He is the one directing this work!

Hey, how's it going?  Thanks for the letters this week!  

So this week was pretty good!  We had some great appointments!  And we got 14 lessons in with investigators this week!  We met the mission standard of excellence in Tangerang!  That is the first time that has happened since I have been here in Tangerang!  Usually we hover around 10 and max at like 12, so this week was a really good one!  

Brother W is doing well!  He is still coming to church and seems like he is progressing!  It is baby steps, but it is coming!  One day it will just click for him, I'm sure!  And he knows it too!

This week we also had 3 investigators at church, which is like a record here, too!  The Lord is really blessing and hastening his work!  So that was super exciting!  They all seemed to really enjoy it, too! And it made Gospel Principles class amazing!  President Donald and an area 70 were also visiting the ward that day, so they were there to meet them all, and President Donald sat in on Gospel Principles. Since so many people were new, we started with just doing some introductions.  And, of their own volition, the investigators each shared their testimony when they were introducing themselves, and the Spirit was super strong!  Pak M said he was really considering baptism in this church, Mama V said how much she liked it here, and that in any other church she just didn't feel that it "clicked" it just wasn't quite right.  Then Brother W cried as he shared his experiences and hopes, and the Spirit was so strong!  Then President Donald shared his testimony and conversion story!  It was just an amazing spiritual high, and I think all of us, including the investigators, were touched by it!  And they all want to come back again next week!  So that is exciting!  What a great day at church!

Then on Sunday night, all our appointments had fallen through.  So we were frantically calling all our contacts to see if anyone could meet.  We got one guy, but when we showed up, he wasn't home.  We rode all around his neighborhood, trying to contact other people, but had no success.  Then we went back to his house, and he was home and let us in.  He talked at us for an hour or so about Jesus and stuff, then finally we got a chance to talk.  We thought it was just going to be a "this is good information." but that's it sort of thing, but turns out that the spirit touched him and he really was interested to know if these things are true, wants to read the Book of Mormon, and wants to meet again next week!  So that was super exciting!

Then we had one other appointment with a guy we met in front of his house a week ago, and talked to for 30 seconds or less, and he told us to come back Sunday evening.  We didn't even get his phone number.  But we figured we'd try it out.  Well, we show up, and someone answers the door and asks what we're doing.  We say that we had an appointment with the guy, and are told that he wasn't there. He asked us where we were from, and we said the church, and he invited us in.  Turns out that the guy that let us in is the guy we were looking for's little brother (still like 25 years old, though).  He was shocked that his brother would want to talk to us, becuase his brother is Agnostic and never wants to talk about religion...at all.  So he was like, "What did you say to him or share with him that he would even invite you back at all?"  We told him that we had showed him the Book of Mormon, and he was interested to know what it was and made a return appointment with us.  So now, this guy we were talking to, the little brother was really interested.  So we taught him the first lesson right there. He used to be agnostic as well, but a few years ago became Catholic.  But he absolutely absorbed everything we said, and the spirit was really strong.  At the end, we asked if he had any questions, and the first thing he said was, "I want to come to your church. Can I?"  Of course we said yes, and he said he is going to come next week!  So that is awesome!  And we then gave him the baptismal commitment, and he said that after he reads and prays, if he gets an answer he will be baptized!  There were so many other cool things that went on in that lesson, but it was absolutely amazing!  And as we were leaving, we asked him if he would be sure to read the Book of Mormon this week.  He said, "I'm going to go read it right now!"  It was amazing!  So cool and so prepared!  And the Lord totally prepared the day to lead us there, because there were several other things that we had prioritized over that meeting, but they just didn't work out for one reason or the other, and the Lord led us there!  He really is the one directing this work!  

Well, that is about it for this week!  It was a good one and the upcoming week looks pretty good, too! Hope you all have a good week!  I love you all!  Talk to you soon!  

Love, Elder Wood

Becoming a "whole-hearted missionary"

Happy Sunday Night!  (Monday morning here... haha still kinda weird!)

So, sounds like you all had a good week!  Lots of fun things going on!  The picture of that spider (I'm not even going to try to spell 'terantula' haha) was pretty crazy!  Haha we actually don't see stuff like that too often here, but lots of cockroaches, rats and really ugly stray cats...but that is pretty cool looking!  Poor lady standing there frozen!  Did Duke try to eat it?

And glad that your  new job is going well, mom!  Haha that is so funny to hear you say "work was good this week."  Usually I only hear that from dad.  But that is exciting that you have that opportunity! That is going to be fun it sounds like!  Hopefully you continue to enjoy it!  

