18 Months of Sunshine

Last email

2011-03-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-03-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-03-08T05:43:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

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

2011-03-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-02-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-02-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

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....

2011-02-01T07:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

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!!!

Just a good week!

2010-12-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

So this week flew by super fast! I´m loving, LOVING Guarabira. It has everything--amazing people to teach, beautiful hills, a big town square filled with trees and Christmas lights, and tons and tons of Açai and Guaraná! Í have to admit that my companion and I are a little addicted to acai! I wish you guys could try it, but this is just no way to take it back with me! Don´t worry though, it will definitely be a food present in the Celestial Kingdom. This last week we worked super hard and met a lot of really cool people, but unfortunately very few of them went to church yesterday. Truly the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak describes these people. They are just so wonderful, but when it comes down to going to church they just give excuses! This past week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with an investigator and recent convert and I just forgot how much I love that movie! When they briefly showed the first missionaries going to Europe and teaching I felt super proud to be a missionary! That movie really was awesome though and helped me feel the Spirit and gain a stronger testimony about the Prophet Joseph Smith. What a hard life he had! How grateful I am that he never gave up, but endured to the end, restored Christ´s gospel, and therefore blessed the lives of millions and millions of people. After the movie/lesson we exited the tiny house and started walking through the neighborhood on the cobblestoned street I just thinking about how cool it was that I am preaching the same gospel that Joseph Smith restored and the same gospel that the Savior taught to the people in Jerusalem. It is just the coolest thing ever to preach the gospel...to carry the good news of the gospel. And even more of a blessing to preach to the Brazilian people! At times I think it will be the weirdest thing to return home. I´m used to small houses painted all sorts of wild colors, cobblestoned trees, palm trees, loud Brazilian music blasting from the houses, burning hot sun, beans and rice, etc. The U.S. will be a huge shock and I getting super nervous about going back home in April. Luckily I still have a few months to get used to the fact that I have to go home. Well yesterday I gave a talk and so did my district leader Elder Siqueira! We must have done a pretty good job because everyone complimented us afterwards. I talked about one of the biggest mistakes I made in my life---to wait until my mission to be a missionary. All my life I thought, wow I can't wait to be a missionary. What I didn't realized is that you can be a missionary at any point in your life! I told the branch that at the beginning of my mission I just started to think about the hundreds and thousands of people I talked to in my life and how I rarely shared the gospel. After almost 15 months on the mission I think the Lord is finally forgiving me for all the opportunities I had to share the gospel and didn't. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes we as members make. We think that giving a reference to the missionaries every 6 months makes us a member missionary. If I come back and am this type of member missionary I hope the Lord strikes me down on the spot! Anyway, well I hope you all are doing great! Have a wonderful week and Merry Christmas to you all!

Short, but sweet ☺

2010-12-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

Well these first few days in Guarabira have been fun! I was a little lost in the beginning because there are a million little streets and alleys that you can go down. Luckily I have my companion so we don't get lost too much. Guarabira reminds me a lot of Italian towns, just less cute and pictuesque. It is extremely hilly and I´ve been loving it. It is like being on a stair-stepper all day. This past week we taught a lot of people in a neighborhood near the chapel that is being built. They are a little bit poorer than the rest of the people here and therefore are more humble as well. We have been having a lot of sucess with them and baptized a young woman yesterday who is just super cute! We brought 4 people to church yesterday and one of them loved the testimonies of the members so much that she unexpectedly jumped up and bore her own. She is such a cutie! She wants to get baptized, but she has to go to church 6 more times before she can be! So sometime in January! While the chapel is being built the branch is meeting in a house in the downtown. The sacrament meeting is held in a pavilion type of thing behind the house and it was just the coolest thing every to see it filled with stallwart Latter-day Saints. The testimony meeting was definitely one of the best I´ve witnessed on the mission and maybe in my life. The Spirit was extremely strong and just got stronger and stronger with each members testimony. I´m super excited to work with these wonderful members! The end of my mission will be the best I´m thinking! Well I hope you all are doing great and enjoying the cold weather. It is hot and steamy down here! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Wood

P.S. I found this super cool quote by Elder Christofferson this past week in my studies:

``Some see only sacrifice and limitations in obedience to the commandments of the new and everlasting covenant, but those who live the experience--who give themselves freely and unreservedly to the covenant life--find greater liberty and fulfillment. When we truly understand, we seek more commandments, not fewer. Each new law or commandment we learn and live is like one more rung or step on a ladder that enables us to climb higher and higher and higher. Truly, the gospel life is the good life.``

All I can say is AMEN!

Guarabira!

2010-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well after 8 months in Tibiri I got transferred to Guarabira! I was super shocked on Monday when I found out I would be transferred. President H didn´t feel good about me staying there in Tibiri with my woman stalker wandering the streets. Speaking of which Sister G and I had a few run ins with my stalker this week. The scariest happened Monday night when we were walking in the street at night and kept hearing someone hissing at us. This is pretty normal so we just ignored it thinking it was a retarded drunk guy, but then Sister G turned around and saw ANA about 10 feet behind us! I got super nervous because she was SUPER CREEPY. I instantly yelled~~`` Ana, não fala comigo!`` (Ana, don´t talk to me) and then we took off running because she kept getting closer. We ditched our coconut that we were drinking the water from and booked it out of there. Needless to say I´m glad I left Tibiri. I won't have to ever see her again!

At the same time though leaving Tibiri was super sad. I really really loved the people there and pretty much spent a lot of yesterday giving hugs and crying. There are some really special people in that city that I will miss. Since Sister H is going home tomorrow her ward had a big going away party and invited us as well. I feel like a part of that ward as well because we live in the other ward´s boundaries and all our neighbors are members. It turned out to be a joint-goodbye party after everyone found out I was going as well. We all ended up eating dinner together and one of the members made a HUGE cake that was pretty darn delicious. Afterwards the young men and women said they wanted to say goodbye to us Brazilian style. They sat all four of us down and attacked us with green paint on our faces. Then they threw bags of flour on us! It was so much fun. I couldnt stop laughing. I looked at Sister G and just cracked up so much because she looked so ridiculous but then I realized I looked super ridiculous as well. They wanted to crack an egg on our heads, but luckily they had pity on us! It was a wonderful night though and Sister H and I definitely felt the love. The next day two irmãs did my hair and nails. I just couldn't stand the thought of heading to a new area without my nails being done. I´ve become very nail conscious here in Brazil, but don't worry I don´t go to the salon, I´ve learned how to do my own! Anyway yesterday was just a ton of food and goodbyes. The members gave me many presents and were just super hard to say goodbye to.

THe hardest goodbye of this past week was Sister H. She´s going home to Utah tomorrow and she is just the coolest person ever. I had the privilege of living with her for 7 months on the mission and she and I just had so much fun together. We also passed through a couple of horrible things together and that made us super close. Today was technically her last full day in Brazil and luckily I got to spend it with her. We went to the mission office for her final interview and then went out to eat. We found a sushi place and I just about died! It looked super expensive and I was a little nervous that it would be way out of our missionary budget, but it was sooo cheap and AMAZING. It was a couple blocks from the beach and therefore was loaded down with fresh fish! Sister H and I did the sushi rodizio buffett and we just about died of happiness when we saw it. It was the most beautiful sushi I have ever seen and they had a ridiculous amount of selection. We piled up on sushi and just kept saying how amazingly wonderful it was to eat something besides beans and rice. I honestly felt like I was in heaven. Anyway we chatted it up during lunch and afterwards went to the zoo in João Pessoa which has to be the lowest budget zoo I´ve ever seen. When we first ended they just had like a pen for an ostrich. We took a picture of it and kept walking and walking and walking trying to find other pens. We walked a good 30 minutes before we found the crocodile pen and we actually thought they were fake because they didn't even move. After taking a few pictures of them one of them moved his mouth. It is amazing how still they can be though---ridiculous! Speaking of aligators I saw one when I was coming to Guarabira on the bus. It was sunning itself on the side of the river. I decided that I would avoid all rivers for the rest of my mission. After the zoo, Sister H and I went to the bus station. Saying goodbye to her was way hard, but I didnt cry! I really hope to see her in 4 months. She is just one of my favorite people! One day I hope you guys will meet her!

Guarabira seems to be pretty cool. It is a branch and we meet in a house, but they are building a beautiful chapel and will dedicate it in January I think! I´m hoping I´ll be here for the dedication and open house! I love a big party! Guarabira also is known as the area in the mission that has the most hills....and I have to agree...it has a ridiculous amount of steep hills. We are here with two other elders (one who is supposed to be one of the funniest elders on the mission), so that should be fun. We´ll be eating lunch with them everyday and helping each other out with the missionary work. I´m super happy about the transfer. I´m companions with Sister Vênia from Brasilia. This is here second transfer and she seems pretty cool. She is a super hard worker as well! Mom, I´m glad you included some things for my companion in the Christmas package because she won't even be receiving one. It looks like you guys are having a lot of cold weather up there. Down here it is the opposite of course. HOTTER THAN EVER! It is ok though, I prefer the heat to the cold. We are keeping cold down here with our agua de coco and açai! I can't believe I´ll be home in four months....super weird! Keep on doing your best and leave the rest up to the Lord! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Until Monday

