August 15, 2011, email post from NEW ADDRESS in Laredo

Dear Family,

Well, this week was the first week of a new experience for me. The new missionary from the MTC arrived, Elder Stewart, from Ogden, Utah. It's interesting going into an area blind with a new missionary. You both walk in just kind of wide eyed and excited, without any real idea of what to do. I'm also in a bike area for the first time in my mission, which makes for an interesting experience as well. Working on bikes is a bit of a different approach than working in a car, but both are pretty great. Our area is also pretty big for a bike area, which is gonna make sure that my legs get pretty buff.

I don't think I've ever had a night of eight hours of sleep that has felt so short before. The biking and the sun manage to take a lot out of you, which has its ups and downs. You can eat just about as much as you want without getting full, since you body is just looking for calories wherever it can get them, and you can fall asleep at night in about a minute. Only problem is it feels like you wake up a minute later, only to realize 8 hours have past. Overall I'm really enjoying the area though, and it seems like it has a lot of potential. We've had a couple of cool experiences where we've found some great people who seem like they could really progress. For example, we walked down this one street and didn't knock any doors, but both felt impressed to knock a specific one. We found a lady who had been taught by elders two years ago, but they had lost track of her when the area got changed from an Elde'rs area to a Sister's area. We should be teaching her tonight and hopefully she'll be ready to start progressing to baptism.

Speaking of sister missionaries, Amy is on a mission?? That's awesome! James just got home and now Amy is going out huh. Taiwan will be an interesting mission I'm sure. Too bad she and James will be speaking different languages. Where is James at right now? Is he going back to school later this month or is he already off somewhere else?

My new address is...

Elder Roland Wood

4420 Loring #9

Laredo, TX, 78040

As far as birthday packages go... I have no idea. I'll think about it this week and hopefully get back to you next week. I don't need any more white shirts. All of mine have lasted so far, and are doing pretty well. A new belt could also be sent, but mine is still good so far. I'll be praying for JoAnn this week, and I hope everything will go well for her until her c-section date.

I hope everybody has a great week and things go well/get better.

Love,

Elder Wood

August 8, 2001, email from Laredo TX

Dear Family,

Well, this has been a very exciting week. We found another small family that has a baptismal date and came to church this week. Carolina and her four kids seem like they could make a lot of progress over the next couple weeks. I have faith that they will be able to prepare for their goal of being baptized on the 28th of August. The mission hit over 100 baptisms in June and July, which is quite the feat. I remember I was here when the mission hit over 100 baptisms for the first time in history a few months back. Now we're on our way to doing it consistently. I'm sure it is due to the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord. I'm excited for the people that we are working with right now. I know that with some good spiritual nourishment and a lot of love, soon they'll be ready to make a covenant with their Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, I won't be here to see that progression. I'm being transferred tomorrow to a new area. The new area is still in Laredo, but I'll be moving further up north. In fact, the area is going from a Sister's area to an Elder's area, so I'll be going in with my new companion who's coming straight from the MTC! I'm not sure if it will be a bike area or not yet, but all signs seem to point to yes.

I'm very excited for this new opportunity. I know it's going to be a lot of work, require a good bit of sacrifice and probably test my faith. During the process I'm sure we'll become stronger missionaries and find a good bit of success. I'll be attending a new chapel. The building in the north and we will probably only be covering one ward. Having only three hours of church on Sunday instead of six (because of both an English and Spanish branch) is going to be a weird experience from the rest of my mission. I'm not sure of what my new address will be, because where we are living is not really certain yet. I might be moving in with two other elders and living out of my area or the mission might just find a new apartment. We'll see. I'm excited to be staying in Laredo though, this really is a great place.

I'm sad to be leaving my companion Elder Piena, after only one transfer. He is a great missionary and we had a lot of fun together. I'm sure he'll do good work here in Larga Vista though and do all he can to help the people here.

I was happy to hear that the service for Calvin went well. I hope everybody had a chance to reflect a little on their covenants and just how important they are. If you haven't read the talk, "The Power of Covenants" by D. Todd Christofferson, I would suggest it. It's very powerful and helps put the importance of obedience into perspective.

Happy birthday to those that had theirs in August. I think I'm a little late for Christian, but I'm sure he can forgive me. Hopefully Ben and Nathan can have a good birthday as well, and anybody else I forgot (which I probably did).

