Hello Family,
This past week has been pretty good out here in Texas, with not too much going on. There are a few cool stories I can tell, most of which are about Hector. I also put a picture of him in this email so you can see him. I sent a picture of me and my companion Elder Navarro since I believe I've neglected to do that, as well as a picture of my tie rack with the spoils from my first tie dig. I did receive Mom's Halloween package, for which I was very excited. The Texas shirt is nice and the candy was speedily consumed. However, I did not get the idea about cutting the caramel apples into wedges, rather I just spent a good half hour washing caramel off of my hands.
We've been losing quite a few of our investigators this week. They slowly fall off for various reasons, but so far we've got two that are pulling through. Hector is the first one, and everything is going well with him. The second is Cindy. She is a 30 or so year old lady who is divorced and has two kids. So far she seems really interested in our message. her two children are named Cleopatra and Cesar which I think is a funny combination of names to give to your kids. They're both good kids and we've had the chance to talk with them a little bit.
Hector surprised both me and my companion this week when we went over for an appointment. He took us into his room to ask for some advice and showed us the white shirt, suit and tie he bought because he wanted to really fit in at Church. The only problem was, he didn't know how to tie a tie. So, abandoning a little part of our lesson, I spent a few minutes teaching him how to tie his tie. I put in a picture of that, which ended up being a pretty funny experience. I had to try to explain it in Spanish, having no knowledge of the vocab that one would normally use to explain something like that. The next day we went and got a bunch of the good leftover ties from our tie bale and brought them over to Hector. Now he has everything he needs to look just like a missionary at church. Many of the members actually mistook him for an Elder on Sunday until they realized he didn't have a plaque on.
The other interesting story that happened with hector this week is that during church, the Bishop called him out of the class just to talk to him for a bit and get to know him better. During the course of the conversation, the Bishop asked Hector when his baptismal date was. We had been asking him about his baptism, but not specifically the date of the baptism. So, he could only respond to the Bishop with, "I'm not sure." So after his conversation, he came over to me and Elder Navarro and asked us when his baptismal date was. I told him it was the 14th of November, but of course only if that was what he wanted. At which point he looked at me and said, "Oh yes, of course I want to." After having so many baptismal dates drop through and having trouble finding people, it's really uplifting to see someone who the Lord has truly prepared making their way into His church.
Everything is gong well out here, and transfers happened this last Tuesday. I'm staying in Donna for another six weeks at least, and we had two new elders and one new Sister come into the Weslaco District here. One of them is a fluent Spanish speaker, so it'll be great to receive advice and help from him. The Sister tat came in is actually one of the missionaries from my district in the MTC. So some changes went through. Overall, I think that they're really going to help our area progress and bring more people into the Church.
Love,
Elder Wood
November 1, 2010
October 8, 2010, email from Donna
Hi, Everyone!
Not too much has changed this past week in Donna. I guess there are a few things that happened that I can talk about. This past week we've been working on meeting with our investigators as often as possible. So far in my mission I've seen a trend where we are able to start talking to people and have maybe one or two lessons and set a baptismal date. However, after the initial phase it seems like we always hit a point where our investigator just drops off the radar. They won't answer calls, aren't at their house, and seem to always be busy, and then absent for a return appointment. I'm not sure if it's something to do with the way that we're teaching, the culture here, or something else. It does seem like that's what always happens to our investigators.
However, on a brighter note, Hector has now been to church twice and is progressing well as an investigator. He's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and the first night he had read the first 9 chapters of 1 Nephi! And, even more impressive, is that he remembered 95% of what he read! he has a lot of questions about the Gospel and I do my best to answer them in Spanish. The ward is fellowshipping him well and he already has quite a few friends. This is definitely something I am very grateful for. Whenever he asks us a question I can normally give him an answer and a scripture for it. We're working with him on receiving an answer for himself through prayer. To really have someone converted and have their faith able to withstand pressure and hard times, they need to receive an answer from their Heavenly Father. I said in one of our district meetings, "Testimonies based on scriptures get shaken. Testimonies gained through prayer are permanent." That is our goal with Hector this week, to get him to understand the power of prayer and to take the time to pray specifically for an answer. The best part is I know that if he does pray with faith, he will receive that answer.
I sent a lot of pictures home this week so hopefully they'll make their way up. The biggest event in them is probably the fact that we got and sorted through the tie bale. After sorting through 1000 pounds of ties, we found all the good ones, washed them inside of socks, ironed them and divided them up. All in all, I got about 25 good ties, some of which are pretty expensive, all for $9. The pictures are of the raw bale of ties, but this next week hopefully I'll send home a picture of the rewards I managed to reap.
All is well and progressing here in Donna, and transfers are happening this week. I managed to be lucky enough to stay in Donna for at least another six weeks. We are having two new Elders and one new Sister (one of the sisters who was in the MTC with me, Sister Bricker) coming into our district tomorrow. We are excited for them to be here. Hope everything is going well in Virginia, New York, Washington, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Houston, and wherever anyone else might be!
Love,
Elder Wood
Not too much has changed this past week in Donna. I guess there are a few things that happened that I can talk about. This past week we've been working on meeting with our investigators as often as possible. So far in my mission I've seen a trend where we are able to start talking to people and have maybe one or two lessons and set a baptismal date. However, after the initial phase it seems like we always hit a point where our investigator just drops off the radar. They won't answer calls, aren't at their house, and seem to always be busy, and then absent for a return appointment. I'm not sure if it's something to do with the way that we're teaching, the culture here, or something else. It does seem like that's what always happens to our investigators.
