DO NOT GET CHICKENS!!!

So good to hear from you all this week!  Sounds like things are going well at home!  Lots of exciting stuff.  Though it sounds like half of you are away from home right now!  But that is all exciting!  

So, thanks for the emails and stuff!  Its always fun to hear whats going on.  

HEY! This is Sister Sheff.... hey Beans my favorite, coolest, most beautiful, friend in the world.... sooooo if you have a meal card this year, you can be my buddy right? Cool thanks in advance for the free food! 

Sorry, Sister Sheffield just he-jacked my email...  But ya, Im in Jakarta for today because we had to come and get our Kitas (government ID card) renewed.  So I am emailing in the office and sister sheffield showed up and jumped on real quick.

But things here are going well.  This week there is not too much to report on because my companion has been sick all week, so we have been stuck at home from Tuesday to Saturday, and so ya, that has been my week for the most part.  The poor kid got a severe case of food poisoning.  Which is weird that he got it and I didn't, because we eat all the same foods.  But my immune system must just be amazing! just kidding

But, Sunday we were able to go out and get 3 lessons in, and they all went really well.  And on Wednesday we were able to get a lesson in with Brother W because they live really close to our house.  I had been listening to a lot of the talks you sent, and I heard one about grace that I really liked, so we talked about grace and mercy with him and about why the Savior's atonement is important for us.  It was a very good and powerful lesson, but he just hasn't completely opened his heart to receive it yet.  He is getting closer, but it has been and continues to be a process with him.  But he is amazing and their family is awesome, and I am so excited for the day when he fully acknowledges the truth and blessing of the gospel in his life for him and his family.

Oh, one thing, Dad, DO NOT GET CHICKENS!!!  I have been living arorund chickens for the last year, and honestly one of the things I thought as we were sitting in front of someone's house the other day with stinky chickens walking around and pooping everywhere, was how excited I am to live somewhere where I don't have to deal with the smell and the poop of chickens everywhere...so, that's my 2 cents, for whatever its worth.  Sorry for the rant, but it is one of those things that I have truly thought...

Anyways, things here are good.  I got a lot of cleaning around the house done and some other good stuff.  So I have that down.  

Well, I love you all so much and am so glad that you are doing well.  Thanks for everything!  Oh, and I just got Sabrina's graduation card!  You look so pretty!  

Well, I think that's about it for now, so I will talk to you next week!  Love you!

Love Elder Wood

Power of Prayer

Sorry my email this week is going to be kind of short!  I am running out of time, a lot!  sorry...

But HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!  And HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!  Man, busy week of birthdays back at home!  I love you all and hope you have a great birthday!!!

Well, this week has been pretty good.  Not too much going on.  We had a pretty slow week but we are working hard. With the struggles and whatnot this week, I have been thinking a lot about prayer, and then we talked about it in a zone meeting this week, too.  I have been thinking about the importance of praying with true sincerity and "with full purpose of heart" like Enos (though maybe not for quite as long... ;)  But, I have been thinking, miracles will never happen unless we truly ask for them.  We need to pray for ourselves, for our families, for others, and especially for our investigators!  We can help call down blessings for them!  Isn't that cool!  And then what we talked about in zone meeting was, at the end of a lesson, truly discussing prayer, and then to kneel down with the investigator and have them say a kneeling prayer with us and ask if these things are true.  Then you stay silent once they are finished and let the Holy Ghost work, and wait until they speak first.  The power and the spirit that comes is so incredible, and an answer will come! 

So, that is my main thought for this week.  The members here are great and they are willing to help us. We just have to work with their schedules because they are all busy, too.  But they are super nice and awesome!

So, sounds like things at home are going well!  Sounds like a busy summer!  Golfing, boating, Europe, and all that good stuff!  Haha, from the picture I could tell that there was a new surfboard, so that's pretty funny when I read it!  And Duke looks like he's having a good time!  He likes to stand in the same place Rufus did!  

Sorry, I'm pretty much out of time, so I gotta go!  But I will try to write more next week!  Hope you all have a great week and a great summer!  I love you all so much!  And HAPPY BIRTHDAY again! Love You!

Love Elder Wood

Blessings of Faith

Hey, how's it going!  Sounds like things back home are going well!  That's exciting!  I'm glad that you are all doing well and having fun.  Sounds like some interesting things are going on back home haha.  I laugh at all the stuff that has happened since I've been gone... New dining room, new living room, new car, new couches, new talk show sitting area haha, the Mustang is getting worked on, and BEES...wow!  You guys must be really bored or something in my absence! haha. And you still have another year!  What next!?!  Haha it'll be interesting to see all the changes when I get home!  But it sounds like its all cool, fun stuff!  