And that is so fun that you got to go meet all those missionaries and talk to them!  They are some of the best people I know!  Haha its weird to see them all at home though!  It wasn't too long ago I saw them all at zone conference!  They are a great group of friends! 

Well, this week was another really good week!  We had some good success with finding and teaching! We were able to teach a lot more new investigators!  We have been really blessed with finding lately! And now hopefully in the coming weeks we can really get all of our follow-up appointments with our new investigators, older investigators, and continue finding even more investigators!  Hopefully we will become super busy with teaching appointments in the next few weeks!  

Brother W is still doing well! This week he wore a white shirt to church!  Although it seems small, that was another big step in his progression!  Because up to this point he hasn't wanted to wear a white shirt. His wife told us that he had a tie in the car but last second decided not to wear it.  So, Elder T asked him about it at some point and said "Where's the tie?"  And Brother W responded "Maybe I'll wear a tie at my baptism!"  Haha he's a pretty funny guy!  But hey, he knows where he is heading!  Now we just are working on helping him commit to a date!  Hopefully sooner rather than later!  Because the ward is waiting on planning their temple trip next year for him to get baptized haha! He is great!  He is really reading all 4 of the Standard Works completely of his own desire, and he always writes and asks us his questions, because it is all new to him!  We are just trying to get him to get the Holy Ghost so that he can learn that much faster!

We found another new family this week that is awesome!  We just taught them the first time last Saturday.  The father used to be a captain of a ship, and has been all over the world.  He is Indonesian but speaks fluent English.  The wife is Venezuelan and speaks perfect Indonesian. We showed up and the husband found out we were Mormons and immediately was super interested in what the Book of Mormon is.  When he was sailing, he said he would often stay in hotels in America and he would open up the drawer and see two Bibles--the normal one and the "Mormon Bible"  (He must have been staying in Marriott hotels haha!)  He said he had often seen the Book of Mormon, but never really read it.  Then just a few weeks ago he downloaded the English version onto his Ipad to read on a flight while he was bored.  But he had never really known what it was or read it seriously.  But he was very interested in our explanation and very excited to read the Book and he wants to come to church next week as well!  So that was super exciting!  Then he tried to give us like 30 bucks on our way out the door, which is quite a lot of money here.  We are completely out of money this week because of reimbursements on taxis going back and forth to Senopati several times.  So at that time we only had like 2 dollars in each of our wallets to live until this months allowance came in today. But, despite the great temptation, we obediently declined haha!  But we laughed about it afterward and how tempting it was!  But they want to meet again, and are super cool!

We have found and taught several other investigators and had a good time this week as well!  And today we have a few follow-up appointments this evening after we finish emailing, so that is exciting!

Oh, this week we were riding and I got a flat tire.  Luckily there are a lot of places on the side of the road to get it patched up.  But where it went flat happened to be in one of the nicest parts of town where there are none of these places.  So we had to walk for over a half hour until we found one of these places.  Turns out that it went flat because I had worn a hole all the way through the outer tire, so they stuck some rubber inside there to temporary patch it, patched the tube, and I was on my way temporarily.  But we had to replace the whole tire that night.  Too much riding haha!

This week I have been studying a lot on how to be a "whole-hearted missionary."  I don't really know how to explain exactly what I have learned, but there is a lot haha!  Lots of just ideas like how to work better with other missionaries and companions, how to really love investigators, and other things.  But the one that most hit me was in first few verses of Alma 17 that I read today, with a connection to 1 Cor 2:4 I think is the reference.  It is about fasting, praying, and studying.  But the purpose of it is not to become smarter.  It is to gain power.  In Corinthians, Paul talks about not converting people by convincing or flattering words, but of speaking simple words that are filled with power and the spirit, and letting the Spirit do the convincing.  So that is something I am really going to work on, is keeping my speech simple, and praying and working to get power behind my words from the Spirit.  

Well, I am so glad that you are all doing well and having great weeks!  I love you all and can't wait to hear from you each week!  Thanks for your letters!  Love you!

Love Elder Wood

Smiling and Laughing the Whole Time

Happy Sunday!  (Monday here...)

Man, sounds like a pretty busy day for you guys!  I can't believe that Sabrina is already off to college! That is crazy!  That seems like it happened really fast!  But super exciting!  Haha I'm glad you've had a nice extra storage room for all her stuff!  Thanks for the pictures!  Looks like a pretty fun place!

