Letter for August 25, 2014 - Mission Miracles and Realities

Querida Famila y Amigos,

I feel like a lot of what I talk about in my letters is who was at church and who wasn't. And maybe that is because Sunday is what is fresh on my mind but it also just because church is SO important. Before my mission my life pretty much revolved around my weekend activities. And well, that basically hasn't changed. My life still revolves around the weekend because Saturday is baptism day and Sunday is the Sabbath. Much of our efforts throughout the week basically focus on those indicators.

Last week was a miracle for getting investigators to attend church. This week wasn't quite as successful, but it was still very good. We had two investigators attend. One is a very old man that we literally carried to the chapel. Good thing I'm insanely buff. (Joke.) His name is Jonny. I think he will get baptized - as long as he doesn't die before ..... seriously.

We also had a less active come to church. We were really happy to see him because he is the first less active that we have gotten to come to church. There are SO many less actives here. Our area has about 50 on record. I don't know what there are more of in our area: crazy, starving dogs or less active families. I've been trying to calculate this but I just can't figure it out. I think there are an infinite number of both. We have gone into so many homes and kindly made the family and helped them find their Book of Mormon. We usually find it on some obscure bookshelf or somewhere. Then we dust it off and begin teaching. The thing is, dusting off an unread Book of Mormon is easy, it's dusting off an unnurtured testimony that is...well incredibly tough. 

Which brings me back to my first point: church attendance is SO important. The first three commandments we teach are pray, read the Book of Mormon and go to church. These three things grow testimonies and provide access to personal revelation. If an investigators does these three things they become a progressing investigator. But each Sunday that even a solid investigator doesn't go to church we don't count them as a progressing investigator for that entire week. It just makes me think about all the times before my mission I thought I had a good enough reason to not be a progressing investigator to God. So sad. :( 

This week we started teaching a new family: Rodrigo and Miriam Zepeda. This is how they were found: Rodrigo has a friend that has (now I don't know how this is possible but...) been to every religious service because he finds them interesting. Rodrigo asked him one day which church he should belong to and the friend told him to become a Mormon because our services are the best. I think this family is really prepared for the gospel. I'm excited to hopefully get to continue the story of their conversion in the coming weeks. Woop woop! 

So I've talked about her a little bit but Paulina is just the coolest. She is fifteen, has a testimony, wants to be baptized, buttt....her mom won't let her. Her mom has been softening little by little but she is still oh so stubborn. She bought a dress a couple of weeks ago and then last week went to church. We were ECSTATIC. She has come a long ways. And this week we asked her again for permission for Paulina to be baptized. She said no. For a lot of reasons that are all just really bad reasons. For example: going to church is one of the only things that she can leverage against her daughter. Cell phone privileges revoked doesn't work, groundings don't work, but her baptism and church attendance do so she doesn't want to give that away. It's a real bummer. We hope that her heart will soon be softened. 

Funny story though (her mom is a Jehovah's Witness so that is why I thought of this) there are a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses here. I didn't really know they existed but there are tons. And there was a day this week that every single person but one that I contacted was a feisty Jehovah's Witness. Now, I don't like fighting with them in part because I'm Amity and don't see the point but also because I don't think I know enough Spanish or Bible to hold my own in an argument. But my companion loves it. And is good at it. Every time after she's like ?I didn't mean to, they just provoked me? It's hilarious.

Even though we sometimes get people that like to fight with us, and people yell at us sometimes it really is a wonderful, wonderful thing to be a missionary. Two Elders in my ward are going home this next transfer (Sunday...ahhh!) and I just think that is so sad. I'm so glad I have about 16 more months!! There is no place I'd rather be than here in the killer heat of Puerto Vallarta. 

¡Te amo hasta la luna y mas alla!

Hermana Wood

Letter for Aug 11, 2014 - Zone Conference!

Dear Family,

Our week was really different than usual (the usual past two weeks... haha) because we had divisions with the sister training leader and zone conference! Its been a great week though. :)

I had divisions with Hermana Huchendorf first. She is amazing. She is the kind of missionary I want to be. I feel bad for not idolizing my trainer in the way I idolize Hermana H, but that's okay haha. Hermana H just uses her time so efficiently and so well. We taught a lesson like every second we were together and I just loved it. And then I had divisions with Hermana Vargas. She is probably the sweetest missionary ever. I learned a lot from her too. She is amazing. I really do love my companion though haha.