Wow, I can't believe its already summer back home again!  It's still nice and hot here, but that hasn't really changed.  But man, a big year!  Sabrina, you graduated from high school!  That's crazy!  You're so old!  And Eliza, you are a Freshman!  No way!  You are getting way to old way to fast!  That's crazy!  But exciting!

So, things here are going pretty well!  We are working hard and sort of starting to figure our way around this monstrous metropolis!  This city is huge!!!  By far my biggest area, and one of the biggest cities I have ever been to!  And we are doing it on bikes!!!  I'll tell you what, I am getting in pretty good biking shape again, though I may be destroying my poor lungs with all the horrible pollution.  That's one thing I am hoping I will get a missionary blessing for--that I don't die of cancer and lung poisoning from pollution.  But I think we're doing OK.  But we seriously have spent an average of probably 5 hours or more on our bikes riding around every day this week!  We consistently have appointments that are over an hour ride away!  And then the fact that we are still wandering back and forth forever trying to find the right area and house without clear signs, streets, or anything adds more time.  My back side is done by the end of each day!  I am missing my full suspension bike and padded shorts, because our bikes here don't even have a front suspension.  But they are pretty nice, new bikes and they are fast and easy to pedal, so that's nice.  So, I am glad I had some experience on a bike before my mission, because my poor companion is dying by the end of each day.  But it's not too bad.

We had a funny experience this week.  We have been talking a lot about faith in DDM this week, because I have felt that that is something important.  And in "Lectures on Faith" from the School of the Prophets, it talks about how literally EVERYTHING we do, we do because we have faith.  It is kind of a crazy but cool thought.  And somewhere else, I can't remember where, I read that every single decision or action we make or do, good or bad, has a consequence or blessing.  But, often those consequences or blessings are delayed as a test of our faith.  And we saw this a little bit yesterday.  The church is about half an hour from our house or more by bike.  And a lot of our investigators are even farther from the church in the same direction.  Yesterday after church, we took off to go see one of those investigators.  Well actually it was just a contact that had invited us to come by sometime.  we rode and searched for almost 2 hours before we could find their house.  And we had just finished fasting at church, and were out of water and really thirsty.  But we felt we should try to find them before we went home to study and get food and more water.  Well, when we got there, some kid came out and told us his parents were sick, then went back inside and didn't come out again to tell us if we could come back.  So, we were dying, still an hour ride away from home, and thirsty and couldn't stop to buy water.  So, we were pretty down and discouraged the whole ride home.  But, once we got home we got some water and food and started studying a little bit.  I just felt prompted to let D&C fall open, and about 3 or 4 consecutive times, it fell open to verses that I had marked or just started to read about missionary work, the importance of enduring to the end, and not being discouraged.  And then within about half an hour of being home, the phone rang with an unknown number.  The guy was like, "Hey, did you just come to my house?" And we answered and found out it was the guy we had just tried to go see.  He then told us he had just gotten home, was curious as to who we were, and said that we could come over at 6 (it was 5 when he called).  So, we immediately jumped back on our bikes, rode an hour and 15 minutes to his house, and taught him and his family (5 people over the age of 8).  It was a really powerful lesson and guided by the spirit.  He didn't immediately accept everything, but he wants to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and meet again next week.  SO that was really cool.  And looking back, we realized that probably had we not gone over there right after church, but went a different day of the week, he wouldn't have been there because he works.  So, it ended up working out just how it needed to.  And it was a cool manifestation of a slightly delayed blessing of faith coming when the Lord wanted.  (And of us being sustained by the Lord to not die of exhaustion and dehydration haha!)

And we have some other exciting investigators now, too.  So that is exciting.  Elder W's dad is awesome, and their family is great to us.  He started receiving the missionaries to his house when ELder W left on his mission, but only a few months ago started learning the lessons and stuff.  He doesn't immediately accept everything, but he is progressing and I'm sure that at some point he will be baptized!  So that is exciting!  

Well, that's the big update from here.  Things are going well and I'm excited.  It's hard work and I crawl into bed every night, but somehow wake up with strength the next morning.  

Thank you for always writing to me and being awesome!  You guys are the best!  I love you so much!  

Love Elder Wood

... but we got some good contacts!

So, it was sad to leave Manado, but we left it with a bang!  We got two baptismal commitments in the last few weeks before we left, so that is super exciting!  

