April, 16, 2012, email from Brownsville, TX ADDRESS CHANGE!

Dear Family,

   Well, kind of sad to say it, but... I'm going to Corpus!  I've been down in the valley and Laredo (the Spanish speaking areas of the mission) for basically my whole time of service, but it looks like I'll be heading up to the 'Great White North', as we call it, for the last three months.  Luckily my area is one of the two areas in Corpus that attend the Spanish branch, and the building is in our area.  Apparently there are a bunch of Corpus landmarks in my area.  There's an area called, 'the cut', which is the rougher part of Corpus, the Lexington, which is a U.S. battleship turned tourist attraction I believe, and Ocean Drive, which apparently has like the billion dollar mansions or something like that on it.  So, I'm sure that I'll be having a great time there and I expect to come back with lots of stories and pictures from that place.

   I'm sad to leave Cameron Park.  I feel like I've had so much growth here.  I've improved my faith, hope and attitude as a missionary so much.  I've had a chance to establish some really meaningful relationships with a lot of the members in our area.  I said my goodbyes to a bunch of our members, recent converts and returning less actives yesterday.  The rest of tonight will pretty much be filled with the same thing.  I've been in Cameron Park longer than I've been in any other area, and it's sad to see it go.  I'm not sure I'll ever have another area that can give me as many memories or hilarious stories as this one.  But, time will tell.  I've heard great things about Corpus and I know that the Lord has a special purpose for me there.  I look forward to giving it my all and doing my best to further the work there with the time that I have.

   Carlos and Cristian, Zulma's children, were interviewed on Sunday and they'll be getting baptized next week.  I won't be there, which is a bit of a bummer, but really I don't need to be there anyway.  The baptism isn't between them and me, it's between them and the Lord, and I know that they'll follow through with it and be strong members regardless of whether I'm there or not.  Plus I'll have them send me a picture anyway, haha.  I'm sad that I'm heading off, but I'm confident that they'll continue in the Gospel path.

   I'm glad to hear that James is back at home.  My letter to him is still sitting in my apartment, sadly.  I failed at getting it off this week.  I'm grateful though that it isn't a brain tumor.  Hopefully soon the doctors can figure out what it is an help him to overcome it.

   One of the recent converts in our area is a big collector of Hotwheels cars.  We've helped him a lot in the past few months to keep moving forward and progress despite opposition that comes his way.  I was really amazed because yesterday when we said our goodbyes he gave me one of his collectable cars that's worth about $35.  It's one of the newer ones that just came out, and in my opinion it looks pretty dang cool.  It just came out in January of this year and you have to buy twenty other cars from a certain store in order to get it.  I haven't explained much of this in my emails home, but I've learned a lot about Hotwheels collecting from this recent convert.  We have our gospel lessons and everything of course, but he always manages to show us what new things he's found.  In the course of my time here, I think he's given me five or so Hotwheels that are special or collectable. I told him Dad had an Edsel in the garage.  He went out and found me a 55 Edsel Hotwheels that's an 'error'.  That's when the machine messes up and puts the car into the packaging in an incorrect position.  I know, the things you learn right?)  Anyway, it was a really nice gesture from him and I'm sure I'll be missing him a lot.  Also, before his baptism he struggled with drinking, so he gave me one of his old shotglasses that has all of the monuments in Washington, D.C. stamped on it.  That one made me laugh.

   I'm saying my goodbyes to the rest of our people in our area tonight, but I'm excited and nervous for Corpus.  For some reason I feel like it's going to a whole different world just because it's like a U.S. mission up there and more like a Mexican mission down here.  We'll see what the change brings, but I'm excited for it and whatever challenges might come my way.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers, I love you!

Elder Wood

P.S. if there's any way you can start signing up for classes, please do so.  If you look at the classes I've already taken I need to take part two of a Ancient European Culture class or something like that, and then maybe to move onto some more Chemistry classes.  Anatomy would be good as well.  But, just look at the required classes for the Physiology and Developmental Biology major and maybe go from there.  I have interviews with President in a week or two and hopefully I can get a good answer out of him about the reccomendation for BYU and all.  Thanks!

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Roland Wood <roland.wood@myldsmail.net> wrote:

just getting off a short notice before I actually start emailing you all and president.  On tuesday I'll be getting transferred up to Corpus Christi to work in the central part of the town.  (aka the ghetto).  Here's what my address will be up there...

