Signing off from the FTM

Hey Y'all!  

The time has come.  18 months has come and gone.  I cannot even begin to express the amount of love, joy, and gratitude i feel at this time.  

It is going to be such a bitter sweet thing to leave the mission.  I have loved serving in this capacity. 

 Its weird how the lord works.  He takes the most selfish and prideful breed of humans (18-25 year old's) and allows them to invite others to come unto Christ.  

In the midst of inviting others, we learn to come unto him ourselves.  We are blessed with the capacity to recognize just a fraction of how much our Heavenly Father and Savior love us. 

 We learn how to access the atonement in a way that we never comprehended before.  

Jesus is the Christ.  His gospel has been restored in it's fullness to the earth.  

The Prophet Joseph Smith did see God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 The Book of Mormon truly is Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  It testifies that he lives, and loves all of Heavenly Father's children.  

I have been given the opportunity and privilege to build my foundation on Christ over these past 18 months. 

 I know that as I continue to rely on him that I will be able to withstand any storm life throws at me. 

 I am excited to take what i have learned from the many experiences on my mission and apply them into my efforts of daily discipleship.  

I am excited to go along with  Heavenly Father's Plan for me and attend BYU-Idaho.  

Being home for three short weeks will be just enough time for me to plan and prepare for college in January.  

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of his children.  Because my plans will never amount to the greatness of His plans :)  

I have said many hard goodbyes.  I sure love all these people here in Dothan.  I have loved all my areas and it will be hard to leave the mission.  

I am just feeling so blessed that I have gotten to meet so many wonderful people.  They certainly have blessed my life! 

Love Y'all! 

Be Blessed!  

Sister Melissa Jean Wood 

Florida Tallahassee Mission

    
    
    
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So Many Things...

Hey Y'all! 

 I hope this email finds y'all doing swell!  I seriously cannot believe that this is my last full week as a missionary.  I can't handle it.  I am excited to see my family, but also nervous haha.  I am a pretty different person from when I left.  So we will see how awkward I really am haha.  

This week was a good one for sure!  It was SUPER DUPER busy!!  

Tuesday morning, Sister Jensen and I drove to Crestview Florida to attend Mission Leadership Council.  That was really good!  We talked about how we need to always be doing the Father's will.  That is something I have definitely learned over the course of my mission.  Things go a lot more smoothly if we do things in His way.  He knows best.  Sometimes we might think we know best, but in reality he has quite the plan for us.  He has all these blessings he wants to rain upon us.  We limit God and the blessings he desires to give us by not choosing to do his will.  Everything in MLC related back to Jesus Christ.  It was amazing.  The spirit was so so strong.  I left that meeting feeling so edified and strengthened in my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.  

We spent the night in Crestview with some other Sister Missionaries so we could be at the Sister's conference the next day.  Before Sister's Conference, we had some free time, so we decided to go to Pensacola Florida!!!!!  It was only an hour away.  So I got to see some of my dearest friends in Pensacola!  It was such a tender mercy!!  

Sister's Conference was so much fun!!   I got to see all my companions who are still in the mission!  That was a blast to be around them and enjoy their sweet spirits.  It was fun to see how they have grown in their faith and knowledge of the gospel.  

The theme of Sister's conference was "Anchoring our souls in Christ."  It was a fantastic meeting.  We talked a lot about the atonement and how we can apply it in our daily lives.  It is such a blessing to know that the love of the Savior will always be there no matter what.  We can always be anchored in him.  However, our anchor is only as strong as our weakest link in the chain.  So we need to be constantly strengthening our faith and living each and every one of  the principles of the gospel.  "Exaltation is our goal, Discipleship is our journey."-Pres. Uchtdorf.  

