Totes to My foreign mission

Funny quotes from this week that, taken out of context, sound completely ridiculous:

"It's crumbly but in a moist way."

"Hey! I didn't erase anything with my head!"

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel...and its not a train!"

     This week was full of miracles! We started doing this dinner message that was based off of S. Gifford Nielsen's talk given in October about how missionaries and members can work together. We give the members a piece of paper that has our names on it a few of the investigators names and needs and then a place for the members to write the names of people they want to start working with. We then commit them to pray for us by name as well as the investigators. I saw miracles in the other areas when we started this message and we are continuing to see the miracles.

     The first one this week was when we went to go see an investigator named Madelene. Sister Thompson and I were telling Sister Dixon how hard Madelene was to teach and that she does everything but she won't be baptized. The first thing that Madelene does when we get to her house is pull out her calendar and ask when she can be baptized! We were not expecting that at all! So exciting! So she is now set with a date of September 6th. We are hoping she will push it forward, but we are happy that she is considering baptism now.

     The next was that we went and saw Puru and Preeti. They are an indian couple that the elders found. Sister Thompson and I have been struggling to decide if we should drop them or not but each time we decide to let them go for a little bit they start progressing again. So this week we went over to see how they were doing and the spirit in their home had totally changed. They were so happy and so different. They told us that they had been praying together which is a huge deal. They read over scriptures that we had given them and Puru told us that he while he was reading them he realized what he needed to do to be a better father and husband. It was so exciting! We were also able to teach them the word of wisdom yesterday in a member's home. The interesting this was that Puru had just been telling Preeti that he wanted to quit smoking and drinking but had to find the drive and will power to do it. During the lesson things went really well. We talked to Puru about how we could help him and found out what he was willing to do. We committed them to live the word of wisdom at the end and they both seemed excited to do so. After we left they stayed behind and talked to the member for awhile. They told her that that was the best lesson that they had ever had. Puru was so excited and ready to finally quit his bad habits. He was so humble and ready to change it was incredible to see the difference.

     This whole week my companions and I were talking about what kind of food we were craving and yesterday at dinner we got all of our cravings. The members had no idea what kind of miracle they were helping with but it was definitely a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. I like to think that He gives us the food that we want every once in awhile to show us His gratitude for our service. 

    We were also able to go on exchanges this week. Exchanges are my favorite days in the transfer. It is a day for me to learn and see how other sisters work. This one we saw many miracles but for some reason it was different. It was one of those days that I was so spiritually exhausted and work seemed really hard. It was good for me to see the miracles however. It showed me that even when the work is hard I need to keep pushing forward and the miracles will still happen. It was fun to work with Sister Snow though. She is a powerful missionary who loves to work. 

   Oh in case you were wondering. The movie Charly. Sad right? Well guess what. There is a man in our ward and that story is based off of his life. Want to know the saddest part? The ferris wheel thing was just hollywood making the movie cuter. LAME!

     Compliment of the week goes to Miranda Kay. Ever since Junior High she has always been an example to me of how to show Christ like love and to stand up for what she believes no matter what the situation is. I am grateful that I have been able to know her for so long. 

   Oh! Guess what I realized last night! Yesterday was my year mark for going through the temple! WOO! I don't feel like it has been that long at all! Sometimes I feel like life at home and time have just been put on pause. I half expect that when I get back it will still be October of '13 and all of my friends will be single again and living at home. I dread the day that I have to come home and face the fact that nothing will be the same (ha random tangent).ANYWAY, I have been dying to go to the temple, ever since I have been on my mission. I am praying that I don't get sent to some far away city in December so that I can actually go on my birthday. I have yet to be able to do a session as a missionary, and that has been my goal since I got set apart. It will happen before I get home. Hopefully. 

Well, it is time for me to go. And thus I end mine epistle. I am Sister Woods, daughter of Woods. Amen

    

Solongwaysolongtime

Haha! This week has been kind of insane. First Millie doesn't want to get baptized anymore so we had to work a lot with her and try to help her out. Then we hear that we are getting a new companion. Then we baptized thousands. 

