November 29, 2010

Ok, Family: This week has been, well, another week. We had a baptism planned, but he drank coffee so we have to wait two weeks, yeah! que mas? So far all things are going good; health is good, little tired. Still learning more about the Bible every day and learning how much people don't know about the great works that God has done amoung the children of God. I finally have a camara, but I don't have really any pictures, so next week I might have some for you. How was Thankgiving? I think if I'm home before Christmas next year you need to buy an extra turkey and we can have Thanksgiving for me. This year my companion and I bought chicken that came with french fries, so close, right? Haha! And my companion made a sign that said Happy Tanksgiving! Haha, she missed the "h' twice; it was funny, but cool. Not much to say, so I love you and hope that I get some letters soon. If mom hasn't sent the box yet tell her to send some Ibuprofen and a bottle of multi vitamins, too. I don't have any and the diet, when it comes to being balanced, is terrible. But we had a member here that made Gnocci from scratch. He is our mission leader of the ward and he is from Argentina and isn't the biggest fan of the Peruvian food here. It's funny but his wife is from Peru so he lives here. Ok so send me pictures unless you forgot to take some. I love you and miss you. Until I hear from you. Love, Hermana Wood

November 22, 2010

This week we have 3, almost 4, people with dates to be baptized. That's pretty cool! This week I realized my language is somewhere in the middle of Spanish and English. It's pure Spanglish. My Spanish is terrible, but my English seems to be missing words. How's the family? Sounds like the house is just crazy with its organization. Only Bobby has a room solo. I hope to hear form you all soon, and I'm excited to see photos from Thanksgiving. No celebrations here, but it's for the best because I love Thanksgiving, but things are being decorated for Christmas and they have this thing where the negritos (black people) of Huanuco dance on Christmas. Not sure about the historia, maybe you can look it up and tell me something about it. Well, I love you and hope all is well. I don't know what else to say because I have no letters from anyone except mom... love you and talk to ya next week. This week is cambios and I heard that one of the Hermanas went home due to illness, appendicitis. So that means that cambios for the Hermanas is going to be crazy, lol. Love you lots- Hermana Wood

November 15, 2010

Yeah, the "wako" story is hilarious. The lady that ran out of her store is my favorite part. I laughed when it happened. It was funny to me. My companion is from Guatamala and she's never had one in her city; that's why she didn't know what it was. We just started teaching a lady named Rocio; it makes me like her more -lol. As for Brody, it's nice that he's easy going. I hope you show him pictures of me, and I hope he can walk soon with everyone holding him. We teach this one guy who has a niece who is 3 who can't really talk. She just makes noises and she can't sound out words. I have great hopes for that Madisyn and the church. Starting to pray! Alright! Let's see. This week has been a continual struggle with the work, but it continues just the same. Oh, before I forget, say happy birthday to Uncle Jeff for me and Cousin Marlayna and Aunt Amanda de Ken. I loved the photos, now I just need to buy a usb to save them on. I have a cd to save them, but this computer doesn't read cd's, so yeah! Just think - this time next year I'll be in my last change and getting ready to come home - wow. Today is exactly 4 and half months. It feels silly, but I really want to go to Disneyland; probably because they shoot off fire crackers like everyday here somewhere, and every other week or month is some fiesta of the Santo of Huanuco. Ask Dad how to talk to Catholics; there are like a million of them and all I want to say is, "Honestly, who started your church?" I'm studying the Old Testament right now and loving it. I love seeing how God has a plan for all things and always keeps his promises. I'm  starting to understand so much of why some things are the way they are and what a grand blessing it is to also have the Book of Mormon and modern prophets and apostles to help us in these days! I love you and miss you all. Keep writing those letters.  Oh, tell Steph she makes a very chevere (cool) pumpkin. And tell everyone there the church is true because it is. And tell Dad I got his letter - I'm excited for U of A; they are doing well, and congrats on his golf tournament (wow, that's a hard word to spell these days). OH, this week we had a conference with Elder Nash, our area general authority. It was awesome! He is an awesome guy and his wife is great too. Both gave me very encouraging words and it was nice to have a general authority. Good luck with conference there. Tell bobby I love him and miss him like crazy! Tell Theresa I love her, and Cathy too, and Jeni and Steph and I guess Josh, lol. I love them all and miss em´ and have no picture of Machu Picchu disculpame por favor. I love you and may God bless you. Keep the commandments! lol Love, Hermana Wood


P.S.  Tell Fia that I'm happy for her and that I'm teaching people here in Peru the few Samoan words I know - lol.