Elder Roland Wood

3333 S. Alameda

Corpus Christi, TX, 78411

Love you!

March 9, 2012, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Before I forget, and so that the confusion can end, my return date home will be Wendesday, July 11th.

I sent a letter off to James, but it came back to me this last week. I'm not sure why. I wrote the 4510 Virginia address, but who knows. I'll try to get it out again today.

Easter was a great experience. As you noticed, I was on Facebook! Mormon.org was running a campaign this last weeked where ads were run on Youtube and the link was made with Facebook to share testimonies about Jesus Christ. Our mission president had all of the missionaires in our zone do it, and it was a pretty cool experience.

Well, Easter really is a great time of year. I'm grateful that we have a chance to remember what Christ did for us, especially in the great culminating event of it all, His resurrection. Unfortuantely, I've squandered my writing time, so you'll have to forgive me, but maybe I can just share one or two quick stories.

Zulma continues to do well. She was confirmed yesterday, since it was the first Sunday after conference. She and her son came to the activities at the church on Tuesday. Her son went to Mutual and she went to a cooking activity that they had. The son has a baptismal date for the 22nd of this month, and I have no doubt that we'll be holding his service very soon. Zulma was able to enjoy some good fellowship which is exactly what we want for her at this point just after her baptism. She enjoyed the activity and got to know a few of the sisters a little better. A big plus--we ate empanadas, which are pretty delicious by themselves. They're also super easy to make, which is great if I ever want to make any myself. Interestingly enough, in the recipe we used, they put Coke in the dough to give it a flavor and make it rise just barely. We made like a billion of them too, so there was plenty to eat and take home. I don't have the recipe on me now, but I'll try to send it home next week so maybe Mom can try making some.

I did get the package Mom sent! Thanks for everything! My companions were pretty impressed about the tie. Down here we get to learn all of the tie brands and why some are better than others because of all the tie digs we go to. You did a pretty good job, Mom. Countess Mara is a pretty good brand and it was a solid tie, so the rest of the Elders in the apartment are pretty jealous; not that that's the goal or anything, but I think it still gets points.

Anyway, I'm out of time and all the other Elders are waiting on me, so I've got to go. Say Hi to James for me, put in my happy wishes for Calvin's first birthday and tell Paul to start learning his Spanish. I'll be writing all my letters to him in Spanish when he's in the field, so now's the time to start practicing.

I love you! Thanks so much!

Love,

Elder Wood

March 26, email post from Brownsville, TX (Cameron Park)

Dear Family!

This week was an awesome week! Zulma got baptized yesterday and is doing great! At the beginning of last week, she had the goal to be baptized and wanted to, but we weren't sure if she was going to be able to make it or not. But the Lord made everything fall into the right place and she was more than ready this Sunday when she was baptized. The service went great and she's really excited to continue in the church. Right now we're focusing on teaching her two sons who are 19 and 13. They've both been to church twice and are really liking it and have some strong desires to be baptized. Zulma is going to be going over the pamphlets and lessons with them while we're not there, and I think that very soon we'll be having a baptismal service for the both of them. I'm super proud of Zulma this last week. She got anit'd by basically all her friends, and all her co-workers, and even experienced some family problems, but she knew it was right and that she had received an answer to her prayers. So she followed through and never gave up. She's also super ready to be an active member. She came to church on Sunday and didn't see where the envelopes were for tithing, so later in the week she went and bought her own envelopes so that she could pay her tithing! I'm so excited for her to become a big part of the church here.

We saw a lot of progress in all of our investigators this week and we were able to even find a miracle family last night. We had just left from following up with Zulma about the baptismal service and were biking home for the night when a family stopped us on the road. The mom asked us if we could teach her son and if there were any activities for youth his age that they could participate in in order to help him. We had a really good talk about church and then we testified to her of the doctrine of Christ and how it could help her family. She told us that she's never been baptized and that she and her son and her husband all want to be baptized. They invited us over on Tuesday for pizza and a lesson with the family. The wife from the beginning recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ. She had stopped smoking four days earlier and has been clean from drinking for 5 months. At the end of the contact she asked us if there was anything that we wanted to drink at the dinner on Tuesday and we said, "well we don't drink alcohol, coffee or tea." She replied, "oh, well, I'm not drinking coffee or tea anymore then." ??What?? It was the best contact that I've ever had in my mission and I'm so excited to be able to go and teach them and help them become a forever family.

