Contact Information

E-mail: amy.woodland@myldsmail.net

April 28, 2014 (Hard work really does pay off!‏)

Well Hey.
     I already told Dad this, but I thought something was seriously wrong because I didn't get a letter from any of you wonderful people this week. THEN my anxiety got the best of me because all I could think about was that you guys were going to tell me something bad happened. SO really what I am trying to get at is that I am glad things are okay! (: I was a tad bit nervous... hahaha but in all reality that is normal for me. I get that right from Mom! BUT I am so glad that you have all had a pretty good week! I LOVE that you are all reading the Book of Mormon and that Mal and Dad just finished it! That is so cool! Goodness... I just love the Book of Mormon so much! I don't know how you can read it and not think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true... Such a powerful testament of Jesus Christ! (: So real quick... Mal and Bryce are growing up too fast.... They are going to be so old when I get home... I am pretty sure time just needs to stop until I get back! (: haha Also, I keep getting emails from EVERYONE back home and EVERYONE is dating someone or engaged or their in love... Gross. hahaha I am just going to... ya know... just bring people unto Jesus Christ! (: But really though. I am glad that I am on a mission right now! I couldn't imagine doing anything else! I LOVE it more than I can even express in words! So on that note, I had a great week!! 
     We have been working really hard on trying to find new investigators and new people to teach. It has been hard because we haven't seen a ton of progress with our efforts.... BUT we did this week!!!  We decided to go contact at a park one day, which is really kinda of terrifying sometimes! haha Some people are really mean. All they have to say is No thank you and we will leave them alone, but that is just too easy I guess! I still love those people and hope that one day they will have the opportunity to accept the gospel again! We were about to head back home to eat some dinner and I saw this lady with her son sitting at this table in the park. I felt like we should go talk to her, so we did! haha If I remember right she is from like Pakistan or India... Something like that! When we started to talk to her she basically told us her whole life story. She has cancer right now and is fighting it. She is raising her son all by herself and he has special needs. She has to live with her sister because she doesn't have enough money to find a place of her own. She told us that her family doesn't help her out at all, but that they always ask her to do things for them. It literally broke my heart to listen to everything this sweet lady has been through and still how much she continues to go through! We told her that we KNOW that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help her find that peace, joy, and happiness that she has been looking for! She seemed touched by the message that we were able to share and we made a return appointment with her for next Sunday! I am excited to teach her and to help her some closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! Our hard worked paid off! Then, we got a referral from the spanish elders in our area! They told us that they knocked on this man's door and he told them that he has been losing his faith and has been looking for a church he can join!!! (Oh my goodness...He has found the right one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We tried to stop by and see him Saturday night, but he wasn't home... :( No worries though because we are going to keep trying until he is home! (: Our hard work/ The Elders hard work has paid off! Lastly, one of the ladies we are teaching right now came to church yesterday!!! WOOHOO! (: Plus, she really enjoyed it and our amazing ward did a great job in fellowshipping her and making her feel welcomed! Our hard work paid off! I feel so blessed! I cannot even tell you guys how grateful I am for the Lord's help in all things! We definitely could not have done what we have been doing all of these weeks if we didn't have the Lord helping us every step of the way! It has taken a lot of faith and perseverance, but I know that as long as we are doing exactly what the Lord wants then in His time we will be able to help those we are meant to help! 
     On Sunday, we got to go represent the missionaries from our ward for the Mayor of West Windsor! He came to our church building and met with the Auxiliary Leaders, the Bishop, and Sister Holyoak and I. The second counselor in the Elders Quorum even gave the Mayor a Book of Mormon and testified of it!!! It was so cool! Full-time missionaires getting to watch member missionaries do missionary WORK. I was so excited haha I couldn't even stop smiling! (really I was just grateful I didn't have to give the Book of Mormon to him.... hahaha) Anyway, to answer your question mom on Sunday's we have to be at the church at 7:45 am to be at either PEC or Ward Counsel, whatever it is that week. Then we have church here from 9-12 am. Hopefully we will have an Investigator there or a less active and we will sit with them or some family in the ward! We don't normally sit together in sacrament meeting! Then we will go to Gospel Principles, but our ward doesn't have it so we go to Gospel Doctrine,and then to Relief Society! After that we normally just have a normal day after that! Just out and about teaching the gospel! (: I love Sunday's though! Probably one of my favorite days! 
     Well fam, that is all I can think of right now! I had a great week and I am so excited to see how this next week will go! (: I am so glad all of you are doing well!!! I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!! Remember, WE GOT THIS!!! <3 I cannot wait to be able to skype you on Mother's Day! Also, how are we going to do it with Meggers?? I want her to be able to do it as well! I think i am going to ask President Jeppson what he suggests so we can make sure we can all be there for Mother's Day to talk to each other! I miss you people to pieces! I hope that you have a great week! Now, share the gospel! (: 

