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
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