Sister Amy Woodland: March 2014

March 10, 2014 (Ain't Nobody Got Time For Surgery!)

Heeeey There My Peeps!

Yes, I made it through the surgery and I am doing well!! I am making a really fast recovery so that is awesome! haha I went to church yesterday... I HAD TO GET OUT OF MY APARTMENT OR I WAS GOING TO GO CRAZY! I am probably the biggest worry wart in the entire world so having to wait a week and a half to find out what my results are is KILLING me.... I am like an emotional wreck.. haha So I have been trying to stay really busy and to lose myself in the work here so I don't have time to think about things! The crazy thing is I know that things are going to be okay and that the Lord is watching over me, but I cannot seem to just relax about it all!! I think I get it from you Mom and Dad! I really appreciate all of the prayers and support though! So thanks everyone for being amazing! I appreciate it all soooooooooooooooooo much!!! I just really hope that everything goes well! I can't wait for it all to be over!

Other than my surgery and my stressing about the results I am doing great!!! We had a good week and taught lots of people! President Jeppson has asked all of the missionaires to contact at least 10 people a day ( I probably already told yous this) but on Wednesday we contacted 18!!! It was soooo much fun! I am finally getting over being scared to talk to everyone we come in contact with! I actually really love to talk to them all! We get to hear some really crazy things and some really amazing stories from these amazing people! We decided to go contacting in Rutherford on Thursday and it was really rough! Rutherford is a little richer area and the people here are rude! No one wanted a card or anything to do with us. When we would bring up Jesus Christ it was almost like they would walk faster... Shoot! But we were doing everything that we were supposed to as missionaries! Hopefully one day those people will have another opportunity to accept the gospel! Cool thing is, is we know they will have an opportunity to accept the gospel in Heaven too! God gives us so many chances! It is amazing! I have talked a little about one of our investigators named Joe.... Joe is amazing!!! We taught him on Friday and he told us that he is going to get it okayed so he can come to church on Sundays! (He is on house arrest) He is married and has a 14 year old boy and a 17 year old boy! We have only met Joe so far, but we are so excited to meet the rest of the family! People talk a lot about how the Lord prepares people to recieve the Restored Gospel and it is so true! Joe is one of those people! We gave him a baptismal invite and he told us that if he finds out that everything we are teaching him is true his entire family will be baptized! I was speechless! He is so excited to learn more and he has some great questions! He has been through a ton and it really just amazes me! And then there is Veronica who is going to be baptized this upcoming Suday! Hopefully she doesn't get cold feet, but I have a lot of faith that things will work out and that she will be able to be baptized on the 16th! I am so excited for her! I can hardly even wait until Sunday! The last thing I wanted to talk about was one of our investigators that we dropped a little bit ago. She called us up and has been reading the scriptures and saying her prayers and wanted us to start teaching her again! So we have been teaching her for about a week now and it is seriously like night and day. She is keeping our commitments that we leave her and she finally came to church! She actually wants to learn and asks us so many questions and always tells everyone else to be quiet so she can learn! She's awesome and I am so grateful that she has the desire now!

So things are going pretty great here! I will go in for my follow-up appointment next Wednesday at 1:15 pm. Hopefully all will go well! I am learning a ton about faith right now and I know that I have to have the faith that things really will work out. It is all in the Lord's hands and I need to trust Him. I am really trying! It is really hard sometimes, but I can see a difference when I let faith replace my fear. It is like President Uchtdorf's quote, "Please first doubts your doubts before you doubt your faith." Thanks again for everything! I appreciate all of the prayers and fasting and support more than yous will ever know!!! I can feel the power of all the prayers and support. It really is helping me so much! Remember, WE GOT THIS!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK! (: (: (: <3 <3 <3

Love, Sister Woodland

P.S. Mom I don't get to read everyone else's weekly emails so you should print some out and send them! (: That would be awesome! Our family is the best! I LOVE YOUS!!! (:

March 3, 2014 (Pictures!)

P-DAY!!!!! (:

This is our Zone!

This is when we had two fridges in our apartment!! Our kitchen was really small for awhile! hahaha

This is one of our Investigator's Son. His name is Jayvionne, but we call him J.J. He is so stinkin cute!!!

J.J. took Sister Page's camera and was taking photos of us!!

Here is J.J. again!

This is me and J.J. He wanted me to sit on the floor with him! Don't mind my nappy hair! (:

This is our Zone Leader Elder Cuevas by our car that is dented because someone backed up into it! ROUGH!

We see this sign every single day on our way to Church! (: hahahahaha I think it's hilarious!

