Time to get talking : )

Hola! Let me just say that Belkis is one of the cutest members ever!!!! I just love this recent convert of ONE week so very much. Her and her family will forever be in my heart. :) Her 6 year old son is a real cutie also! He always runs to meet us and gives us lots of flowers. Haha, and, this is REAL big, he shared his alfajor with us. Now that is a sacrifice. :) Belkis is still helping us a lot with the missionary work. This week we had a good lesson in her house with her friend, Jimena. We watched the Restoration movie and definitely felt the spirit. Her friend Jimena is really great and is looking for the true church. We have great hopes for her and know that if she really studies the Book of Mormon and makes the effort to know the truth, she will be baptized. :)

We are still working a lot with the family Casafu (waiting for a divorce from a previous marriage) and Andrea. This week we have plans to fast with Andrea to receive help so that she can be baptized. Andrea really is amazing. She isn't baptized but has one of the biggest and strongest testimonies and conversions I have seen on my mission. She is very active- participating in seminary and everything. :)

Our mission has challenged us to accept a plan of action to find new investigators. Every week the goal is to have 140 contacts. This means talking with 140 people/families from the street or knocking on doors. Time to get talking! :)

Well, love you all very much! I hope everyone isn't suffering from summer heat already. Here in Argentina I am just getting started with singing Christmas songs. Haha, it is starting to feel like Christmas for me! :)

Have a great week! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I love Him so very much and am so grateful that through Him we can change and become better people every day.

Con Amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Wow! What a week! A lot of stuff happened! First of all, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! :) Woohoo! Fun fact- Argentina seems to be the only country that doesn't have mother's day in May. Mother's Day here is in October!

Okay, BIG NEWS. BELKIS SOSA WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

She is so great!!!!! :) Her baptism was awesome. She is such a cute member. :) I am so very blessed to be a part of her experience with finding the gospel. I just love her! WOW! Guess what! Just now Belkis saw us and entered and told us that she has been sharing the gospel with one of her friends and invited her to meet with us and go to church. What a missionary!

We also found 2 new investigators this week! Heavenly Father put both of them in our paths in exactly the right moment. They are two women who are both suffering from abusive spouses. It is so sad! We met them when both of them were in a really sad state and they both have told us that our appearance was an answer from God. Ahhh! Incredible! :)

Okay, I don't have more time! Sorry! I love you all!!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Belkis and her son Damian

At Belkis' baptism!

P-Day outing with Hermana Eustaquio

Grateful to be an instrument

Hello all! :)

This week was a good one! We had quite a few meetings and had to travel so we were not able to have all of the lessons we wanted to but it was still good. :) The big news this week is that Belkis is still preparing for her baptism! WE ARE SO EXCITED. My time and experiences with her are memories that I will never forget. She is a prepared child of God who was placed in our path in exactly the right moment. I love her so much and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I have been able to be an instrument in her story. :) I'll keep you all updated with her progression and baptism! I will send a picture of us with her and her two kiddos soon!

We have also been working with a less active family. They are WONDERFUL and are returning church and progressing a lot. Yesterday in sacrament meeting their 16 year old daughter went up and bore her testimony with me. :) Proud moment! And the mom of our amazing 14 yr old investigator Andrea bore her testimony too! She is a member who was less active for years before we started visiting her and her daughter. Now they come to church every week and in her testimony she said that she is happy and that it feels good to be doing what God wants. :) Ahhhhhhh, I love it!

There are a lot of hard and sad moments on the mission...but there are SO MANY incredible moments that make it all so worth it. I am able to see a lot of people change and progress. BUT I am also seeing a lot of change in ME. I wouldn't trade this year and a half of my mission for anything. :)

Well, time to get to work. :) Love you all!!!!!!! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

Seeing miracles and blessing all over . . . .

Hola!! :)

This week a lot of really great things happened! First of all, our investigator Belkis told us that she was talking to a friend about us and the gospel! :) She said that her friend is going through a lot of problems and told her that we could help. Wow! The day after she told us that we went to the house of this friend (named Gimena). They ended up letting us in and we had a great lesson with her and her spouse. She told us that she has investigated basically every other church and is still looking for right one to join. :) We are here to help! She also was going to go with us to church but ended up leaving town the day before because of family troubles. We are planing on meeting a lot with her when she gets back!

Okay....confession. My companion and I didn't go to church this week. BUT there is an explanation. We went to the house of the investigator family, Mendez, before church to go with them. However, within minutes of our arrival, one of their daughters started to have convulsions (spelling?). This was the first time that something like this has happened with her so the family was really scared and nervous. The mom was saying prayers and so were we. After a few minutes the daughter was a little better but her parents ended up taking her to the hospital.

Hermana Eustaquio and I stayed with the rest of their family because they were all crying and uneasy. We ended up making them breakfast and watching the movie about Joseph Smith. It turned out to be a great opportunity to help one of the other daughters to strengthen her testimony about Joseph Smith. When the parents returned they told us the doctors said that everything is normal and are not sure what happened. They have to go back another day to do more tests. Later on in the evening we returned with some members to give her a blessing of health. It was a scary experience for the family but I know God had a purpose with it and we feel like they are more open to our message and invitations now.

We are seeing miracles and blessings all over! I know God has a perfect plan for every single one of us. If we trust in Him and give Him our will, He will make us something better and more incredible then what we could ever do on our own. I love my Heavenly Father so much! I know that He sent His son Jesus Christ to show us what we need to do to have real happiness in this life and and live with Him again in the life to come. :)

Love you all!

Con amor,
Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

I Love Capitan Berumudez!

