The Book of Mormon is amazing!

LAURA GOT MARRIED!!!!! I CAN HARDLY EVEN BELIEVE IT!!!!! It seems so unreal. I am just SO SO SO happy for her! Congrats Laura! I looked BEAUTIFUL in your dress with hidden pockets!:D

Hey remember how great Janeth and Sergio are and how I am always way obsessed with them and like to talk about them and stuff? Yeah, they´re still amazing. They had a FHE with their family and taught them the gospel! They are the coolest people I´ve ever met. They still don´t have a date to get married yet though... I´m kinda worried. They told us that they are for sure going to get baptised, but we need us to be patient.... Umm... We have been being patient for like three and a half months now! POR FAVOR! We are getting a little discouraged because we´ve helped them put a date of faith for their baptism like three times already when the spirit is really strong, but then it always just passes by and we don´t really know what else to do except pray that they´ll actually do something to work toward it.

The power of the Book of Mormon never ceases to amaze me. We have been teaching this inactive member for a while who is just really stubborn. Anyways, a couple weeks ago her husband who isn´t a member was there and giving us a hard time about stuff... Long story short we gave him a Book of Mormon, assigned him something to read in it, and left. Well, he went out of town for a couple weeks for work and we figured he wouldn´t read it. This week we found him again and he had taken the Book of Mormon with him on his trip, read what we assigned him, and wanted to read more so he read all the way from the intro to 1 Nephi 8. WHA???!!! We were NOT expecting that! He told us, "It´s just a really great book to read because when you´re reading you get this really great feeling right here, ya know?" (gesturing to his heart). I was seriously amazed. We are so darn barn lucky to have that book. It really does give guidance. I just love it so much.

Well..... Yep that´s about it for today! Love you guys!

Love Hermana Woodbury

Loving General Conference

Well now that it´s October, I hope everyone´s house is nice and decorated for Halloween! Unfortunately that holiday doesn´t exist here, but I´m thinking about dressing up as a rabbit that day in honor of the rabbit named Woodbury here in Chillancito.

How about that General Conference? I´m not going to lie, it is a totally different experience watching it in Spanish, than in English. It´s super weird because you see their lips moving, but there is a translator speaking over them in Spanish. Every speaker, you hear them say their first few words in English before the translator starts. It´s so weird not to be able to hear the individual voices and personalities of the speakers. You also can´t hear when everyone is chuckling in the conference center, and since the personality of the translator isn´t the same with the dumb little jokes they do in conference, nobody ever laughs. The translator for Elder Holland´s talk actually started crying a little and the spirit was really strong. I definitely kind of missed hearing their voices though. But I will have you know that Richard Scott translates his own talk so I DID get to hear his voice! Something else kind of fun is that in the middle of the session when everybody sings, the words on the screen are still in English, but everyone just gets out their hymn book and sings it in Spanish, so you´ve got the sound of the choir singing in English, and everyone else in Spanish and it´s just very interesting and great and confusing.

 We had a cool experience with our investigator Janeth in the Saturday Morning session. She told us that when Uchtdorf was speaking and said that "this church has a place for you," she felt like he was talking straight to her. I was like, YEAH! He WAS talking straight to you! Later, in the Sunday morning session, both Janeth and Sergio went and during every single talk I thought, "Oh my goodness! This is exactly what they needed to hear!" It is just so cool how everyone can get exactly what they need to hear out of conference. We are seriously so blessed to have the guidance of the prophet in our lives. 

I can´t really think of anything else to write right now my head is just so full of CONFERENCE. I hope everything is going super wonderful and that you all enjoyed conference, felt the spirit, and got a little life guidance! Love you people!

Con GRAN amor,

Hermana Woodbury

There is a rabbit named after me!

I have great news! The Registro Civil is open! That means Janeth and Sergio can progress! I am actually kind of worried about them because I just really don´t want them to loose their vision and be eternal investigators! They really just need to get married and baptised already! Oh man they are so awesome. I´ll keep on keeping you updated about them, don´t you even worry!

