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 :)

I'm Staying in Capitan Bermudez!!! : )

Great great great news!!! Transfers are this week and we found out that both Hermana Van Wagenen and I are staying in the great Capitàn Bermudez! WOOHOO!!!! I am so stoked to be with her and in this area for more time. We still have a lot of work to do and a lot to experience. :)

This week we had the Mission Christmas party! It was great to see some of my missionary friends and sing some Christmas songs. We all even got candy canes and mini Argentina flags! :) I also had divisions with one of the Sister Training Leaders the day after. I went to her area and got to experience being her companion for a day. There was a super cute investigator who was so excited and willing to be baptized even though she still doesn't know a lot about the gospel. She says that she just knows and feels that it is true. Awesome! :)

Our cute 13 year old investigator Andrea is doing really well. Unfortunately her dad doesn't want her to get baptized right now because he thinks she is to young. Soooo, her baptism has been postponed but she is still going strong! Her mom and brother have come with her to church three times now! YES! And she even came to the first ever Young Womens in Excellence activity in our ward on Thursday. She sang with the other girls and said she felt really happy. Yesterday we visited her with an awesome 17 year old member and brought her her very own Personal Progress book. She is great and still preparing for baptism! :) It is amazing to see the change in her mom as well. Her mom has been inactive for a long time but is soaking in the lessons and making changes now as well. Woohoo!!!!

Claudio and Nelly are doing awesome as well. They were planning on getting a date for their marriage yesterday so we will be checking up on that pronto! We taught them about tithing and fasting and fast offering last week. They seriously are some of the cutest people ever! They understand that it is a trial of our faith and putting God first in our lives and they are willing to do it. I love how with everything we teach Claudio says `` Que lindo`` or how good. And Nelly has said that she had done church stuff in the past because she had been told to do it but never has she felt this desire to do stuff like she does now. :) These people are seriously changing my life.

Well loved ones, there is a lot of heat and a lot of spiritual stuff happening down here in Argentina. Love it. I have been extremely blessed! Have a great week! Feliz Navidad! Remember the real reason for this season. Jesus Christ was born and still lives! I am so grateful for our Savior! :)

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

We were helping out at another branch's missionary activity and the primary girls were SO stoked to meet Sister missionaries! One of the cutest moments of my life!

We had an asado with a member from another ward last pday! mmmhmm

First ever Young Women in Excellence for Capitàn Bermudez! WOOHOO!

Andrea!

The Spirit is the real teacher

Hello loved ones!!! :)

I hope this week of December has been awesome for you all! We have enjoyed belting out some Christmas songs over here. This morning our dear Columbian neighbors even gave us some Columbian hot chocolate! Even with this crazy heat it was delicious! :)

Okay, another update with food- this week I tried cow heart. Hahaha, not too bad but I don't think I will miss it either. :) I tried it yesterday at an asado with an awesome part member family. Two of their girls are baptized and the parents are great investigators. They want to be baptized too but there are complications with marriage/divorce papers that they have to work through first. But they come to church EVERY week for all three hours and we visit them a lot. Oh funny thing- yesterday we walked to their house with them after church for the asado (BBQ). It was super hot! To my surprise right when we got to their house their littlest girl (about 5 years old) stripped down to her underwear and climbed into this blue barrel filled with water. Hahahaha, she gave a huge sigh of relief and just stayed in this blue barrel for about an hour to stay cool! Hahaha, who needs swimming pools when you have that? Haha so cute!

Okay, I have a big testimony that the Spirit is the real teacher. Two of our amazing investigators, Claudio and Nelly, have been progressing a lot. However, they keep telling us that they want more time before baptism because they feel like they don't know enough. Hermana Van Wagenen and I felt like we needed to have a lesson specifically to help them realize that they ARE ready and that baptism is another important step in their progression. We went into a lesson this week with the goal of watching the restoration video and helping them to realize for themselves that they can and should get baptized. After the video we read some scriptures in Alma about how this life is the time to prepare to meet God. We asked them what they thought....Claudio's immediate response was something like `` Well, I need baptism. We keep saying we're not ready and I need to stop that and just do it.`` We hadn't even said ONE word about baptism yet. It really hit me in that moment that the spirit had been testifying to him and helping him all along. We talked some more and later they were the first ones to also bring up that they knew they needed to get married before baptism too. WOW! It seriously felt like a perfect lesson. The Spirit helped them know what they need to do. Right now they have the goal of getting married on the 3rd of January and baptized on the 11th. :)

