3 letters - Christmas Testimony

1.  Thanks for the emails!  They are awesome!  Glad you liked the nativity!  Sorry, I had written a card to go along with it as well that I meant to get to the Sheffields as well to bring home, but with the way timing worked out for the rest of the week, I was never able to get it to the office to send home with them before they left.  So I do apologize about that.  It is now just waiting on my desk.  So I guess I will drop it in the snail mail and you will get it in a few weeks.  Sorry.  But I guess it will prolong the excitement.  

This week has been pretty good.  We had our mission tour with a member of the 70 come to speak with us.  It was Elder Randy D. Funk.  He actually served as a missionary here back in the early '70s, so that was pretty cool!  He knew a few of the members, and some are even his own coverts.  But it was a super inspiring meeting, and I learned a lot there about the gospel, about our purpose and commission as missionaries, and many other things.  I don't know what it was, but it kind of became another turning point for me, where ever since that meeting I have had a hugely increased desire to study and understand so much more about the Atonement, and as a result, have also had an increased desire to share it with other people.  I have just been trying to do a few more "little things" to help me be more obedient and dedicated, and to draw even closer to the Savior, and I can feel that even just a few little things have made a huge difference!  It has been really cool to sort of experience!

So, we have been busy with getting prepared for the mission tour and stuff.  And we have had some good lessons with some cool investigators.  We have an investigator, C, who is preparing to be baptized this coming Sunday!  We are super excited for him!  He is awesome!  We also have an investigator named Pak B who is committed to the 18th of January.  We are working with him on stopping smoking.  He is struggling with that, but he has a great desire to be baptized and we are encouraging and teaching him more about the gospel and the Atonement to strengthen him and help him!  We had 4 investigators at church yesterday, which was awesome!

Um, ya, that's most of it for this week!  It was a good week!  Oh, we have also been using "The Living Christ" as a Christmas message door approach.  It is such a powerful and true witness written by men truly ordained as Christ's living apostles of His divinity.  It carries the spirit so powerfully.  And so we have been using it to introduce ourselves to people and share a message about Christ, and also to bridge into explaining about the Restoration, and it has been going really well.  But I would definitely encourage you guys to read and review it this year if you haven't already!  It is awesome!

Thanks for all the Christmas packages and the 12 Days of Christmas!  They have been so fun to open and read or use and stuff!  I have enjoyed it!  And everyone has loved the cookies and stuff!

2.  As I wrote to President what I learned at mission tour the other day, I thought I would share it with you as well.  So I will copy and paste what I wrote to President.

Hello President,

Man, this week has been awesome! I will try to condense what I learned at the mission tour with Elder Funk. I will start off saying that it was a major turning point in my mission for me the last few days. Most of it came through personal revelation telling me what I needed to do. I will just list some of the major points that I felt most important to me:

1. Know PMG as well as Elder Funk knows it

2. Am I always here for Jesus Christ?

3. I appreciate your letter of love, because I truly have felt the love you and Sister Donald have for each of us, and me personally. So one thing I wrote was, "Think of the love i have for President and Sister Donald, and the love I know they have for me. That is only a small manifestation of the infinite love that Heavenly Father has for each of us, and for me personally." so thank you for your love. And know that I truly do appreciate and love both of you so much as well.

4. Make the absolute most of the last few months I have and do everything I can to share the absolute joy of the Atonement with others. Use every hour of every minute of every day. Don't waste a second. (Effective planning).

5. Search myself--find out what it is--what parts of me--that I have not fully given to the Lord yet. And then figure out how to give it all to Him. All of it--lay it out on the table. All in. GO big until you go home. And then keep going.

6. Study and gain a greater understanding and testimony of the Atonement. 

Ever since the mission tour I have had a burning desire to study and better understand the Atonement. It has only been a few days of study, but I have gained a much deeper testimony thus far, and have a great desire to understand and know more. And understanding and knowing more about the Atonement has helped me with all of my other goals and desires that I learned. It has helped me identify areas that I can give more of myself, it has helped me grow a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father through more meaningful prayer, and it has helped me have a greater desire to use time more wisely and make the most of every second. So I learned a lot at the mission tour, but most importantly I learned the Atonement, and that, as Joseph Smith said, everything else that we teach is only an appendage to it. 