Zone conference was great too. It was all in Spanish so I could't understand all of it, but I could understand a lot. It was really awesome. Afterwards President Wagner pulled all of the new missionaries from our area (in Puerto Vallarta it is an area conference actually...I dont know why haha but that is why our zone conference picture has SO many people...because it is our whole area). Anyways, Pres Wagner pulled us all into a room and was asking us about our first couple of weeks. We were all doing okay haha, some more so than others. But it was pretty funny because we were talking for a while and it made Hermana Wagner really nervous (she was talking to our trainers). She was nervous because the last batch of missionaries from America all had crazy melt downs and President Wagner ended up having like 30 minute interviews individually because they were crying and wanting to go home. She thought that was happening to us, but it wasnt, we were pretty fine. But missions are hard. 

The cool thing though about not really being able to speak the language that I've really learned this week is how humbled we are and how much we can feel the spirit. We talked and we all feel this way. It is SO humbling to not be able to communicate with people, and to have to rely on the Lord at all times. All of the Latins that I have talked to say that they prefer working with Americans because they are so humble. And it isn't because we are so great, it is because we really have no other option. It is also cool because every time I struggle to bear my testimony during a contact, lesson or wherever I can feel the spirit SO strong. Because really, I am not teaching anybody, the spirit is. Which is how it always should be, but again, with the limited Spanish we know, there is literally no other way to teach. I dont want to say I'm going to miss it...but there are aspects of this struggle that I hope never leave.

Well, only one investigator came to church. We went to so many houses and people 'weren't home'. I was really nearly in tears though thinking about some of our investigators. It's really sad, but God has a plan for them, they are now more prepared to accept the gospel later in life. This week is going to be really hard because we now have to find nearly all new investigators. This is going to be a week of blisters and hopefully of miracles. Good thing we believe in both here in Vallarta!

CON AMOR,

HERMANA CASSIE :)

Letter for August 4, 2014 "Eating Tips"

Dear Family,

Okay, I feel really bad about how I emailed last week. I was in such a rutt! But last Monday there was a P-day miracle! I just started feeling so much better. I know I´m not going to be fluent for a while but I´m just not going to let it bother me. Once I remembered how to just completely rely on the Lord I felt a million times better. And I started singing again. Now that I cant talk with anyone I just fill me head and heart with hymns to make sure I dont think anything negative. I just feel so light and I just have a renewed testimony of the power of the atonement! Yay! 

Earlier this week we were contacting and I handed a picture of Jesus to this girl carrying a bag of groceries. I told her we were representatives of Christ and that our message would lift her burdens (with horrible grammer so I´m paraphrasing). She immediately started to cry and talk really, really fast so my companion stepped over and was listening and talking to her. It turns out she had crashed her husbands car and was so scared because he would be mad at her and they didnt have money to fix it. Thats all I understood but I guess it was bad. So she said we could meet with her! We went to her house the next day and taught her about Gods love for her and how te gospel blesses families. She has three children and had her first when she was 14!! Her two daughters dont live with her and we dont know why. But she loves her baby son so much. So we have been teaching her and yesterday we tried to show her a video about the restoration. But we couldnt get their tv to work! Haha it was such a struggle. It took a really long time and eventually the best we could do was have it play in English. I can understand English (duh.) and my companion has seen te movie enough to know exactly what is being said. So during the movie my companion and I took turns explaining the story. Honestly, it was so powerful. It was such a great experience. The room was full of the Spirit. Her mom, who is very Catholic, could feel it and commented about but she was very unhappy to be feeling something telling her the Catholic church might not have the full truth. Anyways, it was just really great.

Okay, funny story. That actually isnt funny at all. We were planning a couple of nights ago when all of the sudden we hear this whisper at one of our windows. We were thoroughly creeped out. So we tiptoed like two people about to get killed in a horror movie over to the window and it was one of our investigators! It was Enrique. He came to ask us for forgiveness because he smoked pot. We told him that we cant grant him forgivness because its not our law, its Gods and he needs to repent to God. We were pretty sad though because he was on date to get baptized this coming Saturday. But then two days after that we had a lesson with Enrique and we did the thing I had been most scared to do: call people to repentence! While reading the Book of Mormon in the MTC I kept reading how the missionaries would´Call people to repentence¨ and every time I thought that sounded scary. But it actually wasnt scary. It was great. We were both really bold and direct but we told him that these were Gods laws, read him some scriptures and told him that he needed to repent and obey....or else dun dun dun.... No, but really it was just a really good lesson and he is now trying to be better. 

