Dork Dots

Hey guess what! (on the other hand don't guess... I think it will be easier if I just tell you). I got my travel plans last night! I am leaving on.... (drumroll please!) April 8! WHOA!!!

 

K so on Wednesday me and my compañera decided to put our "dork dots" back on our name tags so that we would look like new missionaries :) It was super great! Elders and sisters seriously go out of their way to say hello to you when you're new. My favorite was when this happened- Random Elder: "Bienvenidos!" Me: "...Bean burritos??" ... He just laughs as he's walking away...

 

This week an elder from my district left to the MTC in Columbia. (His name is Elder Lawerence) We were all way sad because our district has really become SO SO SO close! I can already tell it will be hard to say goodbye to the rest of them, but hey! At least I don't really have to say good bye to the sisters! :D

 

Other than that I can't really think of anything new and exciting that happened this week. Everyday it gets easier to teach in spanish. I'm starting to understand people a lot better when they speak to me and I can usually even respond with out too many pauses in the middle of my sentence! :) (Although sometimes I still really just feel like I don't make that much sense...) The better I get, the more I am able to connect with the people I'm teaching. Sometimes in lessons I seriously find myself saying things that I know I wouldn't have been able to remember on my own. I can truely see that the Lord is guiding me, and I haven't even gotten into the field yet. I can't wait! :D I can't wait to help people come unto Christ! He truely died for us and he just loves us SO MUCH! We are so blessed to know that. We are so blessed to be able to repent daily of our sins and become clean.

 

I am so happy that I get to spend this Easter in the MTC and really focus on the Savior and what he has done for us. I hope you all have a SUPERBIEN Easter! Find lots of eggs and eat lots of good food! But don't forget what it is really about. :) Love you!

 

Loveth, Hermana Wooden (This is a name I have inherited by one of the sisters in my district)

 

ps "trenza" means "braid" :D (The cutest old lady told me that at TRC because she liked my braid:)

Half Way--- What?

 

Alisa Eyring and Merrisa (wardies)

Wowza! Am I really past my half way point in the MTC already??! This place is seriously a time warp. It goes by so fast but so slow at the same time. i feel like I've been here for SO LONG because I've learned so much, but at the same time it seems like hardly any time at all! (probably because it really hasn't been very long...)

 

Hey listen to this cool thing! We sang a new arrangement in the choir called "Like Ten Thousand Legions Marching" and it's SUPER AWESOME! anyways, KSL came and recorded us and they are going to do a little special about it in between conference sessions on Saturday! So if you feel like playing Where's Waldo you can look for me! I'm towards the middle back section of the sisters, and I'm wearing a blue shirt. Good luck! :)

 

We started TRC a week ago. This is where you teach other memers of the church. (They used to have people act like they were investigators, but they recently changed it). I REALLY like it! It's pretty much like visiting teaching because you just get to know them and give them a spiritual thought (in spanish of course). One lady we taught there was really hard for us to understand because she talked SUPER fast! We had to keep asking her to slow down for us, and sometimes when we spoke she would kindof chuckle to her self because our spanish really isn't that great... But she understood what we were saying! So that's good!

 

We've all been improving a lot this week. Our district decided to have a specific time every day where we ONLY speak spanish. We thought this would be better than having another english fast because this way we speak a lot of spanish EVERY day and we don't lose hope so easily by the end of the day! To make it fun, we made it into a little bit of a friendly competition! We each have a "charm" that we keep on our key chain, and if we catch someone speaking english they have to give us their charm! ("They're always after me lucky charms!"-Sorry just thought of the lucky charms commercials) At the end of the day we get points according to how many charms we have. It's pretty great. I don't really know what the reward is if you win though.... I guess just knowing spanish! (don't know if that explanation made sense or not....)

 

Funny Story: sometimes I get the question words mixed up, so we were teaching our investigator and I accidently asked him "where" his prayers are instead of "how" his prayers are... He's like, "Uh.... My prayers are... In my heart...?"

 

I am loving everything I learn here! It really is so great and I feel the spirit so strong. I have never felt the spirit guide me the way it does as a missionary. Another really cool thing I've noticed is that I understand the scriptures so much better as a missionary. They really are opened up to you when you are on a mission. I love it so much and I know that is is truely God's work. With out his guidance none of this would be possible. I just love it so much!

 

Well that's it for today! Love you all!

 

Love,

 

Hermana Woodbury

 

ps. "wakala" means "disgusting"

It's my BIRTHDAY!

Merrisa's companion. Hermana Hall

WHOA! I AM SO OLD!!!!!! I don't even have the word "teen" in my age anymore! Im so mature now... My birthday is conveniently on p-day, so I got to go to the temple this morning! What a great present!

