hola hola

well i cant believe im sitting here writing my last and final letter here in guatemala the land that i love! i honestly am so grateful for the chance i was given to serve a mission here. this week was crazy and went super fast.
tuesday we had my last district meeting and it was a weird day that it was my turn to give my last and final testimony. never thought itd be me! but time flies. then we had divisions with the hermana leaders. i stayed here in centro with hermana peña. she came with me to the mission and leaves next change becasue i was in the ccm longer. we talked about the mission and it was so good to just be with someone that was there at the beggining. well even before the beginning because we were friends on facebook jaja. love that girl
 i also had my last interview with president on thursday and, i went in and he asked how i was, so i told him i was nervous. he just laughed and we had a great interview like honestly it was so amazing and by the end we were both crying...well i was and he almost was jaja. he is so inspired and i feel so grateful that he was my president. he told me about all the travel situations and sounds like ill be alone a lot. different hotel...alone....different flights....alone....lots of time to think i guess jaja
also i couldnt leave guatemala without eating intestines...yeah wasnt my favorite dish but anything is possible with a pile of tortillas in front of you. that saved my life! me and my comp rocked that meal! 
and the best part of my week. FROILAN WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how could my last week be any better? it couldnt have it was the greatest. froilan is a miracle and wow the baptism went great. me and bingham made cookies and oreo truffles but then there were like almost 60 people at the baptism and it was a miracle that there was enough. so grateful for that! he was so happy and so content. a lot of his family came and they invited us to eat dinner with them after the baptism. tonight i have to go say goodbye to froilan and we are all probably gonna cry. he is the best. saying goodbyes is hard but hopefully ill get to come back and see everyone again someday. 
well i love being a missionary i love the gospel, the church is true! God loves us and listens to our prayers. im so grateful for my experiences good and bad, i know theyve helped me to be better and most of all to learn. everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for every single one of us.

well i hope you all have a great week and see ya soon!
con mucho amor 
xoxoxoxo
hermana woods

hola hola

this week was so good!
froilan is doing so well. he is getting baptized the 20th. they announced it in church and everything, it was so cute because he was like puchica its official now and im nervous. jaja his birthday is this week on fathers day the 17th.
shout out to all the fathers. happy fathers day! 
this week we had district meeting like normal and after we passed by familia alvarados house and they gave me a skirt from them. i miss them! they are so adorable. they say their house is my house when i come back someday.
this week we worked in the church garden they have on saturday morning. we just weeded and picked ripe lettuce, beets, onions and some other plant i have no idea what it was. similar to spinach i thing. we got to take some onions and lettuce home! so good!
everyone in my ward here likes to talk about how many days i ahve left because most of them served missions so they just tease me and tell me im baggy. which im not! dont worry. even in ward council when the bishop tells all the ysa to get married because there are like 30 singles in the ward and he says the ward isnt progressing with so many singles. he throws me in there with them and i ahve to remind them that im still a missionary!

but yeah i cant really remember what happened this week it went sooo fast. just that rosa and giovani are doing great too! came to church and we are meeting with them tonight! we can only find them both home on mondays which is a little hard but they are pilas so its all good.

well ahve a great week
xoxoxoxoxooxxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxox
hermana woods

hola hola

this week was...interesting. as far as stats go it probably wasn't the best but a lot of things happened that made it all worth it. thursday we worked at the temple and made brownies with some members becasue they wanted to see if 2 white girls could. well the brownies burned......ooops. we also visited a less active family, familia alvarez, the dad is a returned missionary and he told us to help his wife to want to return so that he could too because she wouldnt let him go and she didnt want to go. well my heart almost burst with joy when they walked into church on sunday. they all looked soooo happy. things like that make it all worth it. 
friday we had our multizona with presidente smith. oh my goodness he is the most inspired man ever. when he speaks i just want to cry and i know everyone in the room felt the same. my comp played the piano for the special musical number and i gave the closing prayer. presidente made everyone participate in the discussions by threatening us that if we didnt talk we would have to give an hour long talk after the conference jaja. 
this week it poured almost everyday. the rumor is that there was a hurricane in mexico....but who knows because we dont have access to the news. it was legit a river after our lesson with froilan. he thankfully lent us a couple jackets and we made our way to put boots one at the house,,,,we were so not prepared. yeah we were walking ankle deep in hot chocolate colored water! hollla
the weather is legit bipolor. it can be so sunny then start pouring then sunny again. makes it almost impossible for us to be prepared because we look like idiots walking around in our boots in the sun....i dont get this weather. 
we also ate with a less active family that fed us sooo much seafood because they had just went to the coast. soup and 2 fish each. i had to take some to go because it was sooooo much food i couldnt handle it. but sunday they also all came to church! 
this week at church the assistence was 170. its usually around 140 ish. everyone was so happy and it was great! froilan came and so did rosa and giovani our miracle family. we finally found their house this week and the best news is they actually live in our area! yes!!!!
sunday we had ward council for 3 hours it was insanley long especially on fast sunday jaja. but in the night we took froilan to noche de hermnamiento in a members house across the street. he seemed to love it. he s the best for reals!!!!
today we ate at a cool restaurant that is a super old house of a rich guy that was friends with royal people in europe. it was awesome and the owner gave us a tour of the house! 