And now, Tangerang is awesome!  We flew in on Thursday and went to the mission home and met up, then took a taxi to Tangerang.  That night we got settled in, did some shopping, and stuff.  On Friday, me and my companion went out to try to find a few addresses of investigators to teach.  Well, it is a little bit difficult to learn a ridiculously large city like this, that is really just part of the sprawl of one of the largest cities in the world, on your own.  And we are on bikes.  But, we are trying to figure it out.  Well, we found the general areas of the places we were trying to find on the map, and found the major roads leading there.  sort of... and then at 12:00 we took off.  We rode around for about 3.5 hours and finally found the first address.  It was pretty far away from the house, and we got lost a lot on the way.  And we kept having to stop and taking cover from the rain that caused a 2 foot deep flood on the road at one point.  But, eventually we made it and taught a guy.  He is a new investigator, and is a little hard headed, but he is OK.  We will keep trying.  After that lesson was over, we tried to find another address.  By about 7:30ish we finally found the house, but the people weren't home.  But that's Ok, because by that point we didn't have time to teach them.  We had to start heading home.  But now we sort of know where there house is, although I don't know if I could ever find it again...at least not quickly.  Then it took us another 2 hours to get home haha.  We started finding the way, but we kept taking the long ways and stuff.  But we got some good contacts along the way and stuff.  So we were making being lost a bit fun and productive :)  Then, my companion's tire went flat. So we stopped and filled it up at a gas station.  That lasted for a little while, but it kept leaking.  Luckily along the way home there was a bike store.  And it was the nicest bike shop I have ever been in!  It was huge!  So I was entertained while his tube was being changed.  Then we eventually found our way home at exactly 9:30, so we weren't late :)

Saturday we had District Meeting, and it was my first time leading as a District Leader.  But it went well.  Then after that we caught a train to Jakarta to go to the Saturday night session of Stake Conference.  Luckily Elder Canfield knew the way, so we made it!  Conference was good and they talked about some cool stuff, and a lot about member missionary work!  And we got to meet a lot of the missionraries again, so that was fun.  Then we got a ride home with a member, but because of traffic and the meeting going long, we got home a bit late.

On Sunday, we rode with a member to stake conference again.  The meeting was awesome, too, and there were a ton of people there.  After conference, however, there was a funeral that our ride was going to, and we had to get home.  But my comp and I got separated from the other companionship. And we ended up having to take the train by ourselves. But somehow we made it home.  So, I'm glad for all of our traveling experience, because I was able to keep my head and figure out my way home on public transport in Jakarta!  The train to our house has to transfer twice, too. We did make a few mistakes and have to backtrack, but we eventually made it!  So that was cool haha.  And, in our lost and confused state, we did get some good contacts as well that helped us along the way and want to learn about the gospel.  

Today we are going to go to some huge mall and go ice skating and eat Carl's Junior.  They say that's the best American restaurant in Indonesia, so we'll go try it out.    Then tonight we are going over to teach Elder W's dad, so that will be cool!  

There's a lot of good stuff going on here, so I am excited!  Hopefully we can start to learn our way around a little bit so we're not always lost.  But I think we'll start to get it hopefully soon!  It is a huge, and confusing city, though.  The biggest area by far that I have ever served in!  And whitewashing doesn't make it easier.  But it's a fun adventure and a challenge!  And my comp is chill and cool, so we're having fun at it!  It is different from Manado, but it is fun too!

Well, I'm glad that Arizona was fun!  sorry about your tooth, dad!  That is a major bummer!  Hopefully it gets well soon!  And hopefully grandma gets feeling better!  Tell her HI for me and to get well soon!  And scary for Lisa, hopefully everything is alright!  Also for Brian and Vickie, that is scary and crazy, too!  Man, it was a big week back at home!

And another big week coming up!  Congrats on graduating, Sabrina!  You made it!  Nice!  Have fun!

Well, I love you guys so much!  Thanks for all your support and love!  Hope you all have a great week!  

Love Elder Wood

Baptism commitment :) Transferred :(

It was so good to talk to you all last week!  Oh man, that was awesome!  I loved it!  Thanks for staying up for me!  It was so good to see your faces and hear your voices and see that you are all doing well!

Glad that you all had a good time at the Ogden Marathon!  I'm glad that you all are doing well! 

Man, off to Arizona!?  you guys are just all over the place now!Sounds   like you're staying busy, though, with the house, the Mustang, travel, Trek, etc..

Well, things have changed quite a bit since we talked last week, actually.  On Thursday, we got transfer calls.  And, who'd have guessed it, I'm transferring.  I was not expecting that!  I thought I would be here for a long time!  But nope, I am moving to Tangerang (just outside of Jakarta) on Thursday.  And so is my companion, Elder W.  We are both going to Tangerang, and will be living in the same house again, but we will be in separate companionships.  I will be with  Elder H. and I will be the District Leader there. 