3.  Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!  Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and emails!  They mean a lot to me!

What a wonderful time of year this Christmas season is to think of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  At this time we think of his birth, and what his birth and life mean for us.  "For God so loved the world, that He sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  (John 3:16).  

Though far away, I just want to share a few thoughts about Christ, and a few things that I have learned and gained a testimony of throughout my life, and especially throughout my mission.  

The first is my testimony of the reality of His divinity and service on earth.  That He, the Son of God, came down to earth, lead a perfect life free of sin and guile, and became our perfect example I know to be true.  And yet, even more, "He [went] forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he [took] upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he [took] upon him their infirmities, [and] his bowels [are] filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he [knoweth] according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:11-12).

His life was real, as was his infinite Atonement.  And it was for you and for me.  He, the Son of God, condescended beneath it all to raise us up that we, through his grace and mercy, along with our works, may be restored to our perfect frame and character, even the character and glory of God.  For God said, "Let us create man in our image." (Genesis 1:26). "In whose image?  In the image of the Gods created they them, male and female, innocent, harmless, spotless, bearing the same character and the same image as the Gods.  And when man fell he did not lose his image, but his character still retained the image of his Maker....Through the Atonement of Christ and the resurrection, and obedience to the gospel, we shall again be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29); then we shall have attained to the image, glory, and character of God." (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church--Joseph Smith pg. 52).

I am so grateful for God's greatest gift to man, even His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  I know that he is our Savior, and that he lives!  

I love you all so much and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas!  And especially that this Christmas we can remember the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior Jesus Christ and His gift to us. 

Merry Christmas!

Love Elder Wood!

Friends From Home

Hey!  So it was pretty crazy to see the Sheffields here!  That was pretty fun!  Kinda weird to see friends from home.  And it was weird, because it didn't seem like it had been a year and a half since I had seen them!  But they said everything back home is good, that you guys are all looking good and doing well.  But they said that dad, you seem the most trunky of the family to them haha!  But not really trunky, just missing having another man around.  But they laughed about the things you have bought.  Especially the fatty bike haha!  But they brought the packages!  Thank you so much!  They are awesome!  Everyone has been loving the cookies and stuff!  And the Donalds were so appreciative of their gifts!  They seemed really touched and said to tell you thank you so much for them. 

Well, this week has been pretty good.  On Tuesday we had Mission Leader Conference and got to sit down and hear President Donald lay down revelation for the mission for several hours!  That is always a really cool and inspiring experience!  I always learn a ton from those things!  And after that, we met the Sheffields and talked for a while.  Then the next few days were pretty normal and uneventful.  Then on Friday we had Zone Conference, and we had to teach.  But it went pretty well I think.  We talked a little bit about the "Which Way do you Face" talk from conference, and also a lot about the Book of Mormon--back to the basics, and how we can use the Book of Mormon to help members do their missionary work, as well as to help the leaders to fulfill their duty to fellowship and involve new converts as well as to become examples in missionary work.  I think it is something that can help make a positive difference, so hopefully it will go well.  

Then on Saturday morning we went and had an appointment with a former investigator that we found in the area book and called up.  We had a great lesson with him reviewing the Restoration and stuff, gave him the baptismal commitment, which he received!  That was awesome!  And then talked a little bit about the Word of Wisdom because we knew that would be something that he would need to overcome to be prepared for baptism.  We didn't have time to teach the whole lesson, but we let him know what he would need to do, i.e. stop smoking, drinking, etc.  He said it would be hard but that he would try because he felt that everything we were telling him about the Book of Mormon was true, and he wants to build his relationship with God.  So we told him we will explain more later and help him, and he said he would start trying now.  So that was awesome!  His name is H, and he has a date for the 18th of January.  So that is exciting!

