Hermana Phelps message to her family

Hey this is super neat! Hna Phelps emailed this to her family, and sent it to me. Just thought you would want to read it! It probably doesn´t need to go on the blog or anything...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Another contact success story. December: Back in the day of Chillancito with Hna Woodbury. She was a pro at contacting. I hate contacting young people around my age. One day she contacted a college student and he was golden. His name, Hector. He came to church that next Sunday and even stayed for ward choir! He got baptized right after we left Chillancito. Well Hector just happens to be from Parral. 2 Sundays ago a couple stragglers walked into the chapel right after the sacrament, I looked back and it was none other than Hector. He saw me and did a silent scream and wave. His parents (who once told him that they would rather him be gay than Mormon) are now taking the discussions. His brother came to church this last Sunday with him. We asked him if he was going to get baptized and he said- yea, and I want Hector to baptize me. Hector also blessed the sacrament for the first time this past Sunday and is preparing to go to the temple for baptisms in July. AND ....preparing for a mission !!!! AH.....it all came from one little act of faith and opening the mouth from my hero, Hna. Woodbury.

World Cup

 

I actually have to start this email with a shout out to Callie- Thanks. Thanks for trapping me on the ground when I was little and spitting loogies on my face. I never thought I would thank you for that but I had an experience this week where that story really came in handy. It is the following:

There is a recent convert here in the ward who is really super great! The same one we built a house for! Any ways, life has really hit her hard. She has lived though a lot of trials her whole life. She has two sons that are like the ages of nine and thirteen and they are super great kids! But like any other siblings they fight A LOT. Every time we go over there the mom is just getting WAY mad at them for all the dumb little things they do, and never really notices the good about them. So, me and my companion made it our assignment to help her see that her kids are really actually great kids. So one day the opportunity presented itself and we were able to help her see all the good that her kids really do to help her. Right as we are doing that- we hear them start fighting with each other and she gets this angry/annoyed look on her face. I don´t know how this popped into my head- pure inspiration but I was like, "hey! That´s nothin! Wanna know what my sister did to me? She would pin me down on the ground and make loogies hang down above my face and suck them back up! I would scream and scream! And one time it actually landed on my face! Hermana, your kids really aren´t so bad!" She had the most shocked, appalled look on her face! It was hilarious! And then she was like, "Yeah... Maybe you´re right. I have pretty good kids." 

Well the world cup sure does shake up the work here! Every time Chile plays we have to go inside because no one will let us in anyway. The last game was on Wednesday from three to five and then after five we went out to work. It was pretty crazy because they had just won Spain and everyone was going crazy, honking their horn driving down the street and celebrating. Today there is one at twelve and we have to be out of the city before the game starts which is why we came so early to write- there aren´t many good Internet places in our area so we have to come to the city to write. We are going to have a zone activity at twelve during the game and make tacos and maybe play frisbee or soccer if it´s not raining. Woo hoo!

All of our investigators pretty much dumped us this week. One of them we called her to see when we could visit and she was like, "Um... I will just call you when I have time..." hmmm. Another sent us a text message saying that she doesn´t want us to come by anymore, and the rest were just flat out hiding and avoiding us! Well, back to square one!

 

Well, Hope everything is going great! Love you guys!

Love, Hermana Wordbury

Best Resturant ever!

Hey there! Well this week sure has been interesting! Since me and Hermana Call have the same amount of time in the mission we are both SUPER motivated to work way hard and just do our very best. It is super great we have been finding some pretty awesome people that we hope will progress. It has been a lot of fun because we both get along really well so even though the work is some times hard we have a lot of fun together. YEAH!

We had interviews with President Arrington this Friday and he pretty much told me to work the hardest I´ve ever worked. YEAH! YOU BETTER BELIEVE I WILL!!! We also received the special invitation to eat lunch with the Arringtons and the assistants after the interviews- Just me and my companion. We went to like the most American restaurant I have ever seen in Chile. It was super fancy! I felt like I need to stick my pinky up while I drank my water or something to try and be proper!  Anyways, I thought that was pretty neat. :)

Also on Friday, Chile played in the World Cup and they were afraid it could be dangerous for us to be out on the streets during and after that so we had to go inside SUPER early and didn´t get much working done. 

Well, can´t think of anything else out of the ordinary! So I guess that´s just about it! Love you guys! Read your scriptures!

Love, Hermana Woodbruy

It's raining again!

YEAH!!!! I HAVE A COMPANION!!!! I never realized what a blessing that
really is until I went a week and a half without one! It´s a lot
easier to work in my sector now that I don´t have to make members be
my companion. Although it was pretty fun having a different companion
every day! It definitely switched things up!

This week has been very wet! we have been drenched by the rain about
every single day this week! We might as well go swimming in the pond
sized puddles everywhere! It´s always the best when a car flies
through a puddle and drenches us. Sometimes I wonder if some people do
that on purpose! Good thing I have a sweet trench coat!

