Under Pressure

Hello there!  this week was a great week!  Week one of transfer #4!!  we had a great week! 

 We got to take Sister Smith out on a lesson with us on Tuesday!  (we were a little nervous)  It went really well. There was no reason that we should have been nervous haha.  But when you take the mission president's wife on a lesson, the pressure is on....  The Spirit in that lesson was intense.  Sister Smith shared a beautiful testimony!  I am so grateful for her and her great example!  I found out that she is related to Debbie Donaldson, the lady who cuts my momma's hair.  Its a small world for sure!!!  The best part about tuesday though, was that President and sister smith took us out to dinner!! That was super fun!  I love president and sister smith so much!!  I  gave them some of the Bananna Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies I made, and they LOVED them!!  We can just say that i am the new favorite sister missionary in the FTM haha ....if only that were true :)

We had some success with getting in touch with some less actives this week.  I love teaching the less actives in the Pensacola Ward!!  The love that I have for these people is unreal!  This new focus for the mission is going to change lives, wards, and stakes!  Its absolutely amazing.  I have never been able to experience love for people quite like this before.  I am able to see people how our Heavenly Father sees them.  Its is a priviledge!! 

Saturday, Ermilisa had her Baptismal interview..... She passed :) haha  So she is ready to go!  We got her fitted for a jump suit, and have the whole baptism program all planned out!  We have been inviting everyone!!  Its gonna be a great day!  She is an amazing woman!  She truly is a woman of faith.  She has changed so much over the last 4.5 months.  But all for the better of course!  She is so ready and excited to be baptized!!  She is already a great missionary too!!  she has given out 4 book of mormons!!  and she has taken 3 friends to church with her!!!  How awesome is that!! 

Sunday was the primary program in the Pensacola ward :)  it was so good!!  The way these kids testified of Christ through their singing and talks was absolutely incredible!!! Ermilisa had brought her neighbor with her to church, and they loved the program!!!  The ward is also super excited for her baptism tomorrow!!  I think there is going to be a great turn out!!  Hopefully anyways. 

Oh how i love being a missionary!  Its nothing i expected... its better!!  The experiences i have had are so special to me!  I cannot imagine doing anyting else right now.  I know that it is not chance that i have been called to serve in the Florida Tallahassee Mission.  Its not by chance that President Smith is my Mission President.  I look up to them so much and learn so much from them!!  Missions are hard, im not going to lie.  But they are more than worth it!!  This gospel brings such joy and peace into my life!  I love sharing this gospel with others with the intent of getting people to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ! 

Activities in Pensacola

So this week has been pretty crazy.  I am staying another 6 weeks in good ol pensacola!!! YAY!  I get to stay for Ermilisa's Baptism on the 27th!  I am super excited! 

On October 1st, we had a special zone training, were President Smith taught us the Doctrine of Family History.  Which basically talks about why we do family history, with scriptures to back it up.  I absolutely LOVE teaching the Doctrine of Family History, because, the spirit bares witness of its truthfullness so intensely. 

This tuesday, we had a great lesson with one of our investigators, Marilyn.  She is an older lady, and we have been teaching her for a while.  But we decided to teach her about the Doctrine of Family History, because she had a lot of questions about the spirit world and what happens there.  So we start teaching Her the lesson.  We get pretty much all the way through.  Then all of a sudden, i get this prompting to talk about her deseaced husband.  It was one of the most powerful experiences I have had with the spirit yet. The Spirit was just working right through me. I was able to tell Marilyn that her deceased husband had a lot to do with us meeting her. I told her that her husband wants her to know that what we were sharing with her was the truth, that wants her to listen to us because he wants to be with her for eternity.   The spirit in the room was powerful. The spirit was just giving me the words to say.  It was incredible.  I was so humbled and felt so priviledged to experience such a tender moment.  Marilyn started to get emotional as she was overcome by the spirit.  It was very aparant that her husband was there with us in that lesson.  She told us that she believes her husband would say that. 

The Doctrine of Family History has such a special place in my heart.  Missionary work is not just happening on this side of the veil.  It is happening on the other side as well.  I know, without a doubt, that we are led to prepared people by thier ancestors, close family, or friends.  Their ancestors have accepted the gospel in the spirit world, and now need thier work to be done for them.  The only way they can get it done is through their decendants.  They then lead the missionaries to them.  I feel so honored to be part of such a great work!

Only in Pensacola will you find a "Cat Crossing" sign and and upside-down stop sign haha

My awesome new scripture box :)  Its the best!!
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A Loving Heavenly Father

Well I have hit my 20th week as a missionary!!  How crazy is that?  But who is counting?... Yes, me.... and lots of other people haha 

This week I have experienced the Love of Heavenly Father immensely.  I know he is there.  I know that he loves us.  I know that is very mindful of us. 

This week i was having a pretty rough week.  I was getting a bit discouraged and nervous for transfer calls to come.  I was pretty nervous, because for some reason, I was just feeling like my time in Pensacola was drawing to a close.  I didnt really feel needed.  I just felt like everything that I said or did just got put to the side and went un-noticed.  I felt that i needed to ask for a blessing.  So I asked Elder Harris ( Senior couple in my district)  to give me a blessing after district meeting on tuesday.  He did, and what a blessing it was!  That blessing helped me to remember that I am definitely not alone.  I was given some great council and encouragement.  If you are ever struggling, PLEASE do not hesitate to ask for a priesthood blessing. 

