Hermana Wood In The Hood

Oh my goodness… hello again!

( Also in this picture you might all see a familiar face!! And yes…I think he might be the boy in the mural…)  –

I dont even know where to begin with this week. I feel like I say every week here is crazy but I think this one takes the cake….so far.
First I went to Starbucks for the first time. Not too crazy but kinda random. It’s way good though I’ll give them that.
So we eat lunch with an Hermana in the ward once a week and her name is Hermana Hurtado. She is salvadoranion and makes the BEST food… butttt she has this “cute” habit of talking about me in front of me. Haha she’ll say things to hermana Sears like “wow she must like the food” or ask her questions about me. I never say anything 1.) Cause idk what to even say to that cause I already told her her food was good like 5 times and 2.) shes not talking to me! …just about me! Well she had a friend over for lunch with us this week and while she was doing the dishes me and her friend Carmen were talking in the living room. While Carmen was telling me a story Hermana Hurtado walks in and says to Carmen “she doesn’t understand you” and laughs hahahhahahahhaha ….uhh wait what?… I looked at her and said “yes I understand I just cant speak” Hahahahaha then she says TO HERMANA SEARS, “oh she understands?” Hahahaha YES I UNDERSTAND I JUST CANT SPEAK OKAY??!! I had a good laugh about it though.
Next up on the list, Freddy.
Remember freddy from last week? Yeah well oh boy, buckle up Haha! So we teach him about once or twice a week via video chat with his member friend randy. Well this week we had to check of the Chastity lesson from the list so I was already pretty red faced trying to accomplish that in Spanish, THEN he starts telling me I’m pretty. We laughed, I said thank you, shrugged it off and got back to the lesson. Well about 2 minutes later we found ourselves listening to him tell me “su ojos son hermosa!, bella, muy guapa and BEAUTIFUL!!” I WAS AT AN ALL TIME REDNESS from both blushing, and crying cause we were laughing so hard and the worst part was NEITHER RANDY OR HERMANA SEARS SAID ANYTHING! And after about 20 more minutes of trying to get back back on topic and also me trying to frantically close the lesson it ended with him saying he hoped I was in his dreams that night….. to which we replied by Hermana Sears holding up the chastity pamphlet and me pointing to it. Annnnnddddd that was the beginning of my book I’m writing called “Things I Never Thought (or hoped I would never) I’d Hear On My Mission”:)…
ANNDDDD last but not least: The Real LA:) (mom and grandmas please tune out for the following)…
Every Sunday we get there super early to greet people at the sacrament doors. Well as we were doing that a few Elders were talking with some of the Priesthood holders in the ward and a little bit before the meeting started our Elders came up to us and said that we needed to go and calmly lock all the doors to the building other than the front ones and if we saw a large African American Male with dreads we needed to either get the Elders, those priesthood leaders or the bishop off the stand. No one else knew what was happening so it was pretty nuts. He never came so we were safe and all turned out good!!
So yeah that’s about all I can share for this week! Hope you are all so good and happy!!

My spiritual thought is to be a little more loving. If you look up the definition of charitable it is defined as the highest and noblest form of love. Which means we should remember that we are all so dang far from perfection and yet Christ still loves us perfect and completely. He is not quick to anger or be annoyed neither slow to forgive. So this week I’m inviting you all to remember your own weakness before pointing out someone else’s and to look at them for Gods point of view.

My saying I’ve made up on the mission is “You dont have to like em, Ya just have to love em.” So there ya have it. Now go and do:) love you all! Be safe and Keep Smilin;)
Love Ryenne

 