Yesterday we had the English ward Christmas party.  We had a few new members come, and we went to a members house and sang Christmas carols and ate delicious food and desserts!  And we even had Egg Nog!  It was awesome!  And it finally helped to start feeling the Christmas season, too!  And we had a member who has been working really hard to do missionary work for the last several weeks.  He finally got two of his friends to come to the party and we were able to contact them and get their numbers!  So that was awesome!  Then he got an amazing blessing for his efforts, because he came here and married a Muslim woman,  and she has been super closed off to the church lately, and wouldn't receive missionary visits.  But she wanted to come to the party tonight, and a new member really fellowshipped her and got the sisters an appointment with them!  So that was awesome!  Her husband was shocked when he heard the news, but was super happy!  So it was a great night.

Today we have just been playing some futsal and emailing.

So I got a cool little Christmas service opportunity for you.  There is a member here who is from the Phillipines. Her son is in the MTC in Provo right now, and we were talking about him yesterday.  She was saying that it is so hard to send him packages from so far away, and that it is hard for him because he is the only one in the group that never gets packages from home.  So, sorry, I volunteered you to send him some cookies or something fun for the holidays, because it is also his birthday soon as well, and she doesn't know how to get anything to him.  So I got his address.  It is

Elder B

2007 N 900 E 

Provo UT 84602

I told her you could maybe send him some cookies and a note or something simple, and she seemed really touched and appreciative and said to tell you thank you so much!  So if you could do that, that would be awesome!

Other than that, things here are going well!  I love you so much and love hearing from you!  Thanks again for the packages and stuff!  You guys are awesome!  I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!  Love You!

Elder Wood

Remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Hey!  Great to hear from all of you!  Glad to hear things are going pretty well back at home!  That is pretty crazy that it is 70 degrees and warm!  Kinda like here!  But not quite as warm...  The Christmas season is still weird here.  About the only time it feels like Christmas is when we play Christmas music at the house or if we go to a nice mall for P Day and they have Christmas Decorations up.  But we have a small tree at the house, too, which is fun.  And the mission home is decorated nice, so that is fun, too!  

That is pretty crazy that the Sheffields are going to be here so soon!  That will will be fun that they will be at the mission home most of tomorrow, because tomorrow is mission leader conference all morning at the mission home, and so I will be there for much of the day as well!  So I probably will see them!  That will be awesome!  I am excited to get the package!  It is always fun to get stuff from home just because it is from you guys and packaged with love!

Well, this week was pretty good!  We had stake conference this Sunday, which was really fun because I got to meet a lot of the members from Tangerang again!  And the talks were all really good about how we can strengthen ourselves, but there was an expecially big focus on strengthening new members and helping them grow in strength so that they will stay active!  That was good, because that is something that our mission has been struggling with is having converts come in but quickly leave as well because of various reasons.  So that will hopefully begin to help!  Luckily I am so grateful that Sister M and her family, Mama V and V, and Brother W are all still active!  

The rest of this week we have been doing pretty well, too!  We went on splits to Bekasi, and I went with Elder Tuttle.  He is pretty new but he is awesome!  We went and taught a contact that they had.  His name is R.  He has the biggest, nappiest afro I have ever seen!  And the front of his house is like an unkempt jungle.  And he doesn't have lightbulbs inside his house.  We knocked and he came out and greeted us wearing some ratty shorts, a wife-beater, and smoking a cigarette.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous to go in at first haha!  But we went in and taught him.  And we had an amazing lesson talking about the role of the Savior and His infinite love for us and the gift of His Atonement, as well as the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon.  Well, R used to live a pretty good life, but he got into some bad habits and lost all his money and fell away from God.  He has family in other churches, but has never really been interested, I picked up.  But as we explained the Restored Gospel and baptism, he was really interested and listening.  And by the end of the lesson, we had committed him to baptism, reading the Book of Mormon, praying, coming to church, and quitting smoking!  And then, he took us to his family's house and introduced us to them, and sat in as we taught them!  It was an awesome day!  It is so cool how when people are exposed to the truth and open to receive it, it can totally change their desires and help them find the way back to the path they want to be on!  