I have to say, this is by far the hardest move for me so far in the mission.  I did not expect to be transferred this transfer, so that kind of blind-sided me. This will be a very hard area to leave behind, partially because I still feel fairly new here, but mostly because I have truly been loving and enjoying the work here and I love the people and culture in Manado so much! The members and investigators here are awesome! It has been so fun to see the branch here grow and progress and learn so much, and I have become so close with so many members and investigators here, and it is very hard to so quickly leave it all and transfer so far away to Tangerang. But, I guess that is where the Lord has called me, and that is where I will go.But I am sad.  And I will be leaving Elder G., so that will be sad, too!  He is one of my best friends now!  But, its what's happening and I am coming to accept it.  But it took some prayers and asking for help to accept it for the first few days.  I was honestly crushed at first.  But now I am looking at it as a new opportunity to learn and to help other people, so I guess it is a good thing.

But, other than transfer calls, this last week has been pretty good! We have gotten in some good lessons, have found some new investigators, and have been getting blessed! Last Sunday we had a kid named S. show up church. He is friends with an inactive member, and wanted to come. So, he was contacted and invited to learn. We met him that night and had a good lesson about the Restoration. He did not accept the baptismal commitment, but he committed to think and pray about it. And he really likes us and meeting with us. So on Saturday evening we took him to the institute party at the Welch's house to try to get him hooked in with members. It was just us for a while, but we played some tennis (oh man it was so fun to get out on the tennis court again!  But man, I am rusty!) and built a good relationship with him, and he started feeling really comfortable and open with us. Then a few other investigators came, and we had the lesson. S. loved the lesson that Elder Welch taught about learning to use the Book of Mormon and prayer to strengthen our relationships. Then on Sunday he came to church again. And he loved it. Then Sunday night we met again and taught him the Plan of Salvation, and committed him to baptism on June 8! So that is super exciting!

And we had several other investigators at church that we feel are ready to finally accept the baptismal commitment, so we will try to commit them to baptism as well before we leave! It is exciting to see the work here picking up! Just a bummer that we have to leave.  But that's the way it goes.  And I am glad that we can leave some good stuff behind for the new elders coming in and whitewashing the area, so that they can be excited!

Well, things here are going well, and I am still happy, even despite the fact that I am leaving paradise!  There are good benefits to every area!  But this has been my favorite so far my mission!  But, oh well.  We will go and make Tangerang great.  And Elder W's family lives in Tangerang, and I will be serving in their ward and I will be teaching his dad, who is Islam but has started investigating the church.  So that will be a cool experience!

Well, I hope you all have a great week and keep doing fun things!  I love you so much and love hearing from you every week!  Talk to you next week from Tangerang

Love Elder Wood.

Happy Birthday/Cinco de Mayo!

Hey!!!  Thanks for all the birthday emails everyone!  You are so awesome!  And I love you all!  Sorry I can't respond to all of them personally yet, but I will try to get to it!  But it is so great to hear from all of you and hear how you are doing!  Nice to know y'all are still thinking about me :)

So, this last week has been pretty good!  We have been working super hard and getting super blessed! We got in 23 lessons in one week, which is a record for me for my whole mission!  So that was exciting!  And amongst all those lessons, we have found a few golden investigators who are really seeking after the truth, just have not yet known where to find it, but are recognizing that it really is right here!  So that is super cool!

We met one lady on Friday, and taught her about the Priesthood and gave her sick daughter a blessing. Then we went back on Saturday and taught her the Restoration.  From Friday to Saturday she had already read to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon.  Then she said she wants to be baptized, but can't yet because of family things, but that she is praying and searching for a way to be baptized!  Then she came to church on Sunday!  So that was a huge blessing!  And super cool!

Then we have this guy that has been coming to English class with his family for a few weeks now.  A few weeks ago we contacted him and asked if we could meet and share a gospel message sometime. He agreed, and we met this week.  We started with the Family: Proclamation to the World.  He loved it, and started asking more about family.  We explained to him about family night, and he invited us to come to his house and have family night with him and his family!  And he wants to bring his family to church sometime!  And he wants to invite us to his neighbors! So that is sweet!  And we are going over there for family night tonight! So that is super cool and exciting!

So, for my birthday, so far today things have been pretty normal.  We got up, cleaned the house, then did personal and companion study. Now we are emailing.  Later we are going to go to a waterfall for a little while, then tonight we will go to that investigators house for family night.  That family night is probably what I am most excited about!  But also most nervous for, because that family’s salvation is in our hands a little bit.  No pressure!  But I think it will go well!  We were going to go golfing today, but then Elder Giolas had to go to Jakarta for Mission Leader Conference this morning, so we will postpone that for a different day.  That was going to be my big birthday activity.  But the waterfall will be pretty cool too I think!