Feliz dia das gracas

2010-12-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Things are going great down here. This week was full of tons of work, but with very little results unfortunately. We met and taught a ton of new people, but we only had 2 investigators in church yesterday and very few of our investigators are keeping commitments. I just keep telling myself to keep working hard and the results will come with time. The Lord is the Lord of the harvest and the success comes in His time, not ours. Sister G and I are better than ever though. This is our third transfer together and I´m starting to dread being separated from her. We just have so much fun talking in the street to each other and to other people. Since we´ve been practicing our Spanish recently and at times we start saying things in Spanish and not Portuguese. Luckily people are very forgiving of our langauge capabilities. I´ve definitely decided though that I´m going to be fluent in Spanish when I get back. It is such a ridiculously easy language now that I´ve learned Portuguese. I´ll just have to deal with all the Spanish jokes from my fellow mission buds. Spanish down here is not looked on as a pretty langauge, but it is useful so I´m willing to learn it. My best mission bud, Sister H, is going home in 9 days to Utah and I´m NOT happy about it! We´ve lived together for 7 months and it is just going to be hard to see her go home. The weather down here is heating up big time. The sun has reached the point where you can feel the burn as soon as you step into it. However I continue to count my blessings that I´m in an endless summer....it would be so much worse to preach the gospel in snow! So this past week I woke up and put my foot on the floor to find I had what appeared to be a small splinter-like thing on the bottom of my foot. Knowing that I couldn't walk in the street all day with a splinter I decided to soak my foot immediately and take it out. After soaking my foot I took a small pair of scissors to the bottom of my foot where the area was swollen and puffy. After cutting a few little holes I picked up my tweezer to remove the splinter and the ``white puss`` that was near it. Well it turns out the splinter and the puss were none other than a tiny worm rolled up under my skin. With one move of the tweezers he came completely out, rolled up in a ball. I would of been so grossed out if it wasn't so cool! It definitely is super super gross and a proof that I´m living in a 3rd world country, but at the same time how many people can say they found a worm growing under their foot? Ahh the wonderful mission stories! Anyway I´m worm-free now so don´t worry. I´m pretty sure I´ll pick up another one before I leave because there really isn't anything I can do to prevent it. I already use shoes all the time and wash my feet several times a day so let's just pray that I don't get another one! Besides that though the week was pretty normal. Our water went out again a few times (I really don't know how these people live without running water for a few days every week!) and our energy went out as well, but not for very long. I was a little ready to go back home this week when I was sitting on my mattress on the floor, studying and a mouse ran in and hid in the dresser on the side of my bed and refused to come out. I decided to go to bed and prayed that I wouldn't have anything attack me during the night. I woke up and was fine, just had a huge cockroach on the side of my bed. BUT I´m very grateful that Heavenly Father sent me to a mission like this one. I needed to be humbled. I needed to just realize all the blessings I had before the mission....and I needed to realize poor people are just as happy as rich people. Last night we were visiting one of our recent converts and she said she just felt so grateful for the things she has and felt so bad for the people in Africa. While she was saying this I was just in amazement. She lives in a house that only recently has a new concrete floor and the walls are clay bricks pieced together with concrete....it is an extremely poor living situation and I was just in awe that she felt so blessed. I can definitely learn to be more grateful for the things I have. As we talked with her we watched her dog, cat, and monkey all eat together on the same plate...beans and rice of course. somethings you can only see in Brazil! Well I hope you all are great and that you have a wonderful thanksgiving! Read President Monson´s talk from conference about gratitude....it is awesome! Speaking of being grateful I would like to say very fast a few things I´m grateful for! I´m grateful for being a missionary! I´m grateful that I´m serving in João Pessoa, Brazil with these amazing people. I´m grateful for a wonderful companion and for a wonderful mission president! I´m grateful that the members feed us everyday and I´m very grateful I haven´t gotten dengue fever! I´m grateful for a living prophet and for general conference talks that inspire and motab choir music that edifies. I´m grateful for my Savior and for his obedience to His Father and His love for us. Finally, I´m grateful for you all, my special family and for the temple sealing we have. Happy THanksgiving to all! Eat some turkey and stuffing for me!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

A proposal

2010-11-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

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!
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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!!!

2010-11-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-11-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

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

Visited by an apostle and a parasite!

2010-10-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

So this week was pretty good. Sister G and I have been teaching like crazy and having a lot of success. We worked pretty hard this week and a few days ago I started getting dizzy spells. I thought it was because of the heat, but after talking with a few people I think it is because I have a parasite. We´ve been drinking tap water recently just because it is free, but it turned out to not be such a great thing.... The temperature has been getting pretty hot recently and it has definitely been a lot harder to walk in the streets with the hot sun baking our skin. Unfortunately the weather will just continue to get hotter until the end of the year. So yesterday in our meeting with the bishop I receive some great news....four of my recent converts are signed up to go to the temple this next month. Isn't that just the coolest thing? Also we had several investigators who went to a fireside that Elder Bednar held. They ended up enjoying it quite a bit and we are going to mark their baptisms for this week hopefully. Well I can't believe I´m going to stay another transfer in Tibiri, but at least all the ward members are happy. Several members are wanting to make us dinner in celebration of me staying and the bishop´s wife just wants me to move here after I finish my mission. So today we got to listen to Elder Bednar and his wonderful wife. It was a great experience. He pretty much talked the entire time about how we can become good teachers. He opened the meeting up to comments and questions and I was able to make a comment about a talk he gave a few years ago--Ask in Faith. After the meeting was over President and Sister Hall took the Bednars to the airport. When they returned they told me that Elder Bednar had really enjoyed the comment I made...which of course made me happy. It was so nice to be in the presence of an apostle and to learn from him. With out a doubt he is an apostle of the Lord and a special witness of our Savior. The Spirit was extremely strong in our meeting and I continue to feel it until now. He talked a lot about the importance of acting and not being acted upon. Many people wait for things to happen in their lives, but this is the opposite of faith. When I person has true faith he always acts. We show our faith by acting and not by being acted upon. This is a principle that I am trying to apply in my life during the mission and afterwards as well. After Elder Bednar left all the missionaries ate lunch and chatted. The entire mission was there for the conference which has not happened since last Christmas. It was wonderful to see everyone again. I really have made so many wonderful, lifelong friends on this mission. Sister H and Sister De Oliveira have made such an impact in my life and their friendship has been one of the biggest tender mercies I´ve received on the mission. When all three of us got together we just started talking a million miles a minute and giving hugs. I think I must have given Sister De Oliveira at least 100 hugs today alone. I just hope you guys get to meet these wonderful girls sometday! Well you guys know how I love to talk and today I was on full `´mouth of the south`` mode. I talked and chatted and laughed and cried until our motorist picked us up to go home. I´m so grateful for the missionaries in this mission! They are all so great! After the conference our motorist took us to get Açai (AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING) and took the road home that goes by the beach. IT was wonderful to see the rolling waves and beautiful palm trees. Honestly my mission is so pretty! Well I have to go now. You guys should totally read the priesthood session talks. I put them on my ipod last week and have listened to Pres. Utchdorfs and Pres. Monsons talks about 4 or 5 times and still haven't gotten sick of them. Honestly conference is the best thing since sliced bread. Well I love you guys. Have a great Week!

Still here, still faithful...

2010-10-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

So just to put your minds at ease, I didn't die last week and I wasn't transferred. I´m staying here in Tibiri until Dec 2nd! Waahooo! I´m so happy I stayed and luckily the members are as well. 8 months in one area!!! Crazy huh? But luckily I´m super happy. I´m going to stay with Sister G and Sister H and another new sister, Sister Arruda who Sister H is training. She seems so cool and I´m ready for another transfer full of hard work and fun! These past weeks have been pretty great. Tons of crazy things happened, but I think it is best that I save these stories until after the mission. Things are going great though. Lindenberg will most likely start his mission papers in 2 months and I´m thinking that it will be so crazy to have someone I baptized on a mission! Elizabeth was confirmed and bore her testimony the same day. It was a simple but amazing testimony and it was so awesome to hear. It is amazing the change that can happen and the testimony a person can gain in a matter of a few weeks. She talked with the bishop this last week to receive her temple recommend to do baptisms so she´ll be headed to the Recife temple in 3 weeks. Sweet huh??! As I was sitting in church this Sunday I was very satisfied with my work here in Tibiri. My baptisms are passing the sacrament, giving prayers, bearing testimonies, baptizing others, being ushers, teaching classes, doing visiting teaching, preparing for missions, etc. I´m very happy to have been able to see all the progress during these 8 months. It definitely is a blessing! As I´ve said a thousand times, the mission is the best decision I´ve ever made. I´m glad I´ve been able to be an instrument in the Lords hands to help change some peoples lives. It is a good feeling. I can't believe I´ll be home in 5 months...so weird. It will be so weird to go to a house that doesn't have a concrete wall around it, it will be so weird to see grass yards, it will be so weird to knock on a door instead of clap, and it will be so weird to eat something besides beans and rice....but I´ll get used to it. THe U.S. will be a huge shock to me, but it will be good to return home in April! I´m doing great though. Happy and ready to work harder than ever this transfer! Elder Bednar will visit our mission this next Monday, so that will be cool. I´m really excited to see an apostle close up. I took their visits for granted when I was at BYU. I´m sure Elder Bednar will whip us into shape and inspire us to be better than we are! I´ll be sure to write you guys all about it next week. I love you all and hope you guys are doing well. Always remember the importance of scripture study and prayer!

2010-10-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well wasn't conference just the best?!!!! When President Monson got up to say the closing remarks I couldn't believe that conference was already over! It flew by and was just what I´ve been needing to give me more incentive to be my best! We got to see the Relief Society session in Portuguese and I LOVED President Monson´s talk. Honestly, as women, judging is one of our biggest faults! I love that President Monson spoke very directly and sternly, but with love. After the Relief Society session was over a man in the stake came up and asked us if we wanted to watch the rest of the sessions in English. Sister Garrett and I about died of happiness. It is still a little hard for her to understand everything in Portuguese and I definitely jumped at the chance to hear a little of my native tongue. So it was a tender mercy really when we watch the other four sessions in English. I honestly started to cry when I saw temple square and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and heard the talks in English. I got a little homesick, but I got over it quickly. After all the inspiring words of conference, I´m ready to refocus on my mission and give everything I have to these last 6 months. Don't be surprised if I arrive barely breathing and extremely sunburned and mosquito bitten when I get home..after a few months I´ll recover! Life will be so different when I return...so different than my life here. I was thinking about it the other day when I woke up with mosquitos buzzing around my head and fresh blood on my sheets from the constant battle with the mosquitos. I think I´ll just leave everything here when I come home. All my sheets are covered with blood from the mosquitos, my clothes are slowly gathering permanent mold, my shoes are cover with dirt that will take several days and a scrub brush to clean, but I´m happy....extremely happy. I know the Lord will provide for me after my mission. This week turned out to be pretty great. We had a double baptism with the other sisters and it went really well. We sang `´ Eu Sei Que Vive Meu Senhor`´ ( I Know That My Redeemer Lives) and it turned out to be so beautiful! Elizabeth was SO excited to be baptized and was just beaming the entire night. So I´ve officially decided that I was sent to the perfect mission for me. In the intermission of conference they had a few shots of Brazil and everyone was dancing and carrying on....that´s definitely BRazil! I think the Lord knew I needed a mission with people like me-- people who like to have fun and who really know how to enjoy life. I love this place! I´m going to ask President Hall to let me stay in Tibiri one more transfer (that would be 8 months here!)....I hope he lets me. The people here are like my familiy and I just don't want to say goodbye yet! Anyway more about conference....Wasn't it just the greatest ever?? That talk by Elder Holland made me feel sooo guilty and I definitely made of a lot of goals to change my ways. President Utchdorf´s talk was.....wow...and Elder Christoffersons talk....LOVE iT. President Monson´s talk about gratitude made me really rethink how I need to better my prayers and my life....anyway conference was amazing, amazing, amazing, and answered every question I had. I hope all you guys got to see at least a couple sessions of it! Well the weather is heating up A LOT down here....and we are still just in the spring. dang it. pretty soon it will be like a literal frying pan. I´m really happy I have a sunny mission though. It would be difficult to get up at 6:30 in the morning if it was cold! So I´ve been trying to work on my language skills and recently started reading `´Le Livre de Mormon´´ and `´Das Buch Mormon`´...(French and German). I´m was getting close to reading 2 Nefi in French a few weeks ago and decided since I was understanding a lot of it I would begin reading in German. Well today I began the German and it will be a long, hard, bumpy road until I finish it. German is way harder for me to learn than French, Spanish, or Italian. I read a few verses in an Italian Bible the other day and understood 90%! It is great how all the romance languages are so interlinked. Don't worry though I´´m not going crazy with languages....just trying to see what other languages I would like to learn. A guy in the CTM (who also works in the U.S. embassy in Brazil)knew 7 languages and said it is best to learn several languages at the same time....not to focus on one and perfect it before moving on to another. Anyway in the little spare time I have, I~m trying to expand my language abilities. Well I hope you guys are all doing great! I pray for you guys always and know that the Lord is taking care of you all! I would give you all the same counsel that President Monson gave....when the conference talks are available,,, read them, and reread them....set goals and do everything you can to reach them. I love you all!! Até próximo semana!

