First Week in the Field!!!! Johnstown, Colorado . . . . . . .

Wow!!!! First week in the field! Oh my goodness! What a week! This week has definitely been tough but it has also been great! I have learned so much and my testimony has been strengthened immensely!

First of all, the plane ride to the beautiful state of Colorado was great! It was WONDERFUL to be able to talk with my dear sweet family! I thought I might be flying alone to Colorado but it turned out that there was a big group of missionaries going there! Some of them are actually visa waiters as well! They are waiting to go to Brazil! Anyways, on the plane ride I sat next to a man named Patrick. He is a member who is going through some difficult times right now. We had some really good conversations and shared some scriptures with each other. He also gave me some mission advice. :) It was great for me to work on following the Spirit with what someone needs. After the plane ride we met our mission president (President Brown) and his wife. Super nice! The group of missionaries going to the Fort Collins mission all rode to a stake center there and had some meetings. Later on we got our assignments and met our new companions! I am currently serving in the Johnstown area. My companion is Sister Christensen. It is an English speaking area and she is an English speaking missionary. SO I am not able to use my Spanish very much. I am kinda worried about my Spanish but I KNOW that this area is where I am supposed to be. I am trying to use my hour of language study as best I can! The Gift of Tongues is real! I know that! I know that if I am continually striving to do my best with Spanish that I WILL learn it when the Lord needs me to.

There is a lot to say and not a huge amount of time to say it... haha, common theme. :) I will do my best to answer all of the questions! The missionaries in my mission do stay with member families. I am with the Vandenburgh family! Very sweet couple! We stay in their basement! I am so grateful for the service they are giving by letting us stay with them!

Hahahahahaha, soooooo the lovely Cox family sent a picture to you mom! I am so grateful that they did that! I was hoping it would reassure you all that I was safe. :) So, they were the first family I had a meal with. We got to their house and I met them all and we sat down to eat...and Brother Cox pulls out GREEN pancakes and GREEN eggs. Then he plops down a nice big glass of some green liquid right in front of me. Hahaha, I had no idea what it was! This all definitely caught me by surprise! Found out later that it was green orange juice. It all tasted really good! Sister Christensen enlightened me later by explaining that it was a "Greenie Meal." Because I am brand new into the field I am a "greenie." Hahaha, of course! What else should a greenie be eating? :)

I have been able to meet a LOT of members already! They are all so great! This ward is really missionary minded and it is wonderful! The Bishop is amazing! The Ward Mission Leader is amazing! All really great people!!! I want to work really hard to gain the trust of the ward and make sure they know that we will work hard. I am so grateful to be here. This area is amazing and I am excited to be here!

All of our investigators are doing really well too! We have four right now and I have been able to meet them. GREAT PEOPLE! One man stopped chewing tobacco after doing it for like 36 years! He is getting baptized this Friday! What amazing faith! Miracle!

Well, I have to go! I love you all so very much! There is so much more I want to say! Know I love you and am doing well! The Gospel is true! I am so grateful to be a missionary! Thanks for all of the love and support I feel! LOVE YOU!


Love, Hermana Woodfield :)

MY REASSIGNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I GOT MY REASSIGNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GOODNESS!

"Sister Woodfield:
At this time, we have not received your visa to travel to your mission. You will be serving a temporary assignment in the Colorado Fort Collins Mission until your visa arrives."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I HAVE BEEN CRYING! SOOOOO EXCITED!

Frontier Airlines

MONDAY August 19th

From Salt Lake City to Denver Colorado! Departing at 7:30am and arriving 8:52am


LOVE YOU!

Week SEVEN in the MTC! :)

Loveeeeee Argentina!

My awesome teacher! Hermana Christensen!

We are going to Argentina!!!!!









Hello wonderful family and friends!!!!!!!!! This is Hermana Woodfield reporting from her 7th week in the MTC. Reporting that everything is WONDERFUL and I have a deep love for the MTC. :)

I definitely did not think I would be here this long but I am so grateful for this opportunity. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me and that included more time here. My testimony of how the Lord's timing really is the absolute BEST thing for us has really grown this week. Only one member of my district received a reassignment last week. Hermana Carlson left early Tuesday morning (at 2:30am!) for Sacramento, California. It was sad to have her part but we are all very happy and excited for her too! I KNOW that the rest of my district and I have stayed here for a reason. I know there are many reasons! Two of them included being here for an AMAZING Tuesday night Devotional with ELDER RICHARD G. SCOTT and going through the Temple this morning! YES!

