June 10, 2013
Dear Family:
So this has been a long but exciting week. We had Chase (our
mini missionary) with us from last Saturday (the 1st) until yesterday (the
9th). Elder Feist and I really liked him and it was a good experience for all
of us. Chase is really excited to go on his mission now. But before I get into
my letter to much I am going to reply to your last letter. Mom I think that is
pretty much the only time I have had a bloody nose. I had one really mild one
the other day, but it really hasn't been a problem. It seems like the new
program you are using in young women's is really cool. I like how they use roll
play and stuff in it. The girls will learn a lot. Dad this has nothing to do
with your last letter but I came up with a new snowboarding lunch technique
that you and everybody should try out and let me know how it goes. For lunch I
bought a dollar instant potato packets. They are called "Idahoan Potatoes"
and they are at Wal-Mart. Probably Swasey's too. Anyways one day I decided to
not get any dishes dirty except for my fork and just boil some water and pour
right into the packet and it worked! I had to dig at the corners a little bit
with my fork but I think with the hot water at the resort it might just work.
And it makes quite a bit too. Anyways food for thought until next winter. Brett
that is pretty sweet about your new job, I hope the move and everything goes
well for you. Jason I remember Myckel Beorchia. That is crazy you have the job
in the room next to her. I thought you had to be like a grad student for that
or something. The lady that worked there before actually used to live in
Randalett I think. Maybe just Fort Duchesne, I don't remember. All I remember is
I thought it was really close to where Lisa's parents live.
So Monday was just normal p-day festivities. I don't remember if it was last p-day or the one before that but we came back to the church and sort of golfed/drove. We had those yellow fake golf balls that don't fly as far as golf balls. We were still hitting it almost out of the parking lot though ha. That was fun, but when some members saw us I don't think they liked it haha. But we were being careful and not messing up the grass.
Tuesday for some reason Pres couldn't come to do interviews until Wednesday so we switched the exchange with the ZL's to Tuesday. So I got to drive a day early! but I didn't get to go spend the night cuz we didn't exchange until Tuesday morning. Driving was a blast fyi. I kinda miss it ha. I had a pretty awesome day. We had district meeting that morning and it ended up being super funny. The other Spanish Eelders were asking everybody's advice on one of their investigators. What happened was they have this kid investigator and he is 16. For some reason he can't keep out of Juvy. Anyways he has had a girlfriend for the last couple years and he just got her pregnant. The guy doesn't really have anywhere to live so he is living with his pregnant girlfriend's parents. The parents really like him a lot, and told him that they want to adopt him. So he is asking the Elders for advice. They are having a hard time knowing how to help him. They can either tell the two 16 years olds to get married (not sure it is the best but probably better) or he can have the parents adopt him. The problem with that is he will have had a baby with his sister... which doesn't sound so good when people ask about your baby and you tell them you are brother and sister (legally?). The kid is really excited about getting adopted because right now he is going through all sorts of craziness with foster parents and he wants really bad to get out of that program unless he gets married, adopted, or turns 18. To top it all off the pregnant girl was recently paralyzed. Not that it is part of the story, I just thought it was interesting. Anyways moral of the story is! Bad situations make the strangest stories! Later that day we talked to a guy who plays the accordion. That was really cool. I could actually talk to him because he spoke both Spanish and English. He ended up letting me try playing it and it was pretty sick.
Wednesday we did President interviews. It was really cool cuz the President and I had a pretty good talk. In the middle a lizard got into the room we were in from outside. Then the rest of the day was busy. We had meetings with probably all the most intense lessons of the week all in one day. We taught Susan because I finally talked her into letting us meet with her again. That got a little bit frustrating for me just because she agrees with everything we say, but is just having a hard time with one or two stupid things. Also it was a pain that she has some dumb translation of the bible. Ya know like the kind where they make it easier for people to read it by talking out the old English type stuff? Anyways she knows sort of our organization of the church to the extent she knows about the 70. In her bible in Luke it reads that there are 72 instead of 70 and that always bugged her but I didn't ever find the scripture cuz I thought that was stupid. Anyways it was nice to have Chase there cuz while Feist and I were teaching he looked up different scriptures like the one about the 70 while we were teaching. Then we had Charlotte Cross who is always a good lesson. I like all the questions she asks because she is involved and I want to learn more. Then we finally got in a lesson with Tamra cuz she always ditches and we put her on date. That night I went to Ruth and Jessie's house with Bro Hulse with Elder Feist and Chase went and did other stuff. That ended up being a super awesome super spiritual lesson, and really long ha. At first I spent a lot of time on Jessie cuz she is getting her patriarchal blessing Sunday (yesterday). Also we are going to teach her baby daddy so we were getting that figured out. Then after all of that I wanted to help out her mom and I had a good scripture in mind I think it was 3 Nephi 13 like the very end of the chapter. Anyways just to help her build faith and go to church and stuff. Anyways that ended up really hitting Jessie hard because of an answer she got to a prayer that morning about just keeping on going and working towards being active and not worrying about other things so much. The spirit was way way strong there and I am still mad at myself for not having Chase there to experience how amazing missionary work can be.
