March 26, email post from Brownsville, TX (Cameron Park)

Dear Family!

This week was an awesome week! Zulma got baptized yesterday and is doing great! At the beginning of last week, she had the goal to be baptized and wanted to, but we weren't sure if she was going to be able to make it or not. But the Lord made everything fall into the right place and she was more than ready this Sunday when she was baptized. The service went great and she's really excited to continue in the church. Right now we're focusing on teaching her two sons who are 19 and 13. They've both been to church twice and are really liking it and have some strong desires to be baptized. Zulma is going to be going over the pamphlets and lessons with them while we're not there, and I think that very soon we'll be having a baptismal service for the both of them. I'm super proud of Zulma this last week. She got anit'd by basically all her friends, and all her co-workers, and even experienced some family problems, but she knew it was right and that she had received an answer to her prayers. So she followed through and never gave up. She's also super ready to be an active member. She came to church on Sunday and didn't see where the envelopes were for tithing, so later in the week she went and bought her own envelopes so that she could pay her tithing! I'm so excited for her to become a big part of the church here.

We saw a lot of progress in all of our investigators this week and we were able to even find a miracle family last night. We had just left from following up with Zulma about the baptismal service and were biking home for the night when a family stopped us on the road. The mom asked us if we could teach her son and if there were any activities for youth his age that they could participate in in order to help him. We had a really good talk about church and then we testified to her of the doctrine of Christ and how it could help her family. She told us that she's never been baptized and that she and her son and her husband all want to be baptized. They invited us over on Tuesday for pizza and a lesson with the family. The wife from the beginning recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ. She had stopped smoking four days earlier and has been clean from drinking for 5 months. At the end of the contact she asked us if there was anything that we wanted to drink at the dinner on Tuesday and we said, "well we don't drink alcohol, coffee or tea." She replied, "oh, well, I'm not drinking coffee or tea anymore then." ??What?? It was the best contact that I've ever had in my mission and I'm so excited to be able to go and teach them and help them become a forever family.

Elder Ross, my former companion (who still lives with us though), got his visa to go to Mexico and will be leaving today. It was sad to see him go, but he was able to see Zulma baptized before he left, which I imagine will be a really cool experience for him. One recent convert in Texas and many more to come in Mexico.

I can't remember all the stories from this week, and my time is pretty much up, but just know that this week was amazing and I really do appreciate all of your prayers. I got a letter off to James last week, but I don't know if it reached you before you left for Utah. I just sent it to our house since I didn't have his address.

Congratulations to Paul on his mission call! He'll be serving Spanish speaking in a U.S. border mission as well, so I imagine we will have some pretty similar experiences. It's sad to hear that he goes into the MTC just a week before I get home, but if that's what the Lord asks, that's how it'll be. Start studying all the Spanish you can, Paul. You'll want to know as much as you possibly can your first day in the field!

I love you! Take care!

Elder Wood

March 19, email post from Brownsville, TX (Cameron Park)

Dear Family,

Well, this week was a great week to say the least. We've seen some great progress in some of our investigators, especially in Zulma, the lady I wrote about last week. She has a baptismal date for this next Sunday and will need a few miracles in order to be able to reach it. She's received so many miracles already that I have no doubt she'll be able to experience those necessary to help her enter the waters of baptism this next Sunday. We're excited because it'll be the first baptism that Cameron Park has had for a while. We're gonna do everything we can to help her get there. Everything is still up in the air a little bit, but these next few days will really tell whether or not that is going to happen.

We saw some miracles again this week that were awesome. We were talking to Zulma and apparently she had been receiving some opposition from her friends at work. She mentioned that she was meeting with the Mormons to a friend of hers there who immediately started to put up protests. After throwing up a bunch of doubts and complaints to her, Zulma responded, "Hey, I've been to the Catholic church, and I've been to Christian churches, and I've been to the Jehovah's Witness church, but it none of them have I felt like I'm feeling now. I know it's true." I like what you said Mom in your letter that, "It's a miracle that anyone joins the church." Really that's true, since there are always so many obstacles and so much opposition that it wouldn't make sense that anyone being taught be 20 year old men would be able to resist it. But in reality they do, and it's because they're not just being taught by 20 year old young men. Everyone that comes into the church is brought in on miracles from on high, I'm convinced of that. The reason the work progresses is because heaven is behind it, and the Holy Ghost testifies to the hearts of men that the message carried by the Lord's humble servants is true.

