October 30, 2018

The weeks are flying by!

This email is probably just going to be all over the place so sorry about that in advance. I just love the members here so much they are so enthusiastic about the gospel and so willing to help us with teaching people and to let us come teach them in their homes. Sister beck is just one of my favorite people ever! She's always pumping us up :-). So lots of things have been happening with Mary in Vienna, it's crazy how many obstacles pop up when someone is on the path to making their first Covenant with God. Mary had been really sick the past few weeks and just wasn't even able to call us back but sister back finally got ahold of her and was able to ask her if she wanted a priesthood blessing and she said yes so Thursday we are able to go over Mary got a priesthood blessing. The next morning she texted us first thing and said that she is feeling so much better! Miracles! So then we got to teach them lots and on Saturday we got to teach them about tithing which is always the nail biting lesson haha 10 minutes before the lesson sister Beck said that she wasn't going to be able to make it and so we were freaking out a bit. But the lesson went awesome, Mary said that she feels guilty that she hasn't been paying tithing haha the explained that she doesn't need to pay tithing or fast offerings till after she's baptized. That night they were so excited to come to church and Vienna was telling us all about this new skirt that she had :-). So the next morning at church we are waiting by the doors for them but nine world around and then 9:05 and then 9:10 and they still work there we were so confused. They didn't get back to us till Monday and they told us how Mary's mother-in-law who lives 40 minutes away had fallen in the night and they have to drive out to help her. And so they're having to drive out there a lot and we aren't able to meet with them but we know that God will provide a way for us to teach them the lessons that they need to before November 17th!

 I had a cool experience hurting the scriptures this past week I was reading in second Nephi about the prophecy of the Book of Mormon being delivered to someone who has much learning and them saying I cannot read a sealed book. I felt doubt come into my mind but I wanted to know that this was a true prophecy and not just something written by a man I remembered moroni's promise. I prayed and asked for another witness that these things were true and as soon as I prayed I recognized something in the chapter heading. It said to compare the chapter to Isaiah 29...another witness haha. It was such a simple thing but it just meant so much to me in that moment and really helped me as weed later on went to teach Kate ( that Mom that we had met in the past) about moroni's promise. We really focused on how when we read we need to have faith that these things are true and push out doubt and that's when we will receive a witness of the truth.

 I know that the Book of Mormon was really written by the people of ancient America and translated for us by a prophet of God. I know that reading it brings out of power into our life and a greater determination to do what's right and to do what's necessary to keep our family strong. I love it so much!

Love sister wood

October 23, 2018

What has even happened this week haha I feel like each week just gets busier and busier! There are so many things that sister edwards and I want to accomplish in bridgewater but we just need to trust in the lord's timing. 

Last wednesday was the halloween party for the youth, it was lots of fun and a lot of the youth brought friends who weren't members:) we are a little anxious for mary and vienna, they haven't messaged us back for a while so we are trying not to freak out. We met some amazing people this weed. sunday night we met reita, she is probably in her 50s and she just recently had her mom pass away. While we were talking with her sister edward's commented on her necklace which she said was from her mom and from there that's how we learned about her mom and we had an awesome conversation about the plan of salvation. She has a belief in god but she is open to reading the book of mormon:) tonight we are going over to bring one to her! Then last night we met sharon. She let us right into her home and it wasn't too long after that we were hugging and had tears in our eyes. in the spring she and her husband moved her and bought a house that they have been renovating together. She grew up in nova scotia and I has always been her and her husbands dream to move back here. Last month, the day after they finished painting the final wall in their home, her husband had a very unexpected stroke and a few days later she had to choose to take him off life support. She has no family here and doesn't know her neighbors well and so for the past month she has just been alone in a house, where everything reminds her of him, trying to figure out what to do. My heart just aches so much for her. She believes that after this life our spirit still lives and we were so happy to tell her that yes that is true and not only that but we will be joined back together with our bodies one day and we will be with our loved ones and family. She was very excited to read the plan of salvation pamphlet that we left with her. Life is so much more sweet when we know that there is hope and I am so so grateful that I get to spread that hope everyday:)

love sister wood  

October 16, 2018

Hey everyone!!

We had an awesome awesome week!! I wish that I was faster at typing so that I could just fit everything into this email!

While mary was sick we got to teach vienna alone again and it was so good. We taught her the doctrine of christ and had her draw it out in her study journal and then she pulled out this marking tabs and started marking the scriptures that we were reading with her. At the end of the lesson she said the closing prayer and that was the first prayer ever that she had said with us! sister edwards and I were just so happy after the lesson driving home and then we got this text from vienna with a picture attached to it. It was a picture of one of the blank pages in the book of mormon and she had wrote, "first prayer with sister wood and sister edwards october 10th 8:50" we started crying haha I literally just can't put into words how much I love mary and vienna!!! I don't know how I am ever going to leave them!!

Probably the most uncomfortable I was this week was thursday night. it was after 7 and so it was dark outside and we were going to stop by this one member who is less active but it turned out she had moved so we just stayed in the area and were knocking ( the road we were on was in the middle of no where haha a lot of the roads are like that). Just everyone that we met that night was just not quite normal but the weirdest moment was when this old grandma came to the door at this one house and yelled that she didn't have her clothes on so we yelled back "sorry we'll come at a better time." and started walking back down the steps but then all of a sudden the door opened... haha we didn't see anything but that was just a very awkward conversation. also this week we almost got eaten by a dog. again, it was dark outside and like no one had answered their doors but then we got to this one house and their door was open so were like they have to be home. we knocked on the door and then we noticed this leash by our feet and then we heard a growl! this big black dog came out the door growing and was blocking the stairs to get off the porch sister edwards and I were just silent haha and squeezing each others hand. and then the dog came right up to us and started sniffing our legs AND.... that's all it did hahah it's so funny thinking about how scared we were now. 

last night mary finally felt well enough to have al lesson again. She told us in the lesson that while she was sick she hadn't been praying but on sunday she decided to pray and ask god if she could be well enough to get out of bed and then monday morning came and she just popped right out of bed and started doing things! She said, "I don't know why I didn't think to pray sooner!". The lesson with mary and vienna was so good. we taught the restoration and watched the restoration video and mary was just all over that haha. Sister oickle came with us, she's a convert and has such a powerful testimony. mary said that she really wants her husband to come to church with them this week! We are praying that he will and that he will feel the spirit! 

