Hello Everyone,
This past week has been a good week for us here in Donna. We're still working hard and trying to find and teach as best we can. Working to spread the message of the Gospel is often hard, but everything turns out okay because we're entitled to the Lord's help. The last seven days have been days of excitement and disappointment, but nevertheless, the work moves forward. some of the people that we've been teaching have lost motivation or had other reasons to not continue learning about the Gospel. (From now on that motivation/reason will be called 'ganas', which is probably my favorite word in Spanish so far.) some people have been hit by opposition from their families, or a passive demeanor has kept them from acting on what they know to be true. It's disappointing to see, but I'm confident that those people will soon have circumstances that bring them back to the missionaries and allow them to follow through on what they know and receive. Other people that we have been teaching have started making more steps to move themselves closer to Christ. They've found ganas for various reasons and have started coming to Church and progressing in the path of the Lord. I'm grateful for the support that the Lord gives me every day of this work. I could not do it without His uplifting hand. I can testify that the Lord is working here in South Texas. The number of people that have made their first covenant with the Lord from Corpus Christi to the border is staggering. It's not because the missionaries here are better than any others, but because the Lord has a plan and a purpose for the work in this area. I'm not sure exactly what that goal is, but the Lord is working hard in this part of the vineyard. I can only hope that as his servant I can provide some sort of help during this time of my labor.
I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season and that we can all start getting into the real Christmas spirit. The season here is getting more festive and I'm amazed at some of the decorations that are up here. For living in one of the poorer town of the mission, people really don't skimp on Christmas. I'll have to start taking some more pictures of the lights and everything to get some good Texas spirit out to everyone.
I hope everyone can get some ganas to really put themselves in a giving spirit. And, to fulfill my missionary duty, D&C teaches us that "there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation." (D&C 6:13). So, during this Christmas season, we can share the gospel to the best of our ability, and give them the greatest gift that God or man can give. So I hope everyone remembers that the best gift that you can give to anyone during this season is your testimony and the number of the missionaries. Not everyone will accept it, that's true, but those that do will be thanking you now and throughout the eternities.
Christmas season is up and rolling here in Texas and I hope that everyone else can get the Spirit of Christmas with them. Espero que todos tengan una buena semana, llena de la paz del Espiritu Santo.
Les quiero,
Elder Wood
December 13, 2010
Monday, Dec. 6, email from Donna, TX
Dear Family,
This week I will only be writing a short email because of lack of time on this P-day. Some opportunities for service came up that we hadn't planned for, so we're a bit short on time.
These past seven days have been very good, but we have had a bit of trouble helping our investigators to progress. We have a few families we're working with right now, trying to show them the truth of the gospel. Getting them to attend church has been a struggle for us. We're working on showing them how they can receive answers, blessings and support from honoring the Sabbath day, and I'm sure that they will soon begin to obey this law.
My new companion is elder Raynor, from Northern California. He's been out in the mission about a year and a half and is a great missionary. We're already getting along well, and I'm excited for the work that will get done with this new companionship.
I did receive the package that Mom sent today, and Elder Raynor is already jealous of my family. I may have to have a talk with him about the tenth commandment. I'm sure he'll turn out all right. Thanks so much for the package. It definitely helped put a Christmas spirit in the season, instead of every day just being the same when going out to tract and teach.
Everything is going well in Texas, and the Christmas season is really starting to get going. Yesterday we went to McAllen and watched the Christmas broadcast from the First Presidency, which was awesome. The talks were very inspiring and the songs by the choir were amazing. If it's up yet on lds.org, I'd encourage everyone to go and watch it.
I hope everyone is having a great start to the Christmas season and will remember to focus on the things that really matter and not get caught up in the material parts of this time of year. I love you all and hope that everything continues to go well and that the Lord continues to extend his protective hand in the lives of our family.
Love,
Elder Wood
This week I will only be writing a short email because of lack of time on this P-day. Some opportunities for service came up that we hadn't planned for, so we're a bit short on time.
These past seven days have been very good, but we have had a bit of trouble helping our investigators to progress. We have a few families we're working with right now, trying to show them the truth of the gospel. Getting them to attend church has been a struggle for us. We're working on showing them how they can receive answers, blessings and support from honoring the Sabbath day, and I'm sure that they will soon begin to obey this law.
My new companion is elder Raynor, from Northern California. He's been out in the mission about a year and a half and is a great missionary. We're already getting along well, and I'm excited for the work that will get done with this new companionship.
I did receive the package that Mom sent today, and Elder Raynor is already jealous of my family. I may have to have a talk with him about the tenth commandment. I'm sure he'll turn out all right. Thanks so much for the package. It definitely helped put a Christmas spirit in the season, instead of every day just being the same when going out to tract and teach.
Everything is going well in Texas, and the Christmas season is really starting to get going. Yesterday we went to McAllen and watched the Christmas broadcast from the First Presidency, which was awesome. The talks were very inspiring and the songs by the choir were amazing. If it's up yet on lds.org, I'd encourage everyone to go and watch it.
I hope everyone is having a great start to the Christmas season and will remember to focus on the things that really matter and not get caught up in the material parts of this time of year. I love you all and hope that everything continues to go well and that the Lord continues to extend his protective hand in the lives of our family.
Love,
Elder Wood
Monday, Nov. 29th, email from Donna, TX
Hello Family!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My first Thanksgiving out in the field was cool, but definitely not the same as a Thanksgiving at home. I did get a chance to make a few of the things from Mom's package which turned out pretty good. Hector wanted me to make sure I gave Mom a big "muchas gracias" for the hymnal that she sent him. He enjoys it very much. We had two meals that day, the first of which was at a member's house in Weslaco. They had quite a few people over and as a result, had prepared quite a feast. They had three different turkeys, one traditional, one smoked, and one fried, all of which managed to get eaten. After the meal in Weslaco, we went over to Hector's house and had a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner, which is very different from an American one. The only thing that was the same was the turkey. The rest as all different; rice, spicy stuffing, beans and chilis being some of the foods I remember. I was sad I didn't have a copy of the Magna Carta to read to continue Dad's tradition. Tragically, it isn't a part of the missionary library. Maybe if I had one in Spanish I could get away with it.
The Christmas season has already started here with most people having all of their lights and reindeer up. We ended up doing a bit of service with our elderly neighbors, helping them put up their Christmas lights and all. In fact, now that I look at it, there's a giant Christmas tree, two wreaths and a garland with bows in the college computer lab I'm sitting in right now. The only place that gets more into Christmas than here might be the BYU campus.
Hector was confirmed during Church yesterday, and had a great experience with it. He asked me to confirm him, which I was happy to do. I was a little bit scared because of the blessing part of it in Spanish. The actual confirmation and the giving of the Holy Ghost isn't too hard for me because it's all rote. Thanks to my many years of memorizing quotes, I can get those down in just a few minutes. But, everything turned out all right and I don't think I made too many mistakes during it. I'm getting pretty comfortable with my Spanish here. The only thing that I'm really scared about now is getting too comfortable and plateauing in the language. I just need to keep focused on my studies and speak as much as possible in Spanish so I can keep learning.
I was able to send a few pictures home in this email which will hopefully make their way to the blog. One is a picture of my district, which will soon be changing, sadly. Two are pictures from Hector's baptism and the last one has a bit of a story. Most people here in the valley are Catholics, and there are very few that don't believe in God at all, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Nonetheless, when I saw that billboard on the side of the highway I was pretty surprised, considering you'd probably never see one like that in Virginia.
I'm glad that our family is receiving many blessings. Mel is being watched over I'm sure as her pregnancy proceeds, and I know that the Lord will provide for both mother and child. I'm also very glad to hear that Christian is okay after his accident. A rolling car is a very dangerous place to be, and I'm amazed and very grateful that he and his friend managed to avoid any injuries and not involve anyone else in the accident. I'm pretty sure our family has some guardian angels flying around with all of the protection we've had.
Today is the last preparation day before transfers, which will happen tomorrow. I'm staying another six weeks at the least here in Donna, but my companion Elder Navarro, will be leaving for Laredo. My new companion, Elder Reiner will be coming into the area. It'll be my first time taking over an area, which makes me a little bit nervous. Everything will turn out fine, I'm sure. We're a little bit low on investigators right now, but with a bit of effort hopefully that will change.
I hope everyone is doing well at the beginning of this Christmas season and takes some time everyday to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. In this season we commemorate His birth, and we can all take the opportunity to grow a little closer to Him. A short scripture study in the morning, a sincere prayer or just keeping Him in your thoughts are all things we can do to make him a bigger part of our lives. So, during this Christmas season I hope everyone can take a little more time to get away from the lights and presents and do just a little something to remember our Savior and Redeemer. I hope everyone continues to do well and has a great (and safe) week.
Love,
Elder Wood
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My first Thanksgiving out in the field was cool, but definitely not the same as a Thanksgiving at home. I did get a chance to make a few of the things from Mom's package which turned out pretty good. Hector wanted me to make sure I gave Mom a big "muchas gracias" for the hymnal that she sent him. He enjoys it very much. We had two meals that day, the first of which was at a member's house in Weslaco. They had quite a few people over and as a result, had prepared quite a feast. They had three different turkeys, one traditional, one smoked, and one fried, all of which managed to get eaten. After the meal in Weslaco, we went over to Hector's house and had a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner, which is very different from an American one. The only thing that was the same was the turkey. The rest as all different; rice, spicy stuffing, beans and chilis being some of the foods I remember. I was sad I didn't have a copy of the Magna Carta to read to continue Dad's tradition. Tragically, it isn't a part of the missionary library. Maybe if I had one in Spanish I could get away with it.
The Christmas season has already started here with most people having all of their lights and reindeer up. We ended up doing a bit of service with our elderly neighbors, helping them put up their Christmas lights and all. In fact, now that I look at it, there's a giant Christmas tree, two wreaths and a garland with bows in the college computer lab I'm sitting in right now. The only place that gets more into Christmas than here might be the BYU campus.
Hector was confirmed during Church yesterday, and had a great experience with it. He asked me to confirm him, which I was happy to do. I was a little bit scared because of the blessing part of it in Spanish. The actual confirmation and the giving of the Holy Ghost isn't too hard for me because it's all rote. Thanks to my many years of memorizing quotes, I can get those down in just a few minutes. But, everything turned out all right and I don't think I made too many mistakes during it. I'm getting pretty comfortable with my Spanish here. The only thing that I'm really scared about now is getting too comfortable and plateauing in the language. I just need to keep focused on my studies and speak as much as possible in Spanish so I can keep learning.
I was able to send a few pictures home in this email which will hopefully make their way to the blog. One is a picture of my district, which will soon be changing, sadly. Two are pictures from Hector's baptism and the last one has a bit of a story. Most people here in the valley are Catholics, and there are very few that don't believe in God at all, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Nonetheless, when I saw that billboard on the side of the highway I was pretty surprised, considering you'd probably never see one like that in Virginia.
I'm glad that our family is receiving many blessings. Mel is being watched over I'm sure as her pregnancy proceeds, and I know that the Lord will provide for both mother and child. I'm also very glad to hear that Christian is okay after his accident. A rolling car is a very dangerous place to be, and I'm amazed and very grateful that he and his friend managed to avoid any injuries and not involve anyone else in the accident. I'm pretty sure our family has some guardian angels flying around with all of the protection we've had.
Today is the last preparation day before transfers, which will happen tomorrow. I'm staying another six weeks at the least here in Donna, but my companion Elder Navarro, will be leaving for Laredo. My new companion, Elder Reiner will be coming into the area. It'll be my first time taking over an area, which makes me a little bit nervous. Everything will turn out fine, I'm sure. We're a little bit low on investigators right now, but with a bit of effort hopefully that will change.
I hope everyone is doing well at the beginning of this Christmas season and takes some time everyday to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. In this season we commemorate His birth, and we can all take the opportunity to grow a little closer to Him. A short scripture study in the morning, a sincere prayer or just keeping Him in your thoughts are all things we can do to make him a bigger part of our lives. So, during this Christmas season I hope everyone can take a little more time to get away from the lights and presents and do just a little something to remember our Savior and Redeemer. I hope everyone continues to do well and has a great (and safe) week.
Love,
Elder Wood
November 29, 2010
22 November, email from Donna Texas
Dear Family,
This has been a great past week here in Donna, with my first baptism actually happening Sunday for Hector. I have a few pictures from the baptism, but I always have trouble getting pictures off this camera for some reason. I guess I'll try again next week because I'm running out of time for emailing.
The baptismal service went over well with a high attendance from the ward and a good bit of Hector's family in attendance as well. I gave the talk on baptism, a member, Hermano Cabrera gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Navarro performed the baptism. My talk went over pretty well, even though it was in Spanish. The talk given by Hermano Cabrera's talk went well, but Elder Navarro had a bit of trouble with the baptism. The first time he said the prayer he made a mistake in Spanish, so the second time he was more focused on his words than he was on where he was holding Hector. He managed to give him a big thunk on the head against the wall going into the water. The whole ward in attendance let out a big, "awwwww", but Hector took it with a good heart and has already forgiven Elder Navarro for his negligence. The refreshments afterwards were good, with a cake bought by the Cabrera family. Hermano Carrasco, a baker in our ward, made a large batch of cookies. All went over well, and I believe it was a great experience for Hector and for his family as well.
Cindy Carrizales and the kids are doing well, but we were only able to meet with them a few times this week. We actually met with them on Cesar's birthday, so I went to a bakery and bought him a piece of cake and afterwards we watched the Restoration movie. during the movie, Cesar managed to make another random comment that left me laughing pretty hard. When Joseph Smith started praying in the movie, and the choir starts singing and the light gets really bright, he piped up and said nonchalantly, "God's coming". That kid has given me some pretty funny quotes to think about whenever I teach the first lesson again.
The only other story I have from this week really isn't actually a story of mine, but something that happened down in Brownsville, another area in my mission. In Mexico this past week, one of the leaders of the gangs there was killed by the government. This got the gangs really mad. So this past week the violence in Mexico has been kicking up with more gunfights and other incidents. One of the fights this past week was very close to the U.S. border, near Brownsville, and the gunfire was bad enough that some of the stray bullets were coming over into this side of the border. A college in Brownsville had to close their campus because the bullets in and shattering windows and hitting walls. No one was hurt, I believe, but it's just weird to get a reminder that the war in Mexico is not far away at all. As missionaries we never see the bad things that go on in town since everybody just leaves us alone, which is definitely a blessing. I'm glad to hear that Elder Christensen has some form of protection in California as well!
I'm glad Mom is having a good experience with missionary work in Virginia. I hope that they will continue to be able to come and hear about the Gospel. Hopefully, soon they'll realize that they can find an answer for themselves from God, because as soon as they have that answer, the rest will come quickly and easily.
I hope everyone will continue to do well or improve and also have a great Thanksgiving week! Missionaries here typically have 3 -5 Thanksgiving meals because different families have different times they plan to eat. I'll have to start warming up my stomach for this Thursday. Hopefully, I'll be ready and able to make it through the marathon of meals. Have a good week and start thinking of things you can be grateful to the Lord for on Thanksgiving day!
Love,
Elder Wood
This has been a great past week here in Donna, with my first baptism actually happening Sunday for Hector. I have a few pictures from the baptism, but I always have trouble getting pictures off this camera for some reason. I guess I'll try again next week because I'm running out of time for emailing.
The baptismal service went over well with a high attendance from the ward and a good bit of Hector's family in attendance as well. I gave the talk on baptism, a member, Hermano Cabrera gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Navarro performed the baptism. My talk went over pretty well, even though it was in Spanish. The talk given by Hermano Cabrera's talk went well, but Elder Navarro had a bit of trouble with the baptism. The first time he said the prayer he made a mistake in Spanish, so the second time he was more focused on his words than he was on where he was holding Hector. He managed to give him a big thunk on the head against the wall going into the water. The whole ward in attendance let out a big, "awwwww", but Hector took it with a good heart and has already forgiven Elder Navarro for his negligence. The refreshments afterwards were good, with a cake bought by the Cabrera family. Hermano Carrasco, a baker in our ward, made a large batch of cookies. All went over well, and I believe it was a great experience for Hector and for his family as well.
Cindy Carrizales and the kids are doing well, but we were only able to meet with them a few times this week. We actually met with them on Cesar's birthday, so I went to a bakery and bought him a piece of cake and afterwards we watched the Restoration movie. during the movie, Cesar managed to make another random comment that left me laughing pretty hard. When Joseph Smith started praying in the movie, and the choir starts singing and the light gets really bright, he piped up and said nonchalantly, "God's coming". That kid has given me some pretty funny quotes to think about whenever I teach the first lesson again.
