Jan. 23, 2012, email note from Brownsville, TX

If you want to know what scripture Roland refers to in this quick note he sent, scroll down to see the scripture I sent to him.

-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Wood <roland.wood@myldsmail.net>
To: Nathan44@aol.com <nathan44@aol.com>
Sent: Mon, Jan 23, 2012 7:42 am
Subject: Re: ARL1> Scripture of the Week

Funny story. I read that scripture to someone the night before they hopped the checkpoints. Promised her that if she kept the commandments and would be active in the church in Houston the Lord would guide her through the checkpoints. She ended up getting caught at the checkpoints, but rather than sending her back to Mexico, they decided to pardon her and start arrangements for her to receive papers. It really is by the Lord that we are led huh?

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 7:52 AM, Nathan44@aol.com <nathan44@aol.com> wrote:

And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

1 Nephi 17:13

more pictures from Brownsville, Jan. 8, 2012

Pictures from Brownsville, January 8, 2012

January 2, 2012, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Well, another week has come and gone away here in the mission field, and we had some good things happen, as well as some surprises. Elder Sanchez is no long with us. He was midtransferred this morning to McAllen and is now safely over there with his new companion. He was only here for three short weeks. I did learn a lot from him and he helped me to progress and become a better missionary. Elder Marble and I are back to a companionship of just two again. I'm not gonna lie, I loved being in a trio. Four missionaries in an apartment sometimes leads to too much goofing around, and two is sometimes pretty quiet. Three seemed about just perfect. Like I said, he was only here for three weeks, but it seemed like longer. I'm thinking it may have been because we got along so well that we got to know each other like we were together for a long time. Bah, I don't know how to explain it, but hopefully you all can understand.

Oh wow, New Years was this week and I completely forgot! We went to bed like normal at 10:30, but got awakened at midnight by our neighbor's fireworks. Something interesting to know is that Cameron Park is sectioned off from the city of Brownsville. All the areas around it are city of Brownsville, but they cut out Cameron Park. It's interesting because that means that none of the city laws apply to Cameron Park. For example, in the city of Brownsville you can't buy/sell fireworks, but Cameron Park isn't the city of Brownsville. So basically the whole place is filled with firework stands because everyone from the city goes there to buy their stuff. We've heard that Cameron Park also gets pretty crazy on New Years from people shooting off guns to celebrate. W didn't hear any since we were in our house and Cameron Park is a couple miles away from where we live. Before the missionaries did live in Cameron Park though, I imagine that New Year's eve must have been a pretty intense experience back then.

I had some meetings at the church with the ZLs earlier on in the day and then we had a party for the missionaries from the afternoon until the night. So basically I spent the whole day in the church, but it was pretty fun. We had a pinata of the Book of Mormon that a recent convert gave to the missionary that I replaced. We filled it up with candy and smashed it at the party. I got some pretty good pictures of it and a video of my (former) companion Elder Sanchez smashing it open. We were running low on time so we put him in and took off the blindfold. He's a pretty big guy and without the blindfold he got some pretty good hits on it. Afterwards we played a scripture chase game and then we watched the movie 17 Miracles. I don't know if you've seen the movie. It's about the pioneers, specifically about the Martin Willie handcart company if I remember correctly. It's a really sad film, since you see some of the extremely hard things they had to go through. It also gives you an appreciation for their dedication and shows some of the tender mercies of the Lord to them during their trek. I don't think I have nearly the commitment to the gospel that the pioneers had. Don't get me wrong, I'm very committed, but what they did was just amazing. I hope if I ever had a chance to make a decision like that and test my faith that I would follow through with it.

Anyways, thank you to everyone who sent me card and letters for Christmas. I especially enjoyed the drawings from Nathan's family and Christian. I hope we can all commit ourselves to doing better in this new year and I know that it is going to be filled with some great things for all of us. I pray I can grow as much in this year that comes as I have in this year past. It really is amazing to me when I think about it. Happy new year everyone! Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Wood

December 27, email from Brownsville TX

Dear Family,

Sorry I couldn't write yesterday, the library was closed the day after Christmas.

