Manado

Well, I'm here in Manado now.  Sorry I didn't get to email last night, so I am a little late now.  But at least we get to email!

Well, last week was awesome!  We got over 21 lessons in with investigators and inactive members, which was super exciting!  And we got to participate in the ordinance of Sister M. and her 2 kids, and I got to set apart and give the Holy Ghost to one of them, and that was a super cool experience!  I also got to meet Elder P. a little bit before I left, which was cool!

So, yesterday was transfer day.  Elder Giolas and I got up and left the house at 5:30 in the morning to go to the airport.  Then we flew to Jakarta (1 hour flight), had about a 2 hour layover, so we went and ate some Krispy Kreme donuts and scones and stuff from Starbucks.  It felt kinda weird eating there as a missionary...but it tasted so good to eat some good western sweets!  Oh the joys of international airports, but they are mahal! (expensive!)  After the layover, we got on our 3 hour flight to Manado!  It was a pretty good flight--we got food!  We had a meal of beef and potatoes and gravy, and it was awesome!  Its pretty sad when the airplane meal is one of the best western meals you eat!  Haha but it was a taste of home!  But the flight was super tempting because we were on a pretty nice airline with tvs in every head rest, and they had some pretty good music and movies on them, but we stayed strong and didn't fall to the temptation!

When we got to Manado, we got picked up at the ariport by the mission couple, Elder and Sister Welch.  They are awesome!  They took us to their house, gave us some food, and talked to us for a while.  And we met our new companions.  I am with Elder Wijaya, who is pretty awesome!  So I am excited!  It is beautiful here!  There are trees and beaches and all sorts of cool stuff!  And the best part is that because we are close to the ocean, the air is clean!  I can actually see the sky in this city!  It feels so healthy!  But there is a lot of good stuff going on here it sounds like, so I will fill you in as I find out more.  But for now, things are awesome!  The house is pretty nice, too, so that's good.  

So we have been given several assignments by the mission president for here.  First, we need to get the members more active and paying their tithing so that there can be a church building built here for the branch!  The second is that there is an investigator that lives about 2 hours away, and he has a group of about 100+ people that he teaches every week, and has been teaching them out of the Liahona for a little while.  We have been given permission to hold a Sacrament Meeting out there, so we are going to work to get that guy baptized and to receive the Priesthood, and then to work with his whole congregation and create a new branch out in that area, called TamRan.  So that is super exciting!  There is a lot going on here, but it is all in the very beginning stages, so we are hoping to strengthen things and get it going well and moving!

Oh, and there's some other cool stuff here.  One, it is predominantly Christian, so that is nice!  It makes it a lot easier to proselyte and stuff!  The second is kinda funny.  We don't have bikes here. It is all walking or riding angkots (ghetto vans with no door).  But the angkots here are crazy--they have huge body kits and killer sound systems, and everyone here is always playing music.  So that's kinda funny, but might get distracting!  But it is awesome here, and I am super excited!

Well, I'm glad that you got all the pictures and letters and stuff, and that it all worked this time!  And I am glad that things are going well at home!  Thanks for the emails and pictures and everything!  You guys are awesome!  Sorry this is kinda short and lame, but I don't know too much about things here yet! 

I love you all and can't wait to talk to you again next week!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Wood

Baptism Day!

Baptism Day!

Well, this week was so awesome!  I'll start off with the big news first.  Yes, we had our baptism this week!!!!  Yesterday, Sister M. and her 2 daughters were baptized!  It was such a cool experience, and so awesome to see it all come together and see them receive this blessing, as they have been our main focus for the last month and a half!  

The baptismal service was awesome!  We had some singing and talks and stuff, then we went down to the baptismal font and did the baptism.  I got to baptize Sister M and one of her daughters, and Elder Wintolo baptized the other!  It was so awesome and so spiritual!  Sister M. was first, and she was all good at first, but as soon as she came up out of the water, she just immediately started crying and saying thank you to everyone.  It was really cool and touching.  And after that, K. started crying before she even started walking down the steps into the font.  Then A. was crying, too.  They were all so happy and the Spirit was so strong, it was amazing!  Elder Wintolo almost couldn't make it through the prayer because he was getting choked up, too!  