The only other story I have from this week really isn't actually a story of mine, but something that happened down in Brownsville, another area in my mission. In Mexico this past week, one of the leaders of the gangs there was killed by the government. This got the gangs really mad. So this past week the violence in Mexico has been kicking up with more gunfights and other incidents. One of the fights this past week was very close to the U.S. border, near Brownsville, and the gunfire was bad enough that some of the stray bullets were coming over into this side of the border. A college in Brownsville had to close their campus because the bullets in and shattering windows and hitting walls. No one was hurt, I believe, but it's just weird to get a reminder that the war in Mexico is not far away at all. As missionaries we never see the bad things that go on in town since everybody just leaves us alone, which is definitely a blessing. I'm glad to hear that Elder Christensen has some form of protection in California as well!
I'm glad Mom is having a good experience with missionary work in Virginia. I hope that they will continue to be able to come and hear about the Gospel. Hopefully, soon they'll realize that they can find an answer for themselves from God, because as soon as they have that answer, the rest will come quickly and easily.
I hope everyone will continue to do well or improve and also have a great Thanksgiving week! Missionaries here typically have 3 -5 Thanksgiving meals because different families have different times they plan to eat. I'll have to start warming up my stomach for this Thursday. Hopefully, I'll be ready and able to make it through the marathon of meals. Have a good week and start thinking of things you can be grateful to the Lord for on Thanksgiving day!
Love,
Elder Wood
November 22, 2010
Mon, Nov 15, 2010, email from Donna, TX
Dear Family,
This has been a great week here in Donna, with good progress for our investigators around the board. At the moment, we have Hector, and Cindy and her two kids, Cleopatra and Cesar. Both are making good progress towards baptism. Hector had a bit of a delay with his baptism, since we were unable to meet with him very much this past week. However, we finally were able to sit down with him, discuss his progress, and start planning things for his baptism. My companion, Elder Navarro will be performing the baptism. I'll be giving a talk on baptism. Edgar Cabrera, a member in the ward who has done a great job of fellowshipping Hector will give a talk on the Holy Ghost.
We went over the baptismal interview questions already with Hector. Every thing seems to be taken care of and understood. Everything is going well and barring some random incident, he should be getting baptized this Sunday. Teaching him has been a really interesting experience because he understands a lot and always wants to know exactly why things are the way they are. The big turning point in his conversion, I think, is when he took his Book of Mormon one night, walked around his neighborhood, sat down in a garden and prayed to know if it was true. God answered his prayer and from then on he was able to move forward, building his testimony and understanding.
Cindy and her two kids are progressing as golden investigators, which is awesome. The first time we taught Cindy, we extended a baptismal date to her, which she turned down. We were unable to figure out why. However, after teaching her a bit more and getting to know her better, we found out that three other members of her family, including her parents, are members of the Church. This, I think, really helped her to have a good experience and connection with the Gospel. This last week we again extended the invitation to be baptized. This time, she accepted. We encouraged her to prepare herself for baptism in mid December, and she seems excited for that. She was excited enough about her baptism that she called her parents, who now live in Missouri, and invited them to attend. They are now coming down a bit before Christmas to see their daughter and her children get baptized into the Lord's Church.
It is always exciting and reassuring when someone invites their parents to their baptism. It lets you know that they're ready for it if they invite someone else to come. On a random note, her kid, Cesar, is maybe one of the funniest kids I've met. he's nine years old and always manages to do something funny during our lessons. For example, during our lesson about the Restoration, we explained that Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees to pray and know which church was true. When he prayed, God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that he was going to restore the Lord's Church to the earth. After we explained this, Cesar interrupted one of us and blurted out, "Geez, what kind of tree do you have to pray under to get a vision like that?" At that point my companion and I started laughing and his mom explained that it wasn't where you prayed, but how you prayed, with faith and real intent.
So, all has been well here in Donna. We're having a bit of trouble finding new people to teach. This makes things a big difficult because soon we will have Hector moving out of our teaching pool. But I'm confident that the Lord will lead us to someone who is prepared to hear and follow the message of His restored Gospel.
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home with callings, sharing food and the like. Mom's story about Jenny Oaks Baker was interesting because she actually gave a short series of talks and played a number of songs for us at a devotional in the MTC. I'm not sure I ever wrote home about that, but I have heard her play. I'm glad you had the opportunity to hear her too. She's an amazing violinist. She's almost as good as Marsali, but I should be careful to say that without too much Arlington Ward pride.
I would suggest to Uncle Marty and Aunt Liz to show Toy Story 3 to their missionaries at Thanksgiving. How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie, but Toy Story is such a classic. I'd hate to have any missionaries miss out on that for any longer than they have to. I'm not sure what we're going to do for Thanksgiving here, probably just eat with a member family or something. Donna is struggling in the way of member families who feed the missionaries dinner. We have one lunch appointment once a week in Donna, and then we have one other dinner and lunch appointment during the week, but it's actually over in Weslaco's area. As far as a Thanksgiving package goes, I'll be excited for whatever Mom can send me. In answer to her question, yes, we do have an oven in our apartment. I'll send a picture of me with my cowboy boots and other stuff next week.
I hope everything continues going well for the family and I hope that Mel improves and everything goes all right! I can't wait to hear more from you all next week!
Love,
Elder Wood
This has been a great week here in Donna, with good progress for our investigators around the board. At the moment, we have Hector, and Cindy and her two kids, Cleopatra and Cesar. Both are making good progress towards baptism. Hector had a bit of a delay with his baptism, since we were unable to meet with him very much this past week. However, we finally were able to sit down with him, discuss his progress, and start planning things for his baptism. My companion, Elder Navarro will be performing the baptism. I'll be giving a talk on baptism. Edgar Cabrera, a member in the ward who has done a great job of fellowshipping Hector will give a talk on the Holy Ghost.
We went over the baptismal interview questions already with Hector. Every thing seems to be taken care of and understood. Everything is going well and barring some random incident, he should be getting baptized this Sunday. Teaching him has been a really interesting experience because he understands a lot and always wants to know exactly why things are the way they are. The big turning point in his conversion, I think, is when he took his Book of Mormon one night, walked around his neighborhood, sat down in a garden and prayed to know if it was true. God answered his prayer and from then on he was able to move forward, building his testimony and understanding.
Cindy and her two kids are progressing as golden investigators, which is awesome. The first time we taught Cindy, we extended a baptismal date to her, which she turned down. We were unable to figure out why. However, after teaching her a bit more and getting to know her better, we found out that three other members of her family, including her parents, are members of the Church. This, I think, really helped her to have a good experience and connection with the Gospel. This last week we again extended the invitation to be baptized. This time, she accepted. We encouraged her to prepare herself for baptism in mid December, and she seems excited for that. She was excited enough about her baptism that she called her parents, who now live in Missouri, and invited them to attend. They are now coming down a bit before Christmas to see their daughter and her children get baptized into the Lord's Church.
It is always exciting and reassuring when someone invites their parents to their baptism. It lets you know that they're ready for it if they invite someone else to come. On a random note, her kid, Cesar, is maybe one of the funniest kids I've met. he's nine years old and always manages to do something funny during our lessons. For example, during our lesson about the Restoration, we explained that Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees to pray and know which church was true. When he prayed, God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that he was going to restore the Lord's Church to the earth. After we explained this, Cesar interrupted one of us and blurted out, "Geez, what kind of tree do you have to pray under to get a vision like that?" At that point my companion and I started laughing and his mom explained that it wasn't where you prayed, but how you prayed, with faith and real intent.
So, all has been well here in Donna. We're having a bit of trouble finding new people to teach. This makes things a big difficult because soon we will have Hector moving out of our teaching pool. But I'm confident that the Lord will lead us to someone who is prepared to hear and follow the message of His restored Gospel.
I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home with callings, sharing food and the like. Mom's story about Jenny Oaks Baker was interesting because she actually gave a short series of talks and played a number of songs for us at a devotional in the MTC. I'm not sure I ever wrote home about that, but I have heard her play. I'm glad you had the opportunity to hear her too. She's an amazing violinist. She's almost as good as Marsali, but I should be careful to say that without too much Arlington Ward pride.
I would suggest to Uncle Marty and Aunt Liz to show Toy Story 3 to their missionaries at Thanksgiving. How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie, but Toy Story is such a classic. I'd hate to have any missionaries miss out on that for any longer than they have to. I'm not sure what we're going to do for Thanksgiving here, probably just eat with a member family or something. Donna is struggling in the way of member families who feed the missionaries dinner. We have one lunch appointment once a week in Donna, and then we have one other dinner and lunch appointment during the week, but it's actually over in Weslaco's area. As far as a Thanksgiving package goes, I'll be excited for whatever Mom can send me. In answer to her question, yes, we do have an oven in our apartment. I'll send a picture of me with my cowboy boots and other stuff next week.
I hope everything continues going well for the family and I hope that Mel improves and everything goes all right! I can't wait to hear more from you all next week!
Love,
Elder Wood
November 9, 2010
Nov. 8, 2010, email from Donna TX
Dear Family,
The weather here in Texas has been surprisingly cold, at least considering what it is normally like here. Most of the Mexican people around here are walking around in sweaters and coats, even though it's still pretty hot. When you've been here for a while, sometimes it seems very cold just because you are used to it being super hot. I do just fine walking around in a short sleeved white shirt. Most people always ask me if I'm cold. I'm guessing I haven't been here quite long enough to have that condition yet.
I was glad to hear that Dad was able to give out a Book of Mormon this past week. Member involvement and work are essential to the whole of missionary work. The help of a member always makes the conversion process better and more comfortable, especially for an investigator. So keep up the good work all of you and do what you can to further the work. I'm glad to hear that Tyler is doing well and has already found a job to go into after he finishes school. I hope Mel improves and that everything will turn out all right for her and for the baby. They will definitely be in my prayers.
As far as stories go for this week, I've only got one really good one. Cindy is one of our investigators. I think I talked about her last time. She is a younger, divorced mother with two kids--Cleopatra, 11, and Cesar, 8. Both of her parents are LDS and converted just a few years ago. During the last week we had the lesson with her on prayer. We taught her how she could ask for help from God in anything, as long as it is something right. At work she got slammed with a large presentation that she had only one day to prepare before she needed to present it. Even worse, it was on a subject that she knew little about and would have to present to a large number of the employees at her work. While preparing the presentation a lot of problems came up, and she came home that night very stressed, worried and even thinking about quitting. So, remembering our lesson, that night she prayed for help with the presentation and that everything would go over well. Sure enough, the presentation ran smoothly and when she arrived to the question part at the end (which she was very scared about) the only questions that were asked were already in the FAQ portion of the presentation. So all in all, everything went over great, and now she has a strong testimony of the power of prayer. This is definitely something she will need when she wants to know about the truth of our message.
That is my great story from the week. The only other thing I could relate is something I did during P-day, today. Elder Cook (a missionary in Weslaco) and I made a trip into McAllen today in order to buy a set of cowboy boots. I did end up buying a set, and now I'm one piece further into my true Texas uniform. All I'm missing now is a hat and a set of longhorns to send home. I'll have to buy those if I ever get to Laredo.
Anyways, I hope everything is going well for everyone this week. I hope you will all have more chances to share the Gospel. I know if you'll keep your eyes open and look for them, the Lord will put someone in your path to give you an opportunity to share a part of this good news.
I'm grateful for how involved and committed the Ward in Arlington is in things like Home Teaching. It's always great for new or struggling members when they have really determined home and visiting teachers. The work it does to keep people close to the church and fortify new converts is priceless. It helps to build unity in the ward and is one of the greatest ways that we can obey the scripture, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren". (Luke 22:32) I hope everyone is being sure to do what they can to fulfill and magnify their callings as home and visiting teachers.
Love,
Elder Wood
The weather here in Texas has been surprisingly cold, at least considering what it is normally like here. Most of the Mexican people around here are walking around in sweaters and coats, even though it's still pretty hot. When you've been here for a while, sometimes it seems very cold just because you are used to it being super hot. I do just fine walking around in a short sleeved white shirt. Most people always ask me if I'm cold. I'm guessing I haven't been here quite long enough to have that condition yet.
I was glad to hear that Dad was able to give out a Book of Mormon this past week. Member involvement and work are essential to the whole of missionary work. The help of a member always makes the conversion process better and more comfortable, especially for an investigator. So keep up the good work all of you and do what you can to further the work. I'm glad to hear that Tyler is doing well and has already found a job to go into after he finishes school. I hope Mel improves and that everything will turn out all right for her and for the baby. They will definitely be in my prayers.
As far as stories go for this week, I've only got one really good one. Cindy is one of our investigators. I think I talked about her last time. She is a younger, divorced mother with two kids--Cleopatra, 11, and Cesar, 8. Both of her parents are LDS and converted just a few years ago. During the last week we had the lesson with her on prayer. We taught her how she could ask for help from God in anything, as long as it is something right. At work she got slammed with a large presentation that she had only one day to prepare before she needed to present it. Even worse, it was on a subject that she knew little about and would have to present to a large number of the employees at her work. While preparing the presentation a lot of problems came up, and she came home that night very stressed, worried and even thinking about quitting. So, remembering our lesson, that night she prayed for help with the presentation and that everything would go over well. Sure enough, the presentation ran smoothly and when she arrived to the question part at the end (which she was very scared about) the only questions that were asked were already in the FAQ portion of the presentation. So all in all, everything went over great, and now she has a strong testimony of the power of prayer. This is definitely something she will need when she wants to know about the truth of our message.
That is my great story from the week. The only other thing I could relate is something I did during P-day, today. Elder Cook (a missionary in Weslaco) and I made a trip into McAllen today in order to buy a set of cowboy boots. I did end up buying a set, and now I'm one piece further into my true Texas uniform. All I'm missing now is a hat and a set of longhorns to send home. I'll have to buy those if I ever get to Laredo.
Anyways, I hope everything is going well for everyone this week. I hope you will all have more chances to share the Gospel. I know if you'll keep your eyes open and look for them, the Lord will put someone in your path to give you an opportunity to share a part of this good news.
I'm grateful for how involved and committed the Ward in Arlington is in things like Home Teaching. It's always great for new or struggling members when they have really determined home and visiting teachers. The work it does to keep people close to the church and fortify new converts is priceless. It helps to build unity in the ward and is one of the greatest ways that we can obey the scripture, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren". (Luke 22:32) I hope everyone is being sure to do what they can to fulfill and magnify their callings as home and visiting teachers.
Love,
Elder Wood
November 1, 2010
Nov. 1, 2010, email post from Donna, TX
Dear Family,
Not too much has happened this week, in fact, not really anything of note at all. We're low on investigators at the moment, so much of our time was spent out tracting and contacting, which will hopefully yield some fruit for this next coming week or so.
A few days in this week were pretty strange; I think it was Thursday and Friday. A cold front rolled in, and for those two days it was like paradise down here--sunny and bright, but temperatures in the 70s and low 80s. Unfortunately, that passed and we're now back to our scorching hot temperatures. As a random note, a few weeks ago we were passing by this church which always has funny sayings on their sign outside. One day it said, "You think it's hot here? What about Hell?" I got a pretty good laugh out of that one.
The only story I can really relate this week is just about the power of God, and that he can really influence things as they go on. It was either Tuesday or Wednesday, but either way, every appointment we had that day fell through, so I was really frustrated. However, we passed by one of our appointments later on in the day and sat down with him and his wife. When I get really frustrated I normally clam up and don't like to do a lot of talking in lessons or things like that. So, going into this one, I was determined not to talk very much. However, the Lord was not very happy about that and saw fit to humble me. Upon entering the home, my companion was struck dumb, to speak biblically, and couldn't speak. It was a regular Zacharias moment. So, since he was unable to speak, I was forced to lead the lesson, to my displeasure. However, it did work to get me out of my rut a little bit, and also helped me to remember that the Lord wants me to open my mouth. My companion's voice returned towards the end of the lesson, leaving us fine for the rest of the day, after the Lord had humbled me.
Anyway, all is going well in the work here, and I hope everything is going well for those at home. I'll be praying for Mel and her baby. Hopefully this miracle can come to fruition.
Love,
Elder Wood
P.S. Hector's still progressing well, so there's no need to worry. =)
Not too much has happened this week, in fact, not really anything of note at all. We're low on investigators at the moment, so much of our time was spent out tracting and contacting, which will hopefully yield some fruit for this next coming week or so.
A few days in this week were pretty strange; I think it was Thursday and Friday. A cold front rolled in, and for those two days it was like paradise down here--sunny and bright, but temperatures in the 70s and low 80s. Unfortunately, that passed and we're now back to our scorching hot temperatures. As a random note, a few weeks ago we were passing by this church which always has funny sayings on their sign outside. One day it said, "You think it's hot here? What about Hell?" I got a pretty good laugh out of that one.
The only story I can really relate this week is just about the power of God, and that he can really influence things as they go on. It was either Tuesday or Wednesday, but either way, every appointment we had that day fell through, so I was really frustrated. However, we passed by one of our appointments later on in the day and sat down with him and his wife. When I get really frustrated I normally clam up and don't like to do a lot of talking in lessons or things like that. So, going into this one, I was determined not to talk very much. However, the Lord was not very happy about that and saw fit to humble me. Upon entering the home, my companion was struck dumb, to speak biblically, and couldn't speak. It was a regular Zacharias moment. So, since he was unable to speak, I was forced to lead the lesson, to my displeasure. However, it did work to get me out of my rut a little bit, and also helped me to remember that the Lord wants me to open my mouth. My companion's voice returned towards the end of the lesson, leaving us fine for the rest of the day, after the Lord had humbled me.