November 8, 2010

So far things here are OK. We had another crazy storm on Saturday night. Here the dirt on the mountains isn't very sturdy, and people build homes on them so when it rains really hard there's always a chance of a land slide. We live, I think, a good distance from the mountain that is closest to us, but Saturday night our neighbors (we technically live in a part of their house) were running and screaming down the stairs and they pounded on our window and door screaming "wako"!!! Well, we get our shoes on and ask what is a wako, but a bunch of people are running, so we just start running with them. Mind you, it's like 10:30 at night. So we´re running. We out run everyone, my companion is scared, and I'm a little frightened, but we have no idea what a wako is. So we make it a couple of blocks and there's a lady in her doorway of her home; we stop for a second because there are no people around us, and we see nothing coming behind us. Then we ask the lady what is a wako. I promise the lady didn't even blink. Her eyes got big and she yelled "wako"??? She yelled inside the home "wako!" and took off. So now we are really scared, so we continue to run to our pensionista´s house, and she finally explains what is a wako: landslide. Then we're too scared to run back to see if it was real and the elders kinda laugh at us when we called to tell them where we were, and so we slept at our pension´s house. In the morning we learn that it was a false alarm, and our neighbors were worried for us so much that they went to the church at 2 am to look for us. But then they called the elders who told them where we were. Wow, no more wakos! Other than that, not much. We are having difficulties with our area, but faith will make it work. We have people to teach, but not many with the desire to change or pray or read. Oh, this morning I saw Barney the purple dinosaur walk down the street.  Last night my companion got an earful about the problems with the USA and Latinos and Arizona from a contact, and it was funny because 1) he had an American tshirt on and 2) he didn't think I understood, but my Spanish is coming in just fine, so I understood him.  Ok, so that's the news from Huanuco Peru. Love you all and thanks for the pictures!-Love, Hermana Wood

November 1, 2010

OK, so this week was no different. Yesterday we had a huge rain storm so that was interesting; and today we have no water, so we went to the other hermanas place. Baptism this week in the park the other day. Some religion was having a power point about the truth about Halloween and the bad things of it, lol. I laughed. Then yesterday in church a cell phone went off with the ring tone of Sean Kingston, "Somebody call 911".  As for the work here, life is rough. We teach, but people right now aren't keeping commitments, plus we had a festival for Señor de Burgos here (that is the saint of Huanuco), so that was fun. It's starting to become difficult to remember to write in English. I feel silly because I've had to erase a couple things because the sentance was in Spanish. I think my dream last night was in spanish too, it was strange. It was acually about one of our inversigators. We are teaching him and his wife and he has a hard time having faith in answers from God and with the Book of Mormon. Let's see, what else? Yesterday we had two lunches because we had an appointment before our actual lunch date with another member and when you tell a member that you are only there for a visit they still want to feed you. So my companion says ok, but just a little. Well, with food here a little is a lot! So we had way too much food and I felt sick for a few hours. So tell me about Halloween. It's not very big here, but there were some trick or treaters until the big rain storm came. I drew a pumkin face on an orange in my apartment to celebrate. Well, I want to see pictures of costumes. Love you all. Hermana Wood

October 25, 2010

Hey everybody!

Things here are good still, getting eaten by mosquitoes when I forget my repellent. One day I´ll learn, lol. I got letters from Mom and Les today, so thank you for those! Tell Les so far I haven't eaten anything that was strange. He told me Austin told him that Pumpkin Soup is good until you find out it's made of pumpkins and Les said Yeah, it's kinda like eating rice and chicken heads until you learn you're eating chicken heads and then asked if I ever had that experience yet. For me, nope; but then I don't ask what I'm eating. I don't want to know sometimes or ever - lol. But here they have a purple corn chicha morada and I think it is terrible, but they make a drink out of it, and a soup that is awful, and so every time someone gives me something that is a purple drink or soup my stomach cringes. Probably won't be able to drink grape soda for a while. Sounds like U of A is doing awesome! I hope homecoming went well. And Dad says that basketball is starting, that sounds good. I hope the Suns do well. Sounds like everyone is on the move there. This week we had another baptism, it was very nice. This area is beautiful minus the mosquitoes, but has proved to be more challenging than my old area. Or maybe I just understand more - lol. There are many Catholicos y 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses. Mucho faiths but we keep trying to meet people. I finally finished Jesus the Christ. It was an awesome book; read it if you haven't yet. Oh, last week we went for a hike as a zone to a little waterfall. It was awesome because in the middle of the hike I realized I was hiking in the Andes! How cool! People only dream of this stuff and I'm living it! Tell Josh sorry, no Machu Piccu. Oh, and tell Jenni Happy Birthday! I hope it's a good one. Tell her I'm thinking of her and the kids, too. well, I love you and I will hopefully hear more from you all soon! Love, Hna Wood
Oh tell Dad to say Hi to Uncle Grant and Uncle Wayne for me! Oh, and Laura and Aunt Suzanne.

October 18, 2010

Hola familia! Como estan! Things here are good. Right now I'm in the the area of Huanaco which is south of Lima and is much smaller, which I like. My companion is Hna Salazar de Guatamala. She is awesome. So I have some sad news to tell you, though. I don't have pictures of anything. My camara was stolen on a bus somewhere in Lima last Monday, so entonces. I hope you kept all the pictures I sent you, hopefully on a memoria card. If you don't know how ask Stephanie maybe- lol. Other than that I'm fine. I received my card in the mail today so I can purchase another camara here. Oh, there are like a million mesquitos here and I hate them - no soy comida! But they think my legs are. I have repellent and I now carry it everywhere with me. Oh, I'm now in an area with Hna Roberts, one of my first comps from Provo. Ok, about here: it's a desert, but I guess they are just waiting for the rainy season? No sè, then the mountains become really green. It's really cool - I live in the Andes! My Spanish is coming; I'm understanding more, but my speaking is still slow. My comp helps me a lot. I had to give a talk in church this week, that went alright. I mostly read scriptures so the people could understand! jaja. We also had a baptsim this week, that was nice and cool.  No I haven't eaten anything too strange. I miss my old pensionista because this one cooks differently. Like the other day I had choufa (fried rice) for breakfast. I miss beans. I love you all and I miss you more than beans lol. I'm sure the house is crazy! I love you all- Hermana Wood

