October, 31, 2011, last email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, the big news for the week is... bum da da dum!..... I'm being transferred! I got a call from President Trayner on Tuesday and I'll be moving down to Cameron Park in Brownsville for at least the next six weeks. I'll be the District Leader in the Brownsville North District. I'm pretty nervous as far as that goes, but I think that it will be a great experience for me. My companion is Elder Wilcox, who has been out of the MTC for just six weeks. I've heard good things about him though, and I'm sure he'll be a great companion. I'm sad to leave Elder Stewart, we had some pretty fun times together. And even worse is the fact that I'm finally leaving Laredo! I spent five transfers in this city, and the only way I can be in a city for longer than that in the rest of my mission is if I never leave Brownsville. I guess time will tell. I'll be leaving to Brownsville tomorrow and should be settled down in the Valley again in the afternoon. It's a sad thing to leave a city after having so much time there, and also having to leave all the people I've gotten to know, but I guess it's just a part of the whole missionary experience. On a random note, I'm also sad we're leaving because we found an amazing taco place on Saturday. It's called Paulita's. It's pretty cheap and they sell these HUGE tacos that are super good. If I ever come back to Laredo I'll have to go there again.

Anyway, the week was pretty slow again, but we did have some cool experiences. Yesterday I tried tacos de lengua (tacos filled with shredded cow tongue) for the first time in my mission. It's actually pretty good. It tastes like roast beef, and it's fine if you can get over what you're eating. I said goodbye to a couple investigators that we had. The missionary that is taking my place sounds like a pretty good Elder, so I have confidence that they'll be well taken care of. Elder Stewart's bike also died this week. The pipe that goes from the handlebars to the front wheel snapped in half and left him with a pretty much unfixable iron horse. Hopefully he can get a replacement bike soon, but until then he'll probably ride on something we can borrow from one of the members here. Luckily all this with his bike happened while he wasn't riding, or that would have been a pretty spectacular crash.

Today we have to be in our apartments by 7, but we're having a barbeque with some of the members until then, so it should be a fun time. About the pants you sent me Mom, the waist was fine, but they were a little long. I went to an old lady in one of the wards here and I asked her if she could take them up an inch or two for me and she was more than happy to do it. So, now they fit fine, no problems.

Congratulations to Christian on getting into the newspaper. That's a pretty sweet costume if you ask me. I haven't seen too many decorations here in Laredo, but there are a couple houses that get pretty into it. They have some giant inflatable pumpkins, witches and ghosts that look pretty cool.

Oh, I forgot to talk about my new area in Cameron Park. I've heard that it's the poorest area in the whole mission, filled to the brim with mean unleashed dogs. So it's a good thing we played soccer today, I got a chance to practice my kicking skills. Needless to say I'll soon start carrying rocks in my pockets again. One of the Elders in my apartment was also in that area and he loved it, so I don't think I have a lot to worry about. Hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell next week about my first few days back in the valley. I'll send you my new address next week after I get there. I've also heard that the apartment I'm going into is really nice, which is a big perk.

We had the ward trunk or treat party, which went over pretty well. We had two less active members come and they seemed to have a great time. Elder Stewart got some of those thick black glasses with the fuzzy eyebrows, nose and moustache attached, so we wore those during most of the party. They also had a chili cook off and had the missionaries be the judges. The best was one that was made with something like barbeque sauce and bacon, it tasted pretty good.

I hope everybody has a great Halloween night. I'll be spending most of it packing for tomorrow, but it should be good either way. Stay safe, eat some candy for me! (But don't worry, I've been eating more than my fair share of candy.)

Love,

Elder Wood

October, 24, 20011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, a bit of another rough week here, but all's well that ends well. And in the work of the Lord we all know that everything is going to end well, so who cares about what happens along the way.

So, for this email I'm only going to focus on the good or funny things that happened this week.

To start off, I found out today that a kid that I taught in my other area in Larga Vista is getting baptized this next Sunday! It's a great feeling knowing that he has chosen to take that step. I'm glad that the missionaries kept working with him and helping him through the conversion process. He's the last kid in a family that got baptized while I was there in Larga Vista, so it really is a great thing to see.

As I'm flipping through the pictures on my camera I'm trying to see the other stories that we have from this week.

