June 16, 2014 (Pictures)

Temple Trip!

 

Street Meat! (P.S. I didn't get sick!!!)

NEWARK BABY!

Just by the way we saved a turtle!!! 

June 16, 2014 (Busy Week.)

Hey Fam.

     This week was crazy! We had so much to do and seriously like no time to do it all! 

     So we were able to go to the Manhattan Temple on Tuesday and it was definitely an adventure! We drove into Newark and all met at the church there. We then walked to the train station and we took like 4 different trains... It turned out to be more trains than we really needed to take, but it all worked out! We got to ride the subway in New York and that was definitely nuts... People there are crazy and really loud! hahaha There is no such thing as personal space when you ride the subways or trains here... Definitely something I will never forget! We got to see some of the missionaries that serve in New York. The Temple there is beautiful! (: It is really cool to go inside the temple there because it is SO loud outside and then when you walk inside it is completely silent! Such an incredible feeling! I really needed to go to the temple and I feel so blessed that we were able to go and to feel of the spirit so strongly! Such a cool experience to be in the temple with 24 other missionaries! (: I can't wait to go again! Hopefully the new mission president doesn't change it! On that note... President Jeppson and Sister Jeppson go home on the 24th of June... So they have about a week left! SO SAD. The all mission conference was a ton of fun and it was so good to see all of the other missionaries! But it was so hard to know that that was the last thing we would be doing with President and Sister Jeppson! Everyone was crying and it was really emotional hearing from both of them! We will get to see them one more time at transfer conference, but President Taggart will be there as well so it won't be the same from that point on! I am so excited to meet President Taggart and to get to know him, it is just going to be sad not having the Jeppson's here anymore! I know though that President Taggart is going to do great things for this mission! We are still working on finding new investigators! The three that we have are going great! (: We are still working with them and it has been a lot of fun! We are really going to be focusing on finding more people to teach though because we still need more!! (: (: (: So things here are going great! We got an air condition put in our window in our bedroom so that has been fantastic! (: OH. By the way. Sister McCready (the members we live below) is coming to Utah to visit her children from like June 24th to the end of July and I think she is going to stop by and see you guys! She got your phone numbers and address from me! So that should be fun! (: Brother and Sister McCready are seriously the best and they take such good care of us! (Also, if there is anything we want to give me... you can give it to her and she will bring it back! (: What a great idea, right?? hahaha) 

     Anyway, things are going great! I am way excited to start this new week and to see the miracles that I know are going to happen! GO BIG OR GO HOME, right??? (and we definitely ain't going home!!) (: So be ready for some really exciting stories next Monday! I am so glad all of you are doing so well! I am so grateful for each of you and for all you do to support me and help me out here! It really means the world to me!!! 

I LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON & BACK!!! WE GOT THIS!!!

Love, Sister Woodland

June 9, 2014 (I feel like I'm a Spanish Missionary!)

HEY FAM.

     So I don't have a lot of time this week.... Sorry!! We don't get a P-Day today because we are going to the Manhattan Temple tomorrow and it will take our entire day. So we are basically calling Tuesday our P-Day. But, I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am soooooooooooo excited. I feel like I have been waiting for this day the entire time I have been on my mission... hahaha The missionaries used to get to walk through Time Square, but we aren't allowed to do that anymore! Some missionaries probably ruined it... Oh well! Next time! (: haha We will have time to get some "street meat" after the Temple... Doesn't that sound a little sketchy?! hahahaha I AM SO EXCITED TO TRY STREET MEAT. Really though. I hear it is SO good. Hopefully I won't get food poisoning! hahaha 

     Anywho, my week went pretty great! IT WENT BY SO FAST. We were so busy all of the time! I love when I am so busy that I don't have anytime to think about anything, but missionary work! It's the bestest. We haven't picked up any new investigators this week... Mostly because we cannot seem to find this guy that contacted the Elders... Weird. No worries though we will find him. Sometimes I feel like missionaries are a little bit stalkerish. Oh well. Gotta do what we gotta do. (: We had the opportunity to help out at a Latino Fair on Saturday and it was SO FUN! Our entire Zone helped out. One of the members from the spanish branch asked us if we could help out. His name is hermano cobos and his is so great! He is the reason we get to serve at the Food Bank every week! We got to paint faces! That is what some of the missionaries were in charge of! It was crazy! I got asked to paint SO many Ecuadorian Flags... Serioulsy though... like 30 or more! AND it is like the hardest Flag to paint on someone.... WAY to much detail! But I seemed to do it... hahaha I am starting to understand some spanish now too! I mean I am not good at all, but I can understand what people are saying for the most part! It is really cool! Who knew that I would actually start to learn a language on my mission! We helped out at this Fair for the entire day and we get free spanish food! I LOVE SPANISH FOOD. It is seriously my new weakness. And I am talking about the real spanish food. Not that fake American stuff! haha Anyway, It was a great week! Lots of fun and this week will be just as busy! We will go to the Temple tomorrow and then on Friday we will have our All Mission Conference where we get to go and play games and party with the whole mission! I AM SO EXCITED.