One last lesson story (writing is taking me too long today haha). There is this investigator who I love a lot named Abigail. She is just wonderful in every way. We gave her the lesson of the restoration in the chapel the other day. It was amazing. My heart was so full, and the spirit was testifying so strongly during the lesson. Especially when we explained the Book of Mormon. I knew she could feel it too because I dont know what it was but her countenance just kind of changed. So I told her that when she prayed and read the book she would feel this same feeling, the Holy Ghost, that would let her know it was true. It was great. It is so cool that we have access to the Holy Ghost at all times. This work and basically everything would be nothing without it. 

So last week I hadnt tried any gross food but this week....there have been a lot of moments where I was cursing my tastebuds. So I developed (and of course am still perfecting) five rules to eating gross food like a champ:

1- Go hungry! The hungrier you go, the better everything will taste. This is a scientifically proven fact by me.

2- Dont ask, dont tell. There is no political controversy over this rule here because it is so helpful. You dont need to know that you are eating the eyeball of a fish until after it is digesting in your stomach. Just dont think about it.

3- Drink lots inbetween. You can wash it out or swallow it like a pill if you need.

4- Spice it up. If you put enough chilis on you cant taste (most) of the nastiness. Shout out to salsa.

5- Strategize. Dont eat too fast, but dont eat too slow. And dont eat all of the good stuff first.

But bonus point and most importantly, SMILE and say thank you. Even if it is disgusting out the wazoo, youre still a representative of Christ. (But luckily for Chist, he liked fish enough to multiply it. Thats a weakness of mine Im trying to get over. Everyone here likes fish...ew.)

Yesterday my companion and I were a healthy dose of devastated though because none of our investigators came to church. Which means none of them are progressing. It was so sad. Church is SO important. The sacrament is really the most important thing we do all week. Church is ESSENTIAL. Ugh.

Okay, last thing! Jon Schmidt came and gave a concert on Sunday!! Woop woop! It was awesome. It was great because we got a lot of people to come into the chapel. And two of our investigators! We have a gorgeous chapel and there just arent enough opportunities to use it. Its great to get people comfortable in it. And the music was beautiful, even though Jon Schmidt suggested we buy a new piano.... Yeeeaahhh....cuz that is a priority. Haha, but it was so much fun! 

Its been a really great week! I love being a missionary and I love it here. 

I love you guys all so much! 

First Letter in Mexico - July 28, 2014 - Bienvenidos a Mexico!

¡Bienvenidos a México!

 I made it to Mexico safely!  

 

That is my companion, Hermana Vergara, and me at the Guadalajara Temple!! 

I don't even know where to begin. Everything this past week has been kind of really overwhelming and there is a lot to share.

I guess I will begin with my lovely companion.Her name is Hermana Vergara and she is from Pachuca, Mexico. She only speaks Spanish. Yay... She has trained two times before this: one Mexicana and one Americana. She is a great trainer, but she doesn't want to be training anymore. She goes home in December and she would prefer a more experienced companion. But she isreally kind, hard working and obedient: Just what we have been praying for! 

My first area is Puerto Vallarta. It is beautiful!! It is rightby the beach and so somewhere around here (where we dont go) there is a touristey place. But, just so you know about an hour ago I washed my clothes on a washboard with dirty water in case anyone got it in their heads that I was on vacation. This area is the hottest in the mission. I tried to count the number of times Sister Wagner told us we were going to die but I lost track at 12. It isnt very comforting when your mission presidents wife tells you you will die haha. But it is really hot here. People carry towels around to wipe their constant sweat. It is so hot and humid I sweat ALL THE TIME. Even when I am asleep, when I am in my apartment reading my scriptures, right now...just all the time. Haha, its great. I really do love it here. :)

We have six progressing investigators. (All but one was found and in process before I got here.) Here are a couple of them that I especially love.

