Woodward, Oklahoma -November 18, 2013

Hey!

 

Well there wasn't too much that happened this past week.  We did have a couple of people invite us over for Thanksgiving dinner, so now we just need to decide where to go.  I keep telling Elder Birch that we should just plan out our day so we have 5 or 6 different Thanksgiving dinners!  That would be really fun.

 

Well this past week almost everything that we had planned for fell through.  Although we did have a lot of stuff fall through I would say that we still had a productive week.  We were finally able to go see Bob again.  We had taught him a couple of weeks ago about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  We saw him yesterday evening and we talked to him about what our priesthood lesson was on today, loving God more then the world.  Elder Birch and I taught the lesson yesterday so we pretty much retaught him our priesthood lesson.  Do you think that would count as an investigator at church?  

 

Herman and Carolyn are still doing really well.  They are both really enjoying being members of the church.  We saw them on Thursday evening and Herman told us about a guy that he works with who said that now that Herman was a Mormon that he could go get another wife.  Herman looked at us after he told us that and said that he used to be one of those guys that would say that to Mormons.  He thought it was really funny though and he laughed about it.  

 

That was about all for this week.  Here are a couple of pictures.  The first is obviously Herman and Carolyn's baptisms.  On the Left is Elder Birch, then Carolyn, Emma, Maddie, Herman, and me.  Then the other picture is of me with a dinosaur. I hope all goes well for you this week!  Love you all tons!

 

Love Elder Woodward

 

 

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 11, 2013

Hey!

Wow it has already been a week since I wrote you last.  And another month has already come and gone.  I can't believe that we are already 1/3 of the way through the month.  Life is great and I am loving my mission!  I really can't complain about much.  Elder Birch and I had a really good week.  Well we had a good week apart from the time that we were both sick, and I lost my voice.  That wasn't so great.

So Herman and Carolyn got baptized last Saturday evening, and they were both confirmed on Sunday!  It was really cool to get to be there for their baptisms.  They showed up a little early to get changed and so we could get pictures.  When they got to the church Sister Egnew was in the kitchen getting the cookies and punch ready for after the baptism.  Herman saw her doing this, so he came up to us and said "If I would have know we would have had punch and cookies, we would have done this a long time ago."  If only it was that easy to get someone to commit to baptism, I would be spending a lot more money on punch and cookies.  It was a really good baptismal service.  The most stressful part was when the person that Herman and Carolyn had asked to baptize them showed up late.  He got there, but we were worried.  It has been really fun getting to work with them over the past four months.

Most of the week we didn't have very much going on, and the few appointments that we had cancelled.  We only had one appointment that didn't cancel on us.  It turned out to be a really good lesson though.  We went over and saw an investigator, Ashley, and talked to her about the Book of Mormon some more.  The Egnews had seen her a couple of days before and given her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and when we saw her on Saturday she had already read to 2 Nephi.  She is a really solid investigator and love everything that we have talked about so far.  Just before we left we briefly touched on the Plan of Salvation and talked about how families can be together forever.  When we told her that her face lit up.  It is going to be fun to get to keep working with her.  

So last night transfer calls came in.  Like I told you last week I was expecting to be transferred to another area, but I found out last night that I am going to be staying in Woodward for another transfer.  I was so surprised to find out I was staying here with Elder Birch for another transfer.  So again there are no changes going to be made.  Which I am ok with because there was just a lot that started to happen.  It is going to be fun though.

Well that is about all for this week.  I hope you all have a great week!  Love you all tons!

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 4, 2013

Hello!

Well I am glad that you all enjoyed the pictures that I sent home.  I figured that Mom would really enjoy them since I haven't sent very many home.  But now you can't complain about not sending pictures, because those are all of the pictures that I had.  If I'm feeling nice I will tell you who all the pictures are with when I get home.  So I don't want to hear anything else about it for another month.  Hopefully by then I will have some more pictures.  

