I am not the only one with chubby cheeks...

Santa has chubby cheeks too. MERRY CHRISTMAS WEEK!! :)

   This week was great! I got pretty sick for a couple days, but the work continues! Also we got our water fixed. I´M SO HAPPY.  Three cheers for warm showers.

   We had Conferencia de Natal with President and Sister Fluckiger last week! It was wonderful. It was our zone (Lisbon West) and four other zones. I got to see a lot of friends!! I finally saw my MTC companion Sister Larson, among other MTC pals. We had so much fun! We were all comforted to see that not only our own cheeks are getting chubbier. :) Lol. The Spirit that we feel when so many missionaries are together is just unreal! I love this mission and I have no doubt that this is exactly where I´m supposed to be.

   We also had a Christmas party with our branch on Saturday and it was great! So so so much food. And lots of fun too! We have this guy in our ward, Vagner, and he is Brazilian Jim Carrey. It is uncanny. He sounds like him, he makes weird faces like him, and he has lots of dumb jokes. But he is a actually the best. This branch is so cute and I love it! It´s interesting because they are all converts. Every single one. Not a one of them (except the small children) grew up in the church. But they have so much faith and work so hard to build the kingdom. I´m truly blessed to have their examples in my life and the opportunity to work with them!

   Our testimonies of member missionary work grew a lot this week! We have an investigator, Dinho, who is the friend of a recent convert, Ricardo. We just met him this week and he is really progressing towards baptism! When we met him, Ricardo had already given him a Book of Mormon and explained about the missionaries.  And Ricardo comes to all our lessons with Dinho and bears powerful testimony of the Restored Gospel. And Dinho is so prepared to accept our message! Sister Leavitt and I walk away from lessons just speechless because Dinho has such a strong desire to change his life, and Ricardo is right by his side to help him. Wooohooo for Ricardo and Dinho!! I love missionary work. 

   Well, I hope everyone has a magical Christmas!! I´m so grateful that I get to spend my Christmas as a missionary. It is truly a blessing and a privilege to be a represtentative of Jesus Crhist. I know He lives and He is our Savior. I love you all! FELIZ NATAL!! :)

Sister Wood