Ye Ole Country Road

Howdy y'all! I hope all your weeks are going fantastic!

So, every day I spend on my mission it seems like the days all mesh together more and more. It's weird how living the same schedule for days and days can make it seem like it goes by so fast but also so slow! It's kinda hard to get used to, but it can be nice. We lay down to go to bed and I feel like we were just barely laying down for the night before...

Anyways, so my week here in the Bayou…


We had a dinner!!! It was with this less active family. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I have almost no tolerance for racism and all the neo Nazi and confederate stuff. Well, this family was pretty much all of it. Now as missionaries we aren't supposed to have a political opinion, so I kept my mouth shut, but they were talking about black people and the mentally disabled like they were animals. But they were nice other than that. The dad told us how to unhook our Tiwi (a GPS-enabled device that allows the mission office to monitor the location of the mission cars) and be able to drive behind the backs of the mission office. Haha, we aren't gonna do it but it's funny that he even knew how. Hopefully I myself can learn to have more charity and love for them and we can help them come back to church!

On Wednesday this member needed help moving her sewing machine. When I got there she kept telling me how big and heavy it was and that she and her 20 something year old son couldn't move it and how I was going to need carts and stuff if I wanted to move it. But then I got to it and it's like the exact same size of the one we have at home. So I looked at it and then just picked it up. She and her son almost couldn't believe I had just picked it up! Haha it really wasn't that heavy though... It was just like a regular sewing machine. I didn’t tell them it wasn’t heavy though because I didn't want them to feel bad. :p

One day Elder Jones and I were doing our online proselyting prep stuff at the church. But that week for mutual they did a big Nerf war. So, Elder Jones and I found a huge tote of Nerf guns and darts and stuff. Haha so we may have taken a quick 5 minute break from watching the videos we are supposed to watch and had a Nerf war in our activity hall. ;)

Saturday was our fall festival! Our Jennings branch was invited to join the Lake Charles ward to do a fun little Halloween party. We had dinner and then had a Trunk or Treat after. Only a few from our branch showed up but it was a good time! We and the Lake Charles Elders went and bought candy and opened our trunk and passed it out with pass along cards and the occasional Book of Mormon. :) For our costumes we all switched name tags :p

Elder Wood and Elder Jones at the Trunk or Treat activity

Sunday! I love Sundays. After church we had a Linger Longer and people brought food and it was pretty fun. After that we had about 300 miles to use before November still so we decided to go try a bible referral in Iota. Up in that area of our mission it's nothing but long country roads for miles and miles. Big rice fields surrounded by the huge Louisiana forest. I just drove for miles through this peaceful area. It's always nice to be able to go to these places when we get to. It's a nice change from the usual hood. There was this one road we drove on that had lots of turns and it was surrounded by tall pine trees and me and Elder Jones both thought it looked like Utah! Haha so I found a little piece of home far away from home. :)


Anyways, here's a crazy story! (Disclaimer--we felt like Jonah's version of this crazy story was just a little TOO crazy and graphic to publish on this public blog--here is our "edited for family viewing" version of it!) We finally found this guy John's house. He lives in a super small town and his house was super um, southern... ;p He had five full grown pit bulls all chained to different trees around his yard. He came out and started to talk to us. He told us to watch out for the albino female that was closest to us because "she is the mean one." So we kinda laughed it off and kept talking about the gospel and such. While we were talking the dog attacked a kitten and the guy was trying to get the dog off the kitten and it was quite the scene. This whole time Elder Jones and I are watching in complete shock. Haha it happened so fast we didn't even have time to realize what was happening! He walked back over and we finished our discussions and gave him his Book of Mormon and Bible. Haha oh man, that's just a small part of just how things are down here in the real country :p

Anyways after that, we went and found this less active and he showed us around his new paintball arena he had been working on. He seemed super nice and was totally welcome to us. Maybe we can work with him and his family and see if anything comes from that :)

Well, other than that, my week was pretty normal. I hope you all have a wonderful week and will keep on doing amazing things! If there is one thing I've learned on my mission it’s that the only way to true happiness is through Christ and his gospel. The only way to having a good life and gaining success is through living in God’s path. We so easily get caught up in finishing our "lists" and making sure we stay busy. Staying busy is good, but only to a point. We have to make sure we put the first things first. The most important things should be our first priorities. And our biggest priority is this gospel. Whether you believe it or not, this gospel is for you. It’s for everyone. And through it, you can find eternal peace.

I love and miss you all! I am so, so grateful for all of your support and I pray for all of you!

-Elder Wood

How I decorated  the bathroom mirror with the Halloween gel clings my mom sent

Two Months

Hey ya'll! It’s crazy how fast the weeks are already going by! It seems like it was just barely P-day! And here I am again, writing back home!

Anyways, I hope everyone's week went well and that you all are enjoying fall! (As it seems that season doesn't exist here)

So to start out my week, everything was pretty normal for the most part I guess. Now that we are doing mostly member work and less-actives, and much less door knocking, we have had much less excitement and incidents throughout our days. It’s almost kinda weird to go throughout a day and not have a guy tell you about all the people he's killed or hear gunshots every now and then. (But don't worry mom, I’m on the Lord's side so I’m safe) ;)

So this week we drove around and tried to visit members on our branch list. We found this guy who lived out in the country and he had this super nice country mansion with a huge nice yard and everything. He was super kind to us and let us in his house and gave us a drink. We got to talking and he told us about how he used to be a Mormon and he went to seminary and everything in high school. But as he got older he simply found a "better religion". He then explained what he believed in and a lot of it was similar but it just seemed like a "accept Christ, get into heaven" type deal. He said he really isn't interested at the moment in coming back but that he really respects what we do and that when his pastor starts trying to bash on the Mormon religion or start to teach anti then he stands up for us and makes sure everyone knows how we really are, which is good. But it is sad he isn't interested at all in coming back. He said the only one fault we have is that once you're in the religion, it’s impossible to get out. He said he has tried over and over again to get his records removed and they just keep sending people over to see him. I mean, ultimately he has his free agency... but I know there is only one true religion. And really there is only one way back to our Heavenly Father. And it’s not by just saying you accept Christ and then do whatever you want. Sadly, this is how a lot of the less-actives are here. We have about 200 members and only about 30 real active people. So hopefully we can find some people and bring them back to this eternal truth.

A little miracle we experienced is with Ralph, who I've mentioned a few times in my other emails. He's the only real investigator we've ever found by just tracting. We've gone over at least 2 or 3 times a week to teach him, but he never lets us into his house. So we always just have to teach him on his porch. So this week, one of our goals was to get inside his house so we can feel the spirit better and teach him. So when we showed up the first thing he said to us is that we aren't getting inside his house. And obviously we can't force ourselves into his house or anything. So we starting to talk to him and soon all of a sudden the mosquitoes got super bad. So bad that he said we had to go inside! So we went in and this guy is a war veteran and a martial arts master. And let me tell you, this guy has more weapons than I've seen in my life. His walls are completely covered in all sorts of knives, swords, spears, guns, etc. It’s super cool but any robber better stay away from his house! He has a room he showed us where literally all the walls, every inch, is covered by all different kinds of knives. But anyways we were able to teach this guy in his house and it was super good. We read through the introduction and the testimonies of the Book of Mormon. He really liked when we told him about the story of Joseph Smith getting killed because of the action in it. Haha I told him he would really like the last books in the Book of Mormon.

On Wednesday we got a call from a senior couple asking us to help them move in a new apartment in Jennings. They told us that we should have received a call about it but classic Jennings missionary style we hadn't heard a word about it. At first Elder Jones and I were scared they were moving us to Jennings so it would be technically closer to the middle of our area. But our apartment in Welsh is one of the nicest in the mission. And almost 90 percent of our active members are in Iowa and that's close to Welsh. But we found out when we arrived that they were bringing in two new elders to cover Jennings east. So they would get the east side of Jennings and Crowley and others. And we would get the west side of everything. We moved in all their stuff into their new apartment and then went home to plan and start moving over all of our investigators and stuff from those areas to their area. But then the next day we got a call saying that they are no longer bringing in elders because one of them went home right after the MTC... So it’s still just me and Jones and 40,000 people! It’s good though because I was a little bummed out because they would have gotten Ralph and the member family I talked about last week. Haha speaking of that family, at church this week, there was a super bad rain storm that morning, so I drove to Jennings and you could only see a few feet in front of you on the highway... but we made it and only about 20 people came to church because of the weather. But this family drove all the way up and that little girl, 4 year old Emma, saw me and ran up and gave me a high five and she was so happy to see us missionaries! Oh man, I love the people here.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. I went on exchanges with Elder Woodhouse on Saturday. He came up to Jennings and we went and tried members all day. Not a single person answered... all day... so to make up for that we stopped at a little place we found off the freeway and walked in and the guy there came over and handed us a baby alligator! So that was cool.

Today was transfers. One down! Elder Jones and I are both staying in Jennings but Elder Woodhouse and Sister Woodbury are leaving our district. But not much changed this transfer. All of the Zone Leaders stayed the same throughout the entire mission. And now that we aren't getting new elders in Jennings not much will change!

Well, I think that's about it for this week. I hope you all are loving life and making the most out of everything! I know I will have to make sure I get the most out of every moment because I'm already two months in and it feels like it flew by!

I love and miss you all! Thanks for the support and prayers!

Love, Elder Wood

What the north side of my area looks like--rice fields for miles!

Our district at the beach last week taking "so cute" companion pictures  :)

Crabs, coast, and jellyfish

Hey everyone! Okay so this one is going to be a little shorter I think because I've been gone all day at the coast. So, I'll see what I have time to say :p Also, sorry to anyone I wasn't able to reply to today, I'm a little time crunched ;p so I'll try and get back to you all next week.

So this week in Louisiana, on Tuesday, I led out for my first time! Which means we have exchanges and I stay in my area and am the senior companion for the day so I'm in charge of everything. Elder Mote came up from Lake Charles and we spent the day together. It went pretty well. We went and saw the Italian again. He promised us he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we promised him he would come to know it was true if he truly did that with an open mind and heart. We haven't had a chance to go see him again yet but I'm praying he was able to do it.

Wednesday we ran into this super less-active family. They were all fine except they all yelled at each other about everything. They were are super downgrading to each other... even the 80 year old grandma was yelling stuff. It really goes to show you how important the gospel is for families. Raising a family in the gospel is really the only way that will work out in the end. Without Christ being the center of a home, families get lost in the things of the world.

Thursday we had a tri-zone meeting in Kingswood, Texas. Elder Donald L. Hallstrom and his wife came to meet with us. He has spoken in General Conference a few times, even this last conference. He and his wife showed us all so much love. It was really cool because they built us up through Christ-like love and showing us the way instead of just tearing us down and yelling at us for the things we are doing wrong. Because honestly, that rarely works. But they had a lot of good things to say and a lot of cool insights.

Also, I got to see everyone again at the conference. It’s always nice to see familiar faces. I occasionally get to see Elders McBride and Horikami because they are in my zone but Elders Osborne and Davies I don't get to see as much. So it was nice to catch up with them :)

That night we stayed with the Beaumont zone leaders because it was too late to travel all the way home. They are super fun and it's been so cool to get to know all the elders here and hear the stories from past elders. Apparently David Archuleta’s little sister left this mission right before I came in. And every mission always has those crazy stories of things that have happened... Haha, oh man.

Anyways, this last Sunday it was the primary program! :) It was so cute. My branch only has about eight primary kids but they all sang super loud and proud :) Then we went down to a town on the edge of our mission to try and find some members to teach and we ran across this family. Oh man, I think they are my favorite members I've met so far. The mom and grandma are from Idaho and they have a lot of animals. They are super real and have kids aged 4 to 16. The little 4 year old girl took me all around their farm and showed me all the animals. She "helped" me get some eggs and bottle feed their baby sheep that she named "Oakshaw" ;p But the mom was super nice and they were so welcoming to me and Elder Jones. It was a nice change from the usual "send the pit bulls after you" response we have been getting. But yeah, they invited us to dinner and said we are welcome anytime. Their dad is a police officer and they are all super active. Hopefully we can find some more families that can be super good additions to this branch :)

Today we woke up early and went and got haircuts. Then we headed to Lake Charles to meet the Elders there and then we headed to Holly Beach! We stopped on the way by this river/marsh and went crabbing. Haha. We tied some chicken to some string and caught some crabs and just had a good time. I caught one with my hands and picked it up for pictures ;p We also pulled out a few slimy bottom feeders.