Sooooo, the wonderful devotional- so amazing! Elder Richard G. Scott a member of the QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES was the speaker at the Devotional on Tuesday! It was a worldwide devotional! I think some of the MTCs around the world were able to see it live and others watched it soon after. My district and I had the awesome opportunity to be in the choir! It was so great! His main topic was on prayer.

Now get this- (time for some background info) Sunday night most of my district went to go see what we thought would be a movie about President Monson. We got there and for some reason they announced we would be watching a talk by President Monson and President Uchtdorf instead. After President Monson's talk they announced that they didn't have Uchtdorf's talk so they played a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott instead. HIS TALK WAS ABOUT PRAYER. Then in class on Tuesday our focus was on PRAYER and our teacher even played a clip from Elder Scott's talk. THEN that night Elder Scott came in PERSON and talked about PRAYER. Man, oh man! Hahahaha, okay Heavenly Father, I'm getting the message. :) Coincidence? I think not! Haha, I hope all of that made sense. :)

Anyways, his talk on Tuesday was so amazing! What a cute and wonderful man he is! TWICE during his talk he gave an apostolic blessing of the Gift of Tongues on all those learning a language! A blessing from an Apostle of the Lord!!! He talked about how God is not an absent Father. He loves us each immensely. He said that the Lord has called us to succeed gloriously, not fail. I know that that is true for missionaries with our calls as well as in LIFE. The Lord has sent us here to SUCCEED GLORIOUSLY. He will not abandon us. He will help us! Something else that was amazing and really touched my heart- during his talk Elder Scott paused and wiped his eyes and said something like, "I've been emotional tonight and I think I might tell you why. For some time now my wife has been beyond the veil and I've had the strongest feeling that she has been permitted to be here tonight." Wow! That wonderful man loves his wife so much and misses her. How wonderful that he would share that with us and that he felt that! After the devotional on his way out he stopped about 3 or 4 times and waved at us all. At one point he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted "BE GOOD!" and then another time he shouted "I feel so much love!" We all waved and shouted out that we loved him! Basically, the Tuesday night devotional was an amazing experience and I am so blessed that I was able to still be here!

hahahahahahaha : )









SO, the Provo Temple reopened this week! Since we are still here, we got to go this morning! It was amazing! I loved it all! I felt SO MUCH peace! I love temples! I love the Lord! The gospel is true!

Let's see- you asked what a regular day for me is like. The most common outline of a day includes: breakfast at 7am, 3 hours of class in the morning, 1 hour of personal study, lunch, 3 hours of class, 1 hour of companion study, dinner, about 1 hour of gym, 1 hour of TALL time (computer program that helps with teaching the gospel in Spanish), 1 hour of language study, and daily planning. Within class time we usually teach an investigator and learn more Spanish grammar. That's the simple outline. And a lot of days have different things going on too: Tuesdays have devotionals and district reviews (we talk about the devotional), Wednesday new missionaries arrive at the MTC (always exciting), Thursdays are Pdays, Fridays are pizza night (you know I gotta love that!) and then Sundays have a bunch of awesome meetings, devotionals, talks, Sacrament Meetings and things. The MTC is great! What a place!

Well, I love you all! The gospel is true! Let me leave you with these inspiring words of advice Sister Doman (Branch Presidency 1st Counselor's wife) always says:

1. Work harder then everybody else. We know how to work. Nobody outworks us.
2. Love like you have never loved before. Everybody just wants to be loved!
3. LAUGH a lot! Have fun!

I know The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know it with all of my heart. I know Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of ALL mankind. I know God lives and loves us. I know that we are NEVER alone. The Savior Jesus Christ is always there for us. I know Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. I am so grateful for this gospel and for my mission. I'm so grateful for this life! The Lord lives!

Love, Hermana Lindsey Woodfield
p.s. No news on my reassignment yet! When I know I will email you! :)

LOVE YOU!

