February 23, 2015

this week was pretty crazy. 

we've continued visiting Dionicio, and his baptism had been set for this saturday, but he asked us to change it for the following week cus his daughters birthday is gonna be this saturday. yesterday he didnt show up at church, even though when we called him in the morning his daughter had said that he had left. we had an appointment set with him for today, but i felt we should go yesterday (even though he said he wasnt going to be there) and we found him. he said he had gotten to church, entered the gate, but didnt see anybody and didnt want to go in the door without seeing someone, or having someone help him. but thanks to our visit yesterday, he realized that again, as happened last week (he left his house to go to church and his work called him and said they needed him as he was walking) that the devil didnt want him to go to church and was putting doubts and obstacles in his path. we offered to pass by to take him to church personally and he decided that that would be a good idea to help him get started.

we went to Cecilia on saturday, and had a large challenge, but in the challenge we saw a small miracle. we had set an appointment with her mom to be able to teach the whole family and get permission to baptize Cecilia on march 7th, but when we got there, her dad said he didnt want to talk, and her mom went to get her so we could go to a members house to teach her (thats what we normally do, as the members live in front). Cecilia came out crying, and when we got to the members house, their daughter (who's a return missionary, who is fellowshipping Cecilia) was there and asked Cecilia what was wrong. she said that she had fought with her brother and her mom said she couldnt go to church anymore. we had a really spiritual lesson in which Cecilia stopped crying and started being happy again, with a lot of help from Celia (the member). the miracle is that Celia always goes to work in the temple on saturdays but that day, she was waiting the bus and felt that she should check for her temple recommend. she didnt have it, she looked in all her house and couldnt find it. turns out her sister had accidentally taken it. she stayed home and played an essential part in helping Cecilia. it's pretty incredible how God controls everything and does such simple things to play such big roles in the lives and conversion of His children.

this week we werent able to teach the Villalba family as they were working a lot. we did teach a few part member families. we have an investigator, Richard, who is the boyfriend of a member. everythings in place so that he can be baptized and change his life, he just doesnt really want to. he always recieves us though, and they always give us really good food. but he promised us (on February 1) that he's going to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true in this month, and this week is the last week of the month.

also from saturday i have a cool story, it's just a shame that nobody was taking a video. we went and got our clothes (a member washes them) (and happens to be one of the members that lives furthest from our house) and there were a few ugly clouds forming. as we walked it started to rain, and within a matter of minutes, there was a torrential rain pour. we hadnt taken coats or anything cus in the morning the sky was bright and sunny. we passed by the house of a member, saw the Hermana outside, shouted ''Permiso!'' and ran in without waiting for an answer. we waited until the worst of the storm had passed, but we had an appointment so we couldnt wait until it stopped all the way. they gave us big plastic bags to put the clothes in, and we went out into the world. the street was literally a river, and we walked upstream. we got to a bridge, (which broke a few months ago in a similar storm, but there was a plank to cross about 20 feet upstream) and saw that where the plank had formerly been, there was now a miniature version of the Niagara falls. we went 3 blocks over where there was a real bridge and crossed, and walked for about 20 minutes in a literal river. it was pretty fun.

i know that this is the work of God, and that He does his work in his time.

Elder Woodfield

February 16, 2015

hola que tal

this week was pretty good. i didnt have transfers, i'm still in kennedy with the same companion. i was at first a bit disappointed, but later on realized why. i believe i've written a few times about the Villalba family - the daughter wanted to get baptized, the mom had some doubts, and the dad wasnt really interested. we've now been teaching just the dad for a couple weeks, as the daughter and the mom work in the day and go to college at night. the first lesson we had with just him, he really opened up a lot more, and the day after transfers, we went and visited him, and he said something interesting. he said that the missionaries had gone to visit his family before, and that he hadnt liked them, and that he had purposefully tried to interrumpt the teaching. once, when the missionaries were teaching his daughter, he told his daughter they were going to leave, they all got in the car, and left the missionaries sitting there alone. he then said that he wasnt sure how, but that we had really gotten to him, and he liked recieving us. that helped me be a bit more content with not being transferred.

also on tuesday we had a miracle! we went to a lunch that we had set with a less active family, and it fell through. we were far from home so we decided to just not eat lunch. we went and visited another less active family that lives nearby, and discovered that there's an unbaptized child who's going to turn 9 next month. we taught them and then after the lesson, they asked if we had eaten and offered us food. it wasnt a whole lot, but it was good and a whole lot better than nothing.

6 weeks ago we visited a guy whose name is dionisio. we taught him, he liked it, but said he was really busy with work. we invited him to go to church on sunday and he told us to call him and remind him. the number didnt work or something and we forgot about him and didnt go any more. this saturday we went and he said he had been waiting for us to call him that day to go to church but we never called so he didnt go. but anyways now he's on vacations from his work and wants to get baptized! he couldnt go to church yesterday but we're gonna visit him this week to help him go to church and hopefully be baptized next saturday.

this week it rained a little bit, and wasnt super hot. on tuesday it rained a lot, and we passed a good amount of the day walking through flooded streets singing hymns (mostly ''Dios da valor'' (im not sure what its called in english, but that means God gives courage))

cecilia went to church on sunday, and has her baptism planned for March 7th

Elder Woodfield

February 9, 2015

hola

this week was pretty good, although a bit wierd. nobody got baptized :( but both Cecilia and Tranquilina have plans to get baptized as soon as possible. Cecilia´s parents think that she needs a bit more preparation, so she currently has a baptismal date set for March 7th. Tranquilina doesnt actually live here, but the church doesnt exist where she lives and she wants to get baptized. but anyways we went over the baptismal interview questions with her and realized that she lives with her boyfriend and theyre not married. due to the fact that she doesnt actually live here, we couldnt just plan the marriage and baptize her cus her boyfriend is very far away. so she said she's gonna go home, tell him she needs to get married, and then come back in april to get baptized. my feelings are summed up pretty well by the inspired words of Job - ''The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord'' (Job 1:21)

but anyways in the leadership council on monday we talked a bit about some statistics and how people that we find by ourselves are much less likely to get baptized than those that we find through the members. President is considering some changes and having us look for investigators only through the members, and as part of the consideration, the leaders are doing a test to see if it will be successful, and only looking for investigators through members. i felt a bit limited but after meditating a bit, i realized that even though we found a ton of people this transfer and taught a ton, we didnt really work a lot with members and the only people that had progressed were those that we found with members. so we may not be doing as much, but what we're doing should theoretically have a greater impact. that said, please help the missionaries there cus they need you so that they can have success in bringing souls to Christ.

transfers are this week and i might get transferred but i dont know still.

it's still really hot but we didnt find any scorpions this week. and yesterday i ate fish for the first time in my whole mission. it was pretty good.

Elder Woodfield