Elder Cook's Birthday

September 23, 2013

 Dear Family:

Hi! Well this has been a pretty slow week. Elder Hawkins has been sick pretty much the whole time. This letter will be short, not a whole lot to talk about.

Monday Elder Hawkins was sick so after E-mailing and stuff Elder Cook and I wanted to look at some trucks so we went to a close dealership. It was a Ford Dealership, so I wasn't super intrigued but they were ok. One of the sales men kept asking us if we wanted to go for a test drive. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let us drive he probably would have to, I didn't ask, just said no. For dinner Elder Cook and I went and picked it up and brought it back for everybody.

Elder Cook and Elder Wood

Tuesday we didn't do anything. it sucked ha. I saved my work out so I could take longer and not just sit there all day. Even then I was done with everything by noon. So just kinda played guitar and listened to my iPod and that's about it.

 
Wednesday night Elder Hawkins and I taught a lesson to Marsha Kemp. It was really good. He was hacking through the whole thing though. We had an awesome dinner with Rob Gifford. He is the guy that cuts out Elder Hawkins in-grown toenails. He has a cool family. He fed his baby ice-cream for the first time and she was freaking out. She would get super excited every time he lifted up his spoon. I think the most exciting thing that day was while we were biking to dinner we went past the golf course (we live right by it) and I saw something super funny. At the driving range there was a guy there with his little machine picking up the balls, but the golfers were still out there driving. I have never seen them do it during hours. He had a little cage on his wanna-bee lawnmower. The funny part was that was the new focus of the driving range. I could see the balls bouncing off of his cage.

Machine with a Cage at the Golf Course (just left of the tree)

Thursday I don't really know what we did. Probably nothing. Elders Cook and Braithweight came and talked to me about college. Neither have been so they wanted to know more about it.

Friday we called and talked to President Smart about the area. Bishop Merrill wants us to switch areas with the other elders in the ward because theirs is where all the members are and all the work. Problem is they are always gone doing office stuff. We would have to move in order for us to do it because they work on the top of the hill. President said that would be a good idea to switch if we could work out the apartment situation. So we are working with the housing coordinators to see what we can do. That day we met with Sandy again. She really won't let us teach her anything, but she knows we were sent by God. Elder Hawkins is not bold at all. So he would be just fine with going over there and just reading a few verses out of the bible and not challenging her at all. Sandy doesn't want us to be bold with her and let us know that multiple times. I don't like that though, I warned her I was going to be bold with her and then I testified about how much good change the message we want to share with her can bring to her life and that that is what we were going to teach her. She said she will think about it and that we will see. Ha she is a bit strong headed. So we left with a prayer and we will go back again this week and see what happens. I don't think Elder Hawkins liked what I did, but he isn't ever going to say that to me. If I never did it, she would never get taught anything so I don't feel bad at all ha. That night we rode with the other elders to dinner and then back to do some other things that night. We had been tracting and left our bikes in front of Bro Jones house. He wasn't there but his wife noticed they had been there for a long time and thought we had gotten kid-napped. So don't worry, there are people here worrying about me. She called us punks and told us we are lucky she didn't hide our bikes.

Saturday we had Elder Cooks B-day because nobody was going to have time for it on Sunday. I called Sister Peirce (the office Sister) and got a big lunch party all set up. She told Elder Cook he had to bring us to her house because she needed us all to go and help President set up some stuff in Hemet for when the 70 comes next week. He really enjoyed the surprise party, he wasn't expecting it. I think about half the zone was there. He also got a goldfish the sisters made. That day Elder Cook was on Exchanges with Elder Blanchard. He is super cool. He was in the army before he came out. That night we rode back with them. The ZL's live with Elder Blanchard and Elder Hugie. It got a little bit crazy in the apartment ha. Elder Blanchard has a little thing we call the tazer he made out of a disposable camera that will shock you pretty good. When we got back it was gone. Earlier that day we found out the ZL's darted Elder Hugie (darted means he can't move because of a game a bunch of Elders play) and had shocked him with his own companions tazer thing. So when the ZL's showed up the breaker got flipped and it turned into war haha. Everybody was pretending like they had the tazer. It was a bit like clue and wrestling. It was a good little game that broke the monotony of my week sitting with a sick companion. Now I almost didn't tell you that because in the past some parents have called president because they didn't think some behavior was appropriate. Don't do that! It never goes well for anybody! Especially the one who's relatives or friends called president. I wrote it so I can remember, and because it is funny. It was all just in fun and nobody was hurt and it wasn't a big deal. Yes a little in-appropriate for Elders to be doing, but still super fun. Then we went home and went to bed.

Sunday was church. That is good as always. We had another lesson with Marsha Kemp. For Elder Cooks B-day he wanted to take the last half hour of the night and go look at the Chev and Dodge dealerships at the trucks while there weren't any salesmen. It was fun and he really enjoyed it. So did I ha. A little bit disobedient, but it was his birthday. Oh-well.