Here´s kind of a funny story. We were at a member´s house for lunch, and they weren´t quite done making dinner, so they invited us to go out back to look at their rabbits. Keep in mind that they have these rabbits for the soul purpose of eating them. Anyways, as they were showing us the rabbits they said that none of them had names, except one. "Woodbury!" Yeah. They named a rabbit after me that they are going to eat... Except when you think about it, the rabbits name is real Googoody because we all know that no one can actually say Woodbury.

This week I had a cool experience that really opened my eyes to how unimportant the things of the world are. We were teaching a lady that we had found a couple months ago and then could never find again. We would always pass by her house but she was never home. The first time we taught her she was just super awesome, loving and happy, but this time we finally found her and she was pretty depressed. She let us in her house and started to tell us how she had everything she could ever need; a nice house, a good job, a family, a busy life, but she just wasn´t happy and she didn´t know why. She told us that there are moments that she can feel happy but it just doesn´t last. We were able to share our testimonies about how the things that really bring true happiness are the things of God, and not the things of the world. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that brings true happiness in this life. I was able to tell her without a shadow of a doubt that God loves her and wants her to be happy, she just had to let him in. 

Well... Nothing else is new. Guess I´ll talk to you next week! Love you guys!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Googoody

Chilean Independence day

Shout out to Berkley because they are playing the song "Tonight" in the Internet place! Now that that´s been said, I will tell you guys about my mission! A miracle happened this cambio! All four of us in our house are staying together! WHA???!!! This is the third cambio that the four of us will be living together, and I really can´t even believe it because people never stay together for that long, especially when it´s four people that don´t have any drama and just get along! I´m just way glad because I really want to keep working with Janeth and Sergio. I have high hopes that there´s a chance I will be here when they get married? The only problem is that there is one place that you go to get married, that would be called the Registro Civil,  and that would be on strike. STILL! They havn´t been able to sign up for a wedding date for almost a month now! I think the mission was meant to teach me patience??

This week was the celebrations for Chilean Independence ( September 18th), but the difference is that instead of celebrating for one day by watching a parade, eating a hot dog, and watching fireworks like we do in the states, they party ALL. WEEK. LONG. It was kind of fun because we were able to go to the ward party for a bit, and and watch the members do their traditional dance that´s called the Queca in their traditional dresses. But let´s be real, the missionary work was a bit rough. Everyone was partying it up drinking all week long and when they weren´t drunk, they were hung over..... Most of our investigators were out of town for the holiday so we didn´t enter many houses. We did however find a couple awesomes though! 

We have been teaching this young couple named Stefanie and Manuel that have a cute little boy, but this week they were out of town. As we were passing by their house this week we heard some music so decided to see who was home. It just so happened that Stefanie´s mom Irene was there cleaning the house with the music blasting (first sign that we´re going to get along). So she let us in and Stefanie´s brother Rodolfo also happened to be there and we just had an amazing lesson with them and they are super awesome! And Irene even came to church this Sunday! People hardly ever go to church after the first week teaching them! Yeah. That whole family is just way awesome. I just love it.

Well, that´s about it for today! Love you guys! Love being a missionary and serving the Lord! 

Loveth, Hermana Merrisa

mini Cambios

Hey folks! Well, I´m officially freaking out! (as always... I think I´m usually freaking out about something....) We are going to have cambios (that means transfers... but from now on when I write I´m just going to write the word cambios so that I don´t have to ask the missionary next to me how to say cambios in English...) this Friday! AH! I´m way sad already because there is pretty much no way that me and Hermana Gonzalez are going to stay together for another transfer... "President! Please just let me stay in Chillancito!!!" AND, There is pretty much no way that me and Hermana Phelps (from the MTC) will be lucky enough to live together another transfer. I´ve been way too lucky. Anyways... Thought I´d let you know that I´m freaking out and that I have transfers soon.

