November 12, 2013
Dear Family:
Today at 5:28 pm.
Hi! Another
great week in Corona! We had some really neat things happen this week! I will
have to keep this short, I don't have a ton of time.
Last P-day I
was still sick. I couldn't run or do much for very long. I just passed the
football with some other elders and played the guitar. Later we went with Elders
Feist and Justice to the members house again to hang out in their awesome back
yard. Their son who is like a deacon invited a bunch of others to come and play
stuff against us. It was fun.
Tuesday We had
district meeting that morning. Sam came to my district meeting. It was good to
get to see him again. I dunno if I told you, but he is back from his mission.
He had some health issues. After that Sam came with everybody to go eat at Chick-Fil-A
so that was fun. We had a lesson with Geo after that. He really wasn't all the
way there. If it wouldn't have been for that it would have been a great lesson.
We found out he is a brew-master, so pretty much he makes his own beer.
Wednesday we
went to Redlands again to go to the doctor. After that Elder Hammond and I
drove out to Lake Mathews for a lesson with a less active out there. It is the
sisters area out there, but he is a single guy so they said we should do it. It
was fun to drive out there, it is very open. That night we went on splits with
the Elder's Quorum. They had a whole bunch of names to visit so they asked us
to help. I went with Brother Smalley. He is a returning member who's wife just
got baptized. They are headed to the temple soon. We went and visited a few
people.
Thursday we had
a zone service project. The Armstrong family in my ward feeds all the
missionaries in this zone breakfast every P-day. They are moving though, so we
all just showed up and helped them out. I don't think I have ever seen that
many people at a move. We just lined up and then passed boxes down a line of
people all the way out to the moving van. That night we were supposed to go
with the Elders Quorum again. After dinner on the way up we needed gas bad. Our
gas card wouldn't work though! I had to call the fleet coordinator and work out
to use my missionary fund and then have them pay it back to me. So our plans
got changed. We would have been like 40 minutes late so they just went without
us.
Friday morning
we had President Interviews. It is always good to get to have an interview with
him. We talked about a lot of different things. After that the day was pretty
slow. We did a lot of tracting ha. That night we didn't have a dinner so I used
a gift card from the Maddens to go to Chili's. I know I haven't been out that
long, but being a missionary is making me hear things. You know how they sing
to people there when it is their b-day? Well when they did that I swore they
said "happy happy birthday we know the church is true!" I hit my comp
and was like "Did you hear that?!?" He thought I was crazy ha. That
night our plans fell through as well. I had gotten a call from the ZLs in
another zone with a referral to a part member family that just moved here from
their ward. We just kinda went there on a whim. When we knocked on the door a
kid about my age opened the door. He had some tats and stuff that freaked my
comp out, but I thought he was a super cool guy. We were talking to him and he
let us in. A few minutes later his mom and sister came home from softball
practice. There was also another guy there who is 15. The daughter had a lot of
questions about missionary stuff. As we kept going just out of nowhere the mom
asked us if they could feed us and if we could start the lessons with her son
so we could baptize him. It was awesome!! I am excited to go back there and
start working with that family. BTW their last name is the Hicks. I don't think
I said that. They moved here from Arizona I think.
Saturday was a
long day. We pretty much tracted all day. All our plans fell through. On the
plus side I wasn't really sick anymore! I was still a little bit, but for the
most part it was finally over! So that is good. We got a couple return
appointments so that is good. Hopefully they pan out.
Sunday the kids
did the primary program. Everybody enjoyed that. That night for dinner we ate
at bishop Bennett's house. His wife invited a non-member who has a son who came
to church once or twice. We taught the first lesson and invited them to be
baptized. It went really well. They seem to be excited. We are meeting with
them again today (12) at the church. We can't meet at their house, the dad is
an atheist and doesn't want us teaching in his home. Hopefully his family
getting baptized will soften his heart.
Monday instead
of basketball most of us played Texas Hold Em. We used spoons and salt and
pepper packets we found in the kitchen at the church as chips. After that we
took Elders Feist and Justice shopping with us. We went and bought me a jacket
and nice RCVA hoodie/t-shirt thing that was marked way down at Tillys. Elder
Hammond bought a micro-fiber pillow at Target. We thought it was on sale for 10
bucks because that is what the display said. It turns out it was wrong it was
supposed to be 60 bucks, but they let him buy it for 10 anyways. He got super
lucky.
Tuesday. The
day is half gone. We had ddm (district meeting). Went to B-dubs after. (buffalo
wild wings) I had never been before, I might have a new favorite! We will see,
it was my first time there, it probably won't beat Chili's or the Road House in
the long run. Elder Smith got the mango something wings that are almost the
hottest. The Spanish Elders got them too, but they didn't even affect them. I
thought Elder Smith was going to cry haha. About 20 minutes after he asked me
if his face was back to normal yet. I about died laughing, I guess he could
still feel it pretty good ha. Now we are about to leave for dinner. Elder
Hammond just got an E-mail. His visa will be coming in this week. So he will
leave for Australia hopefully at the end of the transfer and not in the middle.
We will see though. Start sending my mail to the mission office for a little
while. Sometime this week I am moving into a members home in my ward, so my
address will be different. Also I just got a call from the office trying to
decide which Elder Wood to send a letter to. It is from a Josh King. Do I know
him? I called the other Elder Wood and he doesn't know who it is either! I
honestly hope it is for me, I just feel bad I don't remember the name ha. I
think it might be a friend from college, I just don't remember his last name.
Well out of time, sorry to throw all of that at you in the last few sentences.
got to go, Love Ya!
Elder Wood
