The Mission Splits into More Missions

June 17, 2013

 Dear Family:

So this week was really good, but kinda crazy.

Monday was a good p-day as always. We found this really cheap golf course and went golfing for 11 bucks. That was really fun! But now I am eating mack and cheese for lunch the rest of the month haha, jk I have better food than that. Elder Spencer gave me a bunch of his food because he is getting transferred so I am good. Then after that we were pretty sweaty cuz it was hot. Elder Feist and I got dropped off at our place so we could shower and head to our dinner. Our water was out again, so we went to dinner pretty stinky and stuff. We also didn't shave because we didn't have water (I could have used my electric one, but it was a good excuse to get away with it ha). Our dinner we had outside cuz Sister Hulse's husband wasn't back from running the girls camping stuff to Big Bear for Young Women’s Camp, but it was really good.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting with my old district. After we took pictures and stuff, (I have a bunch of pictures from the last weeks I need to send but I keep running out of time to send them, I will try and do better ha :) After that we went and taught Charlotte and got her baptism date set for sure. She is getting baptized on the 22nd, so that is really exciting. I am pretty pumped for that. We also went and taught somebody Elder Feist found on exchanges. She is from Church of Christ. She has a son who is American Sign Language (ASL), so we might end up just calling the ASL missionaries and having them come and teach them.

Wednesday we went to Riverside for Trainer/Trainee meeting. It was really good as always, as things are with President Smart. It was also good to get to see some of my missionary friends. We met this lady named Cheryl. She invited us in and fed us some soup even though we told her not to. I was kinda freaked out at first because of the house and dog. Her dog was super nasty looking like it hadn't eaten in a long time, but she said it is just super old and eats like a pig. Anyways even though I was pretty freaked out her soup was pretty good. We taught her a little bit and we are excited to teach her more.

Thursday we had exchanges and the DL went to my area with Elder Feist, so I went to Park Hill ward. There are some interesting people over there. That is the more getto place where I got proposed to. We had clean check from the senior companionship in our area. Elder and Sister Morgan from Panquitch. They are really cool, and they know the Coopers. Since I wasn't at my place I got to just sit and talk to Elder Morgan the whole time. We had a really good talk and I really enjoyed it. He asked me if I know Arvel Beckstead from Talmage. I said I didn't think I would meet anybody on my mission that knew where Talmage is! I don't remember who Arvel is but I said I’m sure my grandpa does, but that it sounded familiar. Also somehow in the conversation I found out Sister Morgan’s maiden name is Foy. I told her I knew some Foys in Altamont! She was pretty surprised. She was wondering if you (mom and dad) could give me some background like where the family is from and great grandparents and stuff. I asked if they were from Duchesne if that would help put the puzzle together (cuz Mike is from Duchesne right?) She said she doesn't really know where any of the Foys are or much of her family I guess, so she would really like to know if they would be related. Then that day was just kinda weird because of the area. Anyways at the end of the night, we ended up getting them a new investigator. Her name is.. well crap I forgot. It starts with an "M". Anyways she is 16 and friends with somebody in the ward. We taught her the first lesson and she blew me away with how smart about religion and how prepared she is. The Lord prepped her really well and she accepted the first lesson really well. Also it was inspired that I was on exchanges that day to teach her. I'm not saying anything bad about the Elders in her ward but I think I was able to answer some questions and get her started because of experiences I have had. Now she is going to have a new elder in her ward and from what I have heard he will do really well at taking over.

Friday was pretty boring and nothing too noteworthy plus I am out of time!

Saturday was freaking awesome! We had a big meeting with all the Missionaries in Moreno Valley. I wish I had more time to give details but it was really spiritual. The chapel was completely full with missionaries and it was a neat experience. When we sang I think was my favorite. The elder playing the organ was really good and played more than just the regular. Plus he cranked it and with all the people it reminded me of All State Choir. I am still in my same area with Elder Feist, which is what I wanted to have happen. I didn't want to leave the mission. Elder Sparks is going to Murrieta so he will be in the Carlsbad mission. A bunch of other people are going to the Redlands mission. We are losing a good chunk of our mission. It was really hard for Pres and Sister Smart to send that many missionaries away at once. Pres gave the closing prayer. It was probably the coolest prayer I have ever experienced. The spirit was there really strong, and he really surprised me in it with some of the things he said. The coolest thing was that he gave all of us a blessing with the keys of a Mission President, that to me is almost like getting one from an apostle. Then we got to go in the gym and take pictures with all of our friends and stuff. I got to see Elder Allen. He is going home tomorrow ha. I am sad to see him go, but he is really happy. Later that day our ward had a pot luck and washed cars. So we sat in the foyer with our food and kept walking back in the gym to get more food.

