March 12, 2012

Dear Family,

To start off, my address is the same as it was before. The two new Elders just moved into the apartment with us. I'll get a letter off to James today. I'm unsure of the address, so I'll just send it to you all in VA, and I'll trust you to get it into the right hands.

This week was a roller coaster. We had some really big highs and some pretty deep lows, but things continue moving forward as always. Emilio, the investigator who was doing really well has stopped progressing and is struggling with some of the commandments. We'll be continuing to work with him, but he has some large obstacles he'll need to overcome in the coming weeks. One of our other investigators is doing really well though. Zulma, the wife of an inactive member, has been progressing a lot and came to church yesterday for the second week in a row. Her husband still hasn't come, which is a wall we're trying to help him jump over. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks. She received an answer to her prayer about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, which were her big doubts, and so she is all set up to continue progressing very well. I'm basically out of time to write. The other story I was going to include I'm just going to clip from my letter to President Trayner and paste it in here.

The other experience was, to the normal eye, very insignificant. But to me it meant so much. Sunday night we had a lesson with an inactive returned missionary. It was just a little disheartening after feeling the Spirit testify through us and then he just rejected the invitations given to him. He was resisting the invitation to solve his problems. Anyway, that's beside the point. During the course of the talk, his buddy came out from the house, began to back up his car, and ran over my bike. Rather than being upset about it, I just laughed since it was just a happenstance. The front tire got so bent out of shape it can't be ridden, but its just a bike after all, who cares. Anyway, I left the lesson with my bike on my back and a smile on my face as we walked over to the next lesson which we had set up nearby. After having a mas o menos lesson there we left. I was prepared to walk home and try to get back in time for followups, carrying my previous mode of transportation. I had a happy attitude in the moment, but I felt just a little alone. Here we were, walking home on a dark night with my companion, just hoping we'd get back in time for followups. Anyway, it was definitely a moment when I needed a little bit of uplift. I was on the phone with the Sisters answering some of their questions at about 8:50 when the zone leaders called twice. I didn't answer, but was planning to, when I was done talking to the Sisters. About twenty seconds later, as I'm walking down the street talking to the Sisters and carrying my bike, a truck pulls up next to me. Elder De la Fuente leans out the window and asks, "Need a ride?"

They had been in their area when they had received a prompting that something was wrong with us and that they needed to come and find us. So they started driving to our area and called us to try and find out where we were to no avail. Elder Vance drove around Cameron Park, no idea where he was or where he was going, when they ran into us, getting ready to walk home with a broken bike. We threw the bikes in the truck and they gave us a ride home. It was an evidence to me that God is aware of me. He knows where I am, and he knows when I need just a little miracle to lift up my spirits. After going so long without seeing a lot of outward success, it was nice to know that the Lord knew where I was and was willing to give me a tender mercy to let me know He's there and boost my spirits. I also thank Elder Vance and Elder De La Fuente for being worthy of the Spirit to respond to the Lord's call and offer me a mercy from on high. It may be called a little miracle because waters weren't parted and mountains weren't cast into the sea, but I don't think you or the missionaries driving the truck will ever realize how big a miracle and a testimony that was for me.

The Lord is aware of us. He is always there helping us. His tender mercies are always around us. It is often very hard to see them as we are caught among the storms of life, but I testify that He never leaves us alone. May we always feel His love.

And Mom, don't worry about the bike, I'm going to get the tire straightened out at a bike store today and everything else on it is fine, but I appreciate the concern.

I hope everyone has a great week, I will be for sure.

Love,

Elder Wood

February 27, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Well, we had a great week this last week! I'm very low on time to write, (it seems like the time gets shorter each week) but I'm going to try to get in all I can.

Emilio, our investigator from last week is still doing really well. In the course of just about one full week teaching him he has read 1 Nephi up to the beginning of lAma twice, and is just about to start into Alma. He has the goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before his baptism on March 18th. I have no doubt that he'll do so, since he puts so much effort into reading and understanding. When we left him with a chapter to read he read it and took detailed notes on the meaning of each verse and what the general meaning of each verse was. It was really cool and he was able to get a lot out of just a small section of the Book of Mormon. When we went by to teach him on Saturday he said that he got a white shirt for church but needed a tie. We asked him what his favorite color was, since we go to the tie digs almost every Monday, and he said red. Elder Ross and I both looked down and saw that we were wearing red ties. We decided to both give him the ties we were wearing, which I think that he really appreciated. Then I had to teach him how to tie one, which was pretty fun.