 

Window Shopping for Future Dream Car (or truck) with Elder Cook

 

 

I think that is all for the week!

Love ya!

Elder Wood

2 Flew Home and 21 Came In!

September 16, 2013

Dear Family

Well this week was a little bit slow, but it wasn't too bad.

Monday was good. We didn't think we were going to get to E-mail. We were pretty busy. Elder Hawkins and I were with Elder Spencer while he packed and Elders Cook and Haslem went to go to office to work until Elder Cooks new comp (Elder Braithweight) got here. Like I said last week, Elder Spencer was a cool guy, so we didn't enjoy him leaving. He wanted to go tracting so he could say he did on his last day. I was going to go with him. Our dinner for the night wasn't going to be able to feed us so they asked us to come pick up some cash at their house. On our way there we stopped at a light next to the nicest Nissan GTR I have ever seen! The guy rolled down his window and asked if we were from the LDS church and we talked to him for a second. His car had 900 horsepower. I am pretty sure those cars are just twin turboed v-6's, but I could be wrong, he didn't say. I don't know how he got that kind of horse power but it sounded amazing. I got a short video but my battery was mostly dead so I didn't really get more than like 2 seconds. Elder Spencer wanted that to be his last contact, so we didn't go tracting. Once we got Elder Braithweight in the apartment and Elder Spencer at the mission office we got a chance to E-mail. After that we went to dinner at Chili’s cuz I talked everybody into it. We didn't have enough money but I had a gift card for my B-day I was going to use for me and Elder Hawkins. We had the same waitress we had the last three times ha. Once we were done the waitress came and let us know that somebody paid for our dinner. We went and talked to them, they were super nice. I guess we get Chili’s another day! Because we didn't have time earlier we went shopping even though we were supposed to go proselyting after dinner. We had to though. Last time we went shopping when we weren't supposed to, but under the same circumstances we went to Wal-Mart. Unfortunately while we were there we ran into President Smart.... It made it even worse because the Wal-Mart was just out of our zone. But only by a street. I guess somebody got permission a while ago because everywhere else is super expensive. On the plus side we don't think he saw our faces, but Ii am sure he knew who it was regardless. But this last Monday we didn't go to Wal-Mart! We went to Ralphs!

Tuesday we didn't have district meeting because all the craziness at the office with all the new missionaries coming in. 2 flew home, and 21 came in. 15 or 16 were all sisters. 4 or 5 are visa waiters who will leave in a transfer or two. I talked to somebody that day that told me about a man he knew who was studying to become a Catholic Priest. Because of his studies he became a Mormon ha. That night we met with part of a part member family. It was the Bishop family. The husband was the only one there and is the only member. In the past I have met all the other family members though. He wasn't up much for a gospel conversation. I kept trying to turn it there but with no luck. He did show me his old 1940 German Mauser that his grandpa got at a pawn shop in Idaho. That was cool. It is a posterity thing in their family. His son doesn't know that he has it though haha. We had a good chat with him but that was about it.

Wednesday we had district meeting. Other than that it was a slow day. Elder Hawkins had an ingrown toe-nail again. We met with Bishop Merill’s family again. We are helping them to do some more missionary work. We ate with the Porters that night. That is also a part member family. We taught a lesson afterwards that they all seemed to enjoy. Bro Porters wife gave him a pretty hard time about him getting baptized. He took it well. The thing that stuck out to me were the kids though. You could see how bad they wanted their dad to be baptized so they could go to the temple and get sealed. It wasn't as obvious in the little ones, but the older one really showed it. Probably because of their understanding of the gospel. I felt bad for her. We also found out that night that their daughter is best friends with Stephani Smart so we gave her a hard time about not telling on us. Also side note, Elders Cook and Braithweight didn't eat with us until Friday or Saturday because they were so busy with the new transfer and the influx of missionaries. That night I watched Elder Hawkins get another ingrown toe-nail removed. Bro. Gifford said I was enjoying it way to much ha. Which I was! Just like last time Elder Hawkins took his tie off and put it over his eyes for the whole thing. I offered to put my tie over Bro Giffords eyes also, but Elder Hawkins didn't really like that idea. Bro. Gifford is a really cool guy. He went to BYU and is a foot doctor (whatever they are called) He and his wife are probably about Ronny and Lisa's age. The kids went in the other room probably because they were getting weirded out. I just sat there and talked to his wife. She is from Castle Dale and grew up on a farm, so we had a good chat. Then the Office Assistants picked us and our bikes up with the mission Silverado and took us home.

Thursday was a really good day. Had dinner with a really good family. They invited Steven Chavez over to eat with us so we just asked him for a ride. He is a convert of a few years. He went on a mission but had to come home due to some crazy girl and some other things I think. He has been less active for a while but is missing the peace the gospel brought to his life so he is coming back now. After dinner he came with us to a lesson at Bro. Jones house because they are on the ward mission process. I think he enjoyed it. After that we had another lesson with the Vance family, we are just helping them to do missionary work as well.

Friday we saw Sandy again. She has been doing better with her health problems. She really enjoys us, and knows we were sent by God. She is still having a hard time letting us teach her though. We have a really good fellowshipper for her so we are just going to help her as much as we can and hope for the best. We met with the Poor family and they gave us a really good referral. It is for the other Elders area though, but that is ok. Their son is leaving for his mission to Denver soon so we answered a lot of questions for them. Dinner was with the Trans, another part member family, but her husband at the last minute had to work so he couldn't be there.

Saturday was super slow. I wanted to get a lot done, but I didn't get a lot of cooperation. Elder Hawkins was starting to get sick plus he is still using his toe as an excuse ha. This time Bro. Gifford used acid to kill the root, so the healing is taking longer. We had an awesome dinner with Sister Hampton though!

 Sunday was good. A lot of people were sick. Bro. Jones our (ward mission leader) had us go to ward council because he was sick. Elder Cook and I went because Hawkins was sick plus it gave us a representative from each area. This ward was very impressive and really organized. They began with a kneeling prayer which caught me off guard, but I liked it. After that Elder Cook stayed home and I took Elder Braightwieght to church. That night Elder Cook and I went to a lesson Elder Hawkins and I set up before he got sick. It was with Marcia Kemp. She is a recent convert who was only active for a short time. We set the lesson up to have at Bro. Jones house. That was one of the best lessons I have been in. By far the best lesson I have been involved with in a long time. We didn't really go in with much of a plan, I just told him we were teaching the first lesson. The spirit was really strong! We both were being edified as much as everybody else. Marcia had some really good questions that I loved answering. We walked out of that lesson on top of the world. We walked home after that and had a really good talk. Everybody in that house had a really good experience that night. After talking for a bit with Elder Cook we found out that that lesson was something we both needed.

Well I’ve got to go, I am over time. Talk to you later! Love ya!!!        Elder Wood

 

I Bought a Guitar for My Birthday

September 9, 2013

Dear Family:

Well I am still in Riverside! Elder Hawkins and I are still together in the same ward as Elder Cook. He is getting a new comp, Elder Braithwaite. He was in Hemet with us also. He's alright, I was hoping for other people though. He was the cause of a lot of drama in Hemet, so we will all be treading lightly. It is kinda weird, I am on President Smarts computer right now. All the other ones in the office are taken so I'm in here. We didn't go to the library cuz we had to bring Elder  Spencer to the mission office to he could get on the plane to SLC tomorrow. So a quick run down of the week!

Elders Hawkins, Wood, Spencer and Cook

 

Monday I bought my guitar! :) it pretty nice. I was looking at Fenders and Yamahas. They were the same price and both sounded really good. I ended up getting the Fender for a few reasons. It came with a hard case which is going to be really nice because missionary apartments are dangerous and so are transfers. It also was a little better looking and has 3 years longer warrantee. So if anybody out there that knows more about guitars than me and I need to switch for the Yamaha let me know! For dinner that night the ward had a missionary activity where ward members were supposed to invite non-members to eat at the park and have a pick-nick. There were tons of non-members there, but none of them were invited or eating with us. That is OK though. This ward does really good at always giving us stuff to have people invite non-members to.

Some Pictures from Last Week's Birthday Party

Elder Spencer and Elder Wood

 

Tuesday was really slow. Elder Hawkins was sick. That didn't happen until after our district meetings though. I played a lot of guitar. We pretty much didn't do anything all day, it was pretty boring. When Elder Cook and Elder Spencer got back to the apartment they were both super trunky ha. Elder Spencer only has a week left. Elder Cook was at the mission office when his uncle rolled in in his son's challenger. He was dropping stuff off for the office to give to Elder  Cook.

Wednesday we had a really good lesson with Bishop Merrill. We trying to help people in the ward do more missionary work, and he is letting us try it out on him. For dinner we ate at the Hodge's house. They fed us spaghetti burritos. They wanted to try them because of the show iCarly, but the burritos worked way better. 

Thursday we did weekly planning and then tried to visit some of the people who didn't answer the phone when we called them during planning. 

Friday was productive. We had the car because the office assistants were doing stuff in the truck all day. We also had Zone meeting that day.  In zone meeting we found out we have to have designated drivers. So only one companion can drive. I don't like that at all, because that cuts my chances of driving in half again. Luckily I talked Elder Price into letting me be the DD! So I got to drive all day Friday and Saturday. Elder Hawkins didn't like that very much ha. That night the office assistants were putting an apartment together so we covered a lesson for them. It was a first lesson with a part-member family. It was weird teaching him. We really couldn't get him to say anything. We are going to try and get them to eat with us to see if we can get him more into his comfort zone. 

Plastic Cow

Not Elder Hawkins Favorite Hill

More Hills that we Ride Every Day

 

Saturday we still had the car. We got to meet with Mary Ann and teach her a good lesson. Bad news is she just got a new job in Anaheim. So instead on only being home 4 or 5 days a month it will be 2. I am going to try and hand her off to the Anaheim Elders, but we will see if Elder  Hawkins lets me. That night the Gonzales family put on a death dinner for Elder Spencer. They had some good ideas. They made him a grave outside. When we went inside we got shot with a bunch of marshmallow guns. They had some cool deserts with a bunch of Elder Spencer quotes written on tombstones stuck in them. All in all it was pretty fun. 

Sunday was good. We had a few good lessons that night with ward members. That night Elders Haslem and Green came over to spend the night. They had to get up at 4:30 this morning so Elder Spencer and Elder Cook could take Elder Green to the airport. He is a visa waiter and is flying to Brazil. He left this morning, Elder Spencer flys out tomorrow morning and will still almost beat him off the plane. Elder Haslem is from Vernal. It was really fun to talk about Basin stuff. We have everybody pretty sketched out about skinwalker ranch ha.

It has been hard seeing a missionary die (mission slang). It makes you realize the shortness of a mission. Elder Spencer has been a really hard working elder. You can see how much his mission has meant to him. He is really excited to make it to the BYU/Utah game though. He is a huge BYU fan. They get season tickets every year. 

I was wondering if you could send me a picture of the new car? Also I talked to a guy this week whose brother served in the same mission as dad about the same time. Did you know a Russell Cullins?

Well Got to head out!

Love Ya!

Elder Wood

 

 

My 20th Birthday!

September 2, 2013

Dear Family:

Hi!! I had a good birthday week!

Monday I Might have written about last week, but I don't think I did. We went to the mall after P-day activity with the zone and I used some B-day money to buy some Nike half calves. I have miss places a pair or two of socks so I needed a few more. After that we went to a music shop and looked at some guitars. I had a few picked out that I really liked, but I didn't have enough money. I was super excited when I got the card from Dad and Mom saying they put money in my account! Also the birthday money I got from other people will be a huge help too! I don't think I told you guys I wanted a new one, so that was really fun. The one I have now is pretty bad. We are going to go look at them again today and pick one out.

Elder Lappara, Elder Wood, and Elder Beeston

Tuesday We had an appointment set up with Sandy. We took Kevin with us, he is a member from a part member family we found that is preparing for a mission. The lesson was a little different. We were all geared up ready to teach the first lesson and then we had to change our plans. She didn't have a lot of time so we had to keep it short. She was super emotional, she was about to leave to go to a doctor's appointment. She is going to be a hard one to teach. She is hard to catch and doesn't want to talk about anything foreign. After that Kevin took us to the mission office so we could go to our district meeting. After that the office assistants had stuff  they had to do in the truck so we got to take the car. We covered a lot of ground trying to chase down some names we were given while we had the car. After dinner Elder Hawkins set up an appointment to go see Rob Gifford. He is a podiatrist in our ward. Elder Hawkins didn't really tell me why though. When we got there Rob had Elder Hawkins take his shoe and socks off and I saw why we were there. He had a pretty good ingrown toenail. So I got to sit there and watch while Bro Gifford took it out for him, that was pretty cool.

Wednesday We had exchanges with Elder Allen. He is a missionary that came in with me. We have been in the same zone our whole mission. The day was pretty uneventful, but it was fun. We had a lesson with Steve. He is a weird dude. Pretty sure we are going to drop him. He knows the Book of Mormon is inspired, he just has no desire to act on it. While we were driving to and from the exchange and at our apartment we listened to a talk by J. Golden Kimball. It was pretty good, Brett might remember him from the institute class we took. He is better known as the swearing apostle. I made a copy of it ha.

Thursday was the temple trip! It is weird that just the short drive to Redlands we were out of our mission boundaries. Brandon Hodges took us. His dad is the one who is a helicopter pilot. The temple was awesome as always. If anybody hasn't been in a while they should go. We went to Cafe Rio after! I loved that. I haven't been to one of those for a while. When we got back a pretty good sized storm hit. It broke some pretty good sized branches off. The storm was weird though, some places in Riverside like UCR and RCC (colleges) Got flooded and had a few feet in parking lots and then other parts didn't even get any rain. The day was pretty much shot. We had dinner with the Hodges family. They are huge Utah State fans so Bro Hodge complained the whole time he had to record the game. He texted us when they lost. I would have known anyways because of that number Brett gave me where I can check weather sports and stuff.

Temple Trip

Friday was a normal day. Might have a few good potentials from the day. That night we ate at Marie Calendars with Anita (Elder Spencer's recent convert). Hopefully you got the picture she sent. Anita surprised us and bought us all a pie. So we have 4 pies sitting in our fridge ha.

Elder Haslem (from Vernal) and Elder Wood

Saturday was of course my birthday! Sister Peirce is one of the office Sisters and she asked me the day before if I wanted to go out to lunch or breakfast. We went to breakfast at IHOP. She brought the sisters in the zone and one of the other office Sisters, so we had like 10 people. The Sisters made me a pillow that looks like a fish and then wrapped it up. It was hard to open, they used like a half roll of shipping tape ha. I wasn't expecting anything though, so it was really nice! After that for the most part it was a normal but good day! While we were out on our bikes we found this really cool place that some pro bike shop around here built. For dinner we ate with a younger couple. He used to play on the BYU volleyball team, I don't remember his name though. After that we had a lesson with the Silva family. They are recent converts of 5 years we are helping get to the temple. Somehow they knew it was my B-day so they had donuts and ice-cream waiting. When we got home the guys I live with got me something, which I wasn't expecting. Elder Cook gave me some sweet brown loafer kind of shoes earlier that week because his mom saw them in a picture and said he couldn't wear them anymore. So for my B-day they got me some IBC cream soda we had a good time drinking and a nice belt. It is double sided so it is both brown and black. I had a really good birthday! I enjoyed the cards that everybody sent to me! You are all the best! Thank you so much!! It made my day great!

Elders Wood, Cook, Spencer and Hawkins

 

Elders Cook, Wood, Spencer and Hawkins

 

Sunday was pretty normal. Elder Spencer talks a lot about home. He only has a week left though. We got in an argument about who's mom was the better cook. I won ha. They might try and say otherwise, but they don't know.

Well that has pretty much been my week! It was a really good one, mostly because of how awesome you all made my birthday. This next Saturday we get transfer calls so we will see what happens! I easily could still be here. Elder Hawkins only has two more transfers though (3 months) so that makes it even harder to guess. Well I will let you know what happens! Love ya tons!

Elder Wood

Elder Cook doing Service after the Storm

 

Elder Wood and his Bicycle Cross Track?

 

 

 

 

Tracting in the Canyon Crest Ward

August 26, 2013

Dear Family:

Things are still going good here in the Canyon Crest Ward!

Last P-day we were on the way to the mall to pick up Elder Spencer's pants he ordered in and Elder Cook got sick. So Elder Spencer and I ran in really fast and tried to get them. They weren't there though. Besides that we didn't do much for P-day except play ultimate Frisbee at the park with the zone.

Tuesday wasn't too exciting either.

Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Henry and Elder Allen. They are in our district. Elder  Henry came into our area with me. He is an American Sign Language Elder. He is from Centerville Utah. He is hard of hearing but didn't know ASL before the mission. He isn't serving as an ASL Elder right now because we can only have two in the mission right now to keep them busy and I think we have 4. Language study was cool. We played an ASL game where we made something with signs and then passed it on to the other person for them to make into something else. We visited a lot of people. I feel bad for the guys that go on exchanges with us. They all hate our area. Elder Henry is a bike missionary but he still had to walk most of the day. We tried to visit a lot of different people, but not really much success. That night we had dinner with President Plocher. He is in the mission presidency and in our ward. They are a really cool couple and their last son is on a mission right now. They have one of the nicest houses I have been in. Like one that blows the doctors in Roosevelt out of the water. He was really big in real estate a while back and made a lot of money. Enough money to buy an Audi R8 ha. I think those are just over 300,000 dollars. We had pretty much visited everybody I wanted to so we did some tracting to kill time and then we went back home to make the exchange back.

Thursday we tried chasing down more names the ward gave us. We ate dinner at a part member families house. Misti Poter is the member and her husband isn't. He is a really cool guy. He is a federal air marshal, so I got to learn all about that. He started out in the boarder patrol so I told him about my family members who have also been in the border patrol. He misses being outside and having a less boring job, but this one pays more. Plus he gets to go to lots of cool places. I would love to try and teach him but he is in the other Elders' area, so hopefully they will try.

Friday we had exchanges again with the zone leaders. They are in our district so we had to go twice with them. This time Elder Lapara came into our ward with me. I wanted to go to their area, but that is what the zone leaders wanted to do. Again we tried to visit a lot of different people. Elder Lapara hated biking. He has only done it a few times. He almost threw up haha. He is a little bit out of shape. I did a front flip on my bike. I haven't really wrecked before. On Lockmore street the curbs are really high. I was going like 5 miles an hour riding with no hands. I wasn't really paying attention just talking to Elder Lapara when my bike turned towards the road. That isn't a bike deal I normally just grab the bars and ride it out. This time when I grabbed the bars my hands just kept going down because how high the curb was. I crashed super slow. My head just kinda kissed the ground as I rolled to my back and held my bike upside down. It really was kinda graceful now I think about it. It was like a really slow summer-salt with my bike off of the curb. I just didn't make it all the way back to the starting position. I couldn't do it again if I tried. It didn't hurt at all. In fact the most pain I felt was from how hard we were laughing. That night we taught some recent converts who are trying to get to the temple. 

Saturday before lunch we had a really cool experience. All that morning sucked pretty bad. I was in a bad mood and didn't really know what to do with the day. We didn't really have anybody to go visit. Elder Hawkins was being super slow and dragging things out as long as he could. He walked to get his shoes, then back for his socks, took 5 minutes to put them on, forgot his tie, just everything he could think of to not leave the apartment. When I finally got him out we visited a few people I have been trying to get a hold of with no success. It was like 11:40 and I was super hungry. I didn't really know what to do to keep busy, and Elder Hawkins just wanted to go back to the apartment for lunch. I said a prayer in my heart for strength and help with what to do next and decided we would tract for a little while and hold out until noon. We went to where Elder Lapara and I left off the day before. We walked up to a door and stood there for a second, and decided not to knock because we knew nobody lived there. It was obviously under construction so we walked to the next house. The first door we knocked on a lady answered the door. While we were introducing ourselves she just burst into tears. We didn't really know why but she invited us to come in and leave her with a blessing on her and her home. We came to find out that about a minute before we knocked on the door she just finished a prayer asking God to send her someone to help her. She told us about how many missionaries she has shut the door on, and I believed her. Even though she knew God sent us, I could still tell she was being hesitant. She told us about some problems she had been having and we left her a blessing accordingly. We are headed back Tuesday to meet with her again. We couldn't meet before then because right after we left her sister came and took her to her house, so we had a small time frame to catch this lady. By the way her name is Sandy. She is a 7th day Adventist. So we left her house pretty excited. Something like that doesn't happen everyday. That night we got a call from Maryann who had cancelled her lesson for Sunday because of a busy schedule. She asked us to come over and eat with her and then teach her. We had already eaten, but we ate again. We had a really good lesson and she is seeing the blessings from learning about the restored gospel. The only bad part is she is gone for 2 weeks at a time, so it is hard to always meet with her. She pretty much gets like 4 days a month off. She is a nanny.

Sunday we met with a kid who is leaving on a mission soon. we will help him prepare. His mom is a member but doesn't want to be involved with the church so I am going to try and warm her back up to the church at the same time. I don't think the rest of the families are members so hopefully we can send him on his mission with some real teaching experience.  Well we were supposed to leave for dinner like 15 minutes ago, so I better get off. 

Love Elder Wood

Exchanges with Elder Beeston

August 19, 2013

Dear Family:

Well another good week in So Cal! This last week has been the best one since I have been in this area. Hopefully things will be picking up quickly now.

P-day (Monday) we went to the mall again. Elder Spencer has to keep going back for random stuff. He is going home here in three weeks and one of his recent converts (Anita the one who texted you the pictures) has been buying him clothes. Luckily I haven't bought anything yet, but I have one thing I want to get if I get some birth-day money. As you probably saw when I sent my SD card home the sisters destroyed our used to be clean apartment. So when we got home at 5:30 from the mall we cleaned for a half hour before dinner and then when we got home after working that night we cleaned. We are still cleaning. They got us pretty good. I leave those stupid paper dots everywhere I go.

Tuesday we had our district meeting at the mission office like every week. When we got there Sister Peirce (office Sister) had forgiveness quotes and scriptures taped all over her desk so we wouldn't get mad at her for setting it up. We were over it at that point so we just thought it was funny. We had some really good ideas on how to get them back but we aren't going to. That could go bad in a number of different ways and people would probably get the wrong idea or it would get out of hand. However we did let them know that if we weren't on a mission we would destroy them.

Wednesday I had exchanges with Elder Beeston. He served with me in Hemet so we know each other really well and it was really fun. This zone leader companionship is by far my favorite I have had. He came to my area and Elder Hawkins went with Elder Lapara to Spanish land. Elder Hawkins enjoyed being off of a bike for a day so it made the week a little easier for him which in turn helps me out a lot. Elder Beeston and I got work done! That is the most success I have seen in this area since I have been here and I loved it. I wrote down a whole bunch of people who haven't called us back and part member families and visited as many people as we could. Elder Beeston is a pretty athletic guy, but he hated biking these hills which made it more fun for me ha. He is a Spanish speaking Elder and they are all in car except for one area in Corona. We saw a lot of good things happen. I started talking with a guy named Steve on the street and we went and gave him a blessing. It went really well and we have been back twice already. I don't know how dedicated he is though; he reminds me a lot of the people I would talk to on the streets in Hemet. At some point we drank all of our water so we stopped in at the Gifford’s house. They are some really cool members here in the ward. She gave us water and then some grapes and some chocolate bread stuff. We were really grateful for all of it because we were really thirsty and hungry. She told us one of her neighbors had been to church before and asked us to go visit her. On the way out we talked to a different neighbor and got to leave a blessing with him. His name is Marty. No religious background, but really enjoyed the spirit the blessing brought. We are going to try and work with him also. We went where Sister Gifford told us to and this lady named Carol answered the door. Carol is a super cool super out spoken person. We had a really good talk with her, but she tried really hard to veer us away from talking about the gospel. She wants us to come back though. By the end of the day Elder Beeston and I were pretty wore out, so I enjoyed the day a lot.