We got a new fridge because this fridge broke! So we had to help take it out!

Sister page and I driving to an appointment!

We are on our way to Ellis Island so I was taking pictures of the Graffiti and such!

We are STOKED to go to Ellis Island!

Statute of Liberty BABAY!!!! (:

Here are some pictures of the Skyline of New York City!! (: We only live like an hour away from all of this!

Skyline!

i am so excited to be at Ellis!!

It was a slow day so we got to go on a tour of the museum!

Me and Sister Page checking out the Building!

Me in front of the statute of liberty.

ELLIS ISLAND!

Huggin a pole! (probs havin too much fun... hahaha)

In front of the Skyline!!

Skyline!

We went to the Wall of Honor and I found some Woodland's and Christopherson's!!

March 3, 2014 (Surgery Time!)

Hello Family!

Alright so first things first! I am having surgery on March 8th at 10:30 am! (So it'll be like 8:30 your time!) I am going to an Oral Surgeon and he will be doing a Biopsy (I think that's how you spell it...). The cyst is on my right side just above my molars so it isn't actually in my sinuses! It has just been pushing into my sinuses a little bit. The doctor thinks that it could be a possibility that I have this because of my fifth wisdom tooth... so who knows! As long as the insurance goes through then I will for sure be having the surgery on Saturday! If there are any complications with the insurance then I won't have the surgery until we can figure it out! So hopefully everything just works out so I can get this over and done with and I can get back to work!! Let's talk about a humbling feeling though finding out that your entire ward back home included you in their ward fast and prayer!! I am seriously just speechless... I feel so much gratitude and love for everyone! I can't even begin to thank all of you enough! Goodness... I feel so loved! Thank you! You people are the best! I know that everything is going to be great! I am just ready for all of this to be over with so I don't have to think about it anymore! Funny thought though... Remember when I told you Mom after my awful experience with my wisdom teeth that at least I didn't have to ever do this again.... SIKE! hahahahaha I guess I shouldn't have said that out loud because I am basically doing it again! I have to eat soft food for like three days and the right side of my mouth will be swollen! Just hopefully this time I won't throw up! But I think I am fine because the doctor knows and I will be given different anesthesia and nausia stuff!! I told Sister Page to call Sister Gilbert after I get out of surgery to let her know how it went so she can call you so hopefully someone will let you know! I feel really peaceful about everything though so please do not worry about me! I am in good hands here!! (:

This week has been a little bit slower, but still a good week! I am absolutely terrified of contacting people, but I am getting better at it every single day! President Jeppson asked all of us missionaries to contact at least 10 people every single day and we have been doing our best! It has been really cool to see the people that God places in our path! Some people don't want anything to do with us, but at least we know we tried! I don't want to leave anyone out because I don't want to be responsible when I get to heaven and have someone come up to me and tell me that I walked right by them and didn't share the gospel with them! So even if they don't seem interested we still try to give them a pass-a-long card!! We had two investigators come to church on Sunday and one less active!! It was amazing! I was sooooo excited to see them there!! I almost yelled their names in sacrament meeting.... haha Our Investigator Veronica is still on date for March 16th and we are sooo excited for her!! She is amazing!

So there is a talk in the November 2012 Ensign by Elder Neil L. Andersen titled, "Trial of Your Faith". I have really come to love this talk over these past couple of weeks and feel like I should share it! There is a quote in it given by Ezra Taft Benson that says, "Every person eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there... must make his stand." Elder Andersen goes on to say, "Don't be surprised whe it happens to you! By definition, trials will be trying. There may be anguish, confusion, sleepless nights, and pillows wet with tears. But our trials need not be spiritually fatal. They need not take us from our covenants or from the household of God." It says in Helaman 5:12, "Remember,... it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." The last thing Elder Andersen says is," With faith come trials of faith, bringing increased faith. The Lord's comforting assurance to the Prophet Joseph Smith is the very same promise He makes to you in your trial of faith: 'Hold on..., fear not...,for God shall be with you forever and ever.'"

So remember to trust in God and have faith! It has been something that I definitely struggle with, but that I am learning so much on my mission! I love these people! They have truly changed my life! I love being a missionary! It is definitely hard and I struggle, but I love it! Thanks for all of your letters throughout the week! I loved every single one of them!! (: They all made my week so much better! You are the best family EVER! I hope you all have a great week! Don't worry about me because I am doing great and my surgery will be great and things will just be great!!!! hahahah (: I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK! WE GOT THIS!!! (: <3

Love, Sister Woodland

P.S. I will send picutures next week of my chubby face! hahaha (: LOVE YOUS!!! <3 <3 <3

February 24, 2014 (Miracles!)