Four Hermanas

Goodbye to Hermana Eyring!

Okay, another week! Hello! : )

Making a getaway from the MTC!

Hermana Carlson and me!

Hermana Rasband and me with some friends! The one on the left is from FINLAND and the other is from ROME- both going to Greece :)

Smelling temple flowers! :) haha, the face I'm making:)









Weeeeeeeeeell, hello my dear loved ones!!!! Another week has come and gone! And WHAT a week! Every week is soooo amazing! I am finishing up my sixth week at the MTC! Wow, have I really been here that long?!?!?! Haha, how has this happened! I feel like I was just writing my last letter to you! Mission time sure is interesting!

Anyways, I'm sure you are wondering- WHERE in the world is Hermana Woodfield going to at the end of this week?? I have REALLY been wondering that as well. My six weeks at the MTC is up! Well, today I received my answer! Due to the overwhelming amount of names that are being submitted for reassignments (for no-visa reasons), there has been some delay. SO, I have the great opportunity to spend another week at the MTC. My district thought we would be receiving our reassignments today but instead we received papers that said we would receive them next week. I'm not really sure what we will be doing this next week because we thought we would be leaving on Monday or so. At first I was really surprised but I am really happy now! The MTC is an amazing place and I get to spend another week in its wonderfulness. :) Everyone in my district except two people have gotten that fateful paper. There must be more that we need to learn here in the MTC before we head out into the field. I can DEFINITELY use more help with Spanish! Haha, and this is a good lesson in patience and enduring to the end. :) ALSO, something my companion and I were talking about- another reason why this is great: This is teaching us even more that God is in charge. We need to be humble, patient, and submissive to whatever His will is. HE is in charge and over all- not me. I thought I would be leaving the MTC in a few days but that is not Heavenly Father's plan for me. Definitely a great lesson for me in trusting and doing His will. SOOOO from all of this- I am staying at the MTC for another week; I think I will receive my reassignment by next Friday (and when I do I can email you about it!!!!); AND I am really excited and happy to learn more of what God wants me to here at the MTC. :) Life is good. YEAH, life is so good.

Alright, THIS WONDERFUL WEEK. First of all, thanks again for all of the love and support I feel. It seriously means THE WORLD to me. THANK YOU. I am incredibly blessed. :)

This wonderful Pday my district and another one in my zone got to do service at the temple! (OH- staying here another week means I get to go to the temple! It re-opens this week!!!! YES! BLESSING!) We were given the assignment to go help clean. What a wonderful experience!!!! The Hermanas got to clean THE CRYSTALS FROM A TEMPLE CHANDELIER! Way cool! Real, gorgeous crystals in the Temple. They are only taken down and cleaned once a year and we had the amazing opportunity to do that! We spent a lot of time talking to two really sweet ladies. We talked about their families and missions and a lot of stuff. It was so relaxing and re-energizing. Giving service in the TEMPLE- nothing else I would rather do with my morning. :) When our time was coming to a close, they showed us some temple rooms. Gorgeous. I KNOW that the temple is the house of the Lord.

This weekend another district from our zone left BUT on Wednesday another district (all Elders) came! I had the wonderful opportunity to help them with orientation! It is so amazing to meet all of these amazing missionaries who all want to serve the Lord. I saw them in their classroom with a teacher who was ONLY speaking Spanish and their looks of- What is happening?!?! Awhhh, I remember those days fondly. :) Haha, the Spanish definitely comes (with help from above). The Spirit definitely helps and comforts. A mission is QUITE the experience- a wonderful, hard, amazing, and truly blessed experience. I have learned so much. I say that every week because it is so true. My testimony of the Savior and of my dear Father in Heaven has increased soooo much.