    So here is the story. Something came up and Millie did NOT like it at all. She was so upset that when we walked into her apartment we asked how she was and she said "You aren't going to like this." I told her that we would be fine and then she said "I'm cancelling the baptism." We had been warned by the bishop's wife already so we knew that was coming. We talked for a little bit and unfortunately said the wrong thing which made her more upset. But some how we were able to schedule another appointment with her the next day (3 days before her baptismal date). So we went again after LOTS of prayer and fasting and we were able to get her to reconsider the baptism. She was struggling with something that wasn't too big of a deal. (Satan, hes the worst!) So again we went back the next day and talked to her and we were super nervous. Well actually we weren't really we knew things were going to work out the way they needed to. Before we went to Millie's we talked to Bishop's wife and she said something that I hadn't thought of before. Millie has been doing family history for over 20 years now. She has over a thousand names ready. That means when she gets baptized we are not only baptizing her but over a thousand of her family members as well. No wonder satan was working so hard. When we got to her house that day, she was totally fine and ready to move forward. Her baptism was incredible! It was so powerful! I am sure her family members were all there cheering her on. And Sister Thompson and I were able to sing again. We sang the song that I did at my farewell. People really liked it so now we might be doing it in Sacrament meeting next week. Yikes!

      Oh, so I got another companion. We had an emergency transfer this week so now we are in a tri-pan. It has been really fun so far! We only have a small one bedroom apartment though so we are super crammed. But what is new? Thus is the life of a missionary. Her name is Sister Dixon. She is so sweet!

Oh dang it! I already have to go. Gah! I will update you more next week!  And thus I end my epistle! Love you all! 

Sister Skeeter 

It's Enormous Like a Dog!

"It's Enormous Like a Dog!"

 That quote came from a 4 year old. His mom served him too much food and that was his response. Such a cute kid!

 This week was such a good one! Patricio got baptized!! Dad this was my birthday present to you. Patricio was baptized on your birthday and then confirmed on Sunday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADIO! Also guess what!! He is going on a mission. I know what you are thinking, he probably just said he wanted to go and that is why I say that. Nope! His confirmation blessing talked about how he will serve a full-time mission and remember how he was taught and share that with those all over the world. Um, YES!!!! That is I think the best thing a missionary can hear. I will be coming back for his farewell. Ha even though that is still 6 years away.... :)

We also went and contacted a referral from a young man in our ward. The referrals name in Justine, and at first we were a little hesitant to teach her. We had stopped by once to meet with her last transfer but after she texted her friend and asked why we had come and that she was not looking to become mormon. However, we went last night and saw her and she told us that she had just been diagnosed with depression and that high school has been really hard for her. We talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We were all able to testify to her about how the Book of Mormon has been a real source of peace and comfort to us. She was really able to connect with Sister Thompson through experiences they have both had. We were able to set up another appointment with her which is really exciting.

Millie is getting baptized this Saturday!! People. This ward is incredible.
We also had a great lesson with a friend of one of the Laurels. His name is Brennan and again wasnt really interested in meeting with us. We were able to go to this member's home and have dinner with their family and Brennan and after we had a powerful lesson on the restoration. We also have a return appointment with him at this members home. 

    I am so excited to be in this area. We have had so much success and it is all because of the youth and members doing their job finding people for us to teach. I don't want to leave this area. I think I would be ok being here for the rest of my mission. The other day Sister Thompson and I had a good laugh. We ran out of toilet paper on Friday. Ok when you are a missionary this is not fun. So we were going to grab some from the church on Sautrday when we went to the baptism but then we forgot. By the time we remembered it was way too late. So we went without. Ha you have to get kind of creative when you can't go to the store. 

So then we find flippin huge nasty spiders in our apartment (like we did this morning) and we have to get creative in how we kill those because we are too scared to squish them but we also don't have a vacuum to suck them up either. And who even knows if that actually kills them. What if they are still alive and crawl back out!? SKETCHY! 