After Sister's conference we had the chance to go on an exchange with the Bainbridge Sisters.  Sister Anderson and Sister Sjoblom are the cutest!  We had a great exchange.  Sister Anderson and I saved 6 lives when we donated blood for some service haha :) I love doing service.  December 1st was the World Wide Day of Service to kick off the Church's Christmas initiative #lighttheworld in 25 ways over 25 days.  If you have not seen the wonderful video and calander of ideas that we can serve others this holiday season, visit www.mormon.org to find out how you can #lighttheworld

This week Sister Jensen and I contacted a headquarter referral that wanted a bible.  We delivered the bible to this sweet couple, Jermain and Melissa.  They are probably some of the most prepared people i have ever met!  We introduced the Book of Mormon to them.  They LOVED it.  Jermaine and Melissa have been married for seven years.  They were involved in a house fire about 4 years ago.  In that fire, they lost their five year old son, and 16 month old daughter.  It was sad to hear about the pain and heartache they experienced.  However, their faith is immovable.  We were able to talk to them about the priesthood and eternal families.  We are really excited to see them grow as they accept the message of the restored gospel.  Sister Jensen and I could feel help beyond the veil when we were teaching Jermain and Melissa.  It was the sweetest experience.  

Saturday we had the chance to go to Panama City Beach with a family in the ward that was baptizing their son.  It was a beautiful day for a baptism.  I always love to see others coming unto Christ as they follow His example by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God.  Tucker was so excited to be baptized!  What a memory that will be!  I absolutely LOVE the Pannell Family! I am really going to miss them!  

My heart is so full from the many experiences I had this week.  The spirit has just filled my soul.  I know that our Redeemer lives!  I know that he is right by our side trough the good times and bad.  What comfort it is to know that we will never be alone in our trials and difficult times.  There is one who knows to the fullest how we feel and he knows how to succor us.  

I am so grateful for the opportunity we all have to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  As we strive daily to deepen our discipleship, we can essentially invite others to come unto him.  I am so blessed to have this restored gospel in my life.  

Have a blessed week y'all! 

Dont forget to #Light the World! :) 

 

        

        

        

    

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Sister Wood 

Giving Thanks in Dothan

Hey there Y'all!!

I hope y'all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  There is so much to be thankful for!  I have been thinking about how many blessings Heavenly Father has rained down upon me, my family, and my mission.  I am so grateful to know that we have a LOVING Heavenly Father who knows us individually.  He has an intricate plan for all of us.  He puts people in our lives that knows will touch us, and change us for the better.  I am so grateful to have such a wonderful companion who puts up with me :)  I would not be able to make it through this last 6 weeks with out her!!!  I sure am going miss her and all my Dothan buddies! 

I am so grateful for my loving family.  I am blessed with such wonderful people to claim as kin! :)  I am grateful for all their prayers and support.  I am so grateful for the way that Heavenly Father has cared for and blessed my sweet family.  The restored gospel of Jesus Christ truly does bless us as families and as individuals.  

I am most grateful for the knowledge I have of our loving savior, Jesus Christ.  It is through him and his mercy and grace that we can be forgiven or our sins, strengthened in our weaknesses, and supported in our trials.  The opportunity that we have to access the power of the Atonement each day is such a blessing that I have taken for granted for so long.  I am so grateful that each day we have the opportunity to commune with our Father in Heaven, through Jesus Christ, to identify our weaknesses and what we can do to be better servants in his hands. I know for sure that I would be a hopeless sole if it were not possible for us to repent and access the power of the atonement each day.  

Jesus Christ has seen me through the good times and supported, and carried me though the difficult times.  

I know He lives.  I know He loves us.  I know He is the one that saves.  

We love him, because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

            

  

  

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Sister Wood 

Zone Training and Activity

Hey Y'all!!!

Sorry this is getting to y'all late.  We had a CRAZY day yesterday.  We had a zone training in the morning.  Sister Jensen trained on Discipleship. It went really well, and we had a lot of participation.  It was a bitter sweet day.  My last zone training ever.... YIKES!!!  Y'all, time is going by so fast.  I can't even handle it.  3 more weeks of being a full time, set apart missionary.   AHHHH..  

Anyways..... 

