Welllllllllllllllllllllll, change is in the air . . . . . . . .

Hola everyone! I can't believe that another 6 weeks has come and gone and transfers are here again. I remember the last time I was superrrrr nervous that Hermana Van Wagenen was going to leave me and then STOKED when we found out she was to stay for another transfer. I am really grateful that I got to be with her for 3 months. I have learned sooooooooo much. Her example and love has impacted me in many ways. And now she is really is going to leave me. She leaves tomorrow to go train another blessed missionary. And our cute Hermana Hernandez leaves today for the mission home to receive her trainer tomorrow (maybe it will be Hermana Van Wagenen!).

As for me....I am staying in my beloved Capitàn Bermùdez!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!! I love it here. :) And I am getting a mini missionary for my companion. This is someone who will only serve for 6 weeks (one transfer) to see how it is. She is from Argentina. I am super stoked to have someone from this great country help me out with my Spanish and the culture. I am kinda nervous that she will be expecting someone who already knows Spanish and how to do everything. I still feel like I have so much to learn but I know that this is God's plan for me. I have faith that I am supposed to be with this wonderful Argentinian companion who has desires to serve the Lord. I really am excited to love her and show her the joys of missionary work. I just need to put my faith in the Lord and His power to help me with my weaknesses. Let the adventure continue!!!

Hahaha, I am grateful for this wonderful and crazy time in my life and every experience that it brings. Missions truly are an experience of a life time! Love it!

This week was really good! We definitely saw a huge miracle and blessing on Sunday. A few weeks ago we fasted as a companionship to do better with contacting and for our menos activas (less active members). These wonderful people seriously break my heart! There are so many AMAZING people who have testimonies but are not showing their faith through church attendance. They are allowing themselves to miss out on blessings and protection and it is really sad. There are a few families that we have been visiting in particular. They haven't come to church in years and KNOW that they should.

We received a wonderful answer to our fast on Sunday when we walked through the doors of the church and saw Hermano and Hermana C standing in the hallway. THEY CAME! And then our dear Hermana N arrived in time for Sacrament Meeting. We were blessed to see three less active members come to church!!! :D YAY! Our ward mission leader told us that this should feel as if there was a baptism. Definitely a great feeling to see these precious children of God at church renewing their baptism covenants! :)

Well, love you all! Thanks for all of the love and support. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace and happiness it brings into our lives. Jesus Christ lives!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Woodfield

Claudio and Nelly!

Carballo Family!

Emeli, Lucas, and Kids :)

Home-made empanadas :) one of the best things ever made!

Hermana Raquel and her daughter Giselle. LOVE THEM SO MUCH. They feed us every Friday, give us rides in their car, her husband is an AMAZING ward mission leader, and Giselle knows english. :)

Lunch with a wonderful member family!

Handpainted gift from Hermana Neder!

Some of the sweetest and most amazing kids! Tean, Moraina, and Abby! kids of Lucas and Emeli

Companions!

Familia Montes!

At district meeting

My sweet new ride...hahahaha :)

Bautismo!!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALEJANDRO WAS BAPTIZED ON FRIDAY! AND CONFIRMED ON SUNDAY. PEOPLE. ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.

It seriously was soooo awesome!!!! We arrived at the church about 45 minutes early to set up for the baptism and there was Alejandro. Just sitting outside in his nice shirt and tie waiting and ready to go. And it was his birthday! What an awesome experience!!!! And a recent convert, Lucas, was able to baptize him. Our ward mission leader told us that Lucas was really nervous so Thursday he went over and practiced with him in a pool. Hahaha, it just warms my heart thinking about it. :)

Alejandro's Baptism!!!!

It all went really well! The door to the font was locked and we didn't have a key so we improvised and sang hymns for awhile until the key was found. It was really cool though. We JUST finished the last verse to ``How Great Thou Art`` when the door opened and the baptism went on. I definitely felt the spirit so strongly when Alejandro came up from out of the water. Hermana Van Wagenen, Hermana Hernandez and I all were crying while we were waiting for him to change afterwards. Definitely a special and touching moment for all! I just kept thinking that another precious soul has been brought that much closer to God. Love it! I am so blessed to be here and have witnessed that. I know with all of my heart that the Lord has prepared him and the Holy Ghost has been teaching him and we have just been His instruments here. So blessed. :) Afterwards we all celebrated with torta (cake like thing) and sang happy birthday!

This has been an amazing week. We are blessed to have some new investigators! Get this- we were walking away from a great lesson with Claudio and Nely when randomly we run into a member from a nearby ward. He asks us if we have time to go visit a friend of his. Off we go to a house a few minutes away where they answer the door, let us in, and we have a great lesson. The mom was crying when she was telling us about some of her experiences. She has a great testimony already and says she is going to read the Book of Mormon. It just amazed me. The Lord is in the details! Found a member who had a friend who could meet with us at that exact time. So great! :)

Andrea and Family









I am learning so much here on my mission! There are hard times and hot days but so many blessings!!!!! I have a new found immense gratitude for cold showers now. :) Haha, but seriously, I love my mission and am forever grateful for what the Lord has done for me and is doing for me. I know He loves and knows me personally and loves and knows each of you personally as well! Have a great week! Blessings and miracles are everywhere!

