April 30, 2012 email post from Corpus Christi, TX

Dear Family,

 

    Well, this week turned out to be a pretty good week as well.  We're seeing some good things happen here in Corpus Christi.  We've seen progress since we got here two weeks ago.  I have a bunch of pictures from Brownsville that I was going to try and send home, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to since my companion's card reader is freaking out.  Oh well.

 

   To answer Mom's question, my companion is Elder Mejia.  He's from Mesa, AZ, and has been out in the mission for about 6 months.  He's a native Spanish speaker, not that we use the Spanish much up here in Corpus, but it's still nice.  He's definitely an interesting guy.  We've been getting along so far, but he's different than any other companion I've had, that's for sure.

 

   I went on exchanges this week with the other Elders that live with us.  We were on exchanges for just two days, but we had a couple pretty cool experiences.  The coolest experience was probably when we met Maria Chavez.  We were walking down this one neighborhood and we got to a crossroads.  We were unsure of where we were supposed to go.  So we stopped by the intersection and said a prayer, asking which way the Lord wanted us to go.  After saying the prayer we pondered for a little bit and then I felt impressed that we should continue straight.  We did and went our way knocking down the street.  Few doors were answered, and those that did didn't seem too open.  But, as we walked down the street there was a lady who was walking her dog.  We stopped and talked to her and she seemed fairly open to us.  After talking to her for a while and asking her some questions we finally figured out that she's actually a member of the church who was baptized when she was a teenager because her friend had brought her to Mutual.  She hadn't been to church in over 20 years because her friend had moved away and she had gone inactive.  We testified of the experience that we had with prayer, and she opened up to us and said that she had been thinking about the church for a long time and wanted to come back.  She just wanted to come back, be active and be forgiven for the things that had happened in the past 20 years.  The next day she came to the ward potluck activity.  It was funny because she came in and said "Oohh, I hope I see someone I know."  Then when she went to the table to get some food a lady about her age stared at her for a couple seconds and then said, "...Maria Chavez??  Girl I haven't seen you in years!"  And then they both laughed, starting talking, sat next to each other and it seemed like she had a great time.

 

   The other cool thing that happened actually occurred at that same ward potluck.  There's a member in our area named Henry Ingram.  He's retired, but he used to be a judge in the valley.  I'm pretty sure he's the most missionary minded member I've met in my whole mission.  Since I've been here, he's invited us over to teach 3 people at his house, brought 2 to the potluck activity and one to church, and we have appointments to teach two of those people this week. (One of the people that went to the potluck activity also was the one that came to church).  Basically the guy is on fire.  The lady he brought to the potluck is some lady from Romania who has two TV shows here in Corpus, so it was kind of a big deal.  She came to church and we're set up to teach her on Tuesday.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

 

    Sunday was a pretty great experience as well.  Both wards had all three of the new missionaries speak in Sacrament meeting.  In the English ward we were asked to teach the third hour class.  We read parts of the talk by Henry B. Eyring titled, "Let Us Raise Our Voice Of Warning", which is one I highly reccomend, and then brainstormed ideas as to how we could help others hear the gospel.  I think it went pretty well and we got the members excited.  An active member that had previously been discouraged with her missionary efforts and didn't really want to continue told us after that she's going to invite 10 families to her house for a discussion in two weeks and that we'll come to teach them.  Seeing fruits of your efforts is always nice, isn't it?

 

   Anyway, we're having a great time here up in Corpus.  Today for P-Day we're going to the aquarium and maybe to go visit the Lexington.  Hopefully, I'll come back with some good pictures.

 

  I'm glad to hear that James is doing better.  It's good to know that God's helping the doctors to know what the heck they're doing. 

 

   The computers here at the church have a filter on blogs, so I can't see the family blog anymore, so if someone could email me a picture of Michael that'd be great =)

 

   I love you so much, take care!

 

Elder Wood

Apr. 23,20112, email post from Corpus Christi, TX

Quick update, President Trayner just sent off my recommendation for BYU, so y'all should be able to sign me up for classes now.

On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Roland Wood <roland.wood@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Dear Family,

 

   Welcome Michael!  Wow, I can't believe I have another nephew!  That's amazing!  At least it won't be too long before I see him right?  If you could email me some pictures that would be great because I'm using the church computer which has a filter that doesn't let me see the family blog.  Lame, I know. 

 

   Well, let me get off some of the basic info from this last week.  Just to make sure it's right, the address here is 3333 S. Alameda Apt 4H, Corpus Christi, TX, 78411.  I'm in the Corpus Christi central area.  We have a car here in this area, but the other elders that live with us are on bikes.  I'm kind of sad to be back in a car right before the end of my mission.  I really like the bike experience, but sadly it looks like that won't be coming back.  I like the car as well, don't get me wrong, but the bike just gets you more stories.

