Welcome to the World Leona!

WOW!! I am aunt again!! I have the best looking nieces and nephew. That's so awesome and I'm so excited!!

We had such a successful week! We worked really hard and met and over achieved alot of our goals. Last P-day we went to this pirates of the Caribbean site becuase they filmed it here on St. Vincent. It wasn't that cool but it was fun. We took a van there which is the public transportation here. They jam people in a van and blast music. It's fun! 

Some other highlights of the week...I fell down the stairs! It was rainy and I was just wearing flip flops to run an errand. I'm ok but I just bruised my tailbone real bad but it's almost all better.  

Church was awesome this week!! We had four investigators come! S who I'll write more about, D, Z, and N. We were so excited. We went to Z and rode a van with him to church. We were so excited. 

Alright so I'll catch up on the top investigators of the week:

Z!! WOW! He really is incredible. He's keeps committments which is the best as a missionary. He's reading from the BOM and really understanding. The things we teach him make sense to him. He prayed one night to know if the BOM and JS were true. There was a great spirit there. And then yes he came to church and participated and did great. I'm excited about him!

A.S.--She really is coming around. Her heart is softening! We had an awesome FHE there last Monday. She loves having us over. We just have to make sure she will really progress. But she's even starting to accept the whole baptism thing. So we shall see!

S! Ok so the Sisters have been teaching her for a while but I didn't meet her until last week! She's a ER nurse and works a lot. But she is dating a member from the other branch. We taught her on Saturday and she says she wants to get baptized before the end of the year so her date is the 13th. Sister Shelton says she has had a complete change of heart. She really is gaining a testimony. Get this. She lives across the street from Shanique and she said on Saturday that she was going to walk to church the next day. It's super far to walk! But that's what a change of heart does. We are waiting for Shanique to get to that point too. I'm confident in S's date that it will happen. She's great!

D! I love that he comes to church! We still have a lot to teach him but he's taking baptism really seriously. He's very humble and he's been reading from his BOM. So all in good time.

N. We had our first lesson with Nick on Saturday. When we taught him the restoration he kept on saying, "That makes perfect sense!" He's really a sweet guy. We invited him to church not thinking much of it but he came the next day! Wow! I was surprised. He really wants to learn more.

We haven't been able to see the G family in a while. They might have dropped us but we will find out this week!

I can't get over how much I love this place! You guys would love it here. The people are the BEST! Everyone talks to everyone and is so friendly. I know sooo many people on this island already. You see the ocean from anywhere you are. 

I do drink filtered water but the water isn't bad for you so that's good. I didn't have to go to the doctor at all. I don't get to go to primary but we helped teach YW yesterday! The youth activity got cancelled because of a seminary activity. This fridaythe missionaries of my branch we are doing a Thanksgiving fireside. The branch neeeeeds activities so this should be fun! My bug bites are getting all better.

Wow I love hearing the update of everyone and everything! Love you alll! I'll send some pics! I'm sorry if I never answer everyone's questions. 

Love,

Elizabeth 

On Our Own (November 17, 2014)

My favourite people,

Thanks for your letters! It's always fun to get caught up on everything! I'm sorry I can't reply individually!

This week was adventurous as it always is! Sister Shelton went to Trinidad this week for three days so it was a great test run for Sister Sommer and me. We dropped her at the airport on Tuesday morning and went on our way! We had a great day and all our lessons went really well! It seems that when your "pillow" is gone, you can be a lot more confident! I felt really good about the lessons we taught that day. I could have some more control which was nice. We set a baptismal date that day with a man named E. He's got potential definitely and he truly does want to be baptized but I know the W.O.W will be an issue in the future. That night we were walking to a less active family. They live up this dirt/grass road. When we got there I called into the house and right when I called in I slipped in a big pile of mud. Best part is that when I tried to get up I slipped again! We were both laughing and laughing. Then I start walking forward and turned around to see Sister Sommer fell in the same spot! We removed the cushions from the couch and still had our lesson. 