Then we went down to the beach and hung out there for the rest of the day. We took "so cute" companion pics and played soccer and built sand castles and such. It was a good last get together with our district since transfers are next week. Plus, you know me, I love the ocean... It was kinda hard since I can't swim but it was super pretty :) and then right before we left, I found a bunch of jellyfish that had been washed up! So I touched it because when else am I gonna be able to touch a jelly fish? But yeah, that was my week in a large nutshell.

I love and miss you all! Keep doing good and being amazing! Thanks for the prayers and support. It really does make all the difference.

Love,
- Elder Wood

 

My week in Texas

Hello everyone! It's always so great to hear from some of you and to hear about what you are doing! It's kinda crazy to me, because I'm only a month and a half in but the days already are mixing together and going by faster and faster... I don't like it! I'm afraid I'll sneeze and my mission will be over! ;p

Old Fire Truck

Anyways, this week wasn't a typical week. It started off on Monday after P-day I had my first exchange, I went down to Orange, Texas to stay with Elders Mooney and Wolfgram. And their companions, McBride and Horikami went up to Jennings and stayed with my companion, Elder Jones. So we were in trios. The first day, Tuesday, we went and had some lessons! Like real, sit in your house lessons. We also had a dinner with a member! He made us steak, corn on the cob, and homemade french fries. Then that night we went and visited a recent convert who is a fireman. He toured us around the 5 million dollar building they have in Orange and gave us a little history as well. It was an all-around good day.

My Star Wars blanket

On Wednesday we were scheduled to do service that morning. But when we showed up where we were supposed to go, no one else was there... so we got back in the car and saw a truck with a trailer of supplies and decided to follow it. It went around an old warehouse and then parked and two guys walked into the abandoned building. It seemed kinda sketchy but we decided to follow them in. Before we could even say a word we were getting handed stuff to unload off a trailer. So, we decided we were doing service there that day :p It was really cool, the people weren't LDS and they were so grateful for our help. We three and two others were the only guys able to work there so they kept us busy! A lot of them were representatives from other churches. There were Catholics, Baptists, and I even met my first Amish people! But they were all chill, they were all super, super grateful for our help. Plus, at the end of the day, they said we could pick anything we wanted to keep. So I picked a small Star Wars Rey and BB-8 blanket. It's pretty sweet. :)

The next day was new missionary training. The elders who were in Jennings came down and we headed off to Summerwood, Texas. The drive there was amazing! So in Summerwood, they have this law about no cutting down trees without the city’s permission because they want to preserve its beauty. And oh man, it's so pretty. There are these big green trees everywhere and the houses are built around nature and there are these long walking and biking trails that just cut into the trees to get somewhere. All the roads were tree tunnels. I wanna get called there one day... anyways, at new missionary training we were supposed to memorize the entire Joseph Smith history and memorize all the “How to begin teaching” bullet points. And we were supposed to be working on this over the course of our entire time here. But, in classic Jennings elder’s style, we had no idea about this. I wasn't informed of it until two days before. So, I tried my best to learn it all but there was no way unless I spent all my time on it. So when we got there we were split off to go with different companions to say it. I got with Elder Mooney and was about to go when one of the AP's came over and said he was going to sit in with mine... But Elder Mooney saw this and he quickly stepped in and said that there was a mix up and I needed to go with a different elder. Oh man, he saved my life... Haha ;p

My photo on the Zone Leaders' organization board

On our way back we six elders stopped at Buc-ee's. I had never been to a Buc-ee's before so I didn't know what to expect. If you have never been to one, imagine a gas station, okay now imagine a big gas station. Now imagine a Texas big gas station. That's what it is. It's a gas station on steroids. It was super cool though. I got a few things from there including a Texas "Come and take it" flag soda holder. We stopped at the Ross's house to say “Hi” because we all missed them because the Orange elders no longer stay with them.

