Woodward, Oklahoma -August 26, 2013

Dear Family,

This has been an interesting week for me.  There has been quite a bit of stuff that has happened, but it has all blended together so I don't remember most of it.  I will do my best to let you know everything that has happened. But before all of that, good job Darcy and Emmie for beating Laroca.  That was obviously the big news of the week since we got two email that only talked about the game.  So now we know who the #1 team in the state is, and so does everyone else. 

Well I guess it is time to share my big news for the week.  I'm still alive!!!  Yeah that is about all though.  So other things that have happened this week.  Wednesday was transfers, so I got my new companion.  His name is Elder Birch.  He is a super young guy.  He turned 18 in April and just barely graduated from high school.  He is practically a baby still.  He is SUPER young.  It is fun being a trainer.  I have really enjoyed it so far.  It is kinda funny to hear all of the things Elder Birch says.  There have been a lot of times where he has asked me if he could go to the bathroom or go get a drink and so on.  One of these times I think I am going to tell him he can't go to the bathroom or something like that to see how he reacts.  So other things about Elder Birch,  he is from Farminton, Utah.  Big surprise that he is a Utah boy.  He comes from a very SMALL family of four, three boys one girl.  I don't know what is up with it and all of these new missionaries coming out and having a girlfriend at home.  I don't think that they realise that by the time they get home, some other RM is going to have come home and stolen their girlfiend.  That is just how life works as a missionary. I am so glad that I didn't have a girlfriend when I came out.

So here is a picture of Jeff at his baptism.  He is still doing really well.  He is having a good time and is loving the church.  The other picture is of me and Elder Birch.  No explanations really needed. 

Elder Woodward, Jeff, Elder Egnew, and Elder Park at Jeff's baptism

Elder Birch and Elder Woodward

Well that is all for this week.  Have a good week at school and all you kids in school be good for Mom AND Dad.  They take such good care of you.  I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 19, 2013

Hello!

Well to start out CONGRADULATIONS TO DARCY AND EMMIE FOR TAKING 1ST PLACE!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOO, that is so cool!

Ok so now onto stuff that all of you want to hear about.  My crazy life as a missionary.  Well for starters it was a busy week leading up to Jeffs baptism!  On Wednesday I had to go down to OKC to a meeting that was being held for everyone who is going to be training.  There are 33 new missionaries coming out this transfer.  That is sch a big number.  A lot more then the 5 that came out with me.  Most of what was talked about was what was expected of us as trainers and how to be a good trainer.  I think that this next transfer there are going to be a lot of 18 year old missionaries that have just graduated coming out to the field.  It was very enlightening.  There was a part where the AP's called up the parents of the missionaries coming out and asked them questions such as "What do you expect of your son/daughters trainer?" and "Why is it important for the trainer to be obedient?"  It made me realize that there is a lot more to being a trainer then what I thought.  It was a much needed meeting.  Elder Park and I made it back up to Woodward in time for our appointment with two of our investigators, Herman and Carolyn.  We had a super good lesson with them.  We found out that one of the things holding Herman back was that he just wanted to know more of the history of the church.  So to resolve that concern we gave him a copy of "Our Heritage" and told him to read it.  Hopefully that will help him.  I really think that if we work with them we can get them to be baptized on the 31st.  It is a little bit of a stretch, but it is worth a shot. 

Ok so now onto Jeff.  He got baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday.  The only bad parts about all of it was that he showed up to his own baptism late and he was late to church on Sunday.  We really need to get him a watch or something.  Elder Park and I were so worried that he wasn't going to make it to church.  At the baptism I was starting to think that Jeff didn't want to get out of the baptismal font.  He had to be baptized three times.  The first time his right wrist didn't go under the the second time his left wrist didn't go under.  The third time Elder Egnew made sure he went all the way under.  I may have just been imagining it, but I think Elder Egnew held Jeff under a little bit longer to make sure that he was all the way under. 

So I guess the other bit of big news is that I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday without any help from Mom or Dad.  =)  I talked about our purpose of life on Earth. And I even managed to ramble on for 10 minutes.  I didn't think it was a very good talk but there were a couple of people who told me I gave a good talk.  So who knows if it was actually good or if they were just being nice.  I think they were just being nice.

So by now Mom is probably dying to know if I am staying in Woodward.  Well I will be here for at least one more transfer, hopefully longer.  I still don't know who my new companion will be.  I won't find out until Wednesday since he is straight from the MTC.  It should be interesting to find out. 

Well that is all from me.  Love you all.  Have a great week.  Bye

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 12, 2013

Dear Family, 

This has been a pretty exciting week for me here in Woodward.  There is lots of exciting news to tell you about, but I don't know if I will be able to tell you all about my week in a minute, so I will take a little more time. 

So to start off, Don and Francis got baptized on Saturday!!!  Yay!!!  It was a long day leading up to this, but it was all worth it in the end.  On Friday I stayed down in Clinton, Oklahoma because we needed to do an exchange so that the District Leader could come up and do Don and Francis's baptismal interview.  On Saturday up until I left to come back to Woodward I spent the entire day in the Clinton Elder's apartment because the Elder I was with got sick.  So I spent all day fixing their bikes because they were in pretty bad condition.  Elder Park and Elder Powley got back to Clinton a little after 3:30 and Elder Park and I were on our way back to Woodward by 4.  We got back, had dinner with Don, Francis and their Family, then went to the church to make sure everything was ready for the baptism.  The baptism itself went really well.  Don and Francis only had to be dunked once, so I guess they went completely under.  After the baptism we were invited to go back over to Don and Francis's house to have some pie.  After the pie on the drive home Elder Park noticed that we had missed a call from Elder Fee.  So we called him back when we got to the apartment and I talked to him.  He asked us how the baptism went and a couple other things.  He then broke the news and told me that I would be training a new missionary next transfer.  I was defiantly not expecting that to happen.  I thought that Elder Park and I would be together for another transfer, but I was wrong.  So this Wednesday I will be going down to OKC to a meeting for all of the missionaries that will be training.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

So this Saturday Jeff is going to get baptized.  He has been meeting with the missionaries since March and is ready to be baptized.  I think it is really cool that I have been able to work with Jeff while I've been here.  I don't think that it is a coincidence that I have been able to come teach him.  He can hardly wait for Saturday to come.  Last week when we asked him who he wanted to baptize him, he asked me, Elder Park, and Elder Egnew if we could all baptize him together.  Unfortunately it doesn't quite work out like that, so he asked Elder Egnew to baptize him. We are all super excited for him.

Well that is about all for this week.  I will let you know how things go with the trainers meeting and Jeff's baptism.  I hope you all have a great week. Love you guys.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 5, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

Well another week has flown by along with another month and almost a year since I got my mission call to Oklahoma Oklahoma City.  It is kinda hard to believe how fast it is all flying by.  But I am sure that none of you really care about any of that.  I'm sure that you are all a lot more interested in how I am doing and how everything is going here in Woodward.

So to start out I'll tell you about my most boring day of the past week.  It was defiantly Friday due to the fact that something I ate somewhere made me super sick and caused me to throw up and be miserable almost all day long.  Well now that that is out of the way I can tell you about some of the exciting things that happened this week. 

So last Wednesday we got to go down to Oklahoma City for Temple Conference.  It was a super cool day!  Right at the beginning  President Walkenhorst talked to us and told us a little bit of the vision he has gained for our mission since he got here.  He had been thinking a lot about it since he got here, and he felt confident that as a mission, we could have 100 convert baptisms in the month of August.  It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication.  I am super excited for this though.  It is going to push everyone to their limits.  After that we got to go through and do a temple session.  Mom, Dad, Adam, Camille, and anyone else who can go through the temple, if you haven't gone through within the past week, I would suggest that you take the time to go do a session.  They have a new video for the endowment and it is amazing.  Super cool.  That is all I will say about that though.  After the temple we had a training by the AP's and then another training from President Walkenhorst.  Both of those trainings were focused on aligning our will with the Lord's and making those changes necessary so that we can get 100 baptisms this month.  After Temple Conference was done we started our two hour drive back to Woodward.  So that was our day.