well i hope you all ahve a good week and stay safe! and stay outta the rain because sounds like its raining a lot in a lot of places.

xoxooxoxo
hermana woods

hola hola

so this week was crazy. lets see where to start.

lets start with froilan. the best investigator on earth. he is doing soooo good. he came to church and the baptism, making friends and we adore him. the ward is doing well with him too. we even started teaching his brother carlos and says he might come one of these days to church but we will see. 
estuardo had his interview for his baptism on friday morning when we had hermana feliz with us for 4 hours because she was left without a comp. the zone leaders brought us the baptismal clothes and the district leader did the interview. then we all went to ice cream payed for by the zonies. they all kept telling me and another elder that goes home with me that they could see our airplane flying above. they are baggy for me. jaja
that night we had correlation with our mission leader and we happened to go look at the baptismal font at the church. we dont know why we did but im positive the spirit promted us to do so. good thing we did because it was under construction and no one knew about it. so we had to plan the baptism last minute to have in calvario in the next area over. 
saturday we worked in the temple all morning and part of the afternoon. we only gave one tour but it was cool because she is practically a member just waiting for her boyfriend whos a member to get divorced so they can get married. 
at lunch we saw a girl and her family from the states, she was from the guatemala south mission and her family had come to pick her up. it was weird talking to her because she was done with her mission! this week i completed 17 months. so weird.
then the baptism! everything went smoothly, just that the water had been heated and apparently too much because it was really hot so they had to add cold water and we waited a bit so that they could enter the hot tub. that has never happened. the water is usually too cold,....but everything was beautiful and estuardo was so happy. 
on sunday i gave a talk about helping less actives and recent converts. im so happy i actually did 15 min. yay!!!!! estuardo got confirmed and it was great! the couple rosa and giovani came to church and we scheduled a noche de hogar with them tonight at the bishops house. this week we tried finding their house but its apparently not in our area. like barely outside and the addresses are confusing here so we never found it. but they are excited for tonight and so am i!
last night we went with a member family to do our presidents plan familia to ask for references. it was an amazing experience because they were all tired and by the end when they got to see Gods hand in their lives and the spirit helping them choose people, everyone was awake and really suprised and happy. we made plans to contact these 3 names they chose and we are excited to help them.
interesting story. we went to visit a member and his family...we were 5 minutes early, he said 7 minutes early but the point is is we were a few minutes early. he wouldnt let us in. because he likes puncuality he said. yeah that was the first. so i guess i will try not to be early in the future! jajaja thats the first

well i hope you all have a great week! love you all
xoxoxooxxooxo
hermana woods

HOLA HOLA
so i just want to start out with what i mean in my titile. they say that the last change is full of miracles and i truly believe that and its amazing. this week we taught froilan and he came to church with us on sunday, loved it and said everyone was super friendly! he made friends and man it was great. then right before relief society, me and my comp went outside to talk to a guy whos wife isnt a member to make a cita with them. in walked a young family timidly to the front gate. we went and greeted them. they just wanted to come see the church and were worried it had ended. we told them there was still an hour left, some of the men in the ward took the husband giovani under their wing and went to priesthood and we went with rosa the wife and her 2 small children. the ward was great with them and inviting them to their houses for fhe and everything. we got their address and phone number and will be visiting them this week! they are a miracle. no one invited them they just came!
estuardo is getting baptized on saturday! his mom is super stoked and planned the snack but itll probs be a dinner by the end, she is gonna ask her brother in the usa to send her 50 dollars! what what! 
this week we had a lot of people ask if me and my comp are sisters or cousins. because we are both white and curly haired. shes the best!
so story time. ...one day when we were sitting in the park a guy about 80 years old came up to me and stopped in shock then told me to wait a minute while he dug for something in his shirt pocket. pulled out a little rose. handed it to me...and we talked to him for a bit then he booked it when we invited him to church. then he came back and told me to keep the rose safe because he had stolen it for me from the catholic church across the street. and in one year from today hed be waiting for me in the park..then he left. me and my comp almost died laughing. she stole a rose from the church! what the heck.
well i hope you all have a great week! i know i will! i love my area my companion and the people here. i am so lucky and blessed. until next week