This week my district has really come together and we are getting to the point where we work and learn together really well. I love my district. There's really no one who clashes with the rest of us (unless it's me... ;) so we've all become pretty good friends! (especially the sisters:) Good thing because we are litterally together ALL THE TIME! On monday we had an english fast (meaning we couldn't speak english) to help us feel more comfortable with spanish. It was supposed to last all day... But we lost our ability to think at about four o'clock so it didn't last all day. I was really helpful though because we realized that we know how to say more than we thought we did! We also came to the conclusion that we really don't know very much spanish. We pretty much said that same things over and over (for example, "podemos empezar con un orazion?" meaning "can we start with a prayer?"- we've definitely got the fundamentals) We were all pretty quiet that day.

Last night a bat flew onto my floor in the residence hall. :) How? I really don't know. What I do know is that it caused quite the rucus, as girls were running around screaming in fear! When the security guy finally caught it everyone started clapping and cheering for him, "Yeah matinence man! You saved us!"

Well I've learned a lot this week! It's hard to see my progression because to me it feels gradual but when I was talking to the district in our zone that arrived a week after us I realized that i have really come a long way the past week! I really love the chance I have here to grow closer to my Savior everyday, and I love learning ways to help otheres do the same. :) Don't get me wrong I have some hard times her in el CCM but overall it is just an awesome place! I love the spirit I feel here, I love my teachers, my zone (did I tell you that some one I worked with at the Rec Center is in my zone? Crazy right?!), my distrist, and my companion! La iglesia es verdadera! I LOVE IT!

Well that's it for today!

Love your favorite missionary,

Hermana Merrbury

P.S. "cosa" means "thing" (this always comes in handy when I don't know what something is called!)

P.P.S. Last night I heard a sister humming a song form the clock at Bear Lake. Oh how I will miss that singing clock....

study, Study, STUDY

Hey all! Everything is going great for me here in el CCM (MTC). I think I can officially say that Hermana Hall is my favorite companion so far! She likes Harry Potter almost as much as I do, so she recognizes when I sneak quotes into conversation. :)

The language is hard but I'm getting it little by little! The word for earth is la tierra and the word for homework is la tarea... So one time when me and my companion were teaching a lesson we accidently said that Heavenly father made the homework and sent us to the homework to learn and to grow.... Oops. Someday we'll learn! An Elder in my district also made a pretty great mistake in his lesson a couple days ago, the word for sins is pecados and the word for fishes is pescados. Pretty similar right? Anyways, he told his "investigator" that through the atonment we can be freed of our fishes. As of right now, most of my spanish vocabulary is Gospel related :)

So to tell you a little bit about what happens at el CCM, we do A LOT of studying. We have personal study, language study, aditional study, companionship study, classes (where we learn and study)... Lots of studying. But it's good because I learn a lot! I have some pretty great teachers that help us with our teaching and language. One of our teachers started out as pur "investigater" and we taught him for about a week before he actually became our teacher. We still teach him as an investigator a lot an I'm pretty sure we are going to start teaching our other teachers soon as well. It's really helpful beacuse that way they know what we need to work on! I also get to go to choir twice a week, and we sing in the devotionals. I LOVE it! The way he leads kind of reminds me of Larry!

This week i have really learned how important it is to teach with the spirit. ESPECIALLY since I don't know the language all that well. I LOVE IT SO MUCH! Even when I can't put my thoughts into exactly the right words, I know that if I teach by the Holy Ghost, they will get the message.

I'm in the MTC!

March 2, 2013
Holy Canoli, raviolli, bertolli, guacamole olli! (insert any other words that may rhyme) I'm in the MTC!   Here is a fun fact about the MTC- when you get here they make you put a bright colored dot on your name tag that indicates you just got here.  Everywhere i went that day, everyone would say, "Welcome to the MTC!" or "iBienvenidos Hermania!"  Eventually I just started welcoming other missionaries with bright colored dots...
In other news, everything is going great! I don't have P-day til next Friday so I can't email yet, but since today is kind of a half P-day for us newbies we have permission to write our family a letter.
Mi companera se llama Hermana Hall.  We get along pretty well.  There are six hermanas in our room.  We are all in the same district AND we are all goin to Concepion!  (This is some what of a rarity)  It's nice to know that they will be with me pretty much my whole mission.
Yesterday (Friday) me and my companion  taught our first lesson!  Don't you worry, it was definitely in SPANISH!  I was FREAKING out because I was so nervous!  It actually didn't end up being that bad though.  (considering it as out first lesson)
Today we are teaching our second lesson to the same "investigator" (also in Spanish).  Me and Hermana Hall REALLY want to let the spirit guide the lesson, so we have a goal to not take any of our study material or translation books.  We feel like that way we can speak from the heart more andlet the spirit teach.  We are studying the material really hard and just trusting that the Lord will provide a way for us to teach this lesson in Spanish!  Wish me luck!
Also, my P.O. Box got changed.  If anyone sent anything to the old one I will still get it, but from now on use this one.
Gracias!  Love you guys!
Sincerely (with sincerity)
Hermana Woodbury

P.S. Bueno Suerte means good luck!