Anyway, all is going well in the work here, and I hope everything is going well for those at home. I'll be praying for Mel and her baby. Hopefully this miracle can come to fruition.
Love,
Elder Wood
P.S. Hector's still progressing well, so there's no need to worry. =)
Oct. 25, 2010, email post from Donna
Hello Family,
This past week has been pretty good out here in Texas, with not too much going on. There are a few cool stories I can tell, most of which are about Hector. I also put a picture of him in this email so you can see him. I sent a picture of me and my companion Elder Navarro since I believe I've neglected to do that, as well as a picture of my tie rack with the spoils from my first tie dig. I did receive Mom's Halloween package, for which I was very excited. The Texas shirt is nice and the candy was speedily consumed. However, I did not get the idea about cutting the caramel apples into wedges, rather I just spent a good half hour washing caramel off of my hands.
We've been losing quite a few of our investigators this week. They slowly fall off for various reasons, but so far we've got two that are pulling through. Hector is the first one, and everything is going well with him. The second is Cindy. She is a 30 or so year old lady who is divorced and has two kids. So far she seems really interested in our message. her two children are named Cleopatra and Cesar which I think is a funny combination of names to give to your kids. They're both good kids and we've had the chance to talk with them a little bit.
Hector surprised both me and my companion this week when we went over for an appointment. He took us into his room to ask for some advice and showed us the white shirt, suit and tie he bought because he wanted to really fit in at Church. The only problem was, he didn't know how to tie a tie. So, abandoning a little part of our lesson, I spent a few minutes teaching him how to tie his tie. I put in a picture of that, which ended up being a pretty funny experience. I had to try to explain it in Spanish, having no knowledge of the vocab that one would normally use to explain something like that. The next day we went and got a bunch of the good leftover ties from our tie bale and brought them over to Hector. Now he has everything he needs to look just like a missionary at church. Many of the members actually mistook him for an Elder on Sunday until they realized he didn't have a plaque on.
The other interesting story that happened with hector this week is that during church, the Bishop called him out of the class just to talk to him for a bit and get to know him better. During the course of the conversation, the Bishop asked Hector when his baptismal date was. We had been asking him about his baptism, but not specifically the date of the baptism. So, he could only respond to the Bishop with, "I'm not sure." So after his conversation, he came over to me and Elder Navarro and asked us when his baptismal date was. I told him it was the 14th of November, but of course only if that was what he wanted. At which point he looked at me and said, "Oh yes, of course I want to." After having so many baptismal dates drop through and having trouble finding people, it's really uplifting to see someone who the Lord has truly prepared making their way into His church.
Everything is gong well out here, and transfers happened this last Tuesday. I'm staying in Donna for another six weeks at least, and we had two new elders and one new Sister come into the Weslaco District here. One of them is a fluent Spanish speaker, so it'll be great to receive advice and help from him. The Sister tat came in is actually one of the missionaries from my district in the MTC. So some changes went through. Overall, I think that they're really going to help our area progress and bring more people into the Church.
Love,
Elder Wood
This past week has been pretty good out here in Texas, with not too much going on. There are a few cool stories I can tell, most of which are about Hector. I also put a picture of him in this email so you can see him. I sent a picture of me and my companion Elder Navarro since I believe I've neglected to do that, as well as a picture of my tie rack with the spoils from my first tie dig. I did receive Mom's Halloween package, for which I was very excited. The Texas shirt is nice and the candy was speedily consumed. However, I did not get the idea about cutting the caramel apples into wedges, rather I just spent a good half hour washing caramel off of my hands.
We've been losing quite a few of our investigators this week. They slowly fall off for various reasons, but so far we've got two that are pulling through. Hector is the first one, and everything is going well with him. The second is Cindy. She is a 30 or so year old lady who is divorced and has two kids. So far she seems really interested in our message. her two children are named Cleopatra and Cesar which I think is a funny combination of names to give to your kids. They're both good kids and we've had the chance to talk with them a little bit.
Hector surprised both me and my companion this week when we went over for an appointment. He took us into his room to ask for some advice and showed us the white shirt, suit and tie he bought because he wanted to really fit in at Church. The only problem was, he didn't know how to tie a tie. So, abandoning a little part of our lesson, I spent a few minutes teaching him how to tie his tie. I put in a picture of that, which ended up being a pretty funny experience. I had to try to explain it in Spanish, having no knowledge of the vocab that one would normally use to explain something like that. The next day we went and got a bunch of the good leftover ties from our tie bale and brought them over to Hector. Now he has everything he needs to look just like a missionary at church. Many of the members actually mistook him for an Elder on Sunday until they realized he didn't have a plaque on.
The other interesting story that happened with hector this week is that during church, the Bishop called him out of the class just to talk to him for a bit and get to know him better. During the course of the conversation, the Bishop asked Hector when his baptismal date was. We had been asking him about his baptism, but not specifically the date of the baptism. So, he could only respond to the Bishop with, "I'm not sure." So after his conversation, he came over to me and Elder Navarro and asked us when his baptismal date was. I told him it was the 14th of November, but of course only if that was what he wanted. At which point he looked at me and said, "Oh yes, of course I want to." After having so many baptismal dates drop through and having trouble finding people, it's really uplifting to see someone who the Lord has truly prepared making their way into His church.
Everything is gong well out here, and transfers happened this last Tuesday. I'm staying in Donna for another six weeks at least, and we had two new elders and one new Sister come into the Weslaco District here. One of them is a fluent Spanish speaker, so it'll be great to receive advice and help from him. The Sister tat came in is actually one of the missionaries from my district in the MTC. So some changes went through. Overall, I think that they're really going to help our area progress and bring more people into the Church.
Love,
Elder Wood
October 8, 2010, email from Donna
Hi, Everyone!
Not too much has changed this past week in Donna. I guess there are a few things that happened that I can talk about. This past week we've been working on meeting with our investigators as often as possible. So far in my mission I've seen a trend where we are able to start talking to people and have maybe one or two lessons and set a baptismal date. However, after the initial phase it seems like we always hit a point where our investigator just drops off the radar. They won't answer calls, aren't at their house, and seem to always be busy, and then absent for a return appointment. I'm not sure if it's something to do with the way that we're teaching, the culture here, or something else. It does seem like that's what always happens to our investigators.
However, on a brighter note, Hector has now been to church twice and is progressing well as an investigator. He's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and the first night he had read the first 9 chapters of 1 Nephi! And, even more impressive, is that he remembered 95% of what he read! he has a lot of questions about the Gospel and I do my best to answer them in Spanish. The ward is fellowshipping him well and he already has quite a few friends. This is definitely something I am very grateful for. Whenever he asks us a question I can normally give him an answer and a scripture for it. We're working with him on receiving an answer for himself through prayer. To really have someone converted and have their faith able to withstand pressure and hard times, they need to receive an answer from their Heavenly Father. I said in one of our district meetings, "Testimonies based on scriptures get shaken. Testimonies gained through prayer are permanent." That is our goal with Hector this week, to get him to understand the power of prayer and to take the time to pray specifically for an answer. The best part is I know that if he does pray with faith, he will receive that answer.
I sent a lot of pictures home this week so hopefully they'll make their way up. The biggest event in them is probably the fact that we got and sorted through the tie bale. After sorting through 1000 pounds of ties, we found all the good ones, washed them inside of socks, ironed them and divided them up. All in all, I got about 25 good ties, some of which are pretty expensive, all for $9. The pictures are of the raw bale of ties, but this next week hopefully I'll send home a picture of the rewards I managed to reap.
All is well and progressing here in Donna, and transfers are happening this week. I managed to be lucky enough to stay in Donna for at least another six weeks. We are having two new Elders and one new Sister (one of the sisters who was in the MTC with me, Sister Bricker) coming into our district tomorrow. We are excited for them to be here. Hope everything is going well in Virginia, New York, Washington, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Houston, and wherever anyone else might be!
Love,
Elder Wood
Not too much has changed this past week in Donna. I guess there are a few things that happened that I can talk about. This past week we've been working on meeting with our investigators as often as possible. So far in my mission I've seen a trend where we are able to start talking to people and have maybe one or two lessons and set a baptismal date. However, after the initial phase it seems like we always hit a point where our investigator just drops off the radar. They won't answer calls, aren't at their house, and seem to always be busy, and then absent for a return appointment. I'm not sure if it's something to do with the way that we're teaching, the culture here, or something else. It does seem like that's what always happens to our investigators.
However, on a brighter note, Hector has now been to church twice and is progressing well as an investigator. He's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and the first night he had read the first 9 chapters of 1 Nephi! And, even more impressive, is that he remembered 95% of what he read! he has a lot of questions about the Gospel and I do my best to answer them in Spanish. The ward is fellowshipping him well and he already has quite a few friends. This is definitely something I am very grateful for. Whenever he asks us a question I can normally give him an answer and a scripture for it. We're working with him on receiving an answer for himself through prayer. To really have someone converted and have their faith able to withstand pressure and hard times, they need to receive an answer from their Heavenly Father. I said in one of our district meetings, "Testimonies based on scriptures get shaken. Testimonies gained through prayer are permanent." That is our goal with Hector this week, to get him to understand the power of prayer and to take the time to pray specifically for an answer. The best part is I know that if he does pray with faith, he will receive that answer.
I sent a lot of pictures home this week so hopefully they'll make their way up. The biggest event in them is probably the fact that we got and sorted through the tie bale. After sorting through 1000 pounds of ties, we found all the good ones, washed them inside of socks, ironed them and divided them up. All in all, I got about 25 good ties, some of which are pretty expensive, all for $9. The pictures are of the raw bale of ties, but this next week hopefully I'll send home a picture of the rewards I managed to reap.
All is well and progressing here in Donna, and transfers are happening this week. I managed to be lucky enough to stay in Donna for at least another six weeks. We are having two new Elders and one new Sister (one of the sisters who was in the MTC with me, Sister Bricker) coming into our district tomorrow. We are excited for them to be here. Hope everything is going well in Virginia, New York, Washington, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Houston, and wherever anyone else might be!
Love,
Elder Wood
October 16, 2010
Mon., Oct. 11, 2010, Email from Donna, TX
Hi Everyone!
This past week in the field has been a tough one, but nonetheless everything has been going all right. A couple of significant things happened and I'll be sure to get those written down.
The biggest thing that happened this past week was that I got dropped for the first time! this last Monday, after I sent off my email home, we came back to our apartment where we got a call from our investigator Sandra. We hadn't been able to contact her all weekend and we were super excited that she had actually put forth the effort and called us. In the lesson we had previously with her she seemed really interested and had accepted a baptismal invitation, so we were really excited to keep teaching her. However, when she called she told us that she was grateful for us coming by, but we wouldn't need to visit her anymore. I'm not really sure what happened between last week and now, but either way I was super bummed. It's surprising exactly how close it feels to a break-up. At one point she said, "But maybe you can come over for dinner sometime" which I took as, "We're breaking up, but we can still be friends."
So, that had me really frustrated on Monday, but then on Tuesday we had interviews with President Trayner and a short zone meeting. In the meeting we had a great discussion about the elect, and President did a lot to motivate us to go back out into the field and work. It was great because after getting dropped by one of our most promising investigators, it was exactly what I needed at the time.
On Saturday, I went on exchanges to Edinburgh with one of the Zone Leaders and had a really good experience over there. I learned a lot about contacting and how to teach powerfully, which has really helped me so far. Most of our lessons that day were in Spanish, but I was able to understand and express most of what I wanted to, which was a really nice experience as I can see my Spanish improving. However, I will admit, Elder Johnson's Spanish is probably already better than mine, since he is immersed in it down in Peru. On an interesting side note, my trainer's trainer, Elder Neyra, was from Arequipa, Peru, but he's already gone home now, so I'm unable to ask him any questions to give to Elder Johnson.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened this week is that we found a young man, Hector, who seems very motivated to investigate the Church. We ran into him contacting in the street, but we were talking mostly to his friend who was with him. However, when we started talking about the Church, Hector piped up in Spanish and asked where it was. After seeing how interested he was, we told him how to get there and asked if we could drop by to teach him sometime. I was in Edinburgh when my companion and the other Zone Leader taught him, but apparently everything went over really well and then he came to Church on Sunday, full of questions for us. He has a lot of questions about moral issues related to the commandments, but hopefully soon we'll be able to teach him about the power of prayer and study and get him started on answering his own questions.
Other than that, all is well in Donna. Oh, before I forget, we're getting our first tie bale today! It should get here sometime this afternoon, a good solid 1000 pounds of ties. (That's the number the other Elder told me. Needless to say, the rest of my day will be spent sifting through that and picking out the best ones. And the best part is, with 5 of us chipping in on it, it only cost me $9! That's less than I paid for one tie back in Virginia! I'll be sure to bring my camera to that and hopefully get some pictures. I do have some pictures to send home. So far I have been a failure at writing letters and sending the pictures off, but hopefully that will all change soon.
I was very glad to hear about all the festivities going on at home. Be sure to give a belated Happy Birthday to Sarah for me! I hope everyone has a good week and everything goes well. The Gospel is true!
Love,
Elder Wood
This past week in the field has been a tough one, but nonetheless everything has been going all right. A couple of significant things happened and I'll be sure to get those written down.
The biggest thing that happened this past week was that I got dropped for the first time! this last Monday, after I sent off my email home, we came back to our apartment where we got a call from our investigator Sandra. We hadn't been able to contact her all weekend and we were super excited that she had actually put forth the effort and called us. In the lesson we had previously with her she seemed really interested and had accepted a baptismal invitation, so we were really excited to keep teaching her. However, when she called she told us that she was grateful for us coming by, but we wouldn't need to visit her anymore. I'm not really sure what happened between last week and now, but either way I was super bummed. It's surprising exactly how close it feels to a break-up. At one point she said, "But maybe you can come over for dinner sometime" which I took as, "We're breaking up, but we can still be friends."
So, that had me really frustrated on Monday, but then on Tuesday we had interviews with President Trayner and a short zone meeting. In the meeting we had a great discussion about the elect, and President did a lot to motivate us to go back out into the field and work. It was great because after getting dropped by one of our most promising investigators, it was exactly what I needed at the time.
On Saturday, I went on exchanges to Edinburgh with one of the Zone Leaders and had a really good experience over there. I learned a lot about contacting and how to teach powerfully, which has really helped me so far. Most of our lessons that day were in Spanish, but I was able to understand and express most of what I wanted to, which was a really nice experience as I can see my Spanish improving. However, I will admit, Elder Johnson's Spanish is probably already better than mine, since he is immersed in it down in Peru. On an interesting side note, my trainer's trainer, Elder Neyra, was from Arequipa, Peru, but he's already gone home now, so I'm unable to ask him any questions to give to Elder Johnson.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened this week is that we found a young man, Hector, who seems very motivated to investigate the Church. We ran into him contacting in the street, but we were talking mostly to his friend who was with him. However, when we started talking about the Church, Hector piped up in Spanish and asked where it was. After seeing how interested he was, we told him how to get there and asked if we could drop by to teach him sometime. I was in Edinburgh when my companion and the other Zone Leader taught him, but apparently everything went over really well and then he came to Church on Sunday, full of questions for us. He has a lot of questions about moral issues related to the commandments, but hopefully soon we'll be able to teach him about the power of prayer and study and get him started on answering his own questions.
Other than that, all is well in Donna. Oh, before I forget, we're getting our first tie bale today! It should get here sometime this afternoon, a good solid 1000 pounds of ties. (That's the number the other Elder told me. Needless to say, the rest of my day will be spent sifting through that and picking out the best ones. And the best part is, with 5 of us chipping in on it, it only cost me $9! That's less than I paid for one tie back in Virginia! I'll be sure to bring my camera to that and hopefully get some pictures. I do have some pictures to send home. So far I have been a failure at writing letters and sending the pictures off, but hopefully that will all change soon.
I was very glad to hear about all the festivities going on at home. Be sure to give a belated Happy Birthday to Sarah for me! I hope everyone has a good week and everything goes well. The Gospel is true!
Love,
Elder Wood
October 7, 2010
Email from Donna, TX, October 7, 2010
Hello Everyone!
All is going well here in Donna, and things are moving along, but it seems they're not going too quickly. I'll talk about that in just a minute. First I need to be sure to answer all of Mom's questions so I don't forget.