Love, Sister Woodland

April 22, 2014 (Photos)

It's a bunny! I was so excited about life when I saw it! hahaha 

This is Elder Perry! Shaking all of the missionaries hands... such a cute man!!


This is us with President Jeppson's 1st counselor's daughter! President Neilson's family is the best! We love them!

FISHIN' SOOOO much fun!!!


I want to go again sooo badly! 


Getting ready to clean!!


This is me... spraying our beds... because we have bedbugs... ):

April 22, 2014 (Contacting, Contacting, Contacting!‏)

Hi family!!
     Okay so that was really sad... I am going miss that dumb dog! I figured though that he probably wouldn't make it too much longer and I felt like he would have passed away sometime on my mission! It is kinda crazy though how much I am going to miss him, but it is true, he is in a much better place having lots more fun!! (: I am glad that you had a good Easter though! I am also glad that Meg got to college safe and sound and that things went well with that! I have to be honest... I am grateful I am not going back to school yet! haha It is fun having a break from school stuff and just focusing on the gospel! I have decided I am going to be weird when I come home... I already don't know how to talk about anything else besides the gospel... hahaha Okay, I'm not THAT weird... I think... I am starting to realize why returned missionaries are weird... haha Don't worry though, it will be fine! (: 
     So this week was a pretty good week! It was full of service and contacting! We had SO many service opportunities! We got to help out Sis. Cronan, the sweet little 95 year old lady! She really does refuse to be put in a care center because she says that she can take care of herself... I love her, but she really can't. She doesn't have enough strength to wash her dishes! So we went over on Wednesday and tried our best to clean as much as we could! I will spare you and not go into much detail, but it was really dirty. We cleaned her bathroom and her kitchen and even her a little! Sister Holyoak put lotion on her poor feet (thank goodness Sister Holyoak is a great person... I don't think I could have done that part....) and I put dry shampoo in her hair and brushed her hair! She loved it and said that she felt pampered! It was a lot of work, but I was so grateful for the opportunity to help her out because she really needed it! We are going to go see her this afternoon! I am excited to see her again! She is so cute! We also got to help this other lady clean her home. This lady is a hoarder. She has inspections coming up and asked us if we could help her out. Of course we were glad to help her out, but it was a bit of a struggle... She didn't want to throw ANYTHING away. She even had a hard time when we were trying to recycle her plastic bags... And she had like hundreds and hundreds of them. We were able to get a portion of her kitchen done and we are going to be going back sometime this week to get another portion done! We are hoping that as we serve her she will have a desire to learn more about the gospel. She is a former investigator, but Sister Holyoak said that she doesn't keep any commitments so we are hoping that this service with help out a little bit! Other than that we have been contacting SO much! We only have 2 progressing investigators because we had to drop a lot of them not too long ago! We CONTACTED 151 PEOPLE last week! We were seriously talking to absolutely EVERYONE! It was so much fun! I am probably like the biggest creep... I like follow people so we can give them pass-a-long cards or a Book of Mormon. We will pull our car over if we see someone walking on the sidewalk!! People probably think we are crazy, but hey we aren't leaving anyone out! Giving everyone the chance to accept the gospel! We contacted this guy a couple of days ago and he tried to have a "bible bash" with us... It is never a good thing when someone wants to do that... I finally just had to say that we are not here to argue, but to share a message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that we hoped he had a great day and a great Easter. Some people these days! But on that note I had a great Easter!!! We had dinner at a members home and it was delicious! We are seriously spoiled rotten here! The people are so sweet and the members are so great to us! I wore my new Easter dress as well! (: 
     I am glad that things are going well for all of you! I miss you people like crazy and I cannot even wait to see your faces on Mother's Day!! IT IS GOING TO BE SO SOON. Stoked on life. Alright, keep being the amazing people that you already are! I am praying for you multiple times a day... Let's be real like a lot of times a day! I pray a lot! (: Get out there and share the gospel! (: Have a great week! I LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON AND BACK!!! WE GOT THIS!!! Can you believe that I have be out for over 4 months now... NUTS. 

