What I'm THANKFUL for

HEY HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! I was actually a bit disappointed that There wouldn´t be any sort of festivities here in Chile but don´t even worry because we were invited by Hermana Arrington to cook some fun Thanksgiving food at her house today! So, I celebrated a bit early but I DID have a Thanksgiving! Every time I go The President´s house it just reminds me of being in the US again because its just so nice! It really made me realize that I have a LOT to be grateful for!

I am thankful for:

• Garbage can lids that prevent cats from ripping through your garbage and getting it everywhere.
• The pilgrims and Indians for sharing their dinner and creating such a great tradition
• Rain ponchos
• Name tags so I never forget my companions name
• Sunscreen
• Feeling like you are a servant in the Lord´s hands
• Refrigerated milk and eggs
• Sticky notes
• The Future Chile Concepcion Temple 
• Home made rolls
• Normal teeth
• Sweet looking mission shoes
• My mom for letting me cut the fat off my meat

• The pound for getting rid of rabid stray dogs
• The Book of Mormon
• Black Friday!
• Saltines that have salt, and salads that don´t
• Popcorn
• Planners.... Maybe I´ll use one when I get home? ;)
• Chalk Art (PS. Have you seen the video of the missionaries in NYC doing a giant chalk art of the plan of salvation in Union Square? look it up if not)
• Kitchens with counter space
• My dad for rubbing my shoulders when I´m sore (rain check?)
• The Chilean remedy for everything- Lemon and salt.
• Priesthood blessings
• Hermana Arrington for inviting her to her house today to make mini thanksgiving
• The ability to make turkey napkins!
• The letters you write me and love that you send
• Cold pure water

Hope everyone eats lots of good food! Save me some pumpkin pie! :D

Love you guys!

Love, Hermana Woodbury

Where the river meets the ocean

Well here I am again! Not TOO much has happened that´s new. My companion still usually has no idea what is going on. Every time any one says any thing I have to repeat it so that she can understand. She understands my Spanish, just not Chilean yet. 

Let me tell you about Sergio and Claudia (Yes, another Sergio). Sergio is a less active member that has recently been coming back to church. One day, we taught him and his family which consists of his wife Claudia (well not really cause they aren´t married) and her daughter Camila. Well, When we found out that they not only had to get married (Yes, another Sergio that has to get married) but they both still needed to get divorced to their previous spouses, we gave up hope a little and didn´t visit them more... Then this week I get a call from president saying that he randomly found them with some elders in another area and taught them. What the? Since when does stuff like that happen? Well, he thinks Claudia is super great so now we´re teaching them again. Who knows, maybe it´ll even have a good ending!

As missionaries, we always find it very affective to sing to people. Usually people that wouldn´t normally let us in, are willing to listen to us sing, so once we´re in we can take advantage of the situation and teach a lesson. Well one day this week I had the hiccups like all day, so we ended up entering this house to sing them a song, and just about every time I open my mouth I would let out a super loud hiccup. I personally thought it was hilarious and so did my companion, so every time I hiccuped me and my companion´s voices would tremble because we were trying not to laugh. Meanwhile the couple who we are singing for just have this look like the are loving the hymn we are singing because it is just the best thing they´ve ever heard. I just havn´t decided whether or not I am too embarrassed to go back to that house to teach them again or not... But then again they seemed not to mind...

We had an activity today where we went to "where the river meets the ocean". For some reason m zone always like to have activities where you go to the beach and you don´t swim. It was pretty great though. Here are some pics.

Me and my hija!

The four gringas of Chillancito!

We found the pirates.

 

We´re in a cave. With a Moses staff.

 

 

"Festival Gastronómico"

Well, I have good news! My hija (daughter) is still alive! I will now proceed to tell you what happened. When we go to pick up our children, they give us a little class about all the things we need to do when we train. After that, all the trainers and newbies eat lunch together and chat while the suspense builds and everyone is wondering who their companion is. There were 12 sisters that came in this cambio, so plenty to choose from! Surprisingly though, only four of the new sisters were gringas. After lunch we went into the chapel, where all of the new missionaries bore their testimony in Spanish and all of the trainers tried to receive revelation about who they would be training. After that FINALLY came the moment where we got to know who our companions are. They would call up the new missionary and then tell them who their trainer is, which is followed by the trainer happily running up to the front and giving their new companion a big hug (me included). Well, there you have it. That´s how it went. And my companion is..... (drum roll please)..... HERMANA LEES! She is from Seattle, Washington! Wahoo! And just in case you are interested to know, Hermana Phelps is ALSO training a gringa! So we´re all gringas here in Chillancito! That's crazy. What are the chances that two of the four gringas came to Chillancito? Yeah, it´s pretty great. We like it.