As far as receiving meals here in Donna, we do a fair amount of eating in Member's homes, but a couple of nights each week we end up eating at our apartment. So far here I'm doing a pretty amazing job of cooking for myself, in my opinion. The first week or so I ate only cereal, but that got old really fast. So I committed myself to vary my diet and work to prepare my food. So far it has been going really well. Currently I'm making eggs and toast for a normal breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and chicken and vegetables for dinner. Also, Mom doesn't have to worry because I make myself a fruit smoothie every day, out of actual bananas strawberries and whatnot, so I think I've got all my food groups covered. The one thing I will admit, is that this is all pretty cheap compared to what I thought it would be. I figured just living on cereal and milk was cheaper, but with buying all this other stuff, I'm still well under my allotted money per month. (My only junk food consists of a soda once every couple of days and whatever treats people send to me in the mail.)
My P-days here are pretty fun, and normally go something like this: We spend an hour at the gym in the morning and come back and do our laundry. There is a laundromat near our apartment in Donna which has all these really fancy "space age" washers and dryers, but unfortunately it is a bit expensive. Fortunately, the man who owns the laundromat (Dave) has a wife and kids who are LDS. He pays for the missionaries to wash their clothes. After our laundry, we go out and do some activities with our district. For example, today a member is paying for us to go bowling, and after that we're headed over to the town park to play volleyball, which should be pretty fun. After that we've got dinner at a member's house and we'll finish up the day proselyting.
The chapel we attend isn't in Donna, but is in the next town over--Weslaco. The building serves members in Mercedes, Weslaco and Donna, the three cities near here. The good news is that the members here are so numerous and strong that we have to get a larger chapel to accommodate all of them and our recent converts. However, the bad news is that the church is under construction and we can't meet in that building for about a year. So the ward is currently meeting in a rented out adult day-care center. It's not a bad building, but the lack of a built in speaker system, and hard walls that echo kids' cries make it hard for our investigators to hear what is going on during the meeting. The solution is for us to have our investigators sit up front, but it's still a bit of a hassle and not quite as nice as a chapel. However, I am still very grateful for the fact that we have a nice building to meet in, because I know that many missionaries don't even have that luxury.
As an interesting side note that I am sure Dad will appreciate, the LDS Chapel not here, but in McAllen has a similar history to the chapel in Arlington. Like the chapel in Arlington, it was built by the members a while back. Now some of the older members in that ward can point out the rocks that they brought and cemented in place to help build the back wall of the chapel. If Dad is interested in more information on that chapel, I can probably do that.
Now I've got a few minutes to talk about why things have been moving a little bit slowly here in Donna. We have a few really good investigators, but they all seem to be really busy families, and finding them at home is difficult, except for the weekends. Meeting with someone once a week is much less than ideal, and it has been kind of a frustration to me out here. Ideally, we should be meeting or at least contacting our solid investigators every day, but doing that has been really hard. I know that life in the real world goes on, but especially as a missionary, it is hard to have someone not be able to find the time to meet with you. You know just how much it can help them and how much it could bless their lives.
Other than that, the work is progressing well here in the field, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here among the Lord's servants. Speaking of the Lord's servants, how great was Conference!? It's amazing to hear the prophet and the apostles speak to us as a Church, directly, and receive the advice and council the Lord wants us to hear in our day. I don't have too much time, but I'll relay just a quick thought I liked from Conference.
I cannot remember who said it, since I don't have my journal with me right now, but I really liked this idea: (I think it was President Eyring, but I'm not sure.) There are three ways to learn from the scriptures. First is to read the scriptures, which is good. We may learn something about a principle or doctrine we didn't understand before. Second, is to study the scriptures, which is better. When we study the scriptures we can make connections between passages that support and testify of each other, and use them to strengthen our testimonies and the testimonies of others. Third, is to ponder the scriptures, which is the best. When we ponder, we do both of the other methods, and then sit back and think. We think about the wonderful miracles of God, His power, and His love. When we ponder, that is when revelation comes.
I add my testimony to this, that when we study and read the scriptures, the majority of learning comes from thought and supplication before the Lord. When we ponder the mysteries of God, our relationship with him, and the meaning and significance of the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son, and humbly kneel ourselves before him in prayer, he will answer the questions of our souls. I have come to a knowledge of the truth of this here in the mission field. I know that if anyone will submit this method to the test, they too will know that prayers are heard and answered.
I give my best to everyone this coming week, and I hope that your lives are coming along well. I would love to hear about them. If anyone can find the time to write, I promise that even if it takes me a while, you will get a reply back. Thanks to all that have already written me, and I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Wood
All is going well here in Donna, and things are moving along, but it seems they're not going too quickly. I'll talk about that in just a minute. First I need to be sure to answer all of Mom's questions so I don't forget.
As far as receiving meals here in Donna, we do a fair amount of eating in Member's homes, but a couple of nights each week we end up eating at our apartment. So far here I'm doing a pretty amazing job of cooking for myself, in my opinion. The first week or so I ate only cereal, but that got old really fast. So I committed myself to vary my diet and work to prepare my food. So far it has been going really well. Currently I'm making eggs and toast for a normal breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and chicken and vegetables for dinner. Also, Mom doesn't have to worry because I make myself a fruit smoothie every day, out of actual bananas strawberries and whatnot, so I think I've got all my food groups covered. The one thing I will admit, is that this is all pretty cheap compared to what I thought it would be. I figured just living on cereal and milk was cheaper, but with buying all this other stuff, I'm still well under my allotted money per month. (My only junk food consists of a soda once every couple of days and whatever treats people send to me in the mail.)
My P-days here are pretty fun, and normally go something like this: We spend an hour at the gym in the morning and come back and do our laundry. There is a laundromat near our apartment in Donna which has all these really fancy "space age" washers and dryers, but unfortunately it is a bit expensive. Fortunately, the man who owns the laundromat (Dave) has a wife and kids who are LDS. He pays for the missionaries to wash their clothes. After our laundry, we go out and do some activities with our district. For example, today a member is paying for us to go bowling, and after that we're headed over to the town park to play volleyball, which should be pretty fun. After that we've got dinner at a member's house and we'll finish up the day proselyting.
The chapel we attend isn't in Donna, but is in the next town over--Weslaco. The building serves members in Mercedes, Weslaco and Donna, the three cities near here. The good news is that the members here are so numerous and strong that we have to get a larger chapel to accommodate all of them and our recent converts. However, the bad news is that the church is under construction and we can't meet in that building for about a year. So the ward is currently meeting in a rented out adult day-care center. It's not a bad building, but the lack of a built in speaker system, and hard walls that echo kids' cries make it hard for our investigators to hear what is going on during the meeting. The solution is for us to have our investigators sit up front, but it's still a bit of a hassle and not quite as nice as a chapel. However, I am still very grateful for the fact that we have a nice building to meet in, because I know that many missionaries don't even have that luxury.
As an interesting side note that I am sure Dad will appreciate, the LDS Chapel not here, but in McAllen has a similar history to the chapel in Arlington. Like the chapel in Arlington, it was built by the members a while back. Now some of the older members in that ward can point out the rocks that they brought and cemented in place to help build the back wall of the chapel. If Dad is interested in more information on that chapel, I can probably do that.
Now I've got a few minutes to talk about why things have been moving a little bit slowly here in Donna. We have a few really good investigators, but they all seem to be really busy families, and finding them at home is difficult, except for the weekends. Meeting with someone once a week is much less than ideal, and it has been kind of a frustration to me out here. Ideally, we should be meeting or at least contacting our solid investigators every day, but doing that has been really hard. I know that life in the real world goes on, but especially as a missionary, it is hard to have someone not be able to find the time to meet with you. You know just how much it can help them and how much it could bless their lives.
Other than that, the work is progressing well here in the field, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here among the Lord's servants. Speaking of the Lord's servants, how great was Conference!? It's amazing to hear the prophet and the apostles speak to us as a Church, directly, and receive the advice and council the Lord wants us to hear in our day. I don't have too much time, but I'll relay just a quick thought I liked from Conference.
I cannot remember who said it, since I don't have my journal with me right now, but I really liked this idea: (I think it was President Eyring, but I'm not sure.) There are three ways to learn from the scriptures. First is to read the scriptures, which is good. We may learn something about a principle or doctrine we didn't understand before. Second, is to study the scriptures, which is better. When we study the scriptures we can make connections between passages that support and testify of each other, and use them to strengthen our testimonies and the testimonies of others. Third, is to ponder the scriptures, which is the best. When we ponder, we do both of the other methods, and then sit back and think. We think about the wonderful miracles of God, His power, and His love. When we ponder, that is when revelation comes.
I add my testimony to this, that when we study and read the scriptures, the majority of learning comes from thought and supplication before the Lord. When we ponder the mysteries of God, our relationship with him, and the meaning and significance of the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son, and humbly kneel ourselves before him in prayer, he will answer the questions of our souls. I have come to a knowledge of the truth of this here in the mission field. I know that if anyone will submit this method to the test, they too will know that prayers are heard and answered.
I give my best to everyone this coming week, and I hope that your lives are coming along well. I would love to hear about them. If anyone can find the time to write, I promise that even if it takes me a while, you will get a reply back. Thanks to all that have already written me, and I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Wood
September 27, 2010
Sept. 27, 2010, email to 4510 from Donna, TX
Dear Everyone,
This past week has been pretty eventful, so I'll try to get it all in as best I can in the time that I have. First I'm going to try and answer the questions I neglected to answer last time. Also, I'll try to get a handwritten letter off to Rebecca Johnson, Sarah, the Simmons and the Hancocks, since they were all so kind to send me letters around my birthday and I failed to get one sent off this last week. I know I failed at that this week, but I'm working on changing that.
I did get the package from Mom, and I'm very grateful for that. The belt is awesome, and the snacks and what not were very welcome. However, I am confused about the sending of hot chocolate, since it still averages about 95 - 100 every day, but I'm very excited to use it when it cools down here a bit, probably around December. Everything I need for the bike is here, so you don't have to worry about that at all. And as far as email goes, I believe it is only supposed to used, receiving or sending, with family. However, if my address is lost for a short time, or if someone just has a quick thing they need to get off to me, it's fine, I guess. The one exception for that is other missionaries on their missions. I have sent a few short emails back and forth with a friend of mine in the West Indies, for example, since it is hard to write letters between busy, moving missionaries.
I guess a natural launching point for my first story would be to correct something Mom said in her letter to me this past week. On the contrary, I have seen TONS of rain here in Donna. The rain here beats the rain in Virginia for sure. And, the thing that makes it even worse, here, is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is flat. When it rains, it pours, and since there is no natural place for the water to flow, any dip in the road or any depression has at least three inches of standing water in it. There have been days when it was dry, don't get me wrong, but there are also some pretty big storms we've been caught in. Maybe I'll baptize somebody in one of the giant puddles they have around here someday (kidding, but seriously, they're huge).
I guess the most important thing that happened this last week was that we found two new great families to teach. One is the family of a middle-aged woman named Sandra, and her two children Danny, 15 and Ilene, 11. They were a referral from a family in the ward and are all really great. We had our first meeting with them on Saturday and they accepted a baptismal date and then came to church on Sunday. They seem to be really interested in hearing the Gospel. Sandra is a window. Her husband died when she was young, and she has had a hard time providing and caring for her family. But she is a very hard working and productive woman. Danny and Ilene, the two kids, are possibly some of the tallest people I've seen. Danny is 6 foot 4 inches at age 15 and still growing, but Ilene is the really crazy one. She's 11 years old and 5 foot 10 inches! When we were in Church on Sunday, one of the 16 year old girls from Young Women's came by to invite her to their activities, only to find out she's still in Primary! I just shot her a big grin and started laughing, but she seems pretty used to it.
Earlier on that same Saturday, we met Julie and her husband, Herman, and their family of four young boys. We had tried to meet with them over and over but kept finding them busy and to be honest, I was starting to lose faith in them. But we still stopped by Saturday morning to try and see them and Julie answered the door. Her husband was still sleeping but she said that she would call us with a time that we could come back and visit with them. I thought to myself, "Well now, she's just not going to call us and this whole process of trying to catch her free will start over again." However, to my surprise, about a half an hour later she called and asked when was the soonest that we could come over. We hurried back to their house and had a really nice lesson with them. We asked them if they wanted to be baptized, not really sure if they were actually taking in the things we were talking about. My companion and I were both surprised when they both looked at us and said, "Oh yes, we've both been wanting to be baptized for a while now." It's always amazing to me when we're able to catch a glimpse of the work that the Lord is doing in people's lives. We go out and work every day and we think that we're doing a lot in the world, and then you stumble upon a part of God's mysterious workings and grand designs. I can testify that the Lord really is at work here in the vineyard, and that he is doing more to soften and change people's hearts than we could ever hope to do.
The other story that I have from the week is that I had my first day on a bike out here in the mission field. We have a car in Donna, but I was on exchanges with the Elders in Weslaco, a bike area. It wasn't too bad really, but it just made me even more grateful for just how chiflado (spoiled) I am back in Donna. During the exchange I was with Elder Bell, from Tennessee, who interestingly enough, reminds me strongly of Elder Hancock. They don't look similar at all, but they both have similar attitudes. They're both positive about everything and can get excited about any subject.
Anyways, I'm just going to use this last bit of time to talk about some random subjects/questions I got from a few people that I figured everybody might be wondering about. So far, I have not run into anything deathly spicy, except for maybe one small incident. We were at a gas station getting some breakfast right before a meeting in McAllen, and I got a couple of burritos. My companion, who loves spicy things, went over to get some salsa. I figured I'd grab some too. I got a little cup of some tame looking salsa, but, on my way up to the register I figured I'd try just a bit of it. So, I just barely touched my finger into the salsa and licked it, only to find out that the salsa was not "tame" at all. I will admit I was struggling to hold back the tears and painful faces as I was paying for my burrito, desperately trying to reject my gringo status.
Spanish is coming along pretty well here. Pretty much everyone I meet is really impressed with how much I know for having just come off the plane. Most of the Spanish Ward members think that I've been in the mission a while and are quite surprised when they figure out I got here three weeks ago. However, I'm still able to keep the pride out because though I can speak the Spanish fairly well, all of the Mexicans around here talk really fast and have slang words that they never taught us in the MTC. So, I still have trouble understanding a lot of the Spanish speakers here. It is improving, though, and I'm slowly catching on and finding the spaces between their words. Probably the funniest thing that happens though, is that people see that I'm white and assume I don't speak any Spanish.
One time a man opened his door and he seemed fairly young so I started off in English and he replied back with a simple "hello". So I started to explain that we were missionaries in English at which point I could tell he wasn't interested and to try to get us to give up he replied, "No hablo Ingles". I just smiled and started speaking in Spanish at which point he just sighed, drew back, and closed the door. I have one other story kind of like that, but more of just one that frustrated me, but was still kind of funny. I have trouble switching between thinking and speaking in Spanish and English, so I like to just stay in one language or the other. So, I was really thrown off and stumbling when we were talking with a man and a couple of his friends. We came up and started talking to them and without fail, the man would always talk to everyone else in Spanish, and then talk to me in broken English. Even after I replied to him in Spanish, the process continued. He'd look at my companion and say, "Buenas dias, como esta?" then turn to me and say, "Hey, how you doing buddy?". With all the switching in languages I just get confused and end up speaking to different people in the wrong language. Hopefully, soon I'll get used to it and be able to switch back and forth without having to consciously think about it.
I hope everything is going well in Virginia, and wherever everybody else is. Everything is great out here in Texas, and things are slowly but surely moving along. I hope everyone has a good week and can try and see the hand of the Lord in whatever work you're engaged in.
Love,
Elder Wood
This past week has been pretty eventful, so I'll try to get it all in as best I can in the time that I have. First I'm going to try and answer the questions I neglected to answer last time. Also, I'll try to get a handwritten letter off to Rebecca Johnson, Sarah, the Simmons and the Hancocks, since they were all so kind to send me letters around my birthday and I failed to get one sent off this last week. I know I failed at that this week, but I'm working on changing that.
I did get the package from Mom, and I'm very grateful for that. The belt is awesome, and the snacks and what not were very welcome. However, I am confused about the sending of hot chocolate, since it still averages about 95 - 100 every day, but I'm very excited to use it when it cools down here a bit, probably around December. Everything I need for the bike is here, so you don't have to worry about that at all. And as far as email goes, I believe it is only supposed to used, receiving or sending, with family. However, if my address is lost for a short time, or if someone just has a quick thing they need to get off to me, it's fine, I guess. The one exception for that is other missionaries on their missions. I have sent a few short emails back and forth with a friend of mine in the West Indies, for example, since it is hard to write letters between busy, moving missionaries.
I guess a natural launching point for my first story would be to correct something Mom said in her letter to me this past week. On the contrary, I have seen TONS of rain here in Donna. The rain here beats the rain in Virginia for sure. And, the thing that makes it even worse, here, is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is flat. When it rains, it pours, and since there is no natural place for the water to flow, any dip in the road or any depression has at least three inches of standing water in it. There have been days when it was dry, don't get me wrong, but there are also some pretty big storms we've been caught in. Maybe I'll baptize somebody in one of the giant puddles they have around here someday (kidding, but seriously, they're huge).