So I have some super exciting news to tell you.  I have one (hopefully two) investigators who are going to be baptized this weekend!  But I guess for now I can tell you the story about the miracle that might have lead to both of the investigators getting baptized.  So,  I have told you about our investigator Francis.  This story is going to involve her husband Don though. So Don and Francis were both being taught before I got to the area.  The past couple of weeks we have really been focusing on working with Francis and helping her progress towards baptism because one time when the missionaries were teaching her she told them she wanted to be baptized and that she had already asked her son (he is a member) to baptize her.  So at that point we jumped right on the bandwagon and started to work with her, but we ended up leaving Don behind.  Don continued to sit in on the lessons and he kept learning, but he never really said much about anything while we were there.  Then a couple of nights ago (Thursday August 1) we were there teaching Francis a lesson and Don was there again.  After the lesson Elder Park and I left in a hurry because we were late for our next appointment, so we weren't able to talk to Don.  But Elder and Sister Egnew stayed a little bit longer and spent some time talking with Don.  I don't know what they said to him, but whatever they said it was good.  So then next day (Friday August 2) we got a text from Don and Francis's daughter in law that told us the next time we went to see Don and Francis we needed to ask Don about whether he wanted to get baptized.  So we went back the next day (Saturday August 3) so we could talk to them.  We were able to get in and sit down with them.  We started talking to Don about baptism and whether or not he would want to get baptized with his wife on August 10th.  He said a couple of things, but the one that I remember was "we have been going to church together for 44 years now and I don't want you to start going to church without me."  So we told him that if he wanted to get baptized with his wife in one week he would have to start living the Word of Wisdom today (Saturday August 3).  Just before we left that night we offered to give Don a Priesthood blessing to help him be able to give up chewing tobacco.  After the blessing you could see a huge change in his countenance.  I could defiantly see that the blessing was helping immediately after the blessing.  Unfortunately we couldn't tell him for sure that he would for sure be able to be baptized in a week with his wife due to the fact that he hadn't been to church three times.  So we called up our Mission President on Sunday, explained the situation to him and how he works on Sunday and he has been to church twice already and that he wants to get baptized with his wife.  Then President Walkenhorst told us that we could go ahead and baptize Don with his wife, Francis, because he didn't see that the fact that Don hadn't been to church three times yet was a good enough reason to keep him from being able to be baptized with his wife.  So we saw them again last night and told him that if he was ready to be baptized by Saturday he could get baptized.  It was super duper cool.  So I will tell you how things go with their baptisms next week.

Other good news!  Jeff, the man from Haiti, is probably going to be baptized on the 17th of August.  As you know we have been working with him a lot and we have taught him everything he needs to know to be baptized.  So we had originally scheduled his baptismal date for August 24th due to the fact that Stake Conference was on the 17th.  I was a little worried about whether or not I would still be here in Woodward because transfers is on the 21st of the month.  No, I don't know what is happening yet, but the reason I was worried is because if my past trends with how long I've been in an area continue, I would be leaving on the 21st.  But luckily for me I don't have to worry anymore.  Stake conference was moved to the 24th of the month, so we are moving Jeff's baptism forward a week, so I will be here for sure.  It was great news!

I hope you have a good week and that this letter was long enough for you Mom.  Love you all.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 29, 2013

Elder Woodward, Elder Park, and Elder Egnew in Woodward, Oklahoma

Woodward, Oklahoma

Dear Woodward Clan,

Is the weather staring to cooperate yet?  Probably not.  Maybe you should take it as a sign that you aren't supposed to go out and do anything fun without me.  So you should all just sit around the house like a bunch of bums and do absolutely nothing for the next 15 months.  I think that would work out pretty well.

Well as for me, I had a pretty good week here in Woodward.  I am still alive and breathing.  Other then that, there isn't to much more to say.  Ok I guess I will say more then that or else Mom would probably drive all the way out here and strangle me or something like that.

Well for starters, things are going really well with Jeff, our Haitian investigator.  We met with him twice last week and he is progressing really well.  We talked to him about setting a baptismal date for August 24th.  After we set the date he started telling us about how ready he is to be baptized.  He made the decision that he doesn't want to wait any longer for his wife.  He told us he didn't want to wait because his wife is "flippy floppy."  He is super excited to be baptized and doesn't want to wait any longer.

We had a huge miracle happen with another one of our investigators.  Her name is Francis.  We had a baptismal date set with her for August 10th, but in order for her to be able to be baptized then she would have had to come to church three times.  She has only been able to come twice due to the fact that she works every Sunday until 12:00.  So she needed to come to church either yesterday or next Sunday so that she could get baptized.  So the past couple of weeks we have been trying to come up with a solution so that she could be able to come to church.  Things got to the point where the only thing that she could do was ask her boss if she could have a schedule change and get Sundays off.  We promised her that if she asked her boss things would work out and she would be able to get Sundays off.  Well she talked to her boss and asked to have Sundays off so that she could come to church, but her boss said that the only thing she could do was ask another worker to switch with her, but chances were that the other worker would quit before she switched hours.  So Francis wasn't even going to ask the other worker to switch.  Then a couple of days later the other worker talked to her boss and told him that she needed to get her schedule switched around.  So everything worked out to where Francis is going to be able to come to church next Sunday and then be baptized on August 10th.  It was defiantly an answer to her prayers and all of ours and it shows that the Lord will prepare a way for us to live the commandments. 

I think that the Bishop that Cecil met was Bishop Grey from when I was in the Edmond 2nd ward.  Woodward is defiantly a western town.  It is the smallest town I have been in but covers the largest area of land.  If I remember right we cover 4000 square miles in the Woodward branch.  It is a pretty big area.  I really don't have a favorite thing that I have eaten.  All of the food is pretty good.  Some of it is a lot better then some of the other stuff, but its all ok. 

Ok so a little bit about Elder Park.  He is from Shelley, Idaho.  I still have no idea where that is.  He is 19 years old and come from a small family of 5 or 6.  I don't remember.  He is shorter then I am, but taller then Kelsey.  He is in the middle in case you couldn't guess. 

Well That is about all.  Oklahoma is really flat.  Love you guys.  Have a good week.

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 22, 2013

Dear Woodward Clan,

Another week has flown by for me as well, and as usual I am still trying to think of what I want to write as well.  This was a pretty good week for us.  There were a couple of days where almost everything we had planned for fell through, but we managed to pull through and make the most of it. 

Tuesday was a crazy scary day for us.  We had another lesson with Jeff, during which he decided he wanted to talk and talk and talk.  It was kinda frustrating because we couldn't really get the lesson we had planned for in because he talked so much, but that actually turned out for the better.  We had the Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Egnew, at the lesson with us and they managed to save it all.  From all of the stories Jeff told us Sister Egnew remembered about a concern that Jeff had brought up before I got here.  You will never guess what that concern was.  You all know how Haiti is and the crazy voodoo and other "dark" stuff that happens there.  So because Jeff grew up in Haiti with all that "stuff" his mom had always told him to never let anyone put their hands on his head to bless him.  We kinda went into panic mode at this point because there are so many things done in the church by the laying on of hands.  So when we left after the lesson we had no idea what to do.  All we were able to do was ask Jeff to pray and ask Heavenly Father if it was ok to be blessed by the laying on of hands in the church.  His prayer and ours were defiantly  answered by the time we saw him again on Thursday because when we asked him if he still had any concerns about it he told us he didn't and he understood that it was ok in the church by Priesthood authority.  So that was a HUGE miracle for us this past week.

We were able to set a baptismal date with an investigator, Brenda, last Thursday.  This was the first lesson we had with her, so we were teaching the Restoration.  At the part where we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon we committed her to read it then I gave her some promised blessings that would come as she read each day.  After I finished she got the biggest smile on her face and I could tell that she felt the Spirit.  The entire lesson went super well then at the end I felt like we needed to invite her to be baptized.  So I turned to the picture in the front of the Book of Mormon where Alma is baptizing at the Waters of Mormon and I showed it to Elder Park and threw him under the bus to invite her.  I just told him that he could do it and then I stopped talking until he invited her to be baptized.  She accepted and committed to August 31.  After we left Elder Park told me he was surprised when I showed him the picture and had him invite her to baptism, but he did it.  We are going to see her again tomorrow so news on that next week.

