8-19-15

Hey everyone!

Sounds like the sick season has started. And....yes unfortuantely I´ve been sick too! This is day number eight with the chain smoker cough and its not been fun. I´ve called the nurse in the mission and she´s told me that I need to stay home for a couple days.....but....it was a little complicated because we kinda had baptismal interviews and a baptism on Saturday so I just said.....AIN´T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT. And kinda bended the rules....just a tad. BUT GOOD NEWS is that Diahna and Davely are now members! YAY! And we have re activated her grandma! Even betta! They are going to go to the temple this week to with the ward! SO great! Okay now let me just tell you about my companionship. I LOVE IT! We have soooo much fun together and die laughing. Literally I´m dying laughing because its hard for me to breath with the sickness. So here are some of our experiences thus far. 

Story 1- you know how viscous these dogs are here in Puerto Plata. Well We go to a less actives house to visit and their dog is on the average size of big. And as we enter my companion is hiding behind me, and the dog can tell she´s nervous so the dog starts snipping at her heels. And she´s nervously laughing saying Princesa no no. haha I was dying because she was such a chicken. HOWEVER right after the lesson we walk out of their gate start heading down the mountain to find these two dachshund dogs barking running at us. I freeze and start to jog up the mountain again when my companion stops me and says no don´t run don´´t run. As I turn around I find Princesa running from the top of the mountain down towards us. So we are sandwiched between these two dogs. So the first thing I do is get the keys out because I had nothing else to use. Luckily the owners got their dogs and we were good, but my companion was dying laughing because she didn´t know what I was planning on doing with the keys. Yeah joke was on me haha. 

Story 2- The bishop told me i needed a blessing on sunday so the elders said they´d be able to do it for me. As the elder took his oil out it slipped out of his hands, hit my shoulder, hit my companions skirt, and his companions pants, and fell to the floor. He then says oh this is slippery. And then starts trying to tap the oil out. His companion offers his for him to use and the elder just says this just doesn´t want to come out. Then uses his companions whole bottle on me....Lets just say that I wasn´t the only one blessed in the room that day haha. 

Anyway the work and the members here in Puerto Plata is progressing and amazing. As I complete 10 months this week its crazy to see where all the time has gone! I literally have more time in the mission now than out of the mission. AH! Crazy! I love this area. Puerto Plata really does have my heart and they really are my family. This bishop calls us his daughters, the bishops brother calls himself our second dad, I´ve got someone who´s like my mom, and a lady named Mari Luz that´s just like my grandma.  I really will cry when I have to leave here. Thanks for all that your doing and I´ll keep you in my prayers.

Big hugs,

Hermana Van Woerkom  

 Yea! Mc Donalds!

 An Oklahoma representative - love the hat!!!

Lots of Chocolate..this is my grandma that got sick this Sunday. Her left face was twitching and her muscles went weak on only her left side. She complained of stomach problems as well. The hospital doesn´t know what happened....but I think it was a stroke. She´s doing better THANK GOODNESS! I bought her some chocolate cookies and chocolate because yeah {cosas de mujeres haha] please keep mari luz in your prayers|

8-12-15

YOU GUYS I HAD A BABY AND IT´S A GIRL!

Haha so yes I´m training. I found out thursday. I was on my way to renew my visa in Santo Domingo and we spent the night at the Presidents house. I got this call in the ruta. It was a number I didn´t recognize so I answered and heard SISTER VAN HOW ARE YOU and I was like good who is this. Then he said President Castillo. And I was like OH PRESIDENT HOW ARE YOU! lol and he said oh so you in Santiago so I´ll talk to you when you get to the house. So I get to the house with all these other sisters and he came up to me, shook my hand and said ¨sister congradulations. You can´t make it to the meeting, but that´s okay we will tell you later what happened, and then he left! I was so confused and so I followed him into the kitchen and asked. President I´m confused what meeting am I missing. And he was like Hermana your training. WHAT! I don´t even get asked lol. But it´s okay I know that it´s something the Lord trusts me to do and it´s another way to help me grow. I still feel like such a greenie though haha even though next week I´ll have 10 months in the mission! Her name is Hermana Baez and she´s from here in Santo Domingo. SHE IS AMAZING1 I´m excited to kick it back into gear and get to work! We have a baptism this Saturday so if you could pray extra hard and especially for them that everything runs smoothly on Saturday I would be so grateful. Love you all and sorry that this was a short letter. Oh and I didn´t get the mommy and daddy loves me package! Thank you! It came last week! 

LOVE YOU ALL! Congratulations Lonnie and Clark! Can´t wait to meet my little niece or nephew! Keep me posted!

8-5-15

Hi everyone, nothing too crazy has happened this week. May I add to the hit list LINDSEY AND CASEY because they didn´t send me a letter OR pictures of the Lady Antebellum concert OR of Hunter Hayes. NEITHER the pics. of my adorable niece and nephew. REPENT REPENT! Mom´s the only one that´s getting loved this week because she sent me a mommy loves me package haha. I haven´t gotten it yet, but it´s coming.