Enrique is going to be baptized on the 9 of August. He is amazing and so happy all the time. He just smiles, smiles, smiles. But all investigators have their own challenges and his is he cant remember anything we teach him! He really loves the gospel and attends church, but he cant remember it all the time. But he has a family so I think that as he teaches his family they can all be a strength to eachother.

Then there are teenage sisters, Abigail and...I cant remember the name of her sister. They have a date for baptism in late September. Abigail is so sweet and kind. Her soul seems very soft...if that even makes any sense haha. She is just such a loving person with a strong desire to do the right. 

My companion's favorite investigator is Paulina. Paulina is 17 and very wonderful. She went to the youth activity last week and is very funny, smiley, and energetic. She has a strong testimony and wants to be baptized but her mom wont let her. Paulina wants to serve a mission when she is older. She is a great example to her younger brothers and brought them to church with her. 

Then there is 13 year old Ricardo. He is such a sweetheart. We were teaching Enrique on the street when Ricardo came over and was like, 'I have this book at my home and I want you to teach me more about it.' It was great. He actually got taught nearly every lesson about two years ago but he didnt understand and was too young I think, he just was a little too distracted. But he really likes the Book of Mormon and gets excited when he sees us. He is such a little gentlemen and I really hope he gets baptized. He would be a great member of the deacons quorum!

Here, I am really pale. I thought I was tan, but compared to all of these Mexicans I am incredibly white. Sometimes we will be at less actives homes or members or basically anywhere and people will ask if they can see my shoulder because they want to see the most white part of my skin. Also, they think it is hilarious that I can get a sunburn! Its kind of ridiculous, I am not the first white person they have seen so I dont know why its so weird but it is I guess. And I actually did get a little itsy baby sunburn the other day. 

We were teaching an investigator (Josue luis verde) and he lives in this really really humble (aka dirt poor..literally) part of town. There is no shade, no fans (there isnt ac but most people get their fans out for us while we teach them) and I just instantly sweated off all my sunscreen and burned.My goodness, it was like the coolest thing ever for our investigators.Josue is awesome though. So kind and so prepared for this message. 

I really cant undrstand very much though,and I can speak even less. It is a struggle and at times very lonely because my companion only speaks Spanish. Most people are very kind here though, but there is this less active lady named Hermana Mary who is just really mean and dark. She just lords it over me that their whole world leaves me out. She purposefully tries to say things (phrases, big words, talks really fast) so that I cantunderstand. And then she says slowly really mean things. Like, I am TRYING. It's really frusturating and lonely to not be able to understand or talk to anyone. Sometimes I just wish I had gotten called to English speaking Boise Idaho. But I even though I dont know how to do things the way of the Mexican culture and I dont know many things in Spanish, I do know one thing for certain and that is that this gospel is true! And I am going to share this message until I sweat to death underneath the Vallarta sun because this message is true, and it is for everyone. 

​

Con Amor,

Hermana Wood

Hermana Cassie and her MTC Zone. July 2014

MTC Letter for July 9, 2014

Dear Family,

Um, this week was pretty non-eventful to be honest. I don't really no where to begin. 

Our investigator, Gabriella, went on a three week biking trip to California. We were pretty sad because everyone else basically got to keep their same investigator for another week but we got a new one. We were sad because we LOVE Gabriella. 

But our new investigator is super super great also. Her name is Mariana and the guy at the TRC desk told everyone else their investigator was really a member, but he told us that ours wasn't so this time we are certain that she is a real investigator. Which doesn't change how we plan lessons or anything really because we always put our whole heart into it, but it's just really exciting. She asks really good questions. That are really hard to answer sometimes haha. But she is really sweet. 

One funny thing is how even though I haven't watched TV or seen a newspaper in a while, I know basically everything about the world cup. Every single time we go into meet with an investigator their personality is like 97% the outcome of the last soccer game. We spend like a third of every lesson discussing the world cup! It's pretty funny. :) I am routing for the Netherlands now that Brazil just got out. (Not for any reason in particular, I just have to have an answer). 

On Thursday my District didn't say a single word in English the entire day. It was horrible. But we all improved a lot. It was an overall good thing. Hm... que mas?