Oh dad, how's the football going? I'm in Huanaco now. I live on Perdo Arrozo y Buenos Aires. Look that up =). It's really pretty here, I'm learning to love the culture and to understand the people better. Also I'm learning how amazing the scriptures are. Almost everything is in there! I'm learning lots! I hope you enjoyed conference. I hope you are still saving money for Disneyland and all the hamburgers that I want to eat when I get home, jaja. The climate here is pretty warm right now, so I'm not worried about warm weather anymore, jaja. I love you Papà and I hope things are well. I know, probably crazy, but I pray for you. Love, Hermana Wood

October 11, 2010

Yeah, my pensionista is awsome, but it's not going to last. I'm being moved to another area on Wedensday! Wow, that was a fast change huh? Here everything on the TV stops for elections; we didn't even have church. It's got to be nice to have the whole family home though; well, minus me -haha. Well, they should get jobs at Disneyland, then the whol family can get in for free! haha - I can't wait to go to Disneyland then - lol.

Wow, I love all the pictures!  Way to go Austin!  And I see Theresa went back to blonde lol.  Blondes are more fun anyway - sorry, Steph.  And it looks like you loved conference!  Yeah, we watched this weekend, but it was in Spanish so I accidentally fell asleep in the first two sessions.  I brought my Liahona to the first session on Sunday and I somehow managed to listen to the last one but didn't understand much.  I'm waiting for the Liahona to come with the talks in English.  I hope Cathy had a good birthday.  Tell everyone hi for me.  I miss you all!  I'll let you know when I know where I'm headed to, which will be next week!  I love you all. Love, Hermana Wood

October 4, 2010

My companion is ok, she doesn't really explain a lot to me and she seems to get annoyed when I need her to speak slower because when I ask her to she rolls her eyes and talks at me like I'm 5. So I just stopped asking her and when I don't understand something she knows because I'm usually just standing there staring at her. She's nice and tells me she loves me all the time, but the rest I don't understand. She can speak English some, so I just let her speak in English the best she can. She goes home next week; her year and a half is over. My pensionista is awesome! She cooks for us, she washes our clothes and is more like a mom\friend than anyone in the mission. She also irons my clothes for me. None of the other pensions do that, and if we are late for meals she doesn't care, she just makes us food. I heard from the other elders they aren't so lucky. If they are late because of an appointment, no food. Que triste. Her name is Mamà Mirna. And her family is great too. The missionaries just kinda become part of the family in a sense. Her husband is a returned missionary, he served in Uruguay and he's pretty cool. He speaks some English too, so he translates some things I don't understand. Yeah, I have been spoiled with my pension. I'm sure I will miss her and the family when I have to leave this area. I hope you have a good time at conference. This week was elections in Peru, so no conference until next week. Not much else happening here. I love you guys and I´ll talk at you next Monday. Hey have Steph and other members of the family email me. Yeah, they have to forward it to you first and you can forward it to me, but I miss hearing from my sisters and brother too. Te amo muchisimo! Hermana Wood
Oh, tell Jeff in the office that I was going through my old letters and I found his and it was funny how much more I understood the letter now than I did two months ago. lol.

Email to Mom, 9/30/2010

Yeah for UofA!!! Sounds like they are doing great. Tell dad I wish I could give him an address but sadly I really can't- addresses are difficutl to pin down here. Spanish is coming. Most people here say my accent isn't half bad either. No one believes I've only been in the mission for one month because of it. But little by little I'm learning more words. An elder here says after the first change for some reason the spanish comes quicker. Uncle Les wrote me and he said it took him 4 months to be comfortable with spanish, which seems to be the general consenses. Did you tell Lorena that I'm in Peru and I will come home a spanish wiz!? I remember her well. Oh, tell Trisha Riggs hello and thanks for the letter. I can't believe Cathys B-day is here already! Happy birthday Cathy! I can't believe I've been here for three months well on the mission. Yeah for Fia, tell her congrats for me!


Oh, we had another baptism this last weekend. We baptized a mom and one of her sons! It was really cool - in time, the whole family! We also had a small earthquake last week- well, Inca did, but we felt it for like a second. I didn't like it. I pray every night for no more for the next year and three months! lol. Things here are going, my comp and I have challenged two couples to push up their wedding day so they can get baptized sooner and then get sealed in the temple sooner. So far I don't know the results but I´ll let you know when I know.  I love you all and miss you! Tell everyone hi for me! Go U of A. I'm told that when it gets hot here it´s like ASU- not much clothes- lol jk. I love you, I´ll write on Monday too, so write me a lot!-Hermana Wood!

Email to Dad, September 30, 2010

That's good you found Josh a job, I pray for him & Jeni a lot. I'm excited for U of A. Oh, so my pensionista, her husband has this saying: a woman that doesnt make me angry is a not a woman, it is a man. I hope you like that. He has two daughters and one son. My pensionista does my laundry and cooks all my meals and is my mom on the mission- well, the one I have right now is my mom out here. I heard there isn't another pensionista like her here. I saw someone with a USC hat the other day, it made me laugh. I love you and miss you lots and I miss the games. We´ll have to go to a few when i get home! Say hi to Uncle Wayne or Tio Wayne for me and the rest of the family. If you see Matt tell him it's true they only eat cornflakes here! I love you so much! Talk to you later. Oh and I started singing Hey Jude the other day, it was funny, and Hello I |Love You by The Doors, tell Stephanie! Go Glee! Tell her I want to go to Disneyland when I get home!

