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
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| What the north side of my area looks like--rice fields for miles! |
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| Our district at the beach last week taking "so cute" companion pictures :) |
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