Friday our day got all messed up due to the fact that our dishwasher broke and decided to leak water everywhere.  Well everywhere under the tile flooring in the kitchen.  So we had to get a hold of the apartment complex manager and get someone to come over and look at it.  The good news is that we get a new dishwasher now.  Bad news is that we have to worry about what happens underneath the tile now.  The maintenance worker said it will just dry right up and we shouldn't have to worry about anything.  So we will see what happens this week.

Finishing up Elder Park's training is going pretty good.  There are sometimes that I feel like he is training me.  He is a super good missionary.  His trainer did a really good job with the first half of his training and I am still struggling to figure out what I am doing.  It is all going really well though.  We are getting along really well.  We haven't had any problems so far.  So things are going great!  On the 31st we get to go down to the City to go to Temple Conference.  I am so excited for that since I haven't been to the temple since December.

Well that is about all.  I will be sure to brag to everyone I meet about how awesome my family is and how good they are at everything.  I will be sure to show Jeff a picture of the family tomorrow night.  Yes I did get the package you sent.  Thank you for it.  Well now that is all.  I love you guys!  Have a good week!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 15, 2013

Dear Woodward Family,

Greetings from Woodward, Oklahoma.  I guess that it wasn't a ZL prank because here I am in Woodward.  I haven't had time to take a picture yet because we have been so busy here.  There is a lot of work happening here.  We have quite a few super solid investigators that Elder Park and I both feel could get baptized this transfer.  The first two are Jeff and Shaquinta.  They are both super awesome!  The first lesson I taught here was with them.  The missionaries had been meeting with Jeff for a little while now, but this was the first lesson Shaquinta had been there for.  So we ended up teaching them the Restoration.  The lesson went really well.  After the lesson was done I found out some pretty exciting news about Jeff.  Jeff is from Haiti.  I was really excited when I found this out for obvious reasons.  You are probably all pretty excited about that as well.  Then yesterday both Jeff and Shaquinta were at church. 

So Wednesday was transfers.  It was a really long day full of driving.  2 hours from Wichita Fall to Moore, then another 2 1/2 hours from Moore to Woodward.  Then we got right to work.  Normally after you get to your area after transfers you take a little bit of time to go to Walmart to get some stuff to last you until Monday.  We had so much happening on Wednesday that we didn't have time to go to Walmart.  It was a very crazy day but we made it through.

Friday was District Meeting so we drove all the way down to Clinton for that.  We were able to ride down with the Senior couple who is here in Woodward.  So that saved us a lot of miles.  We got back from District Meeting about 3:30 and got straight to work.  Both of the appointments we wad set up that day fell through so we went to visit a less active member named Jed.  Jed it a super cool guy.  Most of the time we were there we just sat and listened to him talk.  It was a really spiritual experience though.  He has been through some rough patches in life, but he is pushing through that and turning his life around.  He even came to church yesterday.  From what I have heard he has made a lot of progress over the last couple of months.

Sorry this is kinda a scatter brained letter.  There is just so much that has happened that since I got here that I am just writing it down as it comes to my mind.  I think that is just about all for this week though.  Next week will be a little more organized.  Well I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -July 8, 2013

Dear Woodwards,

Wow there has been a lot that has happened this past week!  I have said it before, but the work is really starting to pick up just in time for transfers.  I'll talk about what is happening with transfers a little bit later on. 

So were should I start today....  Monday sounds like as good of a day to start as any.  So last Monday for P-day my district decided to be a little adventurous, so we went mini-golfing at a place ing the mall here.  Originally we decided to go to the place in the mall because it was a blacklight mini golf course.  It wasn't nearly as fun as we all thought it would be.  It was definantly made for little kids.  The thing that made it worth the money was the fact that we got to play through the 18 holes three times.

Moving to Tuesday.  Tuesday was the one day this week that we had a member present lesson.  We went to see the investigator that the Sisters passed off to us.  When we went in for the lesson we started out by asking him about his problems with the Word of Wisdom.  Since the Sisters passed him off to us he had relapsed into drinking along with smoking, so it has been pretty tough for him.  He also decided that the way he was going to try and meet a nice girl to start dating was by going to the bars and clubs around town to chase a woman down.  Great idea right?  I didn't think so either.  Then when we talked to him about his desire to get baptized he told us that he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, because if he were to get baptized he would "miss the fun life."  Don't worry there was something good that came out of this.  After Joey said he would miss the fun life it reminded me of the part in the Book of Mormon where Alma the Younger was talking to one of his son, Helaman, and was telling him about his life before and after he saw the angel.  The part I really tried to focus on with Joey was how Alma told his son about the joys that he experienced from keeping the comandments.  I then promised Joey that as he kept the comandments of God and kept the Word of Wisdom, that he would experience the happiness and joy that would come from the gospel, instead of just the temporary "fun."  At the end of the lesson we were able to recommit him to live the Word of Wisdom and the other comandment, and we reset a baptismal date with him for the 20th of July.

Thursday was a really fun day for us.  We started out the day by going to the ward breakfast for the 4th of July.  We had Robin show up to the breakfast with her two kids.  Little sidenote.  Robin has been doing pretty well with not smoking.  She still smokes every once in a while, but not very much.  Which is a big improvement because a week before she was still chain smoking.  Anywho... so the breakfast went pretty well.  There was a big turnout for it and it was lots of fun.  After it was over we stayed to help clean up and since there was a lot of extra food, we ended up taking a lot of it home with us.  Our fridge is still full of biscuits and gravy.  I think I am going to be done eating biscuits and gravy for a little while.  After the breakfast we went back to our apartment and did our weekly planning.  Not much to tell there.  After weekly planning Bishop Perez and his wife came and picked us up so we could go out to their house and help them set up for dinner that evening since they were having all seven of the missionaries down here over for dinner.  One of the things I got to do was make the guacamole.  Yep I made some homemade guacamole.  It was pretty good too.  Not to long later the other missionaries down here showed up and finished helping get things ready.  I would tell you what we had, but I don't know what it was.  I just know it was good.  Then to finish out the day (and since it was the 4th of July) we got to stay out until 11:00.  We stayed out at the Bishops house and had a little firework show.  Nothing to big due to the fact that we are almost in a stage 4 drought now.  But it was still a pretty fun night.

Saturday we got to go up to Lawton, OK to meet President and Sister Walkenhorst.  I had no idea how tall 7ft really was until I saw President Walkenhorst.  Holy crap he is tall.  The Zone conference was only about an hour long.  Just long enough to get to hear them talk and introduce ourselves.  Then we came back down to Wicita Falls.  Not much more happened on Saturday.

Now we finally get to Sunday.  Transfer calls day.  I'm just going to skip to the end of the day.  Mostly because there wasn't anything super exciting that happened.  Well nothing exciting until about 9:00 pm when we got transfer doctrine.  So we called up the Zone Leaders since Elder Kahawaii is the District Leader and found out what is happening.  So here is what is going to be happening here in Wichita Falls South.  Elder Kahawaii is going to be leaving here to go up to Pauls Valley, OK.  So typically that would mean that I would stay here for another transfer.  But I'm not staying here either.  Wichita Falls South is going to get shotgunned again.  The Elder coming down here is named Elder Jenkins and he is going to be training a new missionary.  So now I guess it is time to tell you where I will be going to.  Do you have any last guesses?  Ok, so I, Elder Woodward, will be going to finish a new missionay's training, all the way up in Woodward, Oklahoma!!!  Not I'm not kidding right now.  That is really where I will be for the next transfer.  Unless of course my Zone Leaders are playing some sort of sick prank on me.  I would be so very ticked at them if they are.  So yeah that is it.  When I found that out last night I was literally jumping up and down because I was so happy!  My new companions name is Elder Parks.  Like I said he has only been out for one transfer so far, so I will get to finish training him.  Its gonna be fun!

Elder Woodward working on a car

So if you are wondering why this email is coming in so late it is because this morning as we were on our way to come email, our bishops wife asked us to go and help them change a tire on their car.  So we put off emailing for a couple of hours to go help.  Then that took longer then we expected it to.  But we got it all taken care of.  I even got a picture of me underneath their car.  So here it is.  I hope you all have a great week.  Love you all tons and tons!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -July 1, 2013

Dear Family,

Well Dad didn't really enjoy my little joke earlier, and he said Mom didn't enjoy it either.  I was just doing what they wanted me to do.  Obviously they forgot that they had said they were expecting a short email. 