Me, Sister M. and daughters, Elder Wintolo,

After the baptism, when we were all in the chapel again, their faces were all just glowing and they were so excited and happy!  It was so cool to see, and such a testimony builder!  They were so prepared by the Lord, and I am so grateful that He trusted us to help them get to this point!  And I am so grateful that I was able to see them get to this point before I transfer!  So ya, yesterday was totally awesome!

And there was another super cool experience I had this week!  There were actually several baptisms in Solo this week, and so while Elder Giolas. was interviewing Sister M. and K. and A., President Donald assigned me to interview his baptismal candidates.  So on Saturday, I had the opportunity to do several baptismal Interviews.  That was a lot more special than I even expected.  I was actually super nervous to do it at first, because I have never conducted an interview like that, or received any training.  So I was pretty nervous.  And we got there and their candidates were kinda nervous about the interview, too.  They thought it was some big scary thing.  But we put them at ease, opened with prayer, explained what the interview would be like, and then I interviewed them each one by one.  It was also a family where the mother and 2 kids were ready to be baptized.  The father is also an investigator, but is far from ready to be baptized, but wants his family to be able to be baptized quickly, and he hopes to follow later.  Well, the interviews were awesome!  The Spirit was super strong there, to help me know what to ask, how to calm their fears, and to feel the Spirit help guide me to find out about their worthiness, readiness, and testimony.  It was awesome.  And one of the coolest parts was to hear their testimonies, shared individually and privately.  So I got to find out exactly how they were feeling and what helped them believe, and it was just super cool to hear and an amazing experience that I am super grateful that I got to have!  So, it has been a really cool and spiritual last few days here!

So, like I said, I am getting transferred.  I will be moving to Manado next Monday morning.  So that is super exciting, because Manado is where everyone always wants to serve!  So I am excited about that! But I am also sad to be leaving Solo, because there are so many people here that I am so close with, and it will be sad to leave them!  But it is probably time to move on, and It will be cool to see other places! Plus Manado is an Island with beaches and cool hikes and stuff, so it will be pretty fun!  And it is kinda funny--I will be moving there with Elder Giolas, so we will be in the same house there, but won't be companions.  But I feel like that is really where the Lord wants me to be serving at this time.  So I know it is inspired!  

The rest of the week was pretty normal--visiting people and helping them come to the gospel.  We found a new investigator this week that has kind of a crazy and cool story.  As we were teaching him the Restoration, we found out that he used to be a gangster robber and has some other history, but has since changed his life and wants to find truth, and seemed to like our message and wants to come to church!  So that is exciting! Hopefully the best for him!

Well, this week, I will still be here on Sunday to see Sister M. and her girls confirmed, and we have been invited to participate in that ordinance as well, so that will be awesome!  Oh, and on Friday, Elder P. (the Bishop's son) gets home, so I will also be able to meet him before I get transferred, so that will be cool!

So today we have just been cleaning the house!  It was still dusty from the volcano.  And then later we are all going to get steaks for lunch for our last district P-Day!  So that will be fun.

Well, I love you all and am so glad to keep hearing from you!  Hope everything is going well!

I love you,

Love, Elder Wood

Our Solo District shirts

I'm Alive!

So, this has been a bit of a crazy week as you have heard!  The first few days of the week were fairly uneventful with not too much to report on.  Just a few lessons, some proselyting, and stuff like that. Then, starting on Thursday, things got a bit interesting.