Sunday was good as usual. We met with Charlotte again to finish some lessons and get her baptism organized. She wants Elder Feist and I both to speak. She asked me to do the baptism and I am super excited! Elder Feist is doing the confirmation so that is cool too. Anyways gotta go, I’m out of time! Love ya!
Elder Wood

Zone Conference

 

Elder Baltadez?, Elder Sparks, Elder Wood and Elder Beeston

From Right Elder Wood, Elder Allen and some of his Trainees

Driving a Car

June 10, 2013

Dear Family:

So this has been a long but exciting week. We had Chase (our mini missionary) with us from last Saturday (the 1st) until yesterday (the 9th). Elder Feist and I really liked him and it was a good experience for all of us. Chase is really excited to go on his mission now. But before I get into my letter to much I am going to reply to your last letter. Mom I think that is pretty much the only time I have had a bloody nose. I had one really mild one the other day, but it really hasn't been a problem. It seems like the new program you are using in young women's is really cool. I like how they use roll play and stuff in it. The girls will learn a lot. Dad this has nothing to do with your last letter but I came up with a new snowboarding lunch technique that you and everybody should try out and let me know how it goes. For lunch I bought a dollar instant potato packets. They are called "Idahoan Potatoes" and they are at Wal-Mart. Probably Swasey's too. Anyways one day I decided to not get any dishes dirty except for my fork and just boil some water and pour right into the packet and it worked! I had to dig at the corners a little bit with my fork but I think with the hot water at the resort it might just work. And it makes quite a bit too. Anyways food for thought until next winter. Brett that is pretty sweet about your new job, I hope the move and everything goes well for you. Jason I remember Myckel Beorchia. That is crazy you have the job in the room next to her. I thought you had to be like a grad student for that or something. The lady that worked there before actually used to live in Randalett I think. Maybe just Fort Duchesne, I don't remember. All I remember is I thought it was really close to where Lisa's parents live.

So Monday was just normal p-day festivities. I don't remember if it was last p-day or the one before that but we came back to the church and sort of golfed/drove. We had those yellow fake golf balls that don't fly as far as golf balls. We were still hitting it almost out of the parking lot though ha. That was fun, but when some members saw us I don't think they liked it haha. But we were being careful and not messing up the grass.

Tuesday for some reason Pres couldn't come to do interviews until Wednesday so we switched the exchange with the ZL's to Tuesday. So I got to drive a day early! but I didn't get to go spend the night cuz we didn't exchange until Tuesday morning. Driving was a blast fyi. I kinda miss it ha. I had a pretty awesome day. We had district meeting that morning and it ended up being super funny. The other Spanish Eelders were asking everybody's advice on one of their investigators. What happened was they have this kid investigator and he is 16. For some reason he can't keep out of Juvy. Anyways he has had a girlfriend for the last couple years and he just got her pregnant. The guy doesn't really have anywhere to live so he is living with his pregnant girlfriend's parents. The parents really like him a lot, and told him that they want to adopt him. So he is asking the Elders for advice. They are having a hard time knowing how to help him. They can either tell the two 16 years olds to get married (not sure it is the best but probably better) or he can have the parents adopt him. The problem with that is he will have had a baby with his sister... which doesn't sound so good when people ask about your baby and you tell them you are brother and sister (legally?). The kid is really excited about getting adopted because right now he is going through all sorts of craziness with foster parents and he wants really bad to get out of that program unless he gets married, adopted, or turns 18. To top it all off the pregnant girl was recently paralyzed. Not that it is part of the story, I just thought it was interesting. Anyways moral of the story is! Bad situations make the strangest stories! Later that day we talked to a guy who plays the accordion. That was really cool. I could actually talk to him because he spoke both Spanish and English. He ended up letting me try playing it and it was pretty sick.

