June 26, 2018

THE PRATTS ARE LEAVING THIS WEEK! It is literally so crazy haha I think I’ve said that in every email but the fact that they’re leaving is kind of just starting to sink in now. I’ve been serving around them in dartmouth for 7months so it's just going to be so strange not seeing them. The lows will be so so good though (I mean they’re from Alberta so they have to be;)) they get here Thursday night and then on Friday night we are having a big supper with them before they head off traveling the mission to interview all of the missionaries.

Something cool that happened this week was this former person we we teaching, Amanda, messaged us and said, “ hey I know this is short notice but I have my friend Madeline over right now and she is going through a hard time so I was wondering if you could come over and talk to her?” We were like yessss!haha. Madeline is so sweet, she is having a hard time finding peace in the world. We taught her about god’s purpose for us and how we can achieve this through the Atonement of Christ and living his gospel. She’s a ysa so we took her to the ysa branch on Sunday and she loved it (even though we had a lesson on David and Bathsheba in gospel doctrines...a missionaries worst nightmare). She actually lives in Halifax though so we introduced her to the sisters there and they will be teaching her now. We’re excited for her!

I’m a little bit worried about Laura. She was away for the week and since she’s been back her messages to us just haven’t been the same. But little does she know that she is just too awesome and we love her too much to ever let her go:) hopefully I am just over reacting and everything is ok!

I’ve been studying a lot about baptism since we’ve been teaching Laura and ive been learning so much! When we set a goal, for anything in life, we have to make a plan and we have to committed to that plan. We are more successful when we report on our progress and are held accountable. Baptism allows us to commit and be held accountable to our heavenly father’s (and our) goal for us of becoming like him. Who wouldn’t want to commit to live the life that we live after baptism. to promise to bear others burdens, to live the commandments, to be a witness for Christ!? It is such a happier way of living! We get to account for our goal in our prayers every night. We ge to reflect on our progress every week in sacrament meeting and ask our “coach” what he would have us work on next.

My mission has blessed me in a different way than what I expected. I thought I’d come out, have a big spiritual experience and no longer have any questions or doubts. However that has not been the case. I have had more questions than ever and that is because my testimony is tested everyday. What has been the case is that I see a bigger picture than what I saw before. I still don’t see the whole picture that Heavenly Father sees but I have enough faith to keep moving forward, to keep doing the simple things. Why do we always overlook the simple things haha. At the end of the day, I KNOW that I am happier living the gospel, being “converted unto the Lord, and united unto the church”. 

That is my rant for this week:)

Oh also they updated pmg and it is sick!! It teaches about the difference between exaltation and salvation now. A quote that I love is, 

“We will attain our exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom only on the condition that we share with our Father’s other children the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and observe the commandments that will enrich our lives here and hereafter” (Sharing the Gospel with Others, 190).President George Albert Smith (1945–1951)

We have to share the gospel!!

Love sister wood

June 19, 2018

Hello hello, 

On Sunday we showed laura the font and I am just so excited for her haha I just can't even explain my love for her:) tonight we are going over there for supper. My favourite laura quote right now is, "I just need alexa and Jesus." (Alexa is this computer voice haha I don't know how to describe it)

Brother cartier gave a really good talk at church, my favourite part was the self liberating list he gave:

1. Stop judging yourself 

2. Go before the Lord and ask what he thinks of you

3.let His list become your list (often the list we have for ourselves and what we need to change is much to long, god's ways are simple, he works line upon line. In brother cartiers case all god wanted him to work on at the time was his journal writing...something I should probably work on too haha)

4.stop telling god your limitations  (He already knows them. He is more interested in your willingness:)

5. Accept the approval of God (in everything we do there's always something we couldve done better, God is aware of our desires and often his response to us is "that will do". He never loses sight of our Potencial but he accepts us with our weaknesses)

That's all I have time for this week!!

Love you all

Love sister wood 

June 13, 2018

Hey!

Woah it seems like I haven’t emailed in forever, we have pday in Wednesday this week because we had our first zone conference yesterday. In the past we’ve usually just combined zones for zone conferences but this transfer each zone will have their own conference (haha sorry that sentence has zone and conference in it a lot) but yeah so we had the first conference here in dartmouth for the Nova Scotia North Conference. Tomorrow we will be in kentville for the Nova Scotia south conference.  Next Monday is the newbrunswick west conference in Fredericton then Wednesday we’ll be in Moncton, then Fridaywe’ll be in gander Newfoundland. Haha it’s crazy and then the Pratts leave and it’s going to b really crazy!!

I’m still in dartmouth, this will be my 5th transfer here haha I forget if I said that already or not in my last email haha I’m struggling to remember things. I am so grateful that I get to stay though because of...LAURA!! Honestly I just wish you all could meet her. Her husband is so kind too:) Sophie and Emily though ugh I just want to hug them all the time. They asked us to read from the children’s Book of Mormon to them last night (highlight of my mission haha). I just really hope that Laura will be baptized this transfer. I am already planning out in my head my trip to come back here next summer to go through the temple with her. I don’t know with what money dad but I’ll make it work haha. I just love her so much!! And Alayna too:) she messaged us the other day saying how teaching Laura with us is helping her so much. We are going over to Alayna’s house later this week to teach her little girl more about baptism, she turned eight a couple months ago and Alayna is starting to plan for a date:D 

Some things that I learned from zone conference yesterday are:

- just because I am busy doesn’t mean I am excused from progressing and trying to be better 

-when my studies are lacking everything’s lacks 

- when unity in the companionship struggles, you lose direction (this isn’t happening right now Sister Cartwright and I love each other haha it’s just for future reference)

- be consistent (when we are praying for blessing for ourselves or for loved ones something we have to do is live the gospel consistently, don’t doubt)

- be meek (be willing to l learn from everyone, in church don’t ever role your eyes at a talk, think how it can apply to you)

- the significance of baptism is not the cleansing of sin, it is us declaring to god that we are in! Witnessing our determination to follow Him and be apart of His plan.

Have a great week! And happy Father’s Day dad!! I don’t know what your girls and mom would do without you! (Maybe get more sleep because you wouldn’t be snoring) haha jk I love you so much! Without you I wouldn’t be able to beat all of the elders out here in basketball

Love sister wood 

June 4, 2018

Well what can I say other than missionary work is such a blast when you have investigators! All of our investigators were at church it was stake conference this week and elder pingree from the seventy was there. Before the meeting started he introduced himself to a few people and we were one of the lucky few! He is such a nice man and just so real. He asked us ( and by us I mean the Halifax sisters and me because sister Cartwright was in Gander Newfoundland  for this family’s baptism that she taught!! That is so cool for gander!) about our families and where we are from. The talks at conference were so perfect. A rm talked about baptism and a ym talked about the temple simply and the elder pingree spoke on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hearing him explain it made me feel so good because it wasn’t the excact same way that we as missionaries teach it. 

These past 6 weeks were probably the fastest six weeks of my life. I can’t believe that it’s the end of the transfer already! I find out tonight in MEC if I stay in dartmouth or not. I’ll be ok with anything but I just love our investigators so much it will be hard to say goodbye!

In elder pingree’s talk he said if we are feeling spiritually out of tune that is not the time to turn in and just focus on ourselves, it is the time to turn out, to anxiously create opportunities to serve. And in general conference elder renlund I think in his talk suggested family history.

I love not thinking about myself. I love praying for all of the missionaries and their investigators and our investigators and the pratts. That is what has changed me the most, not focussing on me.

Love sister wood