However, on a brighter note, Hector has now been to church twice and is progressing well as an investigator. He's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and the first night he had read the first 9 chapters of 1 Nephi! And, even more impressive, is that he remembered 95% of what he read! he has a lot of questions about the Gospel and I do my best to answer them in Spanish. The ward is fellowshipping him well and he already has quite a few friends. This is definitely something I am very grateful for. Whenever he asks us a question I can normally give him an answer and a scripture for it. We're working with him on receiving an answer for himself through prayer. To really have someone converted and have their faith able to withstand pressure and hard times, they need to receive an answer from their Heavenly Father. I said in one of our district meetings, "Testimonies based on scriptures get shaken. Testimonies gained through prayer are permanent." That is our goal with Hector this week, to get him to understand the power of prayer and to take the time to pray specifically for an answer. The best part is I know that if he does pray with faith, he will receive that answer.
I sent a lot of pictures home this week so hopefully they'll make their way up. The biggest event in them is probably the fact that we got and sorted through the tie bale. After sorting through 1000 pounds of ties, we found all the good ones, washed them inside of socks, ironed them and divided them up. All in all, I got about 25 good ties, some of which are pretty expensive, all for $9. The pictures are of the raw bale of ties, but this next week hopefully I'll send home a picture of the rewards I managed to reap.
All is well and progressing here in Donna, and transfers are happening this week. I managed to be lucky enough to stay in Donna for at least another six weeks. We are having two new Elders and one new Sister (one of the sisters who was in the MTC with me, Sister Bricker) coming into our district tomorrow. We are excited for them to be here. Hope everything is going well in Virginia, New York, Washington, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Houston, and wherever anyone else might be!
Love,
Elder Wood
October 16, 2010
Mon., Oct. 11, 2010, Email from Donna, TX
Hi Everyone!
This past week in the field has been a tough one, but nonetheless everything has been going all right. A couple of significant things happened and I'll be sure to get those written down.
The biggest thing that happened this past week was that I got dropped for the first time! this last Monday, after I sent off my email home, we came back to our apartment where we got a call from our investigator Sandra. We hadn't been able to contact her all weekend and we were super excited that she had actually put forth the effort and called us. In the lesson we had previously with her she seemed really interested and had accepted a baptismal invitation, so we were really excited to keep teaching her. However, when she called she told us that she was grateful for us coming by, but we wouldn't need to visit her anymore. I'm not really sure what happened between last week and now, but either way I was super bummed. It's surprising exactly how close it feels to a break-up. At one point she said, "But maybe you can come over for dinner sometime" which I took as, "We're breaking up, but we can still be friends."
So, that had me really frustrated on Monday, but then on Tuesday we had interviews with President Trayner and a short zone meeting. In the meeting we had a great discussion about the elect, and President did a lot to motivate us to go back out into the field and work. It was great because after getting dropped by one of our most promising investigators, it was exactly what I needed at the time.
On Saturday, I went on exchanges to Edinburgh with one of the Zone Leaders and had a really good experience over there. I learned a lot about contacting and how to teach powerfully, which has really helped me so far. Most of our lessons that day were in Spanish, but I was able to understand and express most of what I wanted to, which was a really nice experience as I can see my Spanish improving. However, I will admit, Elder Johnson's Spanish is probably already better than mine, since he is immersed in it down in Peru. On an interesting side note, my trainer's trainer, Elder Neyra, was from Arequipa, Peru, but he's already gone home now, so I'm unable to ask him any questions to give to Elder Johnson.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened this week is that we found a young man, Hector, who seems very motivated to investigate the Church. We ran into him contacting in the street, but we were talking mostly to his friend who was with him. However, when we started talking about the Church, Hector piped up in Spanish and asked where it was. After seeing how interested he was, we told him how to get there and asked if we could drop by to teach him sometime. I was in Edinburgh when my companion and the other Zone Leader taught him, but apparently everything went over really well and then he came to Church on Sunday, full of questions for us. He has a lot of questions about moral issues related to the commandments, but hopefully soon we'll be able to teach him about the power of prayer and study and get him started on answering his own questions.
Other than that, all is well in Donna. Oh, before I forget, we're getting our first tie bale today! It should get here sometime this afternoon, a good solid 1000 pounds of ties. (That's the number the other Elder told me. Needless to say, the rest of my day will be spent sifting through that and picking out the best ones. And the best part is, with 5 of us chipping in on it, it only cost me $9! That's less than I paid for one tie back in Virginia! I'll be sure to bring my camera to that and hopefully get some pictures. I do have some pictures to send home. So far I have been a failure at writing letters and sending the pictures off, but hopefully that will all change soon.
I was very glad to hear about all the festivities going on at home. Be sure to give a belated Happy Birthday to Sarah for me! I hope everyone has a good week and everything goes well. The Gospel is true!
Love,
Elder Wood
This past week in the field has been a tough one, but nonetheless everything has been going all right. A couple of significant things happened and I'll be sure to get those written down.
The biggest thing that happened this past week was that I got dropped for the first time! this last Monday, after I sent off my email home, we came back to our apartment where we got a call from our investigator Sandra. We hadn't been able to contact her all weekend and we were super excited that she had actually put forth the effort and called us. In the lesson we had previously with her she seemed really interested and had accepted a baptismal invitation, so we were really excited to keep teaching her. However, when she called she told us that she was grateful for us coming by, but we wouldn't need to visit her anymore. I'm not really sure what happened between last week and now, but either way I was super bummed. It's surprising exactly how close it feels to a break-up. At one point she said, "But maybe you can come over for dinner sometime" which I took as, "We're breaking up, but we can still be friends."
So, that had me really frustrated on Monday, but then on Tuesday we had interviews with President Trayner and a short zone meeting. In the meeting we had a great discussion about the elect, and President did a lot to motivate us to go back out into the field and work. It was great because after getting dropped by one of our most promising investigators, it was exactly what I needed at the time.