Thursday:  We were out doing some proselyting and trying to find an address on our bikes when it started raining pretty hard.  Luckily some lady invited us in to wait for the rain under her front porch. Usually the rain only lasts like 15 to30 minutes, so if we are proselyting we wait it out, because there is nobody outside to contact when it rains.  And when it rains it pours.  Well, this rain was even harder than normal, and it had wind with it, too, so it was extra crazy!  I am glad we weren't out in it, because it actually ended up blowing a few trees over and blowing big branches off of trees that fell into several of the roads and caused some nice traffic.  But after the 30 minutes of crazy rain, it was over and we went out and got back to work.  Then on thursday night, as we were going to bed, at 11:00, we heard a loud booming sound.  I thought it was fireworks or lightning or something, and just went to bed.

Friday:  Well when we woke up this morning, it was still  pretty dark outside, and so we almost just went back to bed.  But, we saw the clock and that it really was time to wake up.  So we did.  Well, when I looked out the door, I was super confused and really thought it had snowed and there was frost on the ground for a second. Then I remembered that I am in Indonesia and that is not possible.  Then we saw the gray color and that it was dust still falling from the sky, and immediately realized that a volcano had erupted.  It was funny, we both realized it and looked at eachother and said "Morapi" at the same time (Morapi is the closest volcano here).  Well, turns out it was a volcano a little ways away, but the eruption was big enough to reach here with the dust.  So the "fireworks" we heard last night at 11:00 was actually the volcano erupting.  Kinda crazy!  This morning, we were told not to go outside unless absolutely necessary until the dust stopped falling because it is super unhealthy.  Well, then the wind started blowing and the dust started coming into the houses, because they are not sealed.  So we decided that we would all ride taxis and meet at the church and hope it was cleaner, and then we could still have district meeting and hang out there for the day, too.  So we did.  And we ordered McDonalds delivery for lunch and hung out there for several hours.  Then the dust started settling, and we went and helped clean up the church a little bit.  But there was about 1/2 centimeter of volcanic ash everywhere outside!  Pretty crazy!  After we cleaned up a little bit, I translated the meeting with the Aardema's at the church.  What a small world to meet them here in Solo of all places after such a long time.  It was pretty funny and pretty cool!  They are awesome!  I'm glad they emailed you!  After that, we ate dinner at the church with the meeting people (perks of translating :) ) then went home for the night.  

Saturday:  This morning we knew we needed to spend some time cleaning the house becuase there was a layer of dust on everything!  Well, when we woke up, my comp was sick, so he stayed in bed.  I got up, dusted and swept and mopped the house, and studied a bit (all with no electricity...we ran out last night).  Then at about 11:30 he felt better and got up and we went and got some electricity.  Then we got ready and rode a taxi to a funeral for a member who died that night n the hospital of a stroke.  Then bishop took us to lunch, then we went with another member out to Sister M.'s house to teach the last lesson she needs to be all ready for baptism, and it went really well!  So we are super excited about that and that she is getting baptized next week!  And that was pretty much it for today.

Sunday:  Today was pretty normal.  Church.  Sister M. and her kids came!  So that was awesome!  Other than that, nothing too crazy.

Monday (Today):  Today was awesome!!!  Totally not what we expected today.  So, we had a plan to play futsal all together for district P-day.  But we woke up with a text from Sister M. this morning that something happened last night that made her super nervous and that she wanted to meet today. We got super nervous and almost a bit discouraged.   But we cancelled futsal and went out there this afternoon. Well, when we got out there, we had no idea what to expect.  But it ended up being one of the most amazing lessons and spiritual experiences and testimony builders I have ever had!  Suffice it for now to say that I know that prayers are answered, Heavenly Father still reaches out and guides his children individually, He gives us guidance and help to help others when we and they most need it. Oh, and I learned anew the depth of answers to questions contained in the Book of Mormon.  I will just say, Sister M. had a dream last night that she was very confused about the meaning of.  But her faith is enormous.  And we were able to interpret the meaning of her dream with guidance of the Spirit.  It was an incredible learning experience and testimony builder, and I don't think that I will ever forget it! It was literally one of the strongest feelings of the Spirit testifying with me I have ever had as we found an answer to her questions.  And it was totally from the guidance of the Spirit, not from us at all.  I am so grateful for experiences like this that I can have on my mission!  Oh, and she is completely ready and desiring to be baptized now!

