Tearful Goodbye

HI EVERYONE!!!!!!!!! I know I´m a little late emailing but I promise I have an excuse! We had a mission conference with the entire mission this morning! It was super great, and also super sad! We all said goodbye to our mission president and his wife and cried. Also, it was the last time I will see most of the missionaries I know because of the boundary change because my old zone is going to be in Rancagua!  and two of my MTC sisters are going to Rancagua too! AH!!! What a day. We also heard from the prophet yesterday! I don´t really know what you guys know about this but there was like a world wide mission conference thing that was super great! (the half of it that I understood since it was in spanish. okay I really can understand spanish well But I have to be paying attention really closely... and listening to talks for two straight hours in spanish... well you can imagine) It was about having every member as a missionary. Everything really does work a lot bettere when the members are willing to help out with the work. It made me WAY enthused to work with the members!

Hey things here are just super great! One of my MTC sisters lives in my same house!!! :D It´s SUPER great for us but sometimes I feel bad because we just have a bunch of inside jokes from the MTC that no one else understands... We have FIVE sisters living in a tiny little house. Probably about half the size of my old little house. It´s insane. The other sisters are in a trio. I LOVE my companion! She has kinda a dry sense of humor and will just give the funniest facial expressions when people aren´t looking. She is seriously super great. 

Chillancito is RIGHT next to Concepcion. It´s pretty much the hood of concepcion.  People are still pretty closed off here but a lot more open to listen than my last sector, and when it rains it RAINS! SIDEWAYS! Why even use an umbrella? I get a bunch of rain in my face anyways! I just love it though! it´s the best thing ever. We are teaching some pretty great people, but they pretty much all smoke and drink so it´ll be a little ruff, but with faith in the Lord WE CAN DO ALL THINGS! YEAH!

Okay here´s just a fun little story! We were at a members house for lunch and all of us were done eating, except for the Hermana who served dinner, she was still eating her cake and saying that it was WAY DRY and that she didn´t like it much because there wasn´t enough caramely. We´re all like "Oh we loved it! Can we share a scripture?" So my companion is sharing a scripture, and next thing we know the hermana is pouring her orange pop on the cake to make it less dry! And she ate it! It is really a good thing I wasn´t sharing the scripture because I was really having the hardest time not laughing. 

Well. That´s all for today folks! Tune in next week for more adventures!

Sincerelito (made that word up just now, It´s not really a word in spanish)

Hermanananana Woodbury

MY FIRST TRANSFER!!!

I have BIG news! I´m being transferred! Tomorrow I go to Chillancito, which I hear is about fifteen minutes away from Concepción, which means that when when the mission boundaries change, I will still be in mission Concepción, NOT Rancagua. I feel kind of weird because I had kind of just accepted the fact that I would probably end up in Rancagua, but that didn´t happen! So now my first area won´t be in my mission anymore... But hey! The Lord knows where I need to be! I´m told my companion will be Hermana Gonzalez, from Argentina! Hermana Contreras (One of the Hermanas I live with) knows her because she´s from the same city in Argentina! Neat-o! ...That´s really all I know about her though. She´ll be great! I just know it! :D

This Sunday was a little ruff to get our investigators to church because of Fathers Day. Everyone had festivities and places they were going to celebrate, but we did have one of our investigators there! Her name is Mirella and well... I just don´t even know how to describe her, she probably one of the most interesting people I´ve ever met! We met her while she was trying to saved her sick cat... We helped hold the cat down while she stuck some sort of medicine up it´s bum. This was about a month ago and I had no idea what was going on because I couldn´t understand what she was saying! We found out recently that the cat didn´t end up living... But she´s super great! Our family didn´t end up going to church this Sunday but they´re still super interested! I´m super sad I won´t be able to work with them anymore! 