On Wednesday we were walking to see another less active that is not too far from where we live. Sister Sommer tripped on the side walk and cracked something in her foot. She was in a lot of pain but we kept going through our day. By about 6 at night though she couldn't walk anymore and it was swelling so we stopped by the Halverson's and they looked at it. We ended up going in that night around 7 or 8ish. The next day we picked up Sister Shelton in the afternoon and got some more lessons in that day. But Friday and Saturday things kind of fell apart-ha! I got pink eye, well maybe not pink eye but some sort of infection (I got some eye drops and I'm all better). Then Sister Shelton got super sick, Sister Sommer had her bad foot and then she wasn't doing too well. Anyway we lost some productivity on those days but still did alright. In one lesson we set three baptismal dates with some men we have been meeting with (D included in that group). 

Yesterday we were all doing good! We had a great day! D came to church again! He surprises me every time. I never think he's coming. Church was great! President Mehr came into town for some meetings with church leaders but yesterday a bunch of us missionaries had a spiritual "Jam" session with him for a couple hours. It was awesome!!!!! We just had an awesome spiritual discussion. I love new knowledge. We talked about taking upon us the name of Christ. All we can do is be "willing" in this life. We are only candidates at this point because the actual receiving the name of Christ is exaltation. Anyway just cool stuff. After that we met with the guy named Z. WOW- did the Lord prepare him! We met him last week and talked just a little. We left him with a restoration pamphlet. When we met with him again he had read the whole thing. He's really smart and very spiritual! He just got it, you know? We left him with a BOM and he accepted baptism! The spirit was so strong in that lesson. We are meeting with him again tonight to finish the restoration. 

We also saw A last night. I feel like she's slowly having a change of heart. She loves having us over and I think she's MAYBE warming up to the idea of baptism.

The G Family is doing pretty good! We love being there but they still aren't really keeping commitments. We had FHE with their family last Monday and it was so fun. The kids always join our lessons now. They're a great family but we will see!

D really is doing good! He knows he has to change and we can already see a difference. He's really noticing God's hand in his life. He participates and does really well at church. I'm excited for him. 

S didn't come this week. We'll have to set another baptismal date with her. If she was ready she would want to come to church more I think so we will keep working with her. 

We as missionaries are trying to help get activities and things going for the youth. We are having a big water balloon activity this saturday! Should be fun!

Answers to your questions--Yes I've used my bank card and it worked! Sad to hear about George! Couldn't believe it! Julia emailed me about the blog and yeah I hear from some of my friends. 

Don't worry I eat fruits and veggies everyday! You'd be surprised how expensive they are! Sometimes investigators or members will bring us some fruit though. This week we had coconuts (yum), avocados and sugar apples. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH! Can't wait to hear about your baptism. You're making the best choice you could ever make!

I don't think pictures are working today...sorry next week!

Love you all! 

Love,

Elizabeth

11/10/2014 "One Month Has Passed"

Hello!!

I can actually say this time that this week has flown! I can't believe it. When I lie down at night I can't believe the day has come and ended again. We had a really good week filled with little miracles. I'm really having a great time with my companions. We are all comfortable around each other and can laugh lots. It's fun to grow together and experience the same things!

As for mosquito diseases people get something called chicken guinea here. It makes your body swell and ache and rash. It goes away but can still affect you afterwards. Sister S got it. Hopefully it won't come. My mosquito bites aren't quite as bad but I always get them. They don't bother me a TON but they are annoying. President said I probably won't be in Suriname for another transfer. I don't have any Dutch materials but hopefully I can get some soon!

So this week was busy. I'm trying to think of some highlights. We hardly go tracting. We just contact as we go to appointments or if appointments fall through we talk with people around. We just talk to everyone and get contacts that way. An average week for us is about 21 lessons a week, get about 8 new investigators and over 20 contacts. 