Thursday we had exchanges with our district leader but I stayed this time and Elder Feist went to Park Hill Ward. We had our day our planned out and then I got a call from the ward and they needed me to go help somebody move after lunch that just had surgery on his arm. They are a super awesome couple. Unfortunately they just got broken into, thus the move. Anyways that took a good part of the day. It was fun though cuz the Reeves are awesome and I got to ride in their sick raptor. It pulled the trailer well. but it was a lot more fun when we dropped the trailer and he got on it. That thing was pretty fast. He also had a sick bike. It was a Yamaha Stryker 1323. I think anyways. Whatever it was it looked awesome. he wants to buy a Road Star from some friend in Orange County because he loves how they ride.
Friday was temple trip so it was bomb! Elder Feist forgot his recommend haha... but they searched his name and let him in. We rode with Elders Kelly and Albright so that was fun. The guy who drove us from their ward took us all to big boy and bought us burgers. He also took us to CTR books. There are some cool and useful books there for missionaries if anybody ever wants to buy me some ha. Later that day I went to go talk to a lady and she started talking to me first. I guess she has a son on a mission somewhere and she went and got us all gift card to eat at Chipotle.
Saturday was normal as usual. Plus we helped with that move again. This time we took the Diamond Valley Elders because that is where they are moving to (Elders Tonini and Hawkins).
Sunday I went over to Susan's house and woke her up for church. She came though! Also Charlotte Cross was there too. Chase left us at like 6:30, so that was sad, I really liked him. it was kinda funny, he asked about advice on a girlfriend he had for the like last three years (he is a Senior next year). I told him about my experience and how awesome my Senior year ended up being and all the benefits of not having one ha (well maybe just a relationship? I dunno if mine was exactly a gf haha:). E. Feist supported me in that, cuz he had a similar experience. Pretty much we told him how much fun we had without, how much more our parents trusted us, how many more friends we made, and everything. He agrees and I think he is going to make his Senior year a lot better for himself now.
Well next week should be cool. Wednesday I get to go to Riverside for Trainer/Trainee meeting. Saturday we get to go to Moreno Valley for transfers. Normally we just do phone calls but after next week we will have 6 zones instead of 12. So there is going to be a lot of craziness and people won't see their mission friends and stuff and all the phone calls that were going to happen and everything. Pres decided just to have a meeting that starts at 9 this will probably be like 2 hours long. Even though our mission will be halved almost we are still going to hold the number of 200 missionaries, so some wards will be doubling up and Elder or Elder/Sister combo. It'll be interesting. I shouldn't have to worry about moving this transfer cuz I am a trainer. You train somebody for 12 weeks, and it's will only be 6 weeks. but hey, anything could happen. So just so your aware maybe next week send stuff to the mission office instead of my address in case of a move. Even if I move missions they will know where to send it. Or you can wait to get my e-mail, but if I move it won't do me any good, because I won't know my physical address to give you until I get a letter from the mission office. But that shouldn't be a problem, I don't think I will move this transfer. Anyways I am over time and should get going! Love you all tons!
Elder Wood
So Monday was just normal p-day festivities. I don't remember if it was last p-day or the one before that but we came back to the church and sort of golfed/drove. We had those yellow fake golf balls that don't fly as far as golf balls. We were still hitting it almost out of the parking lot though ha. That was fun, but when some members saw us I don't think they liked it haha. But we were being careful and not messing up the grass.
Tuesday for some reason Pres couldn't come to do interviews until Wednesday so we switched the exchange with the ZL's to Tuesday. So I got to drive a day early! but I didn't get to go spend the night cuz we didn't exchange until Tuesday morning. Driving was a blast fyi. I kinda miss it ha. I had a pretty awesome day. We had district meeting that morning and it ended up being super funny. The other Spanish Eelders were asking everybody's advice on one of their investigators. What happened was they have this kid investigator and he is 16. For some reason he can't keep out of Juvy. Anyways he has had a girlfriend for the last couple years and he just got her pregnant. The guy doesn't really have anywhere to live so he is living with his pregnant girlfriend's parents. The parents really like him a lot, and told him that they want to adopt him. So he is asking the Elders for advice. They are having a hard time knowing how to help him. They can either tell the two 16 years olds to get married (not sure it is the best but probably better) or he can have the parents adopt him. The problem with that is he will have had a baby with his sister... which doesn't sound so good when people ask about your baby and you tell them you are brother and sister (legally?). The kid is really excited about getting adopted because right now he is going through all sorts of craziness with foster parents and he wants really bad to get out of that program unless he gets married, adopted, or turns 18. To top it all off the pregnant girl was recently paralyzed. Not that it is part of the story, I just thought it was interesting. Anyways moral of the story is! Bad situations make the strangest stories! Later that day we talked to a guy who plays the accordion. That was really cool. I could actually talk to him because he spoke both Spanish and English. He ended up letting me try playing it and it was pretty sick.