Love, Sister Woodland

P.S. Have you been on Mormon.org to see the cool Easter Video thingy that they put up??? If not you should go to it right now! It is really cool! (: LOVE YOUS!!! <3

April 14, 2014 (Pics)

The Tube we bought for Sis. Cronan.... It was WAY too big... hahahaha



WE DON'T HAVE BED BUGS!!! YAY!! They asked us to catch any bugs we found so they are in those baggies... hahaha


This is Sally! She is a recent convert of about 6 months! She is amazing and she always comes out with us!!! 

Sister Holyoak and me!

This little robot guy is made out of all car parts... we just wanted photos by it!


April 14, 2014 (I'm gonna get fat in this area, bed bugs, and going fishing!‏)

Hi Family, 
     So this week has been a little crazy... full of lots of different things! So this email might be a little crazy and things might be all over the place... So hopefully it makes a little bit of sense... (: 
     First things first, THE WEATHER IS BEAUTIFUL! It has been in the 80's for the past like 3 or 4 days now! It was 87 degrees yesterday! I LOVED IT. Just soaking in the sun finally! It feels so good to be done with the winter and the cold! I think I was getting like the winter blues a little bit... Shoot! Second thing is, we thought we had bed bugs.... hahaha (probably isn't really a laughing matter, but sometimes you just have to laugh about it...) We had to like deep clean our ENTIRE apartment on Friday! I think we taught one lesson that day. It was rough! We had to spray things down with Permitherum and wash all our sheets and bedding and clothes! IT TOOK SOOOOO MUUUUUUCCCCCHHH TIIIIIIIMMMME. I was getting some bites on my back, arms, and a few on my neck. Not bad bites at all, but just weird. So they wanted us to spray things just to be safe. After we did ALL that work someone came over to check and WE DIDN'T HAVE FLIPPING BED BUGS!!! I was beyond excited about life! hahaha If we did have them we were going to have to move in with other sisters while an exterminator came. But we don't have them so things are going great now! What a relief, right?! But I guess bed bugs are really quite common here... So you never know I could get them later on in the mish! (; haha The third thing, is we visit this lady named Sister Cronan who is 95 years old. She lives all by herself and won't go to a care center or senior center because she thinks she can take care of herself... Her little apartment is really gross... But she won't really let us throw anything away... She has a 'hoarders' mentality! She also can't hear or see very well anymore so when we talk to her we literally have to yell! She is super cute though! She should be in a care center though... But anyway, we went over earlier this week and the donuts that she sits on had deflated. We came to find out that it was because it had a hole... We went to walmart and target looking for another one and could only find tubes that you take swimming... So we bought it anyways and gave it to her! hahaha We thought she could use it if she really wanted to until we could get her the actual donut... the one that is really used to sit on... hahaha The tube we bought ended up being WAY bigger than we expected... BUT we gave it to her anyways! haha I will send you pictures! It is too great! She has a attitude though sometimes and I was talking to her about some friend of hers and she just starred at me at said, "Whatever.".................. I kinda sat there speechless hahaha Then Sister Holyoak just laughed and laughed and laughed! What a sweet little lady Sister Cronan is! (: The fourth thing is, we get to help at a Food Bank every Wednesday here!