This last week we had a zone conference which was really amazing. It was a day focused on the talk by David A. Bednar called, "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary." It applies most directly to missionary work, but I love the part right at the end of the talk when he expresses his confidence and love in the missionaries, pronouncing firmly, "You can do this!" If you can look up the talk I'd encourage you to listen to it, especially the last part. Anyone who's, "Trying a little bit harder to be a little bit better," like President Hinckley said, will find that short portion very inspiring.

I sent the letter off to my President Trayner asking for his endorsement for BYU. I'm assuming he knows a lot more about the process than I do, so I think he'll either inform me more about exactly what I have to do or just take care of it. And the bike is fine. The CTR bikes thing that we used to order my bike is great in my opinion. I ended up just getting a new rim from another missionary who had received a completely new bike from CTR bikes, and had all the spare parts from his old one. So, it's all taken care of, no problems at all.

I've been praying for James. I really hope he gets better. I was horrible at writing him during his mission and communicating with him during mine, but I will admit I have been looking forward to seeing him again for a long time. I hope things go well for him and that the results from the scans come back with something the doctors can work with. I've got a letter to send off to him, so hopefully it'll be getting there soon.

Also, I'm excited for conference. I've been looking forward to it for about a month now, and it's only two weeks away! Man, I don't think I've ever been as excited for anything in the mission as General Conference. It's like the Super Bowl for missionaries, only better. I've been doing my best to prepare for it and I've been reviewing some of the talks from the last conference as well. I'm super excited and I know there's going to be some great messages in there that will give me some great guidance. I thank God for a living prophet, it really is amazing!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week, I'll continue to pray for James, and I hope that everything goes well with Katelyn's blessing. Love you!

Con amor,

Elder Wood

March 12, 2012

Dear Family,

To start off, my address is the same as it was before. The two new Elders just moved into the apartment with us. I'll get a letter off to James today. I'm unsure of the address, so I'll just send it to you all in VA, and I'll trust you to get it into the right hands.

This week was a roller coaster. We had some really big highs and some pretty deep lows, but things continue moving forward as always. Emilio, the investigator who was doing really well has stopped progressing and is struggling with some of the commandments. We'll be continuing to work with him, but he has some large obstacles he'll need to overcome in the coming weeks. One of our other investigators is doing really well though. Zulma, the wife of an inactive member, has been progressing a lot and came to church yesterday for the second week in a row. Her husband still hasn't come, which is a wall we're trying to help him jump over. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks. She received an answer to her prayer about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, which were her big doubts, and so she is all set up to continue progressing very well. I'm basically out of time to write. The other story I was going to include I'm just going to clip from my letter to President Trayner and paste it in here.

The other experience was, to the normal eye, very insignificant. But to me it meant so much. Sunday night we had a lesson with an inactive returned missionary. It was just a little disheartening after feeling the Spirit testify through us and then he just rejected the invitations given to him. He was resisting the invitation to solve his problems. Anyway, that's beside the point. During the course of the talk, his buddy came out from the house, began to back up his car, and ran over my bike. Rather than being upset about it, I just laughed since it was just a happenstance. The front tire got so bent out of shape it can't be ridden, but its just a bike after all, who cares. Anyway, I left the lesson with my bike on my back and a smile on my face as we walked over to the next lesson which we had set up nearby. After having a mas o menos lesson there we left. I was prepared to walk home and try to get back in time for followups, carrying my previous mode of transportation. I had a happy attitude in the moment, but I felt just a little alone. Here we were, walking home on a dark night with my companion, just hoping we'd get back in time for followups. Anyway, it was definitely a moment when I needed a little bit of uplift. I was on the phone with the Sisters answering some of their questions at about 8:50 when the zone leaders called twice. I didn't answer, but was planning to, when I was done talking to the Sisters. About twenty seconds later, as I'm walking down the street talking to the Sisters and carrying my bike, a truck pulls up next to me. Elder De la Fuente leans out the window and asks, "Need a ride?"