Me in Buc-ee's

My Texas soda holder

Things you can find in Buc-ee's

The next morning, we left to go to district meeting back in Louisiana. Elder Jones had 48 Dr Peppers to drink in the course of two days... So he was overdosed on caffeine. And I wasn’t able to get my driving card yet so I don't know how we survived the drive... But we did, thankfully :p

Crawfish meal

The next morning Jones slept in till 10:30... Then he slept most of the day. He was feeling super sick. So, what does a missionary do when his companion is sick? Cross-stitch, of course! Haha some elders who were here before had left some cross stitching materials here so Elder Jones and I went and picked up some more supplies and learned how to cross stitch! Haha I'm in the middle of a project. When Jones gets sick again hopefully I'll be able to finish it. Haha I can honestly say, out of all the things I expected I was gonna do on my mission, cross-stitching was not one of them... That night I had my first crawfish meal! They are kinda like small lobsters. But more bug-like. We just got them in steam bags from Wal-Mart.

Sunday was good, I actually got to "normal" church! With service and everything, I haven't even been able to go to my branch yet. But I went yesterday! It was good. I saw a lot of people I've already met and some who I just knew their names. And we had a good turn out! We had about 50 people there! It was great. It was fast Sunday so I got to hear some of their testimonies. A lot of them are converts and their beliefs and testimonies are so strong. I love these people. That night we drove down to Sulphur and had dinner with all six of the Louisiana missionaries and with President Young. He said he has plans to get Jennings up and moving again. So hopefully with his help we'll start to get things running smoother.

So apparently there was another hurricane, it didn't hit my area that I know of, we don't get much of any information on the mission. ;p

Well, I guess that was my week. Haha if my emails are too long, let me know... I just get talking and don't realize how long they are till I'm done... :p

I'm so, so thankful for all the love and support from you all. The prayers and letters and everything help so much. I love and miss you all! Something I learned this week is that we don't need to be perfect, but we do need to rely on He who was perfect in order to be good enough. Have a wonderful week! Until next time.

- Elder Wood

Jeep for Dad

Another New Start!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great week and was able to watch conference! General Conference is always so, so good. But I realized unfortunately, that before my mission I didn't realize the full significance of having modern day prophets speak to us. The eternal truths they tell us today are no less important than the things we read in the Book of Mormon or Bible. They receive revelation directly from God to guide us in today's world. Imagine if Nephi or Alma or Moses came to speak, I don't think so many of us would "accidentally" fall asleep as we do during regular conference. But the words they speak are no less powerful and true than the words of all of God's past prophets and revelators.

The biggest change this week is when I first got here we had this thing called 777. Which means we get 7 new investigators, 7 people asked to be baptized, and 7 people on date for baptism. And that was our standard. And our zone leaders and presidents were all super concerned that we get those numbers. And that was how they decided if we were being effective or not. At one point I was told that if I wasn't getting the standard I should just go home. And I was honestly confused because we are supposed to be teaching people. Not statistics. Teach repentance, baptize CONVERTS. Not just not having enough numbers so committing a group of drunk people to baptism at the last second. But now, through inspiration, they have decided to throw out the 777 and concentrate on working through members and baptizing true converts. So that'll be great! Everyone who has been here for longer than me says this is changing everything. So, hopefully, we will all start to be more effective!

We also had a FHE with some of the active members of our branch. It's the first time I've actually gotten to know a lot of them. They are all so kind and nice! I love all of them. We sang silly songs and played games and Elder Jones and I gave the lesson. Oh it was great! We are planning to do FHE lessons at least once every week and start inviting less active and investigators :)

This weekend was Conference. It was all so good! I encourage all of you to review and read the talks over and ponder what they say.

I don't have a lot of time so this one will be a little shorter, I really hope all is going well and I appreciate the support and prayers!

Also! I got my first member meal Sunday night! It was so nice to have real food... It was a testimony builder for sure.

We went after dinner to give a lady a blessing because doctors found a tumor. She is from Thailand and her son is deaf. But they were both so, so kind. I am loving meeting all these different kinds of people. She was continuously thanking us. We also went to meet this guy. We called him before we left and when we got to his trailer, he went off about how he had been trying to live his life good but had gone back to making some of the bad decisions he made before he was baptized. He said that he had realized that he wanted Christ in his life and was trying to find a way or sign he could change. And then we called. We gave him a blessing and reconnected him to the gospel. He went on to watch conference and I really think he is sincere in changing. So many cool stories happen like this every day.

I love my mission and am so happy I decided to go. I love these people and this work. I love and miss all of you! Until next week.

- Elder Wood