Another moment this week when I felt the Love of our Heavenly Father was when we were visiting a less active sister.  We just dropped in to say hello.  She let us into her house and we began to visit and get to know one another.  Sister Petersona and I were just trying so hard to figure out what she needed.  We tried talking about Family History, faith, General Conference... but then i just got this overwhelming feeling of love.  Like someone was hugging me, but i felt like it was meant for Sister Robertson.  So when the time presented itself, I said thorugh tears of course...

 " Sister Robertson,  I feel very impressed to tell you that Heavenly Father is aware of you.  He loves you.  He wants you to know that you are important to him."  That was such a tender moment.   Not only for her, but for me as well.  It was what I needed for my feelings of inadequacy to subside.  No longer did i feel like my time was finished in Pensacola, but that it had just begun. 

I can testify that the love that our Heavenly Father has for us is immense!  He is aware of each one of us.  He knows our struggles, our frustrations, and our needs.  There is no better feeling in the world than feeling the Love of our Heavenly Father. I can promise you that if you pray to hime to know if he is there, he will let you know.  He wants us to be happy and he is willing to help us with whatever we need to get there.  We just have to ask him for help.  Its not easy, but it is so worth it.  We dont have to be at a certain level of spirituality to talk to our heavenly father.  He wants us how we are so he can embrace us and make us into something that we could never imagine for ourselves. 

Have a great week!

Sister Wood

A Week of Revelation!!

This week has been full of revelation!  I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!   I love having living prophets and apostles who lead and guide this church.  What is interesting though is that they are not the heads of the church.  The head of the Church is Jesus Christ himself.   The prophets have that authority from our loving Heavenly Father to share with us what Christ and our Father have revealed to them.  I think this process is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!

On Thursday, we had a special zone training.  President and Sister Smith were there to teach us!  That was so great to see them and hear what it was they have been planning for a while to teach us.  They had been traveling around the mission doing the same training for all the zones in the mission. The Pensacola Zone was the second to last training, because it is so far away from the rest of the mission.  

In August, Elders Stanfill, and Neilson of the Seventy came and toured our mission.  They gave us great council and taught us about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  They received some revelation during their visit.  We all know that revelation comes straight from the Lord himself through the Holy Ghost, so this was some pretty intense stuff :)  They shared this revelation with President and Sister Smith who then over the last couple months have thought carefully and prepared a way to share this revelation with the mission. 

It was announced at Zone Conference that our mission is the first mission in the United States that would be implementing this into our work as missionaries!  So that got our attention right away.  We will no longer be focusing on finding people to teach and baptize.  Our main focus for the next year is going to be completing families, and re-activating the Less- active members in the mission. 

When i heard this, i was overcome with the spirit.  For the last little while, i have felt that it is my purpose in this area to reach out to the less actives and bring them back to the joy of the gospel.  I have been a bit overwhelmed because that was a HUGE undertaking, and we were supposed to be focusing our time and efforts on finding and teaching new people.  I was just super frustrated not knowing how i was going to fulfill this purpose that I felt I had in this area.   So when President and Sister Smith announced that we will just be focusing on the Less-Actives from now on, I was so excited. 

I am so excited and honored to be taking part in such a sacred work.  Re-activation is very close to my heart because it is happening in such abundance in my own family.  It brings such joy to know that I will be helping other families experience this same joy! 

We received some great training that will help us work in unity with the ward councils.  Missionaries cannot do this work alone.  It is only possible if the members and the missionaries work as one.  I know that this will be a great change for this mission!  Especially in Pensacola!  The Pensacola Stake has over 2000 less-active members!  So we have our work cut out for us! 

We also had some great training on Family History.  President told us that the Ancestors of those we are to teach are leading us to them and helping soften their hearts.  Because it is only through that descendant of theirs, that we teach, that it is possible for their work to be done. 

Think back to how excited you were when you were going to be baptized!  Then a few minutes before your baptism starts, you are told you cannot get baptized yet.  You have to wait for your great, great, great grand-daughter to do it for you.  That would be absolutely devastating!  I know it would be for me!  So that is why family history is so important!  We are finding them and gathering their information so they can get their work done!  So not only is missionary work being done on this side, but it is being done on the other side as well.  I found that to be so powerful and very motivating!! 

Saturday and Sunday we had the privilege to watch General Conference!  I love General Conference and always have.  As a missionary though, it has a greater meaning. Its like a Christmas for the soul!! haha :)  Every talk I felt was just what i needed to hear.  I also received some great revelation for our investigators.  Ermilisa attended the Saturday Morning session with Sister Peterson and I.  That was really cool.  She enjoyed every second of it. 

After the first session, Ermilisa was able to get a priesthood blessing.  That was AMAZING!  To hear the council that Heavenly Father had for Ermilisa was incredible.  I know that our Heavenly Father is VERY proud of her!  She has such great things in store.  What i thought was absolutely amazing, was that in her blessing it said that " Heavenly Father, and your Ancestors are pulling for you."  That was powerful!  I felt so honored to witness such a statement. 

I absolutely LOVE being a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!  The Gospel is what makes us happy and brings true and lasting Joy to our lives.  The church is just the vehicle that gets us moving, and encourages us to endure faithfully to the end.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  I know that with all of my heart.   The Gospel is so simple, yet so profound.  It is perfect.  I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows and cares for us individually and collectively.  I know that the only way to return to him is through His son Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the one that makes all things possible.  "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me." 

I hope you all get the chance to ponder and study the talks given at General Conference. They are truly inspired. 

With Love,

Sister Melissa Jean Wood 

I got to have REAL southern food!! It was SOOO good haha.  And to my surprise, I really like collard greens! 

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