September 27, 2010

2010-10-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well this is going to be REALLY fast because there is a new internet guy who is really mean and is kicking me off! My week was really good though. I ate chicken intestines and cow tongue for lunch...i didnt really like it, but whatever. Elizabete wasn't baptized yesterday because 1/2 the city was without water....That whole lack of water problem happens a lot here in the northeast. BUT elizabete will be baptized tomorrow. que gloria! Welll I´m officially being kicked off. I´m doing well though and love you all! Thanks for the emails and enjoy conference this weekend!

What goes down, always comes back up...

2010-09-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Oi Familia!

Well this week was better. Last week I was really down and out. When your body gets tired and out and the mosquitos are biting and the sun is burning...it is easy to get a little down. BUT this week went well. We arrived in the house of one of our investigators this week and before we said anything she asked to be baptized.....why can't everyone be this easy to baptize? She had a dream after we taught here the first lesson that she was going to church with her neighbor and arrived at the chapel here in Tibiri and told her neighbor she was a Latter-day Saint. Cool huh? She came to church so beautiful in modest clothes (EXTREMELY RARE) and immediately was fellowshipped. Severina helped her learn how to sing the hymns, the bishop welcomed her with open arms, the young women immediately crowded around here to help her feel at home, and even Leandro and Leandro (two of our recent baptisms) took down here phone number so that they could invite her to activities. She is very excited for her baptism this next Sunday and we are too. She will most likely be baptized with another awesome girl! We ended up having a bunch of investigators in the church as well, so that was nice. This week we had a conference with Elder Godoy (1st counselor in the area presidency of Brasil) and it was AWESOME! He has so much energy and spunk! He talked about a lot of cool things but the thing that really stood out to me was a story he told or actually an analogy. He drew a picture of a tree trunk that had been cut so that you could see all the rings on the trunk, or the years of the tree´s life. Some rings were darker than others and some rings you could tell had been damaged. He went on to talk about how one of these dark rings happen because a forest fire struck the forest that year and another ring showed that insects had invaded the forest that year. Through all these events the tree lived on until it was cut...and you could see its history perfectly....everything it passed through. He related this to our lives and said we are a little different than the tree. He said as we go through our lives it is almost inevitable to escape without a mark or blemish from sin...they just happen. We are imperfect and as the years and years of our lives go on, like the tree we acquire these marks....and then we are cut (aka die) and stand in front of our Maker....where He doesn't even need to ask us a single question...he just looks at our trunk (body) and our lives are completely laid out in front of Him....but the good thing is, unlike the tree these marks can be erased. The damage or mistakes can be completely erased in a way that we can stand before Heavenly Father without a single mark. He continued to talk about that this is possible because of Christ, this is the gift he gave us. That despite how many marks we have, we can stand pure and clean in front of God because of the atonement. I loved this analogy because it made me remember a time when we were all together at chimney rock. We were all walking down the trail when Dad stopped us at an old tree trunk and talked about the life of a tree. Ahhh what great memories we all have together! I cant wait to have more when I come back in 6 months!! Ahhh can you believe this week marks 1 year!! Goodness time flys!! Well I gotta go preach the gospel and baptize the folks aqui em Tibiri. Espero que vocês estâo bem! Te amo de mais!

September 13, 2010

2010-09-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Oi Familia!
This email is going to be extremely lame, but I´m just not with the highest of spirits today and think it is better to say nothing than to murmur. Dont worry I´m good though and I love you guys so much. This week will be better. Elder Godoy will be at our zone conference this Thursday and I will probably get my package so I´m getting excited about that. I pray for you guys always and love you.

Staying put for now☺

2010-09-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

So guess what?!!! I stayed in Tibiri. Yep I will have officially 5 transfers (7 months) in this area! WHOOOO. I was actually really happy I stayed. The thought of packing all my things up was just tooooo scary. I stayed with Sister G which I´m content about. I kind of miss having Brazilean companions, but President knows best. This past week and a half flew by and there really isn't that much to report. I´m really tired today. We spent the morning in João Pessoa looking for a dress for Sister G. Sister H stayed as well which means I´m happy about life. We are two peas in a pod and she wants me to date her brother when I get back. Since she goes home to Utah in December I told her she can be my ``João Batista`` and prepare the way for my dating life. Things are going well though. The temperature is starting to heat up and soon summer will be in full swing....which 100-110 degree weather for a few months. Yeah I´m excited about that. I feel like Tibiri is my home though...I know so many people here and could walk these streets with my eyes closed. I love the members, but stress about them a lot....taking care of the Lord's flock really can wear down on you. BUT I´m excited for 6 more weeks in Tibiri and know there is a reason I´m staying here. Until next Monday!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Love sister wood

The font runneth o'er!

2010-09-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

So this week FLEW by. I almost don't believe today is pday... again! This week was full of tons of great and funny experiences, but this computer keyboard is very retarded and I will just write the highlights! Yesterday we had stake conference and a member of the area seventy was there. His talk was so amazing and it talked about the importance of prayer. He explained many concepts about prayer that I had never thought about before and I felt extremely edified in the end. It was so nice to have stake conference and see everyone I know and love. It was impossible to talk to everyone I knew, so I ended up giving a lot of hugs and kisses on the cheeks. I think it might be hard for me to break the whole kiss-on-the-cheek habit when I go back home...but I´m pretty sure the single guys won't mind it. Anyway during the conference Lindenberg and Senhor José received the Melchizedek Priesthood! I was so so so proud of them. I wanted to jump up and clap and shout for joy when they were told to stand up and be recognized. I practiced self-control though and just sat in my chair with an ear-to-ear grin of happiness and tears in my eyes. It really is just wonderful to see someone go from....well what they were...and be baptized, confirmed, receive the Aaronic priesthood, receive a calling, and receive the Melchizedek priesthood....next step....THE TEMPLE NEXT MONTH!!! WOOOOO!!! Honestly it was wonderful to see the fruits of our labors! The day just kept getting better after the conference. Rafaela and Leandro were baptized last night and it was sooooooooo awesome. I wish you guys could have been there. At least 40 members arrived for the baptism, I made 2 cakes, Sister G and I prepared a special musical number, it was perfect!!!! (except for the fact I left the water running in the baptismal font and it flooded the chapel a little bit :) ....ha ha what can I say...I´m still Ariel, even in Brazil. But dont worry it got cleaned up fast! ) But honestly the baptismal service was awesome! Another cool thing...Leo (another Leandro--pec knows him!) who we baptized recently performed HIS first baptisms...yep he baptized his friends, Rafaela and Leandro. It was so cool to see someone Itaught that was baptized, baptizing others. Talk about awesome. Anyway things are going great. I´m happy and very much in love with Brazil. Obviously there are some things that I miss about the U.S., but leaving Brazil in 7 months will break my heart. I´ve gotten so attached to this place. Yesterday we were walking to Marcos Mouro ( an extremely poor area) and we went the back way. As usual, we greeted people along the way. We passed by a woman with 4 little children and when I passed by and said ``boa tarde` they started talking about my hair. Eventually one of the little boys (4 or 5 years old) yelled --`` druga, eu quero ficar com da gallega`` (dang it, well I want to stay with the blonde)....after saying this he ran up behind me and grabbed my arm and just started talking and talking and talking. The others soon followed after us. It was so cute walking to Marcos Moura on the tiny dirt path, in the midst of banana and coconut trees, talking to the cutest Brazilean kids ever. I´ve been very used to my life here and the people of Tibiri are used to me as well. A man this past week told me that Tibiri never would be the same when I left. What a compliment....I hope I´ve made my mark here. I feel like I know everyone...from the men who play games in the plaza, to the woman who sells batata frita, to the politicians, to the school teachers, to the boys who break dance next to the Catholic church, etc. I will miss this place so much. I don't know if I´ll be transferred or not next week, but I hope I stay here! Anyway, the Lord knows best where I need to go!

Time just flies...

2010-09-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

THis week FLEWWWWWWWW by! Last Tuesday and Wednesday Sister Garrett and I went to João Pessoa for a training. All the zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers were there for two whole days of intense training. Sister Garrett and I were the only sisters there, but it turned out to be fun anyway! The training focus a lot on learning how to teach people, not just lessons. They talked a lot about different technics we should be using and then we just ended up practicing a lot. Like I said it was fun, but I missed my area and my investigators. I find it a little annoying to sit in an air-conditioned room for two days. My body isn't used to air conditioner and I just end up getting the worst headaches at these types of meetings. Honestly I think my body is just getting adjusted to a more humble way of living. When Sister Garrett and I slept at the Presidents house at the beginning of the transfer it took me a week and a half before I could sleep comfortably again. The bed at the President's house was an excellent mattress, but I´m so used to sleeping on a half-sunken mattress on wooden slabs that it just threw me out of wack. I´ve also gotten used to the hot weather. When the temperature dips below 75 degrees I pull out my jacket, wrap myself in whatever blanket in closest, and drink cevada (a barley drink that looks a lot like coffee). Honestly I think I might die when I return home. I´m hoping the weather will already be warm in Georgia when I get back! After the first day of training we went to Mangabeira (sister de oliveira´s area) to try out the things we learned...and it was awesome! I honestly felt like I had learned so much in the training and was ready to apply my new-found knowledge. We taught a lesson with Sister De Oliveira and Sister Gonzalez and it was just so so great. They made me teach the first half of the lesson and as soon as I started it was like I was just an instrument for the Spirit. I don't remember anything I said. I just remember that I was being taught at the same time I was teaching these people. Sister De Oliveira sat there with a face full of surprise and afterwards she just kept telling me she never heard a lesson taught so well! She told me I taught great when we were companions, but that night was just a whole other level! It was so cool to put the things I learned in practice and to be an instrument for the Spirit. After the night was over we stayed at Sister De Oliveira´s house and she and I just talked and talked and ate and talked and did our nails and talked and talked and talked. It was so great to see her. I just hope you guys get to meet her one day! She is just one of the coolest people ever and one of my best friends. THe only thing sad about the night was that Sister H wasn't with us....we are the 3 musketeers! At least I think you guys will get the chance to meet Sister H one day! She is just as cool and awesome as Sister De Oliveira...only difference is that she´s American! Goodness I´m writing way too much! Time is slipping away! Anyway...things are great. a recent baptism of mine got called to be a counselor in the Primary and a guy we baptized a few weeks ago received the aaronic priesthood. Everyone is doing great!