So I have an awesome umbrella that you push a button and it opens
automatically. Neat-O. Well It got to the point where I was opening it
so much that now sometimes it will just open without me pressing the
button! So when it isn´t raining me and my companion have to walk
round with all of our rain gear because we know that it will soon
start to rain. So I walk around with my umbrella hanging from my coat
pocket and we will be walking down the street and all of the sudden my
umbrella will burst open! It´s happened a couple times while we are
contacting people... That always catches them by surprise! Anyways...
I guess it´s time to get a new umbrella...

Our mission has  been focusing a lot lately on talking to everyone you
see. It´s pretty great. I have really been able to see that when you
are being diligent and doing what the Lord asks he puts people in
your path. It´s cool to just help everyone feel the love of God in
their life even if all you do is talk to them once. I JUST LOVE IT!

Well Hope everything is going super great! Love you!

Love, Hermana Woodbury

My new companion!

Wow what a week! Half the time being in a trio in another sector- the other half with a member who usually doesn´t know the lessons... Good times! I was actually really happy because I got to go to my area every day even if it wasn´t for the whole day! We did a few fix-ups with the Hermanas of other areas too and with members in my sector. It was a great opportunity to get to know some of the members better. I was able to get a couple of the young single adults get enthused to maybe serve a mission! YEAH MISSIONS!

Don´t get me wrong though I am definitely excited to have a companion starting tomorrow! My new companion is..... drum roll por favor..... Hermana Call! Oh Yeah! This cambio is going to rock! I´m so darn excited! 

The sisters conference we had was super awesome. I especially loved it because we got to see ALL of the hermanas from the whole mission! Oh yeah! That´s awesome! Every time we took a break or anything it took a while to get things started again because everyone just goes crazy talking to each other. Hey when you get that many girls together what else do you expect? Anyways, I really loved it.

My mind went completely blank so I am just going to be done with this one... Love you guys!

Love, Hermana Wooden

In a trio for a few more days

MY ZONE

This week was CRAZY! Remember when I didn´t have a companion? I remember that! Because I´m living it right now! It´s pretty complicated... I am working in a trio in a different area that is close to my area. So the only way I can work in my area is if I find a woman active member to be my companion to do visits. It´s real fun!

On Saturday I went out with this old lady that is just super rocking with missionary work and used to just go visit all the in active members so she just knows where all of them live! Anyways, we went to an investigators house and they weren´t there so she´s like "Hey! an inactive lives close by let´s go!" So we go and the neighbors come out and tell us that their son died (as in the son of the less active family) and that the viewing was in a house a couple blocks away. Yeah- we went by and found them. (don´t worry, in Chile people always go to viewings of people that they don´t really even know just to show support so it wasn´t weird to them that we went) It was actually really good because we were also able to tell the bishop so they were able to feel the support of the church. We´re going to pass by later. I feel like it is a very key moment for that family. 

Today we had our Liders counsel in Concepción which is a couple hours in bus from Chillan, and considering that I don´t have a companion, I was the only hermana going from Chillan. Chuta... So I had to go with the elders... Weird. This whole not having a companion thing is real interesting! 

This next week we are going to have a sister capacitation where ALL of the sisters in the whole mission are going to go and be uplifted. I am SUPER excited for it! As sisters we just learn a little different, I mean that´s why Releif Society exists right? Yeah same basic concept! 

Hey!! This is super random, but do you guys remember Hector from Chillancito??? Yeah well I just talked to a missionary who is working there and they told me he is preparing for the mission!!! YEAH!!! GO HECTOR!!!! Anyways that just made me way happy. It is just really cool to see people´s progress. I love this work so darn barn much!

 Love you guys!

Loveth Hermana Woodbury

Moving Trikes

Fun fact- So Chileans are really obsessed with this hot drink called mate, which is like an herbal tea, and during the winter they are even more crazy for it! Anyways sometimes we will call at their door and they will open it covering their mouth and say "I can´t right now I´m drinking mate." My favorite it when they come all the way out to the gate covering their mouth and THEN tell us that. Mostly I just love that they think they have to cover their mouth to come outside after drinking something hot.

 

 

​These trikes are the best invention ever! We used it to help a member move!  I´m totally investing in one when I get home.

​One time we went to a members house and there was a rooster eating at her table....

​I´m just not really sure where that street is! This is actually hilarious because retorno means I return... And it´s pointing up :) I just like it.

Anyways things have been going great! My companion goes home this week on Thursday and I have no idea what they are going to do with me for the last week and a half of the cambio.. If they are going to have me work in a different sector or give me a new companion.. It´s a mystery! I just love being on a mission!

Hope everything is going great! Love you guys!

Hermana Woodbury