July 6, 2015 (4th of July Pics)

The picture of the ocean is where we got to watch the fireworks!!! It
was so pretty!

This is the Villanueva family. I just love them sooo stinking much.
They had us over for dinner last night and fed us some good Filipino
food!

July 6, 2015 (See Yous in 2 Days!!!!!)

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept

the faith." -2 Timothy 4:7

I cannot even believe that I have made it to the end of my mission. It all still seems very surreal to me. It has been the best 18 months for my life. I have learned so much out here and I am so grateful for all the many experiences I have had as a full-time missionary. I really love the people over here in New Jersey and New York! I just want yous to know that I now know more than I ever have before, that Jesus is the Christ. I know that He really does love us and that He watches over us constantly. I know that the Savior has a perfect love for everyone everywhere. I have loved being able to feel a teeny tiny glimpse of how the Savior must feel for all of God's children. I love this Gospel with all my heart. I cannot wait to see all of your faces at the airport on Wednesday. Thanks for being THE BEST family a girl could ever ask for!!!

     See yous in 2 days!! 

​

Love yous to the Moon & back!!! WE DID IT!  

Love, Sister Woodland

July 1, 2015 (Pictures)

July 1, 2015

Hey Fam!
 So this last week and a half has been absolutely NUTS. It has been the most emotional couple of days I have had in my entire mission... It has been such a spiritual experience to have the opportunity to go to the Temple with President Taggart, Sister Taggart, and the other departing missionaries. I love the Temple soooo much! It was the perfect timing to go because it helped me to receive revelation and peace about all the changes going on in my crazy life. It was exactly what I needed. Then I had my departing interview with President Taggart after the Temple and that was SO GREAT. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve with President Taggart the last year of my mission. He is such an incredible man and I know that he is supposed to be here in the New Jersey Morristown Mission. He has helped me so much throughout this year!
 I feel like I am on this HUGE emotional roller coaster and it won't let up... haha These departing trips have been super fun, but I am SO exhausted! I feel like I am just never going to get energy ever again... But I am going to work so stinking hard this last week!! Even though I am pretty sure I could fall asleep anywhere... Hahaha We had a tender mercy happen a couple of days ago... We received a call from a former investigator named Tedi who was on baptism date before I got to this area, but she sort of fell off the earth. She called and told us that she wanted to meet with us again. We were able to teach her this morning and it was such a powerful lesson. She has still been reading from the Book of Mormon and she has been able to find so much peace as she has read from it. She wants to start meeting with us regularly. She is so awesome!! We are excited for her to come to know of the truthfulness of this restored gospel. :) It was super fun to go to the Statute of Liberty! I will have to send yous the pictures next week!! I can't believe how fast this time has gone and how fast this last week will go! Thanks for all yous do!!!

June 22, 2015 (IPads.... They might be the death of me‏)

Hey Fam!

     So this week has been a pretty good week! It has been a little overwhelming because we are trying to get use to the IPads. We now have to put all the information we have in our Area Books into the IPads and it is super time consuming! I feel sort of like a pioneer because I won't actually get to see it finished and I won't be able to really use it. But I want to help the other missionaries out so I am trying to learn how to do this so we can get things updated! It has been such a crazy process though! From Thursday on, we haven't had much time to do anything else except work on the IPads.... I am trying to not let it make me crazy! hahahaha 

     So next thing is... I hit a bunny.... Oh my goodness sakes! SO SAD. :( We were driving home one night and I was actually on an exchange with another sister and this dumb bunny ran right out in front of me! It was like a suicide bunny... There was no way I could have slowed down. So yep... that was side. Poor bunny... he didn't even have a chance! haha 

     Our investigators are doing pretty good! We have a lot that are progressing right now, but they are progressing slowly. We taught Mike and Robyn this week and the lesson went really well! The Spirit was SO strong in the lesson! Mike and Robyn have been having a hard time lately knowing if this is right or not and being worried about rushing into things too quickly! Mike told us that if he is going to do this he is going to do this 100%. So he wants to make sure that he knows this is true. So we had a powerful lesson on praying to know if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. We were really bold with them during the lesson, but we know that they needed to hear it and understand that they have to be willing to go to God and ask him themselves. The Spirit was definitely the teacher in that lesson! They said that they would pray that night! We are excited to follow-up and see how they are feeling!  