Sweet dreams

2010-09-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well this week was normal for the most part! It was filled with tons of work, long hot days, and a ridiculous amount of walking, but it was fabulous! Hmm...where to start... we taught a lot of cool and interesting people this week. We met a missionary for the Baptist Church and he asked us to come to his house for a Bible Study. We accepted and when we arrived it was very apparent that he just wanted to prove our religion was false, but he was nice about it. He wanted to know about what we believed and since I knew he wouldnt go to church with us ( he really was just looking for dirt on us), I told him about why our religion was so awesome. I talked about eternal marriage, baptisms for the dead, the spirit world, the pre-existence. It was a really great experience though because I just gained a stronger testimony of how perfect the gospel is and how merciful Heavenly Father is with His children. For instance, a lot of religions believe if you aren't baptized in this life you don't have another chance, that you can't repent after this life and that we are all just going to be sisters and brothers, not husbands, wives, children, siblings,etc Goodness when I was talking about the spirit world and baptisms for the dead I realized that Gods plan literally is perfect. He has made it so easy for us to return to him...he gives us so many chances! Anyway, we left the guy's house on good terms.

So yesterday I found out that one of my converts is going to receive the Melchizedek.Priesthood in the stake conference in two weeks! I was so excited when I heard about his progress! Yay for converts that say firm in the church!

These past few weeks have been weeks of lots of politics. They are having some elections down here which means that every stereo system or amp that can be found is hooked to the top of a car or truck to blast propaganda to the good people of TIbiri. It has gotten to be a little annoying walking in the street with all this constant noise, but very funny at the same time. The politicians here use a lot of funny jiggles to pitch their platform. Well this last week we were in the square at the end of the night with the other sisters heading to an appointment together when one of these politicians came by with a parade of at least 10 cars honking and blaring music. People were hanging out of every car window and streaming and throwing confetti. It was quite the party. It was just such a ridiculous sight that I started laughing my head...well the politician saw us 4 missionaries and jumped out of the back of a truck and ran up to us talking about his platform. As soon as he arrived so did the cameras. He talked about all the things he would change and then asked us if we were from here....I was like....ahh no. It was hard to keep from laughing just because of the situation. Fireworks were going off over our heads, the ridiculous political jingles were playing in the background, and the paparazzi were in full force. He took a lot of photos with us so who knows if my face is in the local paper.

So the spiritual experience of the week has to do with our beloved investigator Rafaela. The first time we taught in her house we actually taught her parents not her. During the lesson the spirit was extremely strong and so we thought that Rafaela´s parents would turn out to be awesome investigators. After several follow-up visits the realization that they werent interested was very apparent and we were confused why we felt the spirit so strong in that house. Thats when we met their daughter Rafaela. Shes 20 years old and a complete doll. We´ve been teaching her for the past few weeks and marked her baptism for a week and a half ago. Unfortunately she missed her baptism because of work. She works on Sunday and can only go to church if she gets off early. We got a little frustrated because of this situation, but we didnt lose hope! This past week we met with her and she told us that she wouldn't be able to go to church this Sunday. We ended up getting a little sad about the situation, but continued to pray for things to work out. Yesterday we were sitting in the church when who should arrive but Rafaela! She told us she told her boss that she would be leaving work early every Sunday in order to go to church and that she had an experience and wanted to be baptized. Turns out she had a dream after we left her house last week and in the dream she heard a voice saying---Just follow, just follow. She awoke and according to the feelings she had she knew she had to be baptized. It was an amazing thing to hear and I started to tear up because of how thankful I was in that moment. I realized that the Lord really is preparing people for us and he is doing His part in this great work. It was just such a humbling experience to realize that the Lord can work with sometime so simple and weak as me. It really is one of the coolest things about the missionary work....the Lord uses the weak things of this earth to bring about the eternal salvation of His children. This week Rafaela will be baptized along with 2 others equally wonderful and precious investigators. ´

the work continues...

2010-08-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

So this will be fast! This week was great! We marked 4 baptisms in 2 days so I was really proud of myself. I'm enjoying this area still and would be content staying here a few more transfers. The work gets to be difficult at times and the ward too, but the Lord keeps translating all the perfect people and I'm getting used to being left with the leftovers. No, but honestly I'm loving the people. They make me want to pull out my hair at times, but I still love them so much. This last week was full of ton of great experiences that I had time to write in the journal but not in the email. Sorry :(. Ok ok, I'll just write one experience really fast. We are teaching a young man with special needs. He is autistic. Slow down, slow down... I know what your thinking. I haven't gotten so desperate to baptize people that I'm throwing special needs people in the water! His mom and the bishop wanted him to be baptized, because he wants to pass the sacrament...and he can't pass the sacrament without the priesthood and cant get the priesthood until he is baptized. Anyway I learned a lot of new things about the official church manual that I never knew about. BUt anyway we taught him the plan of salvation this past week and during the lesson I just started feeling the spirit extremely strong. I honestly felt the love that God has for him. When I started talking about the Kingdoms of Glory and more specifically the Celestial Kingdom I started to get really choked up. This young man just got so excited about living with God and I just kept thinking about how innocent he is in God's eyes. As I talked about the Celestial Kingdom I told him that is it a special place where God lives and where we can live with our families forever in happiness. ..then I bore my testimony to him....telling him that I knew 100% that he would go there. It was an awesome experience teaching someone who is so pure, so innocent that you already know his exaltation is guaranteed. It really was awesome to teach him and I just left his house feeling how much God loves his Children,, how precious they are in his sight. Anyway...I'm out of time unfortunately, but I'm doing great. We are working hard and the sun has stopped burning my flesh! I love you guys so much! Have an awesome week!
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love, sister wood
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2010-08-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well these first few days haven't been too bad. I feel a little bit like a full time mom or babysitter, but it is going well. Luckily Sister G is really cool and speaks Portuguese well for an American new to the field. We´ve been working really hard, but having few results which is extremely frustrating. I feel like everything, literally EVERYTHING depends on me. The pressure is extremely present and I lost 6 pounds this week from stress and stomach problems. But don´t worry about me. I´ll get the hang of things soon and everything will turn out alright. The mission is just a life of Ups and Downs. I´m getting used the constant changes and the constant trials that come. This past week I was feeling a little down and out when Sister H shared a really cool scripture with me in D&C 138:13 that talks about the righteous in the spirit world. The righteous were those who ``....had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name.`` Sister H talked to me a lot about that is why our lives are so hard. We are expected to offer great sacrifices in our lives in order to be worthy to be counted with the righteous. When I look back on my mission I´m pretty sure I´m going to think of it as the hardest and best time of my life. I definitely feel like I have suffered a ton during my time here, but I´ve also had some of the best experiences in my life...experiences that have honestly shaped and molded me into a better person. Anyway things are going well. I´m happy and safe, so no need to worry. Thanks for everything you guys do to encourage me to be a better missionary and person. You guys honestly are my angels and words can't express how much you mean to me.! Have a wonderful week.

Treinadora

2010-07-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

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 ☺

2010-07-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2010-07-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Ok I´m officially repenting. I´ve decided to start writng longer emails because so many things happen that I know you guys would like to hear. We had another great week in Tibiri. Sister De Oliveira and I worked at our maximum this week and it was wonderful. We met so many wonderful people and had so many spiritual experiences. Yesterday was an awesome day...we really saw the fruits of our labors! Five less active people that we are working with showed up at church and it was so great! 3 of 5 of these people had served missions and one had been a counselor in the bishopric many years ago before going less active. I wanted to cry from happiness when I saw them all show up! Also to add to the joy and happiness we had two baptisms--one a man named Leandro and the other a woman named Severina. I´ve been working with Severina since I arrived in the area and really wanted to see her baptized. Her daughter, Tercia, is a strong and faithful member of the ward and was taught by guess who?! Patricia, who is the daughter of Andreilton who we baptized in Potengi! Small world huh?! Anyway the baptism was just wonderful! I wish you all could have been there to witness it! The Spirit was extremely strong during the meeting. Tercia and another member of the ward did a special musical number and sang a song that actually was a testimony at the same time. It repeats the words, ``I know God lives, I know he loves me, I know he listens to me when I pray`, many times and it is just absolutely beautiful. They got so choked up while singing, but it you could really see how much they knew the words of the song were facts. Everyone was crying, including all Severina´s nonmember friends who were present and now want to be taught! Yay! Severina´s daughter was just glowing with happiness. Imagine how many years Tercia waited and how many prayers she said to see her mom be baptized. During the meeting I got a little teared up and I just kept thinking---This is why you left everything and everyone in the U.S.....to have moments like these. I can´t explain the joy the comes when you see someone repent...I just think about the joy God has when we repent....now I can see why he does everything in His power to call us to repentence. Anyway the missionary work brings an undescribable joy. At times I feel like my heart will literally burst because of the joy I feel. During the baptisms I also felt a great sense of humility and gratitude. How grateful I am that God gave me this time to serve a mission. How grateful I am that he calls and qualifies the weak and simple things of this earth. Another great experience this week was with Leo, Lindenberg´s cousin (a man we baptized recently). Since I´ve been here I´ve always talked with, laughed with, and teased Leo. We never really taught him because he never showed interest in the church and smokes, drinks every once in a while, swears, etc... A few weeks ago he ran up to us in the street and said he was trying to stop smoking. Since then we´ve been checking his progress, but honestly never thought he would take an interest in the church....BUT this past week we were teaching his cousin Lidianne and he sat in on the lesson. We talked about repentence and the power of the Atonement. As we talked, to our GREAT surprise, Leo´s eyes started to fill up with tears. I was extremely surprised. Here in front of me was a young man who I knew as the guy who swears, smokes, is vulgar, but somehow he had changed over these past 2-3 months so gradually that I hadn't paid attention. When he heard about the atonement and that repentence is possible it was like a heavy weight was lifted off of him. I think he realized hope exists, and that repentance is possible. After the lesson he said he wanted to go to church with us and wanted us to mark a part in the Book of Mormon for him to read. We marked Mosiah 28 about Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah. He is really excited to read and I hope he will continue to change his life for the better.

So this past week marked 9 months on the mission or my 1/2 way point and I started realizing how fast this mission is passing by. I started to fell sick when I thought about the fact I have only 9 more months to serve the Lord 100%. It was a horrible feeling. Don't get me wrong. I love you guys but I will miss the mission so much. I am forever changed because of this mission and President and Sister Fernandes. This past week was their last zone conference and I definitely wasn't ready to say goodbye to them. My new mission president, President Hall, will arrive this Thursday! I´m excited to get to know him and his wonderful wife!

Well thanks again for all the great emails and support. I love you guys so much! Stay strong and always to looking for ways to build your testimony!
Have a great week!

