Dear Family,
Another week has come and gone here in the mission field. Although this last week wasn't too exciting, we did have a few instances that I guess are worth relating to the rest of you. The week started off pretty slow. We were just working to do our best to find some new investigators and to also re-establish contact with a few of the investigators that we had with baptismal dates, who had since dropped off. Not too many fruits came off of trying to find our old investigators, but we did have a bit of success finding new investigators. Out contacting in our area we ran into a man, Brother Cubriel, who we now have been teaching a fair amount. He is a former pro-golfer who is in his 40s or 50s. We've taught him twice so far and he seems to be progressing fairly well, but tonight will be the real test. Tonight is the first night that we are going to teach him together with his family, a wife and two daughters. We'll see how they accept the message we have to bring. I have high hopes for the family, and soon I'm sure they will be progressing well together.
This last Sunday was our Stake Conference meeting here in Texas, which was done as a broadcast from SLC to all of the stakes in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. The speakers were Elder Jensen from the Seventy, Sister Dibs from the YW general presidency, Elder M. Russel Ballard and President Monson. All of the talks that they gave were great, but I think my favorites would go to Elder Ballard and President Monson. Elder Ballard spoke on the Gospel of Christ, which was a great talk and an even better opportunity to listen and to learn how an Apostle teaches it. As a missonary, I teach the Gospel of Christ at least ten or more times a week, so it was a great opportunity to learn from the way that Elder Ballard presents and teaches it. President Monson spoke on working with less active and inactive members and doing our part to come "to the rescue!" Most of the wards here in South Texas struggle with overwhelming numbers of less actives, which sometimes shakes the ward member's confidence in the converts that we bring in. President Monson's talk just got me thinking about what I could do as a missionary to make sure that my converts are solid in the Gospel and what I could do to help bring back some of the lost sheep.
Yesterday was kind of a rough day to work since the Super Bowl was on. For the stake conference sessions, there was one session in English at 10 and another session in Spanish at 1. Something I thought was funny was tht many of the Spanish members that don't speak English well (or not at all), showed up to the English session of conference because they wanted to be able to get back early and start preparing their Super Bowl parties. I guess the important part is that they came, but it was a funny coincidence that the English session was full and there were many fewer members in the Spanish session, though it is normally the other way around.
I'm glad that Sarah and Ben were able to get some help with baby Dot. I'm sure that they're already amazing parents. I hope Mel is continuing to do well and that the baby continues to grow and get stronger. I'm grateful for the letters I've received from everybody in the past couple of weeks and I'm doing what I can to get through and respond to them. Everyone should be getting their letters soon. Keep on working hard everyone and don't forget who we're serving as we keep the commandments and fulfill our callings.
Love,
Elder Wood
