3-23-16

And another P'day bites the dust,

Well this week was jam packed full of fun! We started off the week with a zone meeting and discussed what we could do to better our areas and strengthen them. We also had a conference with Elder Cornish of the seventy who helped explain to us the escalater of success as missionaries. Inbetween the meeting we had a lunch where he asked to sit with my companion and I, and a couple other sisters that were with us! He was super helpful and nice!

Then after that we had a trip to the hospital. Don´t panick, it wasn´t for me this time, it was for my companion. But don´t worry it was just a check up for her and everything is fine. By the way, I did wear green last week so that´s why nothing happened. Remember last St. Patricks day in the mission I broke my foot. Haha oh the memories. Anyway the fun thing about that is I got to play translator because the doctor didn´t know what her symptoms were and my comp didn´t know how to explain it. Well cool thing is now I have new vocabulary that might come in handy one day!

And the highlight of the week BY FAR. I SAW A DASCHUND! We were walking up to a less actives house and out of the blue I see this weener dog walking around and of course I had to take a picture to represent the herritage! I asked the owner what his name was and naturally she was in her thick accent ´hot dug´ HAHAHA. Too funny, but yes we connected hotdog and I.

Well I´m super stoked for Womens Conference this week! Even more so for EASTER! What better way to celebrate the Savior than on the mission testifying of him and having the opportunity to be a representative of Him. Love you all and have a great week!

Hermana Van Woerkom

March 12, 2016

Hey everyone,

Well nothing to crazy has happened this week. Just getting into the swing of things again with the new comp. I guess I forgot to explain that I talk in my sleep because apparently when she went up to go to the bathroom I sat up in bed and said "okay, tell me what happened." haha oh man. She got a good kick out of it.

Well this week we've been hitting the ground running contacting and helping establish things a bit more here before I leave. We have 3 baptisms set up here before I leave!! And I have one baptism in my old area. Unfortunately I won't be able to go to it because it's the same day as one of the baptisms we've set up.

Anyway it's been really interesting seeing people changing over these past weeks. For some of our investigators, even the members it's been anything but easy. I got to read a talk by one of the apostles and found this lovely quote that says, "Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes to rebuild that house. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is he is building quite a different house than what you had planned." As missionaries we set goals, and invite people to act EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's almost like mini new years eve goals haha mostly in the way that people accept the challenge and never do them. But, that's because sometimes we get caught up being comfortable. We like where we are and we are happy with the "cottage" of a house that we've built in our lives. BUT one thing very important is we need to give up OUR idea of who we want to be and submit to the will of the Father. That is when he will turn our living house into a mansion, a perfect temple of the Lord. Sounds really nice, but it's not easy, there's walls that have to be demolished, things taken out, things put in, but as we accept these promptings to change, he can make us more glorious, and more perfect than we could ever be.

LOVE YOU ALL

Hermana Van Woerkom

WOW

I just met my murderer! Just like Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribbean movie I´ve been given the black mark! Last transfer what happened with the time! Well my companion is my 2nd step daughter! Her name is Hermana Robinson from Jamaica. Yes mom and dad, when I heard her name I automatically thought of the song by Simon and Garfunkel ¨here´s to you misses Robinson¨haha. Anyway things are going to be good here, I´m still kicking!

Well I´m going to write you a looonnnggg letter to compensate for last week! My B sorry for that! Okay funny stories! So Monday night, I slept talked to my companion! I like apparently sat up really quick and said in Spanish, ¨Hey I think someones in the house!¨ Definitely freaked out my companion to say the least! haha wow so embarrassing! Anyway she couldn´t sleep the rest of the night and I slept, like a rock! haha. 

Okay as for area wise we have had to change Olga´s baptismal date for the end of this month due to the Canal breaking! We are O U T of water here! We get water trucked in to us each week. They say that the canal will be fixed in 2 months. Lets hope sooner than later. Anyway that´s a no go for the baptism because we have no water to fill up the font. She is also having some problems with her family she needs to take care of and feels stressed and unprepared. So we are still working with her!