Wednesday we did President interviews. It was really cool cuz the President and I had a pretty good talk. In the middle a lizard got into the room we were in from outside. Then the rest of the day was busy. We had meetings with probably all the most intense lessons of the week all in one day. We taught Susan because I finally talked her into letting us meet with her again. That got a little bit frustrating for me just because she agrees with everything we say, but is just having a hard time with one or two stupid things. Also it was a pain that she has some dumb translation of the bible. Ya know like the kind where they make it easier for people to read it by talking out the old English type stuff? Anyways she knows sort of our organization of the church to the extent she knows about the 70. In her bible in Luke it reads that there are 72 instead of 70 and that always bugged her but I didn't ever find the scripture cuz I thought that was stupid. Anyways it was nice to have Chase there cuz while Feist and I were teaching he looked up different scriptures like the one about the 70 while we were teaching. Then we had Charlotte Cross who is always a good lesson. I like all the questions she asks because she is involved and I want to learn more. Then we finally got in a lesson with Tamra cuz she always ditches and we put her on date. That night I went to Ruth and Jessie's house with Bro Hulse with Elder Feist and Chase went and did other stuff. That ended up being a super awesome super spiritual lesson, and really long ha. At first I spent a lot of time on Jessie cuz she is getting her patriarchal blessing Sunday (yesterday). Also we are going to teach her baby daddy so we were getting that figured out. Then after all of that I wanted to help out her mom and I had a good scripture in mind I think it was 3 Nephi 13 like the very end of the chapter. Anyways just to help her build faith and go to church and stuff. Anyways that ended up really hitting Jessie hard because of an answer she got to a prayer that morning about just keeping on going and working towards being active and not worrying about other things so much. The spirit was way way strong there and I am still mad at myself for not having Chase there to experience how amazing missionary work can be.

Thursday we had exchanges with our district leader but I stayed this time and Elder Feist went to Park Hill Ward. We had our day our planned out and then I got a call from the ward and they needed me to go help somebody move after lunch that just had surgery on his arm. They are a super awesome couple. Unfortunately they just got broken into, thus the move. Anyways that took a good part of the day. It was fun though cuz the Reeves are awesome and I got to ride in their sick raptor. It pulled the trailer well. but it was a lot more fun when we dropped the trailer and he got on it. That thing was pretty fast. He also had a sick bike. It was a Yamaha Stryker 1323. I think anyways. Whatever it was it looked awesome. he wants to buy a Road Star from some friend in Orange County because he loves how they ride.

Friday was temple trip so it was bomb! Elder Feist forgot his recommend haha... but they searched his name and let him in. We rode with Elders Kelly and Albright so that was fun. The guy who drove us from their ward took us all to big boy and bought us burgers. He also took us to CTR books. There are some cool and useful books there for missionaries if anybody ever wants to buy me some ha. Later that day I went to go talk to a lady and she started talking to me first. I guess she has a son on a mission somewhere and she went and got us all gift card to eat at Chipotle.

Saturday was normal as usual. Plus we helped with that move again. This time we took the Diamond Valley Elders because that is where they are moving to (Elders Tonini and Hawkins).

Sunday I went over to Susan's house and woke her up for church. She came though! Also Charlotte Cross was there too. Chase left us at like 6:30, so that was sad, I really liked him. it was kinda funny, he asked about advice on a girlfriend he had for the like last three years (he is a Senior next year). I told him about my experience and how awesome my Senior year ended up being and all the benefits of not having one ha (well maybe just a relationship? I dunno if mine was exactly a gf haha:). E. Feist supported me in that, cuz he had a similar experience. Pretty much we told him how much fun we had without, how much more our parents trusted us, how many more friends we made, and everything. He agrees and I think he is going to make his Senior year a lot better for himself now.

Well next week should be cool. Wednesday I get to go to Riverside for Trainer/Trainee meeting. Saturday we get to go to Moreno Valley for transfers. Normally we just do phone calls but after next week we will have 6 zones instead of 12. So there is going to be a lot of craziness and people won't see their mission friends and stuff and all the phone calls that were going to happen and everything.  Pres decided just to have a meeting that starts at 9 this will probably be like 2 hours long. Even though our mission will be halved almost we are still going to hold the number of 200 missionaries, so some wards will be doubling up and Elder or Elder/Sister combo. It'll be interesting. I shouldn't have to worry about moving this transfer cuz I am a trainer. You train somebody for 12 weeks, and it's will only be 6 weeks. but hey, anything could happen. So just so your aware maybe next week send stuff to the mission office instead of my address in case of a move. Even if I move missions they will know where to send it. Or you can wait to get my e-mail, but if I move it won't do me any good, because I won't know my physical address to give you until I get a letter from the mission office. But that shouldn't be a problem, I don't think I will move this transfer. Anyways I am over time and should get going! Love you all tons!
Elder Wood