I guess the most important thing that happened this last week was that we found two new great families to teach. One is the family of a middle-aged woman named Sandra, and her two children Danny, 15 and Ilene, 11. They were a referral from a family in the ward and are all really great. We had our first meeting with them on Saturday and they accepted a baptismal date and then came to church on Sunday. They seem to be really interested in hearing the Gospel. Sandra is a window. Her husband died when she was young, and she has had a hard time providing and caring for her family. But she is a very hard working and productive woman. Danny and Ilene, the two kids, are possibly some of the tallest people I've seen. Danny is 6 foot 4 inches at age 15 and still growing, but Ilene is the really crazy one. She's 11 years old and 5 foot 10 inches! When we were in Church on Sunday, one of the 16 year old girls from Young Women's came by to invite her to their activities, only to find out she's still in Primary! I just shot her a big grin and started laughing, but she seems pretty used to it.
Earlier on that same Saturday, we met Julie and her husband, Herman, and their family of four young boys. We had tried to meet with them over and over but kept finding them busy and to be honest, I was starting to lose faith in them. But we still stopped by Saturday morning to try and see them and Julie answered the door. Her husband was still sleeping but she said that she would call us with a time that we could come back and visit with them. I thought to myself, "Well now, she's just not going to call us and this whole process of trying to catch her free will start over again." However, to my surprise, about a half an hour later she called and asked when was the soonest that we could come over. We hurried back to their house and had a really nice lesson with them. We asked them if they wanted to be baptized, not really sure if they were actually taking in the things we were talking about. My companion and I were both surprised when they both looked at us and said, "Oh yes, we've both been wanting to be baptized for a while now." It's always amazing to me when we're able to catch a glimpse of the work that the Lord is doing in people's lives. We go out and work every day and we think that we're doing a lot in the world, and then you stumble upon a part of God's mysterious workings and grand designs. I can testify that the Lord really is at work here in the vineyard, and that he is doing more to soften and change people's hearts than we could ever hope to do.
The other story that I have from the week is that I had my first day on a bike out here in the mission field. We have a car in Donna, but I was on exchanges with the Elders in Weslaco, a bike area. It wasn't too bad really, but it just made me even more grateful for just how chiflado (spoiled) I am back in Donna. During the exchange I was with Elder Bell, from Tennessee, who interestingly enough, reminds me strongly of Elder Hancock. They don't look similar at all, but they both have similar attitudes. They're both positive about everything and can get excited about any subject.
Anyways, I'm just going to use this last bit of time to talk about some random subjects/questions I got from a few people that I figured everybody might be wondering about. So far, I have not run into anything deathly spicy, except for maybe one small incident. We were at a gas station getting some breakfast right before a meeting in McAllen, and I got a couple of burritos. My companion, who loves spicy things, went over to get some salsa. I figured I'd grab some too. I got a little cup of some tame looking salsa, but, on my way up to the register I figured I'd try just a bit of it. So, I just barely touched my finger into the salsa and licked it, only to find out that the salsa was not "tame" at all. I will admit I was struggling to hold back the tears and painful faces as I was paying for my burrito, desperately trying to reject my gringo status.
Spanish is coming along pretty well here. Pretty much everyone I meet is really impressed with how much I know for having just come off the plane. Most of the Spanish Ward members think that I've been in the mission a while and are quite surprised when they figure out I got here three weeks ago. However, I'm still able to keep the pride out because though I can speak the Spanish fairly well, all of the Mexicans around here talk really fast and have slang words that they never taught us in the MTC. So, I still have trouble understanding a lot of the Spanish speakers here. It is improving, though, and I'm slowly catching on and finding the spaces between their words. Probably the funniest thing that happens though, is that people see that I'm white and assume I don't speak any Spanish.
One time a man opened his door and he seemed fairly young so I started off in English and he replied back with a simple "hello". So I started to explain that we were missionaries in English at which point I could tell he wasn't interested and to try to get us to give up he replied, "No hablo Ingles". I just smiled and started speaking in Spanish at which point he just sighed, drew back, and closed the door. I have one other story kind of like that, but more of just one that frustrated me, but was still kind of funny. I have trouble switching between thinking and speaking in Spanish and English, so I like to just stay in one language or the other. So, I was really thrown off and stumbling when we were talking with a man and a couple of his friends. We came up and started talking to them and without fail, the man would always talk to everyone else in Spanish, and then talk to me in broken English. Even after I replied to him in Spanish, the process continued. He'd look at my companion and say, "Buenas dias, como esta?" then turn to me and say, "Hey, how you doing buddy?". With all the switching in languages I just get confused and end up speaking to different people in the wrong language. Hopefully, soon I'll get used to it and be able to switch back and forth without having to consciously think about it.
I hope everything is going well in Virginia, and wherever everybody else is. Everything is great out here in Texas, and things are slowly but surely moving along. I hope everyone has a good week and can try and see the hand of the Lord in whatever work you're engaged in.
Love,
Elder Wood
Sep 20, 2010, 4:37 p.m. email to 4510 from Donna, TX
Hello Everyone!
I want to give thanks to everybody that wrote me on my birthday or sent me a package! It was awesome to hear from a lot of people and get some cool things in the mail. On an odd note, we had zone conference with Elder Richards from the 70s this past week and it was on my birthday! The P-day before I had forgotten to buy some cupcakes or something to celebrate my birthday with, so I was very surprised and excited when they rolled out a giant cake during the meal at the conference. It wasn't for me or anything, but at least I got to have some cake.
I don't have that much time to write today, so I'll just write a short story from this week then hopefully get a handwritten letter off tonight. Not too much that I can remember happened, but this week on Friday I had my first exchange in the mission! I was on an exchange with Elder Santa Cruz, one of the Zone Leaders. He is from Lima, Peru. Anyways, overall we just had a pretty good day of contacting with a few lessons, but something kind of interesting happened. We were contacting a man who was outside washing his car, and it turned out he didn't want to listen to our message, but he was willing to buy us some ice cream from the ice cream truck in the neighborhood. The man who was driving the ice cream truck had been to church before and was interested in coming again! He ended up not showing up on Sunday, but it was still a neat experience.
Anyways, I hope all is going well and that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Wood
I want to give thanks to everybody that wrote me on my birthday or sent me a package! It was awesome to hear from a lot of people and get some cool things in the mail. On an odd note, we had zone conference with Elder Richards from the 70s this past week and it was on my birthday! The P-day before I had forgotten to buy some cupcakes or something to celebrate my birthday with, so I was very surprised and excited when they rolled out a giant cake during the meal at the conference. It wasn't for me or anything, but at least I got to have some cake.
I don't have that much time to write today, so I'll just write a short story from this week then hopefully get a handwritten letter off tonight. Not too much that I can remember happened, but this week on Friday I had my first exchange in the mission! I was on an exchange with Elder Santa Cruz, one of the Zone Leaders. He is from Lima, Peru. Anyways, overall we just had a pretty good day of contacting with a few lessons, but something kind of interesting happened. We were contacting a man who was outside washing his car, and it turned out he didn't want to listen to our message, but he was willing to buy us some ice cream from the ice cream truck in the neighborhood. The man who was driving the ice cream truck had been to church before and was interested in coming again! He ended up not showing up on Sunday, but it was still a neat experience.
Anyways, I hope all is going well and that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Wood
September 20, 2010
Monday Sept. 13, 2010, email from Donna, TX
Hey Family!
Well, I've officially made it through my first week here in Texas, and all is going well. Just to get some stuff down so I don't forget in this email, my current address for mail is:
Elder Roland Wood
1308 E. Miller Ave., Apt #2,
Donna, Texas 78537
My P-days are on Mondays here, and today is my first one out in the field. A lot of stuff has happened this week, and it's been a bit of a shock coming from the MTC, but I think that I've been doing all right here. I got here and got through the orientation, and now I'm out in the field with my companion, Elder Nevarro. He is a great Elder who works really hard and speaks pretty good Spanish. I guess I can relate just a few stories of my first days here so you can get a feel of what it is like here.
I guess first off, though, I should talk a little bit about Donna. Donna is a town East of McAllen about half an hour, and is bordered by the towns of Weslaco and Mercedes, which are a bit bigger. You might be able to find them on the map. Donna is the poorer part of the area here, with lots of people living in motor homes or factory homes, but it has its nicer areas as well. There are TONS of dogs here, many of which are just stray ones that roam around. Since there are lots of dogs here, normally what we do when we walk up to a house is stand on the edge of the yard and tap the metal fence (which everyone has here) with our tags. It makes a nice 'ping' sound which normally wakes up any sleeping dogs and then we can decide if it's good to go in or not. On our first day here we walked up to a house, pinged the fence and nothing happened, so we went up. However, when we were about to walk up the steps to the house, a giant German Shepherd jumped out from underneath the house like it was gonna rip our heads off. As this was like the second house I had ever knocked on, it scared the crap out of me. I fought the reflex to run, pulled off my backpack and held it between me and the dog to give me some room as we backed out of the yard. So it turned out all right, but I will say that got my heart beating pretty fast.
We've had trouble finding investigators since we've been here, although we've been out contacting quite a bit since I've been here. We've only had a few investigators to meet with, many of whom have stopped progressing or want some more time to learn before baptism. Laura, who is one or our investigators, has a baptismal date, but we've had to push it back because she wants to be baptized, but feels like she needs to learn more before she fully commits. It's hard for us to meet with her because she's in band at the high school and her day starts and ends basically the same time ours does, so we can only see her once a week on Sundays. We had a good lesson with her, yesterday, and hopefully she will continue to study and pray and soon be able to really commit. Her brother, Ramiro, however, is progressing well and wants to be baptized. He will probably be baptized on the 26th of September.
Anyways, we did a lot of contacting this week, and we've found some good potential investigators. Hopefully, we'll be able to follow up with our return appointments with them and get them to progress. Speaking of our potential investigators, it's been interesting because I've managed to find two potential investigators who are Hispanic copies of our family. Roy, one investigator, is just a Hispanic version of Nathan. He looks really similar, talks the same, and does IT work here for an electrical company. He has two twin boys and a one year old daughter. Also, I found Ana, who is just the Hispanic version of Rose-Ellen. She talks really similarly to Rose-Ellen and is wholly devoted to and focused on the well-being of her young daughter. It's weird how I keep running into everyone here that reminds me of my family.
So, I don't have too much email time left, but just know I'm doing well out here, and everything is going fine. My companion is great and we're working hard. I was going to send some pictures home but I haven't taken too many yet and I forgot my camera. I have some good pictures of when our car got stuck in the mud here, though. I had to spend a good hour or so cleaning my shoes after that, yesterday. We got it out, but it was a struggle. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week. I was very excited to hear about Sarah's baby! Congratulations! The Wood grandchildren are starting to be dominated by the girls. Who knows, maybe that will change soon =).
Love,
Elder Wood
Well, I've officially made it through my first week here in Texas, and all is going well. Just to get some stuff down so I don't forget in this email, my current address for mail is:
Elder Roland Wood
1308 E. Miller Ave., Apt #2,
Donna, Texas 78537
My P-days are on Mondays here, and today is my first one out in the field. A lot of stuff has happened this week, and it's been a bit of a shock coming from the MTC, but I think that I've been doing all right here. I got here and got through the orientation, and now I'm out in the field with my companion, Elder Nevarro. He is a great Elder who works really hard and speaks pretty good Spanish. I guess I can relate just a few stories of my first days here so you can get a feel of what it is like here.
I guess first off, though, I should talk a little bit about Donna. Donna is a town East of McAllen about half an hour, and is bordered by the towns of Weslaco and Mercedes, which are a bit bigger. You might be able to find them on the map. Donna is the poorer part of the area here, with lots of people living in motor homes or factory homes, but it has its nicer areas as well. There are TONS of dogs here, many of which are just stray ones that roam around. Since there are lots of dogs here, normally what we do when we walk up to a house is stand on the edge of the yard and tap the metal fence (which everyone has here) with our tags. It makes a nice 'ping' sound which normally wakes up any sleeping dogs and then we can decide if it's good to go in or not. On our first day here we walked up to a house, pinged the fence and nothing happened, so we went up. However, when we were about to walk up the steps to the house, a giant German Shepherd jumped out from underneath the house like it was gonna rip our heads off. As this was like the second house I had ever knocked on, it scared the crap out of me. I fought the reflex to run, pulled off my backpack and held it between me and the dog to give me some room as we backed out of the yard. So it turned out all right, but I will say that got my heart beating pretty fast.
We've had trouble finding investigators since we've been here, although we've been out contacting quite a bit since I've been here. We've only had a few investigators to meet with, many of whom have stopped progressing or want some more time to learn before baptism. Laura, who is one or our investigators, has a baptismal date, but we've had to push it back because she wants to be baptized, but feels like she needs to learn more before she fully commits. It's hard for us to meet with her because she's in band at the high school and her day starts and ends basically the same time ours does, so we can only see her once a week on Sundays. We had a good lesson with her, yesterday, and hopefully she will continue to study and pray and soon be able to really commit. Her brother, Ramiro, however, is progressing well and wants to be baptized. He will probably be baptized on the 26th of September.
Anyways, we did a lot of contacting this week, and we've found some good potential investigators. Hopefully, we'll be able to follow up with our return appointments with them and get them to progress. Speaking of our potential investigators, it's been interesting because I've managed to find two potential investigators who are Hispanic copies of our family. Roy, one investigator, is just a Hispanic version of Nathan. He looks really similar, talks the same, and does IT work here for an electrical company. He has two twin boys and a one year old daughter. Also, I found Ana, who is just the Hispanic version of Rose-Ellen. She talks really similarly to Rose-Ellen and is wholly devoted to and focused on the well-being of her young daughter. It's weird how I keep running into everyone here that reminds me of my family.
So, I don't have too much email time left, but just know I'm doing well out here, and everything is going fine. My companion is great and we're working hard. I was going to send some pictures home but I haven't taken too many yet and I forgot my camera. I have some good pictures of when our car got stuck in the mud here, though. I had to spend a good hour or so cleaning my shoes after that, yesterday. We got it out, but it was a struggle. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week. I was very excited to hear about Sarah's baby! Congratulations! The Wood grandchildren are starting to be dominated by the girls. Who knows, maybe that will change soon =).
Love,
Elder Wood
September 13, 2010
First email letter from Texas, Sept. 7, 2010
Hola!
I'm now here in Texas, and I have my new area and my new companion. However, first I guess I should go over what happened in the airport. I bought a phonecard at the MTC, and it said it had like 300 minutes on it or whatever. Apparently, pay phones, due to extra charges by the FCC (editorial note: but mostly due to added on charges by the issuers of phone cards, and the pay phone providers themselves), ate up my time super fast, and when I tried to call some of my siblings in my layover in Fort Wort, it said that I had insufficient funds. It was a bummer, but I'll be all right. It happened to quite a few of the elders who were in my travel group. Some of them got down in the dumps because they were planning to call their girlfriends. I felt bad for them, but I will admit it made me kind of happy that I didn't have to deal with any issue like that.
The flights were both fine, and neither of them was over three hours, so they were easy to get by. I didn't really get a chance to nap on the plane, but I did get a chance to do some scripture reading which led me to something very interesting. I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 105:25 which basically says, "There has been a day of calling, and soon will be a day of choosing. and those that are chosen will be those that are worthy." This scripture stuck out to me because I found it when I was on the plane to my mission field. It just made me think, all missionaries have been called, but today is the day of choosing. It is my duty to work hard, obey and be worthy so that I will be "chosen". I will be able to have the Spirit of the Lord with me, and with that, I will find greater success and happiness in the mission field. I'm certain that I was led to that scripture on the plane, to give me more motivation these first few days in the mission field.
So, I arrived yesterday in McAllen, Texas. The weather here is actually very similar to that in Virginia. (Editorial note: NOT REALLY, he just arrived during a hurricane.) Many of the Elders stepped out of the airport and were shocked due to the humidity in the air, but I just smiled and felt just a little bit at home. The weather here is similar to Virginia, but the terrain is VERY different. It is flat, like God just took a giant rolling pin and flattened out the whole region, and there are palm trees everywhere. The skyline here just goes on and on, uninterrupted by hills or trees and you can just see for miles. It is really quite cool (Ed: as in awesome) and the view of the endless sky is quite amazing. This is the first time that I've actually seen palm trees with my own eyes (Ed: Not really, he's forgetting Arizona and Florida and Alabama) and they're quite a pretty site in my opinion. Surprisingly, it rains here quite a bit, a lot more than I was expecting. (Ed: Hurricanes do that!) A small hurricane passed through the far Eastern and Northern parts of the mission last night and today, but so far it has just rained here. Apparently there was a storm last night, but I was so exhausted from getting up at 3:30 AM in Provo that I just slept through the whole thing.