Here in Oklahoma I have noticed that a lot of focus is being put on missionary work as well.  Last week we had a Stake Priesthood Meeting and if I remember right every one of the speakers mentioned missionary work.  I'm not really sure why they would mention that.  Maybe I will find out one of these days.  One of the speakers there mentioned five things that the Savior needed the Aaronic Priesthood to do.  Even though he was speaking specifically to the Aaronic Priesthood, I felt like the first four were all things that the Savior needed us all to do, then the fifth one was more for the priesthood, but didn't exclude young women.  The five things were:

1.  The Savior needs you to be happy.

2.  The Savior needs you to be an example.

3.  The Savior needs you to have the Spirit with you.

4.  The Savior needs you to be ready.

5.  The Savior needs you to serve a mission.  

I really liked those 5 things and I wanted to share them with you.

It looked like all of the kids had a fun time on Halloween.  We had a really boring Halloween here.  I don't know if it just here in my mission or if it is a church wide thing, but for Halloween we were supposed to be in our apartments by 5:00.  So all that we did was sit around and do nothing.  All I really accomplished that night was learning how to juggle off of a wall.  I didn't get any candy though, so if any of you want to share...  I really like Twix by the way.

Well i am sure that you all want to know about Herman and Carolyn.  So we went and saw them last week on Tuesday evening.  While we were there we set a baptismal date with them for November 9th.  That was the date that Herman wanted to set, so that is what we are going for.  We went over the baptismal interview questions with them again to make sure that the understood everything and didn't have any questions.  So far everything is going well with them.  This Saturday they will be getting baptized, and then on Sunday they are going to get confirmed.  It has been really exciting to see them progress to the point where they were pretty much asking us to get baptized.  They are going to be such a strength to the branch here.

Oh and we finally managed to find a couple of new investigators this past week!  It is really cool how we ended up finding them.  A while ago Elder Fee texted us and said that there was a recent convert who just moved in up here that we should go see,  so being the good missionaries we are, we went to see her.  We talked to her for a couple of minutes and then left.  We tried back a couple of times, but were never able to catch her again.  So about a week and a half ago we were sitting in our apartment doing our weekly planning when we got a media referral from the mission office.  We checked who it was, and it was a name we didn't recognize but it had the same address as the recent convert we saw a month or so earlier.  We gave Talorea (the Referral) a call and asked if there was a time we could come over.  So then last Wednesday we went over and saw her.  When we got there Talorea, her husband, Rodney, and Talorea's sister all came out and sat down to talk to us.  We taught them about the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  They all really liked the story about Joseph Smith and they all said they believed it could happen.  Then at the end of the lesson we invited them to be baptized, when they came to know it was true, and they all said that they would.  Talorea's sister (sorry we don't know her name yet, but we will soon)  even said that that was something that she wanted to do.  It was a really good lesson with them, and they all seem really promising.  Oh and some other stuff that is cool about them: they are an African American family, so they are black!  =D  Then the other cool thing is that Talorea has a brother who was baptized a couple years ago, and he is now serving in the Utah Ogden Mission!  So if you ever meet an Elder Johnson who is black, I know two of his sisters and I started teaching them!  I thought that you would like to know that.

So you were right about transfers, they are next week.  So by next Monday I will find out if I am going to stay or leave.  I'm pretty sure I am going to end up getting transfered though.  Partly because I have been here for 4 months now.  One of the other reasons I think I might be leaving is because back when President Walkenhorst fist got here and when I first got to Woodward, I had an interview with him and one of the things he asked me was what I thought it would take to get 5 baptisms up in Woodward.  The other day I just thought back to that and I figured out that between Don and Francie, then Jeff, and now Herman and Carolyn, that adds up to 5.  I'm not sure if it is just a coincidence or what, but I think that I have done about all that I was supposed to do.  It's still not official if I will leave, but I'm not going to be surprised if I do.

Well that is all for this week.  I will let you know what happens next week!  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!  Bye.

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 28, 2013

Hey Family!