Well, I´m not going to lie, I was a little stressed out this week- You know going from junior companion to trainer, and then on top of all that, our ward had activities every single day this week because of ward conference! Here in Chile, ward activities aren´t just like in the states where everything is taken care of by the ward, and the missionaries can show up when and if they want. No, you HAVE to go, help set up, participate in the activity, and help clean up. And if you don´t, the ward will probably think you are the worst missionaries in the world.... So I was a little stressed that we weren´t going to get ANYTHING done this week. BUT with sacrifice brings miracles. Our members were seriously awesome and invited their neighbors and friends, so half of the people there were less active members, and we even had a few non members in there! We were able to make appointments with referrals and all that great stuff that missionaries live for! We are very enthused to work with these new people this week!

Well, as part of our participation in the ward activities, we were in charge of the "Festival Gastronómico" Which was a food competition! Everyone made some sort of food or dessert, and shared it. As missionaries we decided to make no-bake cookies, and let me tell you, they were a real hit! No one had ever tried them before, and most people had never even tried peanut butter, so it was a completely new taste and they loved it.

I´m happy to say that sticky notes never cease to work miracles. We accidentally offended one of the families here in the ward because we usually have FHE with them, but we couldn´t go two weeks in a row. So then at the beginning of the week, at the ward activities we noticed that they were glaring at us. Chuta.... So we decided to make amends, we would just stop by their house with the four missionaries to say hello and tell them they´re great. Good idea right? Right. Well, they weren´t home. So we decided to just write a sticky note, it said the following, "We passed by because you guys are INCREDIBLE, Love the missionaries". Yeah well that night they came up to us and were super happy and acted like they were never even offended. Then yesterday the husband went out to work with us and gave us a bunch of referrals. Yeah.... I think I´ll be writing sticky notes to members a lot more often.

Okay you guys are probably sick of reading but I just have one more story! Remember the family that named their rabbit after me? Yeah well I was eating at their house and the husband was like "Hermana Goodbury, what does your name mean in Spanish? Good means bueno, but what does bury mean?" Yeah, "wood" and "good" definitely sound the same to them.

Alright that´s it. hope no one is expecting a personal email today, because I just used up all my time! Love you guys!

Love, Hermana "Bueno"bury

I'm a TRAINER!

Hey! We have cambios! Don´t worry though, I am just staying here in Chillancito. :) But my companion sure isn´t! I actually am freaking out a little bit, because I officially am going to train. AH! I remember when I first arrived, I thought that the hermanas that had been in the mission eight months were just WAY experienced, and now that I´m here... I just still have SO MUCH TO LEARN! My poor daughter. (In the mission we call the missionaries we train our children...) The other crazy part is that me and Hermana Phelps are STILL living together! WOO HOO!!! I really got lucky with that one! And she will be training as well, so everything is just SUPER locisimo! (loco means crazy... locisimo is like loco, just super exagerated).

Well it turns out that people here really do celebrate Halloween! I saw like eight people dressed up in costumes to go trick or treating! It was pretty crazy! Actually they celebrate "Evangelico Day" on the thirty first so I got to see a few evangeilco armies marching down the street and singing praises to the Lord! One even gave me a pamphlet called "The Biblical Teachings of Hell," That´s what I want to read!

Well... Considering that I´m just freaking out right now, I forgot everything that I had to write you guys about this week. So I´ll just include some pics!

Here´s half of the seminary class! Usually I´m pretty sure they don´t learn anything and I am just talking to myself. If they were investigators we might have dropped them by now...?  (Notice that one is STILL texting even in the picture... I mean looking up scriptures. I´m pretty sure that was the longest period of time they have ever been quiet) Niños....

 

Chau compañera! Enjoy your next area!

 

 

 

Here´s our church! And a guy on a charriot! and some houses!

 

Yeah I know him. He´s famous. 

 

Love you guys!

De, Hermananana Woodbury

p.s. "dulce o travesura" means "trick or treat"