Mini Missionary

Dear Family:

Well this has a good week! No mom I don't have a car, it just happened out that our ride for p-day got all messed up that day. But I just found out I get to drive on Wednesday!! We have exchanges with the ZL's and I am going to their area but with the elder that can’t drive anymore because he got in a crash. I am pretty excited! ha, which is dumb cuz it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I am freaking out ha. It is probably kinda like how I loved driving and getting my license was like my life goal at a time so I guess you could say I have missed it. I have a pretty exciting week ahead of me.

We have president interviews tomorrow morning. Wednesday exchanges I get to drive at, Thursday we have more exchanges because we are going with our DL. Friday is temple trip to Redlands, so pretty much I have a week where I don't do the regular schedule. We also got a mini missionary this last Saturday night, so we will have an extra guy with us all week. His name is Chase, and he is from Norco. Norco is called horse town USA. They don't have sidewalks there, they have horse trails. Kinda cool. Norco is right by Corona if that helps anybody out. Brett let me know what is happening with the job. Going to Pleasant Grove would be cool, plus it sounded like a bomb job. E. Sparks is from PG and he loves it there. He said there are some way nice apartments behind Macy's you could look at. Sharee, for music I figured out the easiest way to do it. Put a bunch of music on a flash-drive and then send me the flash-drive. That will work well. Then I can just burn the cd's here. I have acquired a little bit of music. I seamlessly created an underground missionary cartel that traffics music. I have two cd’s from the piano guys, I have the new Philip Phillips cd (haven't listened to it yet so I dunno if its approved), two cd's from Josh Groban, 2 from Jackie Evancho, the Lower Lights, Lindsey Sterling, Inception soundtrack, Transformers soundtrack, Paul Cardall, Vocal Point "Lead thou Me On", 2 Cellos, Orchestra version of Super Smash Brothers soundtrack, the Inside Out CDs we have at the house, and everything our older brothers left in the cd case. I want to acquire enough to listen to that I don't get sick of the music like Brett says I will, cuz he is right. I only listen to some cd's like once a week to keep me from wearing them out. Also I might be buying an iPod from E Moyer. He has an iPod 160gig that the headphone jack went out. He wouldn't let me fix it for him, I was going to do it for free. So now I am trying to buy it and fix it. We will see though, so I would have plenty of room on that. So I am looking for anything you will send me. Check out the orchestra version of Skrillex, find some Disney, some Classical, Movie soundtracks, acoustic stuff, anything you can think of. If you aren't sure if I should have it, just send it and then I will just either make a cd or delete it depending on if it is ok or not. They are pretty lax here. I guess Christmas here is awesome cuz you can pretty much listen to all the good popular stuff just because it is Christmas music. So whenever you get to that it is cool, I would rather you spent a little more time and sent more music than trying to send it right away. Thanks! :)

Tuesday was interesting. We got up that morning and did some service. When we got back to shower and change and stuff our water was out, so E Kelly and E. Albright came and got us so we could shower. Had a good day, taught a few lessons and stuff.

Wednesday we picked up a new investigator. I decided to go to this one and just talk to people before lunch and visit a referral from the ZL's. The referrals name was Greyling. He is a really cool guy. He make like r&b gospel music. He is like about 50 years old. We ended up teaching a lesson and he was feeling the spirit a lot. I could see goose bumps on his arms ha. At one point he was sentenced to life in jail I guess and now he is totally trying to make a turn around in his life. He got humbled pretty bad, he ended up losing his fiancé and some other things. Right after that we had lunch and then we had a meeting with Charlotte Cross. She has a lot of questions but she is definitely progressing in the gospel. Hopefully she is our baptism for this month. She is set up for the 22nd. Also I got a letter from Susan again on Wednesday. Thank you!! The rest of the day after that was pretty regular.

Thursday wasn't too busy, just a usual day. Robert and Laura normally meet with us then but they just moved to San Jacinto so we got their info and sent it to E Kelly and E Albright. Also we met with Roy Brown and we had a fun lesson as always there.