In the apartment we tricked Elder Hunt into going into the laundry room, and then we pushed the fridge in front so he couldn't get out. That was pretty funny. It's a tiny little room that has just the one door that has to slide out so you can leave, but with the fridge in the way he was pretty stuck.

We were biking down Calle del Norte, one of the major streets in our area, and some big heist must have gone down right before we got there. Or somebody got shot or something. We turned onto the street and there were 4 cop cars all together and the cops were all talking. Further down the street there were two cops talking to a lady at her door. It looked like they were trying to figure out where someone or something went. Then, even further down we saw a big reception hall where people hold parties and there were three concerned people in bride's maid dresses talking to a cop. Who knows what happened, but it must have been intense.

To speed things up a bit...

My companion learned a few jiu jitsu moves from a recent convert.

We found a giant turtle with a red, white and blue painted shell. USA! USA!

We visited another recent convert in the hospital and tied up our bikes to the "Clergy parking only" sign.

We had some great tacos at a member's house.

We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Nelson, the senior missionary couple that has been here in Laredo since I got here. They have been awesome. Elder Nelson had to go home because of health problems. We had a fast for him this weekend. Keep him in your prayers if you can. He's a great man.

One of our investigators told us how she prayed to God to help her quit smoking and she hasn't had a craving for about a month. And when she looks at a box of cigarettes she just feels gross! Amazing how the Lord answers prayers huh?

I think that about sums it up, and I'm just about of email time for this week. I hope that everyone has a great week and gets to have some missionary experiences. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Wood

24 October, 2011, email post from Laredo

Dear Family,

Well, a bit of another rough week here, but all is well that ends well. And in the work of the Lord we all know that everything is going to end well, so who cares about what happens along the way.

So, for this email I'm only going to focus on the good or funny things that happened this week.

To start off, I found out today that a kid that I taught in my other area in Larga Vista is getting baptized this next Sunday! It's a great feeling knowing that he has chosen to take that step. I'm glad that the missionaries kept working with him and heping him through the conversion process. He's the last kid in a family that got baptized while I was there in Larga Vista, so it really is a great thing to see.

I'm flipping through the pictures on my camera trying to see the other stories that we have from this week.

In the apartment we tricked Elder Hunt into going into the laundry room, and then we pushed the fridge in front so he couldn't get out. That was pretty funny. It's a tiny little room that has just the one door that has to slide out so you can leave, but with the fridge in the way he was pretty stuck.

We were biking down Calle del Norte, one of the major streets in our area, and some big heist must have gone down right before we got there. Or, somebody got shot or something. We turned onto the street and there were 4 cop cars all together and the cops were all talking. Further down the street there were two cops talking to a lady at her door. It looked like they were trying to figure out where someone or something went. Then, even further down we saw a big reception hall where people hold parties and there were three concerned people in bride's maid dresses talking to a cop. Who knows what happened, but it must have been intense.

To speed things up a bit...

My companion learned a few jiu jitsu moves from a recent convert.

We found a giant turtle with a red, white and blue painted shell. USA! USA!

We visited another recent convert in the hospital and tied up our bikes to the "Clergy parking only" sign.

We had some great tacos at a members house.

We said goodbye to Elder and Sister Nelson, the senior missionary couple who have been here in Laredo since I got here and have been awesome. Elder Nelson had to go home because of health problems. We had a fast for him this weekend. Keep him in your prayers if you can, he's a great man.

One of our investigators told us how she prayed to God to help her quit smoking and she hasn't had a craving for about a month. And when she looks at a box of cigarettes she just feels gross! Amazing how the Lord answers prayers huh?

I think that about sums it up. I'm just about of email time for this week, so I hope that everyone has a great week and gets to have some missionary experiences. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Wood

October 17, 2011, Email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, another rough week as far as the field goes. October is turning into kind of a bust for us since we haven't had any solid baptismal dates at church, and the month is quickly closing. We're working our hardest to set up for November. I had a really great interview with our President Trayner on Friday. It's always nice to have some counsel about the work, and even more so from the person who has the keys to direct it. We did manage to find a couple of new investigators this week that have a lot of potential. We'll be working with them more over the coming week and I'm excited to see the beginnings of their conversion processes.

