Well I have lots of good news. This week if you remember we had a goal of finding 888 new investigators. We worked hard and prayed lots and pushed ourselves, and in the end, as a mission we found..... (drumroll....) 897. The amazing thing was saturday night we needed 100 more news to meet our goal. So in one day did we not only meet our goal, but go over by almost 10. The Lord moves His work forward. And often, we impede Him. So, as  I realized this week once again, its time to step out of the way and just work, work, work. And thats when the miracles will really start to come.

Im going to my last area tomorrow. Málaga! Its a coastal city with 4 wards and LOTS of missionaries. Its right next to the town where the mission home is. I know my new comp, we´ve stayed in her apartment a couple times when we´ve gone down for tri-zone conferences. Which is now my apartment! Wierd stuff. That kind of thing seems to have happened to me more than once in the mission. I often heard about my companion or met my companion before becoming comps with her. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)

Since its my last area, I´ve been setting some pretty high goals for myself. I´m going to go out with a BANG! No growing lazy in the last strech for this missionary.

Love you all lots. Have a good Halloween! I´d love photos of everyones costumes! :)

Parts of the family letter too: 

I heard that the church did a movie, meet the mormons? our branch president mentioned it. have you seen it? im very curious.

i haven´t gotten the pkgs yet, i should get them next week. i´m changing areas to málaga!!! its a big, big change. 4 strong wards there and like 20-something missionaries. there are 2 companionships of hnas in my ward. so BIG change, but itll be good. im excited.

with teh goal of 888.... we found 897!!!!!!!!!!! the Lord really bleseses us when we do all that we can. 

 i would like to drop the gypsy family, but I´m leaving now and hna ancalle is taking over. ive been trying to lead her to take over the area because up till now i knew where everyone lived and all the names for planning, etc and she just kind of followed. so i´ve been going silent some so she´s forced to do it. lots of missionaries have a really hard time dropping people. its one thing i don´t have a hard time with, but ive had to learn to be understanding and sometiems do so slower than i would like to for the sake of my comp. even though its the Lords work, we´re all imperfect and sometimes we have to compromise for a little bit.

general conference-- this time honestly since listening to it was such a broken, every once in a while thing, just feeling filled by the spirit and having my testimony strenghtened by the leaders. and lots of focus on FHE. i think htats a mix of general conference and staek conference though, but we´ve been really working on it here.it really does make a huge difference in the unity of a family, i can see it. its interesting the things you see as a missionary, because you´re kind of outside of the normal life looking in. so its easeir to see things sometimes. 

love you lots!!!

Goal of 888

So I was a really bad girl and left this email for last this week. I just loved looking at all the pictures! Spain is awesome,but utah and idaho have better falls.

This week that we´re going into is a special week here in the mision España Málaga. We are having another week of finding and we have the goal of 888 news in one week. Thats 9 news for every companionship. And boy have we been preparing! Our companionship studies all week have been focused on this, we´ve been talking to lots of people and praying our hearts out. I know that there are people in our area just waiting for the gospel and I´m dying to find them! As a mission we fasted this weekend, and we have already seen miracles. The elders here in Valdepeñas had an investigator come to church, and she brought her friend with her. This friend happens to be an old investigator in my area that we lost contact with when I first got here. Her mom doesn´t have much interest so we couldn´t get a hold of this teenager. But she came to church and we ended up teaching YW´s so there was our first new, right off the bat! And she´ll be a wonderful investigator I´m positive. And we really need more youth here in Valdepeñas.

The branch has been waking up and getting back to work and its wonderful. A member had us over to her house to eat and then came to a cita with us to visit Gloria, where we invited Gloria to be baptized again and she accepted the invitation. And now that she has the support of this member things will go so much better. The member even invited her over to her house to see the Resturation video this week, without us saying anything. I love proactive members. And now this same member wants to do a FHE every week in her house. yes!!!

Our leaders here have recently really been stressing the importance of FHE every week. I know from my own experience growing up how important it is. It made such a big difference in my high school years! It made sure I was home and with my family at least once a week, learning and growing together. And as our leaders have been techign us, if you can invite a friend or another family to come, even better. Share the spirit of your home and help others see the potential there homes have!

Its been a nice, warm, beautiful fall week. This next week will be my last full week in Valdepeñas and I plan on going out with a bang. And starting my last area on FIRE!!!! We´re going to strengthen the members of Spain and change the world, one person at a time. Just like the Savior did.

Love you all. Never forget how loved you are by the Savior. He´s done so much for us! I´m realizing this more and more every day. Hope you all have a good week.

