Edmond, Oklahoma -February 3, 2013

Dear Everyone,

 

I don't even know where to start this week.  There has been so much that has happened.  I guess I could just start with the big news that you have all probably heard by now.  On Friday evening there was an accident in which Sister Smith was killed.  She had recently gone and opened Woodward Oklahoma.  She had been there for three days and her companion had only been in the field for three days when this happened.  As you just read in that letter Sister Wendell was unharmed. I can't even imagine what that would be like to have your mission start out that way.  It has been a pretty crazy week.  I didn't really know Sister Smith, but it is like losing a family member.  I am thankful that I have been kept safe up to this point.

 

So yeah, besides that crazy news, not much has happened with me.  I spent most of Last Monday and Tuesday getting ready to leave Ada.  I got to go around and say bye to some of the members in Ada.  It was really weird leaving my home of the past three months.  I got up here to Edmond last Wednesday.  My new companion is Elder Lance Apedaile from Morgan, Utah.  He has been out for 8 months now and he is a great missionary.  There are the obvious differences of being in the city and the fact that I am now in a bike area, but other then that all of the work is still the same.  Transfer weeks are pretty crazy.  A lot of the work that has been going on pauses for a couple of days so things are just starting to pick up again.  I am really enjoying Edmond.  At first when I found out I was going to a bike area I thought it was going to suck, but I am really enjoying it.  Except for when it is 35 degrees outside and we have to ride our bikes 5 miles to help clean the church.  Other then that I have had a really good time in Edmond.

 

Yesterday it was ward conference here.  The main focus this year was missionary work.  President Taylor was supposed to come up to talk about missionary work and all that jazz, but with the recent accident he was unable to come.  So that left the responsibility of doing the training to Elder Apedaile and I.  It was an interesting experience training the members on how to do missionary work.  The biggest challenge with it was that we go and start talking with random people we don't know, while the thing we were trying to teach was getting them to talk to their friends about the gospel.  I thought that it went really well, but that is just me.  I don't know how the members took it, but when we were talking with the Stake Presidency afterwards, they said that we had earned their trust.  So we had a positive effect with them. 

 

I don't really have much more to say this week.  Thank you for everything that you all do for me.  Love you guys. 

 

Love Elder Cameron Paul Woodward

Edmond, Oklahoma -January 28, 2013

Dear Woodward Family,

 

Well sorry to disappoint you all, but Christina wasn't able to be baptized on Saturday like we had hoped for.  The good news about it though was it wasn't because she smoked again.  She was doing everything that she was supposed to do.  The reason that she couldn't be baptized like we had planned was because of her health.  She went into the ER a couple days before her baptism because she was having some problems with her health again.  While she was there the doctors ran some tests on her leg because it was really swollen and a bunch of other bad stuff.  They weren't able to figure out what it was so they told her that it wouldn't be safe for someone else to get in the water with her.  She had some open sores on her leg and so whatever it was that she had would get into the water and whoever else was in the water would be at risk of getting whatever it was that she had.  That would have ended up being Elder Fee and I, and I don't want to get whatever it was that she had.  The doctors said that it could either develop into a staff infection or maser.  So we decided that it wouldn't be a wise choice to do the baptism  now.  She is going to be moving this week so we won't be able to see her get baptized.  Oh well, Heavenly Father has a plan and He knows what He is doing. 

 

Thursday night was not a very fun night for me.  Elder Jones and I decided that I am allergic to eggs after what happened.  We had gone to a members house for dinner that night and he had made us chicken and dumplings.  To my great surprise the dumplings had eggs in them and I was not aware of that.  Part way through the meal I could tell there was something in the dinner that my body didn't like.  Elder Jones asked how he made the dumplings.  That was when I found out there were eggs.  As soon as we left his house I walked across the street and threw everything up.  Elder Jones saw this and asked if I was ok.  I thought I was but by the time we made is halfway to out next appointment my throat was completely swollen and I couldn't breath out of my nose.  Elder Jones thought that I was dying.  We cancelled our appointments and went back to the apartment for the evening.  Overall is was not a very fun experience so I have decided to stay away from eggs for the time being. 