Then during the week we had some real Indian food. Wow. It was so delicious! It was a scone like bread that you flatten out and put cummin rice and some kind of sauce (that looks and tastes kind of like curry) and some vegetables on top. I loved it! And it was spicy. It made me miss my dad's curry that he makes when I am craving it at home. 

So the joke these past couple of days is that even though we are in California we are totally serving a foreign mission. Sweet! I always wanted to go to a different country! 

Compliment of the week goes to my mom. She is always taking good care of us children and making sure that things are ok for us before she thinks of herself. She is selfless and loving to more than just her family. She has set the perfect example to me of what I want to be like when I grow up. 

    Ok, I can't remember what else I wanted to talk about but yeah. Have a fantastic week!

Sister Skeeter

Summer of the Cars

   Hey all! Did you miss me? Good. I feel like so much has happened this week!    

    We had a lesson last night with some youth and one of them came up and reminded us of a commitment we had extended to his family on the fourth of July. He told us that he went to EFY that week and each morning they had an hour to study. He told us that one day he didn't know what to study and then he thought about the commitment we had extended. He then told us that he had been struggling to be nice to people and asked Heavenly Father how he could change that. After that he randomly opened the Book of Mormon and turned to Mosiah 2 which talks all about Service. He was excited that his prayer had been answered and that now he was working on being a better friend to people. It made my day to hear that the youth are listening (even when I think they aren't) and they are doing the things we ask them and trying to be more Christlike.
     We also taught two classes yesterday at church. We were able to teach the 12 year old youth in sunday school and the Deacon's quorum 3rd hour. It was a good learning experience. We taught about ordinances and covenants and how this could help them prepare for a mission. We really had no clue how to turn that into a lesson, but what we ended up doing was having a discussion on ordinances and covenants and what we are missionaries do to help people make and understand them. In Deacon's quorum we did something similar but tied it all back to the priesthood and how they could prepare to hold the higher priesthood and perform the ordinances.
     Other than that, this week was fairly busy. We have been working a lot with Patricio and Millie to make sure they are prepared for baptism. They are both moving along very well. We have both of their programs put together now and we are making daily contact with both. Yesterday we taught Patricio about the priesthood and we asked him if he knew what priesthood keys were. He gave a better answer than I could. He has been paying attention to his teachers and really learning about the church. I am so excited for him to be baptized and hold the priesthood. I feel he will be a great asset to the Deacon's quorum.
      Well, that is the major stuff that is going on. Sister Thompson and I are loving the area and are so excited that Heavenly Father trusted us with His children here.

In case you were wondering I also killed like 10 spiders this week. BLECH!!!!

   Well, hump day was this week. That is weird! I still feel like I am a brand new missionary. I should still be on the upward climb!

    Guess how cool my area is. So cool that I got to hold a real Emmy award. Yeah it is one of the member's. He is so cool! He has worked with Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Elvis, and Frank Sinatra. Sweet huh? I thought so.

   Oh, and I am a wedding planner now. We were able to set up for a wedding this week as a service project/dinner appointment. It was fun. It made me excited for the day when I get to have a cute yard decorated in deep purple and yellow things. Not that I am focused on that at all......

     Is anyone else excited for Saturday? I am! Yo tengo uno bautison! hahaha I am pretty sure that is awful Spanish but that is ok. You get what I mean! Patricio is getting baptized this week!!! He is so awesome!!

   And then Millie is next week! She is the cutest little lady. I wish you could all meet her! Every time I see her I love her even more. She is so funny and has such an attitude! She is also so sweet! She stepped on a rat this week and flipped out. She hated the fact that she hurt something. Then she says "who steps on a rat!?" haha It was a REALLY slow one apparently. Poor lady.

   Ok, this is for Jamie. Yesterday at our lesson there were two Chinese Exchange students there. One of them is named ManMan (sp? its pronounced monmon). She is so cute! The home we were at had a Chinese Book of Mormon so she was able to follow along with us. So cool! Then after the lesson she sat at the table just reading the Book of Mormon. I am sad she is going to be leaving shortly! There is something different about her.

