December 8, 2014
Dear Family:
Monday we helped a member move a
piano. Those things are super heavy!
Tuesday we had DLC but no DDM. We
had a ton of lessons. I don't really remember from the names I have written
down which ones actually went though. I keep forgetting to take notes. I do
know that night we went to visit a referral named Litza. Oh little side note!
It was raining! Like a lot! I loved it! I hope it dumped snow on you guys! If
it was the same storm this was a good one. I don't think I have seen one this
consistent here. I rained two days straight. So when we went to visit Litza it
was late. About 8:30 I think. So it had been dark for hours. She was outside
luckily. That made it easier. She was a little freaked out about two guys in
all black (we had on sweaters) approaching her. I don't blame her she was
alone. We were quite a ways away to help her be comfortable but after we had
talked for a bit she invited us to come to her doorstep out of the rain to
talk. A member referred us to go see her and share the "He is the Gift"
video with her. I don't remember the conversation. I know we didn't get inside
and she didn't have time to talk long. It was all small talk. We hadn't taught
anything. A thought came into my head to say a prayer. I was waiting for my
companion to get done talking to ask when he said "can we say a
prayer?" Later in the car I asked Elder Robbins why he asked to say a
prayer. He told me that a thought popped in his head and he brushed it aside
thinking it is a weird situation to do it and not good timing. It came to his
mind a second time and that is when he asked. I still don't know why the spirit
told us both to do that. Maybe Litza just needed prayer. Maybe it was a
learning experience for us. I do know that after the prayer I could see in her
eyes that she was very humble and reaching out for God. I believe she felt the
spirit. I haven't asked her yet, but I need to. I thought it was interesting
that the spirit spoke to both of us as a companionship. I don't know if I have
had that happen before. It is normally one or the other. I am not sure the
purpose of that.
It's raining so much the rain has gotten inside the walls (Elder Robins)
Wednesday we finally got our hair
cut! I needed one. We have a non-member do it. She works at a salon. She cuts
our hair when she has an open appointment and we do service for her. She won't
let missionaries teach her. But she loves missionaries. I want to share the He
is the Gift video with her. We met with Bishop about Sarah. We are just waiting
on him now. Everything looks like it is in our favor. Thank you for your
prayers. I am a little worried that Sarah has not gone to church the last 2
weeks. She has had reasons but I don't know if they are reasons or excuses.
Elder Larson was there for exchanges with Elder Caples so that was fun.
Thursday we found out we had to take
our car in to get it painted. This is the second car this has happened to me on
my mission! I don't know anybody else that this has happened to except my
companions while I was still with them. Maybe I am supposed to be learning
something. Both times my companions were driving. It has to be painted because
we were driving and some tar got flipped onto it from construction. The fleet
coordinator gave us stuff to take it off. I am just going to blame all of this
on my comp haha. He is the one that took off the tar and it scratched it really
bad. They have to paint the whole car, so I will be on bike a week to two
weeks. Still bad notes. Don't remember.
Friday was ZDM. I tried something
new. We did a combined training instead of one with one topic and one with a
different. I liked it better. It was easier and more effective. After that we
went and did service for Terrisa (person who cuts our hair). It took all day
pretty much.
Saturday we had exchanges with the
AP's. Elder Thurman came with me into my area. We had a great day. There have
been a lot of missionaries complaining about Corona being the hardest in the
mission. Its demographics are very different from the rest of the mission.
Meaning there is money here and not even close to as ghetto as the rest of the
mission. I don't see it has harder, just different. President got tired of
hearing about it so he asked if he could come and walk around our area with us
and just street contact people. I will admit we did give him the easiest part
of our area. I shouldn't have done that. Now he thinks all of Corona is like
that. It was pretty cool experience. Elder Robbins and Elder Bloomfield came
back with President and we all blitzed that area. We went in our exchanged
companionships and then President went on his own. I think it would be super
weird to do that by yourself. I have to hand that one to President. He did
something that was super funny. When we met back together he told us he would
have had more contacts but he found our Elders Quorum President and met with
his family. He shared He is the Gift with them and committed all of them to
share it. I got a good laugh out of that. The whole time I was thinking. As a
return missionary what are you thinking when randomly a mission president comes
to your house and he invites you and your family to do missionary work? From
that families perspective that is a kinda crazy experience I think haha. We had
a kid from the YSA come out with us. His name is Jeremy. He is one of the cool
ones that I really like. We taught Aolani Gutierrez again. She is the 9 year
old. It was hard to get in the door but we finally did. I am really glad we
brought Jeremy. During the lesson one of the concerns Aolani had is that they
don't have a dad anymore. Unexpectedly Jeremy opened up and had a little heart
to heart with her about how his mom passed when he was young. We had just got done
talking about the Holy Ghost so Jeremy went back to that and taught about
prayer as well. We had a good lesson with Litza as well. We got in and were
able to share the video with her like her friend asked us to. She really opened
up to us. She is going through a really hard time. She just went through a
really bad divorce with an abusive husband. She is struggling with a lot of
other things as well. We didn't teach a normal missionary lesson. The spirit
was really strong.
Sunday we had a cool experience with
the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. A member had
us over for dinner and the devotional. They invited their neighbors. I really
enjoyed Elder Christofferson’s talk. Especially the story of the community
coming together. We only got to see part of President Eyrings. The DVR only
recorded half way through. I am sure it was great as well. We are going to help
the neighbor family with some service this coming week. Well that is all for
now! Love ya1
Elder Wood