Well howdy folks, life here in not so sunny CA is so great! I am assigned to the Torrance north area which is right next to Compton, Gardena and Watts:) but that’s our Elders area cause I’m not allowed to go there cause it’s a red zone for sisters ha!
My comp is Hermana Sears from Herriman Utah and she is THE BEST-mission- MOMMY EVA! (dont worry mom you’re still the best). But yeah shes awesome and we get along great!
Spanish is coming slowly but surely and I cant speak super great but I understand about everything so that’s good! Exceppttttt for when I mistranslated a lady telling us that she “didn’t come for us she came for her boyfriend” sooo oof:) but life is good!
I’ve only been here for a week but I’ve already seen some miracles! One was our investigator named Freddy who is like the definition of prepared. My first day here my companion and me extended and set a baptismal date!!! So that is sooo cool! Also We taught him the restoration (which is so hard for me because of all the conjugations but the spirit definitely guided me and I did it! Well…we did it!!) And after talking about Joseph Smith he said “oh that’s like me! I have those questions! I’m wondering that too!!” So we invited him to pray about it and read the Book of Mormon everyday for a week and if he does with a real intent we promised he would find the answers to his questions. It is so cool being a missionary and I love it!
Okay also <BRENDEE IS ENGAGED AND HANNAH IS GETTING MARRIED WHATTT> wow everything at home is like upside down now I swear but I’m so happy for you guys!!
As for life here I’m so happy! I have eaten suchhhh good food (I’m so worried oh no haha) and I watched a car be robbed so that was awesome! I also see El Caminos EVERYWHERE so to all my young subscribers who know what I’m saying #TenderMercies 😅😜♥️
FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK
So there is a return missionary of about 3 months ago and lives in the area, she misses being a missionary I guess so she wanted to come out with us for a day this week. Well we pulled into the stakes center to meet and pick her up and there was an ASL activity in the back as we drove past I told Hma Sears that we should drive past just BLARING the horn! After laughing for a while she said “you realize they’re not all deaf!?” I then told her that that’s the best part! Only half of the people would turn around and the rest would have no idea hahahahahahahahaha…. ohhhh I think this is the only time I’ve almost wished I wasn’t wearing this nametags. But not really cause I LOVE IT!!
Before I log off I’ll put a few quotes from Elder Hollands talk (which was both terrifying and amazing btw) and hopefully something will touch one of you<3
you don’t hold back from ANYTHING! You go and you give it everything you’ve got! LOCK STOCK AND BARREL you bail in!!
• love the tough times too
•there are no easy conversions because salvation is an expensive proposition
(Which I would like to add, WE ARE ALL CONVERTS. and conversion is not an easy thing, see Ether 12:6)
•Some of us dont fly because we dont get anywhere near the edge
• I HAVE NOT GIVEN MY LIFE TO A FAIRYTALE
^^^^^^^^ I CANNOT SCREAM THIS ONE LOUD ENOUGH<3 I remember how hard it was for me to come out and how scared I was, and now I see how happy I am and I want everyone to know that I did not leave my family, my schooling and my life behind for a fairytale. This gospel is Real, and it is True. And I Love It. Thanks for all the support, dont forget God loves each and every one of you in an extremely personal and perfect way<3 be safe!
Love always,
Ryenne

Okay in case I haven’t mentioned it I am SO EXCITED for Elder Holland like holy cow!! Plus they told us since there is so few of us (there’s like 260 missionaries here right now but next week they have 160 more coming! **salutes teachers and walks away**) we get to shake his hand!! I’ll probably turn red like dad and start to nervous sweat, thanks dad:)

Anyway this week was another exciting week, so Hermana Donaldson has Endometriosis-dont worry I got medical consent- if you dont know what that is just know it is VERY VERY VERY PAINFUL like indescribable. Anyway she’d been in quite a bit of pain all day so we decided to take her back and make her lay down for a while. As soon as we got back things got really bad, so I got all our stuff together and we rushed as fast as possible to find elders and a teacher. We got her to our elders which gave her a blessing and a teacher to run and grab the doctor. Since it’s such a rare condition and there’s not a lot they can do treatment wise, especially in a MTC clinic, our teacher said we might have to “go outside the wall” to the nearest hospital. I was freaking out a little hahahaha. But we went to the clinic doctor first and they would only let one companion in with her (I dont get Mexicans they’re weird) so me and her went into the back office where a giant Mexican used his Google translate to communicate. Google translate is great and will get the job done but it’s not very accurate hahaha, so after a while of trying to explain the condition and some other things, he hands the phone to us and it says, “a question I should not ask, I have injection that can take away all feeling in 2 hours”…. hahahahaha we looked at each other with wide eyes and gave a big “GAH..uhhhhh…..” she typed back “that sounds scary”… he chuckled shook his head and walked out of the room. I suggested to her that maybe we should have payed more attention in the law of chastity vocab lesson earlier:) she started laughing and the said “Hermana, dont make me laugh!!” Haha it was still funny:) Needless to say we did not take the nice doctors morphine and shes doing much better now. 

Also we had a hairdresser night, Kels you would be so proud!! Haha Hermana Taylor needed her bangs cut super bad and so Hermana D did them I’ll send the preview in the bottom hopefully it works! And I dont have the results but it turned out great! I also did everyone’s eyebrows so I’m a very happy camper:) 

Spiritual thought for this week is to go read or listen to “The Gift of Grace” by elder uchtdorf, it is AMAZING holy cow. 

“I marvel to think that the Son of God would condescend to save us, as imperfect, impure, mistake-prone, and ungrateful as we often are. I have tried to understand the Savior’s Atonement with my finite mind, and the only explanation I can come up with is this: God loves us deeply, perfectly, and everlastingly. I cannot even begin to estimate “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height … [of] the love of Christ.” 