Well, I hope you all have a great week this week!  I love you all so much!

Love Elder Wood

Elder Wood and Elder and Sister Aardema
Small world!!

Got a New Grandma!

Hey!!!  Glad to hear you are all doing well and that everything is good back at home!  And glad that the fasting and praying all paid off and we are getting some water there.  (There is no shortage of it here.... too bad we can't get it from here to there efficiently).  Sounds like a lot of exciting stuff is happening, which is pretty cool!  Shout out to Sabrina for working hard and getting a superior at Federation and for making it into the symphony!!!!  That is so awesome!!!  I am so proud of you!  And shout out to dad for hitting up the fitness and dropping 20 pounds!  Man, now when I get home its going to be me having to start working out to keep up with you!  That's awesome!

Well, this week has been pretty good!  It was kind of an interesting week, or kinda cool in a way.  So, the whole week I have been feeling a little bit discouraged and bummed that we hadn't been doing as well as we were hoping.  We just weren't getting in as many lessons as we wanted, and proselyting was hard.  But, last night, when we counted up the statistics, we actually hadn't done too poorly.  Ya, our stats were a little lower than the last few weeks, but then I looked back at several months ago, even 2 months ago or less, at our stats.  Our stats now are way higher than they were then,  and we were stoked about them.  This has given me a new vision and testimony of the hastening of the work of the Lord.  And it has also made me grateful for the success and increased vision and ability that Elder Wintolo and I have developed together!  We really are finding joy and success in this work together! And now we are hopefully going to quickly see the harvest of the fruits of our labors in the next two weeks!  Ya, Sister M. and her daughters have a baptismal date for the 23rd of February!  We have had a few setbacks and stuff, but we are pretty sure that this date is going to happen!  (And we are really hoping for it, because we are pretty sure that at least one of us will be transferring on the 24th :(...

Oh, and last night proselyting we had a pretty cool experience.  We were riding our bikes around trying to contact people and find people to teach. We had been going for a while but nobody was interested. Then we rode past this big nice house, and an old lady in a wheelchair on the front porch called out to us and invited us to come over and talk to her.  So we did.  She invited us in the gate and to come inside for a minute.  So we agreed, hoping to meet her and her family.  So we went in, and she talked to us, and invited us to share our message.  And she liked it.  She told us that (even though she is 82 and Islam) she feels that the Lord guided our path so that we could meet and talk with her.  Sadly, because of her condition (old age, she has had a stroke, and is wheel-chair bound), she cannot attend church or be baptized in this life.  But she is probably one of the nicest people I have met here.  After our lesson, she fed us dinner, gave us fruit, and then told us that she wanted us to be her grandchildren, and she was our grandma.  So now I have a grandma in Solo!  She is awesome!  I hope that there is a special place reserved in Heaven for her for her kindness, because she has a place in both my and Elder Wintolo's hearts.  And we pray that later in the Spirit World, she will have the opportunity and will accept the Gospel!  I think she will!  And she has a nephew or something that is Catholic, and we are hoping to start teaching him and his wife and son soon, too.  They have invited us back whenever we want!  It was a tender mercy from the Lord given to us at the end of what to us was a rather difficult week!  

Well, that's most of the highlights of this week from here.  Everything else was pretty normal.  Later we're going to eat at this restaurant that is kinda like a cheap Indonesian version of Texas Road House. Its called D'Koboi (pronounced Da Cowboy I think...).  I don't know, it looks funny.  Its western themed and the employees wear cowboy boots and cowboy hats.  So, I'll try to get some pictures, and hopefully it's good.