Elder Ross, my former companion (who still lives with us though), got his visa to go to Mexico and will be leaving today. It was sad to see him go, but he was able to see Zulma baptized before he left, which I imagine will be a really cool experience for him. One recent convert in Texas and many more to come in Mexico.

I can't remember all the stories from this week, and my time is pretty much up, but just know that this week was amazing and I really do appreciate all of your prayers. I got a letter off to James last week, but I don't know if it reached you before you left for Utah. I just sent it to our house since I didn't have his address.

Congratulations to Paul on his mission call! He'll be serving Spanish speaking in a U.S. border mission as well, so I imagine we will have some pretty similar experiences. It's sad to hear that he goes into the MTC just a week before I get home, but if that's what the Lord asks, that's how it'll be. Start studying all the Spanish you can, Paul. You'll want to know as much as you possibly can your first day in the field!

I love you! Take care!

Elder Wood

March 19, email post from Brownsville, TX (Cameron Park)

Dear Family,

Well, this week was a great week to say the least. We've seen some great progress in some of our investigators, especially in Zulma, the lady I wrote about last week. She has a baptismal date for this next Sunday and will need a few miracles in order to be able to reach it. She's received so many miracles already that I have no doubt she'll be able to experience those necessary to help her enter the waters of baptism this next Sunday. We're excited because it'll be the first baptism that Cameron Park has had for a while. We're gonna do everything we can to help her get there. Everything is still up in the air a little bit, but these next few days will really tell whether or not that is going to happen.

We saw some miracles again this week that were awesome. We were talking to Zulma and apparently she had been receiving some opposition from her friends at work. She mentioned that she was meeting with the Mormons to a friend of hers there who immediately started to put up protests. After throwing up a bunch of doubts and complaints to her, Zulma responded, "Hey, I've been to the Catholic church, and I've been to Christian churches, and I've been to the Jehovah's Witness church, but it none of them have I felt like I'm feeling now. I know it's true." I like what you said Mom in your letter that, "It's a miracle that anyone joins the church." Really that's true, since there are always so many obstacles and so much opposition that it wouldn't make sense that anyone being taught be 20 year old men would be able to resist it. But in reality they do, and it's because they're not just being taught by 20 year old young men. Everyone that comes into the church is brought in on miracles from on high, I'm convinced of that. The reason the work progresses is because heaven is behind it, and the Holy Ghost testifies to the hearts of men that the message carried by the Lord's humble servants is true.

This last week we had a zone conference which was really amazing. It was a day focused on the talk by David A. Bednar called, "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary." It applies most directly to missionary work, but I love the part right at the end of the talk when he expresses his confidence and love in the missionaries, pronouncing firmly, "You can do this!" If you can look up the talk I'd encourage you to listen to it, especially the last part. Anyone who's, "Trying a little bit harder to be a little bit better," like President Hinckley said, will find that short portion very inspiring.

I sent the letter off to my President Trayner asking for his endorsement for BYU. I'm assuming he knows a lot more about the process than I do, so I think he'll either inform me more about exactly what I have to do or just take care of it. And the bike is fine. The CTR bikes thing that we used to order my bike is great in my opinion. I ended up just getting a new rim from another missionary who had received a completely new bike from CTR bikes, and had all the spare parts from his old one. So, it's all taken care of, no problems at all.

I've been praying for James. I really hope he gets better. I was horrible at writing him during his mission and communicating with him during mine, but I will admit I have been looking forward to seeing him again for a long time. I hope things go well for him and that the results from the scans come back with something the doctors can work with. I've got a letter to send off to him, so hopefully it'll be getting there soon.

Also, I'm excited for conference. I've been looking forward to it for about a month now, and it's only two weeks away! Man, I don't think I've ever been as excited for anything in the mission as General Conference. It's like the Super Bowl for missionaries, only better. I've been doing my best to prepare for it and I've been reviewing some of the talks from the last conference as well. I'm super excited and I know there's going to be some great messages in there that will give me some great guidance. I thank God for a living prophet, it really is amazing!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week, I'll continue to pray for James, and I hope that everything goes well with Katelyn's blessing. Love you!

Con amor,

Elder Wood