    Oh for the compliment of the week: Mikayla! you have been such a wonderful example to me oh how to work hard and reach for the goals that you want achieved. Thank you so much for always being there for me. You really have a strong impact on all of those you come in contact with. I wish you could see the changes you have made in so many people's lives. I love you! Thanks for choosing me to be your twin in the pre-existence! :)

Baptisamos!

     "In the great California Ventura Mission; we are preach my gospel missionaries. We baptize. We obey with exactness. We seek to be trusted more than loved. And we teach with power and authority." That was something we recited everyday with President Castro. These were what we call the 5 areas of focus. This is who we are in the mission. 

      On Saturday we had a baptism. Sister Woodland and I along with a little bit of help from Sister Thompson put together a baptism for Mayra this week. Her missionaries that taught her are in Simi Valley but she moved into our ward so we had (strike that.) We got to put everything together and see her baptized! And the Hermanas that taught her were able to come to the service! That was a blessing because we can only go to baptisms that are in our district, and they are out of our zone. So it was so fun to see them! I have missed not being able to talk to them. I served around one of them in Santa Barbara so I really got to know her there and then the other Sister I have looked up to since the first day of my mission. She is Tongan and that automatically makes her great. But on top of that she is such a powerful teacher. So I have always wanted to get to know her. Through this baptism I was able to which was so fun! And then to make it better she gave me the sweetest compliment as she was saying goodbye. She told me that she was so grateful that she was able to get to know me better because she had seen me at all of these meetings and thought "she seems like such a powerful missionary I want to get to know her better." This coming from a sister training leader who I have looked up to forever now. Made my day.

      So anyway, Back to Mayra, we are now teaching her son who we are hoping will be baptized by the end of this transfer as well. I know it will happen one day because in her confirmation blessing it talked about that. So cool! I wish you all could have heard it. She is going to be a powerful influence for good from here on out! Wow! So that is the exciting news.

     OH!! Millie is set for July 26th as well! We have been teaching her the last few weeks and at first she told us that she dropped the Elders because she felt like they were forcing her into baptism and she didn't like that. So she let us come teach her and on Father's day she says "I think I need to start thinking about baptism before I get any sicker." WHAT!? so we just kind of left it at that thinking that nothing would come of it, but then when Sister Woodland and I were saying goodbye last Monday she told us that she was thinking about getting baptized around her birthday which was July 15th. So we set her with an official date a couple of days after that. So excited! You guys, she used to be atheist and now feels bad that she ignored Heavenly Father for so long. It is a miracle that she wants to be baptized. She had the coolest near death experience a little over 10 years ago where her family members told her that she came early and that they weren't expecting her yet. They also told her she had a choice to stay with them or come back and fulfill her purpose. Whoa! I wish I could tell you all of her amazing experiences. But that would take too long. Ask me after the mission :)

      Oh! We welcomed in a new mission president this week! And Sister Thompson and I were the first Sisters to meet him. Yeah buddy! He and Sister Felix came to the baptism which was so cool! They also forgot their name tags at home. Not that this is a bad thing, but President Castro would have died before he let that happen. Needless to say, we are so excited to have President Felix here and the mission is going to be doing a lot of changing I think. Also he is the type who stares into your sole when he shakes your hand. I love it but it is intimidating at the same time.

     Ok, quick spiritual thought for this post;

I was studying Ruth this morning and i just realized how great she is. She lost her husband and then left her home and family to be with him mom. Then she sets to work in a field all day long. After that one of the people over her shows her kindness and tells her that because of her faith the Lord is blessing her. So not only is she a hard worker but she is has a lot of faith in the Lord and knows that He will watch out for her. I want to be like her.

Oh and compliment for the week goes to Dad. He is a very hard worker and has shown me a lot about how to work for the things you need and how to really earn them. Thanks for your example dad!

Ok have a great week people! Love you all!

Sister Skeeter 

Yes it is Transfer Time Already!