On Saturday, I went on exchanges to Edinburgh with one of the Zone Leaders and had a really good experience over there. I learned a lot about contacting and how to teach powerfully, which has really helped me so far. Most of our lessons that day were in Spanish, but I was able to understand and express most of what I wanted to, which was a really nice experience as I can see my Spanish improving. However, I will admit, Elder Johnson's Spanish is probably already better than mine, since he is immersed in it down in Peru. On an interesting side note, my trainer's trainer, Elder Neyra, was from Arequipa, Peru, but he's already gone home now, so I'm unable to ask him any questions to give to Elder Johnson.
The only other really interesting thing that has happened this week is that we found a young man, Hector, who seems very motivated to investigate the Church. We ran into him contacting in the street, but we were talking mostly to his friend who was with him. However, when we started talking about the Church, Hector piped up in Spanish and asked where it was. After seeing how interested he was, we told him how to get there and asked if we could drop by to teach him sometime. I was in Edinburgh when my companion and the other Zone Leader taught him, but apparently everything went over really well and then he came to Church on Sunday, full of questions for us. He has a lot of questions about moral issues related to the commandments, but hopefully soon we'll be able to teach him about the power of prayer and study and get him started on answering his own questions.
Other than that, all is well in Donna. Oh, before I forget, we're getting our first tie bale today! It should get here sometime this afternoon, a good solid 1000 pounds of ties. (That's the number the other Elder told me. Needless to say, the rest of my day will be spent sifting through that and picking out the best ones. And the best part is, with 5 of us chipping in on it, it only cost me $9! That's less than I paid for one tie back in Virginia! I'll be sure to bring my camera to that and hopefully get some pictures. I do have some pictures to send home. So far I have been a failure at writing letters and sending the pictures off, but hopefully that will all change soon.
I was very glad to hear about all the festivities going on at home. Be sure to give a belated Happy Birthday to Sarah for me! I hope everyone has a good week and everything goes well. The Gospel is true!
Love,
Elder Wood
October 7, 2010
Email from Donna, TX, October 7, 2010
Hello Everyone!
All is going well here in Donna, and things are moving along, but it seems they're not going too quickly. I'll talk about that in just a minute. First I need to be sure to answer all of Mom's questions so I don't forget.
As far as receiving meals here in Donna, we do a fair amount of eating in Member's homes, but a couple of nights each week we end up eating at our apartment. So far here I'm doing a pretty amazing job of cooking for myself, in my opinion. The first week or so I ate only cereal, but that got old really fast. So I committed myself to vary my diet and work to prepare my food. So far it has been going really well. Currently I'm making eggs and toast for a normal breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and chicken and vegetables for dinner. Also, Mom doesn't have to worry because I make myself a fruit smoothie every day, out of actual bananas strawberries and whatnot, so I think I've got all my food groups covered. The one thing I will admit, is that this is all pretty cheap compared to what I thought it would be. I figured just living on cereal and milk was cheaper, but with buying all this other stuff, I'm still well under my allotted money per month. (My only junk food consists of a soda once every couple of days and whatever treats people send to me in the mail.)
My P-days here are pretty fun, and normally go something like this: We spend an hour at the gym in the morning and come back and do our laundry. There is a laundromat near our apartment in Donna which has all these really fancy "space age" washers and dryers, but unfortunately it is a bit expensive. Fortunately, the man who owns the laundromat (Dave) has a wife and kids who are LDS. He pays for the missionaries to wash their clothes. After our laundry, we go out and do some activities with our district. For example, today a member is paying for us to go bowling, and after that we're headed over to the town park to play volleyball, which should be pretty fun. After that we've got dinner at a member's house and we'll finish up the day proselyting.
The chapel we attend isn't in Donna, but is in the next town over--Weslaco. The building serves members in Mercedes, Weslaco and Donna, the three cities near here. The good news is that the members here are so numerous and strong that we have to get a larger chapel to accommodate all of them and our recent converts. However, the bad news is that the church is under construction and we can't meet in that building for about a year. So the ward is currently meeting in a rented out adult day-care center. It's not a bad building, but the lack of a built in speaker system, and hard walls that echo kids' cries make it hard for our investigators to hear what is going on during the meeting. The solution is for us to have our investigators sit up front, but it's still a bit of a hassle and not quite as nice as a chapel. However, I am still very grateful for the fact that we have a nice building to meet in, because I know that many missionaries don't even have that luxury.
As an interesting side note that I am sure Dad will appreciate, the LDS Chapel not here, but in McAllen has a similar history to the chapel in Arlington. Like the chapel in Arlington, it was built by the members a while back. Now some of the older members in that ward can point out the rocks that they brought and cemented in place to help build the back wall of the chapel. If Dad is interested in more information on that chapel, I can probably do that.
Now I've got a few minutes to talk about why things have been moving a little bit slowly here in Donna. We have a few really good investigators, but they all seem to be really busy families, and finding them at home is difficult, except for the weekends. Meeting with someone once a week is much less than ideal, and it has been kind of a frustration to me out here. Ideally, we should be meeting or at least contacting our solid investigators every day, but doing that has been really hard. I know that life in the real world goes on, but especially as a missionary, it is hard to have someone not be able to find the time to meet with you. You know just how much it can help them and how much it could bless their lives.
Other than that, the work is progressing well here in the field, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here among the Lord's servants. Speaking of the Lord's servants, how great was Conference!? It's amazing to hear the prophet and the apostles speak to us as a Church, directly, and receive the advice and council the Lord wants us to hear in our day. I don't have too much time, but I'll relay just a quick thought I liked from Conference.