 

Other then that, everything has been going really well for us in Ada.  The work here has really started to pick up these past two weeks.  It has been great getting to work here in Ada and getting to know all the members here.  I wouldn't mind coming back here later on in my mission. 

 

Well I am sure that by know you are all dying to know where I am going to.  Any last guesses?  Shannon and Kelsey were wrong by guessing Archer and Baylor Texas.  The only areas in Texas are Wichita Falls and Burkburnet. Woodward is being opened this transfer by Sister missionaries so the chances that I will go there are very slim now.  I won't be staying in the Duncan zone so Ian, Emmie and Anne are out.  I'm not even sure where Sayre is, so Ian's second guess is wrong.  Dad guessed Stillwater Darcy guessed Norman  and Zander Guessed Kingfisher, which are all super close to my new area.  Mom said somewhere in Oklahoma City, which in a sense is right.  Are you ready to know?  Ok I will tell you.  I will be Following Elder Fee up to Edmond, Oklahoma.  I will be in Edmond 2nd, so I will be right by Elder Fee but he won't be my companion.  He will be my Zone Leader though.  I am pretty excited about it.  So I ended up right in the middle of Dad's, Darcy's and Zander's guesses.  I am excited to be getting to go up to the city now.  It is going to be a lot of fun.  I'm not sure who my companion is going to be yet.  Last night when we found out I was told who it was, but I'm not sure if it is right.  Elder Jones said that my companion is supposed to be training this next transfer so that is where we are confused.  We could be getting put in a tripanionship.  So I will let you know next week when I know for sure who my companion is. 

 

I think its funny that mom said I should stay with a companion for more then one transfer because I am Elder Jones's 4th companion and he is finishing up his 4th transfer.  So he has been with someone new every transfer so far.  And he will be with someone new next transfer. 

 

Well that is about all that happened with me this week.  It is going to be different going to the city and working there.  So yeah, Love you all.  Have a good week.  I will talk to you again next week.

 

Love, Elder Woodward

Ada, Oklahoma -January 21, 2013

Dear Woodward Clan,

 

This past week was such an amazing week for us!  Last week we taught 9 lessons with a member of the ward there, 6 of which came in the last 3 days of the week.  We got 6 new investigators and of those 6 we set up baptismal dates with 4 of them!  We got the 4 new dates on Friday and Saturday.  Then to our surprise we had 2 investigators come to Sacrament meeting.  It was Kenneth and Clara who came.  It was a surprise to us because Clara said she was going to be going to her church this week and Kenneth was sick most of the week.  So when we saw them walk in we were super happy! :)

 

Yesterday it was 70 degrees outside. It felt so nice here.  I just thought you would like to know that.

 

Well we didn't have the baptism on Saturday like we had planned.  So that was the bummer for this week.  Christina hadn't been completly honest with us about quiting smoking.  So we had to post pone it for a week.  When we went over and talked with her about it, Elder Jones and I told her we would give something up as long as she went without smoking.  Elder Jones gave up fast foods and I gave up desserts.  What we told her we would get to do if she relapsed and smoked again before her baptism was that we would get to go out and Elder Jones would go get some fast food and I would get some desserts and we would get to go eat it in front of her because she is a diabetic so she can't have those things.  So far it has worked pretty well.   Last night we went over to see her with Brother and Sister Aguiree.  We didn't know this when we first went over to Christina's, but one of the Aguiree's daughters has been having some pretty big problems with her health the past couple of years.  So while we were there Sister Aguiree started talking to Christina about what they, as parents, could be doing to help their daughter through this.  As Christina started talking with them about what to do, Elder Jones and I were able to feel the Spirit come into the room.  Going to see Christina with them was an answer to their prayers.  There was no doubt about it.  Christina was able to let them know what they could do because she had been through all of that already.  It was an amazing experience.

