Weeks 21-22

Hello everyone!

This week's letter will include some events from last week as well. The first of these exciting events is that we had the wonderful, amazing privilege of helping a family move into their new house.  That's not too unusual.  But this family has 38 cats, 5 dogs, 6 ferrets, oh, and a rabbit!!! Seriously, their house is a caterie! They breed cats.  Needless to say, their house reeked even before approaching the door! The experience was quite yucky, but hey, it makes for an amusing story. And I thought Kimi was a catwoman... :P They gave us some salsa that they made. I've heard that they boil it before they can can it properly. But still, I don't think that will remove all the cat hair! Needless to say we won't be eating that. :P 

We met this really buff black guy named Martiz, who has started meeting with us.  He's our neighbor, actually. He's really cool and works at Best Buy. Anyway, he is hilarious!! He has asked us some VERY interesting questions about the law of chastity. And well, this is what he texted us at 1 am: "I wish I could cuddle with both of you right now." Hahahhah.  We have had lots of experiences like that with Richie as well.  It's super weird!   :P 

We had a branch picnic that was a good turnout. Sis. Peterson and I played sand volleyball in our missionary clothes.  So did the Elders. Lucas was able to make it to that and so was Richie. Lucas is doing awesome! He's having a hard time quitting smoking so we had to push his baptism date back. We taught him about the temple this week (we have to start teaching the new member lessons BEFORE baptism now) and he is way excited about going! He also received a priesthood blessing to help him quit. It's a struggle for him because both of his brothers are chain smokers so there's no respite from it! He's wanting help, like, for us to get him nicotine patches and gum. Sis. Peterson and I were totally lost in Walgreens the other day, haha. We have no idea how to help people quit smoking. The best we know how to do is bring him ice cream and leave the rest to the Lord. 

Brother Somers has an awesome friend, April, who is super interested in the church. She has a cute 5 year old daughter and both of them came to church yesterday. We started teaching her and it's way exciting! 

I gave a training at district meeting on Tuesday. That was terrifying! You know me, I just LOVE attention (no way! D: ).  But it was actually fun.  It's not like it's unusual. Missionaries have to do that kind of thing all the time.  But it was my first one. I had to train the other missionaries about how to help investigators receive revelation at church. It actually turned out really well. I was able to learn lots about the Spirit as I was preparing it. I talked about how we can receive revelation at church if we come prepared with a specific question or concern and then pay attention the whole time. I tried that at church yesterday and I felt like at each meeting I heard what just I needed to hear! So, if you haven't done that before, I suggest you try it! :) 

The Lord is teaching me so much right now. There are lots of changes He wants me to make.  (I gather that from how difficult things are right now with my companion!)  Here is what I'm learning, though. It is much, much easier to just accept what the Lord is trying to teach us than to resist it. We are so much wiser to sacrifice a broken heart and a contrite spirit to the Lord because this allows Him to change us in the ways that we need to be changed and become who He wants us to become. Plus, whenever we make a sacrifice for the Lord, when we give Him our will (which is the only thing that's purely ours to give) He multiplies our sacrifice exponentially (see Matt. 19:29) and we end up a better person because of it. I'm also learning that, in the end, it doesn't matter if things are perfect. All that matters in the end, ultimately, is who we've become: how well we've kept our covenants and followed the Savior's example by becoming more like Him.  Keeping covenants gives us strength and God's power, despite imperfections and (epic) failures. :) These are very different priorities than I had before my mission: i.e. playing the cello, school, repeat. So, this has been a great experience for me.    

Yesterday when we went tracting we met an artist! Well this guy wasn't at all interested in the Gospel, and was too busy to talk to us. But we saw that he was hard at work at his little artist desk, so we were like Wow that's awesome! He these cutouts of dogs and hockey players all over his house. The next thing we know he's invited us in and is showing us all these incredible drawings and stuff all over his house! It's quite amazing. If you send him a picture of your dog he will create a painted cutout of it to remind you of your dog. It's kind of a strange idea but they were very realistic. I thought of Grammy and how she would love on of those. :) He was super excited and pleased to show us all of his amazing work.  Bottom line, It was fun to be able to make his day and plus we got to share a scripture and a card with him. Cool beans. 

Well, I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Woods