April 21,
2014
Dear Family:
Monday was a good P-day. I think I already told you about us
going hiking and starting to change it up more on P-day. Luckily we didn't have
a set appointment that night because when we got to dinner they were a little
bit behind. It was probably one of the coolest dinners I have had. The guy who
cooked for us just got here from Tonga. We call him Jr cuz we can't say his
name. He played on Tonga's national rugby team. He cooked for us how he cooked
at home. He had a big 50 gallon metal barrel cut in half on a rickety stand. One
end of the barrel wasn't closed so he stuck a street sign in it. When we got
there he had a bunch of logs in it on fire he was moving around and hitting
with a shovel. He chucked them all out so it was just coals and squirted down
the flaming logs. He put a metal thing across the barrel. It had a flat metal
middle attached to two poles with tin foil all over the top. He put canola oil
on the foil and used a cut in half onion with a fork stuck in it to spread it
and then just left the onion on it the whole time. Then he had some chicken a
beef and pork he had marinated a long time before with all sorts of stuff with
like soy sauce garlic onion halves all sorts of good stuff. It was awesome!
That was pretty much the night. We didn't get to teach anybody. I was so full
when I left there I didn't know if I was going to be able to walk!
Debbi's Baptism
Tuesday was the temple trip. It was awesome! The only thing
I would change is we used to go earlier in the day. Now our session is at noon
so it takes all day. We didn't even get to teach anybody that day. We went to Cafe
Rio. I loved that! It was Taco Tuesday again so I got a normal burrito and then
a taco for the next day. We had a meeting that night with a member of the stake
presidency over missionary work.
Wednesday was super busy Elder Ringwood hit a rock so we had
to take the car to Riverside so our fleet coordinator could see it. It is one
of the oldest cars in the mission so it has a good amount of damage. This week
we are taking it in and we have to be on bike all week or more than one week. I
am not very happy about that. While in Riverside I saw Elder Feist and some
other friends who were headed into a meeting. We drove back for DDM. We were
late. In our DDM we roll-played baptizing a bedridden lady. We had a district
baptism because it took all of us to baptize her. We picked up Elder Godfrey
and tried to get him in and out of the font. If it was her she would have died
we didn't get him back out of the font haha. So we decided we wouldn't do it in
the font and we would get special permission to do it in the pool. We already
had to get really special permission. Debby is the one who got baptized. She is
stuck in bed and as we understand it hasn't left her house for about 9 years.
She said it was so different outside. I will talk about it more on the Saturday
part of my letter. We had 5 lessons that day to try and catch up for not being
able to teach the first two days.
Taco Tuesday
Thursday was a lot slower. I found out Jessica (a person who
is less active who lives with some of our investigators) knows Elder Wilkinson.
I called him and he said she was super active and went on mini missions with
the sisters and stuff and was thinking about going. She was going to go to Utah
to school too. So we are going to get her move active and excited and help her
do some missionary work in her house.
Friday we had exchanges. I was in my area and I had Elder
Tchan with me. He is from Tahiti. Our day was really busy but not with lessons.
We had to run to Perris and then Menifee to get a big baptismal suit for Debbi.
We had to go print music, check an Elder’s E-mail with the medical transport
info. Just a bunch of stuff like that. We only taught Michael. We tried to pick
up another family we had a referral for but they weren't really
interested.
Saturday we had a goal of 7 lessons. We got 3 haha. We got
to be there to help baptize Debbi though so that was really cool! She has been
waiting for some good missionaries to come in and be go getters. She was a hard
baptism. Just tons of phone calls. Salt Lake had to know about her getting
baptized because she can't go to church and never has. We got it all done
though!
Sunday church was just a ton of music. It was good. Michael
was there. He got a call right as the sacrament was getting to him and his
phone was on loud. He was really embarrassed. He had to keep going outside to
answer his phone but overall he liked it! That is pretty much it. It was a
pretty slow week. This next week is going to be interesting. I don't want to be
on bike.... oh well!! It will make me appreciate my car more when we get it
back!!! Elder Cook says hi! It is cool having him here in the zone. We haven't
been around anybody else as much on our missions so we know each other pretty
well from living in Riverside together. Well, have a great week! Bye! Elder Wood
