February 18, 2014 (snooooooooooow...)

Heeeeey My Familia!

     We weren't able to email yesterday because of "President's Day"... I am so over these holidays on Mondays and being grounded because of the snow... It is really just throwing my groove off!! (; But I am alive and doing well!! I hope that everyone had a great week and an even better Valentine's Day!! HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!! I hope you went out and did something special because you have been married for so dang long now! (: I sent yous a letter yesterday so you should get it sometime this week! I am just the tinest bit upset that I haven't recieved a letter from my own family for a while, but then when I read you email it made more sense! So just disregard that last part in my letter when you get it.... hahaha (;

     So I have officially been out on my mission for exactly 2 Months today!!!!! Can you believe it!? I have also made it through my first transfer and I only have six more weeks of training and I am done!! Time is seriously going by like crazy now! I cannot even believe it. I am excited for it to be a new transfer and to start things off fresh! This is going to be such a great transfer! We have so much work to do in our area and I am so excited about it! This last week was a rough one. We had to drop an investigator because of some legal stuff. It is really hard to love and care about someone so much, yet you have to drop them! We have really been struggling with people keeping commitments! So we have made some new plans and decided what we are going to do to help all of these people understand why it is so important to keep God's commitments! We are teaching this sweet family, and I mean like the entire family! They just keep coming out of the wood work! I think it is so great! We are working with Tamara's "fiance" and he really wants to get baptized, but he has to make the decision to either marry Tamara or move out. It is definitely a struggle and we are really trying to work through it! Henry LOVES our branch president so we are having him talk to Henry about marriage! We are praying that things will work out! They haven been together for 18 years!! They really just need to get married already... I love this family soooo much! We had family home evening (or forced family fun) with them last night! Henry told us that we are like family to him and we are more than welcome to come over anytime! It made me feel so great! They are a black family and Henry raps to us about God every single time we go over! He is actually really good at it and says that his rap name is Hank Love! So you should look him up on youtube! (it might be kind of inappropriate so if it is I am sorry!) We always call him Hank Love when we see him!! hahahaha I just love the people we teach and everyone we come in contact with! It will be so hard when I get transferred because I won't want to leave these people! I love the "hood" or the "projects"!! I really just love being a missionary! It is extremely hard somedays, especially when it snows so much, but I love it! The snow has been absolutely RIDICULOUS. We have gotten soooo much snow! It wouldn't be so bad, but since so many people live so close to each other everyone parks on the side of the roads. So, when the snow plows come through they literally just burry these cars! People have to dig their cars out... Luckily our land lady is the best and lets us park in the driveway when it snows! Plus the people that live below us ALWAYS shovel and clean our car off for us before we ever even get outside! We seriously are sooo blessed! The guys name is Angel and his wife's name is Tiffany! This last Thursday it snowed a ton so we were inside for most of the day and Tiffany brought us some homemade carrot cake cupcakes! It is soooo sweet! Then when we went outside and had a great time contacting and tracting in the snow we came back home to have dinner and there was another knock at our door! It was Tiffany again and her and Angel had made homemade potato soup and cheese and chicken dumplings and they brought us some for dinner!!!!! I mean seriously. These people are incredible! I love them! God is definitely looking out for us! So it was a hard week, but a great week all rolled in one!! (:

     I wanted to share a scripture with yous real quick! It is in 3 Nephi 5:13 and it says, "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." This is exactly what I get to do EVERY SINGLE DAY. I feel beyond blessed for this incredible opportunity! I get to help bring my brothers and sisters unto Jesus Christ. It is such a humbling experience! I am so grateful that the Lord trusts me this much to help others have everlasting life! I love this gospel. It has truly changed my life. I love you all soooooo much! Thanks again for everything you do for me! You're the best! I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!! WE GOT THIS!!! 16 MONTHS HAS NOTHIN' ON US!! (: Have a fantastic week and I will talk to you next Monday! (Hopefully... hahahaha)

 

Love, Sister Woodland

February 10, 2014 (I Love Yous!)

Hello Family!

