Almost solo in Solo

Hey! Hey! Hey!  

Man, I can't believe its almost Christmas!  I still remember running through the airport in San Fran frantically trying to talk on the phone with dad and trying to catch an international flight and thinking, "This is my last time to talk to my family before Christmas!" And thinking that Christmas seemed like an eternity away!  And look, its already almost here!  We get to talk again soon!  

So, I am sorry I haven't been able to tell you how it is going to work until just now.  We only just got told today, which makes it kind of hard to coordinate.  But we are allowed to call home on one of 3 days:  December 24, 25, or 26th for one hour on Skype!  

So, I was thinking that maybe I would call on the morning of the 26th here, or the night of Christmas for you guys.  I don't know if that works for you or what, but I was thinking that might be a good time because it is still Christmas for you and I can already have opened my package and you guys can tell me what you all got and did for Christmas and stuff.  But if you have a better day or time, I am open and flexible any of those 3 days here for 1 hour!  I can't wait to talk to you guys!  Especially getting to do it over skype!  So you will need to send me your skype address/ info so that I have it and can call you guys, because I don't think I have an account yet... So I will have to make one next week.  But ya, if you could get me that information, that would be awesome!  Thanks!

Well, this week was better than last week.  I don't know.  There is not a whole lot to talk about this week either, though.  Nothing really all too exciting has been happening lately.  We don't really have any new investigators up to this point, so we are just kind of trying to work with those that we have, help inactive members get active, and trying to find some new investigators.  Which is pretty hard to do here with our proselyting restrictions, but we are working to try to figure out how to do it.

Well, I guess the biggest thing that happened this week is that the 2 other Elders in the house are getting transferred.  They both got the phone call on Thursday that they are both moving.  One is going to Jakarta and the other to Bogor.  I am still staying here with Elder Wintolo.  And, the interesting thing is, there is a shortage of missionaries right now because like 10 missionaries go home tomorrow, so there is no one coming to replace them, at least not for the next little while (probably like 2 months it sounds like).  So, Elder Wintolo and I will be alone in the house and will be covering both areas!  So, covering both areas will be exciting because we will hopefully be able to stay super busy and stuff!  And being alone in the house will have its positives and negatives.  It will be a lot quieter and more boring to not have other Elders to mess and joke around with and talk about our days with.  So that will be a bummer.  But it will also be nice because I will be able to help Elder Wintolo a little bit better I think. 

So, I am excited and think that this is a good opportunity for us to go work hard and hopefully have some good success!

Well, it is kinda a bummer this week because some of my new friends are going home, as in all the way to America, tomorrow morning.  It is pretty weird to see people going home!  And the mission couple here in Solo is going home tomorrow, too!  That is a super big bummer!  Now we won't have brownies and cookies and stuff at district meetings!  Haha!  But I really will miss them!  Senior couples are so awesome and help out so much!  It will be weird not to have one around!  But I guess that we will learn to cope.  Later today we are going to help them move out of their apartment, and then tonight they are taking us all out for pizza as a last parting gift.  So that should be a lot of fun!

Other than that I don't really know what to really say for this week.  It has just been pretty normal, trying to visit people and teaching the gospel.  Nothing too special or extraordinary really happened this week, but it was good.  Oh, next week we will be having some parties for Christmas on Christmas and stuff with the wards here, so that should be fun!  Other than that, things should be pretty normal.  Oh, I am not entirely sure if I will be able to email you next Monday.  I know our P-Day has been changed to Wednesday for Christmas and is all day, but I am not sure if we can email Monday or not. Sorry.  They have not been very clear on getting information out to us very quickly on this all, and I have never been through it before, so that is making things kind of frustrating and hard to coordinate with families. Hopefully we can make it all work out alright!  And hopefully the internet here is fast enough to handle skype...That is another reason to try to do it on the morning of the 26th here, because the internet is usually faster in the mornings.  But I am flexible, so whenever works on those 3 days for you guys.

And thanks for the Pre-Christmas stuff, like the 12 days of Christmas letters and stuff!  I love opening and reading those every morning, they are awesome!  So thanks again! 

Well, I think that is about it for this week.  Sorry, this is a pretty lame email!  But I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!  That will be so awesome!!!  I love you all so much, and I miss you, but its okay, because this is where I'm supposed to be.  Well, I love you!  Merry Christmas!  GO skiing and send me pictures haha!

Love, Elder Wood