xoxoxoxoxoxo
hermana woods

hola hola
so this week was great! i am now in xela centro the heart of quetzaltenango where central park is and everything! we actually live like 2 blocks from the park! its a dream come true! my new companion is hermana Bingham from spanish fork utah. she has 4 months in the mission and she is super cool and i feel famous because she plays for the byu soccer team! everyone thinks we are sisters because we are both white and have curly hair....so  today because we are right by all the cool tipico stores we went and seached for cool guatemalan stuff. its the best! 

here because we are in the center, there are sooooo many tourists...gringos from the states europe  and ocasionally from china or japan. mostly studying spanish and living here in spanish schools. they are the only people that dont like to answer when you say hi in the street! its a bit different and i so do not want to have to go to the states again! people here are so much nicer. yesterday we made a goal to talk to a few tourists and see how it went. the first old couple and they were from holland and they were soooo  rude. it was super awkward so we tried talking to a guy eating pizza and he just got up and walked away.... we did the last attempt on 2 girls sitting on a bench. one was from north carolina and the other from germany...thankfully they both spoke english because they sure didnt know spanish. they were super cool and nice even though the german asked if we were going to be nuns....nope jaja. im so not used to seeing so many gringos here in guatemala. 

This week we already had divisions with the hermana leaders. i went with hermana yriarte to her area and it was super fun. we had some great lessons and i loved it.  
today we sprayed our beds and almost the whole apt with bug spray because we are getting attacked by fleas. cant sleep because when the bottom of your foot wont stop itching its almost impossible! hopefully that helps our situation! 
we had ward council and a stake presidency member came and macheted the whole ward council. it was scary then he tore us missionaries apart. i wanted to tell him dude ive been here for 4 days, this is my first sunday....but oh well jaja. welcome to the ward hermana woods! 

fun fact right this second there was just a strong earthquake for a few seconds! everyone of us here in the internet stood up ready to run out and me and my comp just stared at eachother. i havent felt a strong one like that in a long time! cool! earthquakes!!!!

we have a baptism the 30th of may! for estuardo. he is 9 and the son of a recently returning less active family. my comp and her trainer helped activate them again so its cool to see their progress! they are a cool family

my first day here on tuesday we were walking and a member from a different ward called us over to him on the street and told us he had a reference for us! maribel. he introduced us and we made a cita to come visit her again. in our first lesson she was so positive and we are so excited to keep teaching her. she wanted to come to church but she  couldnt because she went to her sisters in a different town. but hopfully this week! 

we have some other cool investigators but we have our work cut out for us to find some new ones! especially if we are doing the mission standard of at least 10 contacts a day.

well i hope you all have a great week! and be safe

xoxoxoxoxoxox
hermana woods

hola hola

so last week i didnt have time to write!!!! it was a little crazy because we went and hiked to laguna chikabal. so beautiful and man i got sunburned! it was supposed to be raining and cold but it was clear skies and hottttt. it was an adventure. at the bottom going up we all were like .....yeah why are we doing this??? ya no aguanto.... we were dying of heat and the climb was all uphill. the last time i went about a year ago we went in a pickup but this time we made the whole thing on foot. we got to the laguna and there were a few people there doing mayan ceremonies in the altars so that was cool to see. we made lunch and played games just enjoying the fresh air! a guy from spain named manuel came hiking in so we gave him food and talked to him for a while. he says there are lots of missionaries where he lives. he is here in guatemala alone till the 16th just traveling and hiking around. i took lots of pictures of our adventure so ill send some. stay tuned.
this week i celebrated my birthday and it was really good! puchica i had many cakes shoved in my face and even an egg with flour and confetti dumped on my head..... that was hard to wash out jaja.....other than that it was a normal day where we put a baptism date with nicolas! it was great.
on friday morning the secreteries called us and told us that they are closing our area. so we needed to inform the land lord of the house and start cleaning and packing. tomorrow we find out where we are going at transfers. i just finished packing this morning and im not sure how i got everything to fit. i have alot of stuff.....its bittersweet leaving because we have a baptismal date with nicolas for the 6th of june, but i know God knows what hes doing and my last transfer will be a whole new adventure. i cant believe im saying my last transfer. time goes by way toooooo fast.
this weekend we mainly just tried to get around to everyone to say goodbye and make sure our investigators were good and inform them that the elders would be visiting them after we leave. and mothers day was perfect! we wore corte to church and 
i got to talk to my family and it was so good. even though the connetion wasnt the best....sorry mom....the internet in this town isnt like it is in the city!