They had been in their area when they had received a prompting that something was wrong with us and that they needed to come and find us. So they started driving to our area and called us to try and find out where we were to no avail. Elder Vance drove around Cameron Park, no idea where he was or where he was going, when they ran into us, getting ready to walk home with a broken bike. We threw the bikes in the truck and they gave us a ride home. It was an evidence to me that God is aware of me. He knows where I am, and he knows when I need just a little miracle to lift up my spirits. After going so long without seeing a lot of outward success, it was nice to know that the Lord knew where I was and was willing to give me a tender mercy to let me know He's there and boost my spirits. I also thank Elder Vance and Elder De La Fuente for being worthy of the Spirit to respond to the Lord's call and offer me a mercy from on high. It may be called a little miracle because waters weren't parted and mountains weren't cast into the sea, but I don't think you or the missionaries driving the truck will ever realize how big a miracle and a testimony that was for me.

The Lord is aware of us. He is always there helping us. His tender mercies are always around us. It is often very hard to see them as we are caught among the storms of life, but I testify that He never leaves us alone. May we always feel His love.

And Mom, don't worry about the bike, I'm going to get the tire straightened out at a bike store today and everything else on it is fine, but I appreciate the concern.

I hope everyone has a great week, I will be for sure.

Love,

Elder Wood

February 27, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Well, we had a great week this last week! I'm very low on time to write, (it seems like the time gets shorter each week) but I'm going to try to get in all I can.

Emilio, our investigator from last week is still doing really well. In the course of just about one full week teaching him he has read 1 Nephi up to the beginning of lAma twice, and is just about to start into Alma. He has the goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before his baptism on March 18th. I have no doubt that he'll do so, since he puts so much effort into reading and understanding. When we left him with a chapter to read he read it and took detailed notes on the meaning of each verse and what the general meaning of each verse was. It was really cool and he was able to get a lot out of just a small section of the Book of Mormon. When we went by to teach him on Saturday he said that he got a white shirt for church but needed a tie. We asked him what his favorite color was, since we go to the tie digs almost every Monday, and he said red. Elder Ross and I both looked down and saw that we were wearing red ties. We decided to both give him the ties we were wearing, which I think that he really appreciated. Then I had to teach him how to tie one, which was pretty fun.

We found another family this week that seems to be doing really well. They weren't able to come to church this week because they were out of town on a planned trip. Hopefully we'll be seeing good things from them in the future. The mom is investigating the church and seems to be doing really well and the dad is an inactive member from Matamoros, right across the border. We have an appointment set up with them for the day they get back from their trip. I think that we're going to see some great progression from them in these next couple days.

We had a lot of really spiritual lessons this week, and I'm grateful to the Lord for all of the guidance that I received. I've come to learn a lot more about what it means to have faith. This is something that I don't have a lot of time to explain, since my time is about up. One of the ideas that I heard that I liked was this, "Faith isn't knowing that the Lord can do something. (That's dumb, of course he can.) Faith is knowing that the Lord will do something." Just something to think about.

I love you, thank you for your prayers. I feel them everyday.

Love,

Elder Wood

March 5, 2012, email post from Brownsville

Dear Family,

To answer Mom's first question, the weather here is great! Today is in the mid/low seventies with sunshine and a light breeze. I don't think I could ask for much better weather. A couple weeks back it was pretty cold, but the heat is starting to come in again and soon enough I'll be complaining about sweating through my shirts again.

Speaking of sweating, I don't know if I told y'all... but my area is getting divided! The area I'm working now covers the nothern section of the city of Brownsville, as well as Cameron Park. Starting tomorrow another companionship is going to come and live in our apartment and we're going to be working just Cameron Park, and we'll be on bikes! I imagine I'm going to have some great stories to tell over the coming weeks. I'll be just in Cameron Park and on a bike, which always gives you an opportunity to catch the stories better than in a car. My current companion, Elder Ross, will be taking over the other half of the area that doesn't include Cameron Park with a new Elder that will be arriving. I'm sad that I'm not going to be Elder Ross' companion anymore. We got along really well, and we saw a lot of success in these past weeks as well. But, at least we'll still be living in the same apartment, so it's not like I'm never going to see him again. I don't think I've sent home any pictures of Elder Ross and me. Today I forgot my camera cord, so I'll be sure to get those off in the next email.

My new companion will be Elder Marshall, who will be coming in from Los Fresnos, which is a small town just to the north of Brownsville that falls about halfway between Brownsville and Harlingen. I've known him for a little while now, because Los Fresnos is actually part of the Brownsville zone, but this will be my first time really working with him.

Emilio continues to do well, but has had some struggle stopping smoking. He knows he needs to and he wants to, but he's tripped a few times in some of his weak moments. We talked with him and his family yesterday, and talked about how his family could become involved to help him quit smoking. We've also planned out some spiritual messages that we're going to send to him via text every morning, since it seems like early on in the day is when he falls on his smoking habit. But, I have great hopes for him because he's shown so much progress and so much faith. There's no way he can't beat a smoking addiction if he puts his mind to it.

