Week 55 - Curacao

Hellooooo!!!!

This week was fun and VERY busy! I had to make soooo many cookies, and when your oven only bakes 6 at a time and when you have to mix the dough by hand with a fork and when you only have a VERY limited amount of time to do it everyday, it is a stressful game to play! It all worked out though and everyone LOVED them :) yay!  Thanks for the recipe mom! Before I get into it... Happy Birthday Spencer!! Smooches!!! and Happy Easter to all! Please remember our Savior during this very Sacred and Holy week. He is why we are all so happy when we probably shouldn't be! ALSO happy General Conference weekend! ( https://www.lds.org/church/events/april-2018-general-conference?lang=eng ) "Its the most, wonderful timeeee of the year." Go into it with questions and prepare yourself spiritually! i have the luxury of watching in English over here because they have to accommodate for all of the different languages here, AND we get to watch it live! BLESSINGS!

Well this week we had zone conference and it went well! I don't have too much to add from that but the Church is true and the spirit was strong haha! We love president Egbert's zone conferences!

We also had exchanges and i spent most of my time with the lovely sister Bakrker!  She usually serves in Suriname but is working in Bonaire right now! i love her and i learned soooo much from her! She goes home next transfer! Craziness!

We taught Etson again and taught the rest of the restoration and WOW that man just gets it perfectly. He loved Joseph Smith's experience and he just totally understood the priesthood and everything so awesome. 

We took the Parrs to go out teaching with us and they had the chance to share how each of them came to know that the church is true. I wasn't familiar with either of their experiences and wow.  I just felt the spirit SO strong as they were sharing. We all got a little teary eyed and it was just such an amazing experience for me. I have been really working on strengthening my testimony recently and the Lord keeps helping me with that. I really do know that this church is true and that the Spirit WILL testify that unto the true seekers. 

I hope you all have a great week!! I miss and love you all!!!

-Sister Woodbury

Week 54 - Curacao

Hello!!

We had a very good week with lots of fun experiences! Hopefully i can write about most of them! But firstttt...Happy Birthday Carson!!!!! and Happy Belated Anniversary Brooks and Felicia!!!!!!! So sorry i forgot to include that last week, but i was thinking of you!!

WELL. This week was a good one! 

-Rayon (pictured) and Jayden, Kim's kids, were FINALLY on date this week!!!! We have been working with them for a while and in the beginning their mom wouldn't let us put them on date because she kept saying they weren't ready and it was too soon. Now their mom is okay with it, but they are saying that it is too soon!! AGHH! They are only 10 and 8! The little eight year old says he is ready but Rayon is saying he isn't. They were on date for one day until we got a call saying maybe sometime in April! They are good kids, they have just been la little tricky recently. 

-Kim is PREGNANT!!!!!!!! SOOOO PREGNANT! That baby is about to fall out of her. She should be having him in the last week of this month or early April. We are so excited! We had a beautiful lesson with her and with the Parrs this week. We talked about families and the gospel and the spirit was just really strong. I felt once again in my heart that this gospel really truly does bless families!! SERIOUSLY!

-Selo. I don't know if i have written about him but he has been studying off and on with the missionaries for a few years now. He is from Ghana and has not been an easily accepting kind of person. We have been thinking about dropping him, but with the flip of a switch he has just completely changed. 3-4 weeks ago.  We taught the restoration and we were teaching about the priesthood (which is the power and authority of God that He gives to His prophets to guide His church on the earth). He. would. not. accept. it. He felt that the church made up the word even after we read about it in Exodus. Then we taught it to him again this last week, and he completely accepted it. No questions asked. Then in his prayer he thanked the Lord for the revelation he received about the priesthood. Night and Day. IT WAS SO COOL! He is sooo cool!

-We went to teach Jordan this week and I don't know how much I have written about him but he is doing awesome!!! 22 year old from Curacao. We showed up to our lesson this last time and he had gone on mormon.org and written down everything that he learned an liked on a word document. He presented it to us and had us read what he wrote and everything! It was so awesome!! It seriously felt like a little FHE.  Romelio was there too and HE was the one asking US what WE thought of certain things! It was sooo funny!

-We taught Etson again this week and we were 15 minutes late to the appointment, which is usually on time for the people here! He told us we were late! He had been waiting for us! He is so awesome. We taught him the first part of the restoration and he understood everything PERFECTLY! Like wow. It was so cool to see the spirit work through him like it did. We weren't expecting him to get everything because he seems a little bit slow but we left very surprised. He is so cool! He will be having surgery on his eyes this week so that he can get his vision back so please keep him in your prayers!

