Last Letter

Well this is it, my friends. The last email from this sister as a missionary. Thats such a wierd thing to write. But its just part of the calling. Just like Heavenly Father called me to be a missionary, he also only called me for 18 months. At least full time. I¨m 100% positive He wants me to keep being a missionary when I get home.

I feel like I should say something really profound and moving, but I don´t know that I´m that type of missionary. I know what I know, and I try my best to do what the Lord asks me. And because of those two things, I have been so incredibly blessed. 

I know that God lives. And He loves us so, so much. This is His church. There is no book more true than the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith was a man called of God. I have no doubt of these truths. And I am ready to take each day as it comes with my shoulders set and God holding me up, facing towards Eternal Life. 

I love this gospel so much. And I adore Spain and all the crazy, amazing, definately not-American people I´ve met here. And I´m sure that its time for the next phase of life, because I know the Lord never sends us trials until He knows its time. So its time. 

Lots of Love,

Hermana Woolley

WOW! The end is coming.

Wow, ok. This last week just swept past without a blink and has left me in the last full week of my mission. Um... what? When did I become that old in the mission? I really don´t feel like it, I have so much to learn and I am not that good of a missionary. But when I look back, I can see that I have learned so, so very much. And honestly, it has me excited for the rest of the things I´m going to learn.

This last week I was sick enough that we stayed in piso almost all week. That was hard to not be able to work, but now I´m better and in a way, being sick was a blessing. Because it makes this last week more special. I think maybe if I´d been fine last week this week would feel like just any other, but now it means more. I´m determined to make the very most of it, to use everything I´ve learned to bare poweful testimony with authority. In Preach My Gospel it talks about how people can choose to not listen but they can´t deny your testimony. I wish I had the actual quote, but its something like that.  That´s really impacted me my whole mission, I´ve tried to really grow my testimony because I´ve seen what that can do in other missionaries. So I´m planning on not holding back one drop this week. 

I´m excited to see all of you again soon. Don´t stop praying, don´t stop reading the scriptures. It should get to the point where doing those two things is as important as eating. Where they´re as natural as breathing. I know Christ lives. I know this church is true. I know that God listens to us and answers our prayers. And I know without a sliver of doubt that He loves us. O, how He loves it. Just thinking about it makes my heart swell with gratitude.

Until next week.

Hna Woolley

excerpt from my letter:

aaaahhhhhhhhhhh. im so freaked out by the idea of commi8ng home. seriously, kind of stressed about it this morning. i just love being a missionary. it makes me tear up thinking about it. its a very torn, very uncomfortable feeling. but im determined to go out with thunder as you put it. i want to have the most perfect week i can as a missionary, the best one yet. because now i have an idea of how to do things and im no longer sick (i was sick ALL week last week. we worked friday night and saturday basically) so I just want to attack every day and give it everything ive got. no holding back, nu uh. :) thank you for the advice, it helps. because im also very, very tired. but thats ok, missionary work is hard. y punto. 

Sick this week, but doing well

I started off the New Year in a memorable way this year. Sick. You know how in cartoons the sick person has a bright red nose like rudolf and is laying in bed surronded by used tissues? I´ve never been that person before, but I totally was this week. Also, never knew I was the type of person who got frustrated with being sick. I am. I was frustrated. But thats a good thing, right? I just wanted to be out working and helping people!

We had a really relaxed New Years this year, just spent some time with a few other missionaries because we weren´t allowed to work after 7 unless we had set citas. So those of us that didnt´have citas went to the chruch and played some basketball and frisbee, etc. It was fun.

In my studies today I was reading about Nefi when he´s about to build the boat. Its interesting, because he mentions that 8 years passed in the wilderness, without any mention of Laman and Lemuel murmuring. So I´m assuming that there wasn´t much going on, and if so, it was pretty low key. 

But as soon as the Lord commands Nefi to build a boat, his brothers gear back up into full on complaining. To the point where Nefi has to really reprimand them. 