Okay what to say what to say. Last week was wonderful. We were able to visit all of our investigators and most of our less actives. Things are still a go for Diahna and Davely´s baptism. This week is going to be crazy to say the least! I´m a little stressed, but it´ll be fine. Yesterday we had a sisters meeting in Santiago, which was a 2 hour drive, came back from that only to be able to proselyte for a little bit. And with our luck all of our appointments fell through! AH! Atleast we had the opportunity to take a member with us and invite our investigators to the baptism the elders are having this Saturday. THEN I get a call saying that I have to go today back to Santiago by 4, spending the night at the mission home, and the next day going to Santo Domingo to get my visa renewed. So I´m leaving my mini here and going on intercambios with another sister so she´ll be helping proselyte in their area all Thursday. And then on Friday we have a special Capacitation in Navarette which is an hour and a half from our area. And we will get back in time to help the Elders throw a party for the people getting married who are getting baptized the day after. And on Saturday we are getting up early to help clean the church, my companion is practicing a special number for the baptism. In all its going to be crazy and we won´t be able to visit the people we had planned to visit so our numbers are going to be terrible! Ah! BUT something that I have learned is that I´m working with people and not numbers. And that every moment is the Lords time and he can see what we are really doing with the time that we have. 

So here are a couple pictures of what we´ve done this week. The Relief Society had a sleep over in their PJ´s. I was invited, but couldn´t go because my mini isn´t of Relief Society age yet. SO I decided to sneak over and surprise them and take a selfie of them in the PJ´s. It was soo fun! We also ate at the Bishops house, and a less active this week So I brought little treats over for them to try that are popular in the U.S. Rice Krispies to the less active and Funeral Potato´s to the Bishop´s. What´s funny is that they don´t eat those kinds of things here so when I brought it over they thought it was SUPER FANCY and said that I will be blessed to find a husband quickly because I can cook. I was laughing so hard, on the inside of course, at their comments. So now you know if anything, my future husband and I will be surviving off of Funeral Potato´s and Rice Krispies haha. 

Hope all is well, keep being great! 

Love, Hermana Van Woerkom

 

 

July 28,2015

Hello Family!

I just wanted to say thank you for your super sweet letters and pictures. Most importantly your prayers! I could definitely feel them this week which is something I definitely needed, your amazing! Okay exciting news! Well the good news is that our area in Puerto Plata is still up and running, which means I must be  doing something right haha just kidding. Two of our investigators went to SOY it´s like EFY and had a wonderful experience. They even got up on Sunday with the other youth to share their testimony! Then before they left they came up to me with the other youth and were asking that we move up their date for baptism. I had to get permission from my District Leader because yeah they need so many lessons before baptism, but its a go! It´s exciting to see that they want to push up their date. So if things go as planned we will be having our next baptism the 15 of August! Yoohoo!

More news! Okay here´s your little funny, but it comes with a tip to learn.

So I would like to call it the Parable of the Pamphlets

Once upon a time Hermana Bradford and I were at a zone meeting, and while we were waiting for the meeting to start we were talking about all the interesting situations we´ve been in when we´ve had, well, lets call them ¨intestinal problems¨. One elder, we won´t mention names haha, but an elder in our zone told us of an experience of how handy pamphlets can be when there´s no toilet paper to use lol. Gross I know, only and Elder would think of this. I then told him that´s not what their used for, and he says that he always asks for forgiveness when he has to use them in emergencies haha. Well about two weeks before Hermana Bradford left, we were headed to an appointment. As we crossed the street a heavier set guy was with a group of other men playing Domino´s, a very very common thing to see here in the DR. As we walked by he asked if we had a pamphlet that he could have. So I gave him a Restauration Pamphlet and we kept heading on our way. The next week we were headed to the same place and passed by this guy yet again, and he asked if we had anymore pamphlets. So I gave him The Plan of Salvation and kept walking. My companion then told me how weird it was that he wanted a pamphlet. Normally people neither want a pamphlet or us talking to them. And normally they don´t read the pamphlet when we give it to them. So I said well maybe he´s out of toilet paper haha. So yeah as you all know, Hermana Bradford left, I was walking with my mini last week to the same appointment, saw the man, said hi  and started to walk past him, stopped, and then asked him ¨hey do you want another pamphlet¨. He told me he would love another one. Of course I didn´t have the third one on hand so I asked if we could come by to see him sometime that week. That was last week and we´ve taught them their second lesson yesterday. Whats even better is that we are teaching them AS A FAMILY! They are just soo sweet and already know our names and are so welcoming. INSANE. So just like a parable you can take a lot from it. I´ve learned not to judge, don´t be afraid to share more with people, SET APPOINTMENTS DON´T JUST GIVE THEM PAMPHLETS, and not to judge yet again, that people actually do read the pamphlets. 

So live up that boy scout motto and always be prepared to share the gospel, you never know whose ready! 

Love you guys,

Hermana Van Woerkom