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