Trials, blessings and learning

Honestly... I´m not sure what to share this week. Life is pretty much life. Trials, blessings, learning. Not nececcarially in that order. If theres one thing i´m learning out here it´s how to rely on the Lord. Thinking about the relationship I had with him before my mission and now-- the difference is so obvious. Heavenly Father truly has become the person I trust with every secret, every hope, every question, everything. I think its something every missionary has to learn, because we´re out here alone with only our comp and the Lord.

And even though its been difficult, I´m grateful. This last week with all the trials that have been piling up, I´ve really tried to look for what I´m supposed to learn. And praying for help to be positivie. And its amazing the difference its made. Those days when I forgot to pray for positivity in the morning were so different from the days when I did ask.

The mom that works sundays is a member. It´s a family of less actives. And I think the mom would be active if she could be. I´ve been fasting every sunday since I came to Valdepeñas for specific people or the area. We need all the help we can get, and it finally occured to me that I could fast more for help. But not this week, Hna Rocha got mad at me because we don´t know why my hair is falling out, and if its a lack of nutrients fasting will make things worse. She has a point, so I broke my fast. She knows hair, she´s a trained hair cutter (how do you call it?) and we´ve been putting aloe vera on my scalp when I sleep every couple days. She says it should help, she did it for her mom. We´ll see. (Kelsey has been losing hair and her mom is quite freaked out as I am sure it is her thyroid and she needs to go to a dr quick not sometime soon!)

And I´m learning that a little bit down the road, I´ll only remember what I learned and the good parts, not how hard it was. If I do things right and do my best. Cool, right?

I love you all a lot. Remember to talk to your Father Above. I promise that He really does want to hear from you, no matter how small or big the problem or happy moment. Share it! He wants to hear.

Loves,

Hermana Woolley

Remember how I said we have lots of adventures here in Valdepeñas? Yesterday was probably one of the most interesting days of my mission.

We didn´t have any solid citas so we were basically walking around. Which by the way, is the worst Sunday night, because you´re starting to think about pday a little and talking to family, and your tired after a week of hard work, etc.

So we´re walking around, and run into this dog that dosen´t have a collar and has long hair still, aka no owner. So we stop and give it some water... and it starts to follow us. It´s this little mutt with red hair, kind of cute but with a terrible underbite.

The dog (Hna Rocha named it Garfield for its red fur) followed us for 45 minutes. It was hillarious, because it would try to act like it wasn´t following us, it would walk on the other side of the street and stop to sniff things, etc, but it was totally following us all across town.

 We have one investigator who I am positive will be baptized. He is named Alejandro and is the partner of a less active. his daughter was baptized earlier this year, but he can´t be until him and less active get married. she´s waiting on papers to be legal here. so its honestly just a waiting game. he hasn´t accepted a fecha to be baptized, but only because we haven´t invited him yet. but i think the next time we see him we will invite him to be baptized.

Besides him, we have a bunch of people we see every once in a while.Tthey´re all good, but all really busy. so we´re trying to set up solid times we visit every week , like every tues and thurs at 6 or something. hopefully it will make things easier.

also have a new convert 14 yr old girl Lucia. we´re working with her a lot and trying to include her friends, going to make snickerdoodles this week in the church with them.

A less active family too, from colombia. one girl came to church yesterday with us! her sister is living w her boyfriend who dosen´t like the church, but she has us over sometimes and come to church sometimes. shés going to have to chose church or him eventually, really sad situation. mom would come but has to work sundays and shes the only one working so can´t not work, really sad. comes when she can.

besides them, not much else. Lots of futures!

Tri-zone Conference

Well... this week was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our area is still the same, no miracles there. But we had a Tri-zone conference with the zones of La Mancha (mine), Granada and Málaga. So I was able to see a BUNCH of missionaries I haven´t seen in a long time. Hermana Roan for the first time since I left Granada, Hna Bangerter, Elders from my old districts, lots and lots of people. It was so great to see everyone.

And I learned a lot. Things I´d learned before but needed a brushing up on, and new tips and tricks for planning better. All of what we learned is going to help us out here a ton. We need help, and I wasn´t sure what else to do to help our area. And every single talk applied to us, how we can plan better and having the vision of ¨two times in white´´. We´re here to do more than just baptize someone and then cut them lose. Its our job too to help them work towards the goal of the temple so they can recieve all the blessings Heavenly Father has in store for them. This conference really helped me refocus, its amazing how it was exactly what I needed. The Lord really knows what He´s doing in choosing His leaders :).

Hna Rocha and I are learning lots together. And gaining lots of muscles, as we´ve been doing lots of walking and we go running in the mornings too. Thus, very tired. We´re having a very chill p-day today I think.

Love you all so much. Remember, missionary work isn´t just for missionarys. And its more than just handing someone a Book of Mormon and then handing over the name to the missionaries. Christ never did that. He loved them, and helped them, and shared what He loved with everyone. Christ converted people through his love and example, not by saying ¨if you would like to know more about my gospel, here´s this phone number.´´ I read a talk on this during the week and it had a big impact on me. The natural result of becoming more like Christ is to do more missionary work. Think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Love you all!! Have a super week,

Hermana Woolley

Hobo

Well, we have 30 minutes of email time today instead of 1.5 hrs. long story and don´t have much time. but, this 4th of july was one of a kind. started off really great with us going to ciudad real for district meeting. there´s a married couple in our district so they made a american feast for us and the other district taht meet there. GIANT hamburgers, watermelon, potatoe salad, yum!!!!! all was well and happy, until we tried to go home.

the bus we were supposed to take home to go to the ward activity and support the branch didn´t have enough seats for the 4 of us. so we had to miss it, even though we were there in time. so we waited in the bus station solving riddles and playing games until the next bus came. and then we got off in the pueblo that the branch president had told us to get off in to go to the activity... and no one answered their phones. when someone finally answered they told us that someone would come pick us up (it was the last bus of the night. so we were stranded without help). i have never felt so much like a hobo in my life. we had a suitcase with BOM and other missionary stuff we´d picked up and we were basically sitting on the curb for 2 hours. we made bets to see when we´d make it home-- elders won. we´re making them cookies. we made it home just in time to not be late getting in, but without having done any work all day. the story deserves a better telling but im low on time.

moral of the story: be REALLY early for all buses and always carry uno cards.

love you all lots!!

hermana woolley