Well this has been an interesting week here in my mission.  President and Sister Taylor finished up their mission last Friday, so my new Mission President, President Walkenhorst,  is here now and getting into the life of a mission president.  It is still weird to think that President Taylor has already gone home.  I'm still not used to telling people that our mission president is President Walkenhorst. 

So now onto news for the week.  Last week we had a lesson with Megan and Tanner and I felt like it went really well.  We didn't teach anything new, we just answered a bunch of their questions.  I felt like it really helped Tanner out because in every other lesson we have had he mostly just sat back and bit his finger nails.  This lesson he was sitting forward and paying attention the entire time.  It was so cool!  They are both doing super well.  They are going to be leaving on a trip this week so my companion and I are going to send them on a detour to a temple.  Its going to be good. 

Oh and we also had a awesome miracle happen to us this week!  we were walking back to our apartment after checking mail when one of the residents, Robin, who lives in the building next to us called us over and asked us if smoking was a sin.  We told her yes and explained a little bit about the Word of Wisdom.  After we finished she gave us her opinion about smoking, and she agreed with us that is was a sin.  Then she told us that she has been trying to stop smoking because she knows that "is harming my temple."  That is really what she said.  I almost asked her if she was a member of the church because I have only ever heard members say their body is a temple.  So the day after we first met Robin we went back to her house with a member and taught her the Stop Smoking Workshop.  It was so cool!  We have seen her at least once a day since then encouraging her to keep working on quiting smoking.  It was super cool.  =)

I hope that you all have a great week!  It is exciting to hear about all the fun stuff that is happening at home.  It sounds like all the kids are Keeping Mom and Dad busy.  I guess that is their job though.  I love you all! 

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -June 24, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

Well it has been another crazy week here in Wichita Falls Texas.  I'm sure it was just as crazy on the homefront.  It is just a crazy time to be alive.  You might have heard about it by now, but last night during the Worldwide Leadership Broadcast there were some crazy changes made to the way missionary work will happen.  Probably the biggest one is the fact that missionaries will now be allowed to use Facebook for missionary work.  Yep, Facebook will now become a way for us to do missionary work every day.  I am still in shock about this change!  When I first heard that, I thought I had misheard what was said, but I heard right.  I have absolutely no idea what the rules will be with this change, but you might be seeing an Elder Woodward on Facebook in the next couple of months.

So good news about Megan.  This past week we were talking to her trying to set up an appointment to go and teach her.  Unfortunately she was busy pretty much all week and when she wasn't busy we were. :(  That wasn't the good news.  The good news is that in the midst of this she texted us and told us that she was wanting to get baptized and become a member of the church!  YAY!!!  So tomorrow night when we were finally able to set a time up with her we are going to set a baptismal date.  My companion and I are both super excited for this!

We weren't able to see David this past week, so no new updates on him.  Other way of good news.  I might have a baptism this weekend!  I'm not really sure if it will happen or not since we haven't been able to see the investigator since we started teaching him.  His name is Joey, and he is an investigator that the Sister missionaries were teaching, but they felt really awkward in lessons, and there were some issues he didn't want to talk to them about, so we got to start to teach him.  So more news on that next week.

Other then that, not much happened.  One other exciting thing that happened was that I got to meet two NFL football players last Friday.  They were Ray Dominguez from the Dallas Cowboys and Demarcus Love from the Vikings.  It was pretty cool.  I even got Ray Dominguez's autograph and pictures with them.

So that was my week.  I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -June 17, 2013

Dear Family,

So there isn't much to say about last week.  We had another typical week here in Wichita Falls South, meaning there was hardly anything that happened and we were lucky to get one member present lesson.  Everything is still going really slowly and there really isn't a whole lot to talk about.  We weren't able to meet with Megan and Tanner last week due to their crazy work schedules.  So hopefully we will be able to see them later on this week.  The one member present lesson that we did manage to have this week was with a new investigator of ours named David.  We met with him for the first time last night and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Before we started the lesson with him, he was telling us about how he believed there was the great apostasy and the church was restored to the earth by Joseph Smith (he has met with missionaries before).  He was also telling us about how he wanted to be indoctrinated so he could start his conversion process and get baptized!  But back to the lesson.  We read 2nd Nephi 31 with him where it talks about why Christ was baptized.  Before we started reading with him he asked us the question why was Christ baptized.  We told him a brief answer because we would read the answer to his question.  So we kept reading and sure enough he found out the answer to his question.  I really enjoyed getting to go and teach him last night.  So more good news to come about him.

On Saturday we got to go up to OKC again to help with some more tornado cleanup.  This time we were out in a wheat field picking up debris and garbage so that the farmers could harvest all of their wheat.  It was a very long day.  Luckily I don't really have allergies or else that would have not been a fun day.  We ended up going home a little early because it started to rain, and with us walking through the fields when it was wet did more harm then good.  That was a really fun 2 1/2 hour car ride soaking wet.  Not.

Well there isn't too much more to say for this week.  I love you all and hope things are going well.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -June 10, 2013

Dear Family,

Last week was a pretty good week.  We got quite a bit of stuff done.

To start out the week, Elder Kahawii had to do a baptismal Interview last Monday evening for one of the Sisters investigators.  I'm assuming that it went ok because their investigator was baptized on Tuesday.  We had our Investigator Megan show up to the baptism.  I noticed that Elder Kahawaii and I always have our investigators show up to baptismal services, but none of our investigators have progressed to the point of baptism yet.  Anywho, back to what I was saying.  Megan is so freakin awesome! She has talked to Elder Kahawaii and I a couple of time and asked us about baptism, converting, how she believes the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a Prophet, etc.  Her boyfriend, Tanner, isn't progressing quite as fast as Megan is.  Tanner has a lot of really good questions that make me have to stop and think for a little while before I can answer them.  I think the thing that Tanner is having the biggest problem with is that everything we are teaching him is so new that he is just being overwhelmed by it.  After the Sisters baptism Tanner came to the church after work and we had a lesson with them.  We watched the Restoration DVD with them to help Tanner understand more about Joseph Smith.  I definitely think that it helped him, because by the end of the lesson he was more open to us and what we had to say.  That is the amazing thing about the Spirit.  We still need to invite them to be baptized, so we will be doing that later this week, so I am pretty excited for that.  I'll let you know how that goes next week.

On Friday after District Meeting Elder Kahawaii and I went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders.  I got to stay down in Wichita Falls to work for the day.  While Elder Fales and I were out working we were able to find quite a few potential investigators.  We were able to set up a couple of return appointments so we were excited. 

I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -June 3, 2013

Dear Family,

Another week has come and gone in the land of Texas.  Since Mom is probably dying to know about all the tornado stuff, that is where I will start.  We had a couple more tornadoes come through the mission last Friday night.  I almost got to be up in the city for all of that fun.  But our new Zone Leader wouldn't let Elder Kahawaii and I go all the way up to the City with the Sisters like we had originally planned on.  So Elder Kahawaii and I were in Lawton Friday night, safe and sound, away from all the danger.  However if we had gone up with the Sisters the entire way we would have been caught right in the middle of the storm.  On Saturday morning we went the rest of the way to the city to meet with Elder Rasban to hear about some of the stuff that has been happening.  It was kinda funny when he first started talking to us.  He was telling us about how the day before he was at President Eyrings birthday party eating cake.  After we had our meeting with Elder Rasban we all got to go out and do some service for the rest of the day.  We got to go help a man clean up his back yard by getting all of the trees that had fallen over moved around to the front.  It was a really fun day.  I had a lot of fun getting to help clean up in the city.

I don't have very many stories to tell from last week.  Not very much happened.  We had another transfer, and with the transfer came the car that we have needed in our area for 6 weeks now.  I am the designated driver since Elder Kahawaii doesn't have a license.  It is so weird driving again.  I'm getting used to it though. 

So it is time for a random question.  Do any of you happen to remember the name of the new missionary that came out to the field just before Gislene got baptized?  I am asking this because the other day Elder Kahawaii and I were talking and I think that the Elder that came to the field just in time for Gislene's baptism was in Elder Kahawaii's MTC district.  That would be really weird if it was the same Elder. 

It is exciting to get to hear about everything happening at home.  I'm glad to hear that things are going well for everyone.  There is lots more to come next week. 

