Ups and Downs

Well, this week has been a pretty good week I think!  We have had some ups and downs and some funny events, and I have a pretty good story to tell.

So, lets start with the good first.  Sister M. and her 3 kids came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time and totally loved it!  So that was super exciting!  They are all excited to get baptized, but because this was the first time coming to church, they have to come one more time before they can be baptized, so their baptismal date is now for the 9th of February.  But we are fairly certain it is going to happen, so that is awesome!  We were able to go out to her house this week with Bishop and his wife to teach them a lesson, and they immediately bonded a friendship together, so that was awesome and so helpful!  Now Sister M. can feel like she has some friends and support in the church other than just the missionaries, which is so important, especially for when we transfer.  So that is super exciting!

So, for the not so good part, but the funny/sad story.  So, we had stopped teaching Pak D. for a little while, but went back last week to try again.  He had become a lot better and began to progress again. He even tried to come to church last week.  So we went and visited him again this week.  Well, this week, things quickly changed.  We showed up and saw him with a bunch of Anti-Mormon literature, and immediately knew the lesson was not going to go well.  Well, we started and he asked us what we wanted to teach.  We started teaching about the Priesthood, but after less than 5 minutes, he just went off on all these things that he had found out were wrong about the church.  He had all these verses from the Bible to back his stuff up, but the only problem was that he didn't understand the background information behind the verses, or he misunderstood the church's stand on things, or he strewed things out of context and did not want to listen to our explanation.  So we just stood there and testified to him, because we could have argued but with him it would not have gotten us anywhere.  Well, at the end of his rant, he went on to tell us how wrong we were and that he hoped maybe someday we would realize the error of our ways.  But if not, he said, and these are his words as close as I can remember and translate: "At the great and final day of Judgement, God will judge you and tell you that you were wrong and had been led astray.  Then, when He asks you if anyone ever told you or showed you that you were wrong according to the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will have to honestly answer yes.  And God will want witnesses, and I will stand as a witness against you before God at your judgment, and testify against you that I told you and showed you the error of your ways, and God will judge you accordingly."  He said some other stuff along with it, in the same sort of context, but I can't remember it all.  But basically he just condemned us and told us that we were damned. So that was interesting.  But the cool thing was that after hearing that all and still testifying, I left with a stronger testimony than I went in with, even though some of his points almost seemed to make sense.  But we left there and laughed almost the whole way home, because we were just so incredulous at what had just happened, and we couldn't believe how quickly things there turned for the worse.  But I feel bad for him as well, because oh how sad he will be when in all reality the tables are turned.  Only the difference is I don't want to stand as a witness against him, that is not something that would make me happy or bring me joy, so I hope that doesn't happen.  I hope somewhere down the road he realizes the error of his ways and comes to see the light.  But I don't think visits from us anytime soon are going to help him with that...

So ya, those were the biggest events of this week, the rest of the week was pretty normal -  lots of proselyting, which is funny here.  We just ride up to people on the street in neighborhoods and tell them we are missionaries and ask where the Christians live, then go where they tell us to go.  It doesn't bring much success usually, but every once in a while we find someone open to meet with us.

I got the package this week.  Thank you guys so much!  It was awesome!  So much good junk food and whatnot!  I am set on good food for a while now!  In fact, it will be a problem if I transfer too soon, so I better start sharing!  But the best part is always the letters!  Those are what I most look forward to each week in emailing and in the packages!  I'm sorry it is taking me so long, but I am getting some snail mail letters written as well to each of you to send off with the SD Card, so hopefully that gets there in the next few weeks!

I'm glad things are going well at home!  Sounds like the film festival was fun, and it sounds like Elder Oaks' talk was awesome today!  Thanks for sharing parts of it with me!  I hope you guys have a great week again!  Get some good skiing in and whatnot!  Hopefully we get some snow!

I love you all and miss you, but in a good way!  Talk to you next week!  Love you!

Love Elder Wood!!!

Got P'd On!

Hey everyone!  

So this week has been pretty awesome and eventful and productive!  Really one of the best weeks of my mission so far I think!  It was awesome!  I wish I had more time to tell you all about every part of it, but I am running a little low on time for all that, so I will hit the key points.

