April 23, 2018

It’s spring!!!

I don’t know when spring got here but it’s here! When we walk outside in the morning I have to hold back the tears because I just can’t believe how warm it is haha it’s amazing! 

The Pratts took sister claus and I out to a French restaurant on Wednesday, that was really nice! I just want to learn so many languages when I get home! Spanish is still the top of my list but I have to learn French now to so that I can go and visit sister claus and her family. She will most likely be leaving me this week:( we will see the transfer tables tonight but the actual transfers don’t happen until thursday. Sister Powell is the only new missionary that is coming out this transfer and we will pick her up tomorrow night!(unless a snow storm hits and the flight gets cancelled like the last 2 transfers haha). This transfer is going to be so sad, going to have to say goodbye to so many of my companions and watch them all bear their farewell testimonies; Sister Nowlon (my trainer), Sister Fernandez (my other trainer), Sister Auvigne, and Sister Claus:( I’m starting to notice though that I don’t cry as easily as I did before my mission. I think getting doors slammed in my face has contributed to that haha. But talking to one person who needs the gospel makes up for any number of slammed doors. The feeling is so indescribable when you’re talking to someone and something you say sparks interest and you can see it in their eye. This trasfer we had missionaries travel the mission to give trainings and we had them this past Friday! It was so so good, my favourite was their training on initial contacting. I’ve always thought that I’ve been pretty real with people while we’re finding but something clicked for me in their training and since then finding has been a blast, I feel like I’m so much more personal with people, it kinda reminds me of how I was at the beginning of my mission :) it feels good!

Shania was struggling for a little while after her baptism but we finally got to see her again this Sunday! we went with her to the ward in Sackville because she is moving there. It was such a relief to see her and to hear her say how much she missed church:) 

Our one investigator is still veron. She is such a sweet lady and a hard worker (it’s a little tricky to meet with her because she’s always working so hard). We had taught her the plan of salvation and so in our last lesson with her we were following up with what she liked and what stuck out to her and she said that it really made sense to her how their wouldn’t just be a heaven and a hell, if god is a loving god there has to be a better plan than that. She said that she was sharing what she learned with her son and her friend:) I was trying not to smile too big when she said that haha also she read the Book of Mormon!! It’s a small thing but it shows that she’s willing and that she’s repenting/changing. 

I can’t believe that in a week I’ll be starting my 8th transfer! 8/13! I am so so grateful that I trusted in my Heavenly Father’s plan for me instead of just going along with my own plan. My testimony of the restored gospel is something that I can rely on now when questions arise. And I know now how to treat a question like a question instead of a doubt.

Also today I finally got to see Peggy’s cove! I remember it was the first thing I looked up when I knew I was coming to the mission. Haha because my nickname was peg(pag) it really confirmed to me that this mission was where I was suppose to serve.

Have a great week! Hopefully the weather is warming up over there as well!

Love sister wood! 

April 17, 2018

Hey everyone! 

Today president Pratt surprised us with an all day Pday!! It was the best thing ever a few minutes ago we were emailing downtstairs with the APs and then we noticed a wet spot on the carpet and then it started growing so we pulled up the carpet and there’s like and inch of water so yeah the Pratts basement is flooding right now, not good! It happened before In the past but they thought they had solved the problem. Tonight though we are going to watch “remember the Titans” here haha that will be the 2nd time I get to watch that on my mission! And we just found out that the APs invited the new Glasgow elders and the Cole Harbour elders haha so that means that elder Weston and elder doucette will be here so basically it’s a movie night in barnwell haha. 

This week we had the new missionary conference. My favourite training is always the one on personal study. We learned about the three levels of studying again. Swimming, snorkeling and then scuba diving. Something that President Cartier said really hit me this time. He said something along the lines of this, “if we’re reading the scriptures just because it makes us feel good eventually that won’t be a good enough reason to continue to put in the effort to read (we can feel good from reading something out of readers digest). If we are reading just because we like gaining knowledge eventually that won’t be a good enough reason for us to read because we’ll become prideful and think that we know enough. We need to be reading to gain personal revelation, that is the only way that we will endure.” When was the last time in your studies that you asked “Heavenly Father, what do you want me to do with this knowledge? How does this apply to my life? What do you want me to change?”.