I cannot remember who said it, since I don't have my journal with me right now, but I really liked this idea: (I think it was President Eyring, but I'm not sure.) There are three ways to learn from the scriptures. First is to read the scriptures, which is good. We may learn something about a principle or doctrine we didn't understand before. Second, is to study the scriptures, which is better. When we study the scriptures we can make connections between passages that support and testify of each other, and use them to strengthen our testimonies and the testimonies of others. Third, is to ponder the scriptures, which is the best. When we ponder, we do both of the other methods, and then sit back and think. We think about the wonderful miracles of God, His power, and His love. When we ponder, that is when revelation comes.
I add my testimony to this, that when we study and read the scriptures, the majority of learning comes from thought and supplication before the Lord. When we ponder the mysteries of God, our relationship with him, and the meaning and significance of the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son, and humbly kneel ourselves before him in prayer, he will answer the questions of our souls. I have come to a knowledge of the truth of this here in the mission field. I know that if anyone will submit this method to the test, they too will know that prayers are heard and answered.
I give my best to everyone this coming week, and I hope that your lives are coming along well. I would love to hear about them. If anyone can find the time to write, I promise that even if it takes me a while, you will get a reply back. Thanks to all that have already written me, and I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Wood
All is going well here in Donna, and things are moving along, but it seems they're not going too quickly. I'll talk about that in just a minute. First I need to be sure to answer all of Mom's questions so I don't forget.
As far as receiving meals here in Donna, we do a fair amount of eating in Member's homes, but a couple of nights each week we end up eating at our apartment. So far here I'm doing a pretty amazing job of cooking for myself, in my opinion. The first week or so I ate only cereal, but that got old really fast. So I committed myself to vary my diet and work to prepare my food. So far it has been going really well. Currently I'm making eggs and toast for a normal breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and chicken and vegetables for dinner. Also, Mom doesn't have to worry because I make myself a fruit smoothie every day, out of actual bananas strawberries and whatnot, so I think I've got all my food groups covered. The one thing I will admit, is that this is all pretty cheap compared to what I thought it would be. I figured just living on cereal and milk was cheaper, but with buying all this other stuff, I'm still well under my allotted money per month. (My only junk food consists of a soda once every couple of days and whatever treats people send to me in the mail.)
My P-days here are pretty fun, and normally go something like this: We spend an hour at the gym in the morning and come back and do our laundry. There is a laundromat near our apartment in Donna which has all these really fancy "space age" washers and dryers, but unfortunately it is a bit expensive. Fortunately, the man who owns the laundromat (Dave) has a wife and kids who are LDS. He pays for the missionaries to wash their clothes. After our laundry, we go out and do some activities with our district. For example, today a member is paying for us to go bowling, and after that we're headed over to the town park to play volleyball, which should be pretty fun. After that we've got dinner at a member's house and we'll finish up the day proselyting.
The chapel we attend isn't in Donna, but is in the next town over--Weslaco. The building serves members in Mercedes, Weslaco and Donna, the three cities near here. The good news is that the members here are so numerous and strong that we have to get a larger chapel to accommodate all of them and our recent converts. However, the bad news is that the church is under construction and we can't meet in that building for about a year. So the ward is currently meeting in a rented out adult day-care center. It's not a bad building, but the lack of a built in speaker system, and hard walls that echo kids' cries make it hard for our investigators to hear what is going on during the meeting. The solution is for us to have our investigators sit up front, but it's still a bit of a hassle and not quite as nice as a chapel. However, I am still very grateful for the fact that we have a nice building to meet in, because I know that many missionaries don't even have that luxury.
As an interesting side note that I am sure Dad will appreciate, the LDS Chapel not here, but in McAllen has a similar history to the chapel in Arlington. Like the chapel in Arlington, it was built by the members a while back. Now some of the older members in that ward can point out the rocks that they brought and cemented in place to help build the back wall of the chapel. If Dad is interested in more information on that chapel, I can probably do that.
Now I've got a few minutes to talk about why things have been moving a little bit slowly here in Donna. We have a few really good investigators, but they all seem to be really busy families, and finding them at home is difficult, except for the weekends. Meeting with someone once a week is much less than ideal, and it has been kind of a frustration to me out here. Ideally, we should be meeting or at least contacting our solid investigators every day, but doing that has been really hard. I know that life in the real world goes on, but especially as a missionary, it is hard to have someone not be able to find the time to meet with you. You know just how much it can help them and how much it could bless their lives.
Other than that, the work is progressing well here in the field, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here among the Lord's servants. Speaking of the Lord's servants, how great was Conference!? It's amazing to hear the prophet and the apostles speak to us as a Church, directly, and receive the advice and council the Lord wants us to hear in our day. I don't have too much time, but I'll relay just a quick thought I liked from Conference.
I cannot remember who said it, since I don't have my journal with me right now, but I really liked this idea: (I think it was President Eyring, but I'm not sure.) There are three ways to learn from the scriptures. First is to read the scriptures, which is good. We may learn something about a principle or doctrine we didn't understand before. Second, is to study the scriptures, which is better. When we study the scriptures we can make connections between passages that support and testify of each other, and use them to strengthen our testimonies and the testimonies of others. Third, is to ponder the scriptures, which is the best. When we ponder, we do both of the other methods, and then sit back and think. We think about the wonderful miracles of God, His power, and His love. When we ponder, that is when revelation comes.
I add my testimony to this, that when we study and read the scriptures, the majority of learning comes from thought and supplication before the Lord. When we ponder the mysteries of God, our relationship with him, and the meaning and significance of the Atonement of His Only Begotten Son, and humbly kneel ourselves before him in prayer, he will answer the questions of our souls. I have come to a knowledge of the truth of this here in the mission field. I know that if anyone will submit this method to the test, they too will know that prayers are heard and answered.
I give my best to everyone this coming week, and I hope that your lives are coming along well. I would love to hear about them. If anyone can find the time to write, I promise that even if it takes me a while, you will get a reply back. Thanks to all that have already written me, and I hope that everyone is doing well.
