24 October, 2011, email post from Laredo

Dear Family,

Well, a bit of another rough week here, but all is well that ends well. And in the work of the Lord we all know that everything is going to end well, so who cares about what happens along the way.

So, for this email I'm only going to focus on the good or funny things that happened this week.

To start off, I found out today that a kid that I taught in my other area in Larga Vista is getting baptized this next Sunday! It's a great feeling knowing that he has chosen to take that step. I'm glad that the missionaries kept working with him and heping him through the conversion process. He's the last kid in a family that got baptized while I was there in Larga Vista, so it really is a great thing to see.

I'm flipping through the pictures on my camera trying to see the other stories that we have from this week.

In the apartment we tricked Elder Hunt into going into the laundry room, and then we pushed the fridge in front so he couldn't get out. That was pretty funny. It's a tiny little room that has just the one door that has to slide out so you can leave, but with the fridge in the way he was pretty stuck.

We were biking down Calle del Norte, one of the major streets in our area, and some big heist must have gone down right before we got there. Or, somebody got shot or something. We turned onto the street and there were 4 cop cars all together and the cops were all talking. Further down the street there were two cops talking to a lady at her door. It looked like they were trying to figure out where someone or something went. Then, even further down we saw a big reception hall where people hold parties and there were three concerned people in bride's maid dresses talking to a cop. Who knows what happened, but it must have been intense.

To speed things up a bit...

My companion learned a few jiu jitsu moves from a recent convert.

We found a giant turtle with a red, white and blue painted shell. USA! USA!

We visited another recent convert in the hospital and tied up our bikes to the "Clergy parking only" sign.

We had some great tacos at a members house.

We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Nelson, the senior missionary couple who have been here in Laredo since I got here and have been awesome. Elder Nelson had to go home because of health problems. We had a fast for him this weekend. Keep him in your prayers if you can, he's a great man.

One of our investigators told us how she prayed to God to help her quit smoking and she hasn't had a craving for about a month. And when she looks at a box of cigarettes she just feels gross! Amazing how the Lord answers prayers huh?

I think that about sums it up. I'm just about of email time for this week, so I hope that everyone has a great week and gets to have some missionary experiences. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Wood

October 17, 2011, Email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, another rough week as far as the field goes. October is turning into kind of a bust for us since we haven't had any solid baptismal dates at church, and the month is quickly closing. We're working our hardest to set up for November. I had a really great interview with our President Trayner on Friday. It's always nice to have some counsel about the work, and even more so from the person who has the keys to direct it. We did manage to find a couple of new investigators this week that have a lot of potential. We'll be working with them more over the coming week and I'm excited to see the beginnings of their conversion processes.

Mom's package did come, but we were out working when the mail man came, so we have to go pick it up at the post office, which we will do right after we're done emailing here.

The weather here in Texas has been great as well. Fall is finally starting to settle in. Everything still looks the same mind you, but the air isn't heating the 110s anymore. It's been about mid 80s most of this week, which just made for beautiful days. Especially in a bike area, good weather is much appreciated. Probably my favorite part of being in a bike area is the night time rides home at about 9 oclock. The burning Laredo sun has gone down so its not hot, and the air normally has a nice breeze and has cooled off, making for an enjoyable time. Also, our area is either flat or uphilll from our house, so sometimes we get some nice relaxing downhill rides which are even better.

An Elder in our mission got hit by a car a week back. They were biking on the side of the main road and a drunk driver purposely sideswiped them. Or at least thats what I heard from the story. Both the Elders got hit by the car but one went up onto the car and then came down and the car ran over his leg. Miraculously, he had no injury to his leg and was just a bit shaken up. He was wearing his helmet as well so he didn't have any injuries really. Right after they got hit the next car pulled over and said, "I called 911, and I'm following the guy" and then took off. The cops then took up the chase and caught the guy who is now facing charges. Our mission president came and saw the driver getting into the cop car handcuffed, so I assume from there it will all get taken care of. The Lord does take care of his missionaries. There are numberless examples of that, and this is just another since the Elder was able to leave without any real injuries. Don't worry Mom, I wear my helmet and 95% of the time we're on the sidewalk :P.

The town is starting to get into Halloween and the decorations are starting to go up. We have a couple pretty rich neighborhoods in our area that get pretty into it, so we'll see if I can get any good pictures of the festivities. It's scary to think that this is going to be my last Halloween in the mission field. Even worse, another missionary asked me how long I had left. I thought about it and I only have 9 months left in the field! So, from now on I should be able to see most of the newborns in the family, except for Rose-Ellen's kid. She'll be the last one born before I get home I think.

I appreciated Mom sharing the letter she got from her Mom in the mission field. It is a good one. I'll have to write it down and take it to the apartment.

Thanks everyone for the good wishes and prayers. I do appreciate them, they help. I'm looking forward to a new week, we should have some good experiences with the people we've just found. Whatever the Lord wants me to learn from the experience is worth it, and soon we'll see the blessings I'm sure. Good luck to everybody this week, I hope everything goes well!

Love,

Elder Wood

October 1, 2011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, this week was a bit of a challenge for us, I'm not gonna lie. We worked hard all week to help our investigators come to General Conference. But when the time came around, nobody showed. I had a hard time listening to some of the conference messages because I was just sitting in the chapel stewing in my frustration. We had been working all week really hard to help people set goals and make plans to come to church, but I guess we didn't do as much as we should've. It's hard when you feel like you're becoming a better missionary than you've been, but you don't see anything coming of it.

But, I shouldn't murmur. Nothing good comes of whining. Can't remember who said it, but in one of the past conferences someone said, "I can't think of any problem so great that crying over it will make it better." Or at least something to that effect. I also liked the remarks of the Seventy, I can't recall his name, who had the encounter with President Monson in the elevator. "It's always better to look up". So, although this last week was a pretty big bummer, we have a new week and a new month ahead of us. We didn't see any success in September, but if we work hard and have faith, I know we can find that God will help up to help some of his children here find the gospel.

During conference I decided that D. Todd Christofferson is probably my favorite apostle. Don't know why, but it seems like all of his talks just seem to help me out. HIs talk on repentance this conference was really powerful and profound. Makes you realize just how much you have to do in your own life day by day to find the joy that comes through daily repentance.

Conference did help me a lot. When each of the sessions started I was pretty frustrated and angry since so many people who had promised us they would come, didn't show up. But, by the time the sessions ended I was always a little more calm and ready to go back out and work. I really am sad for our investigators though. They may not know it, but they missed out on a great opportunity, and hopefully we can help them take advantage of that opportunity the next time it comes around.

The weather has been cooling down a bit these past few weeks. It's not quite as sweltering hot as it was. I've heard that November and December in Laredo is really enjoyable weather, so hopefully soon we'll get to see some of that.

I hope everyone got to see some of conference. If you missed any, I highly suggest going back and watching them on LDS.org. you can watch individual talks or whole sessions, so even if you have just ten minutes, you can probably squeeze one in. I can't wait for the Ensign, hopefully it'll come soon so we can study the talks.

Anyway, have a great week everyone, and thanks to JoAnn and Nathan for the pictures and drawings, I got them Saturday. Avalee and Lincoln are looking too old. It's kind of freaking me out. Time flies outside the mission field huh?

Love you all,

Elder Wood