What caught my eye this time was that it wasn´t until a big change came that L&L started complaining again. Until a true trial of their faith came along. It just showed me how easily we can glide along on someone else´s faith for a while, but not forever. That a moment always comes where we have to have our own faith. Its made me really grateful for parents that have helped me learn how to gain my own testimony and a Heavenly Father that gave me a mission experience to solidify and grow that testimony. I don´t know who I´d be without it, and I never want to find out.

I hope you all have a great New Years! I love you all so much.

Loves,

Hna Woolley

excerpt from my letter:

I´ve been sick this week so we had two days inside. One afternoon and then we worked a couple days and then i went back downhill yesterday. the elders gave me a blessing after church though and i slept a lot yesterday and all through the night and feel much better today. taking it slow though, i don´t want to be sick the whole last little bit. So yesterday i didn't´t fast, i´m going to next week. 

Trent is right, thats kind of why I decided to stay. I dont regret staying in any way. School and RM life will always be there, but the miracles I´ve seen and growning I´ve had out in this last month could have only happened here as a missionary. I´ll still see miracles afterwards too, but not this kind. :) And im adtually not trunky. i had stressful dreams about airports last night, but thats it. im usuallly pretty good. I like being here and this is what life is for me right now. I´ve really tried to learn to just love the stage of life i´m in and not be wishing to be somewhere else. to control my dreamer side some. because if not, i´ll always be lokoing forward to the next stage and not enjjoying where i am. 

Christmas

Well, it was an amazing Christmas. I talked with my family (love them!), (too short of a time though, always), ate sea food (love it!), gave gifts and recieved a few, and really felt the Spirit. 

This Christmas my mission president really worked to help us remember that we are still missionaries and not on vaccacion for Christmas. So we still celebrated, but everything we did this last week we evaluated to see if it helped us fulfill our purpose. Christmas morning we were obedient and still exercised before opening presents and still had our studies. All thanks to my wonderful companion! And before opening presents, we read the Christmas story. We sat there in front of our little tree huddled in blankets in our cold Spanish apartment, and read about Christ being born in a sable and laid in a manger. It brought such a different feeling to our Christmas this year. We still had fun and enjoyed all the traditions here (mentioned below) but that really helped bring us back to the reason for everything. And I´m so grateful Hna Smith brought that tradition from her family with her. 

So Christmas Eve we ate with an investigator and her husband and daughter. It was lots of fun and LOTS of sea food. Shrimp is a holiday food here, so we ate some giant shrimp and a seafood soup, a turkey, 2 vegtable dishes, and crab legs. All for just 5 of us. We helped her cook, and I´m glad we did or it would have been too much work for just one woman! But people here are just so giving. Even when they don´t  need to, they give so much just because they love you and want to share. It makes me want to give more.

Christmas day we went and ate with a British family in our ward. They invited all the missionaries in the ward and a few other people and fed us a british feast. Very similar to american food, but with brussel sprouts and what is basically figgy pudding. it was interesting (the pudding). I did like it okay, but just not enough to ask for the recipie. The hostess did say that no one really likes it, its just tradicion. That made me laugh to myself a bit.  Also, fun fact of the day. In Britian, brussel sprouts are just sprouts, and pudding is any dessert, not our pudding. Pudding is custard there. Funny things. 

Anyways, I love you all a lot and hope you have had a wonderful year. Don´t forget to strech a little this next year and set some real goals! I´ve set tons of very specific goals, and it has me very excited for the comming year. Love you!!

Hermana Woolley

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Last Tri-Zone Conference

We switched pday to Tuesday this week because yesterday we had a Tri-zone conference. My last one. It was a very bitter sweet day. Because conferences are like family reunions out here, but more often! Its such a great blessing. But now I don´t get to do those any more. 

