Week 64 - Bonaire

This week was really good and we had lots of great experiences. One of the highlights for sure was during a lesson with Nurys. We went, planning on teaching the Atonement, when she started talking about her need to change. She see's her own faults and she feels that her biggest problem is that she just doesn't have enough love for others. She told us she used to be a very different and very angry person who would always act up. She said she had gotten into lots of fights. Her ex husband doesn't even trust her enough to go into her home when he comes by to pick up his daughter! She was explaining to us that she has changed so much because of the gospel, but that she still has more changing to do. She was expressing to us about how she has just been praying and praying to be filled with the love that God has for others so that she won't act up and won't get mad at others. We felt impressed to share Moroni 7:47-48 and wow. She just immediately started to bawl and was just so overcome by the spirit. She told us that she didn't know that that was in there and that she had never read it before. It was an amazing and very spiritually powerful experience. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It is seriously such a powerful tool! We just need to be converted to it and worthy of the spirit in order to help these people find the answers to their souls and find that comfort that they have been looking for all their lives!

I love you and miss you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Woodbury

Week 63 - Bonaire

First of all......

Happy birthday Mason! I love you sooooo much!

This week was pretty uneventful so i really don't have much to write about... But i am in Bonaire with Sister Burrup and it has been great!! So. Much. Biking!  But i am managing hahaha! It is so good to be with Sister Burrup again! She is SUCH AN AMAZING MISSIONARY! Seriously i am going to learn so much from this girl! :) We don't have too many investigators as of right now but we do have one super cool one named Luis! He is from Ecuador and he has SOOO much potential! We actually had a super cool experience with him this week. He was expressing to us about his concerns of being baptized and it was so cool because I was really able to share the verses in the scriptures that he needed. They just popped into my head immediately. I shared the first one with him he kept looking up at us after reading it and just said that that verse completely solved his concern. Then he was talking about a different concern and I was able to share another verse and he got kind of freaked out (but in a good way) and said "she did it again!" He said that it was exactly what he needed and that that solved his other concern. It was a really great experience for me because i really do try to stay as pure as i can so that I can be a pure vessel so that God can really work through me. I am so grateful that I was able to feel the promptings of the spirit and act upon them! It is so important to act on he promptings we receive in the small moments so that when it really matters we will already know what to listen for and how to receive that guidance! It really reminds me of that conference talk this last general conference! 

That is all I have for this week! So sorry it isn't much but I just hope you are all doing well and reading your scriptures! hahaha! Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Woodbury

 

                                          A member here in Bonaire named Pilar. 

                                          She is CRAZY but we LOVE her!

Week 62 - Curacao

Hello!!!!

I really don't have too much include this week.... Buuuuut we received our transfer calls and i am headed back to Bonaire this week to be companions with my MTC companion, Sister Burrup! I am very excited!! My body is definitely not though, as we have to bike soooo much more there. Here we go!!! :)

Sooo this week Rayon and Jaydon got confirmed and that same day Moronai got his baby blessing! It was a very sweet last Sunday here in Curacao! We also had two investigators come to church named Patricio and Ramirez and they were adorable. They are two older gentlemen and they just loved being there. We contacted Patricio and he just kept asking us in a very distraught manner why his church baptized him in black!  It was kinda sad! He is the sweetest man ever and i would trust him with anyone. Seriously. So much so that when we went to teach him he was soooo upset that we couldn't come in without a member brother.  A very sweet and sensitive little man. we love them! He called US to know who would be taking him and his brother to church!  We scrambled and got him there and they loved it! They are so awesome! 

I am now in transfer #11 which is SOOO weird because sisters only have a total of 13! TIME IS FLYING! Everyone should serve a mission!  Seriously!

My spiritual experience this week was actually with this lady that we kind of gave up trying to teach a while ago. Every time we had an appointment with her it fell through and she just didn't seem interested. Some good came out of that though because we started teaching her daughter and grand daughter and they are very special! Well, we stopped by that house and the lady, Deña, let us in and actually sat down with us to have a lesson with her! She ended up thanking us for caring so much about her and her family and for bringing them the word of God. She told us that every time we leave their house they say a prayer for us and our safety and she basically just thanked us for about 5 minutes straight. It was a great experience because we just felt impressed to stop by, we didn't actually have an appointment. The granddaughter was there as well and she told us about how she brought the Restoration tract to school and had her teacher read it to the class. She told us that she loves the message. She said she was playing at school and then just stopped and went inside to go read the pamphlet. That family is really progressing. The Lord truly helps us in this work and He will soften the hearts of those who are ready! 

Have a wonderful week! I love and miss you all!

-Sister Woodbury

 

 

Week 61 - Curacao

Hello!

THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY! Full of surprises! Wow! But first to start off i just want to start off my saying.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO ALLEN AND JACK!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BRITTNEY AND ALLEN

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOMMY AND DADDY

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM, BRITTNEY, KIM, ALY, DEB, PAULA, AND ALL OF THE OTHER WONDERFUL MOTHERS OUT THERE!!

Wow! Lots of announcements!

Wellllll so this week started off normal. We had exchanges on tuesday and wednesday and that went well! The next day was supposed to be our zone conference but our mission president couldn't get here on time due to flights so we had to move it to friday! The Bonaire sisters were stuck here until friday night!  On Thursday. a member of the 70, Elder Gonzalez was supposed to come to our zone conference (which we didn't end up doing that day), so instead of that he just had a little meeting with just us on Thursday morning for two hours...WITHOUT our mission President! He wanted to see what we were doing as a mission to minister. We told him, and he was AMAZED. It was a wonderful experience and the poor man didn't even know what to tell us to improve on! He was truly blown away by what we were doing here in the mission! President Egbert is so inspired! He did leave a commitment to double our baptisms... but that is already our goal.. +1.
This mission is so amazing and I am just so grateful we are all just so obedient and open to revelation! That meeting went perfectly well. It was great. And president Egbert told us the next day that he wasn't worried at all because he completely trusted us. It was an overall wonderful experience.

I love my mission soooo much! Zone conference was great and we all learned a lot! That was our second to last zone conference with President and Sister Egbert! We are so sad to see them go but we are also very excited to welcome the Bairds with open arms! They are coming very soon! Hoping to be in Curacao for that (the mission headquarters has jusr moved to Curacao from Trinidad)! 

Kim's boys got baptized on Saturday and it was wonderful! It went very smoothly and Kim was able to be there with her non member sister. 

We taught Etson again this week, who is progressing like crazy!!!!  Seriously this man is unbelievable. We finally taught him with his girlfriend who has never studied with us before. She would say things that didn't really line up with our beliefs and Etson would try to help her understand, and it was just so funny. For example, his girlfriend was talking about how there are so many churches and he very energetically explained that it was because of the apostasy!!!  So amazing. We love Etson hahahahahaha! He was telling us to be patient with her because she doesn't have the knowledge of the gospel yet and all of this stuff. It was a great lesson and we have high hopes for them! 

Crazy week, but that is all i can remember! I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all!!!!! big hugs!

-Sister Woodbury