November 10, 2014
Dear Family:
Monday was a regular P-day like any other. After P-day was
over we had a good night though. We had two appointments to cover so we split
up. I went with another set of missionaries to pick up a new investigator. Her
name is Sarah. Elder Robbins went to go visit a less active family. Sarah has a
lot of member friends at school. She is a junior so like 16 or 17 years old? I
don't really know haha. Her best friend "I think" is a member I have
known for a while. Her name is Taylor Thompson. I taught her in seminary about
a year ago and we work really close with her dad for missionary work stuff.
Sarah was taught a little by other missionaries but they turned it over to us
because she lives in our area. It takes a little bit but she seems to be
understanding pretty well. We went back over the restoration with her just to
see where she is at. She really wants to be baptized. Right now her parents are
the only thing holding her back. She is really shy and doesn't like talking to
them about it. They aren't very religious people and for some reason it is a
sore spot with them. Also a big contributing factor is I think she is afraid of
her dad. I want to go over and talk to her parents and make sure everyone is on
the same page but Sarah is giving us a little resistance. Other than that
though things are great with her.
Tuesday we had DLC to great ready for ZDM. We got two
different district leaders, they have been district leaders before. It didn't
really seem like the zone leaders they both had before knew what they were
doing though or pushed them very much. They said DLC was a lot more productive
then they are used to. After that I spent a lot of time trying to come up with
something to do. My companion is filling out college applications so I just
kinda sit around and watch ha. At dinner we had a member who asked a funny
question. Well at least I thought it was funny haha. She asked what could cause
a teenage boy out of nowhere to turn into a brat. I asked if he has a
girlfriend and she said ya that is the same time it happened! And also she
asked her seminary class that and they said the same thing! She didn't believe
them though. After we said it she finally accepted it. So I got to explain that
whole deal about how we aren't mature enough to handle it yet because I did the
same stupid thing. I can't believe that I am admitting this but everybody was
right! I was dumb hahaha. I know now I guess! Now it is to late because every
dinner now that knows how long I have been on my mission says "are you
ready to go home and get married?" I always say yep in 6 or 7 years! For
some reason none of them believe me! That night we had a good lesson with my
boy Dupree! He is super cool. We are going to try and get him to come to YSA
family home evening today (Monday)
Wednesday we had another good lesson with Sarah. We had
another lesson set up for Friday but we had a little hiccup that day with her
family I will tell you about when I get there. Eddie is a recent convert in the
ward. He is the one I told you about that married a member. He texted us
because he needed somebody to talk to. We went over to see what he needed help
with. He is a really cool recent convert. I found out I am actually a couple
weeks older than him. I thought he was like Brett's age ha. So thinking about
him freaked me out for a couple hours that day. I dunno why it was so weird to
me. He is thinking about going into the military and wanted to ask us question
on getting answers to prayer. Hopefully we helped him out. I think honestly the
biggest help we gave was pushing him to get a interview with our stake president.
President Aragon is a former Green Beret so he knows a little bit about it. His
son is the bishop I told you about in Lake Elsinore that is my favorite one.
Sunday I got myself into a little bit of trouble with that ha. The zone leaders
meet with the stake once a month or more depending on the month. He asked me
(because I have served in half the stake) about the relationship with
missionaries and Bishops, Ward Mission Leaders, and the Ward so I told him what
I thought. I mostly talked about the difference it made being so unified with
the bishop in Lake Elsinore. Well now I get to go to the training meeting the
stake has with all the Bishops and talk about it there. Sometimes I need to
keep my mouth shut. Oh well, I'm not too worried about it. I know all of them
hahaha.
Thursday was pretty slow. I did get a call from Patty Cole
though! For those who don't remember she is my last convert in Hemet. She told
me that she is headed to the temple on the 29th and she wants Elder Feist and I
to go! We are both pretty excited for that. I am going to meet my goal of going
to the temple with a convert on my mission. The extra cool part though is I get
to see her endowment and her get sealed to her husband and kids!
Friday we had MLC. That is where all the zone leaders go to
Riverside to meet with President. Normally this is really fun, but I don't
really like it that much with President Mullen. It is ok I guess. I miss
President Smart. Also it went about 3 hours longer then it should so that was
really boring. President Mullen is trying to change too much all at once. We
had a list that took a hour to go over of new stuff he wants the missionaries
to do. That would be fine, but this had been a few months in a row now though,
so pretty much everybody has forgotten the last few months ones because there
is just so much of it! It was whatever though. Brown Wood is a zone leader too.
This is his last transfer. We talked about how we were weirded out to be there.
We thought we had served our time as ZLs! Sarah's mom freaked out and told her
she couldn't get baptized until she was 18. Then the next day they talked about
it and she decided she would support her. So now it is just keeping the mom
from doing that again and getting the dad to be OK with it. We had a dinner
from the YSA. Her name is Alesia. She is a recent convert. I did her baptismal
interview when I was here in Corona the first time. When I got out of the car
she didn't seem to either recognize me or not recognize me. Elder Fiest was
here before me. A lot of people in this ward just think I am him. In Hemet
people would ask if we were brothers. He hated that haha. So after we got our
food (we were at Panda Express) we were having a good conversation and I was
like "ya know when you were interviewed to be baptized? Was that like a
awkward experience or was it cool? How was it?" I was hoping she would
tell me about how awkward it was and that she hated that and maybe even
hopefully she would say the missionary who did it was weird all just so I could
tease her about it because I interviewed her. Instead she figured it out and
said "it was you!!!!" She was pretty surprised! I was too because I
thought she was about to fling her food everywhere on accident when she lifter
her hands up. So we had fun with that conversation.
Saturday we had ZDM. I didn't like it because we don't
normally have meetings on Saturday because there is a lot to do, but the
mission had MLC Friday so we had to. It went well. We did service for the
Wheats. Other than that we just visited a ton of people.
Sunday we had our two sessions of church. Also our meetings
with the Stake Presidency and the High Councilman over missionary work. After
that we didn't have much time. We went and saw Mario. He is doing good. He
really enjoyed seeing his kids in the primary program. We have been talking to
members about questions they get about the church and helping them so they
could answer. When we did this with Mario's family it was super funny. Mario
was like "well because I haven't been baptized I get all the weird
questions people are too afraid to ask all you guys!" I think the best
part was when somebody tried to tell him Joseph Smith didn't see God. He was
giving us a play by play he told the guy "no Joseph Smith really did see
God!" and would continue telling him about what actually happened. I don't
know why he is so stubborn about getting baptized. He already goes to church
all the time he might as well just do it! Well that is pretty much my week!
Love ya! (I will try and take some pics this week. I know I have been slacking)
Elder Wood