Loves,

Hna Woolley 

District Conference

Almost forgot to write this this week! Sorry if its short and makes no sense. This week we had district (stake) conference. One of the blessings of being in europe is that you get 70s to come more often. We had a 70 come from france and he taught us about unity and how to strengthen the district. not grow it, strengthen it. interesting idea, but true. we have to be strong or we can´t really grow. but he said that we should have FHE, and that we should invite our friends and help them feel the spirit. and the missionaries. he said that he and his family are very busy, but they have the missionaries over for 2 FHE¨s every month. He said the key is being well organized. be where you need to be on time. (its a spanish culuture thing to be really late).

President Deere came too and also talked about misionary work and FHE¨s. I can really see the leaders of the chruch trying to get families to strenghten themselves through FHE, family prayers and family scripture study. Because if we aren´t strong as a family, how can we help someone else strengthen thier faith? And once we´re on the right path, share, share, share! There´s been such a big focus on misionary work in the church here, its coming from everyone, not just hte missionaries.

Its cooled down a lot here too, so we´ve been walking around in the rain more. We don´t have an umbrella and my jacket dosen´t have a hood so last night i pulled my scarf up over my head to keep it warm and we walked under the patios so we stayed a lot dryer. but of course wtiht the rain, no one is outside. and it was late enough that the older people were in bed and everyone else was putting thier kids to bed, so we didn´t really have anyone to visit. so we were walking around and joked about teaching the stray cats that were huddled under cars watching us. they were pretty much the only ones outside this late. cats and missionaries. Thats pretty much how it goes.

Love you all so much! Don´t forget what you learned in general conference!

Gen. Conf. Week

I would love to hear about what you all learned in General Conference!!!! It was an interesting conference weekend for us, because we saw the first session two times. And thats it (so far). We went over to a members house and watched the saturday morning session and then ate dinner with them. Then the next day we went to the church and the Branch President had recorded a session to bring for people to watch (no internet in the church) and he recorded this same session.

But in a way, it was perfect. Because the talk by Elder Packer about the atonement was perfect for Gloria, the one investigator who came. Sunday morning we went around inviting everyone we hadn´t invited yet to the conference and we had contact with her after two weeks with nothing. So that was a miracle. We knocked her door and she came down and talked to us. Gloria is working in another town right now and has rough hours so we haven´t been able to talk to her at all. But she´d come home just as we passed by in the morning. And she came and stayed for both hours of the session. It was so great to see her there, soaking it in.

And can I say I LOVE that they let the leaders talk in thier own language? It really makes a difference to hear the speakers own voice, and so its awesome that they can do that. And its just so much easier to express yourself in your native language. So I´m really happy they changed that.

So share with me your experiences from conference! I´d love to hear! We´re going to be watching conference during our study time in the mornings this week, so thankfully i will still be able to see it. Just little by little instead of all in 2 days.

Love you lots! Have a good week :) 

Sept. 2014

Wow, this week has been very different. And special. Wednesday Hna Ancalle was sick so we stayed in all day. Normally when we stay in sick its just for part of the day, but she hadn´t been sleeping well for a month and that mixed with a sore stomach had her sleeping all day. I was pretty bored, but I finished a drawing I promised an elder and read the scriptures and caught up on some sleep myself.

Thursday and Friday we spent going to Málaga for a tri-zone conference. It was absolutely fantastic. I was able to see lots of friends before they go home in the end of October for the last time as missionaries and hear their last testimony. Always in the big conferences those missionaries who are about to go home give a last testimony. There´s a missionary couple who is going home as well and their testimonies were very spiritual and powerful. The room really was just full of love and the Spirit. Hna Roan, one of my very first companions, was there too. She sang my favorite song ´´Savior, Redeemer´´ from 17 Miracles. That song has come to mean so much to me on the mission and to have one of my best friends sing it to say goodbye- that was really special.

Preident Deere gave a very good lesson too. It was interesting, because he gave it in english. I have never seen him do that before, but he said he felt like he should. So those who didn´t speak english very well used translation headphones instead of the newbies who didn´t know spanish. (Theres always a more experienced elder in the back of hte room translating into a mike and those who are new can wear headphones to listen so they can understand.)

President Deere talked about the most important part of the gospel- the Atonement. He had several points and shared several scriptures. But what really stuck with me more than what he said was how I felt. He brought such a strong spirit to the room that really helped us understand his words more. I´ve really come to believe that there are so many things that we can only learn personally when we´re listening to the Spirit. Because really, words don´t express very much. I´ve learned so many things out here that to say them out loud, it dosen´t sound much different than what I said before my mission. But they way I say them and feel them is so different and more profound than before.