    I can't believe that we are already on week 5. This has been such a fast transfer! I have loved being in this area. I think it is my favorite area so far. Ventura is a close second but the work here is so much better than anywhere else. I feel like the ward is really trying to work with us and help to bring Heavenly Father's children back to Him. The other wards always said they wanted to help but it feels like here they are actually doing something about it. We had the most member present lessons this week than I have ever had in a single week which I am so excited for! 
     Yesterday something cool happened. We were knocking on one of our potentials doors to check up on her and see if she needed anything. She lives in an apartment complex and she is usually home. Yesterday she wasn't and I had the thought to knock on her neighbor's door. So we did. It ended up being this really sweet lady, named Carol, who took a couple of the lessons about 5 years ago but then moved and lost track of the missionaries. She remembers a lot of what they taught her and explained the Joseph Smith story pretty well to us. She told us that her therapist was a member and really helped her. Carol loved her therapist but her ex-husband sued the therapist for a few different reasons so Carol had to stop seeing this therapist. She then explained to us that her therapist passed away last year and that she has a really hard time forgiving herself for what happened. She asked us to come in and pray with her. She then told us that she loves missionary prayers because they are so powerful. We talked with her for a few minutes and asked if she had a Book of Mormon. She ran to her bookshelf and grabbed one. She had a few things marked in there and asked if there were any verses that we would have her read. I shared a favorite of mine and the story behind it and how it strengthened me and then gave her another one to read on her own. She told us that she would do that tonight and that we could come back. Unfortunately she wouldn't set up and exact time so she isn't a new investigator but she has a lot of potential and I am excited to help her find peace from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the thought that I had was much more than just a thought. It was a prompting and I am so glad that I followed it.
Yesterday we were invited over to lunch with a few members for Father's day and they told us that one of our investigators, Millie, would be there. That morning she called Sister Anderson and said she was sick and wasn't going to be able to come to church today, so we were sad and figured that she wouldn't be coming to the lunch either. However, when we got to the lunch Sister Anderson came up to us and said Millie is coming. Sister Neilsen decided to give it a try and invite her and she said that she would come! So we were able to have lunch with her and help her to meet more people in the ward. While we were eating she did something that made my day she turns to us and says "I need to give more thought to baptism before I get even more sick." She was atheist and has recently started to believe in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. She knows that she needs to be baptized and wants to be baptized but she has some smaller hang ups. Now though, she is much more willing to take the lessons and consider baptism. We have a lot to work on with her but we are excited that she wants to follow the Savior.
We also knocked into an awesome family the other day. We were knocking around our ward mission leader's home and a lady answered one of the doors. Her family was eating dinner and she told us that we could come back any day at the same time. Right after this, we had correlation and found out that the lady had a very less-active husband who told our ward mission leader not to tell the ward where they lived. They didn't want anyone stopping by. When we heard this we were excited that this family was still willing to let us come back and teach them. We are really hoping to be able to help the wife gain her own testimony and be baptized while activating her husband. 
We also taught Walter this week. He is doing so well! We had a really powerful lesson with him and invited him on a church tour on Tuesday. He was so excited again and couldn't believe that we would let him do that. So this week we will be giving him a church tour with a couple members who know him. We are so excited for this lesson! Walter has been reading the Book of Mormon every day and praying to Heavenly Father to know if it is true. He said that he has gotten an answer and that Heavenly Father told him to keep reading and then he will answer Walter's question. At first I wondered about this but then Walter continued on to say that he know that if God just told him "yes it is true" then it wouldn't be a strong enough answer for him and that he would need more proof. So he has taken his answer to heart and really started to study the Book of Mormon. The cool thing about Walter is that he notices the difference reading the Book of Mormon makes during his week and how things seem to go better. We are hoping to commit him to baptism when we show him the baptismal font on Tuesday.

     Next week we have transfers, just a heads up. The new president will be here so we are having a short transfer to make next transfer longer so he has more time to get used to everything. Did that even make sense? Oh well if it doesn't.

Ok, my time is up. Until next week!

