Week 51 - Curacao (Again)

Hello everyone!!

Not too much happened again this week buuuut I am in Curacao again and i am LOVING it!! I forgot how much i love it here. They are also having a late rainy season so we, well i, have been enjoying the rain! We are constantly soaking wet. It is awesome. I love biking through the flooded areas too! Biking in mid-calf high...whatever, is a party. I have officially met all of the missionaries here and we have such an awesome district! The elders are awesome and we are with the Parrs (senior missionary couple)! This might be my favorite district in my whole mission :)

As far as people we are teaching.....

Rayon and Jayden! Kim's kids! They are little stinkers! We are trying to get them ready for baptism but they are cute lil stinks. 11 and 8. Kim is doing awesome too! Very pregnant and very sick but awesome!

Also we have been visiting with the grandma of the less-active member we were teaching here who committed suicide and she is doing okay. She is an awesome and super strong member. We are about to start teaching her the lessons to get her prepared for the temple! She really wants to go soon, and she could :)  She is so cute. Pray for Ana and her family! The rest of them aren't members......yet ;)

That is about it this week! I am with sweet little Sister Garcia again who I love dearly! We are looking forward to a very good transfer :)  I love and miss you all lots! Have a great week! Also a big congratulations to my sweet little niece who got baptized last Saturday! I love you Evy!!!

Until next week!

Hermana Woodbury

Week 50 - Aruba

Hello!!
Not too much happened this week so this will just be a little email buuuuut...I got my transfer call! I am headed to Curacao! I will be companions with Sister Garcia! I am very excited but i will definitely miss my little family here in Aruba. <3

This week we taught THREE indians!  One of them is a student and the other two are teachers at the same school!  It was so weird teaching in English... haha!  They were all really nice. The two teachers are strongly aligned with Hinduism so we will see about them, but the other one has been researching the Church for like 8 months and finally met with missionaries. He is pretty cool! 

This week we also contacted a lady name Calri and she came to church the next day! She lives right next to us! When she got to church, and after a series of questions we found out that she was actually a less active member from Colombia!  She is ready to reactivate!  That was so cool!  She is really sweet.

We were talking to the American family who lives here, the Moores, this week. Wow I love this family to pieces. Right now they are passing through a very difficult time, but Sister Moore said something that really struck me. She said "Even right now I dont know what He (the Lord) is doing but i know He is doing something."  She has so much faith and she is just such a great example to me. I LOVE SISTER MOORE and THE MOORE FAMILY!!! 

Well, to be honest that is all I've got for you this week!  I love and miss you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

-Sister Woodbury

                                                                 Rain Soaked!

Week 49 - Aruba

Bon Tardi, Buenas Tardes, Good afternoon!!!!!

It was a very nice week over here in Aruba! We have SEVEN new investigators!!!! Craziness!!!!! We have been working hard to build back up our teaching pool! The 3 we had to give to the elders are still doing really well and progressing lots!  We were SOOO happy to hear about that! Huge relief!

So many awesome things happened this week!!!!  Marlien, my cute little Surinamese recent convert? She is now the secretary in the Relief Society!  She is going to do so great. Also, Winston, her husband, had a baptismal date for this week, but he has been hard for the elders to schedule with this week, so the elders changed his date to March. Still doing well though!  I am so happy for that cute family!  Up next are her daughters....but that is going to take lots of prayers and lots of time.. One day!

We had Zone Conference, with President Egbert this week and it was SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD! I learned so much. Zone conferences just keep getting better and better. Seriously. We learned many wonderful things and we are now working on applying those things to our teachings! President Egbert is so inspired. We are going to miss him soooo much when he goes home
.

Juandavid got baptized by his father David!!!!!!! That was a very spiritual experience for all who was there....  Bbuuuuut that DAY was NUTS. Our Branch Mission Leader accidentally left the water on while filling the baptismal font..and forgot to turn it off and left the building. It had been filling the font AND BUILDING for TWO HOURS! The WHOLE branch came to clean up the flooded church!  It was crazy. That was honestly the most united I have ever seen the members though..they were all there cleaning the church and getting rid of the water. Everything was dry and ready to go in just over an hour - two hours after discovering the flood! It was so crazy!  Everything was dry for the baptism, and WOW was that baptism amazing!  I would never be able explain how his baptism and confirmation was..  All I can say is that it was a very special experience. Everyone who can be baptized in that family is! They are so happy. David said he was feeling weird the day of Juandavid's baptism but he did it anyway and totally nailed it! It was just so amazing. On Sunday Juandavid was confirmed in sacrament meeting, and afterward he walked up and bore his testimony. The whole time we have been teaching him he always just acted like a normal 11 year old, which is fine. BUT when he bore his testimony right after receiving the spirit, he just started bawling up there. He could barely get the words out. He just kept thanking us for teaching him everything over and over again. It was so tender. So sweet. When he sat down he just laid his head on his mothers lap and kept crying as she was comforting him. That little 11 year old felt the spirit so strongly. It was amazing. He already has a goal to baptize Naomi, the littlest girl in their family someday AND to go on a mission. We love Juandavid!

To end this email i just wanted to share something very short but crazy that happened on Monday! God protects his missionaries!!!! S o we get chased by dogs a LOT. My feet have been bitten by them as we ride and they have made missionaries get into some bad accidents. Well, we were just biking to a lesson on Monday last week and a dog just started tearing after us. He looked pretty evil and angry. Well, there was a car behind us and I guess he didn't see the dog because he started to pass us at a pretty fast speed.. the next thing we hear is a pretty soft boom...and then a dog SCREAMING running away from the car with his back left leg up. God was watching after us! We have seen the dog since and he is fine. That was honestly such a crazy experience! Haha!

Well...that is it from me this week! Sorry for the long email, so much happened! I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all!

Sister Woodbury

 

 

Week 48 - Aruba

Wow. Crazy week! I hit 11 months!!! Cant even believe itttttt. I am so scared. Next transfer i hit a year and then 13 months! I met my first companion when she had 14 months! AHHH! Not yet time to freak out yet though, thank goodness :)

In other news... HAPPY B-DAY BIG BROTHER CHRIS! Love youuu!!!!!!! 

So. this week. Ooooohhh this week. We lost ALL OF OUR INVESTIGATORS! Eduardo dropped us, we had to give Daniel, Javier, and Nerwins to the Elders, etc, etc. ugh. And everyone we ARE teaching are really really struggling. Please keep them in your prayers. Craziness. I don't even know what to specifically say about them all.

Lets just go right into the highlights...

Soooo we have been teaching this newer member who was baptized just over a year ago. His name is Jair. He is 15 but looks at least 17. He is AWESOMEEEE. We were teaching his about the temple, and he just said something that touched my heart. He said if there was a temple right around the corner, that he would be there CONSTANTLY. School, friends, anything else wouldn't matter as much. Jair is awesome. Strongest youth in the church. wants to serve a mission sooo badly.

We have also finally figured out when Juandavid is finally going to be baptized! We are shooting for this Saturday! You never know with his dad, buuuuut we should be good. We will see next week if he will be a member of the church!

My testimony of this gospel is so simple, I just know it is true. We were talking to our recent convert, Melissa, about how our investigators our doing and we told them they were struggling with accepting the gospel and she just completely said "No. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true and I know the Book of Mormon is true." That really boosted my testimony. She said it with such confidence and boldness. She shared with us that the gospel has really helped her and her family so much. She has really let these things change her. It was a very simple, but very spiritual experience for me. So grateful for this gospel.

That is all I've got this week! not much but it is something! I love you and miss you all! Have a wonderful week!!

-Sister/Ruman/Hermana Woodbury