Friday was kinda crazy. We spent from 7 until like 2 or 2:30 building this tin shed thing. Elder Feist, Elder Kelly, Elder Albright me, and Bro. Boyd built it. There is this lady in the ward that is a hoarder and the ward pretty much came in and shipped everything away except what went in the house and in the shed. Mountains of stuff came out of there. The shed was quite the project because there was like no room to build it. If we had room on any of the sides and if it was on level cement it would have taken a couple hours maybe with all of us. Instead we build a wooden foundation and the shed got pushed everywhere cuz to get on the side of it you had to slide it across the foundation. It was fun but it was a lot of work. I should have taken a picture, I might still get back there one of these days just to see how much stuff they got out of her back yard. That night we were biking home after a lesson and got to see some fireworks. They had them for graduation. They didn't run for more than like a minute though. And the finale was like 10 seconds. Nothing compared to Longhorn Days fireworks! I tried to get my camera out for a pic, but the show was too short. I guess it is tradition to do fireworks for graduation here so that is why they did it. Also I got a letter from Grandma Rachel. Thanks!

Saturday we had zone meeting. After that we picked up two new investigators. We went to the Greylings for a lesson but he was asleep or something. There were two kids about my age hanging out in his garage though. So we went and talked to them which turned into a lesson. Ones names is Ashton, and the others I don't remember because it was different and I didn't get his number. We sat down on some chairs in the garage and they started asking us questions which turned into a lesson. They just got in Hemet two days before we met them. They moved from LA to here because they wanted to get a fresh start. We had a good lesson and they wanted to come to church on Sunday. Sunday we saved them a seat and everything because they seemed adamant about it. They didn't show which I was kinda expecting. We ran into them later in the day Sunday and I guess what happened was they were almost to the church and they saw Bro Hulse walking with his kids to church. They turned around cuz he thought it was just the parents that dressed up and their kids dressed up scared him off. We told them the day before people would be dressed like that and to come anyways. Oh well, they know now ha. It ended up being kinda funny. That night we were laying in bed when we got the call that our mini was there, so we went out and got him and his stuff and then crashed.

Sunday at church we had somebody walk in we might be picking up as an investigator too. I made friends with him and he wants to come to church next week and then meet with us after. His name is Thomas. Also at church I was thinking about what Dalan said about Jason and his influence in Huston was still there with some of the missionaries he trained and I thought that was pretty cool.

Well I am running out of time! Talk to you later! Love ya tons! Elder Wood
P.S. sorry, not the best or longest letter. Next week will be a good one though!

ZLs Take Over

May 28, 2013

 Dear Family:

Hey! Well Elder Feist and I have had a pretty good week. I need to say sorry about last week and my super lame letter. I was in a really bad mood because my ZL's were being difficult. They crashed their truck and so they made other elders give them a ride everywhere all of P-day and they pretty much ruined my whole P-day and it made me pretty mad. So I just didn't have much to say, sorry ha. They tried to do it to us again this week so I called them and told them it was somebody else’s turn to be burdened by their mistake, and then some other things. So I kinda had a Sharee moment that she told me about in her last letter when she talked to Mr. Price. Maybe our last name is Wood? It’s ok though, they were exercising unrighteous dominion and taking advantage of the dumb missionaries that aspire to be mission leaders so it’s not like they can do anything about it anyways. They don't have the ability to hold my Driver’s License back. So Mom I am wondering what it is called when you get vertigo really bad because you have those rocks loose in your ear? Sister Snow sounds like she is having the same problem she just doesn't know what to tell her doctor it is.

So Monday after I sat in my apartment doing nothing all day we went and had a picnic for dinner with some ward members so it was fun and we got to throw the football with the kids a little bit. After that we went and taught a recent convert lesson to Char and Isaac. Right after the opening prayer I got a bloody nose. I didn't have a lesson set up with Elder Feist cuz it was P-day I just had a couple things in mind I was going to do. So he ended up teaching his first lesson by his self, on my way to the bathroom I told him to flip to Exodus 20 and read it so he got it figured out. I felt bad though cuz we were at the Drake family's house and the kids were being crazy. After I helped Isaac and the Drake’s son with their pinewood derby cars. The Drake’s son took first place by the way, so that was pretty fun. I wanted Isaac to win, but his car was shaped to un-aero dynamic.