     I hope that all of you had a great week! I hear that it has been raining so hopefully the air in Utah is FINALLY getting better for you peeps! Let's start off with Dad. YOU ARE THE 1st COUNSELOR IN THE BISHOPRIC!!! Whoa! That is intense! hahaha You are going to be so amazing in that calling! I mean of course you are because God called you to it! (: Good Luck Daddio! I am so happy for you! If I were home I would give you a great big hug and then just laugh... but I can't so someone do that for me? Thanks (: Next is Mother. I am so glad that you had a great GNO with the ladies! Sounds like a blast even if you were just "camping in your backyard". hahaha I am glad you know that I would never actually call you just for fun! hahaha I am not THAT naughty! But I am grateful you set me straight and helped me realize the reason I am here on a mission! I seriously will foreverly be grateful to you for that phone call! I am finally been able to feel like a missionary here in New Jersey! FINALLY! (: What a relief! I am glad Nancy got a kick out of the whole "Sister Nuns" thing! I did too! We still laugh about it all the time! That would be soooo awesome if that lady took us out to lunch! That is soooo cool! We actually are being fed quite a bit now! (I think the people like us now so they are letting us come into their homes and eat their food... haha) Bad thing is I am probably going to get fat from eating all of their fatty food! They really like food here! Especially all of the different cultures! Don't wish to be released yet Mother... hahaha you might just be called to Relief Society President!!!! You never know with our family! (; hahaha You are such a great Young Women's Pres.! (: I am still upset that I won't be able to hold Jen's and Colt's baby!! MAN. Someone better send me lots of pictures when that cute thing is born! Next on the list is Meggers. I am so glad that you are doing well and that you are going to tour U of U! What exactly do you want to get a degree in there? You're like a genius! It's whatever... hahaha You best not be getting married until I am home.... If you do than I better be a cut out cardboard at the wedding and I wants LOTS of pics! (: So just wait til I am home! Thanks! (: Next is Mallo. I hear you are getting lots and lots of hours at Little Caesars! Is this good or bad?? Money is always a good thing right?! When is prom? I cannot wait until I get the pictures!! You are going to look so beautiful! Other than that, how is life going?? How is school? Are you still dating that boy? I think his name is Andrew or something... (; hahaha I hope he is doing well too! Last, but not least, is Bryce. My favorite little ginger! Boy do I miss that red hair and your giggling! You are like this rock start athlete or something! WAY TO GO BUD! Killin it on the court! I love it! Are you glad you are playing basketball right now? How is everything else going in your life?? Are you dating anyone? Let me in on who your crush is! I won't tell! (:

     Life here in Jersey is moving right along! I am most definitely OVER the snow, but it is alllllll good in the hood! It has been really hard to find parking anywhere because a lot of peoples cars are snowed in and they haven't bothered to get them out because it is a lot of work! We went to a members home on Friday night because they were feeding us (Yay Food!!) and we decided to park in between these two cars... Probably not the smartest idea on our part, but we did it anyways! After a lot of packing up and pulling forward we got into the spot and then realized that there was NO way we were going to be able to get out... MAN! So we decided that we would just go in and have dinner and hopefully the Lord would bless us and the cars either in front of us or behind us would move.... THE LORD BLESSES HIS MISSIONARIES! BOTH cars were gone when we got outside!! We were soooo happy because we had no idea how we would get out with the snow and the cars! We are teaching this sweet family right now, but they are not keeping our commitments. At all. It is really hard to love someone soooo much and want them to have the blessings that the gospel can give them, yet they really don't care to change their lives! So we are going to see how this week goes and if they continue to not keep commitments then we will have to drop them... This will be the first people I will have dropped and I am struggling with it! But we will still check up on them and see how things are going! We had to move one of our investigators baptismal date back for March 9th I believe! She is doing amazing and loves everything about the gospel, but she hasn't been at church very often! She works at a hospital and works every other weekend so it has been really hard! She has such a  strong testimony and we know that she will get to be baptized and be such a great member of our branch! Another investigator we are teaching has such a strong testimony and so much faith!!! Her name is Charlene and she is awesome! We gave her a soft baptismal invite and she was a little hesitant, but told us she wants to pray about it and to find out for herself if this is something she should be doing! She is struggling with Joseph Smith, but is slowing gaining a testimony of him! She just has to pray about it and find out for herself if he really was a prophet and if he really did restore the church and translate the book of Mormon!! She'll receive the answer! I know it! (: God gives us all chances to find out about the truthfulness of the gospel and I know that He will witness to these amazing people of the truthfulness of the things we are teaching them!! I love sharing the joy and happiness this gospel brings to me with others! I love these people and my love for them just continues to grow every single day!

     Everyone here says I love you(s)! It is so great! So I am picking up on some of the Jersey lingo already! To answers some of your questions, President Jeppson just told me to be quick and not spend hours talking to you on the phone so there wasn't a specific amount of time that he gave me! We have zone conferences the first Tuesday of every month! The weather here is finally getting a little better! The snow is slowly, but surely melting so hopefully we won't have anymore snow storms!! I don't know if these people could take anymore! hahah they really don't know what to do when it snows! Everything seriously shuts down whenever it snows just a little bit! I will try to get a letter written today if I have some more time! Keep writing me letters!! I love them so much! (: Thanks for all of the love and support! WE GOT THIS! I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!!! Have an amazing week! Write me or something?! (: (: (:

 

Love, Sister Woodland

February 5, 2014 (Sister Nuns :))

Hello my favorite peeps!