Love Elder Woodward

Missionaries cleaning up after tornadoes in Oklahoma

Wichita Falls South, Texas -May 28, 2013

Missionaries in Wichita Falls, Texas

Dear Family,

Well there has been lots of stuff happen this past week.  With it being transfer time yet again and with the tornado that went through Moore last week everything has gotten moved around.  Transfer day was supposed to be yesterday but because of the tornado, President Taylor moved transfers to today.  So there isn't a whole lot of time for me to write, but I will include as much as I can.  

This past week has been absolutely crazy!  Although the tornado in Moore was big and devastating,  we had some pretty crazy weather here as well.  No tornadoes unfortunately.  On Monday while we were having out big rainstorm we were all at the River Bend Nature Center.  So being the crazy people we are we had some fun while we were there.  I decided that I wanted to go horseback riding in the middle of the rainstorm,  so I ran to the first horse I saw and went for a ride.  The horse was rather colorful and hollow.  It was still fun though. 

Elder Woodward and companions "horseback riding"

So this week the work here in the South has slowly started to pick up again.  On Friday we got two new investigators, Megan and Tanner.  They are a young couple who are wanting to learn more about the gospel.  The are both super prepared and they are ready to learn about the church.  At our lesson on Friday, Elder Kahawaii and I went in planning to teach the Restoration and introduce them to the Book of Mormon.  In the end we didn't end up teaching them about that.  They were both asking super good questions about our faith and most of their questions were about the Plan of Salvation, so we taught them the Plan of Salvation.  Both Megan and Tanner understood most of what we taught them and they both loved the Plan of Salvation.  At the end of the lesson Megan said to us how she liked that we (the church) focused on the positive things and not the doom and gloom stuff.  Then to top all of it off, we texted Megan last night to try to set up another appointment, and during the conversation she was wanting to know how she can help the rest of her family accept the fact that she is wanting to take the time to learn more so that she can convert.  It was so cool!  

Well I just now realized that I never told you what was going to be happening with me this next transfer.  I will be staying in the Wichita Falls South area with Elder Kahawaii.  I am really excited for this with the miracle that has happened with us starting to teach Megan and Tanner.  I am excited for this transfer.  

Sorry this letter is so short again.  There isn't to much to talk about at this point.  But next week will be better. I promise.  And since a picture is worth a thousand words (which is more then I would ever write) I will send you some pictures and you cam imagine the rest.  Have a great week!  Love you all!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -May 20, 2013

Hello Famila,

I have managed to survive another week here in the land of Texas.  It may have been another slow week for us as we are trying to put the South back together, but things are still going really well.  We are still having trouble meeting with our investigators, which is really putting a hindrance on the work.  And it isn't helping that we can't find any new investigators, although between Elder Kahawaii and I we managed to find almost everything laying on the side of the road ranging from a casino tolken to a broken iPhone that barely has a screen anymore.  So no Angry Birds for us any time soon.

So last night I got pretty disappointed when we found out that a tornado hit Edmond, OK.  I have wanted to see a tornado so bad and one hit my old area.  Then last Wednesday the weather was pretty bad and the conditions were right for a tornado here, and at one point there was even a funnel that started to come down, but I missed it all because we were inside at our dinner appointment.  I was so ticked!  So no pictures of a Tornado yet. So instead you get a picture of a Texas sunset.  

Wichita Falls, Texas sunset

So this is going to be another short letter because I don't have very much to talk about because there hasn't been very much happening.  I have a good feeling about this week though.  So next week there should be a lot for me to tell you about.  Love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -May 6, 2013

Hey Everyone!

This past week was so much better then last week.  In fact it has been a great week.  The work in the South is going really slow, and if you were to look at our numbers alone you would probably think that we do absolutely nothing all day every day.  But as we were talking to Elder George (our Zone Leader) last night he said something that really stuck out to me.  He said that the numbers were a reflection of the area and not a reflection of the missionaries.  Which is true because from what our ward mission leader has told us, there hasn't been a set of hard working Elders in the South Area for over 6 months now.  So if I am understanding everything correctly, there is a lot that is being expected of Elder Kahawaii and I. 

Why on earth are you even thinking about my farewell talk yet.  That is still 18 months away.  I don't need to even worry about that until the night before I am supposed to give it anyways.  That is one thing that hasn't changed about me yet.  I am still a procrastinator.  Mom you may not want to read this next part, but when I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at Michael's and John's baptism, I didn't even think about what I was going to say until I was getting changed after I baptized Michael.  It is not a very healthy habbit to develop, but oh well.

It sounds like it has been a pretty crazy week for everyone with Shannon going into the MTC.  Its good to hear that everyone is still alive and well.  In my defence about the condition of my room when I left, I'm a procrastinator!  You should have expected that from me.  And it would have been rather hard for Shannon to have left her room in worse condition. 

As for news from me,  there hasn't been very many exciting things happen this week.  The highlight for me was getting to get back on stage and (somewhat) get back into the theatre life.  Even if it was only for 5 minutes.  Last Firday night we had a ward dinner/ talent show/ auction as a fundraiser for the youth in the ward.  We (the missionaries) did a skit entitled "A Day in the Life of a Missionary."  It was a lot of fun to get to do.  It included everything from having our bikes stolen and getting chased by a dog, to having awesome lessons.  I will try to get a good video of it to send home.  As for things happening in my area, we are still having trouble meeting with most of our investigators and finding new investigators, so Elder Kahawaii and I are going to be changing our game plan this week.  We are going to be focusing on trying to contact former investigators and potentials to see if any of them are interested in meeting with us again.  We are really hoping that this will work well because we have had zero luck with everything else that we are doing. 

Speaking of the Sisters,  I am going to be driving their truck up to Lawton today for Zone P-day.  With all the changes that have happened down here, President Taylor approved Elder Kahawaii and I to drive around with the Sisters on P-days and to meetings and stuff as long as I am driving, Elder Kahawaii is in the passenger seat, and the three Sisters are sitting in the back seat.  So P-days are going to be much easier to get around and do stuff now.  And I get to sart driving again!  It was so weird to be driving again.  It has been about 4 months since I had driven a car.

As for calling home on Mothers Day,  We have church from 9-12 Central Time, so it won't really work out in the morning.  So as of right now I will plan on calling home that evening around 7:00 here (6:00 at home).  I'm not sure the exact time I will call, but it will most likely end up being in the evening time. 

It is now time to wrap things up to drive up to Lawton so that I can go kick some butt in a game of frisbee! 

So I love you all.  I'll talk to you again on Sunday!  Bye!

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -April 29, 2013

Hello Family,

So I have managed to survive another week here in Texas.  The big and exciting news for the week is that both of the investigators up in North were able to get baptized on Saturday. It was a really fun day for all of us.  I even got to baptize one of the investigators.  The only reason for that though was that the person who was supposed to do it had a track meet that night and couldn't make it.  We found that out Friday night.  So the Sisters ended up calling us Saturday morning.

 

Other then that it was a really calm week.  We didn't have very much happen at all this week.  We had so many appointments fall through this week it isn't even funny.  I think last week we taught a total of one lesson.  and then we had to drop the one baptismal date that we had due to the fact that the investigator didn't come to church.  So hopefully this week will be better. Well it should be better because it would be next to impossible to have a week worse then last week. 

So that about sums up my week.  I hope you all have a great week!  Tell everyone I love them!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls South, Texas -April 22, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Well I would say that everything is going great here in Texas, and for the most part everything is going great.  There are a few little things that have happened this that have really made me frustrated.  First off,  the dang Sisters.  I don't like them. Not one bit.  But everyone else here in the ward loves them.  They came in (just like I said they would) and are taking all of the credit for John and Michaels baptism that is going to be happening this week end.  Then on top of that they were given the truck that Elder Kahawaii and I were supposed to have in South's area, just because they are Sisters.  It had absolutely nothing to do with the way the area is or how big it is, it is just because they are Sisters.  Now Elder Kahawaii and I are left with the biggest area here and we are stuck on bikes.  Other then that everything is fine.  It is so much fun getting to be Elder Kahawaii's companion.  It has been really fun this far.

Now to answer you questions:

Yes we both moved to a different apartment.
No there are no longer four Elders living together.
The Sisters live behind the movie theatre off of Kemp BLVD.
None of my investigators are getting baptized soon.
I am still in the same ward.
I am loving my new area, I just have no idea where anything or anyone is.
Your pictures are still here with me, on my memory card, in my camera, which is in my backpack.
Elder Haskell went to Pauls Valley Oklahoma.
And I haven't met any of our investigators yet.  Only heard about them.

Well not very much has been happening this week.  Mostly just trying to learn our way around the area, and get to know who people are.  We completely rearranged our apartment because we didn't like how it was set up before, and now we have so much more room. I finally bought a blender like I have wanted to for a couple months now.  And my bike pretty much hates me.  But that is about it.  So yeah... Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -April 15, 2013

Hello Family,

Well transfer calls came in last night.  I've got good news and bad news about it.  Bad news is that I won't be staying in Wichita Falls North for another transfer.  Neither is Elder Haskell.  So going into my 5th transfer, I will be in my 4th area and I will have my 5th companion.  So it is pretty frustrating.  There is a term used in the mission called "Shotgunning."  What that means is when two missionaries who have been working in an area both leave and two missionaries who haven't been there before come in.  So North is getting Shotgunned this transfer along with Wichita Falls Central and South.  The entire Texas area is getting flipped upside down.  All three areas down here are getting all new sets of missionaries.  My area is being taken over by a trio of Sister missionaries.  But moving on to the good news.  My new area is going to be....... Wichita Falls South!  I will be getting transferred to the other end of town with Elder Kahawaii!  Its going to be a blast!  I am really excited to get to go shotgun and area with Elder Kahawaii.  So I get to stay in the same ward and all that fun stuff, I will just be working in a different area. 

The other downside to this upcoming transfer in the fact that I won't get to keep working with John until he gets to baptism.  That is one thing that Sister missionaries are really well know for.  The Elders find, do most of the teaching and work with the investigator, then the Sisters come in and the ward gives all the credit to the Sisters for the baptism and everyone thinks that the Sisters are the best missionaries ever and nothing gets done without them!  That same thing will be happening with Michael as well.  The Sisters will come in and get all the recognition for the baptism.  It makes me a little frustrated.  But the thing that makes it ok is that I will be here for John and Michael's baptism.  So here is a word of advise for Shannon.  DON'T BE ONE OF THE SISTERS THAT COMES INTO AN AREA A WEEK BEFORE AN INVESTIGATOR GETS BAPTIZED AND STEAL ALL OF THE CREDIT FOR IT!  FIND YOUR OWN INVESTIGATORS!!!

Elder Schofield is the second missionary that I have heard that is coming out here to OKC.  The other one is one of my friend's roommate's brother.  He will go into the MTC on May 15th so he will be out here on May 29th, so I might get to train him if I am called to train next transfer.  It will be interesting to find out.  But I will definantly keep a look out for Elder Schofield.

 

Well not much else has happened this week.  So I don't have much more to say, so I will send this now so that Mom can read it and find out that I am still alive.  I love you all!

Love, Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -April 8, 2013

Dear Family,

This has been such a great weekend!  I had never been so excited for conference before in my life!  It was defiantly a great weekend for me.  There were so many things that I learned from it.  I would say that my favorite talk this weekend was President Uchtdorf's talk from Priesthood session.  It was a really exciting weekend!  We had a couple investigators show up for conference as well which ended up being really cool.  One of our investigators, John,  rode his bike all the way from his house to the church to watch conference.  That is not a short bike ride! especially for someone as old as he is.  And then instead of going home between sessions, he sat outside the church and read the Book of Mormon while he ate his lunch.  He even gave his brother, who is a less active member, a call and got him to come out to the Sunday afternoon session.  I am so excited for John right now!  We have a baptismal date scheduled with him on April 27th, and it is looking like he will be able to get baptized on that date!  Wahoo!  

I would have to say that I think John is our most solid investigator when it come to chances of being baptized.  We have two other investigators with a baptismal date, but both of their dates have to be rescheduled due to other events that are happening.  The first one is Michael.  His date is set for this weekend, April 13th, but due to the ward temple trip we will have to push it back to the 27th due to the fact that on April 21st,  there is going to be an apostle coming to the Lawton stake for stake conference.  So a good amount of the Saturday is going to be taken up by trainings and meetings for the Bishoprics and Stake Presidency.  Which is also the reason we have to reschedule the third baptismal date with 9 year old, Tiffany.  Tiffany has a really complicated situation.  With her being a minor she needs to get her mom's permission to get baptized, but her mom and step dad are kinda anti mormon. So yeah, we will have to keep working with her.

Things are going really well here. I am still alive and doing well.  Transfers is coming up next week so I will either know if I will stay in Wichita or if I will leave and whether or not Elder Haskell and I stay together.  So I will let you know how all of that works out.

Well I think that is about all for this week.  Thank you for everything that you continue to do for me.  I love you all!  

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -April 1, 2013

Dear Family,

Thank you for the Easter package!  I got it on Friday and I didn't want to wait to open it so I opened it right then.  I did eat a bit of the candy fairly quickly, but it was something my body wasn't used to, so I haven't been eating very much of it recently.  Well looking back its only been a couple of days, but it feels like that was forever ago.  I think I am going to lay off of the candy for a while.

So this past week has been a pretty fun week for me.  When Elder Traasdahl was here with me for exchanges, we decided that we were going to have a house sleepover.  So the four of us in the house all slept in the living room that evening.  It was awesome!  But then last night we decided to do it again, so we did. :)  Elder Chapman and I stayed up until 12:30 telling stories.  But law of the house is what happens in the house stays in the house, so I can't fill you in on the stories. But it was another fun night.  There have been some pretty fun things happen in that house.

So sorry this is another short letter.  It has been a good week I just can't remember very much of what happened.  I should probably start to work on that.  It is exciting to hear about all of the things that have been happening at home with school, soccer and all that fun stuff.  

I am doing pretty well. Surprisingly, I am managing to stay alive.  I have been having a really great time! Getting to work in Texas has turned out to be a lot of fun.  I am still managing to learn a lot even though I study the same things every day.  We just started week 4 of 6 so this transfer is getting close to being over.  

Sorry I don't have a lot to talk about.  I will try to do better next week.  But thanks for everything.  I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -March 25, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

Its exciting to hear about everything that it happening at home.  Sounds like everything is still about that same, crazy and busy.

Things down here in Texas are still about the same.  Not very much has happened this past week.  Things are moving at a slow and steady pace for right now.  But as for advice for Shannon preparing to leave, just don't procrastinate.  Try and get as much as you can done as soon as you can.  Also, if you haven't started studying Preach My Gospel yet, get started studying it as soon as you can.  I have noticed that my mission is starting to put a lot of focus on Preach My Gospel, so I would imagine that other missions are going to be doing that as well.  So get in a habit of studying every morning.  

Well Good luck with the upcoming spring breaks and all that fun stuff.  I don't get to have a spring break.  Can you guys believe that?  Just kidding.  I don't need to have a spring break.  I get to keeping helping that Lord by doing his work!  You should all be so jealous.  

So one thing that I have heard is that on April 21st one of the members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles will be coming out to Oklahoma for a stake conference.  I thought that was pretty cool when I got to hear that.  So if I get to stay in Texas long enough to get to hear what he says, I will let you guys know.  What do you guys think that he will be coming out here to do?

Sorry this isn't a very long letter.  Again, there hasn't been a whole lot happen.  So by next week there will be a whole lot of stuff happen and it will be a really long letter.  So I hope you have a good week.  I'll hear from you next week.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -March 18, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

 

That is so exciting to hear about Shannon's mission call!  Its not quite Long Beach, but I got the state right!  Did anyone guess where she would go?  Well I just did the math and with Shannon going into the MTC on may 1st, she will be coming home about 3 weeks after I come home.  That is weird to think.  Its a long way out, but I could see Bishop Howells having us give our homecoming talks on the same day. 

 

Well Mom is probably counting out the days still, but yesterday I hit my 5 month mark in the mission.  It is wierd to thing that I only have 19 months left.  Time has gone by so fast for me out here.  It seems like it was only a couple weeks ago that I was met Elder Fee and went to Ada.  Time it really starting to go by fast.  I don't even remember what happens most of the time. 