but anyway i hope you all have a great week and get ready to recieve a ton of pictures to make up for not writing last week....
take care
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox
hermana woods

hola hola
today i officially complete 16 months in the mission. im also the hermana with the most time in the mission here because no hermanas go home this transfer and im the only hermana going home in the transfer in june. 
this week we met a lot of positive people and we are hoping to be able to meet with them a lot this week. lots of people are still really busy in this time because everyone is planting corn still...
we finally contacted some old investigators of the hermanas that opened this area. they are sooooo cool. some of the investigators we contacted last week are already some of my favorite people. its rosario and her daughter ani. they are gonna throw me a small party on wednesday for my birthday. whoohoooo . this week we made rice and beans from belice with them and its special because its made with coconut milk. yummmm
weve been working hard with a less active, the mom of familia cabrera who goes every once in a while. weve gained her confidence and she came to church with her family on sunday and was so happy to see us. one night when we went to visit them the dad answered the door and he has a business of making coffins so his garage is full of them. my comp asked how the business was and he replied that it wasnt too bad but could be better, so she replied quietly, the people just dont want to die right.(las personas no se quieren morir va?).... i almost died laughing but he probably thought i was crazy because he didnt hear her.....i think its just one of those you have to be there moments? saber.
this week we also visited a lady we contacted named mirium so she could introduce us to the students that she teaches how to read. before they started the class she gave us a few minutes to show a video and explain our purpose. there were only 3 students there because everyone else is PLANTING CORN. so we are going back probably this week. but  it was cool to see 60 year olds there in the class. its never too late to learn and i really admire them. 
this sunday we had jorge and nicolas at church with us. it was cool because they actually know eachother! the power went out and i couldnt even hear what the speakers were saying and im guessing our investigators couldnt either.....i gave the lesson is relief society and everyone just started talking about how there are soooo many flies and how everyone is getting sick! it went well though.
in the afternoon we went with the sisters to go visit clara who recently had her baby girl sarah. she is adorable and makes the funniest faces we were all laughing so hard. 

well i hope you alll have a great week!

xoxoxoxoxox
hermana woods

hola hola 

this week passed soooo fast that im going to have to appologize now that i dont have anything cool to say!
this week we just worked on contacting a bunch and visiting our investigators but it seems like everyone is super busy because everyone is planting corn here! sembrando maiz....
on saturday we went and helped hermana lore again with bagging abono......dont remember how to say that in english.... dried cow poop....for planting the corn here. it was an adventure jaja
then yesterday we started divisions with the hermana leaders and we had to go with the branch president, the bishop from garibaldi and his wife erika to an aldea to try to find noe and flori but we kinda got lost on the top of a mountain and ended up having to just leaving it for another day because it was too late and they really live close to san marcos which is another mission here so we dont know if they live in our area or not. it was fun seeing the bishop and erika though because they miss me being in garibaldi.
 then we visited estela and otto after one week of not visiting them. we took ammon and he really helped them feel missed in the church. even offered otto a job so he wouldnt have to work on sundays. estela had talked to a guy that told her that mormons kill people and the men  use eyeliner. then we had to explain that those are completely untrue rumors. she also has a problem with the sabath day and buying because here the huge market is sunday mornings and thats where everyone goes. everyone. you cant even walk throught the streets on sunday by the marke its jammed packed..then for all the other churches it is in the afternoon so that people can go. thats the biggest challenge here.
so today i recieved my flight plans. that was weird. time goes too fast.
well i hope you all have a great week and be safe!!!


xoxooxoxo
hermana woods