Sister Courtnee Wood - YOSO - You Only Serve Once

Sister Wood had a hard time downloading pictures this week. This was the only one that she was able to send. She said these spiders are everywhere and they're huge. This particular one was 7 inches long. Courtnee is tough, Stetson would've moved out of this apartment entirely.

Everyone, I apologize that my letters are shorter haha! My bad! We had to email early this week because the big BRGY. elections are going on right now. Its a big deal, so we have to be in our apartments early and stuff.
This week basically all of the foreign missionaries had to come to Laoag to get finger printing done for our immigration/travelstuff. Which meant we got to reunite with EVERYONE! It was so great. Besides the fact that we were at the Stake Center for 4 hours, it was all good. It was just like socializing forEVER! :) It was awesome. We did that on Tuesday, so it was just the start of a great week!

Oh my heavens, so this week, something happened that is every missionaries dream. We were in the barbecue shop, and this young lady approached us and asked if we were Mormons, then asked if we could visit her. I mean OF COURSE we will! So that was the first thing. So the next day we visit her, and she was the most bubbly, happy, desiring and willing to listen person ever. Makes teaching even more fun I am telling you. Then towards the end before we even invite her she asks, "Can I come to your church?" Well DUH of course you can! So we give her a Book of Mormon and stuff and then we're planning with her that we would pick her up for church, and then she asks, "Can I just go by myself?" BY ALL MEANS, please do! hahaha. It was so awesome. God has blessed us with some amazing people. Her name is Rose. I will keep you updated on her.   

With her, we have 33 baptismal goal dates after this week. Almost all of them are for November too! The biggest issue is getting them to church. Man, it is hard. But we just have to have faith! We had5 investigators at church this week, so it was really good.

There is a family we are teaching in La Paz, and I absolutely adore them. They are the Patoc family. Nanay and tatay, and 3 kids. They are so receptive, and honestly, seeing them just brings me so much happiness. Sometimes as a misisonary, all some people need is to just feel loved. And when you can do that, there is no greater feeling! 

This week was stake conference, and it sure was good. The speakers did so good, and were very inspired. There literally no more room in the stake center. I had to stand outside to let all the members sit inside. But we found out at Stake conference that there are 29 missionaries in our stake! So many! They had us all stand up, and then all of the returned missionaries, and then all of the ones preparing to serve. Wow, it was cool. Just to see the Lord's army all standing there. Missionary work is amazing. It really is. Little miracles are happening every day. I hope that you all have an amazing week, and have a Happy Halloween! We will do what we can to celebrate haha. :) 

Kita kits. YOSO.

ay-aya ten ken

- Sister Wood

Elder Christian Tanner - The Blessings of Hard Work and Faith

Happy Halloween from Elder Tanner

Hello!
 I thought I would send some stories that happened this week.

But first the language. Its time for a langauge story. My companion and I went to the grocery store to buy some stuff so we can make dinner...and get some munchies. While we were at the cash register I just told the guy that we (my comp and I) would pay togeather and we'll just split the price. He asked how the price was going to be split, so I told him. But Bilodeau and I were speaking English to each other at the same time. So I was switching back and forth between Swedish and English without a problem. Then the guy asked me "How long have you lived in Sweden?" And I said 4 months. His face was just like WHOA! I dont even know how to describe his facial expression. It cracked me up though. He complemented me on my Swedish and was blown away that I knew so much after 4 months. Its called Gift of Tounges, brother. Join our church and I'll teach you all about it. Haha. No but it was super cool. Its experiences like that that make me feel really good.

On Thursday we had District Meeting. I have always enjoyed District Meetings. It's such valuable time to talk with everyone in your district and just share success stories, give new ideas on finding investigators, and just anything that can help the district. This week at District Meeting I just felt (again!) so happy to have 4 missionaries in Halmstad. Millsap and I produced on average about 7 lessons a week. Bilodeau and I are up to about 10 and the sisters are also up to about 10. The goal in the mission is 20 per companionship per week, but thats a bit difficute here in Halmstad. The effectiveness has more than doubled, as it should. Its a big blessing, having 4 missionaires here. Also a big blessing to have hard working missionaries here (not to brag on myslef or anything;) ) For our game we made paper pumpkins to put up in our appartment for HALLOWEEN decorations!!!!!!!

