August 25, 2014
Dear Family:
Monday! And I actually have something to write about it!! We
went to Menifee to try and "beat the old man". Some of the Elders in
the mission were giving president Mullen a hard time about being old a few
weeks ago. So he challenged the whole mission to a physical contest. He did it
in two sections. I went to the 2nd one. I actually found out a few hours after
the event that he made ours harder because one Elder beat him at the last
competition. You have to realize that he is kinda an old man. He is Like 60 or
70 and taking on a bunch of 18-25 year old kids. You also have to know he is in
awesome shape haha. He is into diving and has done 400 plus dives all over the
world. He is also really into exercise. So we did a Cross Fit thing. It was a
non-stop 20 minute workout that began with President putting a big garbage can
in the middle of the gym floor for whomever was going to lose
their breakfast. Luckily my last companion was Elder Hugie and we pushed each other
for workouts pretty hard. That is the best I have worked out on my mission I
think. Before we started he showed us all the exercises and then gave us
different reps. only 6 reps for easy. 8 for medium. 10 for "keeping up
with the old man". To beat him we had to do the last one and do it faster
than him. I’m not going to lie it was pretty hard to beat him. But me and 2
others did it! One was in the military; the other was Elder Hugie, and then me
who was about ready to use the trashcan ha. We have a lot of college athletes.
If they had actually been in shape they would have whooped us all. The only
reason I did half decent is cuz Elder Hugie would take pre-workout every
morning which gets him going fast so with me just keeping up we had a lot of
good workouts! After that about 20 of us Elders all showed up to an all you can
eat pizza place. Nobody was there so nothing was out. They were super quick at
getting all the pizza out there and stuffing us all. That is pretty impressive
considering we had the two polys (Polynesians) with us that got the 2 for 20 at
Chili’s for just one person and pounded it plus 18 other elders.
Tuesday. I forgot to take notes this week, so I am going to
be struggling on this letter ha. We had normal DDM. Pretty much what Elder
Larson and I are doing is just talking to almost every person we see. We are in
a major finding stage. So we have a lot of random street lessons, but not a
whole lot to really talk about. I forgot how many crazies you meet on bike.
Luckily we are in Corona so the number of crazies is the lowest compared to
everywhere else in the mission! We had a meeting with the Sisters, the Bishopric,
and the Ward Mission and other random auxiliary members. To me the meeting was
literally going nowhere ha. They were trying, it just wasn't working. It felt
very long for me. Mid-day we sorta had a lesson. President Krippen (he is in
the Mission Presidency and lives in Lake Elsinore) has a friend in my area we
are stopping by and doing service for, but he doesn't want us to push teaching
really hard. Super good family. A younger family. He just got cancer and she
just had a baby so they are having a rough time right now. He used to play
college football, so we talked about that for a bit. We set it up for the Relief
Society to bring them dinner 3 times that week. They have a crazy diet though.
They are strictly vegan. Sister McKee told us it was quite the adventure to
cook for them.
Our Pet Lizard
Thursday we taught the other David. Of the O'Flynn variety.
He is the Irish recent convert I told you last week that looks like Robin
Williams. He has a crazy story!! He could have told us about his life all night
if he wanted to about what it was like in Ireland and how much he has changed.
When we showed up to his house he was outside in his golf stuff. He is super
good at golf. Before he was baptized how he got his money is he would basically
just gamble at golfing and whoop whoever he was playing. He almost went pro a
while ago. He had to give up the gambling to make money to get baptized though.
Anyways back to him being in his golf stuff he is in a really humble
circumstance right now so he can't just go to the driving range or go hit 18
holes. It cost too much. He had a mattress and he was smashing a golf ball into
it. He was very consistent. He had a cover of sorts on the mattress because he
was putting holes all the way through it. Sometimes when he would hit it, it
would get stuck. His 3 kids are awesome. They are all on fire right now. All
reading the scriptures everyday and praying. We had a good lesson with them. We
also had weekly planning and Ward MCM that day as well.
Friday we had exchanges. I was with Elder XXXX (Not Elder Larsen). He is an
interesting guy. He reminds me a lot of Tommy, except a lot smellier
than Tommy. We taught David and the next time David saw me he was like
"where is that stinky guy?! If you had warned me he smelled like that we
would have gone outside for the lesson!" He has only been out 2
weeks. Hopefully he gets things figured out soon. At night we slept with all
the windows open. He is really funny though. He is a Spanish Missionary, so
that was helpful because half of my area is pretty much all Spanish speakers.
So Elder XXXX whipped ‘em into shape with his 2 weeks of Spanish haha. It
made for an interesting day!
Saturday I was back with Elder Larsen. We went and taught Omar. I dunno if I told you last
week how we found him. Last week we went to his apartment because a former
investigator used to live there. Omar only moved in a week or two before we
showed up. It turns out his family has had the lessons before as well! So that
is cool. His mom is a 7th day Adventist, so they had already been to church
when we got there. He is a cool kid though. like 17. Wrestles, and wants to
learn more!!
Sunday was a pretty normal Sunday. We had a meeting to put
together a lesson we are doing with the youth (they will be combined because it
is the 5th Sunday) to help them with their missionary work. Sorry got to go! Love ya
tons!!
Elder Wood
