd time the police have given us a ride and I have to say it is nice because it is the only time we get to feel the air conditioner. Anyway the police have a lot of respect for us here in Guarabira. They always wave to us and stop to let us cross the road! It helps having friends in high places!

Well last thing! I promise! We watched the Other Side of Heaven this week with a few recent converts and I just never remember crying that much during that movie. I mean in the end when he is saying goodbye to the people on the island....I was just a complete mess. I just kept thinking that in a couple months, I´ll be saying goodbye as well. I still don´t know how I´ll be able to do it. I loved these people before I got here, before I even knew them....can you imagine the love I have for them now, after serving them for almost 16 months!? But, I love and I miss my family. Thank you all for the emails, letters, encouragement, and prayers. I feel them and am very grateful for them. This week I got the card you guys all signed for my birthday. I think it was one of the best presents I´ve every received. I keep picking it up and reading it and wanting to give you all big hugs and fatten you up with good-tasting Brazilian food. Pretty soon I´ll be able to. In the meantime, stay warm, stay healthy, stay strong in the church. Like Raisa said--IT IS TRUE, IT IS TRUE! It sure is. I love you all. Have a great week.


Love, Sister wood

Feliz Ano Novo

Well well. Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a great time partying up the new year! I went to bed at 10:30, but was awaken by all the fireworks that went off at midnight! Boy were they LOUD! After waking up I was unable to get back to sleep for a long time and decided to use my time wisely and do my nails---a vain, but useful talent I have acquire here in Brazil. New Years Day was probably one of the worst days of the year---missionary speaking. NO ONE WAS HOME and everyone who was home was drunk. I got really tired of only finding drunk people to teach and we ended up teaching a lot of less active members for the rest of the day. The member that offered to give us lunch on New Years, forgot and we ended up in a canoe without a paddle. Is that the saying? who knows...anyway.. No one was open for lunch....well actually one bar was open. We bought an agua de coco there to fight back the thirst. They only thing I had in my cupboard at home was a small package of drink mix mom sent me a little while ago and a package of jello. It turned out to be a decent lunch...better than I thought. This week was pretty good. We taught a lot of people and definitely made some new friends. I´m really loving the people here in Guarabira. They are all super nice and friendly. I´ve really fallen in love with one family here. They are relatives of the Cristiane--the bishop´s wife in Tibiri. Cristiane is definitely one of my favorite people here in Brazil and it is only logical that her family should be just as cool as her! Her sister lives here in Guarabira and we are teaching, her son, Geo´s girlfriend, Ariane. We always teach at Geo´s house and he has the funniest, craziest dog ever. It is a mini pincher named Nubi and he just goes crazy during the lessons! He climbed up all over me last night and I had to keep him at bay with a toothbrush...which is his chew toy. It was really funny holding him off with the toothbruch with one hand and trying to mark a part in the Book of Mormon with the other. But i have to tell you, I miss my dog Buck! This past week we went to Mamanguape again, but this time for interviews with President H! I was great to see President and Sister H again and I definitely enjoyed the interview. At the end of the interview, I asked President H to give me a blessing. At the end of the mission I´ve just started to get really tired, emotionally, physically, etc and of course President H gave me a beautiful blessing that I will be able to finish off the mission well. He also talked about all my ancestors that are seeing my mission and are proud of my sacrifice. He also told me to always remember the faith of my parents and to remember who I represent....not only the Savior, but my beautiful family as well. Anyway it was a great blessing and we both were crying by the end. I´m convinced that the priesthood is just about one of the coolest things that exists! Well. I hope you all are doing well. Continue to do the things that are right. We were placed on this earth at this time to prepare the world for the coming of the Savior. Thank you all for your faithfulness and righteousness. I know the Lord is blessing you and loves you all dearly, as do I. Have a wonderful week!!

Dec 27, 2010

This week´s email is just going to be short because there really isnt much else to say! I´m doing great! It is super hot--as always. I´m ready to start the new year. I have a feeling that this year will be awesome! Well I really don´t have much to say! Have a great week! I love you all!!!