Tuesday Elder Feist told me I talk in my sleep a lot. He said he thinks I talk for a while cuz the alarm doesn't wake him up in the morning and it would take me a minute of talking to wake him up. I guess the first time I kinda freaked him out ha which I think was last week. Monday night I guess I sat up and said something about the atonement like I was making the person I was talking to sound dumb and then I rolled over frustrated like. Also on Tuesday I destroyed my comp in getting “wife points” and “Bettys”. I dunno if I told you guys about that or not. We play a lot of different games all day to keep it fun. Bettys are PT-Cruzers because someone’s investigator named Betty had one and something. Anyways there is a ridiculous amount of them in Hemet and San Jacinto. We probably see like 20 a day. They are all worth different amounts of points. Solid colors are all the same points, black Bettys you have to say Blama Lama Lam after so it sounds like the song. Flames, Woodys, convertibles, and other things are all worth like 3 times as much. So that keeps it fun. It is ok though because he destroyed me the next day when he called out a white stretch Betty. I dunno who would even want to buy a limo Betty, but there is one! Wife points are a lot of things, but mostly just sprinklers that didn't go back into the ground and the first one to push it down gets it. I think we had two bike run-ins this week because of them this week. But no crashes, neither of us went down haha.

Wednesday I finally got in contact with Susan again. We are still on good terms but she just thinks with this new business she is trying to start she doesn't have time to meet with us or go to church. Our “team up” for our lessons that night (Alfonso Castillo) offered me a job for when I get home ha. He is a salesman I guess and he likes RM's because they are good teachers and can describe the product well and stuff. I don’t really know what exactly he does though, pretty much sells like different insurances I guess and maybe 401k's? I dunno, it would be something I could do at school if it actually sounded like a legit job, but not enough that I would do it in the summers or before college. I think I still want to try and get my CDL when I get home. So I told him I would let him know when I got home, he is moving to Provo anyways, so it’s not like it would be hard to get in contact.

Thursday we had a lesson with our new investigator Charlotte Cross. She enjoyed the restoration but had a lot of questions. So that is awesome. She went to our last baptism with a friend from our ward so that is how we got in contact with her. She came to church yesterday. We committed her to be baptized and she said yes, so all I have to do is keep helping her along. We also had a lesson with Robert and Laura. Robert didn't really agree with me about prophets and the restoration. I ended up using a lot of things out of the bible and it helped him a lot. I surprised myself with the things I was using and decided Elder Allen helped me out a ton there. So Brett, in reply to your last letter, my interest in The Bible doesn't have to do with bashing, it is for situations like that. Bashing around here isn't actually that common. It’s not really a problem here. If I went to a nicer place like Murrita I guess it is a lot more common. A lot more educated people. There is actually a Bible college there so I guess it gets pretty bad. People come after the missionaries just for the fun of it there. But that is getting cut out of the mission here after this transfer so I don't have to worry about it there hopefully.

Friday we ate with the Greathouse’s so that was fun. They have one or two friends they want us to teach we found out about so that is cool. We had a lesson with Gary and taught him the restoration and he liked it.

Saturday we helped Robert and Laura move. That turned out to be super nasty. There were some dust bunnies in there I thought that were going to come alive. It didn't look like they had really cleaned in there for a while. The back yard was pretty bad too. They are the kind of people who won’t ever throw anything away. There was this couch in the back with mouse poop all over and he still had us put it in the moving van. He said it can be cleaned.

Sunday was good. It was the first time in my mission I could just sit back and enjoy the whole time. That and worry about my investigators. It was nice. No talks, no teaching class. I liked it.

I guess last night in my sleep I sat up yelled "Silence is golden Nathan! Go back to bed!" I think it is kinda fun now I have somebody that remembers what I say ha. Well got to go! I'm way over time ha. Love ya!
- Elder Wood
 

Awesome Cookies!

May 20, 2013

Dear Family:

Well we had a good week! Stayed busy, but no super exciting stories though. So make sure you keep a copy of those pics I sent you, those are from E. Feist's camera. By the way, that is his bike in the picture, it is pretty sweet. I like mine better to ride and it is pretty good looking, but I like how his is mostly white.

Monday was good, just your usual P-day.

Tuesday we picked up two new investigators Ty and Gary. They are like 20 or 21. I think I told you we met them last E-mail, but this was our first lesson with them. It went pretty well.

Wednesday we had In-and-Out with Jessie and Ruth and then a Book of Mormon lesson. They are probably my favorite people we are working with right now. They joke around a lot and keep it fun so I enjoy that, but they are also progressing in the gospel rapidly.

