November 1, 2010
Oct. 25, 2010, email post from Donna
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
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
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
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