So, this week we went out and taught Ibu M again.  This time we taught her 2 daughters as well.  We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they understood and liked it, and all 3 of them committed to be baptized on Feb. 2!  So we are praying that all will work out so that it can happen that quickly!  They have had to go to Jakarta this week to help some family move because of the flooding, so we haven't been able to meet with them as much as we would like, but they are coming back this week and we are hoping to go out there and teach them again on Wednesday.  They are so awesome and are a miracle find and a blessing from heaven!

Later that same day, Tuesday, we went to visit an eternal investigator, Mas P.  He has been learning for 8 years and has a testimony that the church is true, but hasn't wanted to or been able to be baptized yet because he has a smoking problem.  Well, we went out and visited him for the first time in over a month because Elder Wintolo had a prompting to go give him the baptismal commitment.  So we went out there.  He has a job now, and is so different from the last time we saw him.  And we gave him the baptismal commitment, he accepted for the 16th of February, and for the first time gave us a firm commitment that he would quit smoking.  So hopefully that works out, too!

Also this week, Sister A. and her daughter came back to church for the first time in over a month, so that was awesome!  And we were able to have a quick lesson after church.  She still has a strong testimony, but still does not have permission from her husband to get baptized.  So we have been fasting for her and our other investigators. Hopefully later this week we can get out to her house and meet with her husband and teach him and soften his heart!

And then we went to a member that hasn't been able to come to church for several weeks because she has been sick.  Her husband was there and we were able to talk to him for the first time, too.  He was baptized many years ago, but nobody knows if he was ever confirmed, because he immediately went inactive.  He has a problem with drinking and smoking.  But we had been told before that he wants to quit, but is having a hard time.  So the other night, we focused the lesson on him a little bit and read 1 Nephi 3:7 and some other verses and talked about the Word of Wisdom, and he is starting to open up to us a little bit, and we are hoping to be able to keep working with him to help him get active again and overcome smoking and drinking!

And we have one more cool new investigator.  He is actually currently running for what would be the Indonesian equivalent of U.S. Senator, so a national office.  You know, just running with the rich and the famous.

So I did have an entertaining, but rather unfortunate event happen this week...I got peed on... Ya, that wasn't the best night.  So we were at that 9 year old ADHD kid's house that we have been teaching.  Well, he is incredibly hyperactive, and for some reason likes to climb all over me, which I don't terribly enjoy.  But ya, the other night when we were over there, he wasn't paying any attention to the lesson at all, so that was getting frustrating.  Then he comes over to me and I'm sitting in a chair. Well, he walks up and straddles my left leg and sits down on my left thigh.  It was already pretty awkward just that, so I started gently pushing him off of me.  Well, once I got him off of me I realized that my pants were darker where he had been sitting and I could feel that they were damp through to my thigh.  Then I looked at him and his pants were all wet.  Well, I wasn't too excited or pleased about the whole situation.  But I didn't really know what to do about it either.  I don't know if his mom just didn't notice or if she was to embarrassed or what, but she didn't say anything.  Well, I tried to just act natural and finish the lesson and get out of there.  Needless to say as soon as we got home that night I washed my pants and took a shower.  But ya, that was the weirdest, nastiest thing that happened this week.  Other than that, it was all good.

I am loving it here.  My companion and I are really getting along well and getting to have a really good relationship, and we both push each other to work harder and to be better, so that is awesome!  We have started doing a lot more proselyting lately, too, which is good!  And we got in 17 lessons this week, which I think is an all-time high for me so far!  So we are really doing well right now!  I'm glad that you are all doing well, too!  Thanks for the pictures!  I love you all so much!  I hope you have a great week!  I will be sending some letters and that flash disk off in the next week or two, so hopefully that all gets to you soon!  I love you!   Give everyone else my love, too!

Love, Elder Wood

Miracle in the Tropics

1/13/14

Well, this week we had something totally amazingly awesome happen!  We literally had a small miracle and tender mercy of the Lord given to us!