Well, things here have been going well this week!  My companion is a really funny and cool guy, and we have been getting along really well!  He is definitely one of my favorite companions so far!  He is always positive and he works really hard, he is easy to talk to, and we have fun together.  It makes the work so much easier and more enjoyable when you are smiling and laughing the whole time!  

Speaking of the work, things have been going really well this week!  We have found a ton of new investigators the last few days and have taught a ton of first lessons!  It is really exciting!  We have several families that are interested, and have had some crazy cool opportunities placed in our path.  One funny one is we were proselyting in a gated community that we made friends with the security guards of a few weeks ago.  We never went through the whole area last time we were there, so the other day we went there again.  Our security guard friend wasn't there, but the guy there let us in.  We can't knock doors, so we just have to walk around and talk to people on the street.  But we found one guy and got a lesson with him and his family and they invited us back this coming week.  Then we were riding our bikes around a bit, and a lady called us over.  She was like, "do you remember me?"  It took me a minute, but then I got it.  When we were there 3 or 4 weeks ago, we talked to her as she was driving out the gate, because the security guard we were friends with introduced us to her and said she was Christian.  But at that time she wasn't interested and was in a hurry.  But the other day she called us over and just wanted to talk a little bit.  We talked to her and her friend in the street and at first she still wasn't too interested in the church, but wanted to know more about what we were doing here.  Then by the end of the conversation she told us about how she wasn't active in church, and she ended up inviting us to come over to her house to meet with her and her family this coming week!  So that was a cool thing!  Funny how the Lord works, and how sometimes it takes several tries!  But we are excited for that one!

The rest of the work is going well!  This week Brother W asked us to fast with him to help him receive an answer if he needs to be baptized.  So we fasted with him yesterday and then had dinner at their house together.  It is so cool to see him working so hard to receive a sure answer!  It won't be too much longer before he gets in the water I think!  I am so excited for him and his family!

Well, that is mostly it for this week!  After emailing we are going to go over to the driving range for a little bit and then we have an appointment this evening!  So the work is progressing!  

Thanks for all your emails, love and support!  And thanks for the cookies!  They were delicious!  I love you all so much!  Hope you have a great week!  Man, the house is going to be empty for a while! Eliza, you're going to be spoiled!  Litlle miss only child at home Haha!

Well, I love you all!

Love Elder Wood

August 18, 2014

So great to hear from you all!  Sounds like things have been going well back at home!  Fun stuff going on!

Thanks so much for the packages!  I got them both this week!  Thank you so much!  They were awesome!  I am excited to make s'mores!  I will have to figure out how to do that!  The microwave is too lame!  But maybe we can try to use the gas-burner stove haha!  And sorry, I haven't had a chance to get a picture in the shirt yet, we have been really busy the last few days!  But I will try to take it and get it sent off next week!  (If the computer will let me...)  And all the good stuff!  That was such an awesome package!  So many good things to cook!  And so many cool pictures and stuff!  And thanks for the family history!  I am excited to read more about it, but I have just had a little time to browse over it so far!  And Sabrina,  thanks for the Swiss Chocolate!  That looks so good that I am almost afraid to eat it, but I can't wait to try some!  And I can't wait to read your journal of your trip over there!  Thanks so much for sending me that!  And Eliza,  thanks for the chocolate chip cookies!  They are delicious!  I had a few for breakfast today and they were awesome!  Thanks for all the letters and all the love!  It is so fun to hear from you guys and get that stuff!  

And I am glad that you were able to make it to Elder Giolas' homecoming!  He is a great guy!  Thanks for the pictures!  That was fun!

So, things here have been going well this week!  On Wednesday I went to the mission home and picked up some new missionaries!  My new companion is named Elder Troff, and he is from West Jordan.  I also have been with Elder Martineau, from Kaysville.  Elder Martineau leaves tomorrow, though.  But he will go and be trained by Elder Wintolo.  So he is my grandson.  I am like the Patriarch of the house, I joke.  But it has been really fun the last few days.  I have been taking both of them around with me.  It has been stressful, but a ton of fun!  They are both really cool guys.  And I am really excited to work with Elder Troff, too.  He seems like he will be an awesome companion!  The only bummer was that I was really sick Friday night, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday with fever, full body aches, and diarrhea.  But we made it through it and I am healthy now!  So I haven't yet had a chance to eat all my good food because I didn't have an appetite until this morning.  But now I can go hard!  