We met the mission presidency here, President and Sister Trayner, who are both very nice. On an odd, random note, Sister Trayner reminds me very much of Aunt Nancy. She looks a little bit similar, has the same kind of humor, and the same personality as Nancy. President Trayner was a lawyer but I either forgot to ask or can't remember what type of law he practiced. However, he did know Dad was a lawyer and proceeded to apologize profusely for that, which I thought was pretty funny. They were both very kind to us, and we had a wonderful barbecue dinner at their house.
The area I have been placed in is Donna, which is just East of McAllen. My new companion is Elder Nevara, from Nevada. I cannot remember what the exact town he is from, but is is North Nevada, nowhere close to Vegas =). He is half Mexican but doesn't speak Spanish, as his father never taught it to him at home. He seems like he is here to work hard, and I'm excited for the opportunity to work with him and start to improve my Spanish. Donna is in the "valley" as they call it, even though there are no mountains around, and there are many, many Spanish speakers here. Mostly everyone speaks Spanish and English, so that is both a blessing and a curse for me in a way. If I choose to be lazy, I can talk to most everyone in English and get my point across, but if I push myself I should be able to speak mostly Spanish and really start to improve. I don't think I'm going to have the lazy problem, but we'll see. At the moment I've committed to speaking my Spanish.
Anyways, it's getting about time to go I think, so I'll wrap this up. I'm excited and ready to be in the field, and grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here. I hope everyone has a good week and hopefully I'll have some good stories in a week or so.
Love,
Elder Wood
I'm now here in Texas, and I have my new area and my new companion. However, first I guess I should go over what happened in the airport. I bought a phonecard at the MTC, and it said it had like 300 minutes on it or whatever. Apparently, pay phones, due to extra charges by the FCC (editorial note: but mostly due to added on charges by the issuers of phone cards, and the pay phone providers themselves), ate up my time super fast, and when I tried to call some of my siblings in my layover in Fort Wort, it said that I had insufficient funds. It was a bummer, but I'll be all right. It happened to quite a few of the elders who were in my travel group. Some of them got down in the dumps because they were planning to call their girlfriends. I felt bad for them, but I will admit it made me kind of happy that I didn't have to deal with any issue like that.
The flights were both fine, and neither of them was over three hours, so they were easy to get by. I didn't really get a chance to nap on the plane, but I did get a chance to do some scripture reading which led me to something very interesting. I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 105:25 which basically says, "There has been a day of calling, and soon will be a day of choosing. and those that are chosen will be those that are worthy." This scripture stuck out to me because I found it when I was on the plane to my mission field. It just made me think, all missionaries have been called, but today is the day of choosing. It is my duty to work hard, obey and be worthy so that I will be "chosen". I will be able to have the Spirit of the Lord with me, and with that, I will find greater success and happiness in the mission field. I'm certain that I was led to that scripture on the plane, to give me more motivation these first few days in the mission field.
So, I arrived yesterday in McAllen, Texas. The weather here is actually very similar to that in Virginia. (Editorial note: NOT REALLY, he just arrived during a hurricane.) Many of the Elders stepped out of the airport and were shocked due to the humidity in the air, but I just smiled and felt just a little bit at home. The weather here is similar to Virginia, but the terrain is VERY different. It is flat, like God just took a giant rolling pin and flattened out the whole region, and there are palm trees everywhere. The skyline here just goes on and on, uninterrupted by hills or trees and you can just see for miles. It is really quite cool (Ed: as in awesome) and the view of the endless sky is quite amazing. This is the first time that I've actually seen palm trees with my own eyes (Ed: Not really, he's forgetting Arizona and Florida and Alabama) and they're quite a pretty site in my opinion. Surprisingly, it rains here quite a bit, a lot more than I was expecting. (Ed: Hurricanes do that!) A small hurricane passed through the far Eastern and Northern parts of the mission last night and today, but so far it has just rained here. Apparently there was a storm last night, but I was so exhausted from getting up at 3:30 AM in Provo that I just slept through the whole thing.
We met the mission presidency here, President and Sister Trayner, who are both very nice. On an odd, random note, Sister Trayner reminds me very much of Aunt Nancy. She looks a little bit similar, has the same kind of humor, and the same personality as Nancy. President Trayner was a lawyer but I either forgot to ask or can't remember what type of law he practiced. However, he did know Dad was a lawyer and proceeded to apologize profusely for that, which I thought was pretty funny. They were both very kind to us, and we had a wonderful barbecue dinner at their house.
The area I have been placed in is Donna, which is just East of McAllen. My new companion is Elder Nevara, from Nevada. I cannot remember what the exact town he is from, but is is North Nevada, nowhere close to Vegas =). He is half Mexican but doesn't speak Spanish, as his father never taught it to him at home. He seems like he is here to work hard, and I'm excited for the opportunity to work with him and start to improve my Spanish. Donna is in the "valley" as they call it, even though there are no mountains around, and there are many, many Spanish speakers here. Mostly everyone speaks Spanish and English, so that is both a blessing and a curse for me in a way. If I choose to be lazy, I can talk to most everyone in English and get my point across, but if I push myself I should be able to speak mostly Spanish and really start to improve. I don't think I'm going to have the lazy problem, but we'll see. At the moment I've committed to speaking my Spanish.
Anyways, it's getting about time to go I think, so I'll wrap this up. I'm excited and ready to be in the field, and grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here. I hope everyone has a good week and hopefully I'll have some good stories in a week or so.
Love,
Elder Wood
September 6, 2010
August 31, 2010 (letter via post to 4510)
Dear Family,
I forgot to say in my last email, but Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad! It's great to see so many years of happy marriage and to have such a great example for parents. As I've been here I have come to see many of the different circumstances that people come from. It has made me just that much more grateful for my parents and the chance I had to be raised in the Gospel.
Thanks for the package sent from Christian's house. The tie and the pillowcase are both really cool. The food is all really good, so I'm grateful for that. I managed to steal a whole lot of candy from the "Old Testament Table." (It's the ironing board where the departing missionaries leave or "sacrifice" anything that they don't want to take to the mission field. It's all up for grabs.) So, I basically have half my desk covered in Starburtsts, Jolly Ranchers, cookies and PopTarts and the like. I've been making an effort to pass it around to the other Elders in order to spare my health and also to just get rid of it all. I'm pretty sure that with just an hour a day back at the residence, there's no way I'm getting through those treats all by myself!
We're getting another new district on Wednesday, many of whom are going to the Spokane, Washington Mission! I'll only be their Zone Leader for about four days before I leave, but hopefully I'll make enough of a good impression that they'll remember me and say "Hi" to Rose-Ellen for me if they ever run into her. I should get released as ZL on Sunday and then be off on Monday. Oh, and also, just as a heads up for when I'll be calling: We leave for the airport at 5:30 -6:00 a.m. or so, and or flight is at 8:25 a.m. so I'll only have something less than an hour to call. It will probably be between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. Provo time, Monday, September 6th. I can buy my own calling card thing, but that's around when I should be calling.
There's just one last story I'd like to tell from this week. On Thursday we went to the Referral Center (RC) here at the MTC. It's basically just a big calling center where you call people who have ordered things like Books of Mormon or Bibles from the Church. You make sure they got it and then see if they want to meet with the missionaries. I was a ward missionary in my BYU ward and we went there fairly often. When I found out we would be doing calls, I wasn't as nervous as a lot of the missionaries were. However, that all changed when he said that we would be doing the calls in Spanish! Upon arriving we found out that we could still make some of the calls in English, but we were challenged to do at least two Spanish calls. We were there for about an hour and a half and I got mostly answering machines, but a few people did pick up. The first was Janine. When I called her I was actually looking for her sister, but apparently she wasn't home so I just talked with Janine, instead. She was on her way out the door to work, so I didn't get to talk for too long, but I bore my testimony, offered her a Book of Mormon, and asked if she would like to meet with the missionaries. She said YES! I hope the missionaries who contact her will bring her to her Savior, Jesus Christ. It was a really neat experience just to find someone willing to hear the Gospel. I was so excited after that (it was in English) that I got up my confidence to start the Spanish calls. However, the Lord must have seen fit to humble me after that experience because the first Spanish speaker that picked up immediately began to chew me out. She was yelling and speaking so fast in Spanish that I was dumbstruck and couldn't think of anything to say or even understand what she was saying She had just been straight yelling at me for about 30 seconds when I picked up, "No me llamada mas!" or "Don't call me anymore!" and then she hung up. Needless to say, I was humbled, but I took it with a good attitude and just started laughing because I realized I had been chewed out for the first time in Spanish. This was one of my big fears for the field, but now that it's happened, I'm not afraid of it anymore. So overall, it was a great experience at the RC and I learned quite a lot that day.
Anyways, it's been a really good week here and the time has flown by. I feel like I walked in here yesterday. It is really true when they say, "The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days." I hope things are going well at home and that everyone is doing OK. My next letter home will probably be from the field so wish me luck! The Gospel is true and the Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ. I love you all. Have a good week!
Elder Wood
I forgot to say in my last email, but Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad! It's great to see so many years of happy marriage and to have such a great example for parents. As I've been here I have come to see many of the different circumstances that people come from. It has made me just that much more grateful for my parents and the chance I had to be raised in the Gospel.
Thanks for the package sent from Christian's house. The tie and the pillowcase are both really cool. The food is all really good, so I'm grateful for that. I managed to steal a whole lot of candy from the "Old Testament Table." (It's the ironing board where the departing missionaries leave or "sacrifice" anything that they don't want to take to the mission field. It's all up for grabs.) So, I basically have half my desk covered in Starburtsts, Jolly Ranchers, cookies and PopTarts and the like. I've been making an effort to pass it around to the other Elders in order to spare my health and also to just get rid of it all. I'm pretty sure that with just an hour a day back at the residence, there's no way I'm getting through those treats all by myself!
We're getting another new district on Wednesday, many of whom are going to the Spokane, Washington Mission! I'll only be their Zone Leader for about four days before I leave, but hopefully I'll make enough of a good impression that they'll remember me and say "Hi" to Rose-Ellen for me if they ever run into her. I should get released as ZL on Sunday and then be off on Monday. Oh, and also, just as a heads up for when I'll be calling: We leave for the airport at 5:30 -6:00 a.m. or so, and or flight is at 8:25 a.m. so I'll only have something less than an hour to call. It will probably be between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. Provo time, Monday, September 6th. I can buy my own calling card thing, but that's around when I should be calling.
There's just one last story I'd like to tell from this week. On Thursday we went to the Referral Center (RC) here at the MTC. It's basically just a big calling center where you call people who have ordered things like Books of Mormon or Bibles from the Church. You make sure they got it and then see if they want to meet with the missionaries. I was a ward missionary in my BYU ward and we went there fairly often. When I found out we would be doing calls, I wasn't as nervous as a lot of the missionaries were. However, that all changed when he said that we would be doing the calls in Spanish! Upon arriving we found out that we could still make some of the calls in English, but we were challenged to do at least two Spanish calls. We were there for about an hour and a half and I got mostly answering machines, but a few people did pick up. The first was Janine. When I called her I was actually looking for her sister, but apparently she wasn't home so I just talked with Janine, instead. She was on her way out the door to work, so I didn't get to talk for too long, but I bore my testimony, offered her a Book of Mormon, and asked if she would like to meet with the missionaries. She said YES! I hope the missionaries who contact her will bring her to her Savior, Jesus Christ. It was a really neat experience just to find someone willing to hear the Gospel. I was so excited after that (it was in English) that I got up my confidence to start the Spanish calls. However, the Lord must have seen fit to humble me after that experience because the first Spanish speaker that picked up immediately began to chew me out. She was yelling and speaking so fast in Spanish that I was dumbstruck and couldn't think of anything to say or even understand what she was saying She had just been straight yelling at me for about 30 seconds when I picked up, "No me llamada mas!" or "Don't call me anymore!" and then she hung up. Needless to say, I was humbled, but I took it with a good attitude and just started laughing because I realized I had been chewed out for the first time in Spanish. This was one of my big fears for the field, but now that it's happened, I'm not afraid of it anymore. So overall, it was a great experience at the RC and I learned quite a lot that day.
Anyways, it's been a really good week here and the time has flown by. I feel like I walked in here yesterday. It is really true when they say, "The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days." I hope things are going well at home and that everyone is doing OK. My next letter home will probably be from the field so wish me luck! The Gospel is true and the Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ. I love you all. Have a good week!
Elder Wood
August 31, 2010
August 31, 2010 (Email from the MTC)
Editor's note: Roland will have but one more email opportunity from the MTC as he leaves for Texas on September 8th. This is your last chance to write him a letter before he leaves the MTC. Also remember that his birthday is on September 14. You should post any packages to him to the McAllen Mission Home. I will post that address after I look up the appropriate zip code. (At the end of this letter Roland says he won't have another email opportunity at the MTC, but if he leaves on the 8th as his address implies, he should have one more email opportunity.) If you send your letter via DearElder.com, they actually post the letters immediately to the MTC and he gets your email letter via Provo post. So, that is one way for you to be sure he gets your letter before he leaves Provo, even if he doesn't have another email opportunity.
Roland's letter:
Dear Family,
This week has been pretty normalish, except for a few instances, I guess. Most of them were at the beginning of this last week, right after I sent off my last email.
To start off, last Tuesday night we had Jeffery R. Holland come speak to us! It was awesome! One, because Elder Holland is known for his rousing speeches, and two, because he is the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve we've had speak to us. His remarks were filled with great quotes and inspirational reminders. He stressed that there are three things that missionaries don't do well. First, they don't study well together with their companions. Second, they don't plan well enough, really scheduling every bit of space and having backup plans for appointments that fall through or if something goes amiss. Third, they don't teach with the power and authority that is given to them in their calling. This past week I've been trying to work on all of these and really do as Elder Holland directed, and waste none of the Lord's time. He stressed the importance of exact obedience and how in order to teach with power and authority we need to obey all of the mission rules, so that the Spirit of the Lord can be unrestrained when trying to work in us. Probably the best two quotes that he gave were first, when speaking about mission rules, "You can't do it your way! This isn't Burger King! We don't hold the pickles!" And second, when speaking about diligence, "You've got to work hard and talk with everyone. Every step, every day, every person, all the way!". Those are just two among many, many good quotes that were given to us by Elder Holland, most of which are recorded in my study journal back in my class.
The other really cool experience that we had this week was our TRC (Teaching Resource Center) investigator. She was the mother of a young woman who comes regularly and volunteers at the TRC, but she herself had not come before. Elder Lybbert and I had a fantastic lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. The Spirit was really strong, and you could visibly see it working in this mother. Her eyes would start to tear up and then she'd start crying when we were testifying of the life and sacrifice of the Savior, as well as the opportunity she has, through Him, to live with Him and her family forever. It was a great lesson and really was a great confidence booster for these last couple of weeks at the MTC.
I've only got a few minutes left on my email, so I'll relay one last short story and then send just one or two more in a letter home. I was talking to one of the Counselors in our Branch Presidency, who was talking about just how hard it was to walk so far every day in the mission field. Walking up to six or more miles a day really took a toll on his body, and he was trying to warn/scare us for how hard it could be. When I told him that I had done the Alonzo Stag hike in Virginia and had done 50 miles in a day, a surprised look popped onto his face and he said, "Oh, okay, well I guess you won't have a problem with that one ha-ha!" So, I'd just like to give a quick thanks to Rene and the Young Men leaders for getting me to go on that. And now that I have had that experience, I have no need to complain about how dead my legs are because I can always refer back to that experience and the fact that it doesn't hurt as much and I'll be able to walk the next day.
As far as the calling card goes, I can buy a $5 one here, which should be fine, but if Mom could send me the phone numbers and addresses for the kids that would be great. I won't have another chance to email before I leave, so I'll need that in actual mail. Also, the address for the mission home is: 200 W La Vista Ave., McAllen TX (and then the zip code for that area, can be Googled).
10 seconds, gotta go!
Love you all!
Elder Wood
Roland's letter:
Dear Family,
This week has been pretty normalish, except for a few instances, I guess. Most of them were at the beginning of this last week, right after I sent off my last email.
To start off, last Tuesday night we had Jeffery R. Holland come speak to us! It was awesome! One, because Elder Holland is known for his rousing speeches, and two, because he is the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve we've had speak to us. His remarks were filled with great quotes and inspirational reminders. He stressed that there are three things that missionaries don't do well. First, they don't study well together with their companions. Second, they don't plan well enough, really scheduling every bit of space and having backup plans for appointments that fall through or if something goes amiss. Third, they don't teach with the power and authority that is given to them in their calling. This past week I've been trying to work on all of these and really do as Elder Holland directed, and waste none of the Lord's time. He stressed the importance of exact obedience and how in order to teach with power and authority we need to obey all of the mission rules, so that the Spirit of the Lord can be unrestrained when trying to work in us. Probably the best two quotes that he gave were first, when speaking about mission rules, "You can't do it your way! This isn't Burger King! We don't hold the pickles!" And second, when speaking about diligence, "You've got to work hard and talk with everyone. Every step, every day, every person, all the way!". Those are just two among many, many good quotes that were given to us by Elder Holland, most of which are recorded in my study journal back in my class.