And our investigator, C, is still progressing well and receiving all the commitments and working to prepare himself for baptism!  So that is awesome!  He is having a hard time recognizing an answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, so we are working with him on that.  So thank you for your email on personal revelation, dad!  I think that that can really help C!  But he is still going by faith!

And we had some other good lessons and whatnot going on this week.  And we are still battling traffic haha!  Man I miss I-15 and whatnot!  

Well, I am glad that you are all doing well!  Thank you so much for the emails and love and advice!  I love hearing from you every week!  I am excited to get the packages from you and the fresh treats and love!  Haha!

Well, I hope you all have a great week!  Hope it cools down a bit so it feels like Christmas a bit, and so that you can go skiing!

Oh, and you should really check out www.mormon.org/Christmas.  And share it on FB!  The church is doing a big worldwide Christmas campaign thing, and it is even in indonesian at www.mormon.org/ind/natal.  Check it out!  They have some cool videos and stuff, and supposedly there will be new things coming out the whole month to help people remember the true meaning of Christmas!  It is good stuff!

Well, I love you all so much and can't wait to talk to you.  It sounds like we will be able to skype from the mission home on Christmas day here, so at some point on Christmas eve for you guys.  I can't wait!

Love you!

Love Elder Wood

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving dinner!  So yummy!  Prepared by Sister Lucherini

Hey!  Man, that is pretty crazy to see pictures of you guys with Sister Sheffield back at home!  It is pretty weird that people from my MTC group are already going home!  So crazy!  It makes it seem like time really has flown by and that I don't have a ton of time left!  Which is kinda sad!  But it is motivation I guess to make the very most of what time remains (which is still enough :)

So, this week has been pretty good!  Not too crazy.  Thursday here was just...Thursday.  But we did have a quick streetside dinner with a couple of teenage new members after English class. So that was fun for our Thanksgiving celebration.

But Friday, that was Thanksgiving.  Every Friday we have district meeting at the mission home, and after district meeting this week, Sister Lucherini, one of the senior couples, had prepared a full Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and stuffing and potatoes and pies and everything!  It was so delicious, and so fun to eat it all together at the mission home!  So we were able to have a Thanksgiving here!  Which was awesome!

After thanksgiving lunch we went out to start working, and it was raining, which always causes terrible traffic here.  We headed out to an appointment on a bus, got separated and lost a little bit, and by the time we were out to the area of our appointment it was already too late to go there, and we had to head home, and were still almost late going home.  The traffic was so bad and the lines to get on the buses so long that I think we traveled the total of less than 10 miles in over 6 hours!!!  It was absolutely ridiculous and pretty frustrating, but also kind of a funny experience to just look at and see how crazy that was!  But it was a bummer that we weren't able to make it to our appointment.  But it was OK in the end, because the guy still came to church on Sunday!

This week we also got to go on splits to Bekasi, which was fun!  It is a lot of fun getting to go work with the other missionaries and learn from them!  And it seems like the Lord always blesses us with miracles of great success when we go on splits!  Things just seem to always work out well to boost morale of the other missionaries and help them in their areas!  So that is definitely a tender mercy that seems to often accompany splits! Like this week we found a new investigator and got a lot of really interested contacts and several return appointments with them!

And then on Sunday we had a small miracle happen!  We have a zone goal to get have every companionship get one more baptism by the end of the year, and we were fasting for it.  We had one investigator on date, but he is not doing anything to progress, and still hasn't come to church, and is now just asking us for money.  So we were kind of losing hope on him and wondering where our baptism was going to come from.  But, we had a fairly long time investigator come to church this Sunday again, and we met with him afterwards and had a really powerful lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we got him to commit to preparing himself to be baptized on the 21 of December!  So that was super exciting!  His name is C, and he seems excited, too!  He has just been concerned that he will not be perfect, and that is why he has not committed beforehand, but we were able to help him understand that baptism is the first step, not the end goal to perfection, and he understood that and wants to go forward with faith!  So that was a miracle and answer to our fasts!  