I feel the need to add that I know this is true, that OUR savior and God know each one of us and love every bit us more that we are able comprehend. I KNOW that there is nothing we can do that is so far the Light of Christ cant reach us, and help us find our own way back to home and happiness. I know this. GOD LOVES YOU. AND I LOVE YOU. Dont forget that please.

Anyway hope you all have the BEST and safest week<3<3 

Love, Ryenne

Well to all my young subscribers I’m sorry this week hasn’t been near as exciting as the last few, but at least I know my grandma’s will read this email with ease:) love you all lol

You will all be please to hear though that the pollo rojo influenza has passed and we are all back on a regular schedule again hahaha if ya know what I mean.

Spanish is hard and I dont really know what I’m doing but lifes good and I’m figuring it out Haha. 

Speaking of,

RULE #1 FLY BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS life is always more exciting like that. Like be prepared and wear pants, but dont be prepared to wing it Haha. 

Example number 1, throughout the week were all supposed to prepare a 5 min talk in Spanish so that on Sunday the branch presidency can randomly select a few of us. I prepared my talk but it wasn’t great, but I was ready. I asked the 2nd councilor who was speaking, because were tight with him, and said “just please not move-I’m ready but I’d rather speak on a different topic”….he smiled, said okay, and I got called to speak in sacrament. But the other part of the story was, that I had just enough time to review my talk and decide I hated every bit of it and it wasn’t what I wanted to say, so I rewrote 5 bullet points, in English, during someone else’s talk and went up there with that instead. I winged it. And was congratulated by the entire branch presidency about how powerful my message was. Ha I dont know what I said! But it worked!!!! 

Also about the title I’ve been named Hermama Wood as district mom Haha, but to celebrate me special day on Sunday we took family pictures:) enjoy yourselves… oof Haha. 

Spiritual thought for the week is from our Law of chastity lesson this week. “Yall ain’t gon be clean if yall ain’t gon repe’t yerselfs” Alma 60:23

Jk really I wanna ask you all to ask God if he loves you, make sure you know and understand that he knows and loves ya more than anyone in this earth. So say a prayer and LOOK for the ways. And then email me and tell me how it went<3  LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH<3 write me losers…. please:)

Well this week has been an adventure and a half. And before my grandma’s freak out about the subject and my mom smacks her forehead I will enlighten you.
DISOBEDIENT ACT#1
there are a few rules here at the ccm. Like lights out at 10:15, dont go in other missionaries rooms, dont take pictures unless its p-day, and dont do anything stupid….and dont eat the red chicken-but that’s in disobedient act #2.
Anyway, on Sunday night I was just talking with my companions while playing with the bathroom door. I shut the door not thinking anything of it. Well Hermana Donaldson said she needed to take a shower, went to go into the bathroom and the door wont open. The handle would turn but the lock had jammed and we couldn’t get it to open. We used bobbypins and tweezers trying to get it to open along with shaking it occasionally…. well Hermana Taylor and H. Hamilton heard all the ruckus and came to our door wondering what the heck happened ha. After explaining I have the (macgyver) idea to go into their room, climb on their sink with an old mop handle and try to go through the 3 inch crack connecting our bathrooms to hook the handle from the inside. If your lost see the picture at the bottom. If your not, look anyway. (Ps. That was hermana Taylor’s disobedience not mine I’m just reaping the benefits) . Anyway, after about 15 minutes of effort the sisters back in my room got the door unlocked from the outside. We were all so excited that we ran out of the bathroom into the hall to see how they did it, and they were so excited that they got it open that they ran out to the hall to tell us and as soon as we met up, there was a loud slam. The other Hermanas door had shut and they had no-ELECTRONICAL-key, no shoes, and definitely more way to get back into their room…… long story short we had to walk to reception in our various PJs and get them a key at 10:15 on a Sunday night hahaha but I mean #goodmemories.
DISOBEDIENT ACT #2
dont worry grandma this one wasn’t me. When we arrived here we were told DONT EAT THE POLLO ROJO (that means red chicken mom;)) the hermanas- being obedient missionaries- did not partake but the elders definitely did and they definitely have been making some tight legged speed walks towards the bathroom whenever they get a chance and they dont return for about a good 35 minutes hahaha so that’s about the exciting news from this week!
Were going to temple today which is super exciting, fun fact it’s the biggest temple outside the USA and one of the very temples that has a statue of Moroni holding the scriptures in his hands:)
Thought to ponder: a TRILLION lions or the sun? In a battle who would win? If a TRILLION lions-the king of the jungle- or the sun? That’s been the question going around here, some of us have come to the decision that if the lions pee on the sun then the sun has no chance. But curious to what you all think?…
Spiritual homework: Behold Thy Mother-Jeffery R Holland.
happy mother’s day mom<3 and to all you other ladies who have been mothers not only to your own children and grandchildren but to me as well. I cannot describe how grateful I am for your love and examples. Enjoy your day and thank you<3
Love Ryenne 

1. Disobedient Act #1

2. The temple trip:)

“knock knock”

“Who’s there?” 