Thursday we met with another pair of investigators we just picked up. Robert and Laura. They are older. They seemed to accept the message pretty well, but Robert is a pretty strong Baptist so we'll see what he thinks about the restoration. We found some medium cookies on Thursday. We went to teach this inactive member Sister Sombrano and she had some lemon cookies that were pretty good.

Friday we had some awesome cookies. These were homemade lemon cookies and we were at a less actives home again.

 

Saturday I had a meeting set up with this guy named Johnny. He is a Mason. When we got there his wife said he was asleep but he wanted us to come back. I was pretty excited to meet with him. He knew about Joseph Smith being a mason and stuff and he seemed pretty interested in talking with us. He asked us if we had anything for us to leave him to read so I left him a Book of Mormon and ran back to the apartment real quick and got his some stuff on Joseph Smith and then the restoration. Bro Boyd actually just read a book about the similarities between Masons and Mormons and taught us some stuff. We are having him come to the lesson too.

Sunday was pretty good. I finally don't have to teach the Gospel Principles class anymore and Bro Boyd is doing it, I thought I was actually going to listen at church for three hours and then they made me and Elder Feist give talks. That is ok, it was only 10 minutes. We both talked on families. I used "The Family a Proclamation to the World" I didn't realize how awesome it was until now. I know it is hanging at the top of the stairs at the house but I had never really paid attention to it, much less read it ha. But I think that went pretty well. Sorry l have a short letter this week. There hasn't been too much that is that interesting to write about. I did just think of something that could be useful though. Instead of mailing me CD's maybe have Sharee try emailing me the file. I don't know if that will be too big so it might have to be the mp3, then I can just make the CD on this end so we could try that out. Well that is all for now, hope you have a good week!

Love ya!

Elder Wood

 

Elder Feist

May 13, 2013

Dear Family:

Hey will this week was good!  It was fun to get to talk to you guys! I really don't have to much to say about this week I didn't already tell you. That and my time is cut short cuz I got the slow computer and it took forever to get those pictures loaded to e-mail you.

Tuesday I was in Riverside to pick up my greeny Elder Feist. It was fun to go to the mission office again and get out of Hemet for a little while. Elder Feist is awesome. He is from Meridian Idaho (right by Boise I guess). He actually lived in Emmet but I don't think he went to high school there. He is really into baseball. He played at Dixie. We get along good, we both like to work hard but have fun at the same time.

Wednesday Elder Feist got to have his first lesson with Joseph. It was kinda a weird lesson. Wasn't really like a good sit down lesson. But then he got a good lesson with Ruth and Jessie.

Thursday E. Feist got to meet Char while I went through the baptism questions with her so that was good for him. We had some good lessons with Sister Sambrano and Roy Brown. 

Friday we had a bunch of meetings that wasted a bunch of time. Then I pretty much spent a lot of time getting stuff like the program made for the baptism. We had a few other lessons too. It was Elder Feist’s b-day and Sister Doke had us over for dinner. She made us chicken and mashed potatoes and stuff. Sister Doke and I were just talking it up at the first while we were dishing up and Elder Feist appeared to just be enjoying his meal. When Sister Doke and I got our chicken and started eating she noticed that hers was pretty much raw all the way through (she is a good cook but she was really tired and either the oven was on really low or something) so she took hers and mine after I had a few bites and put them back in the oven. E. Feist turns out he ate the whole thing before she noticed that it was raw. So that was pretty funny. I also got a package from Glenn on Friday. Thank you for that! I think my dad’s siblings are sort of competing, because I keep getting more awesome things each time haha.

Saturday was the baptism of Charlene and Isaac. That was really neat. We started teaching them when I got here and it was just cool to be here for the whole process. The spirit was super strong and was a great experience for everybody. Char was funny, right after she came up out of the water she yelled Yes! and threw her arms in the air. We got permission to confirm them at the baptism because of family being there and stuff so that was neat. We did have one problem with that though. Somebody thought it was a good idea to pull the plug in the font even though I told them not too cuz I can open it with this metal rod that was there. So right in the middle of Char's confirmation it was making a sucking noise that everyone could hear cuz how loud it was. It didn't last too long though. Elder Cook had some neat investigators there that are really excited to be Baptized now. He is an ex-gangster that isn't questioning a thing and just making some huge changes in his and his families’ life. It was good to meet them and talk to them for a little while about the gospel. I am going to try and make it to his families’ baptisms. E. Allen got to come back for the baptism so that was fun too.