I messed up. This is from Sept. 6

On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 12:05 PM, Elizabeth Wood wrote:

I'm learning Spanish really a lot faster now. I'm adjusting to the food. I have a really nice penchanista (I don't know if that is how you spell it) but she's really nice and she cooks really well and she cares for the missionaries like they are her own kids. Her family is pretty nice, too. Her husband knows pretty good English so if I don't understand he will translate for me when we are over for meals. They have three kids and all are pretty cool. The oldest is a girl and she's 16. The middle is a boy and he mostly keeps to himself, he's like 14. And then there is the baby girl and she is about 5-ish and she is full of energy always. She speaks Spanish to me like a million miles a minute, but it's ok. She never repeats anything she says because she doesn't get that I don't understand her. But I love her, she's funny. My companion is pretty cool. She's pretty patient with me and does most of the work. but she has me bear my testimony and now is making me do the greeting with contacts. We are teaching a family where the mother is less active and the father isn't a member, but the kids have been real receptive and the mother loves that her kids are hearing the gospel; she is real supportive. One of her kids will be baptized really soon which is cool and we are working with another. The other two are real young still. The father wants to hear the gospel but is busy working a lot. He drives motor taxis, which, let me tell you, are crazy. They are like go carts on a real road. My companion loves them, I hate them. If the food doesn't kill me, the motor taxis might, just from a sheer heart attack! LOL. In another family we are teaching, the parents aren't married, but they have been really receptive to our message and even are planning to get married. It's pretty cool the way we get to help these people. Well, I love you guys and miss you. Hope all is well back there. Love, Hermana Wood

5 things I'm greatful for: 1) the gospel, 2) my family, 3) my health, 4) hot showers, and 5) my many blessings in the USA.

Emails to mom & dad - Prep Day has changed to Mondays

Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 10:20 AM
To: Wood, Gary E

Can you send me some nylons, oh and some American candy? This week we are getting an investigator for baptism; she is really excited. We are also teaching a couple families. I think that is my favortie part- teaching families. Hey, Dad, thanks for teaching me to love the Bible because it pays off down here. I'm glad I understand the history of the Bible as much as the spiritual aspects of the Bible. I love you all and miss ya. A guy in church has a Diamondback baseball hat and it made me smile. I tried to compliment him on it but my Spanish is terrible and he didn't understand completely, but it was cool nontheless. Also another guy was wearing a Nebraska Corn Huskers shirt. I'm realizing that people have no idea what their shirts say here; a lot of them are in English and don't wear it based on understanding the symbols or anything like that. But for me, I just smile now. Well, say Happy Birthday to Uncle Ken for me; it's in a couple of days.

To mom on 9/13/10:
Oh, I wanted to know if you could send me the chili con carne recipe to me. I love you all, I hope all is well, I hope you write soon. Mom, I got all your dearelder.com letters and I got a card from Uncle Mike's fam and a letter from BJ Hills, but so far that's it- but thanks for the letters! Keep sending them. I sent a longer letter to Dad, have him forward it you. I love you and say Hola to Jeff for me, and Theresa and Cathy and Bobby and Steph and Jenni and Josh and Madi and Brody and everyone else.

August 25, 2010 email

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Wood
Date: Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: Hi.
To: "Wood, Gary E"


OK so I should have a lot of letters waiting for me at the mission home. Sounds like a great day. Aww that's next week! Awww crazy! My spanish is... well, it's kinda there. It's not as good as I wish it were, but I've been reminded it takes about 4 to 6 months to learn the language. So I'm just trying to make myself speak because the more you speak the more you learn. Lima is starting to grow on me and I would send you pictures but I have not received any pictures yet from you guys, so you are just going to have to steal Steph's camera and take pictures and send them so I can send you more. My friend right next to me got a picture of her cat!!! Let's see here- it was been cold and overcast, or its called inversion. I have now gained a cold from it. But today there is sunshine yeah!!!! Oh so you need to say Happy Birthday to Uncle Matt for me and also tell him that my CCM mission pres. here is Matt's mission president from his mission in Mexico. Pres Whetten and Hna Whetten, they remember him and they say hi. Oh I have Miley Cyrus in my head because it was playing on the bus on the way to the temple. Those buses are crazy! The driver was playing a cd of hers. So this is my last week here! This time next week I don't know what I'll be doing or where I'll be. Hopefully it'll be like Disneyland and I will have lots of mail or maybe I will have none who knows out here. Oh, Trish wrote me on dearelder.com- tell her I got it and thanks! It made my day since it was the first physical letter I've received while being here. My district leader was very happy to give it to me since we all keep tabs on who has gotten letters and who hasn't. OK I love you guys and hope all is well with everyone. Keep reading those scriptures. Oh, have a crazy story to tell you about witches. My teacher said that when he was on his mission he and his companion ran into a man who believed in out-of-body experiences and that he had them. They asked more about it and he said he actually had been in their apartment. They asked what was in there apartment like, and he said one missionary was messy and the other was very neat with there were things which were true. Then the missionaries said they would rearrange everything and see if he could see what was moved. So they did, but then they talked to their mission pres. about it and the mission pres said to put their garments on the windows and doors, so they did. The next day the missionaries talked to this guy again to see if he could get into their apartment. He said he tried but there was something in the way that wouldn't let him in. Crazy!!! Temples are amesome and I'm learning about the protection there really is in the temple! Love you guys much! Love Hermana Wood

