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.