Love,
Elder Wood
September 27, 2010
Sept. 27, 2010, email to 4510 from Donna, TX
Dear Everyone,
This past week has been pretty eventful, so I'll try to get it all in as best I can in the time that I have. First I'm going to try and answer the questions I neglected to answer last time. Also, I'll try to get a handwritten letter off to Rebecca Johnson, Sarah, the Simmons and the Hancocks, since they were all so kind to send me letters around my birthday and I failed to get one sent off this last week. I know I failed at that this week, but I'm working on changing that.
I did get the package from Mom, and I'm very grateful for that. The belt is awesome, and the snacks and what not were very welcome. However, I am confused about the sending of hot chocolate, since it still averages about 95 - 100 every day, but I'm very excited to use it when it cools down here a bit, probably around December. Everything I need for the bike is here, so you don't have to worry about that at all. And as far as email goes, I believe it is only supposed to used, receiving or sending, with family. However, if my address is lost for a short time, or if someone just has a quick thing they need to get off to me, it's fine, I guess. The one exception for that is other missionaries on their missions. I have sent a few short emails back and forth with a friend of mine in the West Indies, for example, since it is hard to write letters between busy, moving missionaries.
I guess a natural launching point for my first story would be to correct something Mom said in her letter to me this past week. On the contrary, I have seen TONS of rain here in Donna. The rain here beats the rain in Virginia for sure. And, the thing that makes it even worse, here, is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is flat. When it rains, it pours, and since there is no natural place for the water to flow, any dip in the road or any depression has at least three inches of standing water in it. There have been days when it was dry, don't get me wrong, but there are also some pretty big storms we've been caught in. Maybe I'll baptize somebody in one of the giant puddles they have around here someday (kidding, but seriously, they're huge).
I guess the most important thing that happened this last week was that we found two new great families to teach. One is the family of a middle-aged woman named Sandra, and her two children Danny, 15 and Ilene, 11. They were a referral from a family in the ward and are all really great. We had our first meeting with them on Saturday and they accepted a baptismal date and then came to church on Sunday. They seem to be really interested in hearing the Gospel. Sandra is a window. Her husband died when she was young, and she has had a hard time providing and caring for her family. But she is a very hard working and productive woman. Danny and Ilene, the two kids, are possibly some of the tallest people I've seen. Danny is 6 foot 4 inches at age 15 and still growing, but Ilene is the really crazy one. She's 11 years old and 5 foot 10 inches! When we were in Church on Sunday, one of the 16 year old girls from Young Women's came by to invite her to their activities, only to find out she's still in Primary! I just shot her a big grin and started laughing, but she seems pretty used to it.
Earlier on that same Saturday, we met Julie and her husband, Herman, and their family of four young boys. We had tried to meet with them over and over but kept finding them busy and to be honest, I was starting to lose faith in them. But we still stopped by Saturday morning to try and see them and Julie answered the door. Her husband was still sleeping but she said that she would call us with a time that we could come back and visit with them. I thought to myself, "Well now, she's just not going to call us and this whole process of trying to catch her free will start over again." However, to my surprise, about a half an hour later she called and asked when was the soonest that we could come over. We hurried back to their house and had a really nice lesson with them. We asked them if they wanted to be baptized, not really sure if they were actually taking in the things we were talking about. My companion and I were both surprised when they both looked at us and said, "Oh yes, we've both been wanting to be baptized for a while now." It's always amazing to me when we're able to catch a glimpse of the work that the Lord is doing in people's lives. We go out and work every day and we think that we're doing a lot in the world, and then you stumble upon a part of God's mysterious workings and grand designs. I can testify that the Lord really is at work here in the vineyard, and that he is doing more to soften and change people's hearts than we could ever hope to do.
The other story that I have from the week is that I had my first day on a bike out here in the mission field. We have a car in Donna, but I was on exchanges with the Elders in Weslaco, a bike area. It wasn't too bad really, but it just made me even more grateful for just how chiflado (spoiled) I am back in Donna. During the exchange I was with Elder Bell, from Tennessee, who interestingly enough, reminds me strongly of Elder Hancock. They don't look similar at all, but they both have similar attitudes. They're both positive about everything and can get excited about any subject.
Anyways, I'm just going to use this last bit of time to talk about some random subjects/questions I got from a few people that I figured everybody might be wondering about. So far, I have not run into anything deathly spicy, except for maybe one small incident. We were at a gas station getting some breakfast right before a meeting in McAllen, and I got a couple of burritos. My companion, who loves spicy things, went over to get some salsa. I figured I'd grab some too. I got a little cup of some tame looking salsa, but, on my way up to the register I figured I'd try just a bit of it. So, I just barely touched my finger into the salsa and licked it, only to find out that the salsa was not "tame" at all. I will admit I was struggling to hold back the tears and painful faces as I was paying for my burrito, desperately trying to reject my gringo status.
Spanish is coming along pretty well here. Pretty much everyone I meet is really impressed with how much I know for having just come off the plane. Most of the Spanish Ward members think that I've been in the mission a while and are quite surprised when they figure out I got here three weeks ago. However, I'm still able to keep the pride out because though I can speak the Spanish fairly well, all of the Mexicans around here talk really fast and have slang words that they never taught us in the MTC. So, I still have trouble understanding a lot of the Spanish speakers here. It is improving, though, and I'm slowly catching on and finding the spaces between their words. Probably the funniest thing that happens though, is that people see that I'm white and assume I don't speak any Spanish.