Emails to mom & dad

Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 12:48 PM
To: Wood, Suzi M
Hi Mommy! Happy anniversary. I love you guys. Entonces ¿Dondé está mi carta? Ask Jeff to translate. I hope all is well for you and I miss you lots. God needs me here, I think He's teaching me more than I will ever be able to teach others. Sorry if any of the letters have bad grammar. I have come to the conlusion that it's not worth fighting; I might as well just say good-bye to English if I'm ever to get the Spanish grammar right. Only two more weeks left at the CCM!! Wow it went by fast no? I'm gonna be a real missionary. Oh last week I got to see the ocean in Lima; that was way cool. But insead of sand it was big rocks and apparently there was a earthquake here last Friday? I don't know; I didn't feel it but some elders said they did. Ok I have to give up my computer. Love you lots. Love Hermana Wood!


August 18, 2010
To: Wood, Gary E
I think my (mission) area got smaller. We still have the temple and the CCM since they are in Molina but the rest of my mission, I dont know much. They just barely put a new map up, but it's not detailed; just a couple big cities that were in my area before.

Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 12:39 PM
To: Wood, Gary E
Sorry this computer won't let me send pictures. I will look for another computer, but I might have to try next week. I love you guys. I got to go through the temple with my new companion. It was her first time so I got to be an escort again. My Spanish, I think, is getting better. If you guys are sending anything by dearelder.com I'm not getting anything. Remember to send it to the Perú CCM. Más letters please. Love you guys.


On 8/18/10, Elizabeth Wood wrote:
Today is going good. Wow Shaq is still playing - well I guess he can since he doesnt work much anyway. Yeah, the elders keep talking about college football around here, too. Im just glad I know a little something about it so I can understand. Today we got to go to the temple. Last week the North Americans got to go on a tour of Lima in the afternoon; it was pretty cool. I will be sending pictures. The elders here also keep talking about Pokemon. It reminds me of Bobby and then all the elders were trying to name all the Pokemons, so see if Bob can name all 150 Pokemon. Oh, so I found out this week that I'm allowed to play soccer with the elders; we just have to be careful with contact while playing, so another Hermana and I played it with elders. It was so much fun! I'm sorry to hear about grandma, I hope she feels better soon. I put her name on the prayer roll here in Perú today. I love you guys. Happy anniversary!! Love Hermana Wood.

From: Elizabeth Wood
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 6:29 AM
To: Wood, Gary E
Sorry, I just realized that its 8:15 am here and is probably like 6 or 7am there. Oh well, I hope to hear from you soon. I hope all is well. Thanks for catching me up on sports news before the mission, because it gives me something to talk about with the elders sometimes. Llately they have been playing this silly game where they say we´re going to take a trip and for example: We're going to start in Sacramento, and we're going to buy 5 gallons of ice cream and then we are going to Nashville, and after I think we´ll go to Salt Lake City, where do end our trip? The answer would be Phoenix. Why? Because we just spelled out Suns. Sacramento, 5 = U, Nashville, Salt Lake City. Something tells me that you already know this game but if you don't you can have fun with it. You spell out team names with the first letter of a city and each vowel is a number. 1=A, 2=E, 3=I, 4=O, 5=U, and sometimes 6=Y. Then you end your trip whereever the team is from. It's great fun when you know what's going on and the elders didn't think I could keep up. It's good I'm secretly good with sports teams. Well, now you can have fun with Uncle Wayne. Although I think he knows it too. I have a vague memory of you two doing something like that before. OK I love you and I´ll talk to you later, Padre! Love, your hija, Hermana Wood!

August 11 email

Hola familia,
This week's been kinda slow, just classes and classes. Not much more than that. Yesterday all the missionsaries went out on their missions so all that we have left here is the group I came in with. No Latinos and no "older" kids. We miss them, they were pretty cool. But today we will get new Latinos and sometime at 2 am we will get new North American missionaries. It´ll be fun to meet new people. That´s what we do - continue to get new people. In three weeks I will be out on my mission in my first area! Yikes! My Spanish better get better. Anyway, today we are also moving rooms to make room for the new people and so the cleaning people can clean the rooms really well. So how's grandma doing? I hope she's home now. How's life in CG? Today we get to go on a tour of Peru to go see the sights a little & learn about the history and go shopping! Yeah, it's a like a missionary field trip. LOL, we are a happy bunch of people. LOL. OK, love you guys lots.
Love, Hermana Wood