 

Well It is about time that I can tell you that we had a MUCH better week then we have had in the past!  We were able to see a lot more people then we had in weeks past.  It was a pretty fun week for us though.  

 

So to start off with today, we finally got word back from President Walkenhorst about if Herman could or couldn't get baptized!  We were at the branch's trunk or treat when we got a call from President.  I didn't talk to him, but from Elder Birch's reactions to what President said I could tell it was really good news!  President told us that we had heard back and that we could go ahead with Herman and Carolyn's baptism.  Herman and Carolyn were just about to leave to go home when we got the phone call, so we stopped them and told them the good news.  Herman was so excited!  At first his reaction and all he said was "Are you kidding me?"  So they are both really excited and ready for this!  We still haven't officially set a baptismal date with them yet, but we are going over tomorrow night and will talk to them about setting a date.  Elder Birch and I were really excited about all of that happening!

 

We were able to go and see Brenda again twice last week.  Once on Tuesday and again yesterday.  On Tuesday we decided that we were going to watch the Restoration DVD with her because it had been a long time since we had taught her the Restoration.  After the video was done we asked her what she thought about it and how she felt.  She told us that she really liked it and felt really good about it.  Elder Birch pointed out that when she felt good about it, that that had been the Spirit testifying to her that it was true and that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We invited her to come to church again, but she wasn't able to make it.  She is still helping her friend out by taking her friend to church.  So we are really hoping and praying for some snow here one of these Sundays, because if there is snow, Brenda's friend won't go to church for health reasons so then Brenda can come to church with us.  Then she will keep coming with us because she likes it so much, and then she will get baptized!  Elder Birch and I have already planned everything out.  Now things just have to happen the way we planned for them to. 

 

Then we almost got a new investigator without him really even realizing he is investigating the church.  Just so you know his name is Bob.  So in the past when we have seen Bob, it has been more of a "Hi, how are you doing? Is there anything that we can help you with?  Ok bye."  This last time we went to see him, it started out the way in normally does, and then he asked us about what the church had to say about food storage, and then Bob asked us about the dates of when the church was organized and when Joseph Smith had the First vision, and so on.  So Bob pretty much asked us to give him the fist lesson without realizing that he did so.  It was really cool to see the Spirit work with him.  We ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon and some scriptures to read that connect the Bible and the Book of Mormon to each other.  Like John 10:16 and 3 Nephi 15:16-21.  It was really good.

 

So overall we have had a pretty good week!  There is always more happening, so there will be more to come next week!  Love you all!  Have a great week

 

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 21, 2013

Hey Family!

Well things are still going well for me here in Woodward!  We are still working with Herman and Carolyn, and they are still doing really well.  They invited us out to their house last Thursday to have dinner with them before our lesson with them.  We still haven't heard anything new from President Walkenhorst, so we are still going over and encouraging them from time to time.  After dinner with them we taught Herman about the Stop Smoking Workshop.  Other then waiting to hear from our mission president the only other holdup is that Herman is still smoking.  I kinda think that as soon as Herman quits smoking we will hear back from President.  But that is just me.  So we taught him the workshop and he told us that he just wasn't sure if he was ready to quit yet.  He told us that he would pray that night and then let us know what he decided he was going to do.  We went back the next night and followed up with him and he told us that he felt like he really needed to.  So he is going to give the stop smoking workshop a try.  So as always there is more news to come.

We are still working with Brenda.  She is still progressing slowly.  Normally when we go over to see her we ready from the Book of Mormon with her and then go through and talk about what happened.  This past time we ready 1 Nephi 5-6 and as we were going through and explaining it, we got to the part where it talks about Lehi's genealogy and how he is related to Joseph.  When we were explaining that I felt like I needed to introduce her to family history work.  So we explained a little bit about it then invited her to go to the family history center here in Woodward.  So the next day the Egnews went and picked her up and brought her to the Family History Center.  From what I heard Brenda really liked it.  So now she knows where the church is and knows a couple of people from the branch!  It was a 2 for 1 deal.