We are also working with some less actives as well! Before I tell you about them I have to tell you an interesting story I´ve learned for the week. So we went to a recient converts house and shared a message with her. During the lesson there was an empty box of what I thought was trash, because there is just a lot of trash here in this area. Anyway after the closing prayer Geresly began to say she didn´t know what to do and pointed to the box. When I peaked inside I found the tiniest little bird. It was the cutest thing and it fell out of the palm tree and they can´t stick it back up because it´s too high. So they are trying to take care of it. Any way fast forward to the next day. We had a reference of a lady who is less active. So we were trying to find her house, found it, and when she came out she did a double play and then invited us in. She was so surprised to see us! When we talked about the people there and those we reactivated and come back to church she was so surprised and said, wow I guess everyone is back to church. The only one that is lost is me. AH! So we shared with her that she isn´t lost and that we miss her and want her to come back. So how does this apply to the bird you might ask. There definitely is a gospel principle. Just like the box, I though nothing of it and did

n´t know what was inside and just thought it was trash. But in Luke we read that God knows and counts every sparrow so how much more does he know where we are in our life and how we feel. Heavenly Father knew where this less active was and gave us the opportunity to help her. I know that God watches over us and we are not forgotten. 

LOVE YOU TONS

Hermana Van Woerkom

Feb. letters

Hey,

Wow this week has gone by super fast! It feels like I just wrote ya´ll yesterday! Well nothing new is happening here in Villa Gonzalez. Things are just very calm here in the countryside. We are working hard on the less actives here! Some of the sisters have helped us by coming to appointments. It´s all about the fellowshipping really! Speaking of that´s probably what the main theme of this week has been. Having charity for others. My companion as well as my old comp, and I have been going through really really rough trials these past couple weeks and it´s been really hard seeing them struggle. During one of my personal studies I got to read the talk by elder holland called, Are We Not All Beggars. In it, he explains that we all go through various trials in life, but essentially our purpose it to help those around us and forget about ourselves. It says in the scriptures, ¨For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it¨. Our purpose is to forget about our needs and wants and lose ourselves in the service of others. I can testify that it´s soo true! Elder Holland closes with, älthough we aren´t our brothers keeper, we are our brothers brother, and because we have been given much we too must give¨. 

I´m so grateful for the opportunity I have to strengthen my companions in the mission and have their support and strength as well. I hope that we all can take on that challenge to forget ourselves and just go to work. 

Love you all

Hermana Van Woerkom 

Hey everyone,

Well before I tell you the news of the week let me start out asking WHO FORGOT ME IN THEIR PRAYERS THIS WEEK!  Before I tell you what happened lets take a walk down memory lane. Well we all know that when I get sick I go HARD! First incident of the mission, broken foot, the sicknesses that followed are- the double headed dragon or throw up and...well the other thing lol..... after the double ear infection, followed by the bronchitis incident, and now. Well I thought I would be done and have my fair share of sicknesses BUT what better way to end the mission than getting the DANG DENGUE! 

It´s been miserable to say the least, but keeping my head up and plugging along! You just have to laugh you really do. They are taking some more tests to make sure that my platelets are going up because they´ve been down. So as I´ve been going in and out of sleep, laying in bed I´ve been thinking about musicals and after getting halled in to the clinic they gave me papers that had a number and we´ve just been filing in and out so I´ve had moments where I´ve felt like a poor Jean Valgean and was a number staus for a while haha. But, it´s all good I know that I´ve got a name right haha.I do have to say I did feel like the room was full of Javer´s because we were on the justice status up in their NO MERCY! It was poking and prodding with needles. I definitely wanted my Lindsey! I kept telling them please go for this vein! And then they´d ask why and I had to tell them my sister is a nurse and says it´s really good, they´d just roll their eyes and do it haha. I needed my sissy! Anyway I´m trying to fight it off, it´s just been really draining! 

Other than that I´ve been trying to see the tender mercies of it as well. Well first off I´M ALIVE haha for now. No We have a baptism this Saturday so I´m trying to hold out for it. It´ll be amazing, and I´m hoping the members will support. YOU BEST BE SUPPORTING YOUR MISSIONARIES IN YOUR WARDS! We have another date set for march and an investigator in my old area set his baptism 2 days before I go home! Way to end the mission right? 

Shout out to Lonnie! That´s too funny that she had the baby on a Pday! Good planning! haha! I can´t wait to see my new little niece! WELCOME TO THE FAMIMLY COLETTE! Love you already and your FAV AUNT ill be home soon! 

Love you all,

Hermana Van Woerkom