Oh! The new District arrived last Wednesday and I got to meet all of the sisters. They are all so awesome. I love them all so so so much! They are such delightful, sweet, happy people. But awkward moment of my week: I was specifically told to talk to one of them about modesty and it was the worst moment of my life. But modesty is important and it's better to let her know that her skirts don't follow missionary dress code here where there is easy access to alterations than in a foreign country. Maybe? I don't know. But overall, I am really happy they are here! And tonight we are getting a district of TWELVE elders!! That is insane. 

The 4th of July was really fun! We were kept in the chapel during the time that "Sister Underwood" was singing. We're pretty sure that was to keep us from the harmful exposure of the real world. Which I was totally fine with. We got to watch "17 Miracles" and that was really awesome. And then we got to watch the beautiful fireworks. It was cool. America rocks. We also had a devotional that night (I sat by Ashley Southard!) and it was interesting because there are people from all different countries here so it was kind of focused on America, but then it would awkwardly transition into something else. It was a good devotional though, it just seemed like a tricky audience to speak to haha. Also, we got fancy ice cream on a stick. Yay! 

On Sunday we had a "mission conference" during it they announced something that I am so grateful for: a new plan to help retain new converts! I have been really praying lately for the knowledge of how to make sure that when I am in the field I don't just focus on getting converts, but on getting true conversions. The retension rate in Latin countries is often really low and I wanted to try to prevent that. So my answer came during this conference! Yay! Missionaries now teach all five discussions through laws and ordinances BEFORE the investigator is baptized. And then the missionary does not turn the investigator over to the ward yet, but they teach every lesson again and regularly teach their investigator for a minimum of four months before the ward completely takes over. I think this is amazing. I think this will really help investigators to be more like the Anti-Nephi Lehites, who are one of the greatest examples of conversion in all of the scriptures. They were converted to the LORD and they endured all manner of affliction because of that conversion. There is no such thing as "mission accomplished" because baptism isn't the goal - exaltation is the goal. 

Oh, side note: On Sunday we have like a "movie night" where we get to listen to past devotionals or watch some select church movies. Anyways, during one of them Jaden Slade was there and he gave the opening prayer. I never said hi to him, but you can let his mother know that his prayer was outstanding. Super inspirational and all that good stuff that prayers should be.

Oh, and for our Tuesday devotional guess who came and spoke?? Neil A Andersen! Pretty cool, eh? It was funny because of course my District was excited to hear from an apostle, but we were were a little more desensitized than some of the newer missionaries because we have been SO blessed to hear from SO many apostles. Everyone was like "I'm so excited to listen to a talk by an apostle" and we were just like "I'm so excited to see what the spirit is going to teach me during this talk." We really were so excited to hear from an apostle, but it just wasn't the same as our first time, ya know? His talk was actually SO good. It wasn't anything he said necessarily, but the spirit was just so strong. He talked about the Holy Ghost and I really can't give you an amazing quote or take away message, but how about this: the gospel is true. Best take away I've ever gotten from a devotional. :) His wife, Kathy Andersen did say something that was pretty cool though, she talked about how cool it is that we have the opportunity to always have a member of the Godhead with us. At all times. Like, that is really cool. (And my english is really bad right now.)

I love the MTC but I'm just getting SO excited to go out into the field. On the bus today, we met an RM from Mexico and I kept making him talk about it haha. It just made me so excited. I just want to get out and go! I'm just SO looking forward to getting to share the gospel with people of Guadalajara. Eeep!! :) 

Okay, you know how when you're reading emails from missionaries they slowly start to evolve to a more missionary-esque way of emailing/speaking. Well, I am definitely not there yet. And this letter was even worst than usual probably so I'll just end with one of my favorite finds from personal study this week so you know that I actually am a missionary and everything. 

It's Alma 31:30-35. 38. I just thought it seemed like a very good missionary prayer. And I also loved the way he utilized the atonement. It is sometimes really hard to know how to utilize the wonderful atonement to the fullest extent in our lives, but Alma really uses it well. He asks for comfort and for strength. And then in verse 34 he asks for a miracle basically, we are all allowed to ask for miracles in our lives. God desires to bless us, but sometimes we just have to ask first. There are blessings that are predicated on us asking for them. And then I loved verse 35 "their souls are precious." What a great scripture. 

So there, did that prove I was a missionary? I hope so. Because I really love being a missionary.

Con amor, 

Hermana Wood :) 

Hermana Cassie and Hermana Riches - both heading south of the border to Mexico!