So, it was a pretty good week here!  Not too much going on!  But lots of little good things!  I am liking the area, though still getting used to the traffic!  Sometimes we go 5 miles in the same amount of time it would take to drive to St. George, which is pretty crazy!  But we try to make the most of it and get contacts on the buses and whatnot!  But Jakarta is a good area and I am liking my companion.  

Glad to hear you are all doing well and had a pretty good, though different, Thanksgiving!  And Sunday today sounds like it was pretty fun!  Tell everyone hi for me as well!  

As far as FB goes, it is actually a mission page called Mormon Jawa Barat, and also Mormon Indonesia.  You are welcome to follow the pages.

For treats sent from home, I don't really know what.  I am kind of just getting to that point of being happy with what's here, and waiting for the rest to be exciting when I get home.  But maybe a few Reeses peanut butter cups would be awesome, and if you can get it through, some home made honey!  Those might be kind of exciting!  And then just whatever you think would be fun!  You always do a pretty good job of picking things to go into "the box."

Well, I love you all!  Thank you for the emails and the pictures, and the advice and the stories!  You are awesome!  I hope you have a great week and Happy December!  Can't wait to skype!  Love You!

Love Elder Wood

Ice Skating for P-Day!  Me trying to be good at ice skating...lacking in form and flexibility haha

Me and my homie Elder Jones chilling on the couch at the mission home before Thanksgiving lunch!

The Best Times Are Still Ahead!

Haha that's crazy to see snow again!  And funny, too, because today we went Ice skating at a mall for P-Day as a zone.  So that was pretty fun!  Our commemoration of the coming of winter!

Well, this week has been pretty good.  Nothing too crazy.  But it was a good one.  I am sorry, though, because of traffic coming back from ice skating, I will be cut a bit short on email time, so I will have to be a bit quick.  Sorry.  It is also raining here today, so there was a little bit of minor flooding that made traffic slow.  Pretty much happens every time there is rain...so that's a bit lame.  But it felt like winter here with the rain and the ice.  It was a pretty cold day. Almost down to 70 degrees I think haha.  Which feels way colder than it should!

So you were asking a bit about what things here are like.  Well, we live in a house of 4 Elders.  Me, my companion Elder S, and another companionship of Elder M and Elder C.  It is a pretty fun house and is pretty close to the mission home, so we find occasion to go there every once in a while, which is fun!

Here in Jakarta we don't ride bikes because the traffic is too crazy and the roads are too confusing.  So we are all on public transportation.  So that is kinda good because there are lots of contacting opportunities, but lame because it makes it feel like I get no exercise, and it takes forever to get places.  But it is kinda cool to have something new.

The work here is going pretty well.  We have a few progressing investigators, a baptismal commitment for the 13th of December, and a few new potential investigators.  So things are exciting.  Umm, other than that, things here are pretty normal.

This week we will be going on splits to Bekasi, so that should be fun.  And then in the next few weeks we will be having a general Authority come on a mission tour, so that will be cool, too!

Well, I am running out of time, but I love you all!  I love the mission, too, and am not trunky to come home yet, don't worry!  The best times are still ahead!  I hope you all have a great week and I will write more next week!

Love You!

Love Elder Wood

Naughty Bars

Man, that is pretty crazy that Sister Sheffield is coming home so soon!  I have been giving her a ton of crap about it, though, and I don't think she appreciates it. 

Well, this week has been pretty good.  Not too much going on as far as out of the ordinary.  The work in Jakarta is a bit slower than in Tangerang just because of how long it takes to get to places.  The traffic here is ridiculous, so the average travel time to an appointment is at least 1 hour, and can often be over 2 hours to get there, and the same to get back.  So that is kind of rough, and we don't get nearly as many appointments in.  But we are trying to work hard and do our best.  I am still getting along well with my companion, so that is good.  He is a pretty cool guy.

This week we had a fireside with some General Authorities, which was pretty cool!  We had Elder Funk, Brother Gibson, and Brother John Tanner and their wives, of the Area Presidency, General Young Men's Presidency, and General Sunday School Presidency, respectively.  That was a pretty cool experience!  And we had a special missionary meeting with them beforehand!  That was awesome!  It was a pretty powerful meeting on faith and teaching skills and stuff!