Speaking of Spanish...haha, week of only Spanish has been tough. We have made a BUNCH of mistakes. It is hard to keep the English in when your mind is turning so fast. AND when we got the news about another week in the MTC, we all broke the only Spanish thing. SOOOO, it has not been a perfect week of only Spanish and I'm not sure if our teacher will still play her clarinet for us or not... BUT even though our goal has not been perfectly met, I know we have all grown A LOT. My companion and I have been doing SYL (Speak Your Language- Spanish) like crazy this week and we have improved immensely!!!!!! AND LOOK AT THIS! Another blessing with staying in the MTC, we get to SYL even more. :)

Man oh man! The MTC is fun! Hard but sooo fun! We have a lot of laughs! Hermana Rasband and I love to just sing all of the time! We have seen a lot of the same movies so a lot of songs come up. (My dear Maddie- she has seen "The Swan Princess"!!! Yes- her and I love to belt out those songs and I think of you my dear sister!) The other day we brought little Spanish hymn books with us to Gym....definitely spent a loooong time riding the bicycle things and singing! haha, hopefully it pepped everyone else up too. :)

The Spirit is absolutely amazing! There have been so many lessons-SO MANY- where I come out and just think, "what happened?". The Spirit has helped me to know what to say and how to say it (good ol' Spanish). I have also felt extremely comforted and loved during my hard times and good times. I know the Heavely Father loves me and is watching over me. And I KNOW that is the same for each and everyone of you too. :) God lives. He knows you.

Well, love you all! You are wonderful people. :)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. "Shall we not go on in such great a cause?" -Joseph Smith

Love, Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Pictures!!

Hermana Rasband and me! My wonderful companion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D love her!

First Sunday in the MTC!!! With Hermanas Rasband, Carlson, and Wilde

Our District!!!!!

With Hermanas Christensen and Hagland (two teachers at the MTC). We're all wearing polka dots!!!!

With Hermana Eyring!

Mi companera and I with Hermana Page on her Birthday : D

Hermanas Turgoson and Page the night before they left! We had a great time eating cookies and discussing how good
they were. :)

The 4th of July in the MTC

My AMAZING wonderful friends from BYU!!!! Saying goodbye the day before I reported to the MTC!

HEADED INTO MY FIFTH WEEK!

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hola!!!!!!!!!!!!! Como esta??!?!?! Holy cow- have I really been here for a month?!?! I ONLY HAVE 17 MONTHS LEFT OF MY MISSION! I reallyyyyy need to make every single moment count!

First of all, I love you all so much!! I am so extremely blessed with such wonderful family and friends. I am overwhelmed with how good the Lord has been to me. I couldn't ask for a better family or better friends! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I hope everything has been going well for you all. Please know and remember that I am praying for you all and am so happy that each one of you are in my life. The gospel is true. The Savior Jesus Chirst LIVES and knows each of you personally! Wow...I am just so grateful! :)

Okay, what happened this week? SO MUCH! First of all, TRC! I mentioned last week about how Hermana Rasband and I met with a member who has been struggling with some family problems and he told us that TRC really helped him and answered some prayers. WELL, last Friday we went to TRC again. (By the way- TRC is when we get to meet with members of the church for about 20 minutes each. AND we do it in Spanish. Of coure. Love Spanish! :) ) We didn't have a lesson with the member from last week but we did stop by where he was to say hi. He told us that his sister (who has been having some troubles with the gospel and her testimony and such) has been receiving revelation that she KNOWS is not from her and that she is definitely considering serving a mission now! He seemed so happy and grateful! Hermana Rasband and I are so happy! It was so great!! We seriously love these members so much! They are children of God who need help or an encouraging word as well. DEFINITELY LOVEEEEE TRC! :)

Our teachers (Hermana Christensen and Hermano Hales) have both been out of town at different times and so we have been able to have various substitutes. One of them is Hermana Eyring- GRANDDAUGHTER of President Eyring who served her mission in Argentina!!! It is so cool! She even speaks with the Argentina accent! She showed us a bunch of pictures from her mission and also told us stories. You can just tell that she has this great love for the Argentina people and her mission. It definitely calmed some nervousness with my district and made us all even more excited to go there and serve!!! I AM SO EXCITED!

