Dear Family,
Not too much has happened this past week in the way of news, except for a couple of interesting stories and a change. Elder Raynor, my companion, spent this past week in training with all the leaders of the mission in McAllen. President Trayner gave a series of training meetings over a few days that totaled quite a few hours of instruction. While my companion was in the meetings, I spent most of the days off on exchanges with other missionaries. I spent a day over in Pharr, another town near McAllen, and enjoyed the area quite a bit. That day we managed to find quite a few people who were excited to argue with us, but we managed to stay away from most of that and use our time more effectively.
When Elder Raynor returned from the meetings we had a chance to talk for a bit about what he learned and how we were going to apply it in our area. Mostly it boiled down to encouraging us to speak boldly and use the power and authority of our calling, asking the hard questions to figure out who is prepared, and setting expectations with investigators from the beginning. So, that night we went out to work with those principles in mind. We had an appointment with a woman we met the day before, and we went by to talk to her. Her name is Jessica. She told us that she had talked to the missionaries about 11 years ago, but it had never gone past the point of the missionaries just being her friends. We started talking to her about the Gospel a little bit and Elder Raynor explained to her the relationship she has with God. Like a good missionary, I was looking at my companion while he was talking when I heard him ask, "Why are you crying?" I turned and looked at Jessica and she was bawling. She could only reply, "I don't know . . . ." Elder Raynor hadn't said anything out of the ordinary or really dramatic, but as he taught the Spirit came and had a big influence on her. Basically it came down to the fact that she wasn't really sure if God existed or not. We invited her to kneel in prayer with us and ask God if he was there. After the prayer we continued to testify to her as boldy as we could that as she embraced the Savior and His Gosepl, she would receive a stronger and stronger witness that God does exist and that he loves her. It was a great experience and was probably one of the most spiritual moments I've had on my mission.
Unfortunately, the story of Jessica will have to end there, because I received a call letting me know I would be transferred this Tuesday, the 11th, to a new area. I will be moving to the Edinburg North area to be Elder Arens companion. I've met him once before at zone conference, and he seems all right, but I still don't know too much about him. I'll be moving to a house in Edinburg that currently houses six missionaries, so I'm sure I'll have some fun stories to tell in the coming weeks. Many missionaries besides me are getting moved around this transfer and quite a few changes are happening in the mission. Another zone is being made in Edinburg, and quite a few areas are being whitewashed, or both the missionaries that are currently there are being taken out and new missionaries are being put in.
So, my time in Donna is coming to an end after four and a half months. I've enjoyed my time here a lot, and I've certainly learned a great deal as a missionary. The only convert I've had in this area is Hector, so as far as baptisms go I wasn't terribly successful in terms of baptisms. However, I'm satisfied with the work that I put in and I'm confident that I have done some work to sow some seeds in this area. Hopefully, I helped a couple of inactive members start the process of coming back into the church.
I hope everything is going well for everyone at home. Hopefully, everyone has had the chance to start the new year off right. I'll continue to pray for Mel and I'm confident that the Lord is doing His part to support her and the family. Don't forget to hold fast to your resolutions (one of which I hope was to write Elder Wood more :P).
Love,
Elder Wood
P.S. We watched Toy Story 3 on New Years, and even though I saw it before the mission, it was tons of fun to watch it with 40 - 50 missionaries. Also, that move is even better when you can understand what "El Buzzo" (Spanish-mode Buzz) is saying.