 

Well I guess you arer all wanting to know what I think about Texas now that I have been down here for a week now.  Things have been going really well this past week.  The weather here is so weird.  It seems like the climate changes every couple of days.  At the begining of the week it was in the 50.  Then last Friday and Saturday it jumped up to almost 90 degrees here in Wichita Falls.  It was hot!  And then yesterday it dropped back down to 45 in the morning and warmed back up to about 60 by the end of the day.  Its just weird.  The ward here seems really nice.  I forgot to mention this last week, but there is a family of Woodwards in the ward.  As far as I know there isn't a close relation, but I haven't looked into it very much. 

 

There is a lot of work that is going on here.  Right now we are working with a 9 year old, Tiffany,  to help her get baptized.  As of right now it is an interesting situation with her.  She come up to visit her Grandma and her Dad every other weekend so those are the only times that we get to go and have lessons with her.  She really enjoys church and getting to learn more about church.  She is a really smart girl and remembers almost everything we teach her.  The biggest problem with the situation she is in, is that her mom and step dad want nothing to do with the church, and they don't want her to get baptized.  For now we are going to keep working with her, but I'm not sure what is going to happen.  It really makes me sad to know that one of the only things holding her back are her mom and step dad. 

 

The investigator that I am most excited about though is someone that Elder Haskell and I stopped and talked to about a week ago.  Her name in Kayla.  We were riding by and actually stopped and started talking with one of Kayla's friends who was here for spring break.  Kayla came out of the house just as we finished Heavenly Gifting her friend.  We ended up saying another prayer with Kayla and then asked if we could stop by sometime and teach her about the restoration.  We ended up going back on Friday evening, and I thought that the lesson we had was awesome!  I could tell that she had felt the Spirit while we were there because by the time we left she had a different look in her eyes.  When we invited her to read the Book of Mormon she didn't even hesitate to say that she would.  The bummer to the whole lesson was that after we left I realised that we forgot to invite her to be baptized.  At first I was mad that we didn't invite her, but after I thought about it for a little while I realised that we probably weren't supposed to do it quite yet.  The main reason I thought that was because rarely, if ever, do I forget to invite someone to be baptized in the first lesson.  Things happen for a reason, so I guess it just wasn't supposed to happen yet.  But we were able to set up another time to go back and teach her the Plan of Salvation, so we will be sure to invite her next time!

 

P-day's here in Texas are a little bit different from everything I am used to.  After we get all of our shopping, emails, and other stuff done, we go to the church and play board games.  It was really weird doing that last week.  I'm not getting the exercise here that I was gertting in Edmond every week.  But to make up for the lack of exercise we get on P-day, Elder Chapman and I have been getting up at 6 every morning (except Sunday) to go out and run.  We have been doing this for a week now and it is really starting to pay off.  Today we ran 1.2 miles and we both agreed that it wasn't that hard this morning.  It is definantly starting to get easier.  If we keep going at the pace we are now, by the end of the transfer we should be running about 3 miles a day.  I have found that it is so much easier to get up and exercise when you have someone else who is committed to exercising as well. 

 

Well I hope that everything goes well for you guys this week!  Thank you for everthing that you do.  I love you guys!

 

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Wichita Falls North, Texas -March 11, 2013

Dear Woodward Family and Friends,

Well here I am in another new area with another new companion.  Well in a sense I now have three companions, but only kinda sorta.  The house (yes it is a house that I am in) is big enough to fit two companionship's, so I get to live in a four man house.  When I first hear that I was a little worried about it, but since I got here I have found that it is AWESOME!  I have really enjoyed the majority of this transfer so far, and it has been less then a week.  It is going to be a really good transfer.  The four of us living there are: Elder Haskell (my companion), Elder Chapman, and Elder Kahawaii.  Elder Kahawaii is from Hawaii.  Ironic huh?  KaHAWAII.  Haha. Ok I'll stop trying to be funny now.  Elder Kahawaii is a little more on the quiet side, but once he opens up he is really fun to be around.  Elder Chapman lived in Logan untill he was 12 then he moved to Arizona.  Elder Chapman and I get along amazingly well, which is probably why we weren't companions with each other.  I would say that we are the two most crazy ones in the house.  The funny thing is that sometimes we both have the same crazy ideas.  For example, we get our milk here from a member who owns some cows, so it is fresh from the cow.  Its great!  But the thing I was getting into was that we both had the idea to let the cream and milk separate, then we were going to take the cream and make homemade ice cream with it.  WAHOO!!! While we were doing this Elder Chapman turned to me and told me that I was the only other person in the house that would be excited to do that.  Which is true, I was the only other person excited about it.  And lastly my companion.  Elder Haskell is from South Jordan.  He is quite a bit less fun loving the Elder Chapman and I, but that is ok.  I would say that we have fairly similar personalities for the most part.  The biggest and most obvious difference would be my fun loving, life is a party personality; and he is very conservative, one way to do things personality.  So hopefully in the long run that won't cause too much contention and problems between us.  There have been a few things happen so far, but I am trying my best to overlook those things so we can work together as a companionship.  This is going to be something new to me because all of my past companions I have gotten along with super well,  so we will see how this turns out.

Now onto the things about the area.  Down here in Texas there are 4 sets of missionaries.  One set is in Burkburnett, which covers the Air Force base and the area up north closer to the boarder.  Then there is Wichita Falls North, Wichita Falls Central, And then Wichita Falls South.  So there are 8 of us here in Texas plus two senior couple.  So there are alot of missionaries here.  Elder Chapman and Elder Kahawaii cover the Central area in case you were wondering.  I am in another bike area, so my bike has been getting used quite a bit. 

The first day I was down here it was 70 degrees and Thursday it was 71.  So it has been quite warm here.  Well until this morning anyways.  Elder Chapman and I decided we were going to be more consecrated missionaries and exercise for 30 minutes in the morning like we are supposed to.  We decided we would start out by going running every morning.  So we got up got dressed to run, went outside and it was 28 degrees.  Man that was cold.  It has been close to five months since I have done anything like that, so when we were done running I felt like I was dying.  It was just great.  Good news is that we get to go do it again tomorrow.

I am feeling like things are going really good for me out here.  I don't know if I mentioned it to you before, but time is really starting to fly by.  I'm not quite sure if last transfer went by so much faster because it was a week shorter then all the others or what it is.  I'm sure that with last transfer being cut down by a week was a big reason it seemed shorter.  Looking back I can hardly remember 90% of the things I've done the past 5 weeks.  Luckily I have been writing in my journal everyday so I can go back and look at all of that stuff later.  It is amazing how fast you forget the things that happen on a day to day basis. 

The work is going along really well.  Being a missionary is hard work, but not in the ways you would expect.  It has been very mentally and physically demanding.  One thing that I have noticed is that if I'm not constantly focused on my purpose as a missionary it is really easy to just want to sit around and relax.  That is one of the greatest things that keep me going is remembering why I came out.  When I am able to keep that in mind is when it is easiest for me to go out and work.  I think that is one of the things that Heavenly Father has helped me to learn while I've been out is that I came out here to serve others and I can't do that when I am sitting at home.  That is one of the biggest things I have come to dislike.  It drives me crazy to be sitting at the house/ apartment doing nothing during the day.  It is so much more fun to be out going around seeing people.  Sometime taking an hour break for lunch seems like it is too long.  So yeah I like to be out. 

Outside of the missionary work, I am doing really well.  The members usually do a really great job at signing up to feed us dinners and such.  I have had to cook for myself quite a bit and usually it isn't spaghetti.  I think that I may have had spaghetti more because members have fed it to us then because I have made it.  You might be surprised, you might not, but since I have come out I have gained 15 pounds.  I am staring to get a missionary gut. That is one of the reasons I'm going to start exercising.  I need to get rid of my gut.  I haven't really had the chance to meet a lot of the investigators in my area yet.  They are all really busy, so when I found out more about them I will let you know.  I hope that was sufficient Mom because I'm not sure what else you want to know.

Well that is about all.  Its time for me to go out and do other P-day things now.  I love you all and I hope that you have a great week.  Let me know where Shannon gets her mission call to.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Edmond, Oklahoma -March 4, 2013

Hello Everyone,

 

HOLY CRAP!!! WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT SHANNON WAS PUTTING IN HER MISSION PAPERS UNTIL NOW! YOU ARE ALL FIRED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE FIRED FROM, BUT YOU JUST ARE!  My guesses are for stateside: California Long Beach; and International:  Italy Milan.  Yep so you can just give me the prize now.  I know that I was right.  The Spirit told me so.