-We were working in our contact area when we were suddenly surrounded by 3 really nice dogs and they followed us for like 30 minutes! Because they were there, someone came out and talked to us about them! Then he realized that we were missionaries and we were able to contact him. He ended being a very prepared man going through a lot. He lives in the elder's area but we are hoping that he will start taking the lessons with them.  Right after we contacted him, most of the dogs left! It was just really amazing because God was able to work through our little four legged friends to guide us to someone who really needed Him. He loves his children so much!!! I know that to be true with all my heart! 

Well, I hope you all have a good week of going out with the missionaries and fellowshipping less actives, recent converts and investigators! Read your Scriptures and pray to Heavenly Father!!

-Sister Woodbury

          Kim's son Rayon

                                           Sister Pareja gives....

                                           ....great haircuts!

Week 53 - Curacao

Well, this week was pretty darn uneventful as well! Curacao is doing really well! IT HAS BEEN SOOOO WINDY!!!! Somebody needs to tell me how strong the wind is so that i am not crazy. It has to be super crazy MPH because holy cow. We have been contacting quite a bit, but unfortunately no one is ever home! We have been able to find some people who are being prepared though so our efforts aren't wasted. We have been working with this one less active named Angel and it has been so awesome to see the changes he is beginning to make. He is really changing and regaining a love for the gospel and just getting to watch that is such a wonderful experience. He is doing really well.
 

Sister Garcia is doing awesome and she is just a really great missionary. She really follows the spirit to know what to say and she is just a very good example to me. I cannot believe she already has 9 months in her mission! I remember when she came in. She has just grown so much and has really formed into a very diligent missionary.

This week we taught a man named Etson. He is a very special man who has semi recently lost his vision because of a health problem that he has. We were just teaching him a very basic lesson about God when we asked him if he believed if God really sent His son especially for him, and he told us "Yes i believe He sent His son for me."We then asked him how he felt when he said that and he just said very enthusiastically "I feel really good, content, happy!!" It was so simple but so sweet and my testimony really just grew in that moment. I love being a missionary so much. I know that is a very simple experience but that really was something that just touched my heart. This work is amazing.I am happyyy!! 

I just want to invite you all to be missionaries where you are and figure out what the ward mission plan is wherever you are! If there isn't one, MAKE ONE! This is the Lord's work and the only true church. His church!! I hope you all have a wonderful week and I wish you all a very merry saint patricks day! :)

-Ruman/Hermana/Zuzter/Sister Woodbury

PS, Dad- to answer your question, Curacao is definitely the place to go as a tourist. There is wayyy more to do here than in aruba or bonaire...but make sure you come with money! That is what you HAVE to have to do anything. Its not too bad but i feel like there jsut isnt too much to do on any of the islands. curacoa would be best though. prettiest as well :) bonaire has the prettiest ocean though. 

Finally...a new toaster!

Week 52 - Curacao

HELLO!!!

Wow!! This week i hit 1 YEAR in my mission and i cannot believe it! Time just FLIES!! This week was good! I forgot my planner at home which has all of my notes of what happened this week so i dont really remember....buuuuut i know it was a good week!  We, mostly me, have been soooo tired. I have hardly been able to function!!

Curacao is doing so awesome! I love it here. We have been SO busy and have been working very hard. We have some people who are very close to committing to be baptized. We have been working hard and we have been trying to work a lot with the members.  We had 7 member presents (investigator teaching appts. with members present) this week! Curacao is doing great and we are working hard.

This week we had a lot of amazing spiritual experiences. We had a really special experience as we were teaching Ana, Carlos' (the young man who committed suicide) grandma. We had invited sister Yvonne to come with us but she told us she couldn't make it. As we were teaching her, Romelio called her and asked her if he could stop by right then, and then no more than 5 minutes later sister Yvonne walked right in too. It was such a special experience. I truly feel like Ana felt loved and supported, which is exactly what she needs during this difficult time. She closed that lesson with a prayer of gratitude to the Lord for her friends in the church. So precious!  The best part for me was that the next day Yvonne and Romelio got up and bore their testimonies about the experience. It was all just so tender and sweet. I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know how to succor Their spirit children.

Other than that i cant really think of anything else... i am still pretty new in this area so i don't know too much that is happening here yet but hopefully soon i will have more interesting emails for all of you! Just know that we are working hard and doing everything we can to bring others unto Christ. You can all do that too!!! I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all!

-Sister Woodbury

 

                                          Homemade Soup

                                          Tan lines are getting ridiculous!