August 4, 2010

OK everyone, my eye is better! I'm in the clear now, I just have to dodge the colds that seem to be plaguing the CCM. The cold & humidity brings a lot of that. I just remember I've been blessed with health so I do what I can to avoid illness.
My Spanish is coming along. I'm still way nervous to talk to anyone outside of the CCM in Spanish but it's getting better. On Saturdays we go proselyting to less active members in different parts of Lima. So I get to walk around with my companion and a member of the ward to lead the way and go visiting teaching basically. It was cool to walk the streets of Perú. We went to a poor part of the city, it was so different from the U.S. I'm instantly very grateful for everything I had at home. But we got to talk to people, bear our testimony, and talk about the church with people. My understanding in Spanish is still not the best, but I could understand the jist of every conversation. Not enough to say much but it felt like someone was whispering to my mind about what was being said and what I needed to say. Never before when people spoke about the gift of tongues, or the gift of interpretaion, did I understand until then. The Lord knows his children and he knows how to use the missionaries as instruments.
Ok today we went to Immigration (dept), and I think now I'm an official citizen of Perú for 18 months!! Wow! Then after that we went shopping and we went to this store; it's like Walmart. It was so cool to feel like home here, and I've always wondered what it was like to be in a store and be speaking another language that wasn't the native language. Yup, it's weird and cool. People kinda give you weird looks like, "what are they saying?" But then we saw a teacher from the CCM and we're speaking Spanish cause she doesnt understand English.
OK, I love you guys, if I can get more time I will write more. Love you all so much, I hope you will email me pictures soon. Oh how's Grandma? Love you- Hermana Wood

Email #2 - July 27, 2010

Everything's A-OK!

These are pictures of me on the plane, the view from my window on the plane which I drove the flight attendent crazy cause I wouldn't keep my blind closed. Then there are pictures of my companion in pink, Hermana Avalose from Peru. This was her first time thru the temple and I got to be her escort as much as I could help in spanish. The others are my roommates Hermana Bringhurst from Alaska, and Hermana Nuñez from Columbia. The picture of food is our Peru Independence Day Fiesta! The food was good but a lot - I couldn't finish it all. There are pictures from the airport when we landed in Peru. The picture of the family is one of my teachers and his family, not the one that had a seizure. This teacher is so awesome he keeps encouraging me to trust in myself with my Spanish and trust in the Lord; he has great faith. The other teacher is really good, too. There is also a picture of the tallest and the shortest people here; it was comical. And the one picture is of Hermana Corrasca and I. She speaks English real well and wants to learn more so she won't let me speak Spanish to her. She is from Peru I think . I think that is it. I need to make a better list of everything I want to say to you guys as the week goes cause in a few hours I'll think of someting else to say. Oh I got to play soccer on that awesome field. It was fun; it was just all the Hermanas. We also got to teach some of the Peruvians volleyball. On Mondays we have a personal trainer and he is a fútbol coach for some of the national teams and member of the church. He works us pretty hard - wow I'm so sore from yesterday. Ok, well, I've extended my use longer than I was supposed to, so I´ll talk to you all again next week.

Beautiful clouds seen from airplane

Email - July 27, 2010

Hola familia,
Life here is good so far. Today was Independence Day in Peru so we had P-Day moved to today and so I get to write to you all. Next week will go back to normal. Let's see, so far on Friday was the first day of normal classes and in the middle of class in the afternoon our teacher suffered a seizure. It was so crazy! I think he has that as a common enough occurance or something because no medical personnel was called and he returned after dinner to continue to teach! It was crazy! This week that same teacher is completely fine. Today was the first time I got to go to the temple in a month and I had to wear headphones and a translater to understand, but I did the other part in Spanish without much help. The food here is crazy but good, But I don't like the drinks becuase there is a bunch of pulp stuff in it. So far I have no problems going to the bathroom, but I have heard of some elders and sisters having problems. Actually the other night the sisters had a Milk of Magnesia party. I didn't participate because I didn't need to. Let's see. So I may have an obstructed eye duct. The bottom right side of my left eyelid has been swollen and red and just bad. So I talked to the mission president's wife and she talked to the doctor who gave me eye drops because we thought it might be a sty, but then nothing happened. So then the doctor looked at my eye and he thought maybe just an infection and precriped me Cipro. Well today he looked at it again and he thinks it's an obstructed eye duct becuse my eye looks like an infection has lessened but there's still somehting going on with my eyelid. The doctor wants me to go to the eye doctor to have it checked. Oh goodie. Anyway pray my eye gets better as well as my Spanish. I love you all!! I wish I had been able to talk to you all on the phone. You guys better write me soon!!! I'm dying to hear from you all.

Email - July 22, 2010

Hola familia!

Volleyball Court

Well we made it down to Peru; we are alive! So far the food has been good, different but very good. We arrived this morning about 2am- yeah so much fun! But actually for me it was really cool on the plane because they bumped four in our party to the business elite section of the plane and my seat was one of the four somehow! It was so awesome! I´ll never be able to fly coach again. It was very nice though; I could lay my whole seat down and sleep if I wanted to. The food on the plane was terrible though. Im so glad to be off the plane after a whole day of it. Let's see, the CCM is so much smaller than the MTC in Provo. My companion is from Ariquipa Peru, so she doesn't speak English, but she is very nice and helps me with Spanish and tries to understand me even when I speak english. We dont spend much time with our companions though since our languages are different. We don't have class together; we eat meals together and have gym together, and I think we have companion study together, that should go well. We get to go to the temple on Tuesday and on Wed there is a big Peru Independence Day celebration, so we get to try all sorts of different Peruvian foods that day. The mission president is from the US and he holds some meetings for us in English so we wont be completely lost. The learning curve to learn Spanish it so steep that it is hard to keep up. But it's worth the effort. Oh, Steph should see the soccer field they have here. First off there are two little basketball courts, a little place to play football, a sand volleyball court, and one very pampered soccer field! I will have to take a picture for you all. Ok well, I love you all and was happy to talk to all I got to talk to yesterday on the phone. I wish I culd have talked longer and to more people. I hope all this made sense. Again, I love you lots and I'll talk to you soon. Dear Elder still works out here too, so done't forget to write me. Love, Hermana Wood