“Madame”

“Madame who?” 

“Madame foot is stuck in the door!”

 Hahahahhaha  joke curtosy goes to claire! thought I’d explain I’m not using vulgarity as a missionary:) 

But anyway to go along with that that’s about how Spanish is going! It’s been really good and I thought I was improving, till we gave a lesson to one of the instructors. I mean it sounded like a pretty decent lesson! But at the end I asked how our grammar was and she responded ” well I understand because I know what your talking about but the people will no idea what your saying!”…. ehh oh well hahaha its improving slowly! Our teacher came and told us everything in the new avengers movie and i mean I never cared about many of those movies in the first place but I found out apparently Thor is fat and captain America goes back to being skinny skinny again so… #notworthyourmoney….. also I’m in the choir because hermana Donaldson can sing like an angel, she also gave a solo at the devotional which was SO DANG GOOF. Like holy cow she’s amazing…and now everywhere we go people stop us to tell her how amazing her voice is Haha shes my claim to fame. 

Well that and that all the sisters want to date my cousins but what else is new:) 

Nothing too exciting has happened here! Its warm and I love it!!! That’s basically all! If you need something to cheer you up and feel the spirit go listen to/read “Forget Me Not” by Uchdtorf  

*in Mexican accent** “ees da besssttttt” 

Love you all!!! Have the best week!

Love Ryenne

Buenas Dias! Well I have officially survived the first 10 days here in sunny mexico! It is SO HOT!! (aka the caption hahahahaha, missionary appropriate? …..definitely.)
Anyway if you’re wondering how I’m doing, I’m la la loving it! Its warm 25/8 and I love what I’m doing! Spanish is hard but I love it-plus they announced that ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING TO SPEAK TO US IN MAY!!!! Talk about reward psychology.
Anyway, the teachers all say our district has picked up the language away faster than anyone they’ve seen, So that’s “super bien”, the only problem is that I CANNOT ROLL MY R’S! (Lissie and mick might be the only ones who understand how big of a problem I have hahaha) so i do tongue exercises everyday to see if I’m getting better and yeah, I’d have to say that by the end of semana 6 i can join Lissie in rolling EVERY single stinking R while singing “Rudolph the red nose reindeer”…… lol pray for me guys.
I’m in a trio with Hermana Donaldson from Gunnison, UT and a Hermana Anderson from Bose! They are both going to McAllen Texas and they are so fun:) our District is all super cool, there are 3 sets of elders and another set of sisters!one of which is sister Savannah Taylor from Brigham city which is crazy but Its so fun talking about home with her!!
ALSO for all you FFA people Ryan Bake is here and we flew out together hahaha turns out he knows everyone in the county, and was asking me about everyone, and we got to talk about the fair and everything but not for long because I can’t even let myself think about missing 2 fairs in a row…..like who even does that.
Nothing super crazy happened this week other than Wyatt Johnson (who’s also here) kicked me- very point blank-smack in the “chest….s” so that kinda hurt Haha. We all play volleyball everyday so I’m gonna be really good by the time I get out maybe you can bring a team and come play us Bren;)
If you want something a little more spiritual in your life but not crazy then here’s something simple we have been doing. Put a penny in your shoe. Putting a penny in your shoe is like recognizing Gods hand in your life. Sometimes you can feel it so strong and it’s easy to feel, and sometimes it’s so hard to recognize you have to really wiggle your foot and look for it. But regardless of how hard you have to shake or maybe even take your shoe off to make sure, ITS ALWAYS THERE!! (Or you can go read Moroni 7, pick your poison) also before I sign out I wanted to share Hermana Donaldsons family rules because THEY ARE GOOD AND SOME OF YOU NEED THEM, you know who you are.
1-THEE most important decision you’ll ever make is the person you marry…🙂
2-be smart about the stupid things you do *…….checks box*
3- if you’re gonna be dumb you gotta be tough
Anyway hope you all have a super bien semana (that means super good week mom:)) love you all thanks for the prayers they are so felt here♥
Love, Ryenne
Ps if you wanna use this website link and write me a letter, they will print off here and I can get it as an actual paper letter which is so fun:) I’ll probably have UK email you back tho cause I think the Mexicans like to play hidden and seek in the mail room
1. Me, hermana D., hermana A.
2. Hermana Taylor-I promise we’re getting tan is just not good lighting ha