I Found More People from Altamont!

March 17, 2014

 

Dear Family:

 

This week was pretty crazy! So I am going to just jump into it.  

P-day was normal. Just hung out at the church. We went to the outlet mall here in Elsinore. It has a Nike Outlet and sometimes you can find a good deal. I haven't yet though. That night we got Michelle on board to be baptized on the 12th. 

Tuesday Michelle had her interview. It went well I guess. In a later lesson she asked us what Elder Rock was talking about. It was his first baptismal interview so he didn't really know to not use Mormon Slang. We saw Carolina. She is starting to be more difficult. Her manager said she can't have religious people over cuz it was starting some drama with a crazy lady there in the complex. We are trying to meet with her in a members home now. We got Michelle's baptismal program all set up at Brother Casio's house.  

Wednesday we had multi-zones in Menifee. It was just the Lake Elsinore zone and the Menifee zone. Elders Feist, Beeston, Locklear, Craig, Wilkinson (AP so he went to all multi-zones) were all there so it was good to see some old friends. It was a really good multi-zone meeting. I learned a ton. We got there at 7 or 7:30 and didn't leave until like 4. Michelle's baptism was at 7 and it takes about 2 hours to fill this font because it is bigger and slower. We got it done. Michelle was super nervous. She was like shaking and stuff. Elder Reed came back from Corona to baptize her. Elder Albright came back because he taught her as well. It was good to see both of them. You might not remember but Elder Albright was my first district leader and was a good friend back in Hemet. It was good to see him. I served with Elder Reed in Riverside and he is a cool guy too. He is planning on going to Utah State. We pretty much spent all day at a church building. We didn't really get to teach anybody. Michelle's mom Pat came to the baptism. Eldedr Albright and I did a 5 minute restoration lesson while Michelle and Elder Reed were changing. Elder Albright and I have been trying to get to be comps my whole mission, it just hasn't happened. We are going to be teaching Pat now. She knows she needs to be baptized we think. She just has to stop smoking and I bet she is good. I have never met with her before though.  

Elder Ringwood, Elder Reed, Michelle, Elder Wood and Elder Albright

 

Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning. We tried to get it done as fast as we could because we were behind for the week. We tried but we didn't get a whole lot done. People just weren't around. We tried to get a split so we could each try and visit people but we couldn't find anybody for it. We tried to teach Art and his family. Art's mom was there and she is super Catholic. That would have been fine but she didn't speak English so it was hard to defend ourselves. We sat down for a lesson and she just kinda snuck in. We started and then she just started talking over us. She just kept going on and on and on. I could tell what she was trying to get across and it wasn't very nice. Art looked really uncomfortable. She got pretty into it. She kept using the scripture in Ephesians that says One Lord One Faith One Baptism. If I knew how to actually talk to her I would have shown her what it says a few versus down just to see what she said, but we just sat there. After a bit Art just cut her off and we said a few things closed with a prayer and left. He told us not to worry about it, he said she doesn't know what she is talking about she just believes in tradition. I know one of the things she said is that she has had many visions and just because she had a vision doesn't mean she just goes and starts a church. Art told us he thinks she is crazy and then apologized. I think it might have been a good thing we couldn't understand her. I think Art liked how we stayed calm and dignified and still left with a good feeling. They met with Art the next day but I was in exchanges in another missionaries area. He told Elder Ringwood that he is still on board to be baptized, but he doesn't think Elva is ready. He said he was willing to go ahead and do it without her. So we will see how that goes!! 

Elder Albright, Elder Ringwood, Elder Wood and Elder Reed

Elder Ringwood Pretending to Pass Out

Elders Laughing and Not Rendering First Aid

Friday I went into Wildomar with Elder Peterson who is a district leader and Elder Camper went with my comp. It was a pretty slow day at the first. He has only been there for as long as I have been in Lake Elsinore so he didn't know the area super well. We ran into a road block before lunch so we took some time to work out some things in his companionship and district. Elder  Peterson is a super good guy and has a ton of potential as a missionary. It is just figuring out how to help him grown on his own. We talked a lot about stretching yourself as a missionary and what kind of effect that has on your life and others. He wants to progress so he is willing to work hard. If he just strives for the standard he will do well. We had one interesting run in. I found a list of people in a folder they had and I decided we should hunt down some people. We tried a few. One we visited threw me off. When we knocked on the door they stuck there head around the side and said "hey we are back here! come talk to us!" I was like this is weird, they are super nice. They asked me where I was from and I said Altamont. I got that face again like the Hunters did. Like I can't believe that word just came out of your mouth. It didn't take long to figure out why his name was Bart Lindsey. He said his parents are Fred and Shirley. Turns out his wife (who I think is his second wife, and isn't a member?) lived in Altamont too. She said she lived by Floyd Lyons and I about died haha. She lived in that house just south of Floyd, with the long dirt drive way you can sort of see from our house through Floyd's field. I guess her dad sold it to Gary Bird, I don't know who has it now. I think her name was Donna Batton but I'm not sure that is his past wife and the one on the records. Either way she said her brother is David. Bart also told me he just bought a 4 wheeler from Pete Watson like I was supposed to know who that was. Anyways it was a YFZ 450 so it is a sick one. He has a lot of bikes. His son is huge into motocross. Anyways he showed me the old corvette he had parked on main all the time. He also brought out his year books. He graduated a year before mom haha. Bart also asked how our old snowmobiles were doing. He knew that grandpa Leon bought two 440 Exciters and grandpa Ronny got the smaller one. I think he was right but I am not sure. Anyways that was pretty cool. I wasn't expecting that at all! 

Bart Lindsey's 1977 Altamont High School Yearbook

Elder Wood with the '77 AHS Yearbook with Photo of his Mother's Class

Bart's Corvette that he used to park on Main Street in Altamont

at Lindsay's Garage Across from Swasey's

 

Saturday was super slow. We only got two lessons. One with Michelle and the other with Lankarts. They are recent converts all except their mom. We are trying to teach her, but it isn't really working ha. We just tried to visit people all day. That morning we did a little service. The Parahinog's (our homeshare) made us breakfast. that was good. At dinner I learned about maté. It is like a South American drink that is super social. I don't really remember how that came up. somebody talking about their mission. I guess.  

Sunday was a bummer. Art and Elva didn't come to church. We had splits that night. I went and worked with members. Elder Ringwood tried visiting Art to see what happened but they didn't answer the door. I don't know if I told you about Jacob Crumell in my last area or not, but I met his mom on Sunday. He lives in Corona with his grandma. I taught him some of the lessons again after he got baptized right as I was starting in that ward. We had a good talk with his mom and she is super friendly. She has a 9 year old. She doesn't know this yet but we are going to try and baptize him. The dad is going to be a struggle though. The 9 year old wants to go to scouts but the dad won't let him because something to do with the church. I don't really know, but we will see how that goes. anyways that is all I have for now!! I will talk to ya later!!

Love,

Elder Wood