We are teaching this lady named Veron. So far we’ve taught her the restoration and the plan of salvation. When we explained moroni’s promise to her we asked her what she’s would have to do if she found the the Book of Mormon is the word of god. She said she’d have to follow god and be baptized:) she is such a good lady and she really loves her church. She said that it would break her pastors heart if she left and I think that was the first time that it clicked in my head what we are really asking people to do. We are asking them to change their entire lives. Their are so many sacrifices that they have to make. But it really isn’t us that ask this of people, it’s God who is asking them to put down different things in their lives and follow Him. It made me think, what do I need to put down so that I can follow god more closely.

Thank you for all the love and support!

Also I hope trusie had a good birthday

Love sister wood 

April 10, 2018

This has been a loooong week, I can’t even remember where it started. I fell down a staircase, we had to do some early transfers for some sisters, we got a complaint filed against us, but I think the most stressful thing is that yesterday I forgot to print off our gas receipt at the gas station😬😂 I don’t know how we are going to solve that one haha. 

We had a lot of sisters over because of missionary leadership conference and the emergency transfer so we did a lot of finding which was great. We found and taught this one girl named Hannah and she had a ton of deep questions and it made me reflect on if I’ve been asking myself enough questions in my studies in order to grow. There’s this one analogy that we learned in the MTC involving a car. The DOC is the engine, the word of God is the fuel, the battery is the Holy Ghost, we are the driver and the key is questions. Questions drive you! We have to be willing to put in the work though, to “seek out of the best books”, and to be in tune with the Holy Ghost because he is the teacher and ultimately go to God in sincere prayer because He is the source of all truth.

This week is the new missionary conference, which I love! I am giving a training on planning and prioritizing (which is a little ironic because I have not prepared it yet haha). But I’m excited I’ve studied a lot about prioritizing this past week and have learned some things that have made me ponder. One quite that I love is, “our goals are destinations and the route is our plan on how to achieve them. A key to happiness in life is then figuring out which destinations truly matter.”

Love sister wood

April 3, 2018

Hey everyone! 

Sorry for the lame email last week 

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!!! Decker and rope are both two very lucky boys! And I am lucky as well to get to have you as my sister, you are an example to me of selflessness and I love you a lot️

Conference was awesome! I love president Nelson so much, he has so much energy and enthusiasm and I could feel his love for all of us. I feel like the expectations are being raised, we are being asked to no longer just go through the motions but to truly be motivated by love, to be truer disicples of Jesus Christ. I like to relate it to how missionaries are no longer asked to keep track of finding hours, not because how much we find isn’t important but because we should have an attitude of always finding. Also President Nelson is asking us to seek revelation so that we can have our own testimony of things. I loved his talk on receiving revelation.

So Shania got baptized! Two weeks ago president Pratt met with her just to see how she was doing and it turned into a baptismal interview!! Haha so we planned a baptism in four days and it was amazing! The gospel has changed her so much️ This was kinda the first time that I’ve really gotten to see that on my mission. And something else that is really cool is that elder doucette and I both taught her! 

Also Sean, the really sweet guy that we picked up as an investigator, hasn’t responded to us last Wednesday he messaged us to confirm our lesson at this members home for that evening and then that night we waited for him for 30mins but he never showed up and hasn’t messaged us since, so that’s sad but the experience of meeting him was still very cool and taught me a lot. It taught me how much god trusts me and all of us to do the right thing. The Holy Ghost doesn’t and shouldn’t have to give us this huge push. He just gives a little nudge and god trusts that once we recognize that-that nudge is inviting us to do something good we will do it learning how the spirit speaks to us is such an important thing to learn in this life and I’ve gained more skills with doing that in the past 10months than I have in the previous 19years. 

There’s lots of other things and cool stories that I wish I could fill you in on but this will have to do. I love you all so much! 

There are so many things that were said at conference that I love but I’ll  list a few that really stuck out to me:

True love is a requirement to be a true disciple.

Show what you cherish by your actions not just your words.

Success isn’t the absence of failure. It is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.

Casualness leads to casualties 

When God directs us to do one thing he often has many purposes in mind.

Our work is all about people and covenants.

Do the work necessary to increase my spiritual capacity to receive revelation.

Love sister wood!