Glad things are going well at home!  Know how much I love you guys and look forward to Mondays too.  Sabrina and Eliza, I'm glad you like my shirts, but aren't they a bit big...?  Oh well haha, enjoy them!  (The flannels are great to stay warm skiing, too).

Well, I love you all so much!  But sadly I have to go.  Talk to you next week!  Love you!

Love Elder Wood

Putting on a Roof

Man, sounds like it was a pretty terrible game!  That is a bummer!  I was totally going for the Broncos, too, because I wanted Peyton to win the SuperBowl with 2 different teams!  And from what I have heard from others, it was a bad day in Vegas, too, because the analysts had the Broncos winning, too. Bummer.  It wasn't even close!  That is a pretty lame game!  Well, I hope at least the commercials were pretty funny!  But enough on that.

So, this week.  Well, there is not too much to report on this week.  But it was a pretty good week.  So, Ibu M. and her kids came to church again, which is awesome!  They are really busy, though, and so we have not been able to teach them as often as we would like, but they still really want to be baptized, and we are hoping we can get them ready by the 16th, if not at the very latest the 23rd (before transfers on the 24th because we are fairly certain that one of us will be transferring, but still not sure really.  Just guessing.).  But they are totally awesome and her kids love church and singing Primary songs and stuff. We were going to go out there today to teach them, but it ended up falling through because of timing and we couldn't get anyone to come with us.  It is hard now, because if we go visit anyone that is a female, we have to have another responsible adult there, and we are having a really hard time finding people that have the ability or time to go fellowship with us, and we can't ask the bishop every day.  So that is something new and frustrating that we have been having to try to overcome.  To this point, because of it, we have had to delay or cancel a few appointments despite having called everyone we can think of.  It is making it a lot harder to do the work, but it is from President, so I am sure it is inspired, so we are doing our best to follow it.  So, if the missionaries ever ask you, try your best to make time to fellowship with them or help them find someone who can.  Thats my advice for this week to help other missionaries out.

We have also found a few more new investigators this week, several of which look like they have some pretty good potential to progress and make the baptismal commitment.  So we are going to try to work hard with them and keep looking for more people to work with.  It is exciting to start finding new people and share the gospel with a lot more people!  

On Saturday I went on splits with Elder Giolas to his area.  That was a lot of fun to meet new people and see another area.  That morning we did some service at a new members house.  We helped them put up a new roof.  That was kinda cool.  It reminded me a lot of when I was working on building the shed up at the cabin with Grandpa. While we were there, we had a lot of time to just talk. Elder Giolas and I have gotten to be pretty good friends while we've been here.  (he's the one who's parents just moved to Midway).  He offered me a job to work with him for his dad when we get home as an HVAC salesman.  It sounds like a pretty cool job--going on sales calls, get paid to golf every Friday with clients, and whatnot.  So I don't know, that might be kinda fun.  But not something to think too hard about right now.  I'll focus on that when I get home.  But its good to have options.  That day we also visited several of their investigators and had some good appointments and it was a lot of fun!

In just a few minutes we are going to play futsal for p-day with the missionaries and hopefully a bunch of members and their non-member friends.  Trying to find some more new investigators in fun creative ways.  Then we have an appointment with an investigator tonight, then we are taking another new investigator on a church tour, then hopefully we will have a family night with an inactive member family.  So it should be a pretty good day.

This morning we spent some time cleaning the house, then I wrote a few letters to each of you and a few other people.  I put them all in a big sturdy envelope along with a MicroSD card taped to the back of a picture (I did it more carefully this time so hopefully it doesn't break), and I will put that in the mail tomorrow (its closed now).  Hopefully that gets to you soon!

Thanks for all your love and prayers!  I'm glad to hear you are all doing well!  Tell everyone Hi for me! And I will pray for some water back home, too.  Thats crazy!  Kinda scary!  Well, I love you all so much!  Hopefully that letter gets there soon!  Thanks for the letters and emails!  You guys are awesome!  I love you!

Love, Elder Wood

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