Saturday was fun because we had a big ward party for Indonesian Independence Day!  We had an investigator come and feel really welcome and have a good time, and I think that was a big and a successful step in his progression.  And it was a great chance for the new Elders to meet the members and feel welcome and see that the church is the same all over the world!  I think they really liked it! I had a really good time and it made me feel at home!  We learned a few Indonesian patriotic songs, which was fun, and sang them as a member played the guitar!

This week we have also had some lessons with some good investigators.  Brother W is still coming along well and learning and progressing!  We are just trying to get him to make a baptismal goal, but he doesn't want to commit to a date yet.  But someday he will!  

Well, I think that is mostly it for now!  Thanks again for all your love and support, letters, packages, and prayers!  You are awesome!  I love you so much!  Hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you again!  The Church is true, the Book is Blue, and I will see you after I honorably finish the 2!  Haha!  Love you!

Love Elder Wood!

August 10, 2014

Hey!  Glad to hear that things are going well back at home!  Sounds like you guys have been having a pretty fun week!  That hit and run race sounds pretty fun!  Man, sounds like normal running is way out of style now.  No more normal 5K's or anythign like that.  It's gotta have all the bells and whistles and stuff haha!  Well, I am excited to try it when I get home!  Hopefully its still around and not just a fad! But sounds like its a bit painful, too haha!  How do they make it a race with all the waiting in line and stuff?

And man, those pictures of the Ogden Temple are amazing!  It looks beautiful!  I can't wait to see it in person!  When are they doing the dedication?  Is there going to be some big youth festival thing for it? That is fun that you could take some other friends and neighbors to see it, too!  That is a great missionary tool, because they will feel something there, and later hopefully recognize a desire to return there and go inside again.  And then they will figure out what they have to do to go inside again :) We'll keep praying for them!

So, things here have been a bit slow this week.  We had several investigators reject the message saying that they don't believe it is true.  And we had our progressing investigator, Pak Mafud, who had a baptismal date a few weeks ago reject us this week.  That one was really hard.   He had had a spiritual confirmation of the truth of our message, but he decided that it was too difficult to move from his old church to ours after having been there so long. And his choice was especially confirmed after he talked to his pendeta. So that was a major bummer this week and made us all quite sad for him and disappointed. But we gave him the seed, and I guess we have to accept that he has his agency to do what he wants. It is just sad to see him reject something that he has had a witness of, and to lose so many blessings. But, we will keep moving forward.  

So, our teaching pool took a big hit this week, which is hard, especially knowing I have a new companion coming in next week.

But we still have an investigator that wants to come to church and is really progressing.  His only problem is that his wife won't let him come to church.  yet.  But he is still working on it and hopefully it will happen soon.  We have an Indonesian Independence Day party at the church this Saturday, and we are going to try to get them to come to a non-threatening activity like that.  So hopefully that will happen.  

And Brother W is still doing really well!  He is really progressing and has turned completely toward Christianity.  Now we are just helping him gain an understanding of what we believe and helping him strengthen his testimony, and helping him prepare for baptism!  Hopefully we can get him there soon! So that is really exciting!  Such a blessing and a joy to see someone's life change!  

This week I have been in a 3-some with Elder Honda and his new companion, Elder Hariyadi.  He is a really cool guy!  He just transferred here from Manado.  He is actually the missionary that replaced me in Manado!  And he told me that one of the investigators that I started teaching when I was in Manado got baptized just a few weeks ago!  So that was super exciting and rewarding to hear!    And I am just waiting to get my new companion on Thursday or Friday this week. 

Well, I am glad to hear that you guys are having fun and things are going well at home!  I love getting your emails every week!  It brightens my day!  Keep letting me know what's going on!  How are the bees?  Any honey yet?  How is the mustang project going?  Any pictures?  What else is going on?

Well, I love you all and I love being a missionary!  The work is hard, and yes, dad, sometimes I do feel like I am pushing against an unmoving rock.  But I guess that's what sometimes has to happen.  And then the Lord will come in with His timing.  Things will turn around here!  There is great potential! And it makes it all worth it to see someone like Brother W accept the gospel and see it change his life and bless him and his family!  I am so grateful we have that blessing in our family!  

I love you!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Wood

I'm where I need to be!