     I hope that all ya'll continue to have a great week! I am so grateful for each of you and for everything you guys do for me all the time! 

LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON AND BACK! WE GOT THIS!!

Love, Sister Woodland

June 2, 2014 (Singing Nuns!)

Hey peeps!

So this week I got a little bit homesick.... I think it is because it is finally starting to warm up and it is going to be summer real soon and I am missing just hangin with all ya'll in the summer!! BUT I am totally okay though so don't even worry about me, but just know that I love you all lots! (: Other than that I am so sorry that people back home are having a hard time! Man... Life is so rough sometimes! Trials and challenges will always remind me of Ether 12:27. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." And boy ain't that the truth! I've learned that God really doesn't give us anything we can't handle, but we have to handle it with Faith. We have to do our part and turn to Heavenly Father and trust that He really does know best and that He really is going to help us. Once we do that things WILL get better, but we have to have the faith that it will!! I will keep everyone in my prayers! 

     So this week ended up turning out really good!!! It was a slower week at first, but then it just picked right up and the Lord was definitely blessing Sister Holyoak and I! I wanted to tell you about Sister Cronan real quick because I feel like you haven't heard about her for awhile... She is the 94 year old that we have been helping! Well she got put into like an Assisted Living Center!!!!! She does not want to be there and she is being a little bit stubborn with the nurses.... Before she was converted she was a member of a Christian-Science church and I guess they don't believe in medical things... They do things naturally with like herbs and stuff. So she is refusing all treatments! Which is rough because some things probably would be good for her! The other things though it is probably a smart idea that she isn't going to have the surgery because she is so old and fragile. We go and visit her at the Assisted Living Center and I LOVE IT! She is in a double room and we would always go and sing her some hymns and read to her from the Book of Mormon. We thought the other lady living with her was kinda rude until just the other day she like yelled at us to come into her room... I like slowly walked in, just waiting her to rip me a new one, but she just wanted to tell us how grateful she was that we came and sang hymns! She said that she had been praying for people like us and she wants us to sing in front of the whole Assisted Living Center... So that is probs what we are going to be doing once a week! She said we have the voices of angels... I think she is probably just crazy and that she heard something else, but she REALLY wants us to sing for everyone... I'll let you know how that goes! Sister Frank is a lady in our Ward and she got up in front of the entire congregation and bore her testimony about being out with Sister Holyoak and I! She told EVERYONE that we have beautiful voices and that she dibs us the "singing nuns"! hahahahaha SO now our whole ward thinks we are great singers and now they all have this wonderful nickname for us... hahahaha The next thing I wanted to to all ya'll is that we now have 3 INVESTIGATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WOOHOO!!!! I am just so excited that things are starting to pick up! We have been so blessed this last week! We met this man name Stephon last Tuesday and he sat next to me at the library and started to talk to me! He asked me what my name was and I told him "Sister Woodland" so that got us started talking about the church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I set up an appointment to see him and he said sure!!! So we met with him on Friday! He asked some REALLY crazy questions and we got the Law of Chastity Lesson out right in the first appointment.... hahaha It was a little awkward, but he still wants to learn more! So we are excited to see how that will go! THEN, yesterday we had gotten out of an appointment with one of our less actives and we had like 3 missed calls and 2 text messages from the elders who cover our area in Spanish. They said it was a miracle and that we needed to get over to where they were as fast as we could! So we did... We met a mom and her daughter who are from West Africa and THEY ARE SO PREPARED! It was seriously the coolest lesson! It was the first time Sister Holyoak and I were able to teach the Restoration together with actual investigators! They said that if they found out that these things are true then they would be baptized! The daughter said the closing prayer and she even said in the prayer that she knows these things are true, but that she would like another witness!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I am so excited to teach them! Then right after we got out of that appointment we decided to go contact some people and we saw this group of kids paying basketball! We had contacted some of them already so we decided to contact the rest! One of the girls pointed at me while we were walking over and yelled, "THAT'S MY GIRL." hahaha It was so great! They remembered us!! THEN when we had finished talking to all of the kids we got another text message, but this one was from our Zone Leaders. They said that a guy named Kyle had contacted them and wanted a Book of Mormon!!!! HE CONTACTED THEM!!! I just want you all to know that that NEVER happens... people do not normally contact us... hahahaha But they said that he really wants to learn more! So we will hopefully be meeting him sometimes this week! MIRACLES PEOPLE! Wow... I am still not sure if all of it is for real... hahaha But that was my week in a nut shell! Pretty great, right?! (: (: (: 

     I hope that all of you have the best week ever and that things keep going great for all of you! You are always in my prayers! I am so grateful for all that you do for me all of the time and for the love and support! I appreciate more than yous will ever know.

I LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON AND BACK!!! WE GOT THIS!!!

Love, Sister Woodland

P.S. Isn't that nuts that I will almost have been out for 6 months... That means I will only have a year left... SO CRAZY! Time is just going to fly by faster and faster now....