Mom's package did come, but we were out working when the mail man came, so we have to go pick it up at the post office, which we will do right after we're done emailing here.

The weather here in Texas has been great as well. Fall is finally starting to settle in. Everything still looks the same mind you, but the air isn't heating the 110s anymore. It's been about mid 80s most of this week, which just made for beautiful days. Especially in a bike area, good weather is much appreciated. Probably my favorite part of being in a bike area is the night time rides home at about 9 oclock. The burning Laredo sun has gone down so its not hot, and the air normally has a nice breeze and has cooled off, making for an enjoyable time. Also, our area is either flat or uphilll from our house, so sometimes we get some nice relaxing downhill rides which are even better.

An Elder in our mission got hit by a car a week back. They were biking on the side of the main road and a drunk driver purposely sideswiped them. Or at least thats what I heard from the story. Both the Elders got hit by the car but one went up onto the car and then came down and the car ran over his leg. Miraculously, he had no injury to his leg and was just a bit shaken up. He was wearing his helmet as well so he didn't have any injuries really. Right after they got hit the next car pulled over and said, "I called 911, and I'm following the guy" and then took off. The cops then took up the chase and caught the guy who is now facing charges. Our mission president came and saw the driver getting into the cop car handcuffed, so I assume from there it will all get taken care of. The Lord does take care of his missionaries. There are numberless examples of that, and this is just another since the Elder was able to leave without any real injuries. Don't worry Mom, I wear my helmet and 95% of the time we're on the sidewalk :P.

The town is starting to get into Halloween and the decorations are starting to go up. We have a couple pretty rich neighborhoods in our area that get pretty into it, so we'll see if I can get any good pictures of the festivities. It's scary to think that this is going to be my last Halloween in the mission field. Even worse, another missionary asked me how long I had left. I thought about it and I only have 9 months left in the field! So, from now on I should be able to see most of the newborns in the family, except for Rose-Ellen's kid. She'll be the last one born before I get home I think.

I appreciated Mom sharing the letter she got from her Mom in the mission field. It is a good one. I'll have to write it down and take it to the apartment.

Thanks everyone for the good wishes and prayers. I do appreciate them, they help. I'm looking forward to a new week, we should have some good experiences with the people we've just found. Whatever the Lord wants me to learn from the experience is worth it, and soon we'll see the blessings I'm sure. Good luck to everybody this week, I hope everything goes well!

Love,

Elder Wood

October 1, 2011, email post from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

Well, this week was a bit of a challenge for us, I'm not gonna lie. We worked hard all week to help our investigators come to General Conference. But when the time came around, nobody showed. I had a hard time listening to some of the conference messages because I was just sitting in the chapel stewing in my frustration. We had been working all week really hard to help people set goals and make plans to come to church, but I guess we didn't do as much as we should've. It's hard when you feel like you're becoming a better missionary than you've been, but you don't see anything coming of it.

But, I shouldn't murmur. Nothing good comes of whining. Can't remember who said it, but in one of the past conferences someone said, "I can't think of any problem so great that crying over it will make it better." Or at least something to that effect. I also liked the remarks of the Seventy, I can't recall his name, who had the encounter with President Monson in the elevator. "It's always better to look up". So, although this last week was a pretty big bummer, we have a new week and a new month ahead of us. We didn't see any success in September, but if we work hard and have faith, I know we can find that God will help up to help some of his children here find the gospel.

During conference I decided that D. Todd Christofferson is probably my favorite apostle. Don't know why, but it seems like all of his talks just seem to help me out. HIs talk on repentance this conference was really powerful and profound. Makes you realize just how much you have to do in your own life day by day to find the joy that comes through daily repentance.

Conference did help me a lot. When each of the sessions started I was pretty frustrated and angry since so many people who had promised us they would come, didn't show up. But, by the time the sessions ended I was always a little more calm and ready to go back out and work. I really am sad for our investigators though. They may not know it, but they missed out on a great opportunity, and hopefully we can help them take advantage of that opportunity the next time it comes around.

The weather has been cooling down a bit these past few weeks. It's not quite as sweltering hot as it was. I've heard that November and December in Laredo is really enjoyable weather, so hopefully soon we'll get to see some of that.

