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

    
    
    
    ​

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! :) 

 

        

        

        

    

​

Sister Wood