But to share a bit of what he talked about, he talked about how we have to study the Fall to understand the Atonement better, and that we need to undesttand how badly we need the Atonment. We talked about how it isn´t that I do my part and Christ makes up the rest, but that Christ has already paid the whole price, and what I´m doing is trying to become more like him so that when we´re in his presence again we want to stay there. And that we can´t become like Christ without Christ. I would have loved to record the talk and listen to it again.
Anyways, yes. Thats what we learned. And it was amazing. And it has me very excited for General Conference! I already have my questions and I´m really trying to prepare myself for this conference.

Also, I forgot to say this last week. But as a mission we are reading the book of mormon in 100 days, starting last monday and finishing Dec 31. i invite you to join us! It´s going to be great, every time I read the book I learn so much.

Love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana Woolley

Grape Harvest

Its been another week of work! Unfortunately Gloria didn´t come to church this week, but when we called her later that day she was sick, so that was a relief. We were a bit worried.

This sunday was very unusual. All the men in the branch had to work because its the end of hte grape harvest and its hte last minute rush. So the only men with preisthood in church yesterday were the elders. So one leaded and the other presided, one played the piano ( We´re going to switch off) while the other broke the bread, one blessed and hte other passed the sacrament. The new elder gave a talk and so did I. There were some women and youth missing too so we went and taught the only YW. Us and the elders taught her so that it woudln´t be just 3 of us. Interesting stuff happens when you´re in a branch.

This week we saw an amazing thunder storm. Its the first one I´ve seen in months so that was really great. Thankfully we were in our apartment for the night when it really started up, and we live high enough that we could see it over hte building in front of us. Very awesome.

In the mutual we put on every week the Branch President brought the video they´d made of EFY and we were able to watch that with the youth. It was so great to see, but I can tell I´m a missionary. Because at first every time I saw girls and guys hugging I felt like that wasn´t appropriate. Until I realized that that was me being a missionary. I have to admit, I was slightly  horrified that I´ve become that awkward missionary. So watch out when I come home, cause this girl is going to be one strange RM.

The Branch president also asked the elders to teach seminary. All the members live in an other town thats about 40 minutes away, and the only family that lives here in Valdepeñas they both have big callings (RS pres and 2nd counselor and Ward mission leader) so they can´t really handle any more. They´re only going to teach it once a week in the afternoon because of the rest of the work we have to do, but at least the youth will have some kind of seminary. They don´t always have it here in Valdepeñas, sadly.

Hope everyone has a good week and learns lot! I´ve been really learning how to teach more slimply and clearly with our investigators here. Lots of them need to be taught very simply. Good practice for my kids I guess.

parts from my letter:

The Gitano family is doing good. This week is the aniversary of family members that were murdered so its going to be a rough week for them. But last night the widow was smiling which surpized me because all month she´s been kind of sad. so that made me happy. its not just them that are outside all the time, its spainish culutre. it cools down at like 7 and everyone goes outside to talk in the park or sit infront of their house. they´re houses are fine, nothing fancy but not trash. but that level is defeintately different here, houses are less here than in the states.

im on my off month for iron so in oct ill start taking it again. im going to get a mircoderm cleansing one of these pdays because i did an english translation service thing for the man that owns the store and when i wouldn´t accept any money he offered a discount. and hna ancalle, who is a nurse, recommended these natural pills that im going to start today that are from a plant that will help my hormones regulate more so that should help too. im trying to fix the problem as much as possible. yes, send the pills to the office. thanks!

No, just i teach English, Hna Ancalle dosen´t know English very well. but both elders are american now and they teach the weekly class more than i do. im not a huge fan of teaching English. 

Lots of loves!!
Hna Woolley

Miracles

The miralces just keep coming. We´ve been so blessed here in Valdepeñas. A couple of weeks ago I talked about a woman we´d lost contact with and then ran into 3 times in a row? Well, she´s come to church both weeks. And has decided to be baptized! We are so excited for her!! And she´s so ready. She Is such a good person, has me really excited. She´s named Gloria.

Besides that its been a pretty normal week. We´re teaching more and more. One of my favorite things about Valdepeñas is how many friends we´ve made here. Last night we went and talked to all of our eldery friends we´ve made. I love seeing their faces light up when we come close. Because they´re all pretty bored and lonley, lots of them are solo. Several times this week people have been all, ¨´why haven´t you passed by lately? I was thinking about you?´´. Its so, so nice to feel loved like this. Dosen´t happen very often as a missionary. :)

And even though we aren´t teaching all of them (yet) offically, we´re always looking for ways to talk about religion with them. I´ve really come to learn that if you do it natrually the results are so much better. People actually want to listen. Thats why its so important for members to help, because its so much more natural for you to share your beliefs with a friend than to have us go knock their door. So don´t be afraid to share your testimonies! I´ve heard lots of stories from you guys sharing your testimonies with people and its awesome, I LOVE it. And Heavenly Father does too.

Love you all so much!!! Have a good week.

Hna Woolley