So, I will tell you about it from the beginning.  Well, before Christmas like I told you, the primary for one of the wards put on a singing program at a mall.  Well, we were there and trying to contact people.  There was one lady walking past with three kids, and I just decided I would try to give her a passalong card about family.  Well, she was kinda in a hurry, but she gave me a few minutes, and accepted the card and gave me her phone number.  I didn't really think much of it, because that sort of thing happens fairly often.  But, what surprised me was that the next morning, she had already texted us and asked us to come visit her, before we could even text her first.  That rarely happens.  There was only one problem.  She lives about an hour away by bus, and said she couldn't yet come to Solo, but said she really wanted us to come visit her.  Because we were super busy for those few weeks with Christmas and New Years events and stuff, we didn't have time to go out and visit her yet.  But this week we got permission to go out there, and we set up an appointment with her.  So, on Thursday we got on the bus and went out there.  Now the story gets pretty cool.  We went to her house and started talking a  little bit.  She had already texted us and said that she used to be Christian, but 15 years ago when she got married, she followed her husband and went Islam.  But she was never totally happy or satisfied with that decision.  So, for the last several weeks or months, she had been wanting to go back to Christian but didn't know how--with her husband, and she didn't know what Christian church to go to or how to join one.  But she said that when we met at the mall before Christmas, it was an answer to her prayers--she had found a way to come back to Christianity.  She said that that very night after I contacted her, when she got home she asked her husband for permission to go back to Christianity, and he said gave her permission!  So she texted us to help guide her.  So as we went out there, she was just excited to come back to Christianity.  We were excited about that, but didn't know how open she would be to accepting the Restoration or the Book of Mormon.  But we felt like we should still share it.  So, we gave her the message of the Restoration.  After the lesson, we were talking a little bit and we started talking about her desire to come closer to the Savior again, and we told her how the Book of Mormon could help her do that and that she could pray and get an answer to know if it is true or not.  She then told us that she already had a fairly good answer--that as we were explaining the Restoration, it made sense.  She had been confused as to how to know which church to join--which one is true.  But the Restoration seemed to make sense, and she felt like if she found out it was true, she had found her church.  Then she said that as we were reciting the First Vision and explaining and reading the Book of Mormon together, she just felt a strong peace and comfort in herself, that it was something good.  So we explained to her that that was the Holy Ghost confirming the truth of what we were telling her.  Then it got even cooler.  I felt prompted to talk about getting closer to the Savior, and that we can do that through baptism, and gave her the baptismal commitment in the very first lesson, which I have never done before.  But, she accepted and said she really wants to!  So, Ibu X has a baptismal date for the 26th of January!  So awesome!  And she has 2 kids that are above 8 that she wants to get baptized, too.  So we are going to start working with them, too!  

Then it got even cooler again!  As we were on our way home, Elder W. and I were talking about how cool that all was, and he said that as I gave the baptismal commitment, he had the prompting to give the baptismal commitment, and he said that I said almost exactly what he was prompted to say, which is cool because I gave her the commitment according to my prompting, and it was different than any way we have ever given the baptismal commitment before.  So that was super cool to feel and see the Spirit guiding and testifying and working in that lesson, in someone that the Lord had prepared and placed in our path!  How grateful I am that we were willing to open our mouths and help answer this woman's prayers, and our own, and build God's kingdom on Earth.  Such a cool experience!

So ya, that was by far the highlight of the week!  But the rest of the week was awesome!  We had zone meeting with President Donald, and that was awesome and we talked a lot about having the faith to find people to teach, which went along perfectly with our experience with Ibu X!  And it helped us to be a lot more willing to open our mouths to others and share the gospel with everyone we come in contact with!  This work is true and it is amazing and so rewarding!

And it sounds like things at home are going well, which is good!  I'm jealous of the big powder day! That sounds awesome!  But I definitely can't complain about my week!

Oh, and this week i got the package from Scott and Lisa!  Please tell them thank you for me, they are so awesome!  I also have a letter written for them and a few other people, and i have re-copied the photos, so I will try to send that all off in the next week or two.  Well, I'm glad that you are all doing pretty well!  I miss and love you all so much, but I love it here too!  Thanks for writing! And have a great week!  Talk to you next week!  Love You!

Love, Elder Wood

2014 Already!

Holy Cow, I can't believe it is already 2014.  I remember when I went to the MTC that seemed like ages away!  And it came so fast!  Time is flying!  This week I hit 8 months!

