I am loving it!

Thank you so much for your email!  It was awesome!  I love hearing from you all so much each week!  Hearing about what you guys are up to, what is going on at home, and also hearing your advice!  It is always a highlight of my week!  Thank you so much!  

Well, mom and dad, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!  How long is that now?  Well, thats fun that you were able to make it down to St George for a few days and get a pretty sweet room!  But, bummer that Rufus got sick and you had to head home!  That stinks!  But glad he is still doing well and going along.  Poor old dog!  Hopefully he still keeps feeling well!  And hopefully you guys still had a good anniversary watching Home Improvement and stuff like that haha!  You guys make me laugh :)  Well, good luck on the whole tile thing haha!  Have fun with that!  

So, things here are pretty good!  Like a mission, there are always ups and downs.  So this week probably our biggest downer was that on Tuesday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning to drive to Amorang with the mission couple to try to get there in time to meet the congregation leader before he went out to work in the fields at his farm.  But we got there too late.  He had already left.  So that was a bummer.  And all the other people we tried to visit there struck out, too.   But it was still super cool--the road there was beautiful and the area was super cool to see!  But the rest of the day and the next few days we were pretty dang tired from the loss of sleep!

The other cool thing was that this week President, Sister Donald, and the Assistants all came for a visit. Saturday, we all did exchanges so that there were 5 companionships in Manado.  And I went with Elder Welch, the senior missionary.  That was stressful, because I have been here less than 2 weeks and had to lead the whole day, figuring out the angkots, where to get off, who to visit, and what to do and teach.  So, I had a pretty good plan made with 6 pretty sure appointments.  But, that morning when calling to confirm the appointments, all but one cancelled on us!  That was scary, because I don't know the area well enough yet to know much what else to do or how to get anywhere, and neither does Elder Welch really because they never ride the angkots.  So we scrambled and made a few hopeful little plans.  We first went and tried to visit a few former investigators.  The first one totally rejected us.  So then we went to the next one.  She works at a beach-front cafe, so we figured if nothing else we could at least get lunch there and try to talk to her.  Well, turns out she has totally changed from before.  She immediately recognized us and came and talked to us.  She totally believes the message and wants to be baptized.  She has been reading the Book of Mormon.  So we set a baptismal goal for her for the 2oth of April.  So that is exciting!  And we found another new investigator together!  So that was fun!  From being so stressful, we were clearly led by the Lord throughout the day and blessed with so many good things!

And we have seen a lot of other cool stuff going on here!  I am loving it!  Well, I have to apologize, the computers here don't recognize card readers, so I haven't been able to send pictures yet.  But we are going to the mission couples house for P-Day to watch "Planes".  I will try to send a few pictures from there.  But it is amazing here!  The beach we went to last week was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to, and we have been to some awesome beaches before. But it was stunning!  I will try to send pictures!

Thanks so much for your letters and stuff!  I have been getting them!  And about new music, a USB would be perfect.  Just if you could make sure that the songs are in MP3 format, not MP4.  But, almost even more than music, if you could download some cool talks and stuff on it and send it that would be awesoem!  That is probably what I most want.  Other than that, I am not too picky.  Oh, and maybe throw some pictures in of what you guys have been up to, that would be awesome.

Well, I love you all so much!  Sorry this is short and lame!  But I hope you all have a great week!  Can't wait to hear from you again!  

Love Elder Wood