For the last one of the year we always have a talent show, and its always so great. This year a district got up and played chubby bunny. (You fill your mouth with giant marshmallows one at a time and you have to say chubby bunny after each one. the winner is the last person still standing.) It was hilarious. And some beautiful musical numbers too. 

My mission also has the tradition that in a missionaries last tri-zone they bear their testimony. It was quite the list, all Hermanas except for one elder. I´m in a pretty big group. :) I was so nervous though. I didn´t want to try to plan anything, because I really just wanted to say what Heavenly Father wanted me to say. When the Elder conducting the meeting said my name in the list, it made my stomach drop. I had sweaty hands and butterflies in the stomach, the whole thing. But when I actually got up there, I was relatively calm. I cried. Its sad, saying goodbye. But the Lord has blessed me with a wonderful mission experience and wonderful people to serve and serve with. And i still have a month. :) So no rush. It was just a very special and memorable moment. 

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Hna Woolley

p.s. I'm excited as well to come home. and sad. but ive decided to try to just accept each day as it is. so not sit around waititn to go home, and when im home try to not long to be a missionary any more, to enjoy being a RM. easeir said than done, but im doing alright. this week will be good. 

Loving my ward

Wow, ok. We´re in the end of this journey together here in Spain, people. And we´re not talking about it. 

My new companion Hna Smith is so AMAZING! I´m really imressed by her desire to work and love and just improve daily. She´s always telling me about new goals she´s got and really does just have a fire to her. We´re at opposite ends of the mission- she has 4 months- but we work so well together. We´ve both been sick so we´ve had a few hours of stay in time this week, so we haven´t taught tons together. But what we have done, the Lord is definately working through us both. I think this will be a vey fun companionship. 

This week we had the ward Christmas dinner. It was lots of fun! I finally feel like I´m getting to know this ward now that I´m meeting people from another area, so thats very nice. I really love this ward. 

I play the piano in primary every sunday so I played for their little singnig program for the cena too. I´m not the best since I´ve not reallly ever played primary songs before, but I have improved so much from the beginning of the mission. Before, playing in public made me crumble. I really couldn´t do it, I just freaked myself out. Now, i just played one of those songs terribly ( right hand only) but I´m okay with where I am because I know I´m learning and doing my best. And thats all that matters. It does help that my piano skills have improved as well. :) 

But it really did show me another small thing that the mission has taught me. I´ve learned so, so much out here and I just keep going! The Lord is so wonderful to bless me so much, I am just filled with gratitude so often. There just aren´t words. 

So I hope you can enjoy this last week before Christmas, and remmber once again why we´re celebrating. We really do owe all to Christ. And I´m so grateful for that. I love him, and I´m trying to be at the point where I would do anything for Him. I can´t say I´m there yet, but I want to be. 

I love you all so much! This gospel is true!!!!

Loves,

Hna Woolley

Transfer Time

Ok, so we´ve gotten a big transfer surprize here in Málaga. I´m being transfered! What? Right? Just for my last transfer. Its because our area is being white washed. So it will now be Elders in our area and we are both leaving. It was a big surprize to us both. Hna Plummer is going up to a pueblo by Sevilla (badajoz) and I am going to be with Hna Smith! (She was in that picture i fwd to you- girl with teh curly blonde hair) She´s actually in my ward right now, so I´m just hopping one area over, just a short bus ride away. 

So, of course we´re scrambling to get the piso ready for the elders. Clean out all girl things, do those tidying tasks we just have never gotten to, write notes so they know who is who, bus routes, let our few investigators and less actives know, try to set up some citas for them....

We´re going pretty crazy around here. But its okay, because it feels right. I´m sad to leave and that Hna Plummer and I only got one transfer together, but if there is anything I´ve learned out here its to trust the Lord. This is his work, not mine, and he definately knows how to direct it better than I do. So I´ll just follow his lead the best I can and work my hardest. 

I love you all so much! thanks for all your love and prayers, they really do help. I´m praying for you all too :) Have a great week!

Hna Woolley