July 17, 2010 - handwritten letter

Familia!
Como estan? Estoy bien? Let me tell you about today! So once a week we teach "investigators" or rather volunteers that come and act as investigators for us. The volunteers we get are people that speak Spanish because we have language tasks. Last week we contacted people in the "park" then we teach in English. This week we went contacting "door to door" or rather classroom to classroom. Anyway, we have to contact in Spanish only and today that went okay. My companions and I have to work on it, but the people we got to teach today were from Peru, but now live in Utah. So like last week we were allowed to teach a lesson in English. Like I said, our "investigators" in real life and the characters they were playing are from Peru. Although in real life they didn't speak English well. Yikes! (Well, it was a father/son team, but the son who spoke English didn't speak much to us.) So it was a good thing they were members already, but let me tell you about the gift of tongues! I never understood it quite, but today, talking to the two men I know my mind was open and my tongue was loose to be able to understand most of what was said to me and my companions and then a good portion of the words I needed (if I knew them in Spanish already) came to mind! So I partially taught the first lesson in Spanish! Two and a half weeks in the MTC! Just imagine how good my Spanish will be in six weeks when I'm completely out of the MTC & CCM!
So I've been thinking maybe I should share with you what a day in the MTC is like for me. So I wake up about 6 or 6:30am depending on what is going on & time needed to get ready. This morning I had early morning gym where my companions and other hermanas & elders (from our zone) played volleyball outside. It was good weather and was very fun. After that we grabbed a sack breakfast and went to our residence halls to eat & shower. A sack breakfast is usually juice, cereal, milk, bagels, doughnuts, soda; you can only choose 4, but those are the main options. Then we sit in class foreevvver! Especially if we had gym in the morning! Well, there's class and there's times where we have 5 hours to decide as a companionship what we need to get done, but we have to be studying. No going to our beds to sleep! (Unless you've been here for 14 weeks and you're waiting on visas; it happened to a couple of elders that were here when we got here, but now have finally made it to their missions.) After breakfast and class is lunch, then another four hours of class or study, then dinner and then another 2 - 3 hours of study class. It's actually sometimes more busy than that or more interesting than that, but that's the jist. Sometimes we have large group meetings where we learn as a big class with lots of other classes, and sometimes we have devotionals. I'm afraid I've scared anyone else from going on a mission, but don't worry, it's fun & awesome! The food isn't amazing, but it's good. The rest of the time we mess around. If you don't think there is time to mess around, then you underestimate the talents of missionaries. One elder spent his time learning how to say "will you be my wife" in Spanish. Another elder managed to get his lips stuck to a popsicle stick during lunch. It was because the popsicle was really frozen, but it reminded us of "A Christmas Story". (The elder was ok.) And we make/play games to learn Spanish.
Oh, I met an Elder Wood. He is going to serve in Equador and is also going to the Peru CCM. He's really dorky! (Don't get any ideas!) So we went to an in-field language study class (and that's where I met said Elder Wood). Well, I see some elders that told me earlier I needed to meet Elder Wood. So they point him out, he's sitting right in front of me & he introduces himself & finds out we will both be going to the Peru CCM and then says this crazy line, "Looks like we were destined to work together." I think my face said, "You dork!" and then all the elders around him started laughing at him. It was so awkward and now he's going to Peru! Oh well, he'll be with the Equadorian missionaries.
Ok, so that's all I have for now. I love you all & I hope you understood this letter! Next letter will be from Peru!
Love, Hermanda Wood

5 things I'm grateful for:
1. My famiy
2. Gospel
3. Holy Ghost
4. My District
5. Gift of Tongues!

July 14 email

Hola Familia!!
Well they're in! Travel plans that is.  We got our travel itinerary this week.  We leave Salt Lake at 8:25 am and have a 3 hour lay over in Atlanta, GA.  We get there at about 2:10 pm, then we leave GA for Lima, Peru at 5:05 and land at 10:50 pm.  Wow, what a long day!  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  I met a teacher here that went to the Peru CCM on her mission and she said it was awesome and the food is great Peruvian food, so I'm excitedfor that.  This week we had Dallin H Oaks and his wife at our Sunday night fireside.  He was there actually to watch his daughter perform.  She is an accomplished violinist and she put on a musical fireside for us.  It was very nice. Last night we had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy talk to us for our devotional.  It was Ronald T Halverson, he talked about following the spirit and being committed to the work.  I got your letters and am excited to get a package!  I hope it comes in Monday.  Everything here is good.  My Spanish still isn't great, but tell Jeff Reynolds thanks for the letter in Spanish.  I had to laugh, then get my dictionary, but I was grateful for the challenge.  Tell Cathy & Bobby that I miss them lots.  You should send me pictures of you guys!  Well, I have like 2 mins left on this computer before I'm timed out, so I'll write to you soon if I think of more to say when I'm not rushed.