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH! We volunteer from 9-12 and it is seriously so fun! It is me and Sister Holyoak and the two spanish elders in our area! We meet some great people! We also get tons of free food! They seriously just tell us we can take whatever we want to! SO MUCH FOOD. That is the fifth thing I wanted to share, the member here take SUCH great care of us! We are constantly eating at a members home! Sometimes right after each other... I am always full! Therefore, these people are going to make me fat... The also always seem to think I want seconds... I think they get us confused with the elders sometimes... haha Okay so the sixth thing I wanted to say was we teach a less active and he is seriously the greatest! He has started to come back to church! I just love him so much! He always says though that we don't love him.... We think he says that because we always ask him to pray and he will NEVER pray for us... We literally cannot get him to pray. It can be really frustrating sometimes, but we know that with time it will happen. Just like coming back to church happened! But, he called us and wanted us to stop over at his house for a little... We stopped by and he got us both cards for Easter!! I cried... haha It was serioulsy the sweetest thing ever! I needed that SO much! He really is a great man and I know with time he will come back full force! The seventh thing I wanted to share was I got a text from Sister Page on saturday and she told me that Joe (the invesitgator I was teaching back in my other area, who is an house arrest) GETS OFF HOUSE ARREST NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He wasn't supposed to get off house arrest for another year and a half, but the judge felt like he has been doing really well so that are releasing him next week! Him and his 13 year old son asked Sister Page and her new companion IF. THEY. COULD. BE. BAPTIZED. I cannot even tell you how happy that text made me! I just started to sob! Joe has wanted to be baptized, but couldn't because he was on house arrest! The whole family is going to be baptized and in a year they will get to be sealed together for time and all eternity! I just cannot wait for this sweet family to be sealed together and to recieve the blessings of the gospel! I will be honest it bums me out that I don't get to be there, but I know that I am here in Hightstown for a reason and that God really does know best! What an amazing moment though! To love someone so much and to see them accept the gospel and to know how much it is going to change their lives for the better is truly amazing! I love being a missionary! The last thing I wanted to share is that WE GET TO GO FISHING TODAY!!!!!!!!! The first counselor to President Jeppson is in our ward here and his kids asked if we could go fishing with them!!!! I am so excited about life! It is going to be so much fun! 
    Well, that is all I have to say for this week! Sorry that this email is so random and all over the place! I had so much to tell you guys! haha But I am glad thing are going well for all of you! I love hearing about everything! So keep keeping me updated on life! You guys are amazing! (: LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!!! WE GOT THIS! (:
 
Love, Sister Woodland
 
Anyway, Have a great week!!!! LOVE YOUS!! (: (: (:

April 7, 2014 (Pictures)

This was a wall in my last area! In Passaic! Isn't it sooo cool!!!








THE WORLD'S COOLEST WALL!!!


This was my old Zone Leaders and then Elder Mcfarland! We went bowling for our last Zone Activity together!

Sister Page decided to join in!


This is Elder Flores! He is so great! He is only a convert to the church for about 2 years! 

BOWLING!!!!

This is Elder Murray and Elder Blanco!

This is one of our investigators in my last area! she is so great! I miss her a lot!

The Bosket Clan!!!

And this is All of them! Love them!!!

This is my best friend! He told me that I couldn't go... it was so hard to leave this family!!!

This is Anna and her daughter Skyla! They moved to Jersey from Utah about the same time I came out here! They are the best!!

We called our apartment the "Narnia" Apartment because we had this creepy coat closet that had a door in the back that led to the attic! So Sister Page didn't want the coat anymore and we signed it! Now whoever serves in the area has to sign the coat before they leave! 


Me and Elder Mcfarland!

The garbage can says 'rubbish" above it.... hahaha I thought it was the greatest thing EVER!!!


This is me and my new companion, Sister Holyoak!!!