     So life has definitely been crazy! There has been sooooooooooo much going on! I am doing much better and just like you said mom, "losing myself in the work". I cannot thank you enough for saying that to me and helping talk me down! We all know I get a little anxious... hahaha Seriously though... only just a little bit! But I still have no word on my cyst and which surgeon/doctor I will be seeing for a consultation! I feel like whatever the decision is though will be just fine! I know that I am being watched over and that the Lord is truly helping through everything! SOOOOO.... I am not worried (werid, right?!) But really it is all thanks to you Mother! I have been really trying to lose myself in the work that I am doing out here, but for some reason I just haven't been able to REALLY lose myself. Being able to talk to you about what all is going on with my face helped me more than I even knew I needed help with! The Lord knew I needed to, just as President Hinckley's dad told him, 'Forget yourself and get to work". I NEEDED to hear that! After we were done talking I felt like a different person... haha My whole mindset changed and I knew that I needed to be focused on the things that I am doing here because.... well... I will be here for 17 more months! (: haha So thanks! You're the best mom!

     Jersey weather has been NUTS! Like ridiculous... haha It snowed again on Monday and our cars were grounded that day so it was just a really fun P-day stuck inside! Then our cars got grounded AGAIN today because it snowed a ton again last night! Not only did it snow, but it has been raining all today! So everything is just turning into straight ice! It is quite fun walking in it though! (: hahaha I am actually not having too hard of a time with the weather and having to walk! I really like walking and getting more familiar with our area! We can talk to more people when we are walking and crazy things happen when we walk more than when we drive! My boots were a great decision though! I am soooooo grateful I have such good boots or I would be so miserable right now! On one of our walking days we were inside a building getting warm... and as we were getting ready to leave this lady started to talk to us. We decided to give her a card and began talking to her. She starting telling us all about her life. (People do that A LOT) But this sweet lady has been through soooo much! I just couldn't even believe some of the things she has gone through! It is always a humbling experience for me to learn about other people and what they have gone through! We shared a brief message with her about Jesus Christ and then as we were about ready to leave the building this lady gets up and basically yells to everyone in there that she is going to "leave with her Sister Nuns"!!!! hahahahahaha Awwww man! I couldn't stop laughing! I guess we get called Nuns a lot out here, but that was my first experience! I loved it! When we were all outside we were all hugging it out and a car drove by and honked at us. The lady turned right around and in her Joysey accent said, "DON'T YOU HONK AT MY SISTER NUNS! THESE ARE MY GIRLS!" hahaha It was serioulsy one of the greatest experiences! She was awesome! Too bad she doesn't live in our area though... Another experience we had was with one of our less actives. We got to their home and Tamara seemed like she was upset. We asked her if everything was okay and she told us that they weren't and that it had been a hard day for her because of her children! (We teach this entire family, but separately because they don't really like each other) We were directed by the spirit to have a different lesson than we had originally planned on sharing. We talked about adversity and trials. She was able to recieve a priesthood blessing from some of the english elders in our area and then we left! By the time we left she was smiling and finally seemed like herself again! We stopped by their home yesterday to check up on her and see if there was anything we could do to help her out. She then shared with us that when we came over last time it was truly a miracle to her. She told us that 15 minutes before we came the whole situation with her kids had just happened. She was feeling so down and so upset, but that we helped to lift her spirits and remind her that she can get through anything with God's help. It was such a neat experience to know that God was able to work through us to help her out because we had no idea what had just happend 15 mintues prior to our appointment! Tamra said that we were her miracle that day! It made me feel so good! I love being an instrument in God's hand! Being able to see how the gospel can help someone so much is seriously the best experience! The last experience I wanted to share was with one of our referrala named Erika! We have been trying to contact her for awhile, but just haven't been able to get things to work out! We finally were able to meet with her at Dunkin' Donuts yesterday (dunkin' donuts are literally EVERYWHERE here...). She is THE most prepared person I have met so far on my mission! She has most of the same beliefs that we do and when we told her our purpose for teaching her is to follow Christ's example and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority she told us that she had actually been thinking about being baptized and that all of the other churches she had been going to were not giving her everything she was looking for!!!! I MEAN COME ON! She is so ready! She told us she knows that God put us in her life for a reason! I was seriously just blown away... I didn't even know what to say! haha She is just so ready to recieve our message! The Lord is seriously giving us miracles! I love it!

     I love being here! I finally feel like I am truly "losing myself in the work"! There is just such a difference from the way I was just a couple of days ago, to now! I wake up in the mornings so excited to get out of bed and share the gospel with everyone! I want to learn and grow and become more knowledgable for myself so I can be as prepared as I possibly can for these amazing people! This is the Lord's work! It doesn't mean it gets easier, but I have the desire to face each challenge, to struggle, and to face my fears! In Elder Holland's talk, "Broken Things to Mend" he says, "Brothers and Sisters, whatever your distress, please don't give up and please don't yield to fear. I have always been touched that as his son was departing for his mission to England, Brother Bryant S. Hinckley gave young Gordon a farewell embrace and then slipped him a handwritten note with just five words taken from the fifth chapter of Mark: 'Be not afraid, only believe' (Mark 5:36)." I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK! Thanks so much for your love and support! For your packages, email, and letters! WE GOT THIS!! <3

 

Love, Sister Woodland

 

P.S. Shout out to the Bradshaw Family! Thanks for the sweet package of Sunshine! I LOVE it soooo much! It made my entire week! I love you all so much! (: