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