To answer Mom's question, all of my clothes still fit fine. I walked through one pair of my shoes, but I still have one good pair and a pair of Sunday shoes. (Not to mention my boots as well if worse comes to worst.) I've been thinking about getting some contacts though, as my glasses get kind of annoying, especially when I sweat a lot. If I go to a bike area, that's pretty much going to be a given.

I hope baby Riggins does well this week, and I know the Lord is there helping everything move along. Please give my regards to Petrine Squires as well, I'm sure she must be having a hard time. It's always hard to see something tragic happen to someone who has spent so much time sacrificing on your (and many other's) behalf.

I'll be writing you from the new area next week!

Love,

Elder Wood

August 1, 2011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

I am grateful for the Gospel. Few people have what we have. I am eternally thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who cares for us and who set forth the great plan of happiness. One of my favorite quotes from Preach My Gospel has always been, "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." I can't imagine the difficulty of a challenge like this, but I do know that God has all power in heaven and earth, and if we ask Him, He can give us the strength to overcome whatever trial we may face. Jesus Christ suffered all things. He went beneath all things, so that he could lift us up, together with those we love, back into the presence of the Father.

I'm grateful to know that heaven is a real place. And I'm thankful that I know that there are people there waiting for me. I wasn't able to meet Calvin before he moved on to the next world, but I know that I will meet him someday. The blessings of the Gospel are eternal, of that I'm sure. The Lord has promised an eternal family, and he can never take away that blessing. We can only take it away from ourselves. I know that Calvin will be the son of Warren and Mel Wood eternally, and that they will always be his parents. And one day, very soon in the perspective of eternity, they will be reunited, never to be apart again. I didn't always know that, but I'm glad that I do.

The kids of the family that we have been teaching got baptized yesterday. The mom still needs to attend church. She works on Sundays and the dad doesn't seem too interested, but the kids are great and were very excited. They have a good group of friends in high school that are members of the church as well. They should be set to stay active. We're going to be working more with the mom over the coming weeks in order to help her find a way not to work in order to attend church with her kids and get baptized. I hope that soon this family will be able to take part in all the blessings of the Gospel. I've come to learn that everyone needs it now whether they realize it or not, because when the day comes when they have trials or tragedies they will need the comfort that can only come through the Gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I'll be finding out this week if I'm staying in Laredo or going to a different place. I would imagine I'll be staying here but you never know. A large portion of the mission leadership will be changing and a lot of people will be training. We'll see what will happen. I suspect I'll stick here with Elder Piena for at least another transfer.

Know I love you and that God loves you too. Families are eternal. I know it and so do you.

Love,

Elder Wood

June 27, 2011, email post from Laredo

Dear Family,

Well, a few changes are going to be happening over the next few days. My companion, Elder Anderson, will be leaving the area and I will be receiving a new companion. My new companion will be Elder Piena. He's Hawaiian, but from what I understand comes from Henderson, Nevada, next to Las Vegas. I've never met him before, but everyone who knows him tells me that he is a great missionary. I'm excited for the chance to have a new companion. It's always an exciting experience, and there's always a lot to learn from another person. Every companionship in our district here in Laredo is going through a change, which should make for an interesting experience. In all of Laredo there are a lot of changes going on as well. President Trayner is sending a large group of some of the best Elders in the mission here to Laredo. He put in a request to the First Presidency a few months ago to add Eagle Pass to the Laredo District in order to make it into a Stake. From what I understand, he has the permission to do so and is just working out some of the things that need to be done beforehand. It's seems like he's putting quite a force into Laredo to help push it through this change and keep it growing.

Anyway, I don't have too many stories from this week. Hopefully, I'll have some good ones to report soon with Elder Pinea. I'm glad Natalie survived the encounter with the St. Bernard. Most of the time when I see big dogs like St. Bernards or German Shepards on the other side of a fence I don't bother trying to fight them by going in the yard.

Congratulations to Rose-Ellen on the the new kid on the way. That will be another niece/nephew born before I get back home. I hope JoAnn can get some more rest and improve a little bit over the coming weeks. Points to Mom on finding Dad's car, too.