So one of our WONDERFUL teachers (they both are seriously SO AMAZING!), Hermana Christensen, is majoring in the clarinet. She told us she would play for us before we left IF we did the Spanish-Only-Week-Challenge. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT you might ask. Weeeeeeell, let me tell yah. WE ONLY SPEAK SPANISH FOR A WHOLEEEEEEE ENTIRE WEEK! Crazy right?! haha! There are some exceptions though- when we meet with our branch presidency, or talk to others who don't know Spanish, or with my assignment if I need to do something in English, or things like that. We also can have three strikes a day- if we accidentally let an English word that we knew in Spanish slip. Is my district taking on the challenge???? YOU BET. Hermana Christensen said that only two other districts she has taught have made it (and she has been here for at least a year). It will be from this Saturday until next Saturday. Adios English! Pray for us all! :)

OKAY- we had an AMAZING devotional this Tuesday!!!!!!!! The speaker was wonderful and he even showed a clip from a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (which you just gotta know is AMAZING). He talked a lot about how we need to live up to the legacy. The Lord needs missionaries to match the message. We have been called to battle not just to hold the line but to CHARGE. We are going to help people and bring them the glorious and wonderful message of the restored gospel. Elder Holland voiced the questions- why isn't missionary work more easy? Why isn't everyone just flocking to the gospel? If it is so happy and wonderful- WHY isn't missionary work more easy? He followed that up by saying "missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience." He said that someone much greater and a lot grander then us has also asked the question "is there another way?" Elder Holland said- how could we ever believe that it would be easy for us when it was never ever easy for the Lord Jesus Christ? He said that he believes missionary work is supposed to require something of our souls and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ would carry us. I don't know how much of this is making sense- but basically, the devotional was amazing. The words spoken definitely touched my heart and has made me even more dedicated to this great work. There are people out there who NEED the gospel. They NEED me to be bold and ready and willing and worthy to share with them the message of the gospel and invite them unto Christ. I love the gospel!

So yesterday we got a new district!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5 Elders and 2 Hermanas! Woohoo!!!! I was able to do the new missionary orientation with the zone leaders last night and talk to them and give them a tour of the MTC. It is so interesting- I definitely do NOT feel wise or experienced and yet I am able to give them advice and encouragement. I KNOW the Holy Ghost is helping me to know what to say and do with EVERYTHING including my assignment as Sister Training Leader. I love these new Hermanas so much! I remember feeling overwhelmed and not sure of what was going on too! They are wonderful sisters and I am excited to get to know them better.

Yesterday Hermana Rasband and I had an absolutely amazing lesson with one of our investigators, Maria. (Our teacher Hermana Christensen) We had prepared to talk more about baptism and then the sacrament and keeping the Sabbath Day holy. When we were preparing earlier I knew I wanted to share some of my experiences with her about keeping the Sabbath day but I just couldn't seem to figure it out in Spanish. In the actual lesson I was getting kinda sad because I felt like I wasn't expressing myself very well with Spanish. AND THEN my dear companion asked me to share my experience with keeping the Sabbath Day holy (the experience I had struggled to put the words together earlier and had kinda decided to not even share it). WELL, I started to share it and the words just CAME TO ME. I spoke for quite some time and the words IN SPANISH just kept flowing to me. There were things I said that I hadn't even considered or thought about saying when I was trying to prepare it earlier. I started to tear up while I was talking and Maria started to cry!!! It was one of the best experiences I have had! The Spirit was helping me out SO MUCH. Where did all of that Spanish come from? Where did those thoughts come from???? THE SPIRIT! Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for me. It was another testament to me that when you try your best the Lord will make up the difference.

So many miracles and amazing things happen here in the MTC. One of the things that I absolutely love is how so many people just come up to us and ask if they can bear their testimonies!!! We have heard testimonies in English, Samoan, Sign Language, French, Spanish, etc. SO GREAT!

Well my dear loved ones, the time has once again come to finish up emailing. Know I love you. Know that God loves you. What a wonderful time to be alive! Life is good- hard, yes, but soooo good. :)

LOVE YOU!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE,
Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

p.s. still no news about our visas or where we might be re-assigned in the US while we wait for our visas. I have heard that some people do not get their re-assignments until about 4 days before they leave!!!! SO- I will keep you posted with what I can. I'm pretty sure that on the day I find out my re-assignment (if I am re-assigned- a high possibility) that I am able to email home about it! I am VERY excited for whatever happens! Straight to Argentina or a wonderful state in the US first! :)

p.p.s I think we have finally found a way to send pictures! We are allowed to do it during laundry time later so hopefully I will be sending some later today! love you! :)