So the coolest thing that happened this week was meeting melissa! So the reason that we had first gone to mary's house was to find this couple melissa and jason. They had never been taught before but we just felt good about their names. but we soon found out that they no longer lived there when we met mary and vienna. On saturday night we were knocking around the hospital and came up to this really cute house with a bunch of halloween decorations. the window in the front was really big and so the mom saw us walking up to the door haha so thats always a little awkward but she was really sweet and enthusiastic when she came to the door. She told us her name was melissa and then a little voice in my head said "melissa and jason" and all of a sudden I just kinda blurted out "did you use to live on conqueral?" haha she was pretty surprised but she said yes! We taught her yesterday morning (we also taught this other mom named kate who is interested because of all the utah blogger moms haha so shout out to them) and the lesson was awesome!! I'm so excited to update you next week!!

also I got your package and the package from the lunds tell them thanks!  

October 10, 2018

Wow wee what a week!!! General conference was...(wait for it)... LEGENDARY!! (if you can quote that tv show then I'll give you a hug when I get home haha). But seriously conference was so so good. I was so so sad to hear about brother torrie passing away, I think of the scripture "and when we see His face we will be like Him", because I don't think brother torrie could have been anymore christlike (in this life at least). His heart was just so friendly and kind. in my email to dad I shared one of my favourite memories with brother torrie, the one where me sadie and brynn were playing spies and he caught us... in his home haha. So many of the general conference talks given were so perfect for comforting at this time of loss, especially elder ballard's. "Death has no sting, becasue of Him"

What was said in the woman's session answered so many of my questions and prayers but i know that even more answers will come as I study those talks again as soon as they come out:) (Also I hope that all of your 10 day fasts are going well).

Another thing that I really liked from the second talk in the woman's session (but still applies to everyone) is that I don't want to look and people and their needs and see them as intruding on "my time".It's a little bit easier on the mission to not think this way because we know that we are always on the Lord's time. But I know back home "my time" was definitely something that I guarded. I was a lot slower and a lot less willing to sacrifice doing something that would bring me (and probably only me) joy, to use that time to do something for someone else even if they weren't asking me for it. God knows our heart and so if we want to become better shepherds He needs to first know that He can trust us, He can trust us with a prompting from the spirit because He knows that we will act on it. I hope that you can all pray to know who God needs you to nurture right now in your life, because I promise you that there is someone who is waiting for their prayers to be answered and YOU can be that answer to that prayer!  Start praying to know who it is and what you can do! and like elder holland said, "don't worry if it's a doggy paddle or a backstroke" just go!

I love you all!

lover sister wood  

October 2, 2018

Hey everyone!!

Oh my goodness I can't believe that conference is this weekend!!! I feel like I was just in amherst watching conference with sister nowlon and sister auvigne! we are very excited to get to watch it with Mary and vienna! we are going to watch it with them on saturday and then on sunday they will be going over to the whiting's house, the young woman's presisdent's family, to watch it:) they came to yws last tuesday and loved it, we played werewolf haha I had to try my hardest not to get too into it because I tend to do that with werewolf haha. Then we played bump after and I couldn't help myself from getting to into that haha. They also came to church this sunday (it was the primary presentation so it was perfect)!!! sister edwards was just so so excited, I love being companions with her, she helps me to have more gratitude because everything is still so new for her (and also she is just hilarious, last night we were walking home and it was really dark and creepy and earlier someone had told us to look out for rats because everyone had their recycling out on their lawns for the next morning! so to stay safe she made us link arms and do the sisters walk form hocus pocus haha we both have a love for that movie).

Peggy dropped us so that was sad. We had a lesson with her about the restoration and had sister nilsson there and it all seemed to go well. sister nilsson invited her to come to church and offered to drive and peggy was all set to come, but then we called her saturday to make sure everything was still all good and she said that she didn't want to be baptized again and go to a different church because she was a baptist and that wasn't going to change. We asked if we could come by one last time but she said no:( so that was and sad and quick 180.

This past weekend there was a scarecrow festival in mahone bay, which is a cute little town in our area, and we did a family history booth at it on sunday! It was tons of fun and we got to talk to a lot of people. this one guy mo is going to come to the family history class on wednesday!

We didn't find any new people to teach this week but we have been finding lots of CRICKETS!!! for some reason our house like attracts crickets!! we literally have to trap one under a mug everyday. Things are things that I would not do before the mission that I somehow have the strength to do now haha.

One of my favourite people that we met this week was maria. We were out knocking after our dinner appointment on sunday and we knocked into maria, she is a very devoted catholic from Portugal (which reminds me, leeya fraser my second cousin who lives her got her misison call last week to portugal!!) she was the sweetest grandma with such a thick acccent and she just gave us so many hugs and kisses while we were talking with her and was patting and playing with our hair haha we just loved it! 

God has been answering so many of our prayers with the yw!! tomorrow in their young womans night in excellence and so many of the girls are going to be there! we were helping lauren (one of the yw councilors) today with getting all ready for it!:)

I love you all so much!! go to conference with at least one question in mind!

love sister wood!