Monday, May 8, 2017

Greetings from Aruba!

Wow. What. A. Week!  This week was SO awesome!!!  Buuuut first: Happy Birthday Allen and Jack!!! Happy Anniversary Brittney and Allen!!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! (huge family props.. haha!)

Okay so this week was great but really all of the highlights happened on Saturday!  Saturday was so spiritual I was like numb the whole day. I have no idea how to describe it but it was awesome!  So first we had an awesome experience with this lady named Valezca. She was so cute! So we had gone to her house a couple of days before but no one answered so we felt like we needed to go back.. We went back a couple of days later and Valezca's mom was outside! She was just finishing up cleaning her car and we were just talking to her for a little bit. Sister Petersen felt impressed to ask if she had any family and if they were home, but right when she was about to ask, the lady's daughter (Valezca) came out! She is probably somewhere in her 40's. Anyway we had a super spiritual lesson with her! We taught the restoration and we bore testament that God loves her, and when we started doing that she just started crying. The spirit was SO strong. I could not believe it. Later she said that she had felt something tell her that she should come out and see who her mom was talking to! So crazy! I love how the Spirit works!

Then we went to go have a lesson with this sweet lady named Ursula. As we  were teaching her we realized she is super smart. Sis Petersen was teaching about how Jesus established His church and he gave the priesthood to his twelve apostles. She asked what happened to the priesthood when all of the people killed off the apostles - a GREAT question we are never really asked, and when we explained it was lost for a time, Ursula was just like "wow wait yeah!!  It was gone!!  so what happened then???"  Then we got to teach her the Restoration!  That was so awesome. She was so sweet!

Okay this last experience was incredible. Absolutely incredible. We have been trying for WEEKS to meet with this lady that the missionaries had contacted a while back. She would always just send her kids out to tell us she was sick or sleeping or something. We just kept feeling like we should go back even though they were not very welcoming. This last time we checked the home the mom finally was the one to come out! She was not happy to see us and was just not very nice!  Sister Petersen asked if we could make an appointment and the lady just said "Yeah maybe in a few months"!  Sister Petersen then asked if Friday would be okay and the Lady (Rosaline) just said "i will just call you, okay?" and sister Petersen said "people always say that and they never call, will you actually call us?" and the lady just paused for a minute and then said "no.."   I was ready to just leave but Sister Petersen remembered something one of the apostles had said: "when in doubt, testify of Christ."  So she said she had no idea what she was doing or why, but she just testified of Christ, and talked about how Christ loves her. Rosaline started bawling.  I ran up and assured her that God and Jesus Christ do love her, and she started bawling even more. She invited us in and we talked about how through the Atonement of Jesus Christ she could be relieved of the sadness she was feeling. She totally opened up about her life and we found that she really needed the love of God and the atonement of Christ. The two things that the spirit told us to talk about. That was by far the coolest lesson of my LIFE! 

So we also found 5 new investigators this week! So crazy! Being as obedient as possible is really paying off hah!  I love Aruba so much! I hope to spend most of my mission here because its literally the best, and the branch is incredible!  We HAVE to come back after my mission.  We have the bikes and a car temporarily to do senior couple stuff and to go to church and other meeting because we live pretty far from everything.  There are 8 missionaries in total in Aruba! 4 elders and 4 sisters! missionaries in my branch and then just an elder companionship in the other branch!  2 branches on the island!
Most of our teaching is in Spanish because the illegal Columbians and Venezuelans here are the only ones who care! They are the best!  Arubians really couldn't care less about the gospel.  Papiamento is maybe a little easier to learn than Spanish, but most of our teaching is in Spanish. 

Well that is all from me this week but I love and miss you all!!  Have a fantastic week and try to have a missionary moment!

Hermana Woodbury
P.S. 2 weeks left of the challenge!
 
 

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