This week has been a pretty good one.  We got some good work done and had some fun times. So I have to laugh, that little woven frisbee pocket disk thing that you got me for Christmas... one of the best Christmas presents ever!  Everyone in the whole district loves that thing and we play with it all the time now!  We played with it last week for P-Day--we played some Ultimate Frisbee in the parking lot at the church. Then another day we played it for a few minutes with the Bishop's family, and they thought it was awesome and were like "we are totally telling Elder Putra to buy one of those to bring back!"  And then we played with it again for P-Day today.  We went over to the church and played Ultimate Frisbee on the grass behind the church, which was super fun because you can dive and stuff!  And it is good exercise!  So that was an awesome idea!  Thank you!

Oh, and for new years.  The 31st was just a normal day.  And then that night there was a stake new years party that went from 8 til like 1 in the church parking lot.  But we all got a text from the APs saying we still had to be home on time, even though it was new years.  So we left and went to bed like a normal day.  And the 1st was just a normal day, too.  So, nothing too special.

So for lessons this week.  We had a hard time getting any appointments set up with any of our investigators, which was kind of a bummer.  But we still got a few in.  One of them was pretty fun, too, because it was with the young kid who wants to be baptized.  We were reviewing the Plan of Salvation with him and made a huge poster with stickers of each part of the plan, and he had to do a relay race thing with them, where he would go get the sticker and an explanation of that part of the plan from Elder Wintolo, then he would run over to me, explain it and answer a few questions, then he got to stick it on the poster.  It was pretty fun, and turned out pretty cool!

The rest of our lessons were with new or inactive members.  With covering the two biggest wards in Indonesia, we have a lot of inactive members to visit.  But it is good, because it keeps us busy.  But, inactives are so frustrating sometimes, because there were a good number that we had awesome lessons with, and were guided in what to say and share with them, and they totally felt it and stuff, and committed to come to church.  And then they didn't come...So FRUSTRATING!  Haha but there's not much more we can do than that.  Then its up to them.  But we did have one cool experience.  There is an inactive member that we had been trying to find for a little while, but were not being able to find him.  Then just before Christmas, we met him while he was working at the mall.  We got his number and he asked us to come visit him.  So, we got out there to visit him this week.  He is about 21 or 22 years old, and it is truly kind of a miracle the way we found him and when we found him. He used to be really strong, and then just all of a sudden went inactive.  But, in our lesson the other day, he told us how he has been wanting to get active again lately, but didn't know how, or if he was worthy, and he was too shy to do it alone.  We basically were able to find him at the perfect time, and he actually asked us how he could go about starting preparing to serve a mission, if it isn't too late!  It was super cool to be able to be there at the right time and be guided by the Lord to help make that happen!  This work is true!  

So, the other big events this week.  On Friday we had Zone Conference.  That was good, and we talked a lot about finding faith to find people to teach, because for the New Year, President has really upped the goals for finding, teaching, and baptizing people.  A LOT!!!  It will be difficult to do all the parts of it, but I guess its inspired, its doable, and we will do our best!  Then on Friday night it was Sister Sheffield's and Elder Haws' birthdays, so we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate, which was fun!

On Saturday, I was on Splits with Elder Loudon, while Elder Giolas (DL) was on splits with my comp. So I went over to their area, which was kinda fun.  We ended up spending most of the day just proselyting, which we are trying to start doing more of, because before we didn't really do much at all. It is kinda weird to proselyte here.  We go ride through little "neighborhood" things, and look for people who look like nice, people sitting on the side of the street, ride up to them, explain who we are and what our purpose is, and ask if there are any Christians that live nearby.  It is pretty awkward and funny sometimes, but it actually worked OK.  By the end of a few hours we had talked to a lot of people and had 4 people who said we could come back another time and teach a lesson.  So that was fun.  And we helped a guy clean up some trees in front of his house for some random service, and he turned out to be Christian and said we could come back whenever, and was super appreciative of our service.  So that was good.  So ya, Saturday was fun!

Sunday we had an inactive member come to church for the first time in a few months or years that Elder Wintolo and Giolas visited on Saturday, so that was awesome!  And ya, that's mostly it for this week.  Sorry, I'm out of time.  But I love you, I am glad everything is going well at home!  That's pretty funny about Duke being all freaked out!  Give everyone Hi from me, and Happy New Years!  

I love you all so much!  Thanks for your emails!  Talk to you later!

