Dear Family,
I don't have too much time this week to write, but I'll try to get down what I can.
First, an apology to Dad over my tardiness contacting Gustavo Valadez. I will be calling my mission president today and discussing it with him. I'm sure that sometime soon I'll have the opportunity to meet with him and discuss whatever he wishes to talk about with me. He had better be certain I'm going to be sharing at least a part of the Gospel with him when we meet.
Again, another week has come and gone in Edinburg without too many changes. The new transfer cycle has started and my old companion, Elder Raynor is up here with me for a period of at least six more weeks. We haven't found anyone incredibly solid yet, but we have had a few experiences that I guess I could share. A few weeks back, we had been in a part of our area and we met a man named Louis. We talked with him for about an hour or so at his door because he was familiar with our church through a strong interest that he had in family history. He is a frequent user of the Family Search website, because of the wealth of records that it has and the wonderful quality it has of being free. So that is how he became acquainted with our church though he had never talked with the missionaries before. We talked with him for a good space of time about the mormon.org website which he had also heard of because of the ads on TV, many of which impressed him very much. So, we left him with a mormon.org card and an invitation to find out why we focus on genealogy so much by learning about temples and baptisms for the dead.
Yesterday, we were in his neighborhood again, so we figured we'd swing by and see how he was doing, and to follow up to see if he visited the website/read the pamphlet we left with him. He had read a bit of the pamphlet but hadn't visited too much of the website. So, instead of referring him back to the website, we just took it upon ourselves to explain why we did genealogy. After explaining to him about baptisms for the dead and the purpose of the spirit world, he looked at us and said probably my most favorite words I've ever head, "I've always had that question and you guys are the first ones that ever answered it." He is, however, very reluctant to jump into a church until he knows it very well. We left him with a Book of Mormon to read. He assured us that if we came back in a few weeks he will have read through it, marked it up and have little tabs coming out all of the sides. So we are planning to swing by him again towards the end of the transfer and check up on his studies and prayers. We spent a good hour and a half with him at his door answering the mountain of questions that he had and ended up by pointing him to studying the Book of Mormon and praying to receive an answer from God. it always excites me to find people that have questions who are willing to search and find answers.
Again, I'm excited to hear that Mel and the baby are doing well, and I hope that continues to be true. I hope Mom has success in preparing for her service fair, and I'm sure that all will go well. I hope everyone has a great week and that everything goes well! Oh, and give Paul a big "congratulations" for me on getting into BYU Provo. It's better than Hawaii!
Love,
Elder Wood
