1st Cold Day, 1st Tarantula, 1st Baptism Date!

hey, everyone! oh my gosh, where do i even begin with this week - SO much has happened. to quote my darling amiga: "i'm outside for 15 minutes, and i have 5 awesome stories!!" to start off, we found a ton of less active FAMILIES this week, which is really awesome!! they were all chance encounters! we found one less active woman, who hasn't been going to church for a year (because she had surgery and now only has one leg); and she lost her libro de mormon, so she hasn't been able to read! it was heartbreaking, but we're getting her back on track, and she's been reading the scriptures again. :)

also, we have a GRINGO investigator!!! he's from california and speaks english, and we're going to be teaching him! mucha is worried, but i told her i'd translate. I'M SO EXCITED. it's hard, though - talking about the gospel in english. i'm so not used to it, and i almost wish it were in spanish. but then again, i don't at all. :) we also found and taught a latina woman who lives in tulsa, oklahoma! she was so sweet and spoke english, as well. :) we gave her a libro de mormon, and she´s going to continue investigating the church in the states. tender mercies!

so, luz's baptism date fell through. she somehow didn't mention to us that she's traveling to lima in a week, and she's going to be there until february. OKAY. we talked with her dad, and he said that was the main reason he didn't sign [her permission slip]! BUT we got another date with yurico - she's so awesome! hopefully she can be baptized on november 6th, and hopefully i'll still be here to see it (if i don't get transferred)! :)

 it was freezing for the first time ever!!! so i wrapped up in my sheet. :)

still thinking about general conference, because how could you not be, right? elder bednar basically summed it all up for me at the end when he said, "when you can't do what you've always done, you only do what matters most." he was talking about old age, but it so applies to missionaries! we are ONLY doing what matters most, which is the Lord's work. and it requires everything we have, but i know it'll be worth it.

HALLOWEEN IS COMING. i bought a jack-o-lantern thing - they even sell candy and all that!! apparently, the kids here dress up and knock on doors and say "halloween!" and get candy. :) my comp is in love with the phrase "trick or treat," and i hear it about 4 times a day. but she confuses it with the words "chocolate chip," so i get both.

my first tarantula! it was about as big as my hand. (i am alive.)

i'm doing so well. :) i feel so much stronger, and i've learned a lot about who i am and what i stand for. and what i don't want to be. prayer is real, and we are never ever alone. i'm happy here, grateful to be serving, and think of you all often! 

"do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. the way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever" (alma 37:46). remember how simple the gospel is - all we have to do is look and live, because our plan of salvation is already in place!! :) love you all!!!

hermana wood

More from this week's message to Hermana Wood's youngest brother:
you make me laugh so hard!! keep working on that math, dude - it'll come, i promise. i saw a tarantula this week!!! a real one and it was poisonous!!! and the big bug we found in our house a couple of weeks ago was alive. it's the second one like that we found!

you HAVE to send me pictures of your halloween costume - go you, being something spooky! i'm going to do my own form of trick or treating this year - we're gonna give out candy to people, then give them the best treat of all - THE GOSPEL. haha, ill let you know how it goes. love you, goober!!