We also got a new amazing investigator this week. His name is Federico and he is the 19yr old cousin of a recent convert family. He had come to church twice before we even met with him and he had even talked with the bishop before and said he wanted to get baptized. We met with him twice this week. Wow! Everything we said was like gold to him! He was just soaking it all in and believing every word. The Lord has definitely been preparing him. He does have some challenges to overcome before baptism but he knows that this church is true and the path he wants to take. I am grateful to be able to be here and help him on his journey! :)

The Lord's timing amazes me! Get this- after another lesson with Claudio and Nelly this week we felt impressed to go visit a recent convert. So glad we did! She was really sad and struggling with some stuff. After that we felt like we should go talk to our ward mission leader really quick. When we walked up to his house he was outside giving water to this really sweet pregnant lady with torn up shoes. She ended up being convinced to come inside and get new shoes from them. And then good ol' missionary Hermano Estaban (our ward mission leader) brings up the gospel and how we share messages that will help. She even said that she never comes over this way but felt like she should for some reason that day. MMmmhmm, that is the spirit working right there. :) We got a return appointment to meet with her this week! The Lord's timing is incredible! :)

WOW! So a lot of great things happened this week! I am immensely blessed to be here. I love these people so much! :) I love all of you so much too! Stay strong! Sing Christmas songs and drink wassel! :) Merry Christmas season! So grateful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Beating the heat!

Preparation day in Rosario

Cute little Josepeh

We ate frogs . . . . . .

``It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas``...hahaha, that song just doesn't feel the same in this crazy Argentine heat! Haha, even though it is not cold or snowing here, there is still a lot of excitement in the air with the holidays for Hermana Van Wagenen and I. :) I don't think I will ever forget my Thanksgiving of 2013. Argentina does not celebrate Dìa de Gracias (and a lot don't even know what it is) but we still wanted to do something extra to bring more cheer into the lives of these good people. SO we bought 20 pesos worth of caromelos (which is 200 CAROMELOS!) and made turkey hands. Then we taped those things to tarjetas (church pass along cards with a picture of Christ) and handed them out! I think a lot of people were confused with our turkey hands but nevertheless, they got a treat and a card! :) We also did our own little Turkey Trot in the morning. Hahaha, definitely an interesting Thanksgiving!

In other news, I ate some frog last Monday. :) Not too bad! But I`m still working my way up to trying the chicken bones that our Columbian family eats.

I had some interesting moments with Spanish this week. We had lunch with the Bishop and his family the other day. I asked the Bishop how many siblings he had. He responded something that I THOUGHT was about having step brothers and sisters. So I responded `` oh, que bueno!`` He got a confused look on his face and asked me if I understood. My companion quickly informed me that he had told me two of his brothers had died! Oh my goodness, I had just told him with a smile and a nod how great it was that his siblings had passed away! Hahaha, thankfully he knows I am still trying to figure out the language.

So we are teaching this wonderful 13 year old girl named Andrea. She has a baptism date for the 14th of December but we are still trying to work with the dad. Her mom is a less active member (but they have come to church twice now!) and is supportive but the dad doesn't think she is old enough for baptism. We don't see the dad very much so it is a challenge trying to figure out a way we can help him. But we know that if Andrea is supposed to get baptized on the 14th that the Lord will provide a way!! :) Something Andrea said really impressed me. She was telling us about how there is someone else that she wants us to teach and help. We asked her why she has this desire. Andrea without hesitation responded "because she is my friend." It was simple and powerful. Isn't that the way it should be? We should be sharing the gospel all over the place because these people are our friends and we know the gospel will help them. Another cool experience with Andrea- we were trying to watch the Restoration video with her and her mom and brother but their player was not working. We decided to say a prayer. Guess what happened next? Yep, a few minutes later the player was working and the spirit was flowing with the movie! :)

Alright, Argentina culture time! I think the area I am serving in is considered average on the Argentine wealthy scale. There are quite a few nice houses but there are also a lot of 2 room houses. Not many people have air conditioning and I have yet to see carpeted floors. It is different but these people are amazing and content with what they have. Definitely a lesson for me in that we really don't need worldly things. They also drink Mate ALL of the time! No matter what time of day it is, we find people drinking this herbal-sugary-hot water- drink. I'd like to try it after my mission. :) Not many people have cars but there are a lot of motorcycles. I have also seen quite a few people going around in a horse driven wagon thing. :) Hermana Van Wagenen and I walk most of the time but part of our area is about one hour and a half away so we usually take the bus at least once in a day.

Weeeeeeeeeeeell, that's all for now folks! I love you all and am so grateful for the support! Have an awesome week! Jesus Christ lives! So grateful for that!

Con amor,

Hermana Woodfield

Just the friendly neighborhood horse :)

We ate frogs

Nicol and her Book of Mormon