Okay, this next story is... well.. interesting. It was a serious deal while it was happening, but then it just turned into a big joke. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I told you the Sisters were getting texts that were mildly treating? Saying to get out of Sweden and leave them in peace. Well, over the past few weeks they started getting more and more. So finally Bilbo and I called the ZL's and just told them about it. So the ZL's called the Sisters. The Sisters just said they could handle it and not to worry. Well, one day this week the number calls them. Apparently it was an old Swedish guy. He wanted to meet with the sisters. Well, the sisters called us and said they were going to meet with him, but they wanted us there too. Just in case, you know, things got bad. Because this guy was a little creepy. So after district meeting the Sisters call this guy and say they want to meet at the Library right now. He agrees and says he'll be there at 3. Bilbo and I walk into the Library and the sisters follow about 20 seconds behind (because we cant be seen together, obviously. Thats suspicious.). Bilbo goes to the computers that are by the entrance, and I sit casusaly on the chairs by the news papers. The sisters waited by the front door. And we just waited. I was really getting into this. This was like legit Detective stuff. I had my camera out and everything. But it was totaly desguised. No one had any idea. Well, we wait for like 10 minutes and he hasn't even shown up. So the sisters call him and ask where he is at. HAHA turns out he was in Stockholm the entire time and we're in Halmstad. HAHAHA. We are were all just laughing sooo hard. Definelty one for the journal.

Wedensday was the first day we were "open" at the church for people to come in and do family history, have a tour, or whatever. Well, this random guy just walks in and asked for a "mormon bible." We were shocked! So we gave him a Book of Mormon. He started to ask about Joseph Smith and the restoration. So we pullled up some chairs and started a lesson. We find out his name is Markus and that he has several mental and physical issues. He as aspurgers syndrom. He said he was sick and explained everything about him. I felt prompted to ask him for a blessing. He said he would "love" one. We explained how we have Gods power and authortiy here on earth and he had 0 problems with it. He knew we spoke the truth. So, Bilodeau and I gave him a blessing. It was interesting, but it was amazing and the spirit was most definelty there. After the blessing we just keep talking to him. He was very grateful for the blessing. Again, I felt another prompting to ask him to be baptized. Which, was strange, because I met this guy half an hour ago. I asked him "have you been baptized into any churches" and he told us he had. Then I asked if he would like to see our baptizmal font. He said he would. So we showed it to him. He started asking really random questions about baptism. So we explained how it was done. He said "Can I be baptized?" but the part that caught me off guard was "right now? can i be baptised RIGHT NOW?" Whoa.... how does one expect that? We explained to him that he has to keep commitments, come to church, and go through some lessons with us first. Then he can get baptized. He promised he'd be in Church that next sunday and promised he'd read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Now if this isn't amazing enough, when he first walked in he said he had been trying to work up the courage to come and talk to us at the church for over a month. And this is our FIRST day open. And to continue on that, the way he found out about our church is through an in-active member named Jeff Wilmart, who we visited a few months ago. We have in-actives doing missionary work. Pretty amazing, huh? Well, later that night we get a call from Markus. He calls and says he is at the Hospital in the Psychiatric ward (however thats spelled) and that he is there against his will. I asked if he would be in church on sunday and he said no because he can't leave the hospital for 3 weeks.  Oh bother. Well, on sunday afternoon we went and visited him. The psych ward was like a halloween haunted house in real life i felt like. I was a little bit scared. Patients were looking at us and I was a little uncomfortable. But we talked with him for about 20-30 minutes. He said he'd been reading the Book of Mormon. It was really hard though. We are going to take bishop with us next week to visit him. So its been interesting. But its been a big lesson for me and its even been a big blessing. Thats all I am really going to say on that, even though I told you next to nothing.

Now that I have actually taught some lessons with investigators not as a greenie, I can see how it actually is. I never said much with Millsap. But with Bilodeau we play off each other really nicely and I feel like we give good lessons. I know that I am here in Halmstad at this time for a reason and that I am with the companion that I am with. And I know the Lord has big plans for Halmstad and big plans for us. We just have to keep "work hard, have faith, and let the blessings come!" as I have seen it happen.

Love you and miss you all!
 Äldste Tanner

P.S. We have hurricane wind warnings today. It crazy outside! Pretty cool! Gotta love living on the coast! Dont worry grandma, everything is okay!! :)

This guy told Äldste Tanner that if he could get out of the handcuffs without help he would go to Church... he went to church the following Sunday.

 

 

Elder Christian Tanner - Work Hard, Have Faith, Let the Blessings Come!!