Me, Hermana Garcia, AND Hermana Rane are all being transferred closer to Concepcion, and there is only going to be one companionship in our ward. So Hermana Contreras is going to teach our investigators and her investigators. I have a lot of confidence in her, and I know she´ll be great. :)

 I just LOVE this work so much! I love seeing the difference that the gospel has in people´s lives. I am so blessed to have grown up in a family that has  the guidance of the gospel in our lives! I know that no matter what trials we go through we can really lean on the Savior and he will help us to overcome it! He really did suffer for us and with his help we can be strengthened in all that we do! Alma 26:12

Well away I go! Wish me luck in my new area! I hope everything is going well! Love ya!

Hermana Woodbury

PS. Mom, can you send me a Keva? I´m really craving one right now...

SNOW TRIP

Well, it seems like just about everyone who emailed me mentioned Megan´s farewell so I´m going to as well! AHHH MEGAN SO MUCH LUCK TO YOU IN SPAIN!!!!!!

We were really blessed this week! We had a family come to church on Sunday and the mother and daughter have committed to baptism! We´re just super duper excited about them and are doing all we can to help them be converted to the amazing gospel! Thank you so much for your prayers. They REALLY do help. Sometimes things just happen that I know really couldn´t happen with out the help and guidance of the spirit. This family seriously just fell into our hands. Now that they´ve come to church, we are just really doing all we can so that they will come BACK. The culture here in Chile is that you don´t have to really go to church to be part of a religion so after the first time someone goes to church they think that´s enough to know what our church is like. Just pray for them SO MUCH!

Today we had a zone activity to go and see snow. Most exciting thing of my life! Pretty much all of the Latino missionaries have never seen snow in real life so it was actually a pretty big deal. So we got up at five in the morning and took a bus to a mountain south of us where there was supposed to be snow. Then the road was blocked with a fence.... But was that going to stop us from seeing snow? No way! So we hiked and hiked and hiked up the mountain but when we got to the cut off point of the trail there was still no snow. We did however get pretty close to the mountain to see the snow on it but it was at the tippy top... Chuta. I felt way bad because everyone just wanted to touch the snow SOO BAD! But they still thought it was cool to get so close. So then we hiked down to a river and took pictures. Pretty great right? The way the mountain looked actually reminded me a lot of Utah. 

I just want you to know that I ate the organs of a chicken. That´s all I really have to say about that. Best of wishes to you from me and thank you for all the love and support! Choa choa!

Sincerely, Hermana Woodbury

ps. puente means bridge... I think

SO MUCH RAIN!!

 

 

Our current clan! Hna Garcia from El Salvador, Hna Rane from Idaho, and Hna Contreras from Argentina :D

 

This has been quite the week! One of the hermanas that lives with us has been really sick and a lot of times can´t work. We have been working at times in a trio with Hermana Rane her companion last minute so that she can still visit her investigators. (don´t worry we always call a member to stay with Hermana Contreras) One time we couldn´t find anyone to stay with Hermana Contreras when they had an appointment so my companion stayed with Hermana Contreras and I went to work with Hermana Rane for a bit. She is from Idaho and our Spanish is about equal so we really had to depend on each other and help each other out. It was a great learning experience for me because even though we couldn´t say everything in the perfect way, we were able to teach with the spirit, and the investigators understood.

Yesterday Hermana Contreras wasn´t able to go to church. We wanted to make sure that someone from each companionship was at the church to represent so I stayed home with her and my companion went with Hermana Rane to church. Me and Hermana Garcia teach a Sunday School class every week for recent converts and investigators and we thought that seeing as her Spanish is slightly better than mine (you know being her native language and all) she should probably be the one to teach it. Therefore, I am apparently going inactive as a missionary... I guess I need to give myself the same pep talk I give everyone else? Don´t you worry though, I was still able to get the sacrament. We have some great members here that came so that we could have it :)

 

Might as well go swimming!

Some times it just rains SO MUCH! and they don´t have a very good sewer system here so there is just standing water sometimes on the road! We get splashed a lot by cars when they drive by and since I have a nice long trendy trench coat my companion usually has me walk in the splash zone. :) All is well though! Hope everything is going great there! I´m going to go jump in some puddles and teach some people the gospel! Love you guys!

Hermana Gooboody (that´s probably the most common way people pronounce my name)

ps. salta cuerda means jump rope