Week 75--Madisonian Week of Epic Adventures!

Hello!

I don't have much time again, but it was an incredible week! Why, you might be wondering? Allow me to explain. :)

Zone conference was epic! Though my wrists hurt, I played the cello again and I received many nice comments. I also bore my "final" testimony which I was nervited about but it turned out just great just like things usually do. Why do I worry so much? Haha. ;P #jesustakethewheel. Zone conference was especially great becasue President Cutler gave a training about how eternal life=family life (it just wouldn't be zone conference without one of those! ;)) and he made an elder eat 4 snickers bars! It was hilarious. It was supposed to represent the lies Satan tells us to convince us to commit sin and overall it loses its appeal... as we could see. That poor elder was like "I don't want another one" but President said "will you if I really wanted you to?" And he said "Yes of course." Poor guy! Well, I'd feel more sorry if it were a sister because Elders in this mission tend to be beanpoles by the end of their missions. 

So all the bus drivers know us now. They say: "Really? You're on my bus again?!" Haha. One is named Rick and the other one is Paul. They are really nice and we were able to share a card with one and answer questions for the other one. Next step: give 'em a Book of Mormon. ;) 

We had an interesting bus experience! So there we were in teh corner and in walks a guy who asks us if we have a cuetip. Our response: "No. But we can offer you a card with a great website to learn more about Christ! :)" Haha. For this purposes of this story we will call him "Curious Baptist." Curious because he asked us lots of questions and wants to read the book of Mormon. Next walks in the Jehovah's Witness lady. We offer her a card and of course she says "no. I'm a Jehovah's Witness" to which we respond: "cool! We are really curious about you because people are alwyas getting us confused." We had a good conversation. We will call her "the first nice Jehovah's Witness." Next walks in a recovering alcoholic. We talk to her and she tells us about her recovery and how she's an agnostic. We respond with Ether 12:27, relating it to her experience with overcoming her addiction. She gets way excited, gladly accepts the book and tells us she will tell all her friends about it and call us later. Woopee, I know. :) Then we walk off the bus and this lady runs up to us, grabs us by the arm, in tears, and asks us to pray for her. We gave her a hug, told her how she's a wonderful daughter of God. It was such a tender moment! We gave her a card and were so grateful we could plant all those seeds on one bus! :)

Next miracle. We text people we meet on the bus and they actually respond! WHAT?! I know. It's crazy. Well these 2 cute chinese girls really wanted to meet with us and luckily we were impressed to bring the Chinese member who was able to translate with us back and forth. It was so.... COOL! The Lord knows how much I love Asian people so He allowed me to teach them on my mission! :) Haha. It was pretty hilarious because we had no idea what they were saying but they smiled, laughed, seemed to enjoy the Book of MOrmona nd wanted to come to church. Then it started pouring rain, like rainforest rain, so we booked it out of there. Haha we took that as our cue to be done teaching. :) 

Then we met with this Italian guy, John Luca who is looking for friends. He isn't super interested but he is a scientist and we were able to relate everything, meaning his faith, to cells via Alma 32 (if the cells grow it means he's doing something right!). It was fun. :) He said he'd be interested in "trying out the experiment." I was able to relate the story of how I came out on a mission and it worked out great! 

Lastly we visited Shante, a lady who wouldn't really talk to us after we handed her the Book of Mormon, haha. It was cool becasue we knocked on her door as she was praying for guidance. We taught her a bit and she has some great questions! We are excited. After I said the closing prayer she said "Did you girls feel that?! I just felt the Holy Spirit all over. Do you know what that is?" Haha. 

I need to go but I love you all and hope you have a great week! I'll tell about Dante next week. :) 

Love,

Sister Woods 

Week 74--"Week Ahhhhh!"

Hello, Everyone!

In case you haven't heard it's back to the buses for me. #crazybuses And I'm training an adorable missionary named Sister Poole! Not only does she put the "ool" in "cool" but she is from Idaho and is a master chef! She made brownies yesterday and plans to make homemade salsa soon. I am definitely okay with that. :) 

As some of you might be aware, I was in a car for 4/6 weeks I've been in Madison so these past 2 weeks have been very challenging to get used to the buses! THese buses are CRAY CRAY. In other words, the lovely members get to rescue us lots when we get stranded, haha. But these wonderful members are awesome and don't seem to mind. Actually we figured it out this week! We only got stranded on ONE sketchy street out in the hood. We finally got where we needed to go successfully, across town! And it was an appointment at a Mexican restaurant, too, with Shaun, who is a big guy who writes gospel music (he wrote his own "Stand with Jesus" song and sang it at church yesterday!) So that was awesome! As usual on my mission I got overly excited about Mexican food (because I so was ravenous from walking around all day) that I ate all the chips before the lady came back with our drinks, haha! I really like all the walking because it's helping me shed some poundage before I go home, which is always a great thing. I can tell I've already lost some. :D 

We met lots of people on the bus this week, people we needed to speak to. I've seen so many miracles from talking with everyone. I even met an Italian lady who taught me to say my name in Italian (Sorrella Bosco), Indian ladies, a Turkish family, and there was a cute Mom living in  a meth house who needed to hear about the Book of Mormon and about how families can be together forever. I was so proud of my trainee because she totally "embraced the awkward" (that's our motto :P) and moved over to sit by a lady and teach her about the Book of Mormon! It was so scary for her but she is awesome and did a great job! It has been incredibly rewarding to see how much she's grown in her faith, teaching, and confidence in just 2 short weeks! She is testifying and teaching like a pro! :) 

We met an awesome Sudan lady this week. We met she and her daughter outside and she's like "I've heard things about Mormons. You practice polygamy (FALSE! not anymore. everyone and their mom says that and it's wrong! ) and you don't drink coffee and you are very healthy people. Tell me more about your church. Sit down." So, after doing a silent fist pump in our hearts we taught her the full Restoration lesson and invited her to be baptized. It was so cool because she said "I know that everything you just told me is true. That makes sense to me. I believe you." That hasn't ever happened before! So we are excited to teach her again tomorrow. 

I also finished all the Standard Works today. JS History is so epic! I just need to finish True to the Faith and I"ll have finished the whole mission library. I'm also working on the Master Scripture List to memorize that Kyle sent me and I should be finished memorizing all 200 before I go home! :) I"m also hoping to do some "chantacting" (teaching the Plan of Salvation using chalk) and some cello contacting on Capital Square before I go home. :) 

We are practicing teaching with members which is really great. People have been feeding us lots of peaches which I find just "peachy." :) Coley, the 3 year eternigator has a baptism MONTH (September) so we are reteaching all the lessons to help her decide. Pray for her! I'm also playing the cello on Wed. at zone conference, on Sunday in sacrament meeting, and in a few weeks with the choir. My wrists don't hurt too bad, thankfully! I also realized that I have only a month left of my mission!!! AHHHHH!!!!! Gotta finish strong! :)

The church is true!!!!!!!

Love you all,

Sister Woods :D