2010-06-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

Oi! Well today we had transfers and guess what?! I stayed in Tibiri again, but with a new companion---Sister de Oliveira!! We´ve been living in the same house for the past 3 months and have grown to be great friends....no...awesome, AMAZING friends! When we heard that we would be companions we just started to jump up and down and screamed at the tops of our lungs for happiness! I also was called to be senior...the only difference is that I walk with the cell phone...BUT I am super excited that I stayed in Tibiri. I really love this area and I know Sister de Oliveira and I will continue to help the church grow here. So this last week was good. We baptized a young man, Janielson, on Sunday and it had to have been one of the most stressful/ hilarious batismal services that I´ve seen in my life. He was baptized at least 10 times (not kidding) and at one point we thought that he would just get sick of being dunked in the water and give up, but eventually all his limbs stayed in the water at the same time and he was baptized! Whooo hoo! He was so happy after the baptism and said the closing prayer which turned out to be an absolutely beautiful, humbling prayer. He changed so much during this past month and he loves to talk about the things he will do on his mission. I still can't believe that I´m a missionary...helping people come to Christ and change their lives. It really is a humbling experience being an instrument in the Lord´s hands, but it is absolutely wonderful. This past week we also had many sucesses with inactive members, but I will just share one. We´ve been working a lot with a man who´s been inactive for 4 or 5 years. When he left the church he was a counselor in the bishopric. Luckily when he left the rest of his family stayed in the church, but since that time he hasn't returned to set one foot inside the church....until this past Saturday! We had an activity in the church and he ended up coming! When I saw him entering the church I just got so happy! He really is making great progress and soon we will get him to go to church on Sunday. Well I don't know if you guys know that World Cup is going on right now..but it is and I´m telling you Brazil is the place to be during World Cup! The people down here are crazy, no INSANE about soccer. Yesterday Brazil played against South Korea and the streets were vacant during the game. Businesses shut down, schools shut down, everything was closed! To help the missionaries avoid the temptation to watch the game, President scheduled our zone meeting 3:00pm yesterday. When we showed up for the meeting all the elders and sisters were anxious and many prayers were said for Brazil to win. During the meeting we heard tons of fireworks when Brazil scored and people screaming. Honestly soccer is more than a religion down here. It sounds like you all are doing great. I love reading your emails every week. They bring me so much joy! This next week I will have 9 months on the mission. Can you believe it? I´m half way done?! It feels so weird...time is passing by too fast. I really love it here so much and feel like I´m at home. I think it will be difficult to return home in 9 months and return to normal life. Anyway, Have a wonderful week and know that I am praying for you all! LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Ariel Wood

Old pictures from the CTM

2010-06-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

These are from the CTM posted by Luciana Fonseca Fiallo.

A new direction

2010-05-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

This week was great! We had conference this week and it helped me out so much. Before conference started I was just a little put-out that I didn't know why I wasn't baptizing in this area. In my mind I had done everything to help the work progress, but during conference I was humbled. Everyday I pray to do the Lord's will in my area, but I realized during conference I wasn't doing His will. The Lord didn't send me to Tibiri to baptize a lot of people, but to strengthen the ward and the members. When I was called to work in Tibiri, President Fernandez told me that my purpose there was to help the members get excited about the work. Since I arrived there I just tried to baptize, baptize, baptize. During the conference I felt the impression many times that right now wasn't my time to baptize, but to help out the ward. After receiving these impressions my companion and I decided to change how we were working .Now we are working more with less active members and recent converts. Things are definitely doing better and I know that the Lord will bless our efforts here in Tibiri. Até próximo semana!Love, sister wood

"Endure to the end"

2010-05-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Well this week was...good for my spiritual growth. In reality I spent many nights crying and praying and just asking for the strength to get through the next day. This area is trying to kill me, but it won't suceed. I know I'm here for a purpose and I think I will remain here for some time. Things will get better, it just is difficult at times to work with everything you have and no see the results. I worked in the torrential rain, I worked in the burning sun, I worked with the hundreds (literally) of mosquito bites I have on my body, and I worked with a horrible flu that is still lingering and it appears that all my work has been in vain....but honestly I know that isn't true. The Lord is just trying my faith and trying to help me be a better person...this is something that He always will do. He will stretch us, mold us, pound us, shape us until we are the people He wants us to be. Yesterday after lunch I shared a thought with the irmã about Joseph Smith´s experience in liberty jail. I read the first part of D&C 121 for her and talked about the brutal and at the same time wonderful fact that the Lord will always gives us these hard times. An apostle (I forget who) said in conference a few years ago, `God in his wisdom shields no one from hardships´. After reading these verses for this irmã I talked about the Lord's response...Joseph..peace be unto thy soul, thine afflictions shall be but for a small moment and if thou endure it well God shalt exalt thee on high. When I read this scripture comfort came immediately to my soul...I felt the Lord saying to me Ariel, or Sister wood, have peace these things will pass, just endure them well. I'm trying my best not only to endure, but to endure these trials well. I know the Lord has not left me alone in this area, He never leaves us alone...He just gives us the things we need to be a better, holier people. are all continuing to do well Have the best week ever.

"Parent Trap III"

2010-04-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

This week’s letter is going to be short. We spent all day in João Pessoa being interviewed by the president and receiving a training about lots of mission related stuff. Anyway I wasn’t so happy about spending our pday at the mission office, but such is life. Today is also my companion’s birthday. After emailing fast we are going to eat pizza with the other sisters we live with. This week was pretty good. Our spirits were high and we worked hard. Last Monday night we received word that a man we baptized was shot accidently by his friend. Luckily it was just in the arm. He was in the hospital for a couple days, but now he is back in his house recovering. Yesterday he took off the bandages and we got to see the wound. It was awesome!!! The bullet passed completely through his arm leaving an entrance and exit wound. The good thing about this is that he now has a stronger disposition to go to church regularly. Sister Nascimento and I live in a house with 2 other sisters--Sister Burton and Sister de Oliveira, and it is just the most fun thing ever. Seriously every night is just crazy because Sisters Burton and Nascimento are going home next week. We have already had a water balloon fight in the house and a water fight with buckets. Last night Sisters Burton and de Oliveira surprise attacked us with mousse in the face. Luckily they made a huge bucket of it and we had an all out war. Goodness the aftermath was horrible though because the mousse had egg whites in it and it hardened in our hair and clothes and on the floor of our house and everywhere....but it was soooo fun! Unfortunately we didn’t realize that out house was without water ( which happens a lot here) and we had to take a bath on the side of our house with buckets. We just about died laughing as we helped each other wash the mousse out of our hair. This morning, when we woke up and opened the back door a big mouse ran in and hid in the room that holds our suitcases are. After fighting for a few minutes about who would take care of the mouse...Sister de Oliveira and I finally volunteered and entered the room. We closed the door and Sister de Oliveira scared the mouse out from under the dresser and I started whacking away at the mouse...but I’m a horrible shot. (luckily Sister Burton filmed this all from the window) I kept hitting thin air or the floor next to the mouse...and every time I swung the broom stick for some reason we screamed. Honestly we were very much ´´girls´´ screaming and jumping on top of anything that was close and let us escape the mouse. Finally I killed it and afterwards we buried it in the backyard. The funeral was very sweet, few people attended, but tears were shed. Hopefully the mice will avoid our house in the future! So this past week Sister Nascimento and I were walking in the street at night and when we turned the corner a girl yelled ´´Sisters!!!´´. We didn’t recognize her, but started talking to her and she said she was a returned missionary who was inactive. She returned home 2 years ago and because of lack of friends in the church and other wrong choices she left the church. As she talked to us she started to relate all the problems that had happened to her since she left the church. She also said she was fervently praying for help in her life while walking in the street and we all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. We talked to her for a long time and she has a lot of doubts about returning to the church. She really wants to return to the church, but thinks everyone will judge her and she is also very ashamed of how her life has turned out. She talked about how things were hard for her when she was going to church, but said it was the only time in her life that she was actually happy. She talked about since she left, that she only feels an emptiness that won’t go away. She tried to find happiness in many things--drugs, alcohol, men, etc, but she said her life is nothing but loneliness and unhappiness because of her decisions. We talked to her a lot about repentance and committed her to go to church this next week. She promised she would. Talking to her was really an awesome experience. While we were talking I felt very strongly the love and concern that God has for her. As we said our goodbyes and started walking home Sister Nascimento and I just started tearing up because of the testimony we gained about the love of God for his lost sheep. The scripture in Alma came clearly to my mind: “Now my beloved brethren we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in, yea he numbereth his people and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth.” I have a very strong testimony of this scripture. Every day we meet people who are ´lost´ spiritually and it is just the most humbling experience ever to meet these people and talk to them. Gotta go. Time is up! Love you, Ariel

2010-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

How was your week? Mine was difficult, but I got through it. This week was only a little bit of a disaster because our baptisms fell through and we had to cut a lot of people from our teaching group who weren't progressing. Also the weather has been a little difficult this week-- the beginning of the week it was hot and I received a nice sunburn and at the end of the week it was nothing but pouring down rain. Because I don't have an umbrella I got completely soaked one night and was actually a little cold for the first time on my mission. I was walking in a 1ft-deep river aka the street, and the thought came to my mind...wow I really wish I had a sweater..but after a few seconds I just started laughing because the thought of using a sweater here is just ridiculous. It was really fun to try and walk in the flooded streets though...luckily the majority of the streets empty fast after the rain stops. The rain will stay for the next couple months so I think today I will buy an umbrella. Well this past week I saw my first living tarantula in the wild and unfortunately I saw it in a house. I was teaching about the Plan of Salvation when all of a sudden I saw a ridiculously HUGE spider running on the floor behind our investigator. As soon as I saw it I screamed nossa!!!!` (the equilivent of oh my goodness) and scared everyone in the room. When our investigator saw it he jumped from his chair and smashed the tarantula with his shoe. Goodness it was quite an interesting thing to witness, but now I'm nervous that we will find one in our house! Unfortunately there are a lot of big spiders in this area and scorpions, but I have yet to see a scorpion.
Anyway things are going well. The mission really can be extremely difficult at times and physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting, but it is also the most rewarding experience of my life. Many times this past week I just wanted to sit down and cry and give up, but I refuse to be a quitter. When times get tough a person really has to make the choice to give up or go on. If the person gives up one time it will be easier to give up the next time and the next time and so becomes the pattern of their life. The opposite is also true. If a person endures one difficulty they know that when the next hardship comes they can endure also and a pattern of endurance is set. I think this is one of the best lessons I'm learning on my mission---to not give up. When I have a difficult day thoughts always come to my head like --What are you doing here? Do you really think you can make a difference? Your life would be so much easier if you just went home....etc. Luckily I'm developing a "never give up" attitude. Many times this week I thought I just couldn't take anymore--when you are standing in the torrential rain, soaking wet and everyone is shutting the door in your face it is easy to have these feelings---but honestly giving up will get a person only one place---nowhere! Though it seemed almost impossible at times to go on this past week the point is that it was possible. Yesterday I was sitting in sacrament meeting a little discouraged when the words "You havent failed until youve stopped trying" entered my mind. It really is true. We really never have failed in our lives, in our missions, etc until we give up and choose not to endure to the end. Unfortunately I talk with people everyday who have given up on life. We are teaching a family that have a lot of problems with addictions---smoking, alcohol, crack. Many of these problems came because they thought their lives were too difficult to deal with and so they just gave up. They gave up in school, in work, they stopped going to church and now they are suffering from their actions. It is so sad to meet people who have developed this "give up" attitude and have slowly, over the course of their life, become subject to the temptations of Satan. Anyway the point of this email is just never give up...it leads to only one place. The only option, though at times it appears difficult and impossible, is to press on. Nefi says it better than me in 2 Nephi 31:20 --- Wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. WHerefore, if ye press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, behold thus saith the Father, ye shall have eternal life.?
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Oh below is the email address of my companion. This next monday is her birthday and she only receives emails from one friend. She is the only member of the church in her family and her family didn't agree with her decision to serve a mission. If you all could please send a short email to her wishing her a happy birthday that would be wonderful. She understands English and her name is Sister Nascimento. She is an awesome companion and I really want her to open her email this next week and have some emails wishing her a happy birthday.. Thanks.
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Love you!
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sister wood
mailto:sisterdaiananascimento@myldsmail.net