One day this week we were supposed to meet with this one woman V that we met. We didn't have a number just a time set up. We went to her home and she wasn't there. We felt like we should just wait and think. We literally sat on the road and was thinking of what to do next. We see this woman walking with grocery bags. We ALWAYS ask to carry bags. It always gets us a contact. So we stood up automatically and ask to carry her bags. We ended up walking a far ways through the jungle kinda and we got to her house. She's a single mom (no boyfriend which is good for us) of 6 kids. She doesn't work right now but just stays home with her 1 and 2 year old. She was very open to hearing more and said we could come by anytime. We have met with her a couple of times since our first meeting. She's very spiritual and loves knowledge. She's the type that believes that all that matters is your relationship with the Almighty. She doesn't open up very easily because she's afraid of being taken advantage of. She hates that people will come to St. Vincent and convince people they need to be baptized and take advantage of people. She definitely appreciates that all we are doing is teaching what we know to be true. We are not trying to convince her or tell her what she's doing wrong. We explain that she does however need to act on our message and pray. She's just not getting it though. She doesn't believe in baptism or that there could be any one true church. I know there's something underlying that we can't see. But she's going to take a lot of work. Her name is A.S. 

We saw the G family a couple more times this week. They are still amazing! So fun and open. We teach very simply to them and they seem to understand. They haven't been keeping committments though which is a challenge. They both work and are very busy with their kids so they say they don't have time. We'll have to work with that. We are doing a FHE with their family tonight that hopefully will go well. I don't know much about how the elders contacted them. 

We got a Senior Couple on the island! Woo! In my mission they usually have a senior couple on each island that stay there. They really just take care of the missionaries and all the paperwork things. Their name is the H's. They have been married for 7 years (second marriage for both) and they've already been on 3 missions together. They are really really nice. We helped them clean and things like that this week. And they had us sisters over for dinner yesterday. It's nice being taken care of sometimes. Elder H is an accountant so he's in charge of doing audits and accounting for all the islands and countries in the mission. So they will be travelling We were thinking of all possible ways we could get S to church this week. Her baptismal date is the 29th and we are really pushing for it. We actually asked the H's if they could pick her up. They did and S came to church! She really loved it and she said it was a much better experience than she expected. I don't know what we are doing to for a ride every sunday becuase we can't have the senior couple get her every sunday and depend on it. The people here really have to make sacrifices in order to come to church. We had another investigator come that I was not expecting so that was a pleasant surprise. His name is D. We've only had a real lesson with him once and he didn't sound convincing that he was gonna make it but there he was! He had fun talking to the other men and participated in class. He's probably in his 40's. 

Funny experience. We were stopping by this one woman S and we show up and she's having the huge yelling argument with this  woman accross the street. Everyone knows everyone and everyone's business. So we walk to and ask her while she's yelling when we can come back. We walking down her muddy hill that's all slippery after rain. Her kids are running after us. One of them slipped into sister S's shoe and got mud on it and then the little boy was kinda holding onto her and then he slipped back and pulled sister S's skirt right off! The street was filled with people watching the fight. Anyways it was a good time! We had a good laugh.

Also I seem to be notorious for stepping in poo and having dogs pee on me so that's always fun. I just laugh! I've probably been proposed to, called at, kissed at more times than I can count. They love dem' white ladies here. It's funny. 

Here's some lingo for you:

For true?--For real

Just now--anytime between the last couple days to future years. It means basically anytime besides now. (ex. I'll have kids just now)

Please--they say please after yes and no even when it doesn't make sense. (is that a truck? Yes please)

Vexed--mad

I'll think of some more later

I laughed at Stephens letter about the roof and rain becuase that literally happened yesterday. It was sooooo loud!! It sounded like a hurricane but it was just normal rain. 

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for money by the way! That's sooo nice and I'm grateful!

Excited to hear if a baby comes soon! Thanks for the letters and sorry I don't have much time to answer everyone but I read! 

I'll send a few pics. One is a picture of the area book I was reading. I think it's pretty funny you'll see why...

Love,

Elizabeth

(11/3/2014) "For True?!"

Hello!

It was great to hear from everyone! I love reading emails! I lose track of what day it is. Mission time is weird. It's fast and slow all at the same time. 