 

   The weather up here in Corpus Christi is just amazing.  We're averaging between 75 and 85, sunny, with a light breeze.  We've only had one day so far when it rained, and it wasn't even really that bad.  We live just four or five blocks from the Gulf, which is pretty cool.  We run out to the Gulf in the mornings sometimes.  It's quite a pretty sight in the morning with the sunrise and all. 

 

   We've been having a great time here in Corpus Christi so far.  We've seen a great amount of success here in the wards.  We have a small English ward and an even smaller Spanish branch.  The average attendance for the English ward is about 70 to 80 people, and the Spanish branch normally is about 30 people.  It turns out that I'm whitewashing the area as well with my new companion, Elder Mejia.  He's from Arizona and is a really good elder,  A hardworker for sure, which is something really great.  There are four elders in our district and three of the four of us all got here a week ago, so things in the ward are very new.  I had meetings with both the bishop and the branch president.  We talked to them about some of the goals that they had for the units here. Both meetings went well and I think that we did a lot to gain the trust of the leaders here.  Just in the last week we saw a big improvement in the work and we should be seeing even more success this week.  We have received a lot of referrals from the members here, which I think is a good sign.  There are a large number of part member families here, and we've got appointments with quite a few of them, to try and get things moving with some of those families.

 

   We've been working a lot to clean our apartment since we got here.  It was left pretty messy and we've been trying to clean it as best we can.  It'll be a pretty intense job, but the number of bugs has gone down already.   I think I've managed to take pictures of all my apartments so far, except for maybe one, which was my first apartment in Laredo.  But, other than that,  I'm pretty sure that I have photos of all of them.

 

  On a random note, I just remembered something that happened last week on Monday night.  So you haven't heard about it.  We were visiting our members and recent converts before I left, and that day, there was a big thunderstorm.  We got caught out in the thunderstorm on the bikes, and there was lightning hitting around us, so we  took cover in a member's home.  When the storm was clearing up, we went over to Zulma's house so I could say my goodbyes and give her an exhortation to stay active.  When we got to Zulma's house, there was a giant DOUBLE rainbow that went right over her house!  We got a picture with her and her family outside the house with the rainbows going over it.  Cool stuff.  I also got some really good sunset pictures that day as well.

 

  I sent an email and a text off to President Trayner asking him to make the recommendation so you all can sign me up for the classes.  Hopefully that can happen today. I had an interview with him on Thursday, and I brought it up, so I imagine it will be taken care of soon.

 

   I'm the district leader here for the North district of Corpus.  It's a small district of just two companionships, but I know soon some great things will be coming out of it.

 

   We had a great first week here in Corpus, and next week is gonna be great too!  Let me know how Michael is doing!

 

Love you,

Elder Wood

April, 16, 2012, email from Brownsville, TX ADDRESS CHANGE!

Dear Family,

   Well, kind of sad to say it, but... I'm going to Corpus!  I've been down in the valley and Laredo (the Spanish speaking areas of the mission) for basically my whole time of service, but it looks like I'll be heading up to the 'Great White North', as we call it, for the last three months.  Luckily my area is one of the two areas in Corpus that attend the Spanish branch, and the building is in our area.  Apparently there are a bunch of Corpus landmarks in my area.  There's an area called, 'the cut', which is the rougher part of Corpus, the Lexington, which is a U.S. battleship turned tourist attraction I believe, and Ocean Drive, which apparently has like the billion dollar mansions or something like that on it.  So, I'm sure that I'll be having a great time there and I expect to come back with lots of stories and pictures from that place.

   I'm sad to leave Cameron Park.  I feel like I've had so much growth here.  I've improved my faith, hope and attitude as a missionary so much.  I've had a chance to establish some really meaningful relationships with a lot of the members in our area.  I said my goodbyes to a bunch of our members, recent converts and returning less actives yesterday.  The rest of tonight will pretty much be filled with the same thing.  I've been in Cameron Park longer than I've been in any other area, and it's sad to see it go.  I'm not sure I'll ever have another area that can give me as many memories or hilarious stories as this one.  But, time will tell.  I've heard great things about Corpus and I know that the Lord has a special purpose for me there.  I look forward to giving it my all and doing my best to further the work there with the time that I have.

   Carlos and Cristian, Zulma's children, were interviewed on Sunday and they'll be getting baptized next week.  I won't be there, which is a bit of a bummer, but really I don't need to be there anyway.  The baptism isn't between them and me, it's between them and the Lord, and I know that they'll follow through with it and be strong members regardless of whether I'm there or not.  Plus I'll have them send me a picture anyway, haha.  I'm sad that I'm heading off, but I'm confident that they'll continue in the Gospel path.