Love, Elder Wood

Goodbye 2013

So, a lot of last week you already know about, but there has been a few cool things happen since then. First off I will start with Christmas Eve.  I already told you that we went to Papa Ron's pizza for dinner, and on Tuesdays it is buy a large get a large free, so we do that for each companionship, so each Elder has his own large pizza to eat.  Pretty gross, ya, but it is awesome and delicious.  Well, we couldn't quite finish all the pizza since we had already eaten that day, so we had them put the extras in boxes. But then we realized we don't have any way to heat it up again, and it really probably wouldn't get eaten in the next few days.  We didn't want it to go to waste, so on the way home, we gave several homeless people that we passed a box of pizza with a pass-along card in it, and wished them a Merry Christmas!  It was something so simple and dumb, but it made us all so happy, and it was so cool to see how grateful and how surprised and excited these homeless people were to receive what is a very nice meal here in Indonesia!  And we felt awesome because we were doing service and helping the needy and spreading Christ's name and message at the same time!  It was just awesome, and we were just so excited that we belted Christmas Carols the whole way home!

Christmas Eve at Papa Ron's

Christmas... I have already told you most everything about.  It was fun!

Christmas morning french toast

Thursday we called, and that was absolutely awesome!  I loved hearing from all of you, and seeing all of you and being able to do all that!  It sounds like you are all doing well, and you all look great! Talking was so awesome!  I can't believe how quickly the time went, though!  It flew by way faster than I realized!  But I don't think it was too big of a deal, so don't worry too much about it.  Well, after we talked, Elder Wintolo and I were trying to figure out what to do for the day.  We usually do weekly planning on thursday, but there were a few appointments we wanted to try to get in, and we wanted to pass out all our invitations to the Solo 2 Ward Christmas party that was on Friday.  To be honest, after talking I was momentarily homesick, and missed the normal just relax for a few days after Chrismtas, and it was hard to get motivated to go work for a few minutes.  But, we just forced it and went and got started.  Well, it all got better once we started working!  That really is the key:  work!  It makes homesickness and everything go away.  Just go to work!  Well, that day we rode all over our area giving out invitations and getting in a few appointments and lessons.  In total, we got two solid lessons in, and we visited briefly with and handed out over 13 invitations that day.  

Friday we had our study time, then we had District Meeting, which was good.  Then we had an appointment and we had to help an inactive crippled member get to the Christmas party because he really wanted to come.  But we didn't have time for both, so we went on splits with the other companionhip who didn't have an appointment yet.  So we got that done and got back to the church just in time for the Christmas party to start.  Well, it was totally awesome!  In total, we had over 16 investigators and inactive members that we had taken invitations to, or that we often visit, show up there.  And there were several inactive members where this was their first time stepping into the church in probably over 30 years!  And we had taken an invitation to this random lady we had heard was Christian, and she came, too!  It was totally awesome to see people who are new investigators come and make friendships, and long-time inactive members come back and renew old friendships and hopefully build ties to help them come back to church!  So that was awesome!!!

Saturday:  First off we went and got my bike fixed--the brakes weren't working at all for some reason. So now I am a lot safer because I can stop! :) So that's good!  And I got a bike tool so I can fix stuff myself, too.  After that, we went and got in some good appointments.  One of them was really cool to me.  It was with an inactive member, and this was the first time I have ever met with her.  Well, we were just about to start a generic "keep the commandments and be blessed--so come to church and read the scriptures" message, because up til then, we hadn't really been able to find what her needs or anything were.  But just after we finished praying and were about to open the scriptures and share our fallback message, I had a specific question come to my mind to ask her, so I did.  Well, through that question, we were able to immediately find a specific need that we could help her with, though at first, I wasn't quite sure how.  But, as it became time for me to talk again and help her overcome this need, immediately a scripture popped into my mind that I had read a few days ago, though never had actually used in a lesson.  It was a good vrese, but before this lesson it was one I never really thought I would use in a lesson, either.  But, it came straight to my mind, and so did the chapter and book that it was in. So I opened to that chapter and almost immediately found the verse I wanted, without having to really look for it much.  Well, we shared that verse and a few others, had a good quick discussion, and she committed to start reading the Book of Mormon every day and to come to church tomorrow!  It was awesome!  (Even though she didn't come to church the next day, which was a bit disappointing.  So, time to follow up on that)...