Love, Hermanda Wood!

July 7 hand-written letter

Life here is going good.  I have two companions, Sister Roberts and Sister Penovich.  We get along good, but it is sometimes difficult to work in a trio.  The Spanish seems to be coming along.  Still not fluent, but the strength of the spirit combined with what I do know seems to be a good combination.  Well, today is my first P-day and it has been a welcomed day.  I can get laundry done, write to you people, and rest from the run-around of the MTC.  It never stops here! Which is good, it'll kick the laziness right out of me.  Actually I feel more refreshed having a 10:30 bedtime cause then I have to go to sleep when I'm tired.

So how was your fourth of July?  Here at the MTC we had a freedom celebration show on the 3rd.  Its focus was more on the freedom of religion and how God paved the way through many men so we can have the gospel here in the Americas.  After that we were allowed to break curfew to watch the fireworks from BYU's football stadium.  It was nice.  A few hundred missionaries out on the south lawn, laughing, talking, and singing patriotic songs or church hymns,and somehow a group started singing a Christmas song.  Life at the MTC might be getting to them.  I like it here, people are nice and they always keep you busy, but I"m excited to go to the CCM in Peru.  On Sunday it was nice, we had a mission conference, then sacrament, and after another lengthy review of the rules of the MTC (not because we are breaking them, but just so everyone is still clear on the rules and standards), we were able to go on a temple walk.  Nothing too major, but we got to go to the temple and walk around.  I actually saw Elder Crockett (Justin) there.  We said hi and found out that he leaves on Tuesday, which was yesterday.

Again, life at the MTC is good. The spirit here is so strong and elders and sisters walk around speaking so many different languages!  I've heard Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Samoan, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Marshalees, German, Tagalo, and of course Spanish!  I'm sure I've heard more, but I don't know the difference.  Here in Utah, the weather has been good, but they keep the air conditioning going all the time in the residence halls, so inside I freeze.  I don't believe it's hot enough to justify so much air conditioning, but don't tell that to someone from Utah.  Right now I'm wearing my sweater in my room because it's 70 degrees with air blowing on us in the room.

I love you all and miss you lots.  Don't worry, they are over-feeding me and keeping us over-protected.  Today I think we get to walk around the temple later.  So if I didn't say it before, one week accomplished!  Today new missionaries also came in today as old ones left for their fields yesterday.  Yeah, we aren't the newbies anymore!  Ok, well, again, I love you and hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Hermana Wood

5 things I'm grateful for:

1) My family
2) The gospel
3) The Book of Mormon
4) To live in America
5) Surving the first week here!
( 6) Finding vending machines; here, we eat dinner so early I'm hungry again before I go to bed.)

July 2 Letter

Hola Familia!  This week has been physically exhausting!  Let's see, let's start with what happened after I was stolen by the missionaries.  First I was taken to my room by my host sister, then I was quickly wisked away to "check in", I confirmed I was here, got my pic taken, got my name tag, books, then taken straight to class!  It was crazy!  Then we had a big meeeting with the MTC mission president.  There they discussed obedience! obedience! obedience!  These last couple of days we have been focused on learning how to pray in Spanish and how to bear my testimoy. It is amazing how the spirit works in learning a language!  I have taken spanish classes, but I feel like some of what I have learned before is being brought back to some remembrance, but clearly my spelling is terrible in English.  (That's okay, Beth, Mom will take care of that!)We are also learning to recognize, with the spirit's help, what people need, or recognize what a person is looking for in their lives.  It's amazing and the spirit is so strong here, but it is not easy.  I feel I have so much to learn so fast, once we are in Peru I hope I have picked up enough Spanish to understand and communicate in espanol to my companion.  Yike!  Pray for me!
Okay, something I need from you guys is mucho letters!!! I feel lonely out here and would like support.  I know I am here for a reason and I feel like I know I am supposed to be here. I know God loves you and is mindful of you all.  I love you and miss ya!  Love, Hermana Wood
P.S. My estimated departure is July 21st (for Peru).

I've survived my first week at the MTC!

Received by email on July 7, 2010 -

Hey familia! How are you all doing?  I've survived my first week of the mtc!  I love it here.  Today is my p-day.  How was 4th of July for you guys?  It was good here.  I sent a long letter home today so you can raed about that there. I'm sorry to hear about mittens, well for Jenni, but that cat was old haha.  Is it sad I'm more sad about Stodomier than the cat?  Hey you guys can send me letters through dearelder.com its like an email for you guys but it gets printed out and put in our mail box so it's like getting mail for real lol.  Tell Jenni about it too cause I don't have her email.  So far all we do is sing, pray, study, try to learn spanish and eat.  It's the perfect world if I weren't in a dress for most of it lol.  How's grandma and grandpa?  I hope grandma is home now.  I can't believe its ony been a week.  In a couple of more weeks I'll be in Peru! Crazy!  I'm getting better at learning to comprehend spanish, I think, although we all usually hear the same words over and over so maybe I shouldn't say that yet.  So any other big news in the sports world?  Its hard to know what to say since I wrote an actual letter today.  I only have 30 min of email time on wed while I am here, I don't know about what it'll be like in Peru.  Ok I love you all and miss you!  Dad make sure everyone gets to read this please. :) love you all, love Hermanda Wood!