Wednesday we did President interviews. It was really cool cuz the President and I had a pretty good talk. In the middle a lizard got into the room we were in from outside. Then the rest of the day was busy. We had meetings with probably all the most intense lessons of the week all in one day. We taught Susan because I finally talked her into letting us meet with her again. That got a little bit frustrating for me just because she agrees with everything we say, but is just having a hard time with one or two stupid things. Also it was a pain that she has some dumb translation of the bible. Ya know like the kind where they make it easier for people to read it by talking out the old English type stuff? Anyways she knows sort of our organization of the church to the extent she knows about the 70. In her bible in Luke it reads that there are 72 instead of 70 and that always bugged her but I didn't ever find the scripture cuz I thought that was stupid. Anyways it was nice to have Chase there cuz while Feist and I were teaching he looked up different scriptures like the one about the 70 while we were teaching. Then we had Charlotte Cross who is always a good lesson. I like all the questions she asks because she is involved and I want to learn more. Then we finally got in a lesson with Tamra cuz she always ditches and we put her on date. That night I went to Ruth and Jessie's house with Bro Hulse with Elder Feist and Chase went and did other stuff. That ended up being a super awesome super spiritual lesson, and really long ha. At first I spent a lot of time on Jessie cuz she is getting her patriarchal blessing Sunday (yesterday). Also we are going to teach her baby daddy so we were getting that figured out. Then after all of that I wanted to help out her mom and I had a good scripture in mind I think it was 3 Nephi 13 like the very end of the chapter. Anyways just to help her build faith and go to church and stuff. Anyways that ended up really hitting Jessie hard because of an answer she got to a prayer that morning about just keeping on going and working towards being active and not worrying about other things so much. The spirit was way way strong there and I am still mad at myself for not having Chase there to experience how amazing missionary work can be.
Thursday we had exchanges with our district leader but I stayed this time and Elder Feist went to Park Hill Ward. We had our day our planned out and then I got a call from the ward and they needed me to go help somebody move after lunch that just had surgery on his arm. They are a super awesome couple. Unfortunately they just got broken into, thus the move. Anyways that took a good part of the day. It was fun though cuz the Reeves are awesome and I got to ride in their sick raptor. It pulled the trailer well. but it was a lot more fun when we dropped the trailer and he got on it. That thing was pretty fast. He also had a sick bike. It was a Yamaha Stryker 1323. I think anyways. Whatever it was it looked awesome. he wants to buy a Road Star from some friend in Orange County because he loves how they ride.
Friday was temple trip so it was bomb! Elder Feist forgot his recommend haha... but they searched his name and let him in. We rode with Elders Kelly and Albright so that was fun. The guy who drove us from their ward took us all to big boy and bought us burgers. He also took us to CTR books. There are some cool and useful books there for missionaries if anybody ever wants to buy me some ha. Later that day I went to go talk to a lady and she started talking to me first. I guess she has a son on a mission somewhere and she went and got us all gift card to eat at Chipotle.
Saturday was normal as usual. Plus we helped with that move again. This time we took the Diamond Valley Elders because that is where they are moving to (Elders Tonini and Hawkins).
Sunday I went over to Susan's house and woke her up for church. She came though! Also Charlotte Cross was there too. Chase left us at like 6:30, so that was sad, I really liked him. it was kinda funny, he asked about advice on a girlfriend he had for the like last three years (he is a Senior next year). I told him about my experience and how awesome my Senior year ended up being and all the benefits of not having one ha (well maybe just a relationship? I dunno if mine was exactly a gf haha:). E. Feist supported me in that, cuz he had a similar experience. Pretty much we told him how much fun we had without, how much more our parents trusted us, how many more friends we made, and everything. He agrees and I think he is going to make his Senior year a lot better for himself now.
Well next week should be cool. Wednesday I get to go to Riverside for Trainer/Trainee meeting. Saturday we get to go to Moreno Valley for transfers. Normally we just do phone calls but after next week we will have 6 zones instead of 12. So there is going to be a lot of craziness and people won't see their mission friends and stuff and all the phone calls that were going to happen and everything. Pres decided just to have a meeting that starts at 9 this will probably be like 2 hours long. Even though our mission will be halved almost we are still going to hold the number of 200 missionaries, so some wards will be doubling up and Elder or Elder/Sister combo. It'll be interesting. I shouldn't have to worry about moving this transfer cuz I am a trainer. You train somebody for 12 weeks, and it's will only be 6 weeks. but hey, anything could happen. So just so your aware maybe next week send stuff to the mission office instead of my address in case of a move. Even if I move missions they will know where to send it. Or you can wait to get my e-mail, but if I move it won't do me any good, because I won't know my physical address to give you until I get a letter from the mission office. But that shouldn't be a problem, I don't think I will move this transfer. Anyways I am over time and should get going! Love you all tons!
Elder Wood
