Nuts for nuts!

Okay remember how we had that miracle last Saturday with Elizabet who we found like a half hour before conference? Yeah, well the next time we found her she broke up with us. Not gonna lie it was a rough breakup. I´m super used to people rejecting us but it was different with her. She invited us in her house and then told us that she didn´t want us to teach her anything, and she didn´t want to go to church again because she didn´t want to have anything to do with God in her life right now... Well, now what? So we kinda discuss what´s going on with her life, and try to share a scripture that can apply to her situation, but she seriously would NOT let us share anything gospel related with her. So finally we´re like "Well... Can we leave you with a prayer..?" Yeah she didn´t even let us pray. I just don´t understand what happened there! She was SO awesome the day we taught her and then all of the sudden she didn´t want anything to do with it! Anyways... New subject

Here are a couple great things that happen in Chile. One thing you should understand is that evangelicos are SUPER devoted to their religion and they think that EVERYONE needs to hear what they have to say whether they want to hear it or not. Therefore, they sometimes stand outside of houses and yell scriptures and stuff REALLY LOUD at the house. I have decided that maybe we should start doing that? Yell at a house and count it as a lesson? We would teach a lot of lessons that way! Yesterday, we also witnessed an army of evangelicos walking down the street singing hymns. It actually kind of made my day a little bit... Next ward activity coming right up!

Here in Concepcion, they have a bunch of nut stands all over the place that you can buy fresh candied nuts. The part I like best is the fact that they are usually called "nuts 4 nuts." It´s a good pun right? Yeah, well no one here actually knows that because they all speak Spanish and "nuts cuatro nuts" doesn´t really mean anything to them, so every now and then you will see a nuts stand that says "nuts 5 nuts!" Because 5 is obviously better than 4 right? Yeah, pun ruined... :)

Well I just don´t have to much to tell this week! Hope everything is going superb and that everyone has great costumes for Halloween! I´m thinking when I go door to door that night I will yell, "scripture or treat!" That way if they don´t have candy, they will have to listen to a scripture. Then again, I could always just yell a scripture really loud at their house if they don´t let us in, right?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! :D

Con amor, Hermana Woodenbury

p.s. sombra means shadow

Ditched at conference

Okay, first things first. I am really kind of sad because we might have to stop teaching Janeth and Sergio. It is like the biggest heartbreak of my life, but they honestly aren´t doing anything more to progress more than they did like three months ago. They told us that they are going to keep going to church, but that they just have a lot going on in their lives right now and need some things to fix themselves before they get married. We talked to our leaders about it and they said we should probably let them go for a little bit. It is seriously the hardest thing EVER because we know that they are super awesome and that they have stranger testimonies than a lot of the members... Anyway, enough about that.

This week our zone had interviews with the mission president at his house again! I always like going to the President´s house because it´s kind of like being in the US! Me and a few elders sang a musical number there, which I just loved because I got to sing alto and I havn´t been able to do that for a while! Mostly because the melody always needs a little help...

We had stake conference this week, so we had the option to bring people to church Saturday night because of the adult session. Anyways, we were contacting a street about a half hour before the Saturday night session, and happened upon an eighteen year old girl named Elizabet walking along, so we started to talk to her, and she accepted to go to the church with us! At the church we taught her a small lesson and she said she wanted to get baptised in our church because she´s never felt so much peace in her life, and then she stayed for some of the adult session! I was seriously amazed. It was a true miracle.

Sunday was a little bit different. We went with our investigator Irene to the conference who we have been teaching for a while and went to church with us once before and told us that she would really like to follow our religion. Anyways, so it gets to "halftime" where every one stands up and sings and Irene asks, "Hey, where´s the bathroom?" so I tell her and she leaves to room.... and never returns. That is not even a joke. She left and then texts us, "Hey sorry but I need to go home now!" Okay, what the heck? I seriously don´t understand what the heck is going on with her. Way to be all sneaky! Maybe she was bored..?

A little bit after our investigator sneaked out of the conference, someone passed out, so of course a big group of people had to carry the body out into the hall, and the speaker pretended like nothing happened and kept talking. Then to top it all off, the closing song the choir sang was a Christmas song. Never mind that it´s not even after Halloween yet! What a conference!

Anyways, that´s about it for right now! Love you guys! Merry Christmas! (or Halloween whichever one you want to celebrate this month)

Loveth, Hermana Merrisa Woodbury

p.s. sandia means watermelon

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