 

This past week has just been a really great week.  Things have really started to pick up and things are going really well.  It is a bitter-sweet thing for me though.  I am excited for all of the work going on here, but I won't be here long enough to see all of these people we have just found progress.  Elder Jones got a call from one of the AP's and Saturday evening and found out that he is going to be training this next transfer.  So that means that I will be getting transfered out of Ada on the 30th.  I was really hoping that I would get to be here for another transfer, but my time in Ada is almost over.  I was kinda surprised to hear that Elder Jones is going to train because I just came into Ada as a new missionary.  So this will be the second brand new missionary that Ada sees in less then three months.  I know that Ada will be a great place for the new missionary though because I have seen how it has helped me learn and grow.

 

Well by this time next week I will know where I will be going.  Our District Leader is going to be training as well, so this morning his companion texted us and said that he received in a dream that we will be going to open Woodward Oklahoma.  It is going to be awesome!  So I will let you know next week where I will be going.  Do you guys want to make bets on where I will be going?  I want everyone to guess my next area.

 

Well I will talk to you guys next week.  I miss all of you.  I hope you are all having a fantastic day off of school.  Love you all.

 

Love Elder Woodward

 

Ada, Oklahoma -January 14, 2013

After we finished up emailing we left to go to Duncan for our Zone P-day.  We got there a little bit late but it wasn't that big of a deal because we started out with bowling again.  The first game was the best game I had.  I scored a 181 with four strikes in a row to finish up the game.  I was so proud of that score.  Some of the Elders in my zone started a thing where you had to do push ups equal to the difference between the highest scorer of the game and your total.  So if I had joined in on that game I would have won with a score of 181 and the next closest score behind me was 120.  And then that time they decided to do double push ups, so again if I had joined he would have had to do 122 push ups.  I was mad that I didn't join in that game for obvious reasons. 

 

So last Tuesday was an exciting day for us.  It is not for the reasons that you are probably thinking.  What happened was we got a brand new car for our area.  And by brand new I mean it had just gotten out to the mission field and when we got it there had only been 145 mile drove with it.  All of that happened because we didn't have a bike rack for our other car.  It was super exciting.

 

We were able to reschedule Christina's baptism for this Saturday, the 19th.  Elder Fee is going to be coming back here on Saturday to do the baptism which is exciting for all of us.  She asked me if I would confirm her in Sacrament Meeting next week so I am excited for that.  Christina has come a long way since we met her almost 10 weeks ago.  It doesn't seem like it has been that long that I have been in the field.  She was one of the first people I met on my mission so I have been able to see her change from day 1.  So as you can probable guess she came to church yesterday.  That was one of the most stressful church meetings I have been to.  What had happened was with everything that Christina had to do to get ready so that she could go to church she forgot to take her medicine yesterday morning.  So she got to church and we sat down and we had just finished the Sacrament when she turned to Elder Jones and I and told us we needed to take her out into the hall (She was in a wheelchair because she was having trouble walking).  So we got her out into the hall and she started to have a seizure.  We had seen this before so we were kinda used to it.  What made it stressful was that she needed to go home after that happened and we weren't sure if it would count for her 3rd time being at church.  I don't know if you know this but investigators need to come to church 3 time before they can be baptized.  So we got her a ride home and then we called President Taylor to see if she could still be baptized.  He said that she could and that she had demonstrated enough faith to show that she knew the importance of going to church.  So she is still going to be baptized on Saturday.

 

 So that wrapped up my week here in Ada.  Everything is still going really well.  We just started the 4th week of this transfer, so we are more then half way done.  If I follow in Elder Fee's footsteps I could be training a new missionary in a couple of weeks.  That would be kinda crazy don't you think.  I think it would be but at the same time it could be super fun.  So that is all for now. I love you all and I hope you are having a great time now that you are back in school.