Thursday we went with a good chunk of the zone to do service for the mission. They have a storage unit with furniture in it for the senior missionaries that needed re-arranged so they could get more in there. When I got home I had a card from Aunt Linda in the mail for my birthday, Thanks! At some point in the day I met a lady who was cool but pretty crazy. She was a medium. So I pried more trying to get her to tell me about it. She pretty much claims she has the power to have weird out of body experiences and can send other spirits places. It was pretty weird. We aren't going back there. That night for dinner we ate with the Hodges family. They are pretty big Utah State fans, so I got along with them pretty well. Bro. Hodge owns a helicopter training business. He has one or two friends out in Vernal. I guess one of them is pretty much the big guys in the state.

Friday I got your letter. It is crazy people getting married. That is weird. That is still many years down the road for me! haha. I don't like the Huitts leaving, it is cool he is getting baptized though! That would have been fun to sit in on the missionary lessons for. I hope Janalee gets better quickly. We had another good lesson with Steve before lunch. That night we ate dinner with Anita at Chilies. So that was super good! Hopefully you have gotten the pictures we sent from her phone. I didn't realize until Friday I had sent the first picture to my old phone, so we re-sent it to Dads. I think Jason has my old number, so you still probably got it anyways.

Saturday was a pretty normal day. I am running short on time so I will keep it short. I got in an interesting conversation with a guy named Bruce. He is pretty much Agnostic. He has a hard time believing Jesus is the son of God. For the most part he wouldn't talk to me about religious stuff. I talked for a while and finally caught his interest. He said his mom is a Jehovah’s Witness so I told him about who they believed Jehovah is and who we know he is. He thought that was pretty interesting so he gave me his number. Unfortunately he lives in Moreno Valley. Other than that it was a pretty boring day. That night Elder Cook and I got talking about music. I have asked so many people if they like Huey Lewis and nobody knows who he is. Elder Cook has been to a concert and loves that music. I pretty much grew up on that stuff!

Sunday was good. It is normally pretty chill in this ward. We don't have near as many people here we have to worry about teaching false doctrine to my investigators. There are some guys here that are RM's and work selling bug control. One of the guys I found out just found Elder Feist a new investigator so that was kinda cool. He is also the one who got Carol to come to church. They still do some missionary work while they are selling bug control. It’s kinda a weird combo, but it’s pretty cool too. That night we were looking for somebody and ran into some college kids who live by us and are part of a religious club at school. We ended up sitting down with three of them in the grass and we were having a really good lesson about the restoration. They had a lot of questions. Then all of the sudden like 10 more of them showed up and just wanted to bash with us. So it got pointless to be there so we left. 

That is pretty much my week! That felt like a really long letter so enjoy! Love ya!

Elder Wood 

Getting Around in a New Area

August 12, 2013

Dear Family:

Hey! Will this weeks letter is going to be better than last weeks ha. I still am not going to have near as much time as I did in Hemet. I will give you a quick run down of the last two weeks.  Monday Bro Reeves got a trailer and brought me Cook and Hawkins all in his raptor to Riverside. We also brought Elder Allen who was in Anza who is now in a neighboring ward in Riverside. That night we went to Bishop Merrill’s house and taught a lesson to the Silvas. They are converts of like 5 years, so it was a good first night for getting doubled in!

Tuesday I saw Jessie Jorgenson from Roosevelt. I know him fairly well. I am serving in the same ward as the Office Assistants (different from the AP's). Here AP's just do trainings and are regular missionaries. The OA's do all the moving and running around the mission. So it is kinda like separated by the spiritual and the physical needs. We had a meeting Tuesday morning at the mission office so we rode with the OA's. It was incoming day for new missionaries and e-mailing the week before Skyler told me Jessie is coming into this mission until he gets his visa. So the OAs left us here because they had to run to the store to get a bunch of sandwiches for the new missionaries and Elder Hawkins and I put a bike together. Then Jessie showed up so I got to give him a hug. I didn't get to see Sister Graham (also from Roosevelt) because she accidentally left her ID or something at the airport so her car had to go back for it. But this last Friday I think they lost their phone so the OA's took them a new one and talked to her for a little while. She knows who I am, but I really don't remember her ha. I remember her face in her picture, but I don't remember from what. Also we did a lot of biking.

 

Wednesday we also did a lot of biking. Our area pretty much consists of a big hill. I am fine with it, most of the time I actually enjoy biking it. Elder Hawkins hates it though, so it is hard to keep him motivated to go up and down it. 

