September 15, 2014
Dear Family:
So you remember how in Utah about this time of year it
normally starts to cool off a little bit??? Ya it doesn't do that here ha. This
last week was hot, I think every day was over 100. Half the week was pretty
humid too. This should be the last week of it though the weather guys say!! I
dunno how! I can't tell! It is 110 right now so it doesn't seem to be cooling
off to me!! Our AC busted yesterday so last night was pretty hot. Luckily the
apartment complex we live in fixes stuff normal the same day you ask them to,
so it is already fixed!!
Last Monday we went on a hike. We got up at 4 (yes it was
still hot that early in the morning in the 80's) and hiked Skyline. We did it
so we could see the ocean, but it was overcast so we couldn't see it. The hike
took a little over 4 hours. It was super fun in the morning on the way up! We
had to make two groups because Elders Falou and Guasike needed to go slower. They
didn't make it to the top. The way down we were already pretty sore just from
going up so it was a long trip down. We were all super tired after that. I
talked Elder Larson out of us taking a nap, but he was right we should have. I
wanted to stay up so when we got home we would go to bed early and just pass
out but it didn't end up being enough sleep. We were super tired the next day.
At Walmart we had a weird experience. I saw the ugliest women I had ever seen
before, then she came and talked to me and she was a he! All pink shirt and
skirt shoulder length permed girl hair with girl sun glasses. He/She asked if
(it?) joined the church if then he/she could be one of the wives for a man in
our church. My brain kinda got super confused first off because it didn't
expect the whole womanlike look (sorta) and man voice, at the same time as a
polygamy question. I imagine I had a pretty interesting look on my face ha. I
think everybody else’s
brains were still trying to sort it out because they didn't say anything so I
just blurted out "we don't practice polygamy!" I get questions about
polygamy basically everyday but that one just threw me off. I dunno why! haha.
Anyways the person proceeded to tell me about how the Illuminati was using the
Catholic Church to take over the world and now they are using ours. I just
laughed and walked away. That person was way too crazy for me.
We got up at 4 am and hiked 5 miles each way for this hike
Tuesday was awesome! We had lots of lessons. We taught both
Davids. Ran into a guy named Hector we are constantly trying to get a hold of
and things looked promising there. I was most excited to teach the Mitchell
family, but they had to cancel and try for next week.
.JPG)
Wednesday we went to Riverside to go to the trainer/trainee
meeting. It wasn't as good as the other ones I went to. This time they split us
up instead of keeping with our companions (which they did do one of my past
times) but the AP's did not prepare. These are some of the best ones we have
had, so they probably just didn't have time, but they definitely winged it
haha. We had a cool thing happen at a lesson with David (Villoni aka
investigator not O'Flynn). We only hadn't covered one thing. Tithes and fast
offerings. We brought Bro. McKee who is our ward mission leader with us. We
were doing our best in the lesson, but I don't think we prepared well enough or
something and the lesson just didn't have the finesse that good lessons do.
Halfway through the lesson David got a phone call from his boss. This is the
job we prayed with him and he was confident that God wanted him there and not
at another offer that he got. He would tell us about how God gave him this job
and he was very confident in it. In the phone call his boss laid him off. He
was bummed and a little confused, but he still accepted to keep the law of
tithing even with the hardship in his face. He has been from job to job for the
last little while. It just goes to show you don't have to live in a perfect
world or be perfect teachers to invite others to come unto Christ. We have the
spirit on our side and he does the heavy lifting as long as we are willing to
try and pick up the load first.
Thursday we had tons of meets. It drives me crazy sometimes
how much we have to be inside because it slows down our area. Those meetings
are super helpful though because I learned a ton from them during my mission I
just get bored in them now. I am almost out of time so I am going to have to
summarize!
Friday was also as awesome or more so then Tuesday. We
picked up two new investigators and had a team up drive us around so we didn't
even bike that much! One name is Roxanne Dauer. Her son is a recent convert of
2 to 3 years and she has lots of questions. The other is another part member
family. Roxanne is pretty familiar with the church now and wanted to get some
questions out of the way. She had a couple of deep doctrine questions I have
only ever had missionaries, members, or less active people ask me about, so
from an investigator it was kinda weird. We resolved them. I mostly had to lean
on saying that there isn't a church stance, somebody just was telling your
their opinion. A few weren't even close and obviously came from somebody who
tried to anti her so they were super bogus and easy to resolve. But I like
questions! She had so many we didn't get to teach the restoration like we
planned so we just set up to come another time. The Hoyts fed us. That was
super cool too. Tj BBQed for us too, it was super good. It was good to see all
of them again. They are awesome. We taught David again. He relapsed in some
stuff because of stress from losing his job so his baptismal date is pushed
back but he is back on board and doing well.
Well I am all the way out of time! I got to go back to Lake Elsinore
Sunday for Terri’s Baptism. That is all love ya bye!!
.JPG)
Elder Wood