One time a man opened his door and he seemed fairly young so I started off in English and he replied back with a simple "hello". So I started to explain that we were missionaries in English at which point I could tell he wasn't interested and to try to get us to give up he replied, "No hablo Ingles". I just smiled and started speaking in Spanish at which point he just sighed, drew back, and closed the door. I have one other story kind of like that, but more of just one that frustrated me, but was still kind of funny. I have trouble switching between thinking and speaking in Spanish and English, so I like to just stay in one language or the other. So, I was really thrown off and stumbling when we were talking with a man and a couple of his friends. We came up and started talking to them and without fail, the man would always talk to everyone else in Spanish, and then talk to me in broken English. Even after I replied to him in Spanish, the process continued. He'd look at my companion and say, "Buenas dias, como esta?" then turn to me and say, "Hey, how you doing buddy?". With all the switching in languages I just get confused and end up speaking to different people in the wrong language. Hopefully, soon I'll get used to it and be able to switch back and forth without having to consciously think about it.
I hope everything is going well in Virginia, and wherever everybody else is. Everything is great out here in Texas, and things are slowly but surely moving along. I hope everyone has a good week and can try and see the hand of the Lord in whatever work you're engaged in.
Love,
Elder Wood
This past week has been pretty eventful, so I'll try to get it all in as best I can in the time that I have. First I'm going to try and answer the questions I neglected to answer last time. Also, I'll try to get a handwritten letter off to Rebecca Johnson, Sarah, the Simmons and the Hancocks, since they were all so kind to send me letters around my birthday and I failed to get one sent off this last week. I know I failed at that this week, but I'm working on changing that.
I did get the package from Mom, and I'm very grateful for that. The belt is awesome, and the snacks and what not were very welcome. However, I am confused about the sending of hot chocolate, since it still averages about 95 - 100 every day, but I'm very excited to use it when it cools down here a bit, probably around December. Everything I need for the bike is here, so you don't have to worry about that at all. And as far as email goes, I believe it is only supposed to used, receiving or sending, with family. However, if my address is lost for a short time, or if someone just has a quick thing they need to get off to me, it's fine, I guess. The one exception for that is other missionaries on their missions. I have sent a few short emails back and forth with a friend of mine in the West Indies, for example, since it is hard to write letters between busy, moving missionaries.
I guess a natural launching point for my first story would be to correct something Mom said in her letter to me this past week. On the contrary, I have seen TONS of rain here in Donna. The rain here beats the rain in Virginia for sure. And, the thing that makes it even worse, here, is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is flat. When it rains, it pours, and since there is no natural place for the water to flow, any dip in the road or any depression has at least three inches of standing water in it. There have been days when it was dry, don't get me wrong, but there are also some pretty big storms we've been caught in. Maybe I'll baptize somebody in one of the giant puddles they have around here someday (kidding, but seriously, they're huge).
I guess the most important thing that happened this last week was that we found two new great families to teach. One is the family of a middle-aged woman named Sandra, and her two children Danny, 15 and Ilene, 11. They were a referral from a family in the ward and are all really great. We had our first meeting with them on Saturday and they accepted a baptismal date and then came to church on Sunday. They seem to be really interested in hearing the Gospel. Sandra is a window. Her husband died when she was young, and she has had a hard time providing and caring for her family. But she is a very hard working and productive woman. Danny and Ilene, the two kids, are possibly some of the tallest people I've seen. Danny is 6 foot 4 inches at age 15 and still growing, but Ilene is the really crazy one. She's 11 years old and 5 foot 10 inches! When we were in Church on Sunday, one of the 16 year old girls from Young Women's came by to invite her to their activities, only to find out she's still in Primary! I just shot her a big grin and started laughing, but she seems pretty used to it.
Earlier on that same Saturday, we met Julie and her husband, Herman, and their family of four young boys. We had tried to meet with them over and over but kept finding them busy and to be honest, I was starting to lose faith in them. But we still stopped by Saturday morning to try and see them and Julie answered the door. Her husband was still sleeping but she said that she would call us with a time that we could come back and visit with them. I thought to myself, "Well now, she's just not going to call us and this whole process of trying to catch her free will start over again." However, to my surprise, about a half an hour later she called and asked when was the soonest that we could come over. We hurried back to their house and had a really nice lesson with them. We asked them if they wanted to be baptized, not really sure if they were actually taking in the things we were talking about. My companion and I were both surprised when they both looked at us and said, "Oh yes, we've both been wanting to be baptized for a while now." It's always amazing to me when we're able to catch a glimpse of the work that the Lord is doing in people's lives. We go out and work every day and we think that we're doing a lot in the world, and then you stumble upon a part of God's mysterious workings and grand designs. I can testify that the Lord really is at work here in the vineyard, and that he is doing more to soften and change people's hearts than we could ever hope to do.
The other story that I have from the week is that I had my first day on a bike out here in the mission field. We have a car in Donna, but I was on exchanges with the Elders in Weslaco, a bike area. It wasn't too bad really, but it just made me even more grateful for just how chiflado (spoiled) I am back in Donna. During the exchange I was with Elder Bell, from Tennessee, who interestingly enough, reminds me strongly of Elder Hancock. They don't look similar at all, but they both have similar attitudes. They're both positive about everything and can get excited about any subject.
Anyways, I'm just going to use this last bit of time to talk about some random subjects/questions I got from a few people that I figured everybody might be wondering about. So far, I have not run into anything deathly spicy, except for maybe one small incident. We were at a gas station getting some breakfast right before a meeting in McAllen, and I got a couple of burritos. My companion, who loves spicy things, went over to get some salsa. I figured I'd grab some too. I got a little cup of some tame looking salsa, but, on my way up to the register I figured I'd try just a bit of it. So, I just barely touched my finger into the salsa and licked it, only to find out that the salsa was not "tame" at all. I will admit I was struggling to hold back the tears and painful faces as I was paying for my burrito, desperately trying to reject my gringo status.
