here we go..

Welcome to Sister Wood's blog! We will post her weekly letters here and any pictures we get!

Click here to watch Sister Wood's journey from mission call to MTC :)

Hey!:) 

I don't even know where to start. The past three days have been pretty crazy, so much has happened already but at the same time I feel like it was just 20 minutes ago that I was dropped off here and watching you guys drive away. The first day was a whirlwind and honestly I can barely remember what happened haha. After getting all of the packages and books that we need and dropping our suitcases off in our rooms all of the new missionaries met in the new building in a conference room (we were the first group to ever meet in that room) and had a few people speak to us including the mtc mission president and his wife. His wife talked about how me+more=Christ is not true. The real equation is me+Christ=more because the only way that we can change our character is through Christ. After, we went to our classrooms and met our districts. My districts classroom is in the new building and it is so awesome! The windows are so huge and there's these murals on every floor that are some of the prettiest artwork I have ever seen. My companion is sister Rodrigues and she is so nice. We don't have a ton in common but we get along really well. She kinda looks like rylee and so sometimes when we're walking I just pretend that she is rylee and then I don't feel as far away from home haha. I haven't really been too home sick but when I think about how I'm on day 4 of like 545 then I do so I just don't think about that haha. I love my district. There's 9 of us and I have loved getting to know them better. It's so interesting to learn about everyone's backgrounds. Our district is a pilot group right now for the MTC and so our schedule is a lot different than everybody else's so we get a lot of looks from missionaries that probably think we are so lost and don't know what we're doing (which is true). I think there's only one other district that is a pilot group too and it's crazy to think out of all the missionaries here, we were picked. Usually your whole day at the MTC is planned out for you, all of your classes and what time you will practice teaching investigators. But on our schedule we usually just have two set classes a day and then the rest of the time is for us too plan and to set appointments up with investigators that are here at the MTC. It's pretty scary being so in charge of our time here and controlling how much the MTC will prepare us for the field but hopefully if we learn how to plan and use our time wisely now that it will benefit us in the field. The other two sisters in our district are sister Soucie and sister Barlow and they are awesome! I am so excited to get to go to Halifax with all of these sisters. Just by watching them, they are helping me to become a better missionary. Thursday night we met our branch presidency that we will have here while we're at the MTC and president Samuelsan is the most spiritual man that I have ever met. His eyes are like this turquoisey color that can just see right into your soul. We went around in a circle and just told the presidency a bit about ourselves, where we're from, where we're going, things about our family, why we want to serve a mission, and then a brief testimony and it was just so spiritual and afterwards president Samuelsan was telling us things about ourselves that even we didn't know. When I was answering the question of why I wanted to serve I said that there's really lots of reasons but there was also lots of reasons why I didn't want to serve but in the end I love my Heavenly Father and I will do anything that he calls me to do, and the president's response to this was "when you give your will unto the Lord, then He can make a celestial being out of you". This gave me a lot of comfort because while I've been here at the MTC it's been hard not to compare myself to others. I just felt like other missionaries had such a better grip on what was going on and were way more spiritual than I was and I still do feel like that a lot of the time but I know now that it doesn't matter where I'm at compared to other missionaries as long as I'm here, willing to learn and not getting discouraged, that I can become the exact type of missionary that the Lord wants me to be. The district meeting with our branch presidency was exactly what our district meeting on Thursday night. Reminded us of why we are here and what our purposes of missionaries and I think it really committed us all. Also it was good to know that we are so loved by all of them. I feel like their love can only be compared to parents live and it was exactly what I needed to comfort me all the wives of the brother in the presidency are so sweet especially Sister Williams she is so hilarious. She reminded me that it is ok to laugh i'm so yesterday I think was the first day that I actually left and it wasn't a fake nervous laugh haha so that was nice. Yesterday we also had exercise time which was so nice, I got to shoot around for a bit with sister Barlow too. Today is our pday and so sister Rodrigues, sister Soucie, and sister Barlow and I went to the temple this morning. Even at 6:30am the temple is super busy. Oh also, somehow I have been getting up really easily haha I don't know if it has to do with the fact that we're usually asleep by 11, but it is definitely a blessing, and it is usually me waiting for sister Rodrigues to be ready which is a huge change haha. 

The first three days were really hard and honestly the thought of coming home sounded so nice but I am glad that there were other people feeling the same way as me and that we could stick it out together. I'm excited for Wednesday when more missionaries come in and I can encourage them that it's going to be ok too. 

I love all of you so much and think about you all lots. I hope the wedding planning is going well. Happy Father's Day tomorrow dad, me going on a mission is my gift to you haha. Thanks for the support. Love you

Love Sister wood