     OH MY GOODNESS SAKES. The coolest miracle JUST happened like not even 2 minutes ago.... We heard someone knocking on the window at the Church where we are emailing and so we went to go and see who it was and it was the Elders Recent Converts and a Member who has fallen away from the church. They came inside and we got to talk with them. WE WERE SO EXCITED AND KINDA SURPRISED THAT IT WAS THEM! They told us that they were just driving by the church and they felt like they needed to stop by. They went back to the Catholic Church for a while because they felt the Spirit there, but have been thinking a lot about the church lately. We were able to testify that there is truth in ALL churches, but the only church that has the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is found here in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They all said that they really believed that and they really want to come back. They told us that they will be at Church this next Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People.... THE CHURCH IS TRUE. THE SPIRIT IS REAL. AND MIRACLES DO HAPPEN. Holy Moly.... AAAAHHHHH!! That was so cool. (: (: (:

MIRACLES.

     Well family... I just stinking love you guys so much and I am so grateful for every little thing you do for me! I hope that everything continues to go SO great for all of yous! (: I am glad that Dad had a great Father's day and that Bryce had a great B-Day! Good luck with having a new driver on the roads! (; Have a great week!!!!!

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

Love, Sister Woodland

June 15, 2015 (Pictures)

Zone conference and Exchanges!!

just drivin in the car!

June 15, 2015 (Tender Mercies)

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey.

     So this week was another super busy week. Thank the heavens above that we are so busy over here! We had a good week. We are trying to help our new Senior Couple with our ward list here. We have a ton of members on the list, but not very many are active and so the senior couple wanted to find these people and see if they have moved or if they are interested in missionaries coming over or home/visiting teaching. We have got to find these lost sheep!!! (: There is a quote by Elder Ballard that I love! He says, "Brothers and sisters, stay in the boat, use your life jackets, and hold on with both hands. Avoid distractions! And if any of you have fallen out of the boat, we will seek you, find you, minister to you, and pull you safely back onto the Old Ship Zion, where God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are at the Helm and will guide us right." I LOVE THAT QUOTE. That is something I have come to love so much since I have been out here. It helps me know that this really is The Lord's true church and that He will find His lost sheep! We saw some cool miracles this week from working with the ward list. We were trying a man and his sister answered the door. She told us that her brother was out of town until the 20th... So we decided to talk with her. She was super friendly and let us come in and teach her. We were able to set up a return appointment with her and when we went over they were having a big old party. 3 other people decided to sit in the lesson with us and they all want to learn more!!! So we were able to find 4 new investigators this week! And they are all from the Philippines!!! Filipino people are some of my favorite people! So we were super excited about that! The other highlight of this week was being able to help out some less active members of our Ward. Brother Mosely had been in the hospital for months and had been in a coma from open heart surgery and he wasn't supposed to make it, but HE MADE IT and he is doing sooooooooooooo great right now! He is staying with a member named Sister Argust who has been helping him out SO much. She is seriously an angel! He doesn't have any family around here so she has been taking care of this man. Brother Mosely is seriously the sweetest guy ever! I think he is in his 60s, but he looks like he is in his 90's because of everything his poor body has been through. We got to help get him out of the house for a while and went shopping with him and Sister Argust. He has the funniest sense of humor! He is super sarcastic and I just love talking to him. He also has a super thick Alabama accent! He was so grateful for our help and just kept telling us that he loves us soo much! 

     THANKS FOR THE SWEETEST LETTERS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!! Man... Elder Schultz is so awesome! It was so sad because the day before we had our District Meeting Elder Schultz got emergency transferred and so his companion gave us the letters that Elder Schultz asked yous to write us. It was such a cool moment on my mission. I cried so stinking hard. It was cool to see God's hand in my life because that training and those letters were EXACTLY what I needed at that exact moment. I am so grateful for people like Elder Schultz who follow the Spirit and I am so grateful to have such amazing parents! 

     Thanks again for all yous do for me! I hope that you have another great week! (:

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

Love, Sister Woodland