Hey Ya'll!

I hope that you had a great week! It sounds like things are just moving right along in good old Utah! (: Mallo! You looked absolutely GORGEOUS! Prettiest girl at prom! I am sad that I didn't get to be there, but it's allllll good! I hope that you had a ton of fun! Goodness, everyone is growing up and continuing on with their lives... Aren't your lives supposed to pause while I am gone and then just pick back up when I get home?? (; hahaha Man do I miss you people!

This week was full of miracles! It was really intense and sometimes extremely overwhelming, but a good kind of overwhelming! (: I had been kind of down because a lot of the people we have been teaching haven't been progressing or keeping any of our commitments... It was rough! We had decided to start getting ourselves into different parts of our area and meeting new people! We decided to go visit some Less Actives. We were walking to a less actives house not really knowing what to expect...(they sometimes don't live there anymore and sometimes they really don't want to see us! it's really fun!) We knocked on Annemarie's door and she answered and looked kind of puzzled at us. I was getting ready for her to slam the door in our face, but then she looked at my name tag and almost yelled "Oh I know who you are!!" (It is ALWAYS a relief when people already know who we are!) She was really nice and let us into her home! We were talking to her and just getting to know her more and found out that she hasn't been to the church in over 10 years! She then told us that on Tuesday she had gotten on her knees and prayed. She asked God to send her some kind of help because she didn't know where else to turn. Two days later we show up!! She told us we must be an answer to her prayer!! IS THAT NOT SOOOO COOL!? So we are working with her and trying to help her get back to church! She is really nervous about it and wants to take her time! We are hoping we will get to teach her family because her husband is not a member! Then on Friday we went to visit a previous Investigator (for like the 8th time, she is never home) and she wasn't home again! So we decided to knock some doors on her street! The first door we knock on a man answers the door and he doesn't speak a lot of english, but we are able to share a message with him and get his information so the spanish elders can go over and hopefully start teaching him! He was so nice! We went to the next door and we were about to knock when this man in the middle of the street yells at us and asks us if we are "with the church" we tell him that we are and go over to talk to him! His name is Glen and he is a little bit crazy! hahaha We gave him a Book of Mormon and shared a message with him, but he gave us the Book of Mormon back and told us he was okay because he had his mother's bible... But he wants us to come and teach him! So we got his information and we will hopefully be teaching him sometime this week! We decided to knock on one more door. A man answered the door and instantly knew who we were! (Like I said, always a good thing) He told us that he was a member back when he lived in the Dominican Republic, but hasn't been to church for 25 years!!!! We invited him to come to church and got his information down so we can teach the rest of his family! The last thing was we recieved a referral from some spanish sisters about this guy named Joe. They told us that Joe has read the entire Book of Mormon and knows that it is true. He knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he restored the church. HE IS SO READY FOR BAPTISM! Except he is on house arrest.... MAN ALIVE! :( We aren't entirely sure what happened, but it was something with his work. So we will be teaching his family starting this week! Joe won't be able to be baptized until the whole house arrest situation is handled, but his wife and his two sons will be able to! I cannot even wait to meet them all!!! We were told that Joe has Jesus tatoos all over his body! I am just so excited to meet him I can hardly wait! We have been texting him and talking to him on the phone and he is serioulsy the best! God really does put people in our path who are prepared and ready for the gospel! I LOVE IT! This last week has seriously been full of miracles!

I love being a missionary! I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now! Just seeing this gospel change peoples lives and help them with what they are going through is incredible! I fell so blessed to be able to be apart of it all! I LOVE THE HOOD! These people have changed my life! This gospel has changed my life! I know that it is true! I cannot wait to get to work this next week and see more miracles! I hope that you all have a fantastic week! I LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON AND BACK! WE GOT THIS!!! <3

Love, Sister Woodland

P.S. THANKS FOR THE VALENTINE'S DAY PACKAGE!!! I loved everything that was in it! Especially the necklace! (: You people are the greatest! Also, those like balloon heart things were the greatest things in the world!! Sister Page and I had way too much fun with them!! (:

P.P.S. Mom... A lady with the last name of Valdez requested to be friends with you on facebook! She is a member is our branch and she is the best! So you can accept the request if you want! The Valdez family is ALWAYS feeding us and then took us out to Chili's on Friday! They are the best! Their little kids are sooo cute too! We also got to go to Ellis Island again on Saturday and it was a ton of fun! Too bad we don't have pictures of that yet, but we are going again next Saturday so we will get some then!