Sunday church was good. I taught my last gospel principals class I hope. They got it set up finally to have somebody actually be a teacher and not just have us do it every week. Everybody seemed to like E. Feist. In Elders Quorum we have this guy that is 57 that is awesome. He has a white duck dynasty beard and is ripped. He has a black shirt kinda like one Brett has. Anyways he wears it every week and it is super tight on him. During class he was asking why this ward didn't have any talent shows and talked about this girl who could do this inverted crab walk. Then he did it! We went and taught a really awkward lesson to this guy who didn't really listen but then he said his mom might be interested! Then we biked to Sam’s house to Skype with you guys. That was awesome. I really enjoyed that. I wish we got to do it a little more often. In my letter to  President I thanked him for letting us use Skype because of all the other missionaries you told me about that couldn't do it. For dinner we went with E Albright and E Kelly to a members house we helped lay sod. That was really fun cuz that family was awesome. At the end E Feist and I ended up singing and playing the guitar for them, so that was fun and they really enjoyed it (it was kinda random we had the guitar in the car ha)

Well that is all for now! It was good talking to you and I am excited for the next Skype! Love you bye!

Elder Wood

Elder Feist and Elder Wood

Baptismal Font

Elder Allen, Brother Boyd and Elder Wood

 

 

 

 

 

Elder Allen Moving On

May 6, 2013

Dear Family:

Well I had a good week. I forgot my notes from the letter and from the whole week so I won’t have as much to say. Brett your story was crazy, it was some good reading for sure haha. Sharee I heard of a cd you could send me. I guess there is an orchestra version of Skrillex that some missionaries have somewhere. Check it out for me and see if it is any good and if a missionary should have it (I doubt it will be a problem) If its good you don't need to ask me about it cuz that will take forever, just send it if it is good.
Tuesday me and E. Kelly went on exchanges which was way fun. We ran into E. Sparks on the street so we went to lunch with him. For lunch we went to an awesome barber and got a super fresh cut. This is the shortest I ever remember having my hair. Then we went to DQ cuz we get to eat there for free. I would send you picture of my hair but I didn't get my camera with my notes either ha. Just check the blog here in a while, I will be on it soon but I will tell you about that later. Then Kelley and I went and had some sweet lessons. I don't have my notes so the only one I can remember was sister Fantasia, cuz it was really hot, and it was nice to sit and drink some water in her house.

Wednesday I honestly don't remember what I did.

Thursday we helped move in an older couple that is pretty cool.  Then some lunch and then went and did some service for sister Doak. So we pretty much didn't get any good lessons in until that night.

We did a lot more service this week than we wanted to.

Friday I dunno either

Saturday we got transfer calls...  luckily I can actually remember Saturday cuz it was only two day ago. Normally how they go the Pres. calls all the leadership in the morning during study time aka ap, zl, dl, trainers. I was for sure we weren't going to get a call so I just didn't worry about it. So in the morning for breakfast we went with Elders Albright and Kelly to our free breakfast at the Kozy Kitchen and went and laid some sod. That was kinda fun because I got to play in the dirt instead of mowing somebody’s lawn or something like that we always do that messes with my allergies. They are in the San Jacinto ward so we went with Elders Kelly and Albright to do that one. We did a little bit of calling around and it turns out that nobody in any of the zones had gotten a call from the president so everybody was on edge cuz it is such a crazy transfer. After that we went with them back to DQ again for some free lunch. While I was ordering I had the phone and got a call from the Pres. so I gave the phone to Elder Allen. He got called to go back to being a ZL. He was one for 6 months before he trained me. He is going to Lake Elsinore. We thought we would be together for another transfer cuz he only has one left, so he isn't very happy about it. Then he said the Pres wanted to talk to me. I thought he was just going to say what”s up? He told me I was training. So I am headed to the mission office tomorrow to pick up my new companion. So that should be interesting. Allen was telling me the whole time it was going to happen but I didn't believe him. I am excited for it, but I feel a little bit inadequate.

Sunday we pretty much went and saw all our favorite people and taught a few lessons. It was a fun day but I am going to miss Elder Allen.

Well not much else to tell you, I am sure I will have plenty to tell you next week. I have a lot on the fire. but I am excited to talk to you!

See your face in 6 days!

Love ya bye!

Elder Wood