It was great to get to talk to everyone! You forget how much you miss your family until you talk to them and remember just how special the relationships you have are. The weirdest part was definitely talking to Becca on the phone. She couldn't say a word when I left and now she's telling me all about the presents she got for Christmas. I got to talk to everybody except for Warren and Mel, so I just left them a quick message on their machine. I will admit I'm kind of jealous Mark got to talk by Skype, but I'm content with the calls.

I don't have much time to write, but I want to just see if I can organize some thoughts that I've been having. So this will probably just be a rambling letter more of like a journal for me, but we'll see how it goes.

I've been thinking about myself as a missionary. I feel like over these past few months I've progressed a lot. I feel I've become a better teacher, but more, that I've grown a stronger character. Since I've been senior companion I haven't had a baptism. That makes about 5 months now. It wasn't a huge challenge to get baptisms earlier on in my mission. Yes they took some work, but they came. It's interesting that now as I feel like I'm becoming the best missionary that I've been, they seem to have stopped. But the reason that I share that isn't to gripe, really it's just because I believe that I've grown from it. I know that the baptisms will come, and during this time I've learned to work hard regardless of whether or not I see success through baptisms. I'm not frustrated with the work or down on myself or my companions, but rather I feel full of faith because I know that soon, we will have someone make that step. Also, I feel that I've learned to take joy in the success of others. Since I've been a district leader I've come to appreciate more of the other missionaries and their success. I have come to find joy in the success of others in my district, and in my zone, rather than becoming frustrated at what is my own lack of baptisms. The work rolls forward regardless of whether or not we have a few hard weeks. I really do feel like I've grown a lot, especially over the past few months. I thank the Lord for the challenges that I've had, because I know that I've grown because of them. Sorry if that sounded like a rant. Sometimes I just have to write things out and it helps me sort my ideas as I go.

I'm grateful for my family, and that everyone is a member of the church and active. I'm grateful that they set the example for me by going on missions. I really to love all of you and I look forward to seeing you again and the nieces and nephews as well. All is going well here, and I'm having a great time. Christmas in Brownsville was a great experience. Oh, and last thing, I asked for a miracle last night that my throat could be healed. Woke up this morning and it didn't hurt. Guess the Lord wants me out the speaking and working, huh. Love you!

Elder Wood

December 19, 2011; EMAIL post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Wow, this week was really an amazing experience. It was our first week with our new companion, Elder Sanchez, and we saw a lot of miracles. He really is a man of great faith, and we had some experiences in the week that did a lot to build my faith as well. We'll see how many of them I get to share with the time that I have.

We found a family this week that is just great! We were planning the night before and we had some open time that we wanted to use to go finding. But we weren't sure of what method we wanted to use and where we needed to go. Elder Sanchez suggested that we say a prayer and ask God what we should do at 5 oclock that day. So, we kneeled down, said another prayer (this is in addition to the opening and closing), and then discussed how we felt. All of us had the idea that we should go knocking, and the question then was where. I had a section of town that I had wanted to visit for a while and then it kind of stuck out on the map to me. So we talked about it and then decided to go there. It's a pretty big street, and so when we got to it, we had to decide which direction to go. We chose to start going east to knock on doors. We went a good way down the street and then had to decide whether to continue or try going onto one of the cross streets. We said a prayer in the street, asking God to help us find a family. We then decided to continue around the bend of the same street we were on. Long story short, a short while later, we knocked the door of a lady. We talked for a bit, she invited us in, and we taught her, her husband and two of her kids. It was a really spiritual lesson. We shared with them the doctrine of Christ, and the story of how we had arrived at their home that afternoon. The spirit was really strong and they accepted the invitation to be baptized. And, to make the story even better, they came to church on Sunday, well, at least the mom and the dad. The dad was supposed to be working, but we promised him that if he prayed and asked, God would make a way for him to fulfill his desires to attend church, and look what happened! I still have no idea how his schedule changed, but he got work off and came with his wife. She had just finished work after a 12 hour shift, two hours before church started. It's amazing how the Lord works miracles, huh.

