August 4, 2014
Dear Family:
We had another exciting week! I will just hop right into it
Monday I did actually take notes, so I do know what
happened. Worked out, opened church for Sisters as always, got things settled
in more, played the guitar, E-mailed, didn't shop it was the end of the month
and out of money!, played settlers, and then back to work! We had a cool
experience that night. I didn't know where I wanted to go, so I just kinda
drove while I talked about something else not paying attention to where I was
going and ended up in front of Martha's house! So I figured we are here so
might as well see what she is up to! I didn't realize that the spirit lead us
there until after we left there that night. We had a super good lesson. She was
off drugs and doing good a day or two before that and a day or two after but
after that the cops showed up and she got super stressed and fell back into it.
One blessing is that the one cop who comes and gives her the hardest time came
with a less active member and Martha was telling them about her meeting with us
and he gave her a lot more slack after that.
Tuesday. The night before I must have had a rough night
because I kept Elder Hugie up with my sleep talking again. I had a dream inside
a bad dream. It was trippy. And also really hard to explain haha. In my dream I
went home early from my mission dishonorably, and I couldn't remember why. I
thought I was sleeping so I woke myself up. When I woke up I was at home (but
obviously I was still dreaming). I remember I was running into stuff and
pinching myself to make sure I was awake. Next thing I know we are in the home
chapel singing a hymn in our usual seat at church and crying. Then after that I
actually woke up and had no idea where I was and was super stressed out. I had
another weird dream this week about ruining the launch of a rocket with a fire
extinguisher, not very realistic I know haha. I think I have been around crazy
people so much I am turning into one of them! I guess a was pretty loud through
the whole ordeal and kept Elder Hugie up. The Mosels came down here for
something at their old house and took us to Chili's for lunch. It was super fun
until some lady called animal control because their dog was in the car. We
grabbed our food and ran and got things worked out. It didn't take the cop or
animal control very long to show up. Ty Aragon was pulling though the drive
through of Del Taco and saw us talking and he called and asked if my companion
had bitten somebody. I guess he was trying to get our attention and was barking
out his truck window at us, but we didn't hear him. I don't know I told you but
we are now teaching one of the Sister's investigators. His name is Seth. He is
about 17. We were told they needed some help with some stuff so we went to the
church when we knew Bishop would be there. When we told him we were teaching
Seth he was pretty excited. You might say that we are his favorites haha. Don't
tell the Sisters that though. They are jealous about it enough as it is.
Elder Hugie in front of the New HomeShare
Elder Wood doing a Rain Dance
This used to be a Pair of Pants???
Wednesday another weird sleeping thing (I told you I had a
lot this week). I woke up Elder Hugie again because I was yelling in my sleep
"It's the Missionaries!!" We had a good lesson with Seth. He could be
baptized anytime. He just needs to make the commitment. I think he is ready. We
were supposed to have the member who was going to come see Martha come with us,
but when we went to go pick him up, he thought it wasn't for sure that we were
supposed to call him. He knew better. He was just being difficult, when we told
Bishop he showed us the texts and it wasn't like that at all. He is kinda crazy
too. He lives in a little camp he built in the next ward over and has 3
wolf/huskies. Some people call him the dog whisperer. I don't really know why
haha. Anyways he will be a big help once he stops being difficult. We went to
see Daniel but he was working from home (doing tattoos) so we had to come back
another day. He was about to start a couple hour long one.
Thursday we had MLC in Riverside with all the other Zone Leaders.
Pretty much the whole time Elders Feist and Cook were trying to talk me into
going to Dixie with them down in St. George. They are pretty persuasive, but
don't worry I haven't switched to the dark side yet (sorry Lisa haha) Elder
Feist was the most convincing. He told me he would go less active if I didn't
go down there. He needs me to keep him out of trouble. It is kinda like Brett
with Blake hahahaha. Elder Cook had some good arguments as well. I am pretty
stubborn still though in going to Utah State. I don't think I can be wavered.
We were in Riverside forever!! It was way longer because all the changes with
the new mission president. Instead of them feeding us lunch and letting us go
we ate lunch and went for 3 more hours.... but we got home eventually. Nothing
huge, just little changes to how he wants to run things. Nothing hard to
support. He is more lax in some areas and more strict than President Smart in
others. That is just natural though. I think everybody likes him and respects
him. During the meeting we kept getting calls from Bro. Parohinog because he
was giving a ride to Michael to the DMV and I guess things got interesting.
They didn't end up seeing eye to eye on some stuff and Bro Parohinog called him
out on it. It was pretty funny ha. Michael needs that sometimes to keep him in
line. I think by the end of it they were pretty frustrated with each other. At
the very end of the night we went to some of the Sister's recent converts we
just moved close to and painted action figures for a game they just bought. It
is called Zombieside. I dunno how the game would be, but I like painting a
zombie. I made it look like me. White shirt, black pants, blue tie, Book of Mormon.
Then I might have added some blood to make the zombie look cooler, but that
isn't important. The dad of that family reminds me a ton of Elder
Hawkins.
Are we really in California?
Friday we had ZMD. Elder Hugie and I did our best to get the
zone pumped. We kept the meeting short. Let them take a break. We even did fun
stuff to get their attention! It was better then past times, but for the most
part they were still all boring. Mine was that I had Elder Blanchard (he
was the one in the army) hold his arms out holding up stacked hymn books (I had
to go get a lot, he is pretty strong!) and then applied it to Moses holding up
the stick and Aaron and Hur holding up his arms so Israel could defeat Amulek. We
met with Terri. She is getting to be more solid every time we meet with
her.
Elder Hugie and Elder Wood
Saturday we had lots of lessons. Surprisingly a lot of them
were totally un-expected. Either running into past investigators or whatever
the situation. The one the surprised me the most was Anthony. We helped him jam
a couch into his trunk that only fit about a 4th the way in, he found sitting
outside somebody's house they didn't want. He wants us to come back now he has
his life sorted out a little better. We saw Pat. She has been gone for like the
last 2 weeks. Michelle's ex- husband was there so I got to meet him for the
first time. They are thinking about getting back together and wanted advice. I
told them to not ask me! Talk to Bishop about it!! The lesson with Pat and
Michelle was as out of control as ever ha.
Sunday we had a bomb day! All expect us having to be at the
church at 6am that morning. But that wasn't that bad. Seth came to church. We
went to Priest's Quorum with him. Jr. taught the lesson. We had a lesson at
Bro. Cassio's after church with Seth and it was cool how the spirit is working
with him in how well the lesson at church tied in with what we taught about
trying to resolve his concerns. At church I taught a Jewish lady. She is
working on building faith in Jesus Christ. It was a weird lesson because I was
on my own. Elder Hugie went with Seth to his class and Jr. and I went to teach
this lady. Nobody was ready to teach Gospel Principles so I just did the first
lesson. Well I am out of time, we will talk to you later!
Love ya!
Elder Wood