It is transfer week!!! Anddddddddddddddddddddd, I am staying put. I get to stay in my beloved Capitán Bermúdez for at least another 6 weeks! :) I honestly was a little surprised to hear that I would be staying (I think it is rare for a missionary to be in an area for longer then 6 months) but I am definitely happy about it! There is still a TON to do and I am excited for the opportunity to have more time to improve and work here. I am also excited to be with Hermana Eustaquio for more time. She seriously is a WONDERFUL missionary and it is really fun to be with her. She is a firecracker! Haha, she has a passion for the work and she helps me a lot.

I am also grateful to be here to work more with our great investigator, Belkis. She went to church this past Sunday with her mom and two sons. They also invited us to have lunch with them. She has accepted a baptism date and we are working on helping her to prepare. She has some fear of the water and half jokingly-half seriously showed us a snorkel and asked if she could use it in her baptism. :) Hahahahaha, I think she has less fear now but we will keep working on it. :)

In other news, the recent convert Yair (chico who was baptized about 2 months ago) is going to turn 12 soon!!! We are helping him to prepare to receive the priesthood. So proud of him!!! Every Sunday morning he wakes up early and goes to his neighbor's house (member family Rodriguez) and wakes THEM up to go to church. :) Haha, he also sits in the very front seat of the sacrament meeting and takes notes. Gee, he is great! :)

Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Here in Argentina they celebrate with huevos de pascua. ( Easter eggs) But they are a little different. They are hollow chocolate eggs with m&m like candy inside. and they don't hide the eggs...just eat them. Haha, the traditions I am used to are not here BUT it was still a great Pascua because a lot of less active members went to church. :) Poco a poco, Capitán Bermúdez is growing. :)

Love you all! have a great week!!!!! :)

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

At the Stake Center

Happy Birthday Hermana Eustaquio!

Huevos de Pascua

Melanie Rendon's Birthday!

Holaaaaaaaaa!

Hola friends and family!

Sooooooo, today my companions and I are practicing patience. Haha, we have been waiting about 2 hours to use the computers and now our Pday is over...so unfortunately this is another very short email.

But quick update- yep, you heard right. . . . companionS. :) Haha, Tuesday night one of the assistents to the President called Hermana Eustaquio and I to inform us that the following day we would be receiving another companion. We are now a trio. Her name is Hermana Matias from El Salvador. She is straight from the MTC and arrived two weeks before the next transfer. Entonces, she is with us for two weeks. :) She is great!

I feel really blessed to be meeting so many amazing people from a lot of different countries. I now have friends in Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, Honduras, and, of course, Argentina. :) We are doing really well and learning a lot together.

We had a lot of reunions this week and a lot of traveling so were we not able to visit everyone that we wanted to but our investigators are doing well and this week we are going to visit them a lot more. The following week is transfer week. I have no idea what is going to happen but I have 6 months here in Captian Bermudez...I'll go where the Lord wants me to go!!! I honestly would be completely happy to stay here. I love this area and these people so much. I could finish my mission here. :)

It hit me recently that I have been speaking all Spanish for about 3 months now. When did I really start to understand? It is amazing to me how if we work hard and ask for the gift of tongues the Lord is going to bless us and help us. I still have a lot to improve with my Spanish but a lot of the difficulties that I had when I first arrived have left. I am so grateful for the gift of tongues. :) Castellano is a beautiful language. Hermana Eustaquio (de Peru) and Hermana Matias (de El Salvador) think the Argentina accent is a little funny but I love it and am trying to perfect it. :)

Love you all! have a great week!!!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield

General Conference Week!

Oh. My. Goodness. I love General Conference sooooooooo very much. It was seriously Christmas for Hermana Eustaquio and me. All of this week we were waiting until the wonderful moment when we could hear our beloved prophet speak. :) So great! I loved every second of it! We went to the stake center in Rosario to watch it. Saturday I did it in Spanish but yesterday our mission president set it up in English in another room. It was so great to hear the actual voices of these wonderful leaders. I learned so much and just want to watch it again and again and again. :) AND huge blessing- a less active family that we recently started visiting went to both sessions on Sunday. WOOHOO.

I hope all of you were able to hear the talk by M. Russell Ballard about how EVERYONE should have and study Preach My Gospel. I second his testimony and invitation. It is an amazing and inspired book for ALL. I am definitely going to act with his invitation and start to talk more with the members here about it. And I want to hear about what my wonderful cute family is studying in it too. :)
I also really loved the talk by President Uchtdorf. Gratitude should be a way of life- something independent of what situation we are in. We can CHOOSE to be grateful in our circumstances. Wow. Such good stuff!!

The rest of my week was good as well. Our great 14 year old investigator Andrea went to the Saturday conference with her family. Unfortunately the other investigators were not able to go but we are going to work hard to bring the conference and the spirit to them. Our new investigator Velkis (whose baby recently passed away) is all better physically now! The power of a blessing of the priesthood. :) She is doing great and we are working hard to help prepare her to be baptized. The new investigator family is good too. The met more members this week and we are hoping their friendships and examples will help them to progress. The family Casafu are still waiting to finish a previous divorce and so we are learning how to have patience. :) Maria (84 years old and lives across from the church) accepted a wheelchair and so it should be quicker to get to church now. :) All of them are doing good. There is still a lot to be done but we are very blessed with these wonderful people and that they have desires to change and know more.

Well everyone, soak in the general conference! Live it! Love it!!! We are very blessed to have a living prophet and other leaders who receive revelation from our Heavenly Father. I know and testify that if we follow their counsel we will have true happiness. :)

Love you all!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Lindsey Woodfield