 

Love Elder Woodward

Ada, Oklahoma -January 7, 2013

Dear Woodwards, 

 

Today you get the watered down version of everything that has happened.  The reason for this is that we have Zone P-day today so we will be headed out in about 15 minutes.  The other part of that is that we went and we did some service this morning. I told them we needed to be going somewhere between 9 and 9:30. Well 9:30 came and Elder Jones decided that it would be ok if stayed and helped them finish up. That took another hour and 15 minutes.  We didn't finish helping them until 10:45, so we haven't done anything that we need to have done.  But that is ok.

So now onto this weeks exciting moments.  Christina is out of the hospital.  She missed church yesterday so she will no longer be able to get baptized on Saturday.  Her Dad and Jerry want nothing to do with the church.  The other day Jerry was on the phone and we heard him say that he doesn't like the church and what we do, he is only supporting Christina because she helps take care on him. 

We eneded up having to drop Chris as an investigator.  He is not keeping any commitments and is so set on what he believes that he really isn't willing to even listen anymore.  He came out and told us that he didn't think we are Christians and that he believe that we are going to Hell.

Mary and Charles have moved away so we had to drop them as well.  As you can tell this past week has been a pretty rough one.  Oh well it happens. 

So yeah those were the highlights of my week.  I love you all. thanks for everything that you do for me.

Love, Elder Woodward

Ada, Oklahoma -December 31, 2012

Dear Family,

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I imagine that if you are reading this then you got home safely.  It sounds like you had a great time in California.  It sounds like you had a pretty full Christmas day.  We were at our apartment for most of the day.  We were still able to go and have dinner with the Guzman's, our investigators.  It reminded me of trying to eat dinner at our house.  I really enjoyed it though.  It was so much better then having dinner at our apartment.  I would have gone crazy if we had stayed at home all day long.  I can't even imagine what would happen to me if we got stuck in our apartment for a couple of days.  I did call Camille and I talked to her for quite a while.  I called Grandma after we got back from dinner.  It was nice to be able to talk to all of you guys.  I realized later that I didn't get to talk to Zander.  So sorry I didn't get to talk to you buddy.  I love you, but no you can't play my PSP or my iPod.  How did everyone like all the rides they went on at Disneyland?  Did Emmie go on Space Mountain?  I was telling her about it and she said that she didn't want to go on it. 

 

I sent home a package for Mom for Christmas so it should be there by now.  If it isn't then I don't know what happened to it.  I hope that you like what is inside.  It took quite a bit of time to make.

 

This past week was a pretty good one. Well other then Wednesday.  I ended up getting sick and throwing up so we spent that night in the apartment.  Brandy didn't end up getting re-baptized on Saturday because she didn't fell like she was ready for it yet.  It is ok with me.  I would have been really mad if it had been because she was smoking.  In all reality Oklahoma is more like Smoke-lahoma.  There are so many people who smoke and don't care.  It is ridiculous. 

 

Last Thursday Christina was admitted to the hospital.  We went in that night to see her, and see how she was doing.  She told us that she had initially gone in because bronchitis.  After she got there she found out that she also had pneumonia. On top of those two things the doctors told her that she had gone into heart failure.  When she told us all of that I had no idea what to say.  We had a small lesson with her and then we were able to give her a blessing.  We have gone back every day since she first went in to see how she was doing.  Each day she been getting better and better.  Yesterday when we went in was by far the best day.  We went in and said a prayer with her before we started the lesson we had planned.  After the prayer, before we were able to get started, she told us that the doctors who were taking care of her could no longer see any signs of her being in heart failure. It was a miracle! I was so excited when I heard that I almost jumped out of my seat.  She was in heart failure 3 days earlier and now she isn't! Can you believe it? The priesthood is such an amazing blessing to have on the Earth.  She is doing really well and it looks like she will be able to go home either today or tomorrow.  Less then a week after she was told she had gone into heart failure! I am still amazed at this.  We were afraid that she wasn't going to be able to be baptized on the 12th, but now it looks like she will be.  We went over the Baptismal Interview with her and she is ready for it.  She really wants to be baptized as well, which is great!