We were able to see a lot of success at church, since we saw the majority of our investigators attend. All of them had good experiences there and enjoyed the three hours of services. After church we went over to one of our investigators to follow up on the experience and she said, "Yeah, I didn't tell you, but if I didn't like any of the parts of it I was just going to go and get in my car and leave, without staying for the whole three hours. But, when I was there I felt really good and I liked it, so I just stayed for the whole thing." She was the wife in a part member family who has a baptismal date for the end of this month. She seems to be doing really well and I'm convinced that very soon we'll see her husband reactivated and performing her baptism.

Anyway, we had a great week, but the rest of the district is struggling a bit. I've been working closely with the Elders trying to figure out things that I can do to help them. I have an exchange planned with them for later this week and I know we'll see some miracles that will help them boost their attitude and their faith.

I hope everything goes well this week. Thank you for your letters and your prayers!

Love,

Elder Wood

February 21, 2012, Email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear that Mom's vision has improved after kind of a scary incident. Being able to see really is something that we take for granted. I can't imagine how much harder life would be if I couldn't see.

This week I want to relate one of the greatest mirales that I have seen on my mission. We were walking around on Saturday on our exchanges with the zone leaders trying to find someone to teach, when we felt impressed to knock on a door in a street in Cameron Park. A man named Emilio opened the door and invited us right in. He had just gotten back from rehab 3 days earlier. When we knocked on his door, he was sitting there wondering if he should become part of a church. As we began talking to him, he expressed to us that his desire was to do God's will and to help other people, because he didn't want them to have to go what he went through. We taught him a lesson about the doctrine of Christ, and when we invited him to accept he replied, "Yes! I am willing, I am ready and I accept." We started talking to him about how he would need to read, pray and meet with us to prepare for baptism to which he replied, "Oh yeah, I'll do anything. You tell me to jump and I'll say, 'how high?'" We started talking to him about church and we asked him if he would rather attend church in Spanish or in English and he said, "Well, I speak both. I can go to both if you want..." Ahhhh! I don't think I had ever met anybody in my whole mission that was that prepared. And it gets better. At the end of the lesson we left him with a Book of Mormon and invited him to read. When we went by to check on him in the morning on Sunday to see if he was still going to come to church he started talking to us about what he had read. From the afternoon on Saturday to Sunday morning he had read up to 1 Nephi 19! He had been highlighting it and making notes as he read too, and he was telling us all about Nephi's vision and how he used to be one of the people lost in the 'mists of darkness'. He came to church on Sunday, loved it, and then we had a lesson with him afterwards about the restoration and prayer. When we invited him to pray to know that the church is true he said, "Oh, I already think I know the answer, but I guess I can just go and confirm it anyways." I'm super excited for him and I know that really soon he'll be ready to be baptized. Miracle!

We also met another family of five a few days ago that seems to be progressing really well. The husband is a member, but hasn't gone for a long time, but has some really strong desires to come back. The mom and two of the children are of baptismal age and are excited to take the step. My guess is that I'm going to have some great stories to tell about them in the coming weeks.

We've actually got to get going cause we have a lesson with Emilio set up and he's already confirmed the appointment, so I've gotta go! But thank you so much for your support and your prayers, I feel them every day. And don't think the prayers aren't going the other way as well. Take care, work hard!

Love,

Elder Wood

Oh, and yes Mom, I got the chocolates.. they were delicious =)

As far as the registration for fall term, I'll think about it this week and tell you next week what I've got in mind. When do the signups for classes start?

February 13, 2012, Brownsville, TX

Dear family,

Well, I'm out of time to write for the day, so I'll give you a really quick sum-up and then send you a copy of the email I sent to President Trayner for the week. (It's in English don't worry.)

My companion, Elder Marble, will be moving to Harlingen tomorrow, and my new companion has already arrived. I'll be training a missionary, Elder Ross, from Spanish Fork, Utah, who is waiting for his visa to Mexico to arrive. He's assigned to serve in the Mexico, Mexico City West mission, but will be serving with me until his visa arrives. He's been with us since Friday night, which is when President Trayner dropped him off at our house. We received about 6 hours of notice before we had our new companion, which was a pretty funny experience. We thought he was going to arrive on Tuesday, but on Friday night we got a text from President Trayner which said, "We'll be at your apartment at 8:15 with your new companion." Pretty big surprise, but it was pretty fun along the way.