Elder Tanner

We mostly spent a lot of this week going by old investigators and in active members. We have found that all of the inactive members don't even believe in God anymore so they just want to write themselves out of the church. Its a wee bit frustrating. But in the end, there is nothing we can do but invite them to come back. We went out to Laholm one day and tracked down a few members. None of them where home so we thought we would just tract the apartment building. Every single door said no. Of course. Its Europe! Finally we knock on one of our last doors and this older guy answers. He moved here a few years ago and didn't really speak the language. He said "My wife is sleeping let me go get her (because she knew swedish better)" and we were like "no its okay!" but he did anyway. We stood on the doorstep for quite some time talking and finally they were like "Come in, lets talk" I was like ".....what....?...." That was the first time I have been invited in while tracting. Turns out, they are Muslim. We talked just a little bit about the restored gospel and gave her a Book of Mormon along with a Family History card. She gave us fika (for those of you who don't know, this is a swedish word for "coffee break" but usually just means "mid-day snack" nowadays.). So we spent about 30-40 minutes talking a bit and then we left. As we were leaving the apartment complex thing we could her yelling on the phone: (this was in swedish, of course) I JUST HAD MORMONS IN MY HOUSE AND THEY GAVE ME A BOOK...." I don't remember exactly. I thought it was funny. Even if nothing comes of it, I see it as success. We got invited into someones home and gave a lesson.

 

We almost lost our crazy asain friend Tony this week (not in death, just as an investigator). I was on splits with one of the ZL's, Elder Ouemette, and we decided to go to Tony. Well, one thing led to another and, well, Tony started freaking out. Tony wants to know everything that happens in our church BEFORE he is baptised. That includes everthing in the Temple. So he finally said, "I am not letting you in my house anymore. If you want to come into my house, you have to go through my secret cerimoney!" Haha... oh boy. So we left after a while and I was a little bit upset. Tony finally calls us later that night and said "I am sorry I got so mad. Tanner, you and Bilodeau can come back but your friend cant come back. I miss you guys though, do you want to come over tomorrow?" I was like "whoaa..." Whew! That was a close one. So we are back on good terms. We meet with him 3 times a week and just read the Book of Mormon and answer questions. Thats it.

 

This wednesday we also have a lesson with Samuel. I mentioned him briefly last week. He's 17 years old and is investigating churches at the moment. I am super exctied about this lesson. I think if we pitch it just right he'll be baptised before November transfer. (which by the way is coming up in 3 weeks again. can you believe the transfer is half over??) I feel really good about his guy, too. I hope there is something there.

So far, we haven't done any service while I have been with Bilodeau. So we decided last Saturday that we would go to the church and rake up all the leaves. There was ALOT of leaves. So, we did. We were trying to decide if we were going to invite the sisters to come also. Finally we did. And I am so happy we did too because with 4 of us it took 5 hours. It took FOREVER! But it was really good. I just figure, hey, all Christ did on the earth was serve. We have been spending everyday trying to find the Lords prepared, but they just don't seem to come that easily. So, service is always a good thing. I know Bishop was particually happy we did that. Plus some guy that lives by the church let us use his wheel barrow and we just dumped all the leaves in his garden . So it was good. I always feel really happy when we do service.

And the final thing I am going to write this lovely day is my email subject. "Word hard, Have faith, Let the Blessings Come!!" On Wednesday last week I was just flipping through my scriptres. I dont even know why. I came across this scripture in D&C 24:12 "And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and delcare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men." That was almost exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. All I have to do is go out and preach the gospel and I will receive strength! So I sent it over to the sisters and they responded with something like "that was exactly what we needed today." Kinda cool, right? So ever since then we started doing a Halmstad District Scripture of the Day (Originally called "The Christian and Kaleb Cozy Corner Scripture of the Day"... but that is a different story. haha) Then a few days later it was a scripture that went a litte bit like this "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; "I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye recieve no witness until the trail of your faith." and that is Ether 12: 6. Another one that hit it right on the head. So, we have our WORK HARD scripture and our HAVE FAITH scripture... Now Blessings? I am still waiting for a lot of blessings, or they are here and I just cant see all of the them yet. I do know that having 4 missionaries in Halmstad is a great blessing, so that has been my motto over the past week or so. "Work hard, have faith, let the blessings come!" I know that we will recieve blessings. I know we need to have faith and I know with hard work we will be successful no matter the outcome. I know I say this alot, but I LOVE this work and I LOVE this gospel!

Äldste Tanner  

Sister Courtnee Wood - What About Your Boyfriend?