The other really cool experience that we had this week was our TRC (Teaching Resource Center) investigator. She was the mother of a young woman who comes regularly and volunteers at the TRC, but she herself had not come before. Elder Lybbert and I had a fantastic lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. The Spirit was really strong, and you could visibly see it working in this mother. Her eyes would start to tear up and then she'd start crying when we were testifying of the life and sacrifice of the Savior, as well as the opportunity she has, through Him, to live with Him and her family forever. It was a great lesson and really was a great confidence booster for these last couple of weeks at the MTC.
I've only got a few minutes left on my email, so I'll relay one last short story and then send just one or two more in a letter home. I was talking to one of the Counselors in our Branch Presidency, who was talking about just how hard it was to walk so far every day in the mission field. Walking up to six or more miles a day really took a toll on his body, and he was trying to warn/scare us for how hard it could be. When I told him that I had done the Alonzo Stag hike in Virginia and had done 50 miles in a day, a surprised look popped onto his face and he said, "Oh, okay, well I guess you won't have a problem with that one ha-ha!" So, I'd just like to give a quick thanks to Rene and the Young Men leaders for getting me to go on that. And now that I have had that experience, I have no need to complain about how dead my legs are because I can always refer back to that experience and the fact that it doesn't hurt as much and I'll be able to walk the next day.
As far as the calling card goes, I can buy a $5 one here, which should be fine, but if Mom could send me the phone numbers and addresses for the kids that would be great. I won't have another chance to email before I leave, so I'll need that in actual mail. Also, the address for the mission home is: 200 W La Vista Ave., McAllen TX (and then the zip code for that area, can be Googled).
10 seconds, gotta go!
Love you all!
Elder Wood
August 30, 2010
August 17, 2010 (P.S. to written letter)
Oh. Tell Dad that I'm the second cleanest person in my Zone here at the MTC. The only one ahead of me is an Elder out of the Naval Academy, so he doesn't count. :)
Love you!
Elder Wood
Love you!
Elder Wood
August 17, 2010 (Letter posted to 4510 N. 35th St.)
Dear Family,
I did the big event of my being called to ZL in the Email home today, so hopefully in this letter I'll be able to talk about what has happened so far this week.
In the past week's Devotional on Tuesday there was a really good message. The speaker was Elder Evans of the first quorum of the Seventy. His message was mostly about getting our investigators to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning, as well as encouraging us to not being afraid to invite someone to be baptized. However, for me, the coolest part of Elder Evan's talk was in his testimony at the end. He said, "It is not faith for me anymore my friends, now I know." As a missionary I am called to strengthen the faith of others in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, but we are also counseled in Preach My Gospel that "You cannot convert someone beyond your own conversion."
I am grateful for the fact that I can say, "I know". When I testify of the Savior and his Atonement, I can say "I know". When I testify of the Restoration, I can say, "I know". And I'm grateful for that because it will help me to be a better missionary and also to be better at serving the Lord and bring more people back to Him.
This last week when teaching our "investigators" with Hermano Maughan, he had us do splits where companionships split up and taught different investigators. It was pretty interesting. I taught with Elder Covington and his "investigator", Yoel who had a drug problem. It was quite a challenge to try and teach to a new investigator with a concern I haven't ever really researched or studied for, but it was a great opportunity to practice and went over fairly well.
The other thing that was pretty cool for this week is that we had a new teacher for about a week, Hermano Solberg, who also served his mission in Argentina. This past week he has acted for an investgator for us too, "Bernardo". Bernardo is a very prepared individual who readily accepts most of our ideas like prayer, a loving Heavenly Father and the Restoration, but lacks faith a little bit because he gets very upset over small principles. For example, he had a big hangup with Nephi killing Laban in order to get the brass plates, and refused to listen to anything else until we could explain it to him. We did a pretty good job of it and kept the conversation from becoming contentious. It seemed to resolve his worries. Ultimately, he accepted the commitment to be baptized, which is awesome! Also, this past week with Hermano Maughan's "investigator" Jorge, we taught him about the Restoration and invited him to be baptized, which he accepted. Overall a great week for our practice investigators. I have learned a lot about teaching and how to help my investigators.
That's pretty much all of my lesson news for this week and other than that the only cool thing that has happened that I haven't mentioned concerns soccer. When I got to the MTC, I was horrible at soccer. For the past week or so I've been playing during gym and I have gotten way better. So far I have two goals and my footwork and passing are starting to get better. Hopefully I'll be decent by the time I get to McAllen so I don't embarrass myself in front of the Hispanic members :).
Anyways, that's just about it for the week. I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for keeping me informed on how things are going. I hope everybody has a great coming week!
Love,
Elder Wood
I did the big event of my being called to ZL in the Email home today, so hopefully in this letter I'll be able to talk about what has happened so far this week.
In the past week's Devotional on Tuesday there was a really good message. The speaker was Elder Evans of the first quorum of the Seventy. His message was mostly about getting our investigators to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning, as well as encouraging us to not being afraid to invite someone to be baptized. However, for me, the coolest part of Elder Evan's talk was in his testimony at the end. He said, "It is not faith for me anymore my friends, now I know." As a missionary I am called to strengthen the faith of others in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, but we are also counseled in Preach My Gospel that "You cannot convert someone beyond your own conversion."
I am grateful for the fact that I can say, "I know". When I testify of the Savior and his Atonement, I can say "I know". When I testify of the Restoration, I can say, "I know". And I'm grateful for that because it will help me to be a better missionary and also to be better at serving the Lord and bring more people back to Him.
This last week when teaching our "investigators" with Hermano Maughan, he had us do splits where companionships split up and taught different investigators. It was pretty interesting. I taught with Elder Covington and his "investigator", Yoel who had a drug problem. It was quite a challenge to try and teach to a new investigator with a concern I haven't ever really researched or studied for, but it was a great opportunity to practice and went over fairly well.
The other thing that was pretty cool for this week is that we had a new teacher for about a week, Hermano Solberg, who also served his mission in Argentina. This past week he has acted for an investgator for us too, "Bernardo". Bernardo is a very prepared individual who readily accepts most of our ideas like prayer, a loving Heavenly Father and the Restoration, but lacks faith a little bit because he gets very upset over small principles. For example, he had a big hangup with Nephi killing Laban in order to get the brass plates, and refused to listen to anything else until we could explain it to him. We did a pretty good job of it and kept the conversation from becoming contentious. It seemed to resolve his worries. Ultimately, he accepted the commitment to be baptized, which is awesome! Also, this past week with Hermano Maughan's "investigator" Jorge, we taught him about the Restoration and invited him to be baptized, which he accepted. Overall a great week for our practice investigators. I have learned a lot about teaching and how to help my investigators.
That's pretty much all of my lesson news for this week and other than that the only cool thing that has happened that I haven't mentioned concerns soccer. When I got to the MTC, I was horrible at soccer. For the past week or so I've been playing during gym and I have gotten way better. So far I have two goals and my footwork and passing are starting to get better. Hopefully I'll be decent by the time I get to McAllen so I don't embarrass myself in front of the Hispanic members :).
Anyways, that's just about it for the week. I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for keeping me informed on how things are going. I hope everybody has a great coming week!
Love,
Elder Wood
August 17, 2010 (Email from the MTC)
AWW! I can't believe I had to miss one of Dad's talks. I always enjoy hearing him speak and learning from his experiences. He's a great speaker and I can always pick out something to work on myself by the time he's done.
I'm sorry for all your computer troubles. That sounds like an annoying hassle. I'm glad something good came out of Christian's computer problems and that he'll be able to get it mostly restored. The new semester is coming up so hopefully it won't be a distraction to him. I'll get on sending you the papers about Grandpa Hall. Just be sure that you put them somewhere where I can get to them when I get back. I've enjoyed reading them very much. Well, now I guess it comes to the events of the week.
It was my first week not as District Leader. It's amazing how much more time you have when you're not running around doing interviews or filling out reports on Thursday night. However. . . that didn't last too long, because on Saturday night My companion and I (Elder Lybbert) were called as Zone Leaders. I thought that I would get a Sunday without any meetings, but the Lord has seen fit to have me humble myself in that manner and I'm now in even more meetings on Sunday than I was before! The ZLs before me, Elders Paulsen and Whitaker, were both really great Elders, and I learned a lot from their examples. Hopefully, I will be a better Zone Leader because of it. It's quite a change from being a district leader, in my opinion, because it really drives you to be the best example possible and to be friendly and loving towards everyone. I've always tried my hardest to get to know people and ben an example, but when you're responsible for introducing, befriending, comforting and training the new missionaries it gets a little bit more intense. I don't think I've ever been more concerned with how clean my room is, because as ZL my room is supposed to be the example for all the new missionaries that we will have coming in on Wednesday and also for anyone who chances to see it. So I've made a habit of never having a piece of clothing ouch the floor, and my bed is made as soon as I get up--which I'm sure Dad would appreciate. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to serve as a ZL because when I look back, the two companionships of ZL's I've had here were great examples to me and helped me to set the tone of my study and service for the first few weeks. I hope that I can do that same thing for the Elders we have coming in. I can remember just how much I looked up to the ZLs when I arrived.
That has been the big event of the week, and other than that it has been studying Spanish and teaching to "investigators". I'll relate most of those experiences through my letter home this week since I can write that with my journal on hand. it will help me to remember exactly who I've taught and what happened.
In other news for this week, on Sunday we had a big reunion and picture taking with the Elders in the MTC who were from my old BYU ward. It was quite remarkable to see twenty or so of my old friends who were now committing themselves to serving the Lord. I got a big group picture as well as one with Elders Moody, Johnson and Moss who are some of my really good friends. I'll send some copies of those pictures home this coming week to be put up on the blog.
Other than that, I'm not sure too much has happened this week. Due to my wonderfully limited email time, I'll be relating more of my experiences of the week in my written letter home. Thanks for writing me and keep encouraging others to write. I'm always happy to receive and reply!
Love,
Elder Wood
I'm sorry for all your computer troubles. That sounds like an annoying hassle. I'm glad something good came out of Christian's computer problems and that he'll be able to get it mostly restored. The new semester is coming up so hopefully it won't be a distraction to him. I'll get on sending you the papers about Grandpa Hall. Just be sure that you put them somewhere where I can get to them when I get back. I've enjoyed reading them very much. Well, now I guess it comes to the events of the week.
It was my first week not as District Leader. It's amazing how much more time you have when you're not running around doing interviews or filling out reports on Thursday night. However. . . that didn't last too long, because on Saturday night My companion and I (Elder Lybbert) were called as Zone Leaders. I thought that I would get a Sunday without any meetings, but the Lord has seen fit to have me humble myself in that manner and I'm now in even more meetings on Sunday than I was before! The ZLs before me, Elders Paulsen and Whitaker, were both really great Elders, and I learned a lot from their examples. Hopefully, I will be a better Zone Leader because of it. It's quite a change from being a district leader, in my opinion, because it really drives you to be the best example possible and to be friendly and loving towards everyone. I've always tried my hardest to get to know people and ben an example, but when you're responsible for introducing, befriending, comforting and training the new missionaries it gets a little bit more intense. I don't think I've ever been more concerned with how clean my room is, because as ZL my room is supposed to be the example for all the new missionaries that we will have coming in on Wednesday and also for anyone who chances to see it. So I've made a habit of never having a piece of clothing ouch the floor, and my bed is made as soon as I get up--which I'm sure Dad would appreciate. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to serve as a ZL because when I look back, the two companionships of ZL's I've had here were great examples to me and helped me to set the tone of my study and service for the first few weeks. I hope that I can do that same thing for the Elders we have coming in. I can remember just how much I looked up to the ZLs when I arrived.
That has been the big event of the week, and other than that it has been studying Spanish and teaching to "investigators". I'll relate most of those experiences through my letter home this week since I can write that with my journal on hand. it will help me to remember exactly who I've taught and what happened.
In other news for this week, on Sunday we had a big reunion and picture taking with the Elders in the MTC who were from my old BYU ward. It was quite remarkable to see twenty or so of my old friends who were now committing themselves to serving the Lord. I got a big group picture as well as one with Elders Moody, Johnson and Moss who are some of my really good friends. I'll send some copies of those pictures home this coming week to be put up on the blog.
Other than that, I'm not sure too much has happened this week. Due to my wonderfully limited email time, I'll be relating more of my experiences of the week in my written letter home. Thanks for writing me and keep encouraging others to write. I'm always happy to receive and reply!
Love,
Elder Wood
August 28, 2010
August 10, 2010 (Hand-written post from the MTC)
I got Mom's package from Houston just now, and it is possibly the best thing I have ever received! It's like Christmas! The highlight has to be the University of Texas Snuggy, but everything in there was great, even the socks! Thanks so much for sending it. It made this P-day into a great day overall. My companion, Elder Lybert, and I are both grateful for the Texas map shirts. They're really cool.
I am now wearing the UT Snuggy, and it is possibly the best thing of ...my...LIFE! I don't think I can express just how much joy this brings me.
However, now that I am done pontificating about my wonderful presents, I can get into what has happened so far this week. Our teacher, Hermano Ortiz left this week for Texas, since his family lives there. Apparently, this is a very important time for his family and they need to be together. So we'll have substitutes for the next 3 weeks, but Hermano Ortiz will be back for our last week at the MTC.
We picked up a new "investigator," Maria at the Teaching Evaluation Place and we meet with her on Fridays. She moved here from Mexico and has two young daughters. Her husband just left her and her parents died, so her faith in God is failing. Hopefully we will be able to help rebuild the foundation of her faith through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll see how our next few lessons go. Our first lesson with her was okay, but a lot of it was really just getting to know here. We didn't have too much time for a message.
Oh, our first new substitute here at the MTC for Hermano Ortiz is Hermano Solberg from Mesa, Arizona. He served his mission in Argentina the same time as Hermano Maughan. Our first day with him was pretty intense. We learned a lot of grammar principles and then the second day (and for the rest of his time with us) he was a new "investigator," Bernado. Bernado is a divorced, retired, 55 year old man with two kids and a firm belief in God. He is devoted to God because he says God has saved his life on three separate occasions. So teaching him will be interesting and hopefully soon we can bring him into the Church.
On Sunday we had President Jackman speak to us at the Devotional and his remarks were interesting. But it was also really cool that he served part of his mission in McAllen, Texas. However, the coolest part of Sunday was right after the Devotional. Movies play in different places on the campus afterwards and the Joseph Smith movie was playing in one building across campus from where we were watching the Devotional. We knew it would be packed so we sat next to an exit and as soon as the Devotional was over we exited. As a joke, with a few other companionships, we started to run. I thought it was pretty dorky, but then after rounding the first corner we ran into about 30 other missionaries who were running. There was another mob of joggers just behind them. We got some of the last seats in the room for the movie. It was a really great experience. However, I will always remember seeing so many young men rush to see, testify, and tell about the story of Joseph Smith.
That's all I've got for this week and I'm just about out of time. Thanks for the package and I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Elder Wood
I am now wearing the UT Snuggy, and it is possibly the best thing of ...my...LIFE! I don't think I can express just how much joy this brings me.
However, now that I am done pontificating about my wonderful presents, I can get into what has happened so far this week. Our teacher, Hermano Ortiz left this week for Texas, since his family lives there. Apparently, this is a very important time for his family and they need to be together. So we'll have substitutes for the next 3 weeks, but Hermano Ortiz will be back for our last week at the MTC.
We picked up a new "investigator," Maria at the Teaching Evaluation Place and we meet with her on Fridays. She moved here from Mexico and has two young daughters. Her husband just left her and her parents died, so her faith in God is failing. Hopefully we will be able to help rebuild the foundation of her faith through the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll see how our next few lessons go. Our first lesson with her was okay, but a lot of it was really just getting to know here. We didn't have too much time for a message.
Oh, our first new substitute here at the MTC for Hermano Ortiz is Hermano Solberg from Mesa, Arizona. He served his mission in Argentina the same time as Hermano Maughan. Our first day with him was pretty intense. We learned a lot of grammar principles and then the second day (and for the rest of his time with us) he was a new "investigator," Bernado. Bernado is a divorced, retired, 55 year old man with two kids and a firm belief in God. He is devoted to God because he says God has saved his life on three separate occasions. So teaching him will be interesting and hopefully soon we can bring him into the Church.
On Sunday we had President Jackman speak to us at the Devotional and his remarks were interesting. But it was also really cool that he served part of his mission in McAllen, Texas. However, the coolest part of Sunday was right after the Devotional. Movies play in different places on the campus afterwards and the Joseph Smith movie was playing in one building across campus from where we were watching the Devotional. We knew it would be packed so we sat next to an exit and as soon as the Devotional was over we exited. As a joke, with a few other companionships, we started to run. I thought it was pretty dorky, but then after rounding the first corner we ran into about 30 other missionaries who were running. There was another mob of joggers just behind them. We got some of the last seats in the room for the movie. It was a really great experience. However, I will always remember seeing so many young men rush to see, testify, and tell about the story of Joseph Smith.