   I'm glad to hear that James is back at home.  My letter to him is still sitting in my apartment, sadly.  I failed at getting it off this week.  I'm grateful though that it isn't a brain tumor.  Hopefully soon the doctors can figure out what it is an help him to overcome it.

   One of the recent converts in our area is a big collector of Hotwheels cars.  We've helped him a lot in the past few months to keep moving forward and progress despite opposition that comes his way.  I was really amazed because yesterday when we said our goodbyes he gave me one of his collectable cars that's worth about $35.  It's one of the newer ones that just came out, and in my opinion it looks pretty dang cool.  It just came out in January of this year and you have to buy twenty other cars from a certain store in order to get it.  I haven't explained much of this in my emails home, but I've learned a lot about Hotwheels collecting from this recent convert.  We have our gospel lessons and everything of course, but he always manages to show us what new things he's found.  In the course of my time here, I think he's given me five or so Hotwheels that are special or collectable. I told him Dad had an Edsel in the garage.  He went out and found me a 55 Edsel Hotwheels that's an 'error'.  That's when the machine messes up and puts the car into the packaging in an incorrect position.  I know, the things you learn right?)  Anyway, it was a really nice gesture from him and I'm sure I'll be missing him a lot.  Also, before his baptism he struggled with drinking, so he gave me one of his old shotglasses that has all of the monuments in Washington, D.C. stamped on it.  That one made me laugh.

   I'm saying my goodbyes to the rest of our people in our area tonight, but I'm excited and nervous for Corpus.  For some reason I feel like it's going to a whole different world just because it's like a U.S. mission up there and more like a Mexican mission down here.  We'll see what the change brings, but I'm excited for it and whatever challenges might come my way.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers, I love you!

Elder Wood

P.S. if there's any way you can start signing up for classes, please do so.  If you look at the classes I've already taken I need to take part two of a Ancient European Culture class or something like that, and then maybe to move onto some more Chemistry classes.  Anatomy would be good as well.  But, just look at the required classes for the Physiology and Developmental Biology major and maybe go from there.  I have interviews with President in a week or two and hopefully I can get a good answer out of him about the reccomendation for BYU and all.  Thanks!

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Roland Wood <roland.wood@myldsmail.net> wrote:

just getting off a short notice before I actually start emailing you all and president.  On tuesday I'll be getting transferred up to Corpus Christi to work in the central part of the town.  (aka the ghetto).  Here's what my address will be up there...

Elder Roland Wood

3333 S. Alameda

Corpus Christi, TX, 78411

Love you!

March 9, 2012, email post from Brownsville, TX

Dear Family,

Before I forget, and so that the confusion can end, my return date home will be Wendesday, July 11th.

I sent a letter off to James, but it came back to me this last week. I'm not sure why. I wrote the 4510 Virginia address, but who knows. I'll try to get it out again today.

Easter was a great experience. As you noticed, I was on Facebook! Mormon.org was running a campaign this last weeked where ads were run on Youtube and the link was made with Facebook to share testimonies about Jesus Christ. Our mission president had all of the missionaires in our zone do it, and it was a pretty cool experience.

Well, Easter really is a great time of year. I'm grateful that we have a chance to remember what Christ did for us, especially in the great culminating event of it all, His resurrection. Unfortuantely, I've squandered my writing time, so you'll have to forgive me, but maybe I can just share one or two quick stories.

Zulma continues to do well. She was confirmed yesterday, since it was the first Sunday after conference. She and her son came to the activities at the church on Tuesday. Her son went to Mutual and she went to a cooking activity that they had. The son has a baptismal date for the 22nd of this month, and I have no doubt that we'll be holding his service very soon. Zulma was able to enjoy some good fellowship which is exactly what we want for her at this point just after her baptism. She enjoyed the activity and got to know a few of the sisters a little better. A big plus--we ate empanadas, which are pretty delicious by themselves. They're also super easy to make, which is great if I ever want to make any myself. Interestingly enough, in the recipe we used, they put Coke in the dough to give it a flavor and make it rise just barely. We made like a billion of them too, so there was plenty to eat and take home. I don't have the recipe on me now, but I'll try to send it home next week so maybe Mom can try making some.

I did get the package Mom sent! Thanks for everything! My companions were pretty impressed about the tie. Down here we get to learn all of the tie brands and why some are better than others because of all the tie digs we go to. You did a pretty good job, Mom. Countess Mara is a pretty good brand and it was a solid tie, so the rest of the Elders in the apartment are pretty jealous; not that that's the goal or anything, but I think it still gets points.

Anyway, I'm out of time and all the other Elders are waiting on me, so I've got to go. Say Hi to James for me, put in my happy wishes for Calvin's first birthday and tell Paul to start learning his Spanish. I'll be writing all my letters to him in Spanish when he's in the field, so now's the time to start practicing.

I love you! Thanks so much!

Love,

Elder Wood

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