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Gallega bonita

2010-04-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

This week was one of the hardest weeks of my mission so far, but in a good way. Sister Nascimento and I worked nonstop this past week and at the end of every day we were just almost too exhausted to take a shower. Our hard work paid off though. We baptized a man yesterday and will baptize another this next Sunday. Things are going well here though. The weather has been a little bit cooler....80 degrees ish...because of all the rain we've been having. The rainy season has arrived more or less and a lot of the streets have turned into lakes. Its great though. My chacos dry fast and I never have to do my hair anymore. Usually I just put it up into a ponytail or in a bun because anything else will just be destroyed in about 5 seconds. I'm sticking out a lot here unfortunately. Not a single day has gone by on the mission without someone in the rua saying ¡gallega bonita! (oh beautiful blond). Yesterday we were walking in the street and some young men started yelling some things at me and I turned around because I wasnt sure what they were saying. As soon as I gave them that little bit of attention ja era! (it was done)...they said o gallega linda, ?fica vermelho! (oh beautiful blond, don't get red (embarrassed)). They continued to shout: gallega donna de minha coracao, te amo....?(oh blond lady of my heart, I love you!) goodness gracious all I could do was laugh and ignore them. So until now I've never had a problem with dogs, but two times this past week my companion and I have almost been attacked. The first incident was when we were searching for the house of an investigator...we found it without any problems, but there was a dog parked right in front of the gate. As soon as we approached he seriously leaped at us...barking, and snarling and trying to bite us. It took us quite by surprise and me being the person I am decided to sacrifice Livro de Mormon instead of my leg. I placed the Book of Mormon between me in the dog so he wouldn't bite (horrible I know....almost basphemy!) , but luckily I stepped back just in time and his bite landed in the air. e decided to just continue on our way and not talk to our investigator, because the dog seriously refused let us pass. The second incident happened this morning. We were arriving at a house of an investigator and this dog in the front started running towards us barking and snarling. I thought we could pass by him, but as soon as we took a step forward he tried to bite us. Goodness this dog was ferocious. My companions legs were trembling as we backed away and we went on our way again. I think the dogs here honestly have something against us. ..don't worry though. I'm being careful. I really don't have too much to say this week....lots of miracles happened though. We found a lot of inactive people randomly and are working to reactivate them and we are teaching their families. The greatest thing about this week was seeing our investigator change. He gave up smoking and coffee in one week! He went from smoking a carton a day to nothing in less than a week. He is still is dealing with the withdrawls but is definitely seeing the blessings. It is awesome to see how fast people can change if they really want to. When I return home in a year you will just have to stock the house full of kleenex because I know I will cry a lot my first weeks back home after the mission. Goodness life is just marvelous down here really. Thanks for all the emails, pictures, and support. You guys can send pictures again because I have unlimited storage now....so start sending some recent photos!!!! I love you all!
love, sister wood

New city: Tibiri, New companion: Sister Dias

2010-04-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Things are going great here in Tibiri. ( Tibiri is close to Santa Rita or Rangel if you are trying to find it on the map...it is close to the Joao pessoa airport). My companion is awesome and we are having such a great time together. We work so hard during the day and walk back to our house at night completely exhausted, but somehow find the strength when we arrive home to joke around and have a good time with the two other sisters we live with. We are meeting a ton of great people here and we will definitely do a lot of good in this area. I forgot to tell you, in my last area (potengi) Sister Dias and I were the high baptizing dupla in the zone! Anyway I'm absolutely loving it here and can't believe in less than a year I will be home and back to a normal life. How strange. I was sitting in conference yesterday and suddenly realized how much I have actually changed during my mission. I'm still the same Ariel, but in many ways I've changed for the better. I started crying yesterday when I thought about that one day I won't be a missionary. This mission is everything to me. Elder Holland hit it right on the nail when he said there were two periods in his life--before the mission and after the mission. This mission is helping me more than any graduate school, study abroad program, etc ever could. This really is the work of angels. Everyday we leave our house and teach people about this wonderful plan that Heavenly Father has for his children...and honestly angels are our associates. We don't see them, but their presence is definitely felt. I know that missionaries really are blessed and protected by these angels. It is an undeniable fact. I dont know how many times I've been protected or warned of danger on my mission by the spirit....but I'm beginning to lose count. Anyway in less than a year I return.
Love,
sister ariel wood

Another great week!

2010-03-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

This week's email will be a little shorter because I don't have a ton of time. This past week was another wonderful week and full of its own little miracles. We´ve been teaching an 18 yr old girl these past 2 weeks who is just amazing. Everytime we leave her house I say to my companion that one day this girl will serve a mission. We were a little worried about whether she would want to be baptized because she and her family are VERY catholic, but she really enjoyed church last week so we were hopeful she would accept the invitation to be baptized. Well when we arrived in her house this past week she said, ´´I want to be baptized and serve a mission.´´ We just sat there shocked for a few seconds before celebrating with her this awesome decision. She was baptized with another one of our investigators yesterday and couldn't stop crying from happiness. Goodness if you could just hear the prayers this girl gives! She is definitely an elect and my hope is that one day she will serve a mission! The Lord really is blessing us in this area and we have 2 baptisms marked for this Sunday. One is Andreilton! He is so excited to be baptized and be sealed to his family in one year. The cool thing is in almost exactly one year is the end of my mission and I will be able to watch the sealing of this beautiful family. We ate dinner at the house of Andreilton´s daughter last night and she just started crying when she started talking to us about the baptism. She said she never thought she would see her father get baptized...that she gave up hope many years ago. She just kept thanking us over and over and I felt really humbled that the Lord blessed us in helping this beautiful familiy. Anyway things are great. We found the house of the adventista missionaries that came to church last week. Goodness it was quite a sight. Two elders, my companion, and I in a house with at least 20 7th day Adventist missionaries. The elders bible bashed a little, but I just talked to a few of them about the Book of Mormon. One of them promised to read the Book of Mormon in 1 month! I told him it will change his life and that he better be prepared to become a member of the church! All he did was laugh! Anyway...it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. Next week I won't email until Wednesday because we have transfer. I will most likely be staying in Potengi and receiving another companion. I hope you all have a great week! You are all in my prayers!!!!