That's all I've got for this week and I'm just about out of time. Thanks for the package and I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Elder Wood
August 10, 2010 (Email letter from the MTC)
Dear Mom/Family/Friends,
This week here at the MTC has been pretty interesting. I got released from my District Leader calling after serving about 5 weeks, which is the normal duration of that calling here at the MTC. Everything is going pretty well here and things are coming along nicely. I'll be writing an actual letter home later today which should have more of the experiences of the week in it since I have my journal on hand when I'm writing it.
I haven't received Mom's package from Texas yet, but I'm sure it will get here soon. I'm excited for whatever is in it--candy, blankets, whatever!
I'm really excited for Mark to get here. I've talked to a bunch of our old friends from BYU and we're all waiting to see him on Wednesday. Most of the new missionaries all file in like a bunch of confused tourists during diners on Wednesday nights, so I'll be watching for him to come in. I'm also very curious about this new haircut he has, and I'm sure it will be quite a laugh. However, even funnier I think, is that I've heard that when the missionaries going to Peru arrive there they shave their heads first thing. I don't think words can express how much I'm waiting to see a picture of Elder Johnson with a buzz cut!
As far as Christian's job goes, I hope he will have better luck this time with the Census. Hopefully, he'll get some better hours and the fact that it si only in Provo should help with the job a bit. I can't wait for the moment when he knocks on one of his friend's houses and has to chastise them about not filling out their census forms.
A lot of the people here come from part-member families, or families that were less active at one time. It has made me really grateful that I come from a family that is strong in the Gospel and have all faithfully fulfilled their callings and assignments. Mom, good luck with your meetings with all the other wards. I know you're doing a lot of good and people you may not even suspect are grateful for your performance and faithfulness in serving within the Church.
I am really glad that Jonathan and Emily are doing well It is awesome that Jonathan is receiving such great acknowledgment and respect for the work that he does. It's always great to have such hard workers in your family who set an example for you of how to buckle down, work hard and provide for others. However a more important accomplishment than his job is his new baby girl! It's amazing how big she is. I'm fairly certain that Jonathan and Emily are going to have the biggest grandchildren out of anyone, but who knows?
The weather here is nice, cool but not too hot, even though we're indoors most of the time anyway. I'm normally outside for gym time one hour a day and then outside for maybe two of the four hours I have for study time every day. It really is a beautiful summer here, especially with the mountains and the great weather. I know Texas will be hot, but hopefully I'll be able to be focused enough on my work that the heat won't bother me too much. With five weeks now here in the MTC, I'm getting the urge to go out and get to work, but I know that I'll need the extra four weeks of Spanish practice. Hopefully, I'll use them to their fullest potential.
Anyways, like I said, you'll get a snail mail letter with more of the experiences in the week, but until then, just hold tight. The Gospel is true and is the most important work now and in eternity!
This week here at the MTC has been pretty interesting. I got released from my District Leader calling after serving about 5 weeks, which is the normal duration of that calling here at the MTC. Everything is going pretty well here and things are coming along nicely. I'll be writing an actual letter home later today which should have more of the experiences of the week in it since I have my journal on hand when I'm writing it.
I haven't received Mom's package from Texas yet, but I'm sure it will get here soon. I'm excited for whatever is in it--candy, blankets, whatever!
I'm really excited for Mark to get here. I've talked to a bunch of our old friends from BYU and we're all waiting to see him on Wednesday. Most of the new missionaries all file in like a bunch of confused tourists during diners on Wednesday nights, so I'll be watching for him to come in. I'm also very curious about this new haircut he has, and I'm sure it will be quite a laugh. However, even funnier I think, is that I've heard that when the missionaries going to Peru arrive there they shave their heads first thing. I don't think words can express how much I'm waiting to see a picture of Elder Johnson with a buzz cut!
As far as Christian's job goes, I hope he will have better luck this time with the Census. Hopefully, he'll get some better hours and the fact that it si only in Provo should help with the job a bit. I can't wait for the moment when he knocks on one of his friend's houses and has to chastise them about not filling out their census forms.
A lot of the people here come from part-member families, or families that were less active at one time. It has made me really grateful that I come from a family that is strong in the Gospel and have all faithfully fulfilled their callings and assignments. Mom, good luck with your meetings with all the other wards. I know you're doing a lot of good and people you may not even suspect are grateful for your performance and faithfulness in serving within the Church.
I am really glad that Jonathan and Emily are doing well It is awesome that Jonathan is receiving such great acknowledgment and respect for the work that he does. It's always great to have such hard workers in your family who set an example for you of how to buckle down, work hard and provide for others. However a more important accomplishment than his job is his new baby girl! It's amazing how big she is. I'm fairly certain that Jonathan and Emily are going to have the biggest grandchildren out of anyone, but who knows?
The weather here is nice, cool but not too hot, even though we're indoors most of the time anyway. I'm normally outside for gym time one hour a day and then outside for maybe two of the four hours I have for study time every day. It really is a beautiful summer here, especially with the mountains and the great weather. I know Texas will be hot, but hopefully I'll be able to be focused enough on my work that the heat won't bother me too much. With five weeks now here in the MTC, I'm getting the urge to go out and get to work, but I know that I'll need the extra four weeks of Spanish practice. Hopefully, I'll use them to their fullest potential.
Anyways, like I said, you'll get a snail mail letter with more of the experiences in the week, but until then, just hold tight. The Gospel is true and is the most important work now and in eternity!
August 3, 2010 (hand written, posted letter)
Dear Family (or Everybody),
I trust you got my email, which had my response to some letters and emails, so this letter will just be me telling my stories from this week.
My first story from the week is about our TRC (Teaching Resource Center) on Wednesday. We had to follow up on commitments with an "investigator," get to know them and their family and arrange to pick them up for Church, all in Spanish. Overall, it went really well! Our Spanish was great, and then at the end we taught him the second lesson about the Plan of Salvation in English. The lesson went over really well too, and the "investigator" told us how much he felt the Spirit. it's always really nice to see just how far you have come as a missionary and see how your teaching skills have improved.
So, the TRC went over well, but the more interesting story from the week was our lesson with Hermono Maughan as our investigator "Jorge." His family was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver, and we've been working to help him feel peace and happiness again through the Plan of Salvation. We taught him about the ability to live with his family again and the peace that forgiveness can bring. We had some scriptures and questions prepared for him, which highlighted the necessity and joy of forgiveness as well as the effects of the Atonement and the importance of following Christ's example. The lesson went over well both in the aspects of having the investigator feel the Spirit and speaking our Spanish well and understanding Jorge's Spanish. We committed him to pray for peace and strength as well as coming to church with us this Sunday. Overall it was a really great lesson that strengthened my confidence in the help of the Lord as well as the growth of my Spanish abilities.
This last Sunday here at the MTC was Fast Sunday which means that we had Mission Conference. All of the Presidency of the MTC spoke, but I think by far the most interesting talk was the talk given by President Smith (the President of the MTC). Basically, to sum up his talk in one sentence, he reminded us that our loyalty is first to the Lord, second to our Mission President and third, to our District/Zone leaders. It was a nice message because it reminded me that as District Leader, my loyalty isn't to protect, coddle or shield my missionaries, but to further the work of the Lord. I only have about a week or so left of being District Leader, but I intend to fulfill my duty to the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength until I am released from my calling as a missionary.
The Gospel is true. There is no more simple statement than that to declare the truth and necessity of my purpose. I will do all in my power to bring people to a knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the reality of his infinite and atoning sacrifice. I will strive to bring all people to the possesion of a real and powerful testimony of the truth of the Gospel. Bringing them to faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, repentence, baptism, the receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and encouraging them to endure to the end is my great honor and responsibility. I am excited and ready to declare the truth of the things revealed to Joseph Smith and declare the presence of a true Prophet on the earth today.
It's good to hear from everyone and I hope everybody will continue to let me know what's happening and going on in their lives. I hope everyone has a great and productive week!
Love,
Elder Wood
I trust you got my email, which had my response to some letters and emails, so this letter will just be me telling my stories from this week.
My first story from the week is about our TRC (Teaching Resource Center) on Wednesday. We had to follow up on commitments with an "investigator," get to know them and their family and arrange to pick them up for Church, all in Spanish. Overall, it went really well! Our Spanish was great, and then at the end we taught him the second lesson about the Plan of Salvation in English. The lesson went over really well too, and the "investigator" told us how much he felt the Spirit. it's always really nice to see just how far you have come as a missionary and see how your teaching skills have improved.
So, the TRC went over well, but the more interesting story from the week was our lesson with Hermono Maughan as our investigator "Jorge." His family was killed in a car accident by a drunk driver, and we've been working to help him feel peace and happiness again through the Plan of Salvation. We taught him about the ability to live with his family again and the peace that forgiveness can bring. We had some scriptures and questions prepared for him, which highlighted the necessity and joy of forgiveness as well as the effects of the Atonement and the importance of following Christ's example. The lesson went over well both in the aspects of having the investigator feel the Spirit and speaking our Spanish well and understanding Jorge's Spanish. We committed him to pray for peace and strength as well as coming to church with us this Sunday. Overall it was a really great lesson that strengthened my confidence in the help of the Lord as well as the growth of my Spanish abilities.
This last Sunday here at the MTC was Fast Sunday which means that we had Mission Conference. All of the Presidency of the MTC spoke, but I think by far the most interesting talk was the talk given by President Smith (the President of the MTC). Basically, to sum up his talk in one sentence, he reminded us that our loyalty is first to the Lord, second to our Mission President and third, to our District/Zone leaders. It was a nice message because it reminded me that as District Leader, my loyalty isn't to protect, coddle or shield my missionaries, but to further the work of the Lord. I only have about a week or so left of being District Leader, but I intend to fulfill my duty to the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength until I am released from my calling as a missionary.
The Gospel is true. There is no more simple statement than that to declare the truth and necessity of my purpose. I will do all in my power to bring people to a knowledge of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the reality of his infinite and atoning sacrifice. I will strive to bring all people to the possesion of a real and powerful testimony of the truth of the Gospel. Bringing them to faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, repentence, baptism, the receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and encouraging them to endure to the end is my great honor and responsibility. I am excited and ready to declare the truth of the things revealed to Joseph Smith and declare the presence of a true Prophet on the earth today.
It's good to hear from everyone and I hope everybody will continue to let me know what's happening and going on in their lives. I hope everyone has a great and productive week!
Love,
Elder Wood
August 3, 2010 (Email from MTC)
It was great to hear from you and catch up with what's going on with the family!
It's too bad you couldn't find anything out about my teacher, but yes, I'm certain he's from Honduras. He is a very good teacher and one of the funniest people I've met. He has a good sense of the Gospel, how to teach, and is also quite good at motivating and inspiring us to do well. Recently another District had him as a substitute and they were practicing door contacts with him. It was pretty hilarious because after a couple times of failures because the missionaries couldn't stop laughing it just turned into a series of jokes. Once he opened the door holding a dry erase marker, huffing and puffing like it was a cigarette. It made for an interesting conversation at the door. The next time he opened the door and pulled out an imaginary gun yelling, "Are you the cops? I don't want any police," but in Spanish of course. However, upon finding out they weren't cops, but were missionaries, he put away his gun and invited them in for a lesson, which made for an interesting turn of events.
I haven't seen too many pictures of Allison, so maybe you could send me some of those or something, since I haven't had a chance to see my beautiful new niece!
I'm glad that Christian had a good birthday. Be sure to tell him Happy Birthday for me! I did remember on Sunday that it was his birthday, but unfortunately I couldn't send him a letter or e-mail since it wasn't my P-day. But I was thinking of him and said a little happy birthday for him in my room Sunday night. I'm glad Christian's place is looking good! Hopefully the construction will continue to go well and soon enough he'll have an even sweeter house! (He'd better not be getting rid of the hidden washer/dryer though. If he does, I'll never forgive him;-).
And yes, his renter's brother is in my District, Elder Raynes. He's a good missionary and works hard, and I'm grateful to have him in my District.
I have met quite a few of my old college friends here at the MTC. To list a few, there's Elders Glover, Hopper, Moss, Moody, McDowell, and Burdette here now and I ran into Elders McKay and Romney and probably quite a few others that I can't remember now before they left for their missions. You can tell Mark that Elders Moody, Moss, and I will be waiting for him on the day that he shows up, and hopefully find him in the Cafeteria the first night he gets here. Elder Moody won't be here for too long after Mark gets here--only a week or so, but Elder Moss and I will be here for about another month. It's always great to see friends from BYU who are still strong in the Gospel, and are on their way to spreading the word of the Lord. I am strongly reminded of Alma and the sons of Mosiah who rejoiced in the fact that they were still brethren in the Lord.
I'm glad the reunion was so fun and I am truly grateful for the choices of my ancestors, and Dad, to join the church. It has directed and inspired my life, giving me a sense of purpose and belonging that a lot of people don't have. And that is exactly why I am here at the MTC and going on a mission, to try and spread that purpose, peace and happiness to all who are willing to accept it. Hopefully, soon I will be able to help another family have the joy of an ancestor who joined the church and was faithful in it and blessed the lives of his posterity.
Oh also, JoAnn wrote me a letter but didn't put her address on it, so I'll do a really quick response now. That story about Avalee was hilarious and really brightened my day. I was glad to hear it and it also definitely sounds like Lincoln. Things are good here and I can't wait to hear from your kids. Thanks for the letter and next time, put your mailing address in it so I can send you a real letter back.
I do have a few interesting stories from this week that I want to tell, but I only have 3 minutes left of email time, so I'll put those in my written letter that I send to the house in Virginia. I hope everyone has a great week and that everything goes well. Love you all!
Elder Wood
It's too bad you couldn't find anything out about my teacher, but yes, I'm certain he's from Honduras. He is a very good teacher and one of the funniest people I've met. He has a good sense of the Gospel, how to teach, and is also quite good at motivating and inspiring us to do well. Recently another District had him as a substitute and they were practicing door contacts with him. It was pretty hilarious because after a couple times of failures because the missionaries couldn't stop laughing it just turned into a series of jokes. Once he opened the door holding a dry erase marker, huffing and puffing like it was a cigarette. It made for an interesting conversation at the door. The next time he opened the door and pulled out an imaginary gun yelling, "Are you the cops? I don't want any police," but in Spanish of course. However, upon finding out they weren't cops, but were missionaries, he put away his gun and invited them in for a lesson, which made for an interesting turn of events.
I haven't seen too many pictures of Allison, so maybe you could send me some of those or something, since I haven't had a chance to see my beautiful new niece!
I'm glad that Christian had a good birthday. Be sure to tell him Happy Birthday for me! I did remember on Sunday that it was his birthday, but unfortunately I couldn't send him a letter or e-mail since it wasn't my P-day. But I was thinking of him and said a little happy birthday for him in my room Sunday night. I'm glad Christian's place is looking good! Hopefully the construction will continue to go well and soon enough he'll have an even sweeter house! (He'd better not be getting rid of the hidden washer/dryer though. If he does, I'll never forgive him;-).
And yes, his renter's brother is in my District, Elder Raynes. He's a good missionary and works hard, and I'm grateful to have him in my District.
I have met quite a few of my old college friends here at the MTC. To list a few, there's Elders Glover, Hopper, Moss, Moody, McDowell, and Burdette here now and I ran into Elders McKay and Romney and probably quite a few others that I can't remember now before they left for their missions. You can tell Mark that Elders Moody, Moss, and I will be waiting for him on the day that he shows up, and hopefully find him in the Cafeteria the first night he gets here. Elder Moody won't be here for too long after Mark gets here--only a week or so, but Elder Moss and I will be here for about another month. It's always great to see friends from BYU who are still strong in the Gospel, and are on their way to spreading the word of the Lord. I am strongly reminded of Alma and the sons of Mosiah who rejoiced in the fact that they were still brethren in the Lord.
I'm glad the reunion was so fun and I am truly grateful for the choices of my ancestors, and Dad, to join the church. It has directed and inspired my life, giving me a sense of purpose and belonging that a lot of people don't have. And that is exactly why I am here at the MTC and going on a mission, to try and spread that purpose, peace and happiness to all who are willing to accept it. Hopefully, soon I will be able to help another family have the joy of an ancestor who joined the church and was faithful in it and blessed the lives of his posterity.
Oh also, JoAnn wrote me a letter but didn't put her address on it, so I'll do a really quick response now. That story about Avalee was hilarious and really brightened my day. I was glad to hear it and it also definitely sounds like Lincoln. Things are good here and I can't wait to hear from your kids. Thanks for the letter and next time, put your mailing address in it so I can send you a real letter back.
I do have a few interesting stories from this week that I want to tell, but I only have 3 minutes left of email time, so I'll put those in my written letter that I send to the house in Virginia. I hope everyone has a great week and that everything goes well. Love you all!
Elder Wood
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