To answer some questions: My interview with my mission president was very short. He just asked a little about myself and that was about it! He said see ya in three months! I'll most likely be in Suriname for my whole mission. Sometimes he'll send you to an island for the last couple transfers of your mission. So we'll see! Suriname is actually more clean than St. Vincent. It's very flat and I'll ride a bike there. Food wise here in St. Vincent, there's not much to say. I basically eat like I do in America! They only fresh fruit I've tried so far is papaya and a grapefruit that the branch president gave. They were delicious. Other than that no one invites us for dinner or anything. Other places always have missionaries for dinner but I guess not on St. Vincent. 

SOOO let's see! I'll tell you about some investigators. We've had about three progressing investigators just drop us this week. They're just ignoring and impossible to see. So that was a bummer. We have one investigator S who is really really great! She reads from the BOM and is praying. She just wants to be super sure of everything. We're trying to teach her about faith. But the problem with her is getting her to church. Her baptismal date is the 29th but she hasn't been to church yet. She's soooo far from the main road to get a bus and there's no members with cars. S is trying to get her sister to take her but her sister is always busy. So we shall see what happens there. 

We meet with this big group of ladies. About 4 sisters and an old mother. They are so funnny! Fun to teach but also hard. They seem to be grasping things though and I was positive that they were gonna come to church on sunday but nonetheless they didn't. We will see them tomorrow. 

This week we had an appointment with this one man and we had no idea where he lived and couldn't get in contact with him. So we just went to the area where he lived. No one has addresses here by the way, it's funny when someone gives directions. Anyway we go up there and meet this big group of people and suddenly the man we were looking for shows up too. It was a miracle. Even though teaching any of them won't go too far. But I shouldn't doubt!

Saturday night we contacted a referel from the Elders. All we knew was that it was a family. We found them and they are amazing! It is so rare here to find families. Every girl in town is pregnant with someone's baby living with a boyfriend and has three other kids all from different dad's. This family has a mom and dad and they have five kids. Such a happy, down to earth family! They were so open and excited to hear about the gospel. Meeting a family like this all of a sudden put so much pressure on. I don't want to mess it up! They're awesome! I don't feel pressure talking to someone who's most likely high or drunk since most of the population is. So I'll let you know how meeting with them goes.

We went to the Elder's baptism this week. We have baptisms basically every Saturday. They are fun to go to. The beach is beautiful! It's really nice to see people get baptized. 

I bore my testimony at church yesterday to better introduce myself but I already know everyone. The branch is fun to go to. 

People here are great. You say hi to everyone! Everyone is very open right off the bat. It's fun. 

As a missionary I love reading my scriptures! You learn more and more each day. Your testimony grows becuase you are constantly testifying. I'm reading through the book of Mormon and in 2 Nephi 7 and 8 I'm reminded to fear God more than man. That's something I'm getting more used to. I'll just assume maybe someone doesn't want to hear what I have to say. But the reality is they should wanna hear what I have to say! I'll get better. I'm just trying to be patient with myself! You wanna be great right away but the reality is you're not haha...yet! 

We are having Sister S drive because we don't know how much longer I'll be here so that's good! Mom, my water bottle keeps my water nice and cold. And yeah don't send me packages ever on my mission. Too much of a hassle. They have everything America has here. Even Arctic Force deoderant! 

Here's my address for letters just in case!

PO BOX 601

Kingstown, St. Vincent

VC0100

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!! Can't say I'll be eating as well as you! 

I really hope I'm not missing anything. I'm always so rushed writing!! Love you all! Thanks for letters!

Mosquitos are killer! You can't feel it when they bite you but they sure do itch!  Oh and my legs in the picture are not fat or swollen, it's just the angle. 

Love,

Sister Wood

(10/28/2014) "Me Be Lime'n in St Vincent"

Family!!

OOOOOKK how am I supposed to begin this letter. I feel like I have been on my mission for a year and now I'm trying to recount everything that happened. 

First of all you didn't hear from me yesterday because it was independence in St. Vincent so everything was closed and so P-Day is today! Hope you didn't worry too much Mom. 

I'll start in Trinidad! I landed safely last Monday! I'm glad you got the the President's email so at least you didn't know I was dead. The sisters stayed at the Mission home while we were in Trinidad. Wednesday we did some orientation and training. Kinda of just giving an overview of mission and rules type thing. We went to a district meeting in Trinidad that day which was fun to meet some of the missionaries there. One of the senior missionaries drove a little bit around Trinidad which was cool. And I asked about those neighborhoods we saw in the documentary dad, and he said no missionaries at all are allowed up there. The higher you go the worse it gets! 