Remember WHO you are and WHOSE you are!

MEH

    First I need to say this: I have found more spiders in this apartment than I have in my entire mission combined. I can't tell you how grossed out I am. I am CONSTANTLY looking at the black marks on our walls to make sure they are only black marks and NOT spiders. Half of the time they are spiders. Lately we have been getting these nasty big black ones. The poor elders called us last night for weekly call-ins and I saw a huge spider crawling across this stand that I was by. I ran to the other side of the room and my poor companion had no clue what was going on. I told her to finish giving the elders our numbers for the week and then I told her to kill the spiders. The district leader was listening the whole time and heard me freaking out haha! Oh well! Other than that though, I feel like this week wasn't super exciting. Except that it was because we have three new investigators! That is awesome!

     This week we taught Walter again! We brought a recent convert who was baptist (that is what Walter is) and Walter loved him. Unfortunately this member thought he had to lead the lesson so we are either going to have to explain to him again what his role is or we will have to use someone else. We wanted to teach the Plan but we ended up getting stuck on prophets. This was good though because we were able to find his concern and now we know what we need to study and how we can help him better understand. We were able to see Elder Dort yesterday as well and he said he would be willing to come talk to Walter after church one week. So we will be setting that appointment up this Tuesday when we meet with Walter.
We were also able to receive two new investigators! They are a mother and daughter. The elders had met them before but were never able to catch them at a time when they could talk. So we were able to set up and appointment and teach them this week! We taught some of the Restoration but then had to go to a dinner appointment so we weren't able to finish it but we did set up another appointment with them. They were also able to come to church this week which was so exciting! They were originally only going to stay for the first hour but then the daughter Cassidy wanted to stay longer so they ended up staying the whole 3 hours! It was ward conference this week so the classes were all different but the last hour was so good for the mom. Our lesson wasn't focused specifically toward members which was great because Valerie could still relate to it all and not feel like she was being singled out. We talked a lot about motherhood and how it is our calling from Heavenly Father. They also talked about The Family: A Proclamation so we will be giving one to them soon so she can see what we were talking about. I feel like she could really relate to the proclamation. She has raised her children to be great kids who have high standards. 
    When we were teaching Valerie and Cassidy they were talking about how Cassidy would get made fun of because she didn't know what drugs smelled like and because she chose not to do bad things. It was so easy to relate to that having gone to a California high school. Valerie later told her friend (who is a member of the ward) that she felt something while we were there teaching and that they felt a lot more comfortable with us. We are so excited to continue teaching them! We love them already and are excited to watch them progress and grow together as a family! 
     Last night we had a cool experience! We went to dinner at a recent convert's home and when we came they told us that their non-member friend was coming and that she had a lot of questions. So while we ate we were able to talk to her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. The woman had actually gone to an LDS church yesterday up in Simi Valley. She said that she used to live next to the missionaries and they would come talk to her. She told us that most of the time her spirit would reject the message they had but now her spirit was more open to learning about it. We committed her to come to church with her friend on Sunday and she said that she would! At first she said that we had answered all of her questions and that there was no reason to talk anymore. We explained to her that there was so much the gospel had to offer and that we would love to be able to really explain what we believe and let her see the blessing it is. She agreed to let us come back and teach her, but she said she didn't want a Book of Mormon yet because she had to pray about it first. We tried a couple more times to give her one but eventually decided that we would give it to her next time. She said the closing prayer and in is she asked to know if this is what He wanted her to do. She is a born again Christian so we will see how things progress with her!

Anyway, Hope things are going well for all of you! Love you all!

OH! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!! In case you were all wondering, I have the best dad in the world. I am so grateful for all that he has done for me. I don't think he knows what he has actually done but it has been tremendous. He is the perfect example to me of how a husband and father should act. He is hilarious, fun, outgoing, and crazy and he is the perfect dad for me! I wish I had more time to brag about him but it is just about time for me to get off the computer. But I just wanted you all to know that I love my dad and am so grateful for all that He does to take care of my family. 

Sister Skeeter