We found another family this week that seems to be doing really well. They weren't able to come to church this week because they were out of town on a planned trip. Hopefully we'll be seeing good things from them in the future. The mom is investigating the church and seems to be doing really well and the dad is an inactive member from Matamoros, right across the border. We have an appointment set up with them for the day they get back from their trip. I think that we're going to see some great progression from them in these next couple days.

We had a lot of really spiritual lessons this week, and I'm grateful to the Lord for all of the guidance that I received. I've come to learn a lot more about what it means to have faith. This is something that I don't have a lot of time to explain, since my time is about up. One of the ideas that I heard that I liked was this, "Faith isn't knowing that the Lord can do something. (That's dumb, of course he can.) Faith is knowing that the Lord will do something." Just something to think about.

I love you, thank you for your prayers. I feel them everyday.

Love,

Elder Wood

March 5, 2012, email post from Brownsville

Dear Family,

To answer Mom's first question, the weather here is great! Today is in the mid/low seventies with sunshine and a light breeze. I don't think I could ask for much better weather. A couple weeks back it was pretty cold, but the heat is starting to come in again and soon enough I'll be complaining about sweating through my shirts again.

Speaking of sweating, I don't know if I told y'all... but my area is getting divided! The area I'm working now covers the nothern section of the city of Brownsville, as well as Cameron Park. Starting tomorrow another companionship is going to come and live in our apartment and we're going to be working just Cameron Park, and we'll be on bikes! I imagine I'm going to have some great stories to tell over the coming weeks. I'll be just in Cameron Park and on a bike, which always gives you an opportunity to catch the stories better than in a car. My current companion, Elder Ross, will be taking over the other half of the area that doesn't include Cameron Park with a new Elder that will be arriving. I'm sad that I'm not going to be Elder Ross' companion anymore. We got along really well, and we saw a lot of success in these past weeks as well. But, at least we'll still be living in the same apartment, so it's not like I'm never going to see him again. I don't think I've sent home any pictures of Elder Ross and me. Today I forgot my camera cord, so I'll be sure to get those off in the next email.

My new companion will be Elder Marshall, who will be coming in from Los Fresnos, which is a small town just to the north of Brownsville that falls about halfway between Brownsville and Harlingen. I've known him for a little while now, because Los Fresnos is actually part of the Brownsville zone, but this will be my first time really working with him.

Emilio continues to do well, but has had some struggle stopping smoking. He knows he needs to and he wants to, but he's tripped a few times in some of his weak moments. We talked with him and his family yesterday, and talked about how his family could become involved to help him quit smoking. We've also planned out some spiritual messages that we're going to send to him via text every morning, since it seems like early on in the day is when he falls on his smoking habit. But, I have great hopes for him because he's shown so much progress and so much faith. There's no way he can't beat a smoking addiction if he puts his mind to it.

We were able to see a lot of success at church, since we saw the majority of our investigators attend. All of them had good experiences there and enjoyed the three hours of services. After church we went over to one of our investigators to follow up on the experience and she said, "Yeah, I didn't tell you, but if I didn't like any of the parts of it I was just going to go and get in my car and leave, without staying for the whole three hours. But, when I was there I felt really good and I liked it, so I just stayed for the whole thing." She was the wife in a part member family who has a baptismal date for the end of this month. She seems to be doing really well and I'm convinced that very soon we'll see her husband reactivated and performing her baptism.

Anyway, we had a great week, but the rest of the district is struggling a bit. I've been working closely with the Elders trying to figure out things that I can do to help them. I have an exchange planned with them for later this week and I know we'll see some miracles that will help them boost their attitude and their faith.

I hope everything goes well this week. Thank you for your letters and your prayers!

Love,

Elder Wood