We found other investigators this week that seem to have a lot of potential, and I'm excited to start teaching them.

I'm excited for Christmas this week. I think it should be a fun time here in the mission. We're going to see some Christmas miracles. All the lights have started to go up in town. It was rainy and cold for a lot of this week, which was kind of a bummer, but I think it has all moved over by now since it's sunny and warm again today. I guess overcast days are a risk when you live right next to the ocean. Brownsville's motto is, "By the border, on the sea." Pretty true statement, and the rain and clouds come with it.

I'm starting to freak out about how little time I have left in the mission. Most of the time I just push it to the back of my mind and don't think about it. Especially around transfers and meeting the new missionaries the thought comes up a lot. The new missionaries really are the lucky ones. They have so many experiences ahead of them and so much growth that it makes me pretty jealous. That's really what I feel like the mission has been like for me so far-- a lot of service and a lot of growth. Spiritual growth of course. Don't think I'm coming back any taller :).

I think that we're really going to have an awesome time here in Cameron Park over these next few weeks. I hope our companionship can stay together for all that time and not go through any mid-transfer changes.

On a random note, I think it's really funny that our area is considered one of the most dangerous places in Brownsville. Really it's not that bad, it just has a reputation from about 10 years ago, when it was just all dirt roads and thugs. I have been offered drugs, though, a couple times by people chilling on the curb, haha. Sad stuff really! How much better would the world be if everyone just lived the Gospel? People look at me funny when I tell them that I'm a white guy/missionary from Cameron (You have to say it with the Mexican accent though).

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas this week and I'll talk to you all on Sunday! Hooray for Christmas! Oh, also, I'll be calling at 8 pm Texas time now because we have another missionary in our apartment and more time to schedule with the phone. I believe that it 6 o'clock for you in Virginia time. Thanks!!

Love,

Elder Wood

December 12, 2011, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Unfortunately, this P-day has gotten ahead of us and I have very little time to write. So, I'm just going to enter in my response to the zillion things that have happened to all of you this past week, and add just a bit about what happened to me over this past week.

First off, HOORAY! It's amazing that Levi came into the family so fast. Talk about a surprise. Miracles do come to the faithful though, so I have no reason to doubt that the Lord had a big part to play in getting that child into Warren and Mel's family. Second, I thought that I would get home without any other grandkids being born, but apparently I forgot to count on the adoption factor and I don't even know how Jonathan and Emily's baby managed to plan his arrival before I get home in July. I guess there will just be more people for me to meet after my mission.

This week was pretty rough as far as missionary work goes. Most of our investigators dropped us, and a couple of our really solid investigators moved away. I have no doubt that the missionaries will find them in their new homes though. I'm grateful I could have a part in what I hope will be their journey into the Lord's true church. My companion seems to be a bit discouraged, we've had a bit of a rough transfer. The other companionships in our district have seen a lot of success, which is awesome. I love it because it helps me see success in the other missionaries and helps me to keep my faith up, but I think Elder Marble might be comparing himself a bit too much to the other missionaries. In other news, Elder Marble and I will be companions for at least another 6 weeks. But, surprise, surprise, we'll be getting another companion. An Elder from Peru is coming to our mission as kind of an emergency thing. He's being moved into our zone. Elder Sanchez, who he is replacing, will be coming to stay with us. We'll be in a threesome for these three weeks which I think will be really fun. Elder Sanchez is a great missionary, and even better, he's a native, so I get to bug him with all of my Spanish questions.

I'm grateful our family saw some miracles this week. This last week I memorized the song, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" My motivation phrase for the week was, "ponder anew what the Almighty can do", one of the lines from the song. I guess I wasn't pondering very hard, because I didn't see this coming! Haha. I really do love the Lord, he's done so much for me in these past months. He's done so much for my family, for which I am eternally grateful. I don't think we'll ever realize how much He's done for us until we kneel at His feet and ask Him.

Have a Merry Navidad!

Love,

Elder Wood