Sister Wood loves the Filipino children

Hi everyone!
It has been an excellent week. A lot of good things happened. I hope all of your weeks were amazing as well! Earlier this week we saw first hand the power of members working with missionaries. During companion study Sister Rico and I were practicing teaching the lesson we were going to teach to a referral we got from our recent convert (Joey). Just the restoration lesson. As Sister Rico was teaching me she was prompted to ask a question we have never asked in  our lessons before. About who was standing above Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. So anyways, later that night, Joey was fellowshipping with us and we got to the first vision part, and afterwards, Joey immediately asked Jerick if he knew who was standing above Joseph SMith. Like out of nowhere. We never told him anything or did any prep with him before it. Jerick answered completely different than the right answer, so it was amazing, and Joey was inspired to ask him that and he had no idea. It was such a cool experience for all of us.

We had exchanges this week! i was so nervous... I went with Sister De La Cruz who didn't like speaking english. So she spoke tagalog the whole day. It was mahirap. It was a good day besides of course no one we planned for was there! But we got 12 new investigators! :) It was a really good learning experience for me. Especially since I am training in 2 weeks!

So, the best story of them all.... on Friday night, I had my camera in my pocket and as I was getting out of the tricy at our house, it fell out inside there., Of course I didn't notice. Before we went inside we asked him his name just to be friendly. Come  to find out he was a nephew of a guy in our bishopric. So we go inside.. about 20 minutes later I realize it is missing. I knew I had left it in one of the triceys. But I was just sick to my stomach. Ah so scared. Cause I had rode two different triceys that night so I didnt know which one it was. Basically, I knew I wasn't going to get it back. But I still had some faith in me. I prayed so hard, and so did all the other sisters! I woke up the next day and still no news on it. Everyone said to go repot to the police station, so we did, and the officer there basically said tough luck because we didn't have the tricey number. He told me to just pray that whoever found it has a conciense. So that wasn't much help. I still had some faith in me don't worry. While we were studying a member pulled up at our apartment. (he always does). And I was a bit ornery and said "he better not be here unless he has my camera!" haha anyways, i just went outside to see what they were doing, and his wife knew i had lost it and asked if i prayed. Of course i said YES! She walked back to her tricey, and I was about to turn and go inside and she walks around holding my camera. I stood there in shock. Seriously so happy. I couldn't believe it. Heavenly Father ANSWERS PRAYERS EVERYONE! No matter what it is. Gosh I am so grateful. I still don't have words for how I have my camera haha. Kind of speechless! The police told me "you are lucky." That's it. And it is because Heavenly Father loves His missionaries. More than we could ever imagine. I am so blessed. 

Last but not least, this week in relief society the teacher asked me what I have sacrificed to be here on a mission. So I begin telling everyone that giving up soccer for a year an a half was a huge sacrifice. As I am talking a lady speaks up loudly and says "WHAT ABOUT YOUR BOYFRIEND?" from across theroom. Everyone started laughing, and I had to explain that I am extremely single right now, and that I did not have to give up a boyfriend. Hahaha. Seriously! I was just like come on now. But of course it was funny. 

Anyways, it has been an excellent week! Our work in our area is progressing so much! 

Thanksfor all the love and support!

-Sister Wood 

Sister Wood and Sister Brewer

We didn't get our weekly cow picture but she did send us this gem - A RAT!!

 

Elder Zach Taylor - October 21, 2013

This week I had a lot of fun. On Tuesday, the new Americans had to go to Asunción to sign something that says we can stay in Paraguay for 6 more months. I don´t know if that means I´ll be here for a while longer or not, but I would assume so. I probably won´t be able to go into Argentina until the second year of my mission. I like being with the other new missionaries, but I don´t at the same time. They always want to talk English to each other and I just sit here like I'm not going to learn anything if I do that!..so I tried encouraging them to speak the mission language. Something else cool happened with the language. I live next door to our zone leaders as you probably know, and one of them wanted me to speak English to him so he could learn. I tried.. but things kept leaving in Spanish. I always wanted to get to a point where that happened, but I didn´t think it would be so soon! haha. I'm excited to learn even more. Saturday and Sunday were really fun. We are teaching a kid named Leonardo who only speaks Guaraní, so we asked one of the Deacons in the ward to accompany us so he could translate. We never got to teach Leonardo because he wasn´t home, but the Deacon (named Johnny) was so happy just being with us. He´s only 12 years old and he asked us Saturday if he could go again with us on Sunday. So two days this week we had him with us. It made me realize again what I had always looked forward to as a kid in the church. We sang songs about being a missionary all the time in primary and talked about it in Young Men's a lot, and now I'm here. It made me appreciate my calling here and feel even more comfortable. And I had a lot of fun with Johnny and my companion. The days went by really fast when we were with him.. I´m starting to just enjoy being here more, and that makes everything more bearable. When you have fun, life is a whole lot better. We decided to go and look for the people who told us they´d come to church, but none of them would come with us or they were sleeping. One of the families was going to come, but apparently when the member that takes them arrived at their house, they made up excuses of why they couldn´t come. It´s disappointing, because we had a talk with the mother this week and committed her to baptism. She told us she wanted to get baptized.. maybe she just needs a little extra push. 