A miracle in Potengi

2010-03-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Goodness I don't > know where to start. This hás been one of the best weeks of my life.. There > are tôo many details to this story so this will be a shortened version. > We´ve been working a lot with a man named Andreilton. HIs wife is the > President of the Relief Society and his son-in-law is the bishop in our > ward. Two of his sons are stake presidents and all of his children and > grandchildren are members. His family joined the church 21 years ago, but he > never wanted to hear the discussion until about 4 weeks ago. Well for the > past 4 weeks we´ve been teaching him and he hás been going to church, but he > kept saying that he was only taking the discussion because he was curious. > He kept resisting the invitation to be baptized and Sister Dias and I didnt > know what to do. This last Friday we had conference with President Fernandes > and Sister Fernandes (two of the most wonderful people in the world) and > President Fernandes talked a lot about faith. He said that we need to do our > part and have the faith that the Lord will do His...and that through faith > miracles happen. Anyway I left conference inspired and ready to apply all > the counsels we received. The next morning I woke up early and tried to fall > back asleep, but my mind was restless and I couldn't stop thinking about the > things President Fernandes said. I finally decided to get out of bed and > went into the other room to say my morning prayer. I pled with the Lord to > help us in this work here in Potengi and to let us be instruments in His > hands. And of course I prayed for our investigators and asked the Lord to > let us know how to help them. After praying I opened my scriptures and > started preparing for a talk I gave yesterday. While I was preparing my talk > my mind kept wandering thinking about Andreilton and how we could help him. > He hás been waiting for the Lord to tell him if the church is true or not. I > knew it would be a miracle for him to decide to be baptized and I kept > thinking about the scriptures in Moroni 7:27-29:> > `´Wherefore my beloved brethren have miracles ceased because Christ hath > ascended into heaven and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of > the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? For > he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have > faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good > thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men and he > dwelleth eternally in the heavens. And because he hath done this, my beloved > brethren, have miracles ceased: Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have > angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. ``> > After reading this scriptures I prayed and said, `´ Heavenly Father we need > a miracle!`` After the prayer I returned to preparing my talk. I was > searching in the book of Alma and turned to Alma 5 and read verses 45, 46 (i > won't write it out for lack of time). Those verses say that Alma fasted and > prayed many days to know whether these things were true. When I read this > the Spirit hit me like a load of bricks and the impression/revelation > started. The impressions I received were first that we needed to fast for > him again and invite him to fast with us and second, that the Lord would > give him an answer so clear this week that he couldnt possibly deny it. The > Spirit continued to flood my mind with impression and thoughts of what I > should say to him and what my companion and I should do. At this end of > this special experience that last impressions I recieved were that I needed > to exercise faith and believe that the Lord could work this great miracle in > the life of Andreilton. With this faith, I needed courage to say to him that > he will receive an answer to his prayers this week and know with 100% > certainty that this church is true. As always after the impression of the > Spirit, the adversary tries to enter into your mind and make you doubt. I > started to thinkg--´´who am I to force the hand of God and say to Andreilton > that this week he will receive his answer?´´ and `´what if he gets angry and > decides to stop listening to the discussions´´ and do you really think after > 21 years of people trying to baptize him that you will succeed?´´´...Many > thoughts like these kept entering my mind, but then I remembered what > President Fernandes said about faith and what it says in Moroni 7. I hád > asked for a miracle and the Spirit told me what we needed to do for this > miracle to happen, now the only thing that I needed to do was have the faith > to follow this counsel and believe that we could be instruments in the Lords > hands. Still weak in the spirit, I said the words similar to the father > cited in Matthew--´Lord I believe, help though my unbelief´´ --and asked for > one more confirmation that we really needed to do these things to help > Andreilton. I opened my Bible to look for a scripture to answer this prayer, > but I didn't even need to turn one page...my Bible fell open to Isaiah 58 and > my eyes immediately went to verses 5-9. If you read these verses you will > see that they talk about what a fast is and the importance of a fast. When I > read verse 9 the Spirit hit me again with the same impression I received > earlier. Verse 9 says--´´then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; > thou shall cry and he shall say, Here I am.´´> > Well that was enough for me. I closed my scriptures, stood up and went into > the other room where my companion was, sat down of the bed and told > her..`This week we will see a miracle.´ I related to her everything that had > happened and we decided to pass by Andreiltons house after lunch. Sister > Dias had also had impression that we needed to invite President Fernandes to > speak with Andreilton. We called President Fernandes and he said he would > pass by the next day (Sunday night) as he was traveling home to João Pessoa.> > Anyway after lunch we stopped by the house of Andreilton and I related to > him the things that had happened. I talked to him also about the love I had > for him and his family and how I wanted him to be able to be with his family > for eternity. As I was saying all these things I couldnt help but tear up > and he started to tear up as well. I told him that the Lord would give him a > feeling/answer so clear that he would recognize with out a doubt that this > really is the Lord's church on the earth and whether he decided to follow > this response was up to Him, but whether he likes it or not the Lord will > give it. We asked him to have faith and told him we would be fasting for the > next 24 hours and for him to fast a few hours if possible (he hás health > problems that dont permit him to fast for very long). He said he would try > and we left not knowing what this week would bring but with faith that we > would see a miracle.> > The next day (yesterday) Sister Dias and I were in church and Andreilton´s > wife, Fátima, ran up to us with a big smile on her face and said-- > ´´Andreilton will be baptized´´. At first I didn't want to believe it because > he said nothing to us about it and acted like everything was normal. We > decided we would know for sure in the afternoon when we stopped by with > President and Sister Fernandes to talk with him. When we all arrived in > Andreilton~s house yesterday afternoon and started talking to him my faith > started to waiver. Andreilton kept talking about how he never wanted to be > baptized in the past, never wanted to listen to the missionaries,etc. He > kept talking about the Catholic traditions in his family and there was a > point when I just had to zone out of the conversation and start praying. > After 15 or 20 minutes of talking about why he never joined the church he > paused and then said to President Fernandes, ´´BUT, I~ve decided to be > baptized on April 3rd`. When he said this I just started crying. I couldn't > stop the tears. It is impossible to describe the joy I felt in that moment. > I completely agree with Alma when he said in Alma 26, `´ I cannot say the > smallest part which I feel´. President Fernandes gave him a big hug and said > that he should do it sooner because Sister Dias and I may be transferred > soon...so he decided to move the baptism to March 28th. His children will > come to Natal and even President Fernandes said he would try and come for > the baptism. As we left the house many hugs and handshakes were given, many > tears shed....and the verse in Moroni 7 came with great force into my mind > and the spirit said, ´`´have miracles ceased?...behold I say unto you Nay; > neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men`´> > Sister Dias and I walked with President and SIster Fernandes to their car > and President Fernandes said before leaving that Andreilton had been waiting > 21 years for us and that this was the reason we were here in Potengi....to > complete this beautiful family. After he left, Sister Dias and I wanted to > sit down and just cry because of the gratitude and joy we felt, but we hád > to run (literally) to the chapel to watch the baptism of one of our > investigators.> > After the baptism we returned to the house of Andreilton and talked with his > wife, Fátima. She told us because Andreilton hás dificulties fasting, and had asked her to fast in his place. So she ate lunch on Saturday and after an > hour or so threw up, but decided to continue her fast until the next day. > She said when she awoke Sunday morning she felt perfectly healthy and hád > lots of strength. When she went to say good morning to her husband he > said, --I will be baptized. As she related what happened she started to bear > her testimony to us about the power of fasting. As we stood in the kitchen > talking she started to express her gratitude for us and told us that since > we arrived and started teaching her husband he hás changed completely. She > continued to say many things and kept saying we were angels sent with the > purpose to help her family. As we returned home I couldnt help jumping for > joy (again, literally). My feelings in that moment can best be summed up in > the words of Ammon. – I do not boast in my own strength nor in my own > wisdom, but behold my joy in full, yea my heart is brim with joy and I will > rejoice in my God. Yea I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am > weak; therfore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for > in his strength I can do all things; yea behold many mighty miracles we have > wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.`´> > Goodness I know this email was gigantic, but I just wanted you all to know a > miracle happened yesterday.> > Other things that happened this week that I dont have time to write about:> - Baptisms!> - the three 7th day Adventist missionaries we invited to church. They showed > up and participated in all three meetings. They are very curious about our > living prophet. Invited them to watch general conference.> - my talk that I gave yesterday—The entire audience was in tears including > our investigators and the stake president. I received countless hugs and > ´thank yous`after the meeting.> - This week I was told my português is better than that of many of the zone > leaders in this mission. Sweet!> > I~m trying to represent our family > well down here in Brazil. Have a wonderful week!> > > LOVE YOU!> > Sister Wood> >

"Keep on keeping on"

2010-03-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

I~m doing well down here in Natal. This week had its ups and downs, but I~m staying happy and upbeat. The weather down here has been miserable this week, but I~m getting used to feeling like I live in a furnace. Yesterday morning we left our house at 7:00 to pick up our investigators for church and the sun was HORRIBLE! Everytime Sister Dias and I saw a patch of shade, we ran for it as fast as possible! There is a saying they have here--the sun may rise first in João Pessoa, but it burns first in Natal. Natal has a high rate of skin cancer, but don't worry I~m piling on the sunscreen. So last P-day Sister Dias and I went to the centro in Natal with two girls in our ward and it was so much fun! We pretty much just walked around the city and window shopped. To get back to Potengi we needed to pick up a bus. At the bus stop we tried twice to catch this bus, but because it was 5:00 (when everyone got off work), there were hundreds of people trying to catch this one bus. I watch the first 2 buses with my mouth literally wide open in amazement. I have never seen so many people crammed onto a bus in my entire life. It was seriously miraculous to see. After missing the first two buses we made a grand effort to catch the third and after a lot of pushing and shoving we succeeded. I thankfully got a spot close to the window, but the majority were unlucky and were crammed in the middle of the row. But goodness I~m not kidding you. this was a bus built for 50 people and it had over 200. While we were traveling we hit a lot of bumps, but no one moved because we were packed in so tight. I wanted to get a picture, but my arm and bag were pinned up against another person. It was CRAZY, but I couldnt help but laugh. Oh the worst part was that since it was rush hour we were stuck on this bus for 2 hours! Imagine 2 hours, with 200 people in this bus in 90-100 degree temperatures. awesome. BUT I got to see the beach and it was absolutely stunning. There was a fullmoon and it lit up the water and beach. I tell this place is just absolutely gorgeous. I found a story in the Ensign this week and I want to share only a little bit of it with you: John Stephen Akhwari, a marathon runner from Tanzania, competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics. Even though he suffered along the way from fatigue, leg cramps, dehydration, and disorientation, a voice called from within to go on, and so he went on. Exhausted and staggering, John Stephen was the last man to enter the stadium. When asked why he would complete a race he could never win, Akhwari replied, `My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 7,000 miles to finish the race´. In life, we are not brough to earth just to be born into mortality. We came with a mission and a purpose, and that is to endure to the end. Remember the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. All of them served the Master , and all received an equal wage. It did not matter that some arrived after others, only that each one finally came. If you have taken missteps in your youth, don't let discouragement overcome you. The Lord's judgements are not spiritual grade-point averages--with past sins and mistakes averaged into the final grade. He has promised that ´ he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I the Lord, remember them no more.´ So, if you are not where you want to be, decide today to get there. Our lifetime degree will be graded on how well we live up to the covenants made in our saving ordinances--baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, etc. You CAN cross the finish line with everyone else. `´Go forward and not backward. Courage,...and on, on to the victory!´´Anyway I really enjoyed this article by Elder Ballard in Fev 2007. I meet lots of people who think because of the things they've done in the past they can't be forgiven or have a good life in the future. What an outright lie this is that Satan tells people. I knew this before my mission, but I know it more now than ever---through the Atonement everything is possible. Jesus Christ suffered for us...bore more pain than we can begin to comprehend...like it says in Nephi, he literally has us graven on the palms of his hands...it is impossible for him to forget about us. I wish more people would believe in the power of the Atonement. I wish more people would believe that they can change and be better. It is a thing very frustrating at times about missionary work...sometimes people just think they are a lost cause and don't even want to try to redeem their lives. Anyway, I have to go. I hope this email makes sense. English is becoming more and more foreign to me every day.Love you all! Have a great week and stay safe!Com carinho e amor,Sister Wood

Short but sweet...

2010-03-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

Another great week in Natal. Goodness I love it here. This past week sister Dias and I got lost on the bus and ended up at one of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil. Talk about luck! Of course we didn’t get walk on the beach, only saw it from the bus, but my oh my was it gorgeous. What a blessing it is to serve close to the beach and have that cool ocean breeze everyday! Also This last week we worked our tails off, but didn’t have any baptisms yesterday. We are working with a lot of families right now and it is wonderful to see how their lives are changing. One man we are working with is just awesome, but frustrating at the same time. His wife has been a member for 21 years. All his children and grandchildren are members, but he never wanted anything to do with the church. This past week he told his wife he wanted to be taught by the missionaries. This is the first time he has asked that in 21 years!!! My companion and I taught him several times this past week and it went well, but he is waiting to know for certain that the church is true until he is baptized. Hopefully he will continue with his prayers this week and feel the spirit testifying that all the things weve taught him about are true. Goodness I have no time this week. I´ve spent the last 30 minutes trying to upload photos, but nothing is working. Frustrating! Ím doing great though. Loving the missionary life and staying out of trouble….for the most part. ;) Thanks for the emails! They always make me smile! Love you all!!!!Love,sister wood