President Mehr and his wife are great! He's a very smart man of God. He's really nice but you can also tell he expects a lot from you. Here's the news on Suriname: I am going! They're getting my visa ready right now and basically as soon as it is I'm going...and I'll learn dutch once I get there. Oy! I could be in St. Vincent for probably one more transfer after this but we will see. He wants me there as soon as I can. There are three sisters there right now and he wants 6 eventually. So I'll probably be the 4th sister in the Suriname ever. I'm nervous about learning a language but I guess I'll see when I'm there.

Ok so St.Vincent! My companions are great. Sister Shelton is awesome! She's obedient and a hard worker. She knows everyone and loves everyone she meets. She helps me alot. My other companion is Sister Sommer. She was in the MTC same time as me. She's a really nice girl. Sister Shelton does go home after this transfer and Sister Sommer and I will take over. I have NO idea how that's going to work so pray that I know everything after 6 weeks. Our house is awesome! Really beautiful honestly. I was suprised. Besides ants everywhere in the house there's been no other issue with bugs. 

Now our house is by FAR the nicest thing I've seen on the island so far. It's definitely a third world country. People live in shacks with no water and electricity. Very poor poor circumstances. It's definitely a culture shock but it also doesn't bother me much, I'm just happy to meet with the people. All the people are super nice! Everyone says hi to everyone. A lot of people believe in God which helps in the teaching part. We hear a lot of "pray for me!" when we walk on the street. Understanding them speak really isn't that bad. First day, first lesson I didn't get much. But we taught that same person yesterday and I understood everything. You really have to focus on the words you hear and then put together the sentence in your mind. 

We keep our days filled with appointments. But most of them fall through. Sometimes you have to just catch them by luck. That's a little hard. But we always make the most of our time. I'm still getting to know the investigators so I don't have much to tell you but we have some baptisms for later in November. So we are working on getting them ready for that. We just contact when we see people on the street or in between appointments. We never have blocks set aside just for contacting, it just kinda happens. When we teach it takes a long time to explain certain things. You have to go slow and use lots of visuals. You'll go through the whole thing about our church having the authority to baptize then you'll invite them to be baptized and they'll say, "I've already been baptized!" Sigh. Then you have to explain it all again. Haha I still don't think they get it. 

Church was great. We meet in a building up on the hill that overlooks the ocean. There's about 70ish people that come to the branch. However there is a lot of inactivity. We meet with a lot of inactives. It's very hard for people to get to church. They take these van things but they're hard to get on Sunday. It's very hard to get investigators to come! We struggle with that. The members are really nice and welcoming. The chruch is still true here haha they just do some things differently than in the states haha. Sunday School and relief society consisted of straight reading the lesson. 

Missionary work is hard stuff! Sometimes I feel like I'm not making a difference in anybody's life so sometimes that makes it hard. I've definitely felt like I'm not good at it or wondering why I'm here. But I first have to remember that it's only been a week, so obviously I'm not good. But I just have to remind myself that the Lord wants me here. And you know what? That's a good enough reason for me. I'll let you know how things carryon. This email is kind of a quick blur of everything. 

Oh I forgot. We have a car in St. Vincent beucase it is all mountains. The streets are even smaller that Italy and two cars somehow fit. Did I mention we drive on the left too? And did I mention I'll be the one driving soon? Don't have a panic attack mom. I'll be good and take lots of lessons. The good thing is no one can afford a car so there's hardly any on the road and everyone is a friendly driver. Soooo we'll see how that goes. 

I'll try and attach some pictures! Hopefully I can figure it out!

I loved all my emails! Sounds like the halloween party was a blast. Awesome costumes Lisha! I love hearing about home and such! That feels like forever ago. I'm excited to hear how the mission stuff is coming along Mom and Dad! Seriously love you all!! Thanks for your prayers everyone! I need them...becuase I have no idea what I'm doing.

Love,

Sister Wood