Sunday:  Today was good, but it was also kind of a bummer.  We didn't have a single investigator that came to church today, which was sad, because we had a goal of 8, especially after the Christmas party. But, oh well I guess, we did our best to help them, and its their agency.  Several of them had decent excuses though, so I guess we will follow up with them all this week and try again next week!  But today was good, too, because we got to meet with ward council from Solo 1 and with the WML from both wards to help us better coordinate the work.  Then we got some study time and weekly planning done.  Well, with all the meetings, and 2 church services and study and planning, we had a pretty full day, til 10:00 at night!  So when we finished planning we just showered and went to bed.

Today:  Today we woke up and cleaned the house.  Then we all met at the church for pinewood derby, but it just seemed too complicated with 4 companionships, 1 saw, and limited time.  So, luckily i had brought that little foldy frisbee thing that you sent for Christmas, and we went out to the parking lot and played Ultimate Frisbee for a while.  It was a ton of fun!  That frisbee thing is awesome, too, thank you!  After that, we played some Uno, then some more frisbee, then came here to email.  And later hopefully we can get in a few appointments.  

Well, that's about it for this week!  Things here are great!  Sounds like things at home are good, which I'm glad for!  I love you all and you are so awesome!  Thanks for everything!  Mom--I shared some of the caramels today and everyone loved them!  And later I will think about sharing some of the cookies!

I don't know...those are pretty precious!  Haha just kidding, everyone will love them though!  Oh, and please tell Brad thanks for his letter, it was so awesome and nice of him!  I will try to write a letter or email back to him sometime, but for now I am out of time.  Tell everyone I love them and am so grateful for their love, prayers, and support!

I love you all so much!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Wood

Home sweet home

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

Forget Yourself

12/8/13

Hey!  Sounds like you guys are busy at home!  But it sounds like things are going well!  I always love hearing from you each week!  It is definitely my favorite part of Monday!

Well, this week I'm not gonna lie, has been pretty difficult.  We have been working pretty hard and trying to go to everyone we can think of, but only got a handful of lessons in.  At so many places, there either was nobody home or they told us to come back another time, but wouldn't give us any time that they would be home (that is the way most people reject us here--culturally, they will not say don't come back at all), and then there were a few that did tell us not to come back.  Well, after feeling like we were working fairly hard but not seeing any results, it was beginning to get pretty frustrating. Especially because this began at the beginning of last week.  Well, after about a week and a half of riding around all over Solo, going to everyone we could think of going to, and some of them several times without any success, we were running out of ideas and getting pretty frustrated.  I began wondering what we were doing, and what more we even could do.  I was having a pretty hard time.  I never really wanted to quit and come home, but I did keep thinking about skiing and mountain biking and Christmas and my family, and how much I would rather be doing those things than continuously getting rejected here. But, I knew that thoughts like that weren't healthy, and they were making it far harder for me to focus on the work and be effective.  Well, I kept saying silent prayers in my heart.  Then on Wednesday night as we were riding home from somewhere quite far away, we were on a dark road, it was starting to rain, there weren't many cars around, and I was feeling pretty lonely and discouraged and down after a long day without much success.  I was trying to think about what we could do the next day, and was honestly coming up completely blank.  I didn't know who we could go visit--there was for sure no one that I knew for sure we could visit, and only a few ideas that I was fairly certain would fail.  Then I was feeling sorry for myself that I am stuck as a trainer and a senior companion having to lead an area when I myself never really got any training.  I have no idea how to proselyte here because we can't just go knock on doors, and none of my companions before ever went proselyting, so I don't really know how to do it.  