Awesome members, devil plant, chicken at midnight

2010-02-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

Goodness the weeks just fly by! Tomorrow I will have officially been a missionary for 5 months! Can you believe it?! Somedays it feels like I said goodbye to you only a few weeks ago! Things are going great here in Potengi/Natal. The ward is AWESOME! We have a big chapel and a piano that plays all the hymns by itself—cool huh?! And behind the chapel there is a spare lot that the church owns that has goiaba and caja trees---so we are never hungry during church. The only bad thing is that there is a plant that also lives back there that I call—a planta do diabo. IF you brush up against it it feels like you´ve been stung by a couple wasps! It is so painful! Red boils immediately appeared on my legs when I walked through one of these plants but luckily they went away after a day. Unfortunately my comp. walked through one the same day and is still suffering the effects! Devil plant! The members here are awesome, Awesome, AWESOME! Yesterday at lunch we listened to a member tell stories about the violence in Rio de Janiero and it was so interesting, but I~m glad I~m not serving a mission there. After lunch we had a dessert made from a special fruit, cupuaça, that only grows in the Amazon. It was heavenly! I may be a little biased, but I think Brasil officially has the best fruit in the world!So if I return from the mission and cant find anyone to marry in the U.S. I can return to Brasil and get married without even trying. Yesterday a guy ran up to me in church and told me his friend liked me and decided he was going to wait for me until I finished my mission. Ummm…thanks? 5 months ago if a person said that I would have really been weirded out, but now it is just normal. This week our investigator was saying the prayer at the end of one of our lessons and asked Heavenly Father to ´´please let Sister Wood come back and teach me many more times.´´ Talk about awkward/hilarious! Im not sure what my companion though about that prayer! So yesterday in church we had an elder who was traveling around the mission with his dad visit our sacrament meeting. His dad didn’t speak Portuguese so I decided to speak English with him. Oh goodness gracious what a disaster! I officially can't speak English anymore. My companion just laughed and laughed as I struggled to communicate in my own language. So this week I was talking with some people about Easter and asked them what traditions they had here in Brazil. One guys said oh just the normal ones—the easter bunny, the chicken at midnight, Judas in the street.. O que?! Chicken at midnight? Judas in the street? They have a tradition here that during Easter at midnight you steal your neighbors chicken and the next day you eat it.. Im not really sure what that symbolizes, but to each their own. Also people dress up scarecrow type of people to look like Judas Iscariot and place him in their yards and in the streets. Judas is a little modernized and usually just looks like a drunk with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Again…not exactly sure why they do it, but I find it hilarious. O.K. enough about the funny things in my life….now for the spiritual things. Lots of things have happened in these pasts months that have made me realize that the little choice everyday make people who they are. The little choices seem to make more difference than the big ones at times. I see so many people missing out on the blessings God has for them because they refuse to do the small things—like reading the scriptures everyday or saying your daily prayers or going to church. These little choices we make everyday, every hour make up who we are in the end. It is amazing the negative consequences of not saying a prayer in the morning…when a person does this they are choosing to forego the opportunity to thank God for their blessings, to ask for the things they really need in their lives, and worst of all they are distancing themselves from God without really knowing it. On the other hand the choice to say your morning prayers (even if it is 1 minute long) has infinite blessings. If I say my prayers I show many things to God—(1) that I am making time for Him, (2) that I am grateful for the blessings I have, (3) my reliance on the Lord, (4)my faith that the Lord will bless me, etc. The consequences of this small choice, to say a prayer everyday are overwhelming. When a person pray—he shows humility and reliance on the Lord. As a person prays for others anger, hatred, selfishness are replaced by love and a desire to serve and bless the lives of others. The most important thing people will learn when they make this small choice is that they have a loving Father in Heaven who wants to bless them. Anyway I am thoroughly convinced that the big things really are the small things. I see people making these small choices between the good and the bad every day and as a result I see many people finding a happiness that they never realized existed and others unfortunately finding an unhappiness and sorrow that cannot be conforted. The scripture in Alma—wickedness never was happiness—is a thing I see first hand everyday. Watching people make these small choices are where my greatest happiness and sadness come from. It breaks my heart when I hear a person say they don’t want to pray to know the Book of Mormon is true, or when a person says they know the things we have taught are true, but don’t want to be baptized. However my heart rejoices everytime I hear a person say they prayed to know Joseph Smith was a prophet or everytime a person decides to forego the beach or soccer game and go to church. A lot of times people focus more on the big choices in life than the little ones and forget that only through the little choices will eventually make up who we are. Anyway Im not exactly sure why Im writing this... Just woke up this morning and felt like I needed to write about this today. Just remember to always be examining your lives and think about what little choices you are making everyday and where these choices are taking you. Love you,Sister Wood

Transferred again...

2010-02-17T13:30:00.000-08:00

February 17, 2010

I was transferred today, but I’m still in Natal. I have a new companion, Sister Dias, and she is absolutely awesome! We are going to have a lot of fun together and I’m really looking forward to working with her. My new area is Potengi (before I was in Nova Republica) and my apartment is the cutest thing ever. We live on the second floor and have a big balcony and lots of space. Today I spent the day in the bus station with the majority of the missionaries in Natal. Some were waiting to catch buses to other areas and others were waiting on their new companions to arrive. It was a lot of fun to hang out in the bus station, as weird as that sounds, because I got to talk to and meet a lot of the missionaries in Natal. I’m serving with some awesome people! This last week was interesting. It was Carnival here in Brazil and pretty much everyone partied (except the missionaries) and I have to say it was a very interesting experience. We weren’t able to do a lot of work because of all the partying, but managed to teach some people. Things are going well though. I love being a missionary. This week several people told me I am fluent in Portuguese. Yay! I was talking to some elders in the bus station this morning and they couldn’t believe I only have 2 transfers in the mission field. They also said I will be called to be a senior earlier than most because I am learning the language extremely fast. Hmm I’m trying to think about what else happened this week. A man in our ward died. He was murdered in the street..gunshot to the back of the head. I also saw two motorcycles collide right in front on me. It was unreal....one of the guys flew off and traveled quite a distance. Well I’ve got to go. Love,Sister Wood

Sousa to Natal

2010-02-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Natal!

2010-02-08T13:49:00.000-08:00

Oi! Well this week was Just plain interesting! After emailing you guys last week I partied up my last pday in Sousa—hung out with all the elders in my district, ate açaí, etc—before packing my bags . Our bus headed for Natal didn't leave until 9:30 pm so we had a lot of time to say goodbye to people. About 20-25 members showed up at the bus station to wish us well. It was quite a party. We all laughed, joked around, and took pictures until our bus came. It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. I really loved serving in Sousa a lot and the members there will always have a special place in my heart. We traveled overnight by bus to Natal and it was horrible. Worst night of sleep on the mission hands down...but I survived it. We arrived in Natal 5:00 am and our district leader picked us up at 8 am to take us to our house. I loved our new house...big and spacious, but of course nothing fancy! The elders took us on a quick tour o four área. It is a lot different than Sousa. A lot more houses, a lot more hills, a lot more rain, BUT we have a SUPERMARKET!!!!!!!!!WHOOOOOOO HOOOO!!! I about died when I saw it. Oh and we have a chapel too!!!! Ok ok...the most exciting thing about my week was this: WE GOT ROBBED!!! On Thursday we had interviews with president Fernandez during the morning and when we returned home a man was waiting outside our house. He turned out to be the first counselor in the ward and said he received a phone call saying our house had been robbed and that the Police caught the thief. We didn't believe him at first because our house hás a cement wall around it, with glass shards on top of it and about 6 or 7 locks that you have to open before you can get into our house....anyway as soon as we entered our house we knew immediately that we had been robbed. Our things were EVERYWHERE!!!! (see the photo attached) Honestly every bag, box, book had been torn open. Goodness gracious it looked like a tornado hit the place. It didn't take long for us to identify things that were missing...money, câmeras, wallets, ipods, etc. BUT luckily the Police caught the thief. The Lord really protected us....because we weren't in our house at the time (a few missionaries have been robbed while they were in the house ), the Police only caught the thief because they were looking for another thief, and the Police returned everything including the Money we lost. It truly was a milagre because the Police here are extremely corrupt! But anyway I~m fine, we are all fine. We are living in another part of the city now with some other sisters. 6 sisters, 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom...it is fun. Anyway...THe work is going well. We are in the top baptizing zone in the mission. We baptized an awesome girl named Willyanne yesterday and the baptism was beautiful! A little 9 yr old boy sang a primary song for her and it was Just the cutest thing ever! Well I~m out of time. Enjoy the pictures and continue to pray for my safety! LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!love, sister wood

Mais Um

2010-02-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

Beach Day Pictures

2010-02-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

Beach Day + Transfer

2010-02-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

OI familia e todo mundo!!!
Goodness gracious....so much news...I don~t know where to start. Well last monday after I emailed us sisters caught a bus for Joao Pessoa. We arrived at about 8:00 at night and stayed in an apartment with all the sisters in the mission. As you can imagine we didn~t get a ton of sleep that night.... but it was SO MUCH FUN...except for the fact that we only had one bathroom!!!! 16 girls and only one bathroom...insanity!! Tuesday morning Sister Fernandes pick us all up and we headed to the beach. holy cow....this beach was hands down the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my entire life!!! I honestly felt like i was in heaven! Sister Fernandes let us wade in the water....only up to our knees and it was just heavenly. We spent the morning playing capture the flag, taking photos, telling jokes, and picnicing on the beach. IT was just awesome. Around lunchtime we said goodbye to the beautiful beach and headed into Joao Pessoa for almoço. We ate almoço at a niceeeeee chinese restaurant and afterwards headed to Farol--the point in the americas that is closest to Africa. It was cool to look out into the endless ocean and know that somewhere right in front of me was Africa! Afterwards we went to a park that was on the side of a gorgeous river. This park had various stands where you could buy souvenirs and tourist type things. We window shopped until 5:00 when a show began. A man comes down the river every night at 5 to play jazz music for all the people in the park. Goodness gracious it was just wonderful! We all watched the sun go down listening to the sweetest jazz music every. Goodness I wish yall could have been there. It was just one of those things you dont forget. Anyway after the jazz music we headed to the Presidents house for dinner. Dinner was wonderful and Sister and President Fernandes even gave a short fireside for us. It was very nice. I absolutely love Sister and President Fernandes. They are absolutely wonderful in every way! After dinner we headed back to the apartment with all the sisters and went to bed. The next morning we woke up and went to the supermarket before catching a bus back to Sousa. Walking into the supermarket I felt like I was walking into another world. I~m used to buying my things from these little markets in the street....and when I saw all the things they had in this place. I just about went wild. I never knew i could get so excited about a supermarket. Anyway...us sisters had a fun time there. I bought dried apricots and wanted to die of happiness while eating them. Goodness. I have so many things to say, but no time!
After returning to Sousa we worked HARDDDDD the rest of the week. President Fernandes came to Sousa this weekend and before leaving he told us sisters that he was making some chances in the mission and to be prepared for anything. Well last night at about 9:30 we got a call saying we had been transferred to Natal! I have mixed feelings about this because I LOVE Sousa. THe people here are like my family and the members are absolutely wonderful, but at the same time I~´m excited to serve in a larger area and close to that lovely ocean breeze. I~ll probably be in Natal for a least a couple months, but who knows...the actual transfer is in 2 weeks and i could be transferred again. We are leaving today for Natal and will begin work tomorrow when we arrive. I~m excited to see what it will be like! wish me luck and pray for me! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

love,
sister wood

Baptisms!

2010-01-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

"A spider tale"

2010-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

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

Just a little "fanfire"

2009-12-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-30T07:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

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

Sister Wood & Her District

2009-11-20T07:52:00.001-08:00

November 18

2009-11-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

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"

2009-11-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

"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!

2009-10-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-22T04:40:00.001-07:00

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!