 

Anywho,  moving along.  Well we had quite the storm last week.  It consisted of sunny skies and freezing cold winds.  The weather man was a little bit off on his prediction of a "blizzard."  From what I heard about it, Edmond was one of the few places that was able to avoid the storm.  I heard that Woodward, OK got around 16 in. of snow. 

 

Speaking of Woodward,  one of our current AP's, Elder Heyland, will be going up to Woodward this next transfer to re-open the area.  Sadily I'm not going to be his companion.  But there is still hope for me to serve there now that it isn't a Sister area anymore.  I'm sure that you are all wondering who the new Assistant to the President will be.  The new AP is going to be Elder Logan Fee.  Yep that's right, my mission dad is now an AP like I told him he would be two transfers ago! 

 

Other big news from this past week.  The Sister missionaries in our district had a baptism on Saturday evening.  It was awesome!  His name is Andrew and he is one of the investigators that almost every missionary wishes they could teach.  It was super cool to get to go to his baptism on Saturday.  I don't think that there was a time when I didn't see him smiling. 

 

Last night we were out with our ward mission leader and we found 3 families that we should be able to start teaching this next week.  Well I should say that Elder Apedaile and his companion will be able to start teaching.  I found out that I will be leaving Edmond on Wednesday.  I will be going all the way down to the boonies of the mission.  I am going to be headed to Wichita Falls North.  I'm going to Texas!  So it is time to get all packed up again so I can get ready to ship out next week.

 

So yeah that was my week.  I hope that you all have a great week and I expect to hear where Shannon is going!  Love you all

 

Love Elder Woodward

Edmond, Oklahoma -February 25, 2013

Hello Famila,

 

We have been getting a lot of work done here this past week.  Wednesday and Thursday were not fun days to be out on bikes.  We had a couple of stroms come through so those days were cold and soggy.  We still got to go out on our bikes and ride all over Edmond.  I got a little bit wet.  The only day this week that we have had good weather was Sunday.  It was in the 60's and Sunny.  You wouldn't be able to tell that today though.  It is cloudy and raining pretty hard.  It is supposed to turn into snow a little bit later, so chances are that we will be grounded again and get to spend all day in the apartment.  So we will see how this all goes.

 

This last week was a little bit better then two weeks ago.  We finally got into see a part member family that we have been trying to teach for a couple of weks now.  The lesson we had went really well and we committed the husband, Jordon, to be baptized.  So we were both really excited for that!  Chances are I won't be here for that though.  Elder Apedaile got a call and was told that he would be training next transfer,  so I might end up leaving.  I'll find out next Sunday,  so if you all want to take guesses as to if I will be staying or leaving, and if I leave where will I go.

 

Other exciting news;  I have been getting eaten alive these passt couple of weeks.  It turns out that Elder Manwaring tracked in some bed bugs while he was here and so I get to enjoy the after effects of that.  Last week at Zone Conference President Taylor told us the name of our new mission president.  I have ne idea how to spell his name, but I know what it is.  Mom said she saw it so you can ask her what it is.  I do know that he is 7 ft tall and played basketball for BYU. 

 

We have seen a lot of people but we haven't been able to have very many lessons with them, so there isn't much to tell this week.  Everything is going really well with the work.  It is slowly starting to pick up, but it is going to take a lot of work to ge things rolling again.  I thing all that this ward needs to pick up is to see an investigator get baptized.  It has been over a year since a convert has been baptized so I think they are a little discouraged.  When we told some people that we had set a baptismal date with Jordon, almost all of them seemed shock that we had done that. 

 

Well thats all for now.  I'll talk to you next week and let you know if I leave or stay And all that jazz.  Love you all!

 

Love Elder Woodward

Edmond, Oklahoma -February 18, 2013

Hey Everyone,

 

Well it sounds like things are going pretty well for everyone back home.  Things are about the same for me this week.  The snowstorm that we had here last Tuesday kinds threw the rest of the week off.  We got a text from one of the AP's telling us that the mission was grounded until further notice, so we got to spend all day cooped up in our apartment.  That was when we made that snowman.  To answer your question about where my coat was, it was inside on the couch.  It didn't seem like it was that cold outside when we made the snowman, but I was smitten a couple days later when I started to get sorta sick.  The extent of my sickness was a stuffy nose and some coughing.  You think I would have learned my lesson, but being the crazy Utah boy I am I will be out in the snow making another snowman without my coat soon enough. 

 

Last week I told you a little bit about Brandon, the former NFL football player.  Well we finally got to go back and have a lesson with him and his wife last night.  I say finally because the last lesson that missionaries had with them was on Jan. 15, so it has been a little while.  Brandon and Kyla are AWESOME!!!  Brandon is already in Jacob 4, and was making connections from what they learned about in their church to the Book of Mormon.  We went in and talked with them for a little while and answered the questions that they had from the restoration.  After we had answered some of their questions, Brandon asked us "If we don't have anymore questions right now, what is the next thing you guys wanted to talk to us about."  Brandon is so ready and is eager to learn about the gospel.  After he asked us that we taught them the Plan of Salvation, and they seemed to take it really well.  After the lesson Brandon shared with us that since that last time we came over, he had felt a spark in his family and his life.  The only downside to all of this is that Brandon and Kyla are both super busy, so for now the next time we can go back and see them isn't until March 10.  I really hope that I will get to stay here in Edmond long enough to see them get baptized. 

 

Overall we had a really good week, but there aren't a lot of exciting stories that are coming to my mind right now.  So I guess this week will be a shorter letter.  But for now, good luck to Emmie and Darcy at their soccer games.  So yeah that is about it from me this week.  I love you all.

 

Elder Cameron Woodward

 

Edmond, Oklahoma -February 11, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

 

This last week was a pretty full one for us.  I think I might have biked more here in Edmond then I did in the three months I was in Ada.  Oh well I am using my bike now, and I am so glad that I have a bike to use.  Last Wednesday the fog here was really heavy so all bikes were grounded, and you could only go out if you drove or walked.  Well we don't have a car so we spent most of the day walking.  Biking is so much easier and so much more fun. 

 

So the exciting moment of the week happened on Friday after District Meeting.  In my District there are onlt Elder Apedaile and I, and then a set of Sister missionaries, so we meet at the Institute building with the Institute director and his wife so we aren't breaking rules.  Anywho, the Institute bulding here is a house that the church bought and converted over, so it has a kitchen and all that stuff.  We decided after District Meeting that we were just going to stay at the Intitute and make something there.  So it was decided that we were going to make breakfast for lunch.  We went into the kitchen and started to cook.  We were just about done with everything when the fire alarm went off.  It turns out that when you cook bacon in an enclosed space a lot of smoke tends to build up until the fire alarm goes off.  Obviously somewhere in school we were all taught something wrong because instead of going outside , we all just stood around inside and took turns covering the fire alarm until we figured out how to turn it off.  We could use some work with our evacuation plan.

 

Well I am still trying to learn who a lot of the investigators here in Edmond are.  We probably have 15 or so of them, but we haven't been able to go back in to see very many of them.  Then one the other hand the five or six that we were able to see all texted us yesterday and asked us not to come over any more.  One thing that is exciting though is that one of the more solid investigators that we have, Brandon, is a former NFL football player.  I don't know how long ago he played, but he played for the Raiders. I expect that Adam is going to know the most about all the football stuff so I am going to refer all questions towards him.  I have only met Brandon once, but he is a big guy.  I will try and get a picture with him sometime so you can see how small I am compared to him.

 

Speaking of pictures. . .  I will start sending some home.  I haven't taken a whole lot of pictures, so I haven't really had a whole lot to send home, but I will send my memory card home so you can transfer the pictures onto the computer and keep them there.  I would ask that you would send the memory card back though.  I do have a second one that I can use while the first one is away.  I am going to start taking more so I can keep you updated on what is happening. 

 

Good luck to Darcy and Emmie this weekend.  Go kick some Sparta butt for me.  I know you two will do amazing!

 

Ian, you had better go out on a date when you turn 16. If you don't I am going to kick your butt.  You don't have any excuses anymore!

 

I love you all. I hope you have a great week.  Stay in school and don't do anything stupid.

 

Love Elder Cameron Woodward