Also, yesterday I realized how much I miss drinking milk. I had a liter left of milk, and I just decided to go all out and drink all of it. I'm trying to figure out a way that I can buy more without losing other things I need... but not that any of you needed to know that. Well, have a good week! 

Elder Taylor

Elder Brandon Wallis - October 21, 2013

Elder Brandon Wallis

 

Jackson's Baptism went really well (picture attached)! We could tell that his Dad hadn't done it in a really long time. We had to help him get the placement of his arms right, haha. It was really cool though. I got to be in the Confirmation circle! That was really special. Max came! He seemed to enjoy it. We're going to teach him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We also had a couple other investigators come. Mallissa is a new investigator. We invited her to come see the Baptism the day before! She came and liked it. She's already read some of the BOM. We have another investigator, Marcella. She's a friend of the Bakers family. All we have to do is teach her the lessons and she's going to get Baptized. Then we have Sylvie Johnson, and her two daughters, Nina and Lilly. They are all going to get Baptized in November, most likely. Beau is doing ok. He got offended because someone took down his posters that were advertising his tool chests for sale in the Church. Ferman and Denice are also doing okay, but not as well as we would like. Denice would rather go to the Catholic Church. Ferman would rather go the LDS Church. He really likes the environment and people there. They'll come around!

 

Elder Kaden Barlow - October 20, 2013

Dominican Republic MTC at night

 

I was able to listen to general conference during Saturday and Sunday.  There were many talks about missionaries! It was awesome. This last weekend was very relaxing. We didn’t have to work so hard, and Sister Freestone made us cinnamon rolls and nachos. Another favorite thing this week was eating Papa John’s Pizza. What a surprise!

Yes my days are numbered! I only have 3 more days of AC and comfort!!

This week with the new missionaries they translated sacrament into English for them. It was cool to be able to understand when they couldn't. Also I was kinda mad because they never did that for us! Also on Sunday we watched the Testaments! It was so good! I’m pretty sure I have never seen so many 18-19 yr old boys crying in the same room but the spirit was so powerful!!

 

I went to the University and I want to share some experiences. There was a person and he was Evangelist, when my companion and I approached him, he saw us and said, “I don’t need your church!” and then ran far away from us. There was another person named Jefferson. When we started to talk with him, he told us about many problems with his family, so we taught him about the plan of salvation. Jefferson has had a Book of Mormon but hasn’t read it. It was awesome because he was very excited. I hope he accepts the gospel. This week we gave away 3 Books of Mormon and we were there for 1 hour. The people are very nice. Almost everyone will listen to our message, all except for the man I told you about earlier.

 

OH and don't even start on crazy driving!!! It’s so crazy here!! I was out on splits and almost got hit 4 times!! I’m pretty sure that’s normal here! Hahah.  Also in one District Prayer Hermana Hilbun accidently prayed for chastity instead of charity and that was super funny. Mixed up Castidad and Caridad. We got a good laugh out of that.

Ok for the campo [field] experience! It was really eye opening and I enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it more but the missionaries I went with were kinda tigre, they weren't the most obedient. I hope I get a great comp in a few days. One story though, when they dropped us off they just pulled up to a random street in SD [Santo Domingo] and told us to get off and the missionary that got the instructions (which were in Spanish) of how to find the missionaries didn't know Spanish. The guy already left before we figured that out, so we did what they guy thought he said and ended up an hour later being lost in Santo Domingo having no idea where we were or how to speak the language. Eventually we found a funeral home and luckily one of us had a number by chance for the east mission home and they gave us the number for the AP’s who gave us the number for the missionaries we were trying to find and eventually we were found. It’s super, super poor. I was teaching in little shacks, wood post walls with a sheet of metal on top the size of my bedroom. I almost wanted to cry, but the people are usually very happy! Except for the drunk we sorta got in a fight with. But we booked it out of there fast. Anyway be grateful siblings for the comfort of America!!

Love you guys!!

Kaden