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

My companions - Hermana Van Wagenen and Hermana Hernandez

Ice Cream with the Young Women of the Capitan Bermudez Ward!!!!

With Hermana Cruz (from Nicaragua), Hermana Hernandez (from Honduras), and Hermana Ospinal (from Peru)

Hello loved ones!!!!! :)

Sorry- I don't have much time today.

We have a new companion! :) She just got here from the Guatemala MTC and is from Honduras. She is way cute! And she definitely helps Hermana Van Wagenen and I to speak in Spanish. :)

Update with investigator Alejandro- the plan is for him to get baptized this Friday!! :) He has a lot of faith- I love it! He even came to the church on Satuday to help clean. And this Friday is his birthday. What a great birthday present- baptism! Eternal salvation! :)

I love something that Nelly said in a lesson this week. She said that she understands now why she has trials. That before they were just hard things but she knows they have a purpose now. I love this! The gospel gives us such peace and reason to everything!!!

Sorry again that this is so short. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thanks for all of your love and support!!!!! :D Jesus Christ lives and can and will help us with everything!

Con Amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Feliz Dia de Reyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What in the world is Dìa de Reyes?? Haha, it is a holiday celebrating when the wise men went and saw Jesus Christ. I had no idea there even was a holiday for that until I got here. How they celebrate it- put out water and grass for the camels the night before. AND put out your shoes so that the kings can put presents inside. :) Haha, Hermana Van Wagenen and I DEFINITELY celebrated that and put out our shoes and everything for the camels. Unfortunately I think they might have skipped our little place this year...haha, but it was still way fun to be an Argentine and do that. :)

We had some interesting experiences on New Year's Day. One of them was with a friend of a member we visited. The lesson was good but for part of it Hermana Van Wagenen and I were trying VERY hard not to burst out laughing. First of all, they had some juice and this bottle of what I thought was water. I thought the point of this water was just to put in our juice if it needed to be watered down or something. Well, I was just craving some water so I filled up my whole glass with it. Weellllll, I took a nice big gulp only to realize that it was some kind of flavorless soda! I'm not sure what it was for but it definitely was NOT for drinking by itself. Hermana Van Wagenen had seen it coming and tried to warn me but I hadn't heard her. I swished down what I could and then when both the friend and the member we were with were preoccupied with something else I dumped out the drink on the grass and filled it up with some nice juice. Hahaha, it was so crazy. And then we asked the friend to say the closing prayer. And she said yes and she did it....but it was all in her head. So we sat there in silence for about 2 minutes wondering what we should do. We just waited for her to finish and open her eyes. Next time we will talk more about prayers and how we can say them out loud too. :)

We also had one of the most intense experiences this week. We finally were able to have another lesson with Andrea and her dad. Andrea is so ready for baptism and the only thing that is pushing that back is her dad. We went in a little nervous but with determination to talk more about it with him. We started out talking about Faith in Jesus Christ. It was really good and I felt the spirit but I think her dad was kinda distracted. However, towards the end of the lesson we asked him how he felt or what he thought and he gave us a nice long response that opened up the way for us all to talk more openly with him specifically. The topic of baptism came up. He shared with us a lot of his feelings that you should have a relationship with God and you shouldn't rush into it. He also talked about how it is a big responsibility and he thinks that maybe Andrea would leave the church after her baptism because she has a boyfriend who isn't a member. He actually expressed a lot of really good stuff. I really like that he truly loves his daughter and knows that baptism is something really important.

Andrea was so awesome throughout all of this! She powerfully bore her testimony to her dad that she HAS prayed about this church and KNOWS that it is true and that she is NEVER going to leave it. She says that she reads from the scriptures every day. She said that baptism is important and would help her. It was amazing. This 13 year old girl wants to be baptized so bad and is overcoming her fear and shyness about expressing her feelings with her dad. There were some seriously intense moments were the air felt so thick and I just prayed hard in my head and thought ``what in the world is going to happen next?``

Well, a lot of testimonies were shared and more feelings expressed and Hermana Van Wagenen asked him if we had his permission for his daughter to be baptized. My heart was beating so fast waiting for his response. Buuuuuut, he paused and said that he wanted to talk more about it with his daughter and would let us know. OKay...he didn't say yes but A LOT of ground was covered. I think we all understand his feelings and prospective better and he understands those of his daughter better as well. And oh man, just let the difference sink in- from the first time we met her dad when he came home during a lesson and she RAN and hid her Book of Mormon to this wonderful night when she boldly and honestly shared her testimony and desires with him. WOW. And guess what?? He invited us to eat with them sometime! We are taking that as a very good sign. Basicallyyyyyy, miracles do happen. God has a plan with everything! I know He helping out Andrea and her family very much and she is progressing towards the important step of baptism! :)

I love you all mucho! I know Jesus Christ lives and loves us. I know He is with us through our deepest joys and our hardest sorrows. He can and WILL help each and every one of us. I am so grateful for His gospel and that we can have peace and joy every day in this life! :)

Feliz dìa de reyes!