Interesting fact we found out, Elder Ross has the same birthday as me, but he was born in 1992. Weird, right?

Anyway, it was a fun week and I'm excited to train again. But, sadly as I said, I'm out of time, so here's the email I sent to President Trayner.

Dear President,

I would just like to report to you how amazing and miraculous this week was. I felt my testimony was greatly fortified as I was able to see miracles wrought in the lives of our investigators. The numbers for the week didn't turn out that well, but the things that I saw happen during the week were really significant to me.

This week we saw our investigators receive answers to their prayers as they offered sincere, heartfelt supplications to the Lord about concerns or problems that they had going on in their lives. One couple we are teaching was struggling with the rent. They didn't have the money to pay it as a payout they were waiting on was delayed. Desperate and depressed, the wife of the family sat down on the couch and offered a prayer to the Lord asking for help. After the prayer, she called her father, who normally never has money, and asked if he had $200 dollars that he could loan her until their payout got there. Her father replied, "Of course!" Relieved and amazed, she hung up the phone, only to receive a call from her husband at work who said that his sister had just called him and given them $300 that she had but didn't need until later on in the month!

Later that week, we stopped by the same family, and Maria, the sister of Nancy (the wife in the previous story) was there at the house. She had been meeting with the missionaries is striving towards baptism. We spoke with her at the door to learn that her husband had been looking for a job, without any luck, and that he didn't have much interest in the message of the missionaries. After speaking with her, we said a humble prayer on the doorstep, asking for the Lord to help her husband find a job and open his heart to the missionaries. When we passed by two hours later to try and find Nancy home, Maria was still there, and her husband had just hung up on a call with a job offer for him!

The Lord's tender mercies truly are all over all the earth, aren't they? This week I have found myself more and more grateful to Him, and for the things that, in His mercy, he has seen fit to give to me. I often feel like the people being spoken to in Mosiah 2:22-24. He has blessed me with so much, for which I will forever be a debtor, owing a sum so great that I could never repay, and yet all He asks is that I keep His commandments. Truly the Lord is merciful to all of us, even when we are unprofitable servants.

The district has been in the same kind of spot for the past few weeks now. We saw a rise in new investigators this week, but a significant drop in church and member presents. The focus this week will be getting our people to obey the commandment of the Sabbath Day so that they can show their gratitude and devotion to the Lord and His commandments. We've been struggling to have a balanced effort, as it seems some weeks we do well in some things, but everything else seems to take a dive. We will be striving this week to get our investigators to church while not losing the progress we have made in other respects.

Sometimes I feel weird being the district leader here, because I often feel inadequate to be training the other missionaries how to have success when I myself am struggling to find it. However, I trust in the fact that I'm here for a reason, and often try to remind myself of the words of Nephi at the end of his writings when he says, "And ye shall know that the Lord has commanded me to write them, in spite of my weakness." I have many weaknesses, but I trust that the Lord has called me here for a reason, and that if I do my best, it will make a difference. I wonder how Moroni or Mormon felt, working so hard and yet not being able to see the results of their labors; only trusting in the promise of the Lord that their writings would be of worth to future generations and their posterity. Their cause seemed so hopeless, and it must have appeared like their records wouldn't make much difference, after hiding them away not to be found. We know that the Lord fulfilled his promises and know one of the greatest treasures that I have is what Moroni buried in a lonely hill.

I'm grateful for the chance to be here with Elder Ross. I will miss Elder Marble, but I know he's moving on to greater things that the Lord has in store for him. I will admit I feel jealous of Elders like them who are just coming wide-eyed into the beginning of one of the key experiences of their lives, while the time seems to grow ever shorter on mine. I'm committed to doing my best and using all the time I have, I just hope I can make the difference the Lord wants me to.

I hope that I can be a better trainer this time around. I definitely have things that I want to improve from the last time that I was given this responsability. When I found out that Elder Ross was coming I had studied on what I wanted to do right this time, and how I could give my companion a start off on the right foot. I pray the Lord will help me follow through with the goals that I have set.

I'm excited for a new week. There are still so many things that I want to apply from this last week of trainings. We'll be trying to improve and apply as much as we can from the revelation that we have received.

con carino,

Elder Wood

Love you family!

Elder Wood