Love,

Elder Wood

June 20, 2011, email post from Laredo

Dear Family,

It seems like I'm writing again after no time at all. Not too many things have changed this week, but I guess I could try to think of a few stories to tell.

We had zone conference this past week here in Laredo, which was a pretty cool experience. President Trayer spoke to us on finding people, which was a good topic to learn about since we've had trouble finding some people that want to progress. I don't know if I've ever commented on it before, but our mission president is hilarious. Our conference was filled with jokes that kept it very lively. The jokes he tells aren't really story type jokes, so it would be hard to repeat them to you since they normally just run along with whatever situation he is speaking about. He gave us a couple of new ideas for finding and contacting which I'm excited to apply in the coming weeks.

I also spent some time copying a large number of talks given by the apostles and prophets of this dispensation. I've come to realize this week that the Gospel is endless. You can never really come to know everything. When you think that you've read every chapter on faith in the Book of Mormon, you start reading somewhere else, and it shows up again. As members of the Lord's restored church, we know that the Lord has said, "My works will not end and my words will not cease." The best analogy I've come up for this idea is that it is as if you were thrown out into the middle of the ocean. You can swim as far around as you want on the surface of the water, and still not see any land. You can dive down to the deep and hold your breath for as long as you can, but you still have to come up because your lungs are burning before you can get anywhere near the bottom of the ocean. There is a listless number of topics and themes to study, and each one of them is so complex and fascinating that you'll never understand it all.

That's just a little thought I've had recently. If anyone would like to go read through some talks on LDS.org and then send me some of your favorites, that would be a cool experience to share with me. That goes for everybody--not just Mom!

I neglected to send a message home last week in honor of Father's Day due to lack of foresight. I figure I ought to remedy that situation now, even if it is a day late. First off, I'm grateful that I have a Dad that understands the importance of the Gospel. Because he is a convert to the Church, I'm sure it was nothing easy to do, but nevertheless he did it. He never let me get away with sleeping in instead of going to Church. I'm sure I must have made it a real battle sometimes. I'm thankful I have a Father who is willing to make sacrifices for others, especially his children. Few people I've met are as friendly, open-hearted and giving as Dad is. I'm sure that Dad will do great in the contest for the garden. If he doesn't win, I would invite them to make a contest between those people to see who has raised the best children. That's what Dad has really spent most of his time growing, and I don't think anyone could have a more impressive garden, persay. So thanks, Dad, for all the work. I hope that you had a great Father's Day. I love you!

I hope everyboyd has a great week and we keep doing well. Just leat me know what happens with everybody!

Love,

Elder Wood

June 13, 2011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, another week has come and gone in Laredo. I think that this might have to be the fastest week I've had yet in the mission. I'm guessing that's a trend that will continue as time goes on, but it was quite a surprise when I found myself doing weekly planning again and feeling like I had just done it yesterday.

This was a great week, filled with some pretty good experiences, not all of which I can remember. I guess the most important thing that happened this week is that we had the baptism of Nancy Castaneda. She is an eight year old girl that is part of an inactive family we found about five weeks back. She didn't count as a convert baptism because she's only eight and her parents are both members, but to me it stills feels just the same. The father of the family left about three months ago, leaving the mom with her four children. Her husband was also the one keeping her from full activity in the Church. His departure was a tragedy, but it did open the door for a whole new world of blessings from our Heavenly Father.

So, the sister now holds a calling in the Primary here and it seems like they're on a good track to stay active in the Church. Nancy's baptism was a great experience. It was nice to see some tangible results from our past few months here in Laredo. Nancy had large turnout of support from the Primary who performed a song for her baptism. Also, the Elders that we live with had a baptism of an elderly woman who couldn't lean back. So we taped up the drain on the font, filled it to the brim, and had lean back in a chair for the baptism. It made the baptism of Nancy, after the elderly lady, pretty funny. The water was high enough that Nancy had to tilt her chin up to try to keep her face dry.

Also, this week we had an interesting experience with a less active member. We met brother Mendez, a return missionary who lives in our area who hasn't been to Church in about six years or so. Part of the reason for this is work related, but he also had an argument with another member a while back. It was a pretty bad experience. We've met with him a couple of times and have done our best to remind him about what he knows he needs to do. We reminded him of the things he had learned and experienced in the mission field. It was also a huge help that the member with whom he had the argument now goes to a different Branch. It had still be long enough since he had been to Church that it felt weird for him to go. It seemed as though he had a good time this past Sunday. Hopefully he'll keep going so he can turn it into a habit again soon.