I had a root beer float this week! Remember those??! (Just so you know that is really big news here in Chile. Stuff like that is a RARITY) I had a mini cambio in an area that right next to mine and Hermana Call somehow happened upon root beer, AND had vanilla ice cream to accompany it. WHOA! I actually really like mini cambios, it´s really great to just learn from other missionaries for a day. And you can just be way bold to people because it´s the only time you get to talk to them. I learned how important it really is to just show your love for the people you are serving. Sometimes as missionaries we just get kind of stressed out and forget to take the time to really show people that we care about them. That´s something that everybody really needs. Isn´t that why I´m here? To help people know that the Savior loves them? Yeah, That´s exactly why I´m here.

We had a zone activity today and it was just way great. So great. We went to the beach and played Frisbee and had some lunch. I really love zone activities because it´s almost like having a group of friends again! I know that sounds way sad but it´s just kind of true...

Anyways, that´s about it! Love you!

Hermana Woodbury

September 9th

Magdalena decided to get baptized! And she did it! It was a great experience, and we´re going to keep working with her. We´re also hoping that we can start teaching her son that lives with her soon. He came to the baptism and we found out that the Bishop is his same age and they know each other, and that they have daughters the same age too! We are wanting to do an FHE with their two families and the bishop is totally on board! 

 

 

We actually had a really awesome experience this week that helped us realize the importance of the Book of Mormon in the conversion of our investigators. We were just verifying with Janeth if she read what we had left her to read, and she opened it up to where we had assigned, read a verse that she liked from the lecture, and started to cry. Through her tears she started to bear her testimony that she knows that Christ lives, that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is the true gospel. It was just an incredible feeling to know that she already has such a strong testimony. She isn´t even a member yet! They just need to get married so bad! But now the Registro Civil is on strike so they can´t even go to set up a wedding day! 

We had an awesome trizone conference where President Arrington and the Assistants did a work shop thing with our zones. It was really awesome because it was a smaller group and we could all be involved. I always really love conferences because we always leave way pumped up and enthused to work. Yep... That´s all I have to say about that! Until next week my good friends!

Con MUCHISIMO amor, Hermana 

ps. raton means rodent or mouse... but not the kind of mouse you use for the computer

September 2nd

Hey there! Let me just tell you guys what´s going on lately! First off, Magdalena is getting baptized! I think I forgot to tell you about her... She´s another grandma. Apparently we´re real good at finding grandma´s to teach! We´ve been teaching her for probably a couple months because she doesn´t really absorb much when you teach her, which means we just have to teach little simple things every time. We almost let her go... We had been teaching her for three weeks and she would never commit to go to church. We went to her house with the mind set that it was our last visit with her, and then when we committed her to church she said she wanted to go! WHA??! Then she just kept coming! And all of the sudden she can get baptized! We´ll see if it ends up happening this week or next, we have to see if she´s ready. :D

Janeth and Sergio are still just SUPER awesome. Just so golden like! They always read what we give them in the scriptures, and then when we check up on it, they ask us questions about what they don´t understand! They just want to know everything they possibly can and I just love it so much! 

Hey remember how I teach seminary? Yeah me too. I just want to apologize to my seminary teachers for all the times I was talking in class... Sometimes when I´m teaching I seriously feel like I´m talking to myself. I have honestly been wondering if they even get anything out of it. Then this week all five of them got up to bear their testimonies during sacrament meeting, and I thought "Hey maybe I am doing something." It was seriously amazing to see all of them get up there. 

This week we were teaching an inactive member, and I thought it was going pretty well, until at the end of it he told me that he wanted to marry me. What?! Who does that? We dropped him.

Well that about wraps it up! I just love being a missionary! I get to see people´s lives change. The gospel really does change lives. It´s crazy to see the changes that people can make in their lives, and how much happier they can be. Janeth and Sergio told us that ever since they have been meeting with us people tell them that they just have a really good feeling in they´re home. 

Love you all! 

Loveth, Merrissy