Mary cancelled the third appointment we had in a row with her.  It is starting to get really frustrating having this happen every time.  Elder Birch and I are convinced that she is preparing herself for the zombie apocalypse.  Every time she cancels it is so she can go work on a building she owns, but she won't tell us anything about it.  The other theory that we came up with is that she is really a secret millionaire and this building is where she keeps all of her money hidden.  So who wants to take a guess as to which of those theories is right?  I am going with the zombie apocalypse.  

Oh and by the way, my vision is getting kinda bad so I am going to talk to Sister Walkenhorst about it and then have her call you to she what you have to think about it.  I just thought you would like a little forewarning.  Haha just kidding that already happened.  I am sorry for the surprise though.  I hope I didn't scare you too bad.  As you said earlier, it is Halloween soon so I thought that I would get my scary pranks out of the way.   I would have let you know, but I didn't really even think about it till Saturday night when I called her.  As of right now though, there is nothing else that is wrong.  I am doing really well and can't really complain.  

Well there isn't to much more to say.  So I am sure Mom is already counting down the days, but for those of you who don't know, I will see you all in 360 days.  It will be here before you know it.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 14, 2013

Dear Woodward's,

 

Well I would just like to let you know that Oklahoma is perfect and everyone goes to church every week.  It my not be the LDS church but they go to church.  Well most of them do.  Actually not really.  Even though it is the Bible belt there are still a lot of people who don't go to church.  Surprise!  The only problem left is that we need to  find those people who are ready to accept the gospel and get them interested in learning about the church.  It is all a lot harder to do then you would think.  Hopefully with all of the conference talks given on member missionary work the members up here will start to be more willing to help us and introduce us to their non-member friends.  That is something that you could all do back home!  If there is someone you know that isn't a member, talk to the missionaries and have a family home evening with the missionaries and your friends!  I can promise you that the missionaries there would really love you if you did that.  And then if you don't know who you can invite to meet with the missionaries, pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you find someone!

 

So this was another really slow week for us.  This entire past week we have hardly been able to get a hold of anyone.  Everything that we tried to do fell through, so we were left with nothing to do.  By the end of the week things started to get a little bit better.  Friday night was the most interesting night from last week.  We went to try a investigator named Alberto.  We got there and he was outside with a couple of his friends, one of which was drunk as a skunk.  We stayed there and talked to them for about an hour most of the time the drunk one kept asking us a bunch of random questions then would move on before we had the chance to answer.  It was really funny to have happen.  Nothing ended up coming out of it since Alberto's friend was so drunk and he never let anyone else say anything.  At one point he tried to tell us that we couldn't be out on our missions trying to spread the word of God unless we knew about the things that were happening in the world.  He then invited us over to his house to watch the news with him one evening.  Needless to say I don't think we will be going over any time soon. 

 

Well like I said it was a slow week so there isn't a whole lot to mention.  One of these days I will have some really exciting news to tell you.  You will just have to sit and wait until that day comes.  I love you all!  Have a fantastic week!

 

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 7, 2013

Hello!

Well Conference is now over.  It goes by way to fast as a missionary.  Other then conference last week there wasn't a whole lot that has happened here in Woodward.

We were able to go and see Herman and Carolyn last Friday night.  We didn't teach them anything new, we just went over to encourage them and to update them on what is happening.  They are both progressing really well still and are coming to church regularly.  We haven't been able to set a baptismal date with them yet, because we have to wait to hear back from President Walkenhorst before we can move forward.  It is a long complicated process.

The area didn't end up getting split like we were told it was going to, so it is still just Elder Birch and I down here.  We are getting along really well right now.  The most contention we have had between us was last Friday night during the Utah State BYU football game.  It would have been nice to see Utah State win but oh well. 

Well this is going to be a short letter.  There wasn't to much exciting news!  I hope that you all have a great week!  Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward