Week 33

Hello, family!

Hello!!! I love you all and miss you. :)  This will be a shorter email, by the way. (Well, I usually say that but end up writing a longer one so... yeah right! :P ) Basically the Elders thought we had a key to the church when we didn't and we were locked out. So we had to meet them at Buffalo Wild Wings, but then the Ricks insisted that we join them for dinner! :) So, being good missionaries, we had to comply, and consequently this took up lots of our p-day time.  

I hope you all don't mind, but I would just like to take a brief moment to share a few of my feelings. These are personal, but I want to express how much I am loving this time in my life. I can confidently say that I know that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do at this time in my life. It has been a steep uphill climb and I am far from perfect but I know He knows I am doing my best. He has blessed me greatly. I know that the Savior loves me and all people! The Atonement is real. So is prayer. I have grown closer to Him than ever before. I have felt His love rescue me from my all-time lowest of lows, have felt His peace and His acceptance as I have learned to rely on Him when I couldn't rely on anyone else. I increasingly feel of His love for others. A new dawn has broken in my life (perhaps like Breaking Dawn, (Twilight reference intended!) ;)). I still yearn for more growth, more knowledge, more confidence. But one things is for sure. I do know that I am confident in Him.  I've been studying about hope lately and it has become a part of me, part of my outlook on life. Hope makes everything better, all my efforts.  I don't really want to go home. Nope! The Gospel truths have sunk in deep within me. I know I will never depart from them. I absolutely love being a missionary. Small things that used to seem impossible have become possible. It's hard to believe I am almost halfway done with my mission!!!  When they say time goes by quickly, turns out they weren't kidding! :o

I love the Book of Mormon! :) Increasingly so. Our mission is doing a Book of Mormon challenge right now. We are all reading the same chapters on the same day and are going to finish by Christmas as a sort of Christmas gift to the Savior and to unify our mission and companionships. I have been enjoying it immensely! We are reading about 7 pages a day, which requires some additional study, but hey, I am all about that! :) I do love studies. Anyway, we are highlighting all the references to the nature of Christ and His Atonement in red and all the references to how we can access the power of the Atonement in green. I have found so many green references! So has Sister Wilson. She is a smartical companion and it is fun to share with each other the things we discover. :) 

I get to see Meet the Mormons on Wednesday! That is exciting. :) 

By the way, we have had a lot of breakups this week. What that means in Wisconsin is that people tie the Book of Mormon we give them in a bag from their door with a note that says "Sorry, not interested" when we come back for a return appointment. Whenever I see a bag hanging from  a door I'm always like, "NOOO!" :) We always make them keep it though. It's just funny. We also had to break up with Quintesa this week. Talk about awkward! I've never had to break up with anyone in my life! It was difficult but necessary. Real-world preparation I suppose. :P 

But hey! We had a great lesson with Lynette this week, and she came to church!!! And loved it! It was an unusually good church. It's interesting how the Lords helps us out with that. ;) We are SO excited about her. She just needs to work on the Word of Wisdom. I bet you anything she will get baptized, but how soon I am not sure. I just love how wonderful the members in Oshkosh are. They are great at fellowshipping our investigators! :)  

I borrowed a hymn book from the church and Sister Wilson and I have been having fun with that. She sings and I accompany her on the cello! And sometimes I can sing and play at the same time, which is crazy. I've never done that before. :) Nor have I really played hymns out of the hymn book. Hey, maybe that ridiculous Aural Skills class actually came in handy! :) (since it forced me to learn to read treble cleff well). Do re mi! :) 

I love you!!!!

Sister Woods

P.S. Mom, I made your famous cornbread this week and it rocked!!! :) Thanks so much! The Elders enjoyed it too. :)