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