I hope everyone got to see some of conference. If you missed any, I highly suggest going back and watching them on LDS.org. you can watch individual talks or whole sessions, so even if you have just ten minutes, you can probably squeeze one in. I can't wait for the Ensign, hopefully it'll come soon so we can study the talks.

Anyway, have a great week everyone, and thanks to JoAnn and Nathan for the pictures and drawings, I got them Saturday. Avalee and Lincoln are looking too old. It's kind of freaking me out. Time flies outside the mission field huh?

Love you all,

Elder Wood

September 26, 2011, email from Laredo, TX

Well, it seems like you had a pretty busy week Mom. It's tough when the people you rely on have conflicts and you've got to pull off an activity without a familiar support system in place. If anybody could do it (with a whole lot of stress along the way mind you) it would probably be you.

We had a bit of a rough time this week. We had not too much change in the area, which was a bummer. Hopefully things will be getting better soon though. I'd like to have Elder Stewart see some success early on in his mission. I think I struggled a lot at the beginning of my mission because I got used to not seeing success. Heck, I'm probably still that way, but at least its gotten a little better.

I've been trying to get pictures of the things on the list that Rene sent me. I think I'm just missing a few more now, and hopefully I can get a letter off with the pictures in it this coming week. I feel bad because Rene has probably been the person who's been the most faithful in writing me without getting any responses, haha. Soon I'll get one off and that way she can at least get something from south Texas.

I got contact lenses this week. They're working all right. It's weird though because I have an astigmatism (spelling??) in my left eye, but not my right. So the right contact works better than the left. It feels like the left one slides around my eye sometimes which messes up my vision. They are nicer to have when you're on a bike though. I'm not sweating all over my glasses every day and getting sweat blown into my eyes instead of evaporating.

It looks like there are a lot of birthdays coming up. Congratulations to everybody, another year gone. Kind of freaky huh? Time just keeps shooting by faster and faster. I guess this is how old people feel, but like x10.

I'm excited for General Conference. It's always a nice spiritual uplift in the mission field. Hopefully we can pump up some of our investigators on hearing the prophet and apostles this week. I wonder what temples will be announced, that's always an exciting part of the conference. So many people waiting for temple blessings and they're just waiting to hear the word from the prophet.

Well, I'm a bit lost on what to write this week, and my brain is pretty tired so I might just end it a bit early.

I hope everybody has a great week. I love you!

Elder Wood

September 19, 2011, Email from Laredo, TX

Wood News

Monday, September 26, 2011

September 19, 2011, Email from Laredo, TX

Dear Family,

First off, thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a pretty good birthday, which was actually on one of the days that we had the three day training here in Laredo. Basically the mission president and the APs had trainings with us from 9 am to 5 or 6 pm. For the rest of the night on my bday we just worked, but we found a pretty cool family, and that's good enough of a present for me.

I got the package from mom with the camera and everything, and I've been taking pictures like a fiend. Thanks so much, the camera is great. Unfortunately I can't send anything in this email cause the library doesn't let you upload pictures, but maybe I can print some off today and snail mail them. If not, they'll get emailed whenever I get moved to a new area or if we go to the college to email one of these days. We heard about transfers on Saturday, and I'll be staying here for at least another six weeks with Elder Stewart.

We had kind of a rough week with our investigators. We have a lot of cool people that seem to be doing very well, but none of them came to church this last week, which was kind of a bummer. We're going to focus more this week on doing our best to explalin to them the importance of church attendance, and hopefully we can see a bit of improvement in that aspect this next Sunday.

However, one investigator we have been teaching that has been investigating for a few months now gave us some good news. She started investigating with the Sisters and was committed to the church but had some fears about baptism. Just this last week we asked her how she was feeling about it, and told us that it was a 'surprise'. With some digging and talking to some members and other missionaries she talked to, we found out she's planning on getting baptized in October. Hopefully she can commit herself to that step and take it soon. She'll be a solid member once she's baptized, we just need to help her commit to that day.

My companion and I are doing very well and I'm loving the area. Anyway, I've got to get going since I spent a lot of time writing to Christian and Paul. Thanks for the birthday messages from Mel & Warren, Jonathan & Emily, Mom & Dad, Christian and Paul. If I forgot anybody, sorry, and if you didn't write, it's okay. I know you meant to :P.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Wood