Well, sounds like things at home are going pretty well!  That's awesome that the boat is already out! That was a fun picture!  I'm a little jealous, but its OK, Ill have my chance next year :)  

I haven't gotten the package yet, but I'm sure its still on the way. I'll let you know when it gets here! And in the meantime, I'll go treat everyone to some good dinner, because that is the birthday and year tradition in this mission.  Kinda lame huh, on your special day you have to treat everyone else.  But I guess I should look at it as a privilege, on my special day I GET to treat everyone else!  Haha.

Well, I love you all so much and am so thankful for your awesome emails and stuff!  Stay awesome! and have a great week!

The church is true, the Book is blue, and Ill see you next week.  Sorry, I don't know what time for Mothers day yet...we haven't gotten that info from President yet.  But I will try to do it on Monday afternoon or something, and I'll try to figure out a way to let you know.  

I love you so much, and can't wait to talk to you!  

Love, Elder Wood

P.S. Mom, thanks for the awesome email! I am so grateful for those blessings of Eternal family, too! Hopefully I can help a lot of people enjoy them here!   

Oh and on that note, tell this to everyone because  I forgot it in my main email, but I heard that Sister M. R.'s husband has a baptismal date now!  He has been learning since she got baptized! That will be a whole family, and later they will be able to go to the temple and become an eternal family!  What a huge blessing for them!  I am so glad I got to be a part of that family's conversion!  That is so cool!

Angkot Joy

Man, that picture of Rufus in the wheelbarrow is awesome!  I saw that one after the other emails, and it gave me a good laugh to kind of wipe away the sadness.  That is a pretty awesome thing to do!  Haha what did the neighbors think?  But I'm glad he got one last walk in :)  It will be sad to not have him around anymore, but I guess thats just the way things go sometimes.  But, he is in greener pastures on fresher legs now, playing with Red and Shirra (I have no clue if I'm spelling her name anywhere close to correct...).  That'll make for a fun time in heaven with all those guys running around together!  Though Shirra might go crazy all by herself with all those dogs.

But I'm glad that Costa Rica was pretty awesome and that you all had fun there!  Thanks for the pictures, they were pretty sweet!  

This week here was pretty good!  We had a lot of little miracles and tender mercies that were really great!  Last week for P-Day we were guided to a few places and ended up getting some awesome contacts and new investigators, so that was cool.  Just by following a simple thought.  We were blessed for our sacrifice, though, because following that thought meant not going to watch a movie with the mission couple, but going out to work.  But it was worth it!

This week we got 19 lessons in, which is by far the most lessons I have had yet in Manado.  And we got a lot of new contacts and new investigators, too, which is super exciting!  We are being very blessed in the work!  Now the only thing that we are struggling with is getting our investigators to start progressing and coming to church.  That is one of the hardest parts here.  They all love spiritual messages brought to them, but it is sometimes very difficult to get them to act on the message and come to church and stuff.  But it is slowly starting to happen.  Manado is just getting ready to explode with the Restored Gospel, it is just waiting on the timing of the Lord to fully open the hearts of the people to receive it.

So I have to tell a quick story this week that I found some joy in.  We were riding in an angkot (sketchy public transportation mini-van type thing), and we usually try to contact people there.  But there was nobody to contact in that van.  So, as we were stopped at a red light, there was a dad and his little daughter stopped next to us on their scooter.  The little girl saw me, and I said good afternoon to her.  Then the dad looked, and we just started talking a little bit.  Then the light turned green and we took off.  But he kept riding next to me, and we kept talking as we were going.  I gave him a passalong card out the window, and between weaving through traffic and stuff, I even got his number!  It was pretty funny, and one of the coolest contacts I have ever had1  We are hopefully going to go meet with him this week!

Yesterday we had a baptism!  One of the Sisters' investigators, Z, got baptized!  So, after church, we took cars and angkots out to the Welch's (mission couples') house.  We had the service there, and did the baptism in the apartment complex swimming pool!  It was kinda interesting, and was really cool!  The place was beautiful!  And President Donald was here for it!  So that was fun!  It was a powerful experience, and we had several investigators there to see it, too, so that was awesome!

Thanks for the emails and all the good stuff!  I can't believe its been almost a year!  But it is flying by!  But I am loving the mission so much and am so glad I am here!  I am learning so much and becoming truly converted!

I love you all so much, and cant wait to talk again!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Wood