Monkeys and Dogs

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Hey, thanks for all your emails!  Glad you are all doing well!  Crazy that it is snowing and stuff there! It has been raining here quite a bit the last few days, too!  But not too crazy!  Exciting, Sabrina is going to college!  That'll be fun!  

So, this week has been pretty good.  Not too crazy, but good.  Manado is still amazing and beautiful, and it is really nice and refreshing.  It helps, and I really love serving here.

Last week for P-Day we went and saw these cool monkeys.  They are called Tarsis Monkeys, and they are the smallest monkeys in the world and are found only in Manado.  So that was cool!  I guess National Geographic has some big article on it or something somewhere if you ever want to look it up. We literally hiked through the middle of the jungle/rainforest, so that was awesome!

This week we have had some cool experiences.  We have been teaching this older couple for a few weeks now, and they have been receiving us and stuff, but not really progressing.  But this week their daughter came home from college and started learning with us.  In four days she read 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon, and has understood and loved it!  And she came to church for all 3 hours by herself this week and liked it and said she wants to come back next week!  So we are going to teach her the Restoration this week and probably give her and her parents the Baptismal commitment together!  I think that was a small miracle, because I think that she will be the key to getting that whole family to join the church and experience all the blessings!  So that is super cool and awesome!  

Also this week we have been invited to go teach a whole congregation of Pentecostals sometime.  I don't know if the Priest that invited us fully understands what we will teach, but it is a cool opportunity, so we are going to try to follow up on that!  We have also been teaching this guy that has been learning about the church by himself for the last 5 years.  He knows a ton, but that is his problem, too, because he is just too intelectual about it.  He can see from the evidence alone that the church is true, but he doesn't have the faith to leave his church and be baptized yet, but we are working on him.

So, a funny experience.  My companion is scared of dogs.  And one night it was dark and we were trying to visit an inactive member.  As we walked up to his gate, his dog barked really loud and my companion screamed and jumped about 3 feet in the air and then we both just busted up laughing!  It was pretty funny.  

Sadly the lady that we met in the restaurant with the Senior couple has not been ready to act on her testimony yet, but we are still working on it.  Hopefully soon!

This week we have gotten a lot of good new contacts and people to start teaching, so hopefully we can follow up on that.

Well, Im feeling kinda sad right now, because there is like an 11 year old kid sitting next to me at the email place and he is smoking a cigarette.  So sad that kids this young here already start on such bad habits...Bummer!  

Well, I think thats about it for time, I gotta go, but I love you all and hope you have a great week!  

Love Elder Wood

Q & A

So, sounds like things at home are good and exciting for everyone!  ;)  Lots going on and sounds like everyone is busy!  But hope you can get everything done and have some relax time!  And hope Rufus keeps going strong!  That dog...just keeps going it sounds like, though he may be limping along on one cylinder...I thought only cats had 9 lives...i guess he does too!

Thanks for all your emails!  You guys are awesome!  And I hope you had a great anniversary, mom and dad!  Exciting!

Well, I guess I will start by answering mom's questions:

The living conditions here are pretty good.  We have a pretty big house with an AC in the bedroom, so thats nice.  And we have been trying to keep it pretty clean!  The people I live with are great!  I have Elder G., Elder S., and my comp, Elder W.  We all get along well, and have a lot of fun together.  But Elder W is really quiet and keeps to himself, so we are having a hard time but really trying to work on helping him get more involved with everyone.  The food in Manado is really good. And really spicy.  But they like a lot of fish here, so I sometimes have a hard time with that.  But they also have pork here, so that is good!  My favorite thing that I have tried is fried banana slices, and then you put this spicy sambol on them, and the sambol for fried bananas is a lot like Pico D'Gallo, and is really good!  Weird combination, but super delicious!  The only problem is that the food here is all super unhealthy!  Way worse than Solo!  And we don't ride bikes (but we do walk a lot!).  So, Elder G. and I are trying to go a little bit healthier and are going to try to start cooking at home a little bit more and stuff, but we have to learn how to cook with what we have here haha!  And we have to figure out all of what we need to buy and then go shopping!  But then hopefully we can do better!  But we have been good and getting up and going running along the beach for the last few days.  So we are going to try to do that several times a week and exercise every day!  And on the way home from running we get our healthiest meal of the day--A McDonalds egg McMuffin!  Haha sad when that seems healthy!  But it is a lot of fun and feels good to go run every morning, and the scenery isn't bad!  

The mission couple here is awesome!  They are from Arizona.  They take great care of us, and take us to do awesome stuff every P-Day!  Today we are going to see these cool monkey things that are only here, and they are the smallest primates in the world.  SO that will be fun!  They are awesome!  But we don't live too close to them.  Including the mission couple, there are 8 missionaries in Manado.  There are also 2 Sister missionaries here.

The guy out of town, we have not been able to contact yet.  He has been hard, and may be avoiding us from what I have heard.  We are working on him mostly through the mission couple, but they are having a hard time ever getting contact with him.  Hopefullywe can get out there soon!

Well, this week has been pretty good!  I am happy and loving it here!  It really is missionary paradise (most of the time).  So, thanks for everything!  I love you all!  Have a great week!  

Love Elder Wood