Spanish is coming along pretty well here. Pretty much everyone I meet is really impressed with how much I know for having just come off the plane. Most of the Spanish Ward members think that I've been in the mission a while and are quite surprised when they figure out I got here three weeks ago. However, I'm still able to keep the pride out because though I can speak the Spanish fairly well, all of the Mexicans around here talk really fast and have slang words that they never taught us in the MTC. So, I still have trouble understanding a lot of the Spanish speakers here. It is improving, though, and I'm slowly catching on and finding the spaces between their words. Probably the funniest thing that happens though, is that people see that I'm white and assume I don't speak any Spanish.
One time a man opened his door and he seemed fairly young so I started off in English and he replied back with a simple "hello". So I started to explain that we were missionaries in English at which point I could tell he wasn't interested and to try to get us to give up he replied, "No hablo Ingles". I just smiled and started speaking in Spanish at which point he just sighed, drew back, and closed the door. I have one other story kind of like that, but more of just one that frustrated me, but was still kind of funny. I have trouble switching between thinking and speaking in Spanish and English, so I like to just stay in one language or the other. So, I was really thrown off and stumbling when we were talking with a man and a couple of his friends. We came up and started talking to them and without fail, the man would always talk to everyone else in Spanish, and then talk to me in broken English. Even after I replied to him in Spanish, the process continued. He'd look at my companion and say, "Buenas dias, como esta?" then turn to me and say, "Hey, how you doing buddy?". With all the switching in languages I just get confused and end up speaking to different people in the wrong language. Hopefully, soon I'll get used to it and be able to switch back and forth without having to consciously think about it.
I hope everything is going well in Virginia, and wherever everybody else is. Everything is great out here in Texas, and things are slowly but surely moving along. I hope everyone has a good week and can try and see the hand of the Lord in whatever work you're engaged in.
Love,
Elder Wood
Sep 20, 2010, 4:37 p.m. email to 4510 from Donna, TX
Hello Everyone!
I want to give thanks to everybody that wrote me on my birthday or sent me a package! It was awesome to hear from a lot of people and get some cool things in the mail. On an odd note, we had zone conference with Elder Richards from the 70s this past week and it was on my birthday! The P-day before I had forgotten to buy some cupcakes or something to celebrate my birthday with, so I was very surprised and excited when they rolled out a giant cake during the meal at the conference. It wasn't for me or anything, but at least I got to have some cake.
I don't have that much time to write today, so I'll just write a short story from this week then hopefully get a handwritten letter off tonight. Not too much that I can remember happened, but this week on Friday I had my first exchange in the mission! I was on an exchange with Elder Santa Cruz, one of the Zone Leaders. He is from Lima, Peru. Anyways, overall we just had a pretty good day of contacting with a few lessons, but something kind of interesting happened. We were contacting a man who was outside washing his car, and it turned out he didn't want to listen to our message, but he was willing to buy us some ice cream from the ice cream truck in the neighborhood. The man who was driving the ice cream truck had been to church before and was interested in coming again! He ended up not showing up on Sunday, but it was still a neat experience.
Anyways, I hope all is going well and that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Wood
I want to give thanks to everybody that wrote me on my birthday or sent me a package! It was awesome to hear from a lot of people and get some cool things in the mail. On an odd note, we had zone conference with Elder Richards from the 70s this past week and it was on my birthday! The P-day before I had forgotten to buy some cupcakes or something to celebrate my birthday with, so I was very surprised and excited when they rolled out a giant cake during the meal at the conference. It wasn't for me or anything, but at least I got to have some cake.
I don't have that much time to write today, so I'll just write a short story from this week then hopefully get a handwritten letter off tonight. Not too much that I can remember happened, but this week on Friday I had my first exchange in the mission! I was on an exchange with Elder Santa Cruz, one of the Zone Leaders. He is from Lima, Peru. Anyways, overall we just had a pretty good day of contacting with a few lessons, but something kind of interesting happened. We were contacting a man who was outside washing his car, and it turned out he didn't want to listen to our message, but he was willing to buy us some ice cream from the ice cream truck in the neighborhood. The man who was driving the ice cream truck had been to church before and was interested in coming again! He ended up not showing up on Sunday, but it was still a neat experience.
Anyways, I hope all is going well and that everyone has a great week!
Love,
Elder Wood
September 20, 2010
Monday Sept. 13, 2010, email from Donna, TX
Hey Family!
Well, I've officially made it through my first week here in Texas, and all is going well. Just to get some stuff down so I don't forget in this email, my current address for mail is:
Elder Roland Wood
1308 E. Miller Ave., Apt #2,
Donna, Texas 78537
My P-days are on Mondays here, and today is my first one out in the field. A lot of stuff has happened this week, and it's been a bit of a shock coming from the MTC, but I think that I've been doing all right here. I got here and got through the orientation, and now I'm out in the field with my companion, Elder Nevarro. He is a great Elder who works really hard and speaks pretty good Spanish. I guess I can relate just a few stories of my first days here so you can get a feel of what it is like here.
I guess first off, though, I should talk a little bit about Donna. Donna is a town East of McAllen about half an hour, and is bordered by the towns of Weslaco and Mercedes, which are a bit bigger. You might be able to find them on the map. Donna is the poorer part of the area here, with lots of people living in motor homes or factory homes, but it has its nicer areas as well. There are TONS of dogs here, many of which are just stray ones that roam around. Since there are lots of dogs here, normally what we do when we walk up to a house is stand on the edge of the yard and tap the metal fence (which everyone has here) with our tags. It makes a nice 'ping' sound which normally wakes up any sleeping dogs and then we can decide if it's good to go in or not. On our first day here we walked up to a house, pinged the fence and nothing happened, so we went up. However, when we were about to walk up the steps to the house, a giant German Shepherd jumped out from underneath the house like it was gonna rip our heads off. As this was like the second house I had ever knocked on, it scared the crap out of me. I fought the reflex to run, pulled off my backpack and held it between me and the dog to give me some room as we backed out of the yard. So it turned out all right, but I will say that got my heart beating pretty fast.