Hey!  Thanks for all the emails! Glad to hear you guys are having fun!  Looks like and sounds like Lake Powell was a blast!  I'm glad that you told me about it!  I like to hear that you guys aren't just being boring without me!  So don't feel like you can't tell me about the fun things you guys are doing! It doesn't make me sad or trunky (except maybe the picture of Lake Powell glass at sunrise haha jk)!  It makes me happy!  Actually what I thought was coming out in mom's email was, "things just aren't the same without you, so...we sold the boat."  I was getting ready to cry.  But then I heard you went to lake powell and I was super excited for you guys!  Haha!  So that was much better news than hearing that the boat was no more ;)

But sounds like things are all going well at home and that you guys are having some good times with parties, college prep, and all that stuff!  Keep sending pictures of Lake Powell and all that stuff, I love seeing them!  I try to send pictures from here, but it just doesn't work.  Sorry! Oh, and if you could send me that picture of grandpa waterskiing that would be awesome!  I would love to see that!  

Well, things here are going really well!  We have had a miracle this week!  We met with Brother W again on Saturday night, and he and his whole family just broke down with us.  We didn't teach anything, but it was a testimony meeting.  Brother W has finally been touched by the Lord, and is coming to church weekly, praying regularly, and preparing for baptism!  I can't believe it!  It is the answer to so many people's prayers and fasts!  And it is truly a blessing of his wife's temple trips and his son's mission!  I am so grateful just to be able to witness it!  It has been the highlight of my week! And to see him and Sister A finally sitting together in Sacrament meeting was amazing!  It almost made me cry!  It just seemed "right".  She has sat faithfully alone for way too long, and to see them together and happy now is so amazing!  The Lord comes with his own timing, but he comes!  So, we are starting with the discussions this week and he will hopefully be baptized before the end of this month! And they are making plans to go to the temple in a year once Elder W gets home!

The rest of things are going well, too!  Our other investigator with a baptismal date has had some setbacks, and has been delayed a bit.  But we are still working with him and things are going well! Hopefully things will still go through with him.

And we have another family that we have been teaching just the father for the last few weeks, but he wants to bring his whole family to church next week,and he is open to the idea of baptism!  So things are really looking up this week!  I am excited! 

And next week or so I will start training a new missionary from Idaho.  I will be staying in my same area, which I am really excited about, because I will be able to see and follow up on things here!  

Well, that is most of it for this week!  And good luck to you guys on getting ready to send Sabrina off to college!  That is so exciting!  Hope the rest of your week goes well and that you have tons of fun! Tell me more about Lake Powell!  where did you go, what did you do?  Houseboat, hotel?  Just whatever haha!  Don't worry about telling me!  My time will come, but this is where I want to be right now!  And where I need to be!

Have a great week and know that I love you all!  

Love Elder Wood

July 27, 2014

Hey, happy 24th of July.

But most importantly today (or tomorrow for you...)  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABRINA!!!

Man, you're getting old!  But wiser, too, as I learned from your talk!  That talk was awesome!

Well, sounds like you all had a good week!  I'm glad to hear that!  I love hearing from you all every week!  Glad EFY was fun for Eliza, that you guys got some running in and stuff, and had some fun for the holidays!  Any plans for Sabrina's birthday tomorrow?  

Well, things here have been going pretty well this week, too!  We had a good time on splits with President!  That was an awesome opportunity!  However it was also one of the most stressful days I have had in a long time!  Because a lot of the plans we had for the day fell through last moment, so I was scrambling to get things put together to have some appointments, because President did not want to spend his day with us proselyting.  But luckily we got things worked out.  I was on the phone making phone calls the whole day when we were in the car and I killed the battery on the phone haha, but we got it worked out.  So that was good.  I was just a little bummed because I couldn't talk to President as much as I wanted to.  But it was still an awesome day and I learned a ton.  Then we had Zone Meeting with the President on Thursday and Friday.  That was fun!  Interviews were awesome, and I learned a lot.  And I also found out that I will be training one of the new missionaries coming in in the next two weeks!  So that should be fun! and a great opprotunity!  I am super excited for that!

Also, we had a small miracle this week!  We had a lesson with Brother W on Friday night.  It was the first time we have been able to meet him in almost a month.  We watched the Testaments movie with him and the Spirit was super strong!  And then on Sunday he came to church for the first time ever! And he came the whole time!  So that was super exciting and awesome!  He finally overcame that major barrier and we are so much closer to helping him get baptized now!  

Well, that is most of what is going on here.  I am super sore because during zone conference we played about 6 hours of basketball, futsal, and football straight!  it was so much fun!  But tiring!  

I'm glad that things at home are going well!  Hope you guys ghave a great week! I'm glad the pictures and letters got to you!  

Love You!

Love Elder Wood