Week 67 - Bonaire

HELLO!!!!!!

Great week over here in Bonaire! Buuuut before i begin I totally forgot to wish my dad and all of my brothers and everyone else a happy fathers day last week, but it is never too late to party right?? Much love and hugs sending your way!!! As well, Happiest of Birthday's to my lovely sister Brittney! I love you and Hope it's a great one!

This week was wonderful! We will officially be having a baptism on Saturday with our AMAZING investigator Luis Fernando!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!! This man is already sooo converted. He is so cool. Everything he says is just soooo quotable you have no idea. Like for example, just last night he after lesson that didnt talk about prophets or anything, he closed our lesson with the prayer and prayed for the missionary out right now from Bonaire, Aury, and for the prophet. He is SO cool. He reads the BoM every day and is just a little spiritual powerhouse. He also gives us food. A LOT. every day. His baptism will be on the 23rd at 4 pm if you wanted to know what i was doing that day that time! :)

We had a wonderful Sunday yesterday as well! The Egberts (Mission President) were there! We did (the sister missionaries) a special musical number and it was a little mix of the songs I love to see the temple and Families Can Be Together Forever and it was soooo spiritually powerful holy cow!!! When we got up the room just went completely silent and everyone was sooo fixated. The spirit was like hitting you in the face and enveloping the entire room! It was awesome. SO peaceful and beautiful. We had interviews with president that day as well! That is always too fun. We love the Egberts and when they leave it will be like a little piece of my heart is leaving with them, but as well i am very excited to meet the Bairds! (new mission president) They sound awesome! We got to go teaching with the Egberts and had some great experiences!

Well, as you can see I have attached the BoM challenge! PLEASE DO IT WITH ME!!! Satan was trying so hard to make this not work out and i had to redo it several times so for that reason i know that the blessings are going to be SOOO great when you are doing this challenge! This book is life time, please read it with me! Set aside all of the wordly things that are going on and just take time to read the words that God's prophets have written for you. I love and miss you all so much! I hope you have a great week!!

-Sister Woodbury

 

 

Week 66 - Bonaire

Hello Everyone!!!

Bonaire is hopi bon! We are working really really hard with our investigator Luis and he is just progressing so much. He has been to church twice and loves it and we are working to getting him baptized very soon! We are going through old investigators and contacting whoever we feel prompted by the spirit to see, so we are starting to see lots of success from that! We also taught in Relief Society yesterday and that was a big success! Things are really moving along here in Bonaire! 

Sister Burrup is doing awesome! We actually just had an idea recently to teach the restoration and other lessons using the gospel art book and it is seriously helping our teaching so much! Our investigators, less actives and recent converts are paying very close attention and the spirit is stronger and everything is better! They are also understanding better. We are seeing so much success with that. Other than that though Sister Burrup is doing really well and is constantly teaching me how to be better! I really look up to her.

This week we taught the temple prep class at church and we were talking about the Word of Wisdom and it was soooo funny because I asked the class, as an example,  “would I be able to feel the spirit if i were drunk?”... and Sonia, one of the members (recent convert actually) said "yeah........the spirit of satan".  We all died laughing. We love her! 

We were able to do a lot of service this week! We have been able to do that a lotttt recently and it was so awesome! It has been wonderful and i just love getting to help! 

OH Also, We have all been thinking that I would end my mission here in Bonaire, but we were working out transferschedules, and due to the immigration status of other sisters, I will most likely be ending my mission in Aruba!!!  You never know, but that is just what seems to be the only option! crazyyy!!! 

Luis came to church and he LOVES it. There is a mentally handicapped man that goes named Andres and everyone kind of ignores him at church but Luis said he wants to go every sunday so that he can help him and also just because he likes church! We asked Luis if i believed if these things were true and he said "my heart says it is”. You would have to be crazy to not believe its true!" He is so awesomeeeeee!!!! So true though. 

We have had soooo many spiritual experiences with Luis this week. We had a really good and powerful lesson with him when we taught him about someone who he has been curious about in the BoM - Abinidi. We were able to put together a lesson where we just read about him and Luis just loved it so much. He testified that he knew these things are true. We compared him to Abinidi because of the changes he is making and the strength he has to say no to bad things from close friends and family. So amazing to see people change like this! I love this gospel sooo much and i know it is true!

I will be sending all of you a 90 day Book of Mormon challenge calendar next week and I just really really REALLY want to invite all of you to read with me!! I know it will strengthen and help you in your lives!

I love and miss you all and i hope you are having a great day and that you have a wonderful week!! BIIIG HUGS!

-Sister Woodbury

Week 65 - Bonaire

Hello Everyone!!!!

SOooooo last week i totally forgot to include something sooo awesome that happened! We contacted this man named Segundo one night and he seemed pretty cool and pretty open to the message. We had actually contacted someone at that same house already named Keiler, and so Segundo told us that he would just come to the appointment that we had with Keiler! Well, we went to the appointment and he was actually there! Keiler was busy at the beginning so we ended up just talking to Segundo for a while and we were just asking him about this beliefs and stuff, and he started the lesson by saying that he wanted to keep his religion a secret... RED FLAG. I whispered to sister Burrup in English that that either means he is a less active member or part of some cult. Well, we continued on with the lesson and everything he was saying just like such sound church doctrine. I kept asking sister Burrup if she thought he was a less active member!! It got to the point that we finally just asked him if he had been baptized in our church......and he said YES! We found out that he is from Peru and that he has lived here for 8 years, meaning that he has not been active for at least that amount of time. We also found out that he served a mission in Colombia and is even sealed to his wife in the temple AND that he has a son born in the covenant who is 16. Our jaws DROPPED! Such a cool experience. The Lord totally guided us there because we literally had no reason to have that kind of conversation the day we met him. 

Anywayyyy this week was great! LUIS CAME TO CHURCH!!! Such a wonderful day! Fasting works people! As well we had dinner with Sister Scott (former senior missionary couple from last year) and it was just soooo fun to see her and be with her! I love her soooo much! She also came out teaching with us which was soooo fun! We went and visited a young man, Aury, who is about to leave on his mission...TOMORROW, and it was so awesome (see picture)! Aury's mom is Pilar and that lady is something. Her memory is like a steal trap and she is just so funny. She is married to a man named Pedro who is a returning member (see picture)! Last time i was here he was TOTALLY less active and now he is just so firm! His dad is Andres who you have all seen some pictures of. Andres kept falling asleep during our lesson this last week and we were just trying sooooo hard not to laugh but we failed. We died hahaha!

This week we also taught a newly found less active named Vinicio and he has soooo much potential to come back! He kept telling us that there is NO valid excuse for not going to church! It was so awesome to hear him say that! He really does want to come back. 

We hiked a little hill, I'm sorry - i mean the highest point of Bonaire today as a district activity as well! So fun! it was SOOOO WINDY AT THE TOP HOLY COW!!! 

Wellll that is all I have from this last week! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! I love and miss you all!

-Sister Woodbury

 

 

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