4 Weeks to 4 Days

Petting Zoo!

Hey everyone!

This week was full of greatness! :)

This week I really had a cool experience with the power of prayer. So, this last Sunday a recent convert, Brother O'Keefe, asked us if one of us could sing. I immediately pointed out that Elder Wolfgramm could. (Because if any of you know me, I don't have the best singing voice. Haha I try sometimes but it's more like a dying pterodactyl) He then asked us if we would be willing to do a musical number in sacrament meeting the last week of May. Elder Wolfgramm has never performed anything musical so he was kinda nervous so I told him if he agreed then I would play the piano for him. He agreed and then we picked the song titled 'Peace in Christ' which is the new mutual theme for this year (if any of you haven't heard it, go listen to it!) I wasn't too stressed about it because I had 4 weeks to learn the song. And I felt pretty confident in my abilities to learn it in 4 weeks because I'm not the best at playing but I can figure it out if I work on it. Anyways, we were able to have a member print us the music on Wednesday night and things were lining up good. But when the member gave us the music there was some confusion because she thought we were doing it this Sunday... we explained we were doing it in May and then she said that the theme for this next sacrament meeting was Peace in Christ... we talked to Brother O'Keefe about it on Thursday and he then decided we were going to perform this week.... 4 weeks of preparation turned into 4 days... I’ve never been able to master a piano song in 4 days and I've certainly never played a song while people sang along. But, we agreed to do our best. A Laurel in our ward Josella Lane decided to sing a duet with Elder Wolfgramm so they could do the harmonized parts and sound all pretty. So we started practicing from 8 to 9 every night. I don't think I've ever prayed harder for a performance than I did for this one. I've done plenty of musical performances and competition before so I wasn't too nervous about being scared to play in front of everyone but I was more scared for my own ability to play the song. I prayed lots and lots and I did all I could to do as much preparation as possible. I knew I couldn't just pray for me to play it perfectly without me putting in as much work as I could. God delivers answers and miracles after the trial of our faith. Come Sunday I was sitting in the pews and the last speaker was speaking before our performance. I had only been able to play the piano solo in the middle without any mistakes about twice before... I was nervous and scared because I wanted the members to be able to feel the spirit and I thought messing up the piece might distract them from how they were feeling. Right before the speaker ended I said one last prayer asking for help and I told Heavenly Father it was in his hands. I was immediately washed over with peace and confidence. I barely remember performing at all and I didn't mess up in the parts I usually did. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough. And I know there is no way my own talents could be enough for that.

On Saturday we had a conference with Elder Pearson who is our Area of the Seventy. It was super good! He talked a lot about our divine identity and fully serving the Lord.

We also were able to go to a crawfish boil on Saturday for a recently returned missionary in our ward. That was super good! I honestly LOVE crawfish and it was Elder Wolfgramm’s first time! Crawfish is definitely one of the Cajun things I’m going to miss. Right after the crawfish boil we had the stake jubilee for family history work. The stake had a goal of helping make another stake on the other side of the veil by doing all the temple work in a year. They reached their goal so they held a huge party for the whole stake down in the fairgrounds in New Caney. It was lots of fun and tons of less actives and investigators came as well! We invited our old investigator Craig to come and he did! We haven't been able to see him in weeks so that was super cool! At the party they had tons of food and lots of fun games like Ward vs Ward tug of war and stuff. They even had inflatable bounce houses and a petting zoo! (One of my favorite parts) ;) They had a llama and a deer in the petting zoo so that was pretty cool! (pics included) They also had a live band and that made me kinda trunky for my band and friends back home. (Shout-out to the real GM's. We're gonna have a dope reunion in 16 months!)

On Sunday we went and biked around trying formers and such. On the way home I saw on the map what looked like a green belt that followed a river that I hadn't been on and it looked like a short cut to where we were going. So, we decided to try it out! As we were getting onto the trail some guys on the side of the road asked us for a lighter. We said we didn't have one and went on our way. After riding the trail for a while it cut into an opening and it turned into a dirt trail that followed the little stream. We followed that all the way till where we were hoping to find a bridge. But, there wasn't one. Instead of going miles back the way we had come we decided to follow the river a little longer to see if there was a shallow part we could just carry our bikes and cross. We rode down for a few miles until we finally found a spot where we could walk across. On the way back we were riding pretty fast so we wouldn't be late to our dinner and I suddenly heard a dog and some people. As I looked down into the river, on a bank there were four guys with long hair, one had a hand drum and the others had digeridoos and they were just chilling in the middle of this forest by the river. We realized it was the same guys who had asked for a lighter. So totally just some hippies, smoking dope, just playing some good old aboriginal music like you do...haha oh man, after we passed them we looked at each other and said, 'Was that even real?' haha It’s just one of those things you’ll never forget.

Even though the work is going slowly right now, I love every moment of it! I've completely changed my life on my mission and I'm so grateful for every small miracle Heavenly Father blesses me with. He is there. And He is just waiting to give us everything we are ready for!

Again, I invite all of you to read the Book of Mormon in 65 days with me, specifically look for the characteristics of Christ. If you do this, I promise it will change your life and your focus in whatever way God needs it too. Be willing to become who you are meant to be.

Have a wonderful week everyone! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Jonah Wood

Cool rainbow I found on a leaf so I had to take advantage
of our good cameras on our new phones!