The Amazing Race

Hey y’all! I hope this week has gone good for all of you! Now I'm fixing to put the most important part of this email first, then I'll get to my week later. (Just like we should live our lives, with what's most important first) 😉 Anyways, if you are going to read any part of my letter this week, have it be this next part.

So Tuesday of this week was zone conference in Vidor. President Hewlett and Sister Hewlett came down and taught us all and then President did interviews during and after the meeting. President had a list of questions he wanted us all to prepare answers for so we would know what to expect during the interview. After those questions were discussed he said something to me that I have no doubt in my mind was inspired. It was one of those things that you feel was exactly what you needed. He told me about a race. He told me to imagine my mission as this big amazing race. At the end of the race was the finish line. Now that finish line isn't when I finish my mission, but rather when I baptize a convert. And everything before then was the preparation and the actual running of the race. Now, you prep a little different for each kind of race. Some are longer than others so you need to train a little more and work a little harder, but ultimately they are all still races. Now too many people get caught up in finishing the race. Too many people think that the only important part of a race is winning. But if you focus only on finishing a race and you hate the extensive training and the difficulty of pushing through the race then you will be extremely let down when another racer finishes before you. Or when the race is too hard and you give up. These kind of people or missionaries have such tunnel vision that when the end of the tunnel gets blocked they are left in only darkness. In order to avoid that almost guaranteed darkness and feeling of failure, we need to learn to love the middle parts. Learn to appreciate and love the training and the running. Take your time to see the beauty in the course. Take time to learn to truly love those around you and who you are working with. Become excited to teach those you are talking with about the eternal truths you know. See the light of Christ work in their own lives. Help teach them how to run their own races. Then at the end, even if you don’t win, it will be okay. And you will still thank the Lord for the wonderful race you were able to run.

Now this doesn't only apply to missionary work, but can relate to anything in life. If you are looking for a new job but are only focused on after you get one, then it will be much harder to find a job that you will really enjoy. But something important to remember is that if we even want a chance at finishing then we have to run.

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain." -1 Corinthians 9:24

We will not be able to obtain if we don’t even start the race. But if we keep pushing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, we will obtain. It may not be in the time we would like, but we will eventually win that race.

Anyways, so my week 😊

Monday was a super slow p-day. We are low on miles so we just stayed in Welsh and hung around our apartment all day 😜

Tuesday was the zone conference thing. That was super good and it's always a blast to see all the other missionaries. (Especially since as the Jennings Elders, we don't ever really see any other missionaries.) After we left we got about 45 minutes away from Vidor and then we got a call from other Elders saying that they had found my tablet... which I wasn't even aware I had left ... so we turned around and drove back. (Good thing miles are exempt for zone conference)

Wednesday was kinda slow. We didn't have any success except for we went and met a Book of Mormon request and it was T*’s girlfriend that had already been to Mutual and Young Women's in Excellence a few times! The only problem is her family is what I call Cajun Catholic... which means that you are born a Catholic, and you die a Catholic. And if you ever switch, then you get disowned... it's a very real thing and it's super sad. She told us she wants to switch and be baptized... But she is only 17. So without the consent of her father, there is nothing we can do. So we are gonna keep trying to get in to have a lesson with her family and see what we can do to help them.

Thursday was super super slow. We went and tried to visit less active and find part member families... and we didn't get a single answer or success....

Friday we had our Branch Thanksgiving party! That was fun. People didn't show up until 45 minutes late but then we had a decent turnout. We had good food and then after we had eaten we set up an alley with tarp and a wooden board at the end and had a "Turkey Bowl". Haha we went bowling with turkeys instead of bowling balls 😂 it was great. We did kids vs big kids (adults). I got a spare my first try!

Saturday we did exchanges. I went to Lake Charles with Elder Harmon. It went really good actually! That morning we did priesthood Saturdays and biked around looking for potential priesthood holders. We were riding and some little black kids came up and said "y’all from New Orleans?!?" "Y’all on TV?!" We explained that we were missionaries and that our job was to help others come unto Jesus. They nodded for a while and then out came more questions. "Y'all teach people how to dress up nice at your church?" "That's a nice bike, I got that exact same bike!" Haha One of them said, "My dad's a pastor". Another said after that, "My dad's in jail"... Oh man, after we talked to them for a while we asked them if their dads (the ones that were still around) would like hearing a message about Jesus Christ. They said yes and then took us to their house. We then had a very very good lesson with a man named R*. He seemed super prepared. He had changed his life around and wanted to be there for his family and his kids. He knew God's presence was in his life and he truly wanted to become closer to him. We taught him about the restored priesthood and how that can bless his family and he said that he really wants to come to know that it has been brought back so he can use it to bless and help his family. He also promised to start reading the Book of Mormon and Bible again. It was super super cool to feel the words I was saying be validated by the spirit and see them make sense in his eyes--to have the spirit work though me and help him make his life better. That's what missionary work is all about.

Sunday was pretty normal. After church we went and visited Sister E*. She is the grandma of the G* family. She apparently had fallen pretty badly so we went to see how she was doing. She was in a lot of pain but she seemed alright. We also got to see the kitten we saved that she has been taking care of. She is doing much better. She was all healed up but didn't recognize us anymore. Sister E* talked to us for a while and told us about how she grew up in California and was a rodeo queen and had the fastest time for barrel racing at a few major competitions. I would have never guessed! Haha it was funny though, because Elder Jones didn't know what barrel racing was and the fact that he didn't know what barrel racing was, was almost incomprehensible for Sister E*... 😜 she was just so shocked that someone didn't know what it was. Then he told her he had never seen a rodeo before... I think at that exact moment she lost all faith in our generation... haha she was relieved I knew what it was though. 😂

Anyways, that was my week. It really went by super fast again... it's crazy how fast things go now a days. I miss and love y’all! Thank you so much for your support and love! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Wood