 

It is crazy how fast mission calls are coming in.  I now have 5 friends who have their calls.  Lincoln Wyatt is going to Guatemala.  I thought Kelsey would like to hear that.  Over the next 5 months or so we will be getting 85 new missionaries in the Oklahoma City mission.  What I think is really crazy with all of this is that in July President Taylor is going to be released, so the new mission president will be put in right after all of these changes to the mission.  The Lord knows what he is doing though.

 

Well that is all for me.  Things are going really great here.  Thank you for all of the Christmas presents.  I really love the Doctor Who shirts and keychain.  Everything was great!  I love all of you.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your Christmas break.

 

Love, Elder Woodward

Ada, Oklahoma -December 24, 2012

Dear Woodward Family,

 

I hope you are having fun in California.  It is a lot warmer there then it is here.  When we left our apartment this morning it was 23 degrees outside.  It has been pretty cold here.  I didn't think that it would be this cold. 

 

The instructions we have been given for calling on Christmas are "You may use the missionary cell phones to make your calls home except for overseas calls.  Calls are limited to 60 minutes total.  For example, if you need to make two calls, they would be 30 minutes each or any combination up to 60 minutes total.  Sometimes a shorter call is a better call, so don’t feel that you have to talk for the full 60 minutes."  So yeah it is pretty simple.  For right  now I will plan on calling at 9:00 (my time 7:00 your time).  The two hour time difference really messes things up. 

 

We really don't have anything planned for today and tomorrow.  There is supposed to be a snowstorm tomorrow and it sounds like President Taylor wants us to stay at our apartment to stay safe and all that stuff.  We on holidays and stuff we are supposed to be back at our apartments by 5 so we are not out doing stuff when there are people who have been partying driving.  So today tomorrow and New Years we will be "locked up."  It definently doesn't feel like it is Christmas.  I haven't seen to many houses with light up.  Its just not what I am used to.  Maybe the Oklahomians don't do as much stuff for holidays.  It sounds like you have been having a fun vacation.  At least the condo people didn't rent the condo to another family as well so then you wouldn't have anywhere to stay. 

 

This past week has been a pretty slow one.  We did have 8 member present Lessons this week which is pretty good.  When I first got here the mission average for member present lessons was 3.5 a week, so Ada has been doing pretty well.  The least amount that I have had here is 4 in a week.  On average we had 6 member presents a week.  We ended the transfer with 36 total member present lessons.  We would have had more if we had counted all of the times we went to Brandy's house.  We didn't count any of the because she had been baptized but not confirmed.  I am guessing that we had at least 15 lessons with her that we didn't count.  So really is was like we had 51 at least.  But oh well we still did really well and I am proud of the work that has been done here in Ada. 

 

My new companion, Elder Jones, is really fun to be around.  I think that we will be able to get along just fine.  It is reallt herd to adjust to living with someone else now that I have benn so used to being around Elder Fee.  Elder Jones is from American Fork.  He has been out for 6 months now.  there are 4 kids in his family and all of them are adopted, so that is one thing that we have in common. 

 

Going up to transfers was an interesting experience.  I didn't have to go up so I was going to stay in Pauls Valley with Elder Hernandez until Elder Jones got down here.  But for some reason Elder Hernandez needed to go to transfers, so we had to fit 4 missionaries, 2 bikes and all of the luggage for 2 missionaries into a chevy Malibu.  Going up was the easy part.  The Elder that went to Pauls valley had enough stuff to supply 2 other missionaries.  So on the way back we had to fit 3 big suitcases, 2 smaller suitcases, 3 full backpacks, Christmas packages from the 2 Elders coming in, plus verything else that we picked up from transfers, 2 bikes and 4 missionaries into the same Chevy Malibu.  It was so crowded.  Luckily we had a bike rack of it would never have worked.  I am not doing that again.

 

So yeah that was my week.  I hope you have fun in California.  I love you all.  Merry Christmas.

 

Love Elder Woodward