I was pretty down at that point--one of the lowest points I have been in the last several months.  But luckily at just the point I most needed it, my silent prayer was answered.  I just felt a peace come into my heart and I knew that things would be OK.  I still had no idea what we would do.  But I wasn't so scared or feeling sorry for myself.  Then President Hinckley's words came to my mind, "Lose yourself and go to work."  I have always had those words at the back of my mind and always thought about them, but until this point I never really understand the meaning of them.  I thought they just meant go work hard or something.  But this week they took on a new meaning for me.  I learned that the "Lose yourself" is the most important part.  It is super easy to get discouraged if I keep thinking about myself and all the other things I could be doing if I were at home.  But, at that point, I decided that what it meant is focus on missionary work.  Forget about skiing, mountain biking, boating, Iron Man, whatever it is, for two years,and focus on the missionary work.  Focus on who can I serve, how can I serve them better, and what more can I do to help the Lord, and how can I find joy in doing that, not "oh man, I could be skiing right now."  Then the next morning for personal study I read 2 Nephi 4 for personal study, and that hit me pretty hard, because I could really relate with Nephi feeling sorrow at the beginning of the chapter.  But I love the example of how he recognizes the good things in his life and commits to rely upon God to be his support after he has done all he can do.  So, when I started thinking more like that, I did almost a complete 180* turn in my emotions.  I realize that if I am doing the best I can, that is the best I can do and the Lord will make up the rest.  Well, I had a test of that again Saturday.  We had an appointment that didn't go very well--the guy didn't really believe anything that we said and said it.  Then after that we had a really hard time getting in any other appointments.  It rained all day long and we got wet, we were out riding around trying to get in appointments, but the poeple just weren't home.  Well, again, at the end of the day we were riding back to the house on a dark, long, lonely road.  And it was raining pretty hard.  It was like deja Vu, only this time I wasn't feeling depressed or down.  I was thinking to myself, "How awesome it is that I am in Indonesia, living here, speaking the language, experiencing the culture, and serving the Lord.  And it is kinda fun that I am in dress clothes riding a bike in the pouring rain and getting drenched!  And I feel good about myself because I know that I have done all that I can to try my best to serve the Lord today.  I was at that point genuinely happy, where in the exact same situation 3 days earlier, I was miserable and questioning why I was here.  

I think that was an experience that I needed--to learn humility, to rely more upon God, and also to personalize 2 Nephi 4, because I think I can use it to help a few investigators and inactive members here.  In fact, I already shared it with a guy I contacted last night proselyting after he told me of some problems in his life.  Who knows if things will get better, if the work will pick up and get easier or not this week?  I don't.  But He does, and I know what I have to do, and that He will make up the rest and help me feel joy in the service!

I'm so grateful for all the experiences I have had on my mission.  It has been the hardest but most rewarding experience of my life!  I know without a doubt that God is, and that he loves us and will help us!  I also know that this church and the Book of Mormon is true.  My testimony has been strengthened so much from my experiences on my mission, and even if I don't baptize a single person on my mission, I know that my service converted at least one person to the gospel--myself!  And for that I am grateful, and know that no matter what else happens, my mission was not in vain.

Well, sorry this email is just all me rambling on and stuff, and different from the other emails.  But you probably didn't really want to hear about going door to door to door without any appointments really, so I thought this would be of greater value.  I love you all so much and pray for you always! Thank you for praying for me, I can feel it!I love you and can't wait to talk to you on Christmas, though I don't yet know what time.  Sorry, we haven't been told by President yet.

I love you!

Love Elder Wood

I'll write a separate email for this.  I got the Christmas packages this week!  Thank you so much!  The pre-Christmas one was totally awesome and I had a ton of fun decorating the tree!  That was such a fun idea and I love it hanging in the house!  And the "Night Before Christmas Book"  Was pretty funny, too!  We all got a good laugh out of it!  Especially the dogs barking and the rap!  Haha!

I don't know if you know how hard it is to not just rip open all the 12 days of Christmas and the big package immediately!  It is so tempting!  But thus far, I have been good and not.  And I think I can make it until Christmas, though it will be a test!  But I got some good pictures of decorating the tree and hanging it up today, so I will try to send a few.  That is what I spent my morning doing!  Thank you so much for putting that all together--I know it was a ton of work, but it means a lot to me and I truly appreciate it!  You guys are the best family ever!

Also I have a big envelope that I am going to send off today.  It has the memory card with my pictures from the first few months (they are backed up--don't worry) and a few letters for the family, and for a few other people.  It is a lot cheaper to send them in one envelope, so can you hand them out to people? Thanks!  And I apologize it has taken me so long to get these letters off, I am really bad about going to the post office.  But today the envelope is already sealed and in my bag, so it is going!  Hopefully it gets there before Christmas!  

Well, anyways, I am out of time and need to send the pictures.  I love you all! and thanks again!

Love Elder Wood

Chillin' under the Christmas tree

Decorating the tree

Our Christmas decor