Shinguards to Sandals: Binyag, WOW, Taylor

Sister Bacalla and Sister Wood's surprise baptism - Love it when that happens!

Sister Wood holding pictures of an animal called a Dik Dik. Stetson them in her package. Funny!!

Here goes another weekly update on my awesome missionary life in Aparri! Lots last happened and was actually one of those longer weeks it feels like. First off, we had exchanges! I feel really bad for having a negative attitude about it. It was really honestly one of the best exchanges I have been on. It was fun because we knew each other, kind of how we taught, and stuff, but way more fun because we were both way better at the language! We worked way hard and learned a lot. Haha not very many people get to say they went on exchanges with their trainer!

Also, from the photos you can see that I finally got all of the packages! The APs came to our district meeting and it was the best thing in the world. Haha my coaches are so awesome. Thank you so much for the little package. I was laughing so hard when I saw the watermelon gu snacks. Definitely reminds me of BYU. Elder Tate loves them too so I gave him a pack of them. It was so thoughtful of you guys! Thank you thank you thank you! Stet and mom, your packages were nothing less than perfect and I loved them so much. Thank you Stet for the Layton City basketball trophy and the golf ball. Not quite sure what I will do with it, but thanks anyways! It is so fun getting treats from home. There is nothing like it!

Stetson's letter to Courtnee

The package Stetson sent to Court

Happy Easter a couple of weeks late

I forgot to mention the lunar eclipse that happened here a few weeks ago. Okay we saw it, and it was the perfect time and everything. But not to brag or anything, but our view of it was in our area overlooking the red moon on the ocean. Probably the most gorgeous thing I have seen on my mission. It seemed as if you could reach out and grab it! Our world is so beautiful! A random rain storm blew through here the other day. Haha you can see the photos. We were SOAKED. That little umbrella did absolutely nothing. Its kind of fun to be in though. Except for the fact that we went back to our apartment and inside the ground was wet, and upstairs in our rooms, the ceiling was leaking. Yeah, keep in mind that this is a brand new apartment. It was getting all of our stuff wet. Can't imagine what is going to happen when it is actually rainy season here. We will just pray for no more rain the rest of the time i am here! It is summer time here, and it is roasting. The only good thing that it serves for is drying our laundry super quick. Before we came to email we were helping the girls in our ward who were washing my laundry hang it all on this home made contraption haha. It was way funny. They did it for the first time to earn money for their temple trip! I was glad to help them out.

We have worked so hard this week! You know it was our goal to hit standard, and we ended up getting standard on almost everything! There is just this feeling of reaching goals that feels amazing. We ended up with 35 lessons which is something that hasn't happened in this area for a while. Haha but some big news for this week was..... we had a baptism!!! Surprise surprise! Haha I can't even explain how random or weird it was. So Barry is married to a member and has been investigating for 7 years, but had not been taught very much by the missionaries... no idea why. He would go to church with his wife. He is working at Savemore a couple hours away and just comes back here on the weekends Well, supposedly the previous missionaries had set a baptismal date with him on May 3rd. THey didn't think it would happen cause he didn't have all the lessons. Maybe that is why they didn't inform us. Well this family was planning on him still being baptized! So yeah, Sister Bacalla and I retaught the lessons, he was interviewed, and baptized all in 4 days. It was CRAZY but it was super cool because that family will be sealed in the temple in 1 year, and he was so incredibly prepared. Everyone was so excited in the branch because they will have another priesthood holder. It felt weird baptizing someone you don't know super well, but at the same time, we had taught him more times than any other missionaries! It was a blessing and cool experience. We are doing a lot of finding right now as we continue to teach the recent converts. We can see the blessings in our work that are coming from it.

Hahaha oh my funny story. So the other night we were at the church and found this book that did not belong there. Sister Bacalla took it with her and after we updated for the night she went outside and we started burning it. It is totally okay to do that here. Just burn stuff randomly on the cement. Anyways, we are out there burning it, and a friend of our neighbor walks over by us and motions and asks if he can light his cigarette with the fire. I couldn't believe he was serious. We kind of sat there in shock and he walked over and just tried to. Hahaha it wouldn't light and then finally I told him no, that is so bad for you don't do it! Finally I told him just to throw it in the fire. He wouldn't, but then sister copeland came out with a word of wisdom pamphlet and told him to trade us. The cigarette for the pamphlet. After much persistence on our part, he gave me the cigarette, I threw it in the fire, and then he took the pamphlet and left. :) Yay! I pulled some statistic out and said he will add 45 years to his life. Haha my companion corrected me and said maybe just 45 minutes hahaha.

So Sister Copeland transferred here and is our new apartment mate. Haha the world is so small. She went to BYU and knew my roommate and had actually been to our apartment. She said that she came to all of our games and sat right behind the goal every time. Haha we talk BYU all the time is the best thing ever. We miss it so much! Not to mention she is from Nashville and has seen Taylor Swift getting frozen yogurt. Side note, Taylor Swift is doing a show in Manila in June I think... yeah... that's it...

I think that calls it a week! Guess what... I get to talk to my mom on Saturday... :) I AM SO EXCITED! I love to see my family. Well, I love you all. Keep writing me!

Love,

Sister Wood

PS Clara get better.