Thursday I got your letter so I have a few questions. Sharee, who is your new friend Kevin? You just talked about him/her, not really giving any background. I dunno how I feel about them changing the parade to 5. I am a creature of habit and enjoy long lived traditions, but I will get over it. Other than that Longhorn Days sounds like it was awesome! Yes Mom after I got to this area I was sad for like a day because I had Hemet going well for me, but now I am starting to like this area a lot even though it is a lot harder of an area. During the day we just tried to find people to teach and weekly planned. That night the OA's called us and needed our help to go give the sisters in Elder Spencer’s district a blessing. Sister Neilson is the brand new one and was having some anxiety problems so Elder Spencer gave her an amazing blessing. After that Sister Fia (S. Neilson's) comp asked me to give her a blessing because she was having some headache problems. 

Friday Dad should have gotten a picture text of me in front of Roadhouse. Anita (Elder  Spenser's recent convert) took us all out to eat. That day I got to be a car missionary. The OA's had to do a bunch of office work so they didn't need their car. It is a 2013 ford fusion. It wasn't bad. I like the sport mode cuz you get to shift instead of it being auto. It was just nice get a lot more done and not take days biking up the hill. Also I found out Elder Haslem is from Vernal. He has been out just over 3 months. I also heard that there are a bunch of protestors at the Provo temple when the missionaries do their Sunday temple walk. That is pretty stupid. 

Saturday I don't have any notes, and I don't remember what we did.

Sunday I got to meet a bunch of cool people at church. I found out President Plocher (he is President Smarts 1st or 2nd councilor) is in my ward. He is super cool. This church building has a real organ in it. So that is cool.

Monday we went to Bishop's for dinner. We ate shark and it was super good. He went with the young men deep sea fishing and that is what he caught. It wasn't a regular shark though; it was just a spade head. It still tasted bomb. 

Tuesday we actually had some names to chase down because we caught up with our ward mission leader who had been out of town. It is a lot harder to contact people here. Hemet everybody is always home. It is also a lot harder to get OYM's here cuz here people have a lot of money and just drive to where ever they are going. After dinner we finished up our OYM's at a super nice park and made some friends with some kids our age who were super good at the guitar. Two of them played guitar, one of them sang really well, and then the other guy played the cello. 

Wednesday was Elder Hawkins B-day. We went out to lunch but that is about all that we did for his B-day. That night we had dinner with the Vance family. He actually knew where Myton was! But not Altamont. He sometimes hunts around 9 mile, so that is why. That night we had a great meeting with Bishop Merrill at the church. He is really missionary minded and wants to get this area going. He is being a big support. He knows that this is a hard area for missionary work so he is helping us work with the members a lot.

Thursday we had President interviews. It was what I needed. Between meeting with President Smart and Bishop Merrill, all my prayers for the last two weeks were pretty well answered. He gave me some good ideas for the area I told me about the past of the area. He said they haven't seen success here in a while. He also gave me some ideas on how to help my companion. That night we were out finishing up our OYM's at a little shopping market next to our apartment and met a pretty cool guy. He pulled up in a nice BMW blaring some screamo music. Hawkins likes that kind a little bit so we were talking about it and he overheard us. He came up and asked us if we liked that kind of music and we started up a good little conversation. His name is Benton and he is in the band Assuming We Survive. We talked to him about that a little bit. He is the screamer for the band. They just got off of the warped tour. His band is on tour right now but ended up having to leave because he thought he had strep so he had to leave right then just in case he got the singer sick. Elder Hawkins had him show him some music even though I didn't want him to. He showed us his new CD that won't come out for another week or two, it wasn't half bad though, however, it definitely drove the spirit away ha. After that we started talking about his belief system. Then we got to teach him a little lesson. It went ok. 

Friday we chased the rest of the names the ward gave us. That night our dinner cancelled and gave us money. I talked everybody into Chilies and loved it! I got the same thing I always do on the 2 for 20. 

Saturday we tried contacting part member families. I am trying to wrap it up, it is the other elders turn. That night I met with our new investigator Mary Ann while Elder Hawkins went and did baptismal interview for somebody. I got to have a brand new missionary with me, so I really enjoyed that. Elder Lunt from Farmington. We put her on date for the 31st, but then her fellow shipper will be gone that day, so it is still up in the air right now. 

Sunday church was awesome. This ward is solid. We told them about all the names we chased down and then they gave us more! I was excited. Sacrament the talks were awesome and the same in Sunday school. 

So some question from your last letter. Are their Elders just in Altamont? Elder Hawkins knows the Langston family pretty well. I have talked to Elder Langston’s dad quite a few times because his ward shares a building with Fruitvale and Langston is in the Bishopric. Yes Mom you can send pictures and yes keep doing it, I enjoy it. You can give my dirt bike to Ronny, but I wouldn't put any money into it. Skylers brother and I took it apart and the piston is shot. Jetson and I in Vernal one day went to the Yamaha place and priced buying a new one and replacing it myself and for that much I could buy a newer used one. Also what kind of cars are you looking at? Kia, Nissan, Honda? There are a few cars from Nissan that are good, few from Subaru and Honda isn't the worst, they make good dirt bikes though! I always thought that Dad would buy something made in America? I have other things I have forgotten to tell you about but I still need to write president a sentence or two. Love ya!

Elder Wood