So this week has been an interesting and busy one at that!    Tuesday was district meeting.  It went really good.  We had a good discussion on the culture of our district and zone.  We came to the conclusion that we need to be more charitable through obedience. That makes us sound like awful missionaries, but its really just motivating us to fulfill our purpose with love.  A lot of times we as missionaries try our best to be obedient.  While doing so, we sometimes lose sight of who we are. We lose our personalities.  That is what makes obedience difficult without love.  If we are loving the lord, then we will do the work in his way, while gaining confidence in ourselves because we see the blessings that come from trusting in the lord.  When we lose ourselves in the work of the lord, we find who we truly are.  I have definitely seen that in my life over the course of the mission.  

I have just become so happy over the course of my mission. I sometimes think about how life was before the mission, and i just was not a happy person.  I have seen first hand what the Atonement changes lives.  I know that His grace is sufficient for all of us.  We do not have make it to a certain level, all that is asked of us is that we do all we can to keep the commandments.  

We had a great meeting with Kay!  She is a Family History investigator.  We found a line that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve!!! and guess what y'all?!!!  it's the same family line that leads back to Adam and Eve in my family!!! I found more kin here in the south!! :)  Holy Moly!!! 

Wednesday was a crazy day.  We finally were able to see our favorite miss Jan.  She has had family in town, and she has been sick for the past 10 days or so.  So we have not been able to see her as much as we would like to.  We had a pretty good lesson with her.  However, she had some concerns about not being able to be baptized in both churches.  She currently attends a non- denominational church called Harvest.  She really loves it, but she also really loves the LDS church.  So she is torn.  She got pretty upset about people saying that "this is the only true church." So we had to patch things up.  But later in the week we were able to teach her the restoration.  She really enjoyed it and said she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  

Its interesting because every time we have planned to teach her the restoration, something comes up and we aren't able to teach it.  So the adversary just knows that she will accept the message of the restoration, and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  So we are just excited to see how things go from now on.  She seems to really understand the priesthood. so that is a huge plus.  

Those are pretty much the highlights of the week.  

Hope y'all have a fabulous week, and an even more fabulous Thanksgiving!!  

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know that I would not be where I am today without it.  It blesses our lives, but most importantly it blesses our families.  I have seen first hand how the gospels blesses families.  Heavenly Father knows us by name.  He knows our desires, fears, and troubles.  I am so grateful to know that He has an intricate plan for all of his children.  

Have a blessed week y'all!  

Love ya!! 

Sister Melissa Jean Wood 

      

    

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National Peanut Festival and SURPRISES!!!

Hey Y'all!!  

So this week was quite the week. It seemed like an eternity long!!  But we made it.  

Tuesday we had the chance to volunteer at the Peanut Festival. That  was a blast.  We got to see the sights!  We ate funnel fries, elephant ears, and fired Reese's.  Man was that a night full of fried food!!! never again.  haha but it was a good experience. :)  We also watched the swifty swine.  Pig races are apparently a thing here in the south haha it was pretty fantastic.  

We got some news on Friday that Sister Stapley, from the dothan 2 ward was getting transferred to Geneva since a sister there was going home.  It was a tough goodbye.  I certainly love Sister Stapley!  She has taught me so much just serving around her.  But thank goodness she is still in the zone.  I will be seeing her this week! :)  

Sunday rolled around, and as I was walking down the hall from ward council, I see TAMMY standing in the foyer with the Guthrie's!!!  She got me good!   She came to surprise sister porter and i.  She went to the 2nd ward sacrament meeting, and then saw me in the hall.  So that was a huge SURPRISE! 

We finally got to take the sacrament.  If I have learned anything on my mission, it is the importance of Sabbath Day worship.  The sacrament is so necessary in our lives.  I believe that Sister Jensen and I had such a rough week this week because we weren't able to take the sacrament last week due to stake conference. The sacrament is what gives me the energy to do what the lord expects of me.  It truly is a renewal.  I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he gives us the opportunity to be cleansed from sin and trouble every week!  What a loving father!  

Well y'all, thats pretty much all for this week.  Have a blessed one!

And just remember ...

  

Love y'all!

Sister Melisa Jean Wood 

         

   

         
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