I've been having a change of heart these past few weeks, though it may be just a new way of looking at things and motivating myself. I've always worked hard in my mission. I've never really felt like I slacked off or wasted any of the Lord's time, but I'm learning to not just do the work, but to love it. When I've had hard times and disappointments, I'd find myself doing the work, but maybe not with the attitude that I should have. I'm starting to learn just how important and influential that attitude is. If we don't have it, we struggle to love the people and to work for unselfish motives. Carrying out the Lord's work with a willing and cheerful attitude does so much to help you change your vision of the vineyard. It brings with it the success that missionaries desire. I feel like these past couple weeks I've started on that process of finding a better outlook. It hasn't finished yet, but I feel like it's definitely rolling.

I hope that everyone is doing well and is continuing to have some good experiences. I'm sure JoAnn and the baby will keep doing well, and that everything will turn out great. Congratulations to Tyler on his graduation (I just saw the pictures), and Calvin does look like quite an amazing little kid. He is definitely more worthy of such a great name than I was.

I'm going to throw in a couple of requests in this letter if that would be all right. First, if Mom and Dad are able, I'd appreciate it if they'd get a Liahona subscription at the house for me, in Spanish of course, so that when I get back, I'll have a good stack of reading material to go through and keep my language skills sharp. Also, the pictures I have for the family are pretty outdated, so if Mom would be willing to print off some of the more recent pictures of everybody and send them, that would be great.

Editorial note: As I haven't been carrying a camera at recent visits to family, could each of you print off some of your own and send them to Roland's Laredo address posted at the top of this blog? I know he would love to see pictures of Allison where she isn't a new baby, and of all the other nieces and nephews.

I hope everyone has a great week and I'll be sure to have some cool stories to tell this next week.

Love,

Elder Wood

P.S. The library we are at now doesn't allow me to upload pictures, so I'll have to send home the pictures of Nancy's baptism later.

June 6, 2011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear that Warren and Mel had a good experience with the baby blessing. That sounds like it was a fun experience.

Well another week has gone by in Laredo, without too many crazy experiences during the course of the week. The one story that I can think from this week that was pretty interesting was when we contacted a man named Frank. He used to be in the Air Force but now lives more of a quiet life at home with his family. We contacted him and he invited us in. We got to talking to him a little bit, and he expressed a lot of doubts about religious topics. He believes in God, but has trouble accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and Son of God because there are so many different opinions about Him. He also threw out some other random doubts and questions that people have about God, like where does He come from, why He permits suffering and so forth.

I didn't feel like any of the questions were legitimate doubts of his, more just questions that he uses to push God out of his mind. Keep in mind these are all questions that we as Latter-Day Saints have answers to, but I didn't really feel like he was in the position to understand and accept them. Anyway, this process of asking him questions went on for a little while, but I didn't really feel like it was going anywhere. Finally he threw out another question. "How come God didn't talk to the Native Americans? They were here too when the Bible was being written!" My companion and I just looked at each other, smiled and then pulled out our copies of the Book of Mormon. We spent a while explaining to him its history and what it teaches. It seemed to arouse some interest in him. It was a cool experience just to see how the Book of Mormon really does answer so many questions that people have. All we have to do is read and study to find them.

The other experience I guess I had this week was a change in my prayers. These past few weeks have been a time of a lot of progress for me. I've learned a good deal about missionary work, but I still have a lot of things yet to discover, I'm sure. Basically, I've spent the time here trying to change myself into the missionary I want to be. I've wanted to be more spiritual, motivated, successful, hardworking, and other things of that sort. Although these things are good goals, I realized that I shouldn't be trying to become what I want to be. I should be trying to be what the Lord wants me to be and what the people of Texas need me to be. I hope that they're the same as they goals I have. Just shifting my perspective has helped me focus a lot on becoming a better servant, and not trying to just serve myself. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I guess I'll just hope it did.

I hope everyone has a great week and hopefully, I'll have some more stories to tell on Monday.

Thanks for sending the packages, Mom.

Love,

Elder Wood