Family History & Heart Throbs

there's a mango tree in the middle of this house!

hey, everyone! we have an investigator named solange who is so golden! she recently moved in with a member who is semi-active named lucia. so we're in the process of helping lucia come back to church as we teach solange (two for one)! solange accepted the invitation to be baptized on september 17th, so we are really excited. :) this week, we had a lesson where we read in alma 7:15 about being born again. after we read it, solange just started laughing. when we asked "what's funny?" she replied "it's just so true!!" haha, love her attitude! it IS so true!

the jungle

my pig, charles

in other exciting news, pierro (our recent convert) is on fire with family history work! he has like four generations completed already!! that kid needs to get to the temple!!! he's such a great example to me. also, in the spirit of "cross-cultural sharing," i recommended that he look up "walk the moon," and the next visit, we came in and he turned up "shut up and dance with me" (and started singing at the top of his lungs, haha)! it took all my energy and every ounce of obedience i have to not have a dance party with him right then and there. :)

two kiddos got baptized!

their parents are starting to reactivate in the church

daniel (left) and david (right)

life is so good! i love being a missionary!! i read something that changed my perspective on prayer this week: "it is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say...prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of a need, of contrition and pure desire." ~ james e. talmage ("jesus the christ"). prayer is not made of words! it's made of feelings! so cool. love you all!

hermana wood

More from this week's message to Hermana Wood's dad:

hey, dad! yeah, we're excited!! we started with no one to teach, and now we have FIVE progressing investigators (with one family and two more baptisms for the month of september). garcia is so happy. the other night, out of the blue, she said "wood, THANK YOU for coming here." she is so sweet! i love her so much! but, the SPIRIT directs this work!!

my cute comp gets a little crazy at night

about the english classes, i just improvise what i know for the presentations, haha. i teach the whole zone after district meeting. we all come together, and i write stuff on the white board, and i think some missionaries benefit. others sleep. :)

also, i absolutely love my filtered water bottle! because: 1) the water here is weird, even the drinkable kind, and 2) we get our huge bottle of drinkable water replaced every week at district meeting, but when there are transfers or when the leaders go to iquitos, we don't have district meeting (which means, no water for a week, sometimes a week and a half). so, i fill my water bottle in the sink, but my comp has to buy water bottles when we're out. LOVE YOU.

More from this week's message to Hermana Wood's mom:
OH MY GOSH! someone from my old ward in iquitos just wrote and told me that edwin got baptized!!! remember him?! one day we were walking down a street, and i felt prompted we should proselyte there, but we didn't. idk why, i think we were in a hurry. then, we were walking down the same street on a different day, and i felt the same prompting. this time we followed it, and we contacted edwin and karola (who is a member). now edwin is baptized!!!! SO HAPPY. love you, mommy!!

More from this week's message to Hermana Wood's sister:

this week, i bought a snickers bar for the first time in over a year!!! the temptation was too strong. it was only just over a dollar! also, dinner one day this week was 7 tiny bananas (the size of my index finger) covered with sweetened condensed milk. mmm! yummy.

in other news, we were walking one night, and i felt prompted to talk to a guy standing next to his motokar. we invited him to church and a "noche misional" we were having the next day. and, he and his WHOLE family got all dressed up super nice and came to the noche misional! there is power in talking to strangers! :)