Then we also had Mission Leader Conference, where all the ZLs and APs meet together with President Donald every month to talk about the mission and hear President expound doctrine and set forth revelation for the mission.  It is a pretty cool experience!  This time he focused a lot on the power of prayer and how prayer should often be an experience of "wrestling with God" to obtain blessings.  He really expounded upon the principle and process of prayer with the scriptures and gave me a new understanding of prayer that I have never had before.  It was really cool and enlightening.  And I learned how much more attention and focus and effort we need to give to prayer than I ever really have before.

This Sunday another companionship had a baptism in the English ward.  That was pretty fun.  THey actually ended up doing the baptism on Sunday afternoon in a members' home swimming pool during the ward party.  And we all got to go, so that was awesome!  The meeting was super spiritual...and in English...which was awesome.  Then we had a ward dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, and all the good stuff.  And then there was dessert.  There were some awesome desserts, but one totally took the cake.  One of the members made...can you guess it...Naughty Bars!!! I haven't had those forever, and they were so delicious!  Naughty bars are one of my favorite desserts ever!  So that was pretty fun!  So the baptism and ward party were definitely the highlight of the week!  Mom--you will definitely have to let me know who Jenny's friend is so I can meet them!  That is pretty cool!

Today we just went and walked around a mall and talked and hung out and got to know some of the other missionaries in the district that I have never really met before, and there are some cool guys here.  So that is fun.

Um, ya, that is mostly it for this week.  It was a pretty good week!  I am loving it here.  Different, but a cool change.  And that is mostly it.  I love you guys all so much and love getting your emails.  Don't get too trunky, though, haha!  Hope you have a great week!  Love you all!

Love Elder Wood

Jakarta!

Hey!  Glad to hear things are all going well at home!  Hope Eliza had a great birthday this week!  That is fun!  What did you do to celebrate?

Sounds like the season is changing!  Haha I was kinda missing the snow lately!  But I felt cold for the first time today!  We played futsal this morning for P-Day and it was super hot and we were all drenched in sweat.  Then we finished, and it started raining and really cooled down (It really was probably still like 75 degrees or hotter, but that feels cool now...).  Then we went to KFC for lunch, and they had the AC cranked!  Being wet and sweaty, and having it cool(ish) outside and freezing inside, I actually felt a bit cold.  It made me scared for Utah winters again...  But hopefully I will readjust quickly!  

Well, transfers happened this week.  I spent the first half of the week in Tangerang.  We got a few last appointments in and got the house all ready.  Then on Thursday I transferred to Jakarta.  My new companion is Elder S.  He is really cool and I really like him so far!  We have had a good time.  We haven't had too many appointments yet because we've only been here for a few days, and because it takes several hours to get to any appointment because of the traffic and whatnot.  So it is a different thing to get used to.  But it has been fun so far!  Man, Jakarta is a huge city!  

It is cool here, because we are assigned to 2 wards--the English ward and the Indonesian ward.  It was kinda fun to go to a Sacrament Meeting in English again!  But we don't go to any of the other meetings in English because we have to meet all our investigators and go to Sacrament meeting in the Indonesian ward.  But it is fun to go.  In our area, there are 3 members who have been baptized in just the last 3 months, and they are really cool!  One of them was just confirmed yesterday, and that was awesome!  The other one is already coming and fellowshipping with us and everything!

I did get your Halloween package last week!  Thank you!  It was a lot of fun!  The Count Chocula is delicious!  

Um, ya, not too much else has happened this week.  Just a lot of changes with transfers.  But it is all good and I am excited!  Things will be different here just because of the pace of the city and the size and TRAFFIC!  I have never seen so much traffic haha!  But its all good.  Oh, and I am in a district with Sister Sheffield, and she hates it because I keep making fun of her that her 18 months is already up and asking her what she is still doing here.  But it is crazy that she is going home so soon!

Well, glad that things are all good back at home.  And I hope all goes well for Brenda!  That is scary.  

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

Love Elder Wood