We've had trouble finding investigators since we've been here, although we've been out contacting quite a bit since I've been here. We've only had a few investigators to meet with, many of whom have stopped progressing or want some more time to learn before baptism. Laura, who is one or our investigators, has a baptismal date, but we've had to push it back because she wants to be baptized, but feels like she needs to learn more before she fully commits. It's hard for us to meet with her because she's in band at the high school and her day starts and ends basically the same time ours does, so we can only see her once a week on Sundays. We had a good lesson with her, yesterday, and hopefully she will continue to study and pray and soon be able to really commit. Her brother, Ramiro, however, is progressing well and wants to be baptized. He will probably be baptized on the 26th of September.
Anyways, we did a lot of contacting this week, and we've found some good potential investigators. Hopefully, we'll be able to follow up with our return appointments with them and get them to progress. Speaking of our potential investigators, it's been interesting because I've managed to find two potential investigators who are Hispanic copies of our family. Roy, one investigator, is just a Hispanic version of Nathan. He looks really similar, talks the same, and does IT work here for an electrical company. He has two twin boys and a one year old daughter. Also, I found Ana, who is just the Hispanic version of Rose-Ellen. She talks really similarly to Rose-Ellen and is wholly devoted to and focused on the well-being of her young daughter. It's weird how I keep running into everyone here that reminds me of my family.
So, I don't have too much email time left, but just know I'm doing well out here, and everything is going fine. My companion is great and we're working hard. I was going to send some pictures home but I haven't taken too many yet and I forgot my camera. I have some good pictures of when our car got stuck in the mud here, though. I had to spend a good hour or so cleaning my shoes after that, yesterday. We got it out, but it was a struggle. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week. I was very excited to hear about Sarah's baby! Congratulations! The Wood grandchildren are starting to be dominated by the girls. Who knows, maybe that will change soon =).
Love,
Elder Wood
Well, I've officially made it through my first week here in Texas, and all is going well. Just to get some stuff down so I don't forget in this email, my current address for mail is:
Elder Roland Wood
1308 E. Miller Ave., Apt #2,
Donna, Texas 78537
My P-days are on Mondays here, and today is my first one out in the field. A lot of stuff has happened this week, and it's been a bit of a shock coming from the MTC, but I think that I've been doing all right here. I got here and got through the orientation, and now I'm out in the field with my companion, Elder Nevarro. He is a great Elder who works really hard and speaks pretty good Spanish. I guess I can relate just a few stories of my first days here so you can get a feel of what it is like here.
I guess first off, though, I should talk a little bit about Donna. Donna is a town East of McAllen about half an hour, and is bordered by the towns of Weslaco and Mercedes, which are a bit bigger. You might be able to find them on the map. Donna is the poorer part of the area here, with lots of people living in motor homes or factory homes, but it has its nicer areas as well. There are TONS of dogs here, many of which are just stray ones that roam around. Since there are lots of dogs here, normally what we do when we walk up to a house is stand on the edge of the yard and tap the metal fence (which everyone has here) with our tags. It makes a nice 'ping' sound which normally wakes up any sleeping dogs and then we can decide if it's good to go in or not. On our first day here we walked up to a house, pinged the fence and nothing happened, so we went up. However, when we were about to walk up the steps to the house, a giant German Shepherd jumped out from underneath the house like it was gonna rip our heads off. As this was like the second house I had ever knocked on, it scared the crap out of me. I fought the reflex to run, pulled off my backpack and held it between me and the dog to give me some room as we backed out of the yard. So it turned out all right, but I will say that got my heart beating pretty fast.
We've had trouble finding investigators since we've been here, although we've been out contacting quite a bit since I've been here. We've only had a few investigators to meet with, many of whom have stopped progressing or want some more time to learn before baptism. Laura, who is one or our investigators, has a baptismal date, but we've had to push it back because she wants to be baptized, but feels like she needs to learn more before she fully commits. It's hard for us to meet with her because she's in band at the high school and her day starts and ends basically the same time ours does, so we can only see her once a week on Sundays. We had a good lesson with her, yesterday, and hopefully she will continue to study and pray and soon be able to really commit. Her brother, Ramiro, however, is progressing well and wants to be baptized. He will probably be baptized on the 26th of September.
Anyways, we did a lot of contacting this week, and we've found some good potential investigators. Hopefully, we'll be able to follow up with our return appointments with them and get them to progress. Speaking of our potential investigators, it's been interesting because I've managed to find two potential investigators who are Hispanic copies of our family. Roy, one investigator, is just a Hispanic version of Nathan. He looks really similar, talks the same, and does IT work here for an electrical company. He has two twin boys and a one year old daughter. Also, I found Ana, who is just the Hispanic version of Rose-Ellen. She talks really similarly to Rose-Ellen and is wholly devoted to and focused on the well-being of her young daughter. It's weird how I keep running into everyone here that reminds me of my family.
So, I don't have too much email time left, but just know I'm doing well out here, and everything is going fine. My companion is great and we're working hard. I was going to send some pictures home but I haven't taken too many yet and I forgot my camera. I have some good pictures of when our car got stuck in the mud here, though. I had to spend a good hour or so cleaning my shoes after that, yesterday. We got it out, but it was a struggle. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week. I was very excited to hear about Sarah's baby! Congratulations! The Wood grandchildren are starting to be dominated by the girls. Who knows, maybe that will change soon =).
Love,
Elder Wood
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