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

With Hermana Van Wagenen. I love being a missionary!!!

Pictures!!!

Santa!!

Christmas morning with our homemade tree

We came back to our place and this is what we found... haha, our Columbian family covered in flour and eggs! I guess every year on the last day of the year people from Columbia get together and have a parade and throw things at each other...haha

Our Merry Christmas district meeting : )

FELIZ NAVIDAD Y FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!!!!!!! : D

Loved ones!!!!!!!! What a wonderful time of year! I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas and are enjoying the new year. It is so crazy to me that it is now 2014. Where did the year go?? 2013 was such an amazing year! It was the year I finished my first year of college and left on my amazing mission to Rosario, Argentina! :) I have been so extremely blessed! I have experienced so much and grown un MONTON! (a lot)! Seriously, my testimony and love for the gospel have been strengthened immensely and I am forever grateful. This truly has been one of the most amazing years of my life and I am never ever going to forget it.

And now I am about to start another one of the most amazing years of my life- 2014!!! This is a mission year! How cool is it that this whole year I will be a full time misionera for my beloved Savior and Reedemer Jesus Christ?!?! I am a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is so incredible. I am so honored and humbled to be where I am doing what I do. I am so excited for this year! It is time to put forth an even bigger and better effort to changing and improving myself and giving everything to this great work of salvation. Bring it on 2014! :)

So quite a few things have happened since the last time I was able to send an email. We have some new investigators!!! One of them is named Alejandro. He is a great man who has come to church twice now and has accepted a baptism date for the 18th of January! WOO! He has a lot of faith! We just have to make sure to teach him simply and clearly. He doesn't understand a lot of things very quickly and we are not sure if he knows how to read...but he has a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church of God. What I absolutely love is that you don't have to know everything to be baptized. Baptism is just the begining! Baptism is just the door to learning so much more. We are excited to help him strengthen his testimony and make this important step in his life.

The other new investigators are Monica and Jonathon. Now they have an interesting and sad story. This live in a place called the esponicio. It is basically a very humble campground. They don't have a lot of things. A lot of the time they don't even have light or water. They have 3 kids right now and she is pregnant with another one due in a month. Jonathon isn't working right now either. Apparently he has done some bad things with the law and can't work. Any of the money they somehow manage to get usually goes to his addictions to alcohol. So most days Monica goes around to the neighbors asking for food so her kids can eat. They seriously have one of the saddest stories I have ever heard or seen. Monica has been super sad (understandably so) and talked to a recent convert about it one day and how she wants las misioneras to visit her. SOOOOO we came. :) We have taught them twice now. AND they came to church this past week! I just love how the bright light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring such hope and happiness into lives. There are some challenges they have to overcome but we have a lot of hope and love for them! This wonderful gospel can and will change their lives!!!!!

Another experience. A couple weeks ago we were teaching a contact from the bus. This women's daughter is of another religion and has a lottttttt of knowledge about the Bible and religion. She has also investigated our church a little bit and has a lot of questions and doubts. So we went in with plans to teach the Restoration. And we did...in a way...with a lot of side questions and stuff. We eventually just told them that we don't know the answers to everything but we do have our testimonies. We told them that the important thing was that they pray and ask God for themselves. A question they asked that hit me pretty hard was- why don't they send older, wiser and more experienced people out as missionaries who can answer more questions? I thought about this one for a quite a while afterwards. Why are young people out as missionaries who are trying to speak another language and preach without perfect knowledge of every single thing??

It hit me in the lesson and afterwards that God works miracles everywhere and has been doing things differently then the world expects or wants ALL throughout history. Jospeh Smith was FOURTEEN years old when the first vision happened. Mormon was 15 years old when he was a captain of the Nephite army. And Jesus Christ, the SAVIOR of the world, was born in a stable. Not in a palace or another place of high stature. God does his work in a different way- a better way. The BEST way. And if 18 and 19 year old boys and girls are being sent out to preach the healing word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ then by golly I KNOW God has a reason for it and has prepared the way. I may not be able to answer every single question or resolve all doubts but I CAN and WILL trust in the Spirit and say what I feel and know to be true. And that is what we did. We bore our testimonies and invited them to read and pray and feel for themselves. My testimony was strengthened through this intense experience. I know I am here for a reason. I know God has prepared a way with all of his commandments. I am SO grateful for that. :)

WEEEELLLL, happy new year! We all have so many blessings! Let's all make this year one of the best yet! There is so much to experience and learn. Life is good. :) Con an immense amount of amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield :)