Woodward, Oklahoma -September 30, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all of the Birthday wishes.  I got the package that you sent this morning.Well it was here on Saturday, but I had to go to the post office to pick it up, so I got it this morning.  Thanks for everything that you got me!  It was awesome!  I wasn't really expecting another tie, but I won't complain.  

Well as for this week I am sure that you are all dying to know what has happened.  I guess I will just start off by telling you what is going to be happening this next transfer.  So I am going to be staying here in Woodward with Elder Birch.  Nothing changes.  Although last night I was about ready to hurt someone!  Either our Zone Leaders or our District Leader though it would be funny to play a prank on me and tell me I was getting transfered last night.  Our District Leader called back a couple of minutes later and told us that the Zone Leaders had called them back and told us it was a joke, but when we called the Zone Leaders to find out the didn't know what we were talking about.  To say they least I was really mad.  So Woodward will now be the longest I have stayed in an area and I will be with a companion for more then a transfer!  This is going to be kinda weird.

On Wednesday evening President Walkenhorst drove up here to Woodward to meet with Herman and Carolyn.  I don't really know what happened during their meeting, but I guess it was good.  After they were all finished and they came back out President Told us that he felt like everything was ok, so he was going to push for their baptism to happen.  So now we just have to wait to hear from President about what the plan for them is. 

Last week was a really slow week for us so there isn't much to tell about.  Everything is going really well!  I am having a great time here.  I love you all and hope your week goes well! 

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 23, 2013

Hello!

Well if nothing else, this past week has been a trial of our faith.  We have had a lot of great things happen, but just as many not so great things.  So it has been a pretty fun week for Elder Birch and I.  We will get to all of that later though.

Well Monday was a long day for us.  Since there is absolutely nothing to do here in Woodward other then sit and watch the grass grow,  we mostly just sat around and did nothing.  I think I might have taken a nap at one point.  It was a pretty boring P-day.  Then in the evening all of the plans we had made fell through.  So nothing much for Monday. 

Last Tuesday we are able to have another really good lesson with Herman and Carolyn.  To say it went really good is an understatement, it went FANTASTIC!  Herman and Carolyn took us out to dinner before our lesson with them.  While we were at dinner Herman turned to Elder Birch and I and asked when we were going to talk about baptism with them again since it had been a while.  We laughed at that and told him we would talk about it during the lesson.  So we finished eating and came over to the church for our lesson.  We started out with a prayer like always and then dove right into the lesson.  We started out by asking Herman and Carolyn if they had been able to talk about if they wanted to be baptized.  They sat there for a couple of seconds before Herman told us that he felt like he was ready to be baptized.  I was so excited I almost did a happy dance!  So we talked with them and set a date for them to be baptized on.  We then had our lesson and finished teaching them the rest of the commandments and everything they needed to be taught before baptism.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom again and committed them to live it.  They both said they would.  They both committed to live the Law of Chastity as well. Everything was going super well and we weren't having any problems.  They were ok with everything that we taught them.  The biggest concern that Herman had was that he would have to stop working on Sundays.  Carolyn was fine with everything.  Right at the very end of the lesson we encountered some problems with the date we set, so for now their baptismal date is being put on hold until further notice.    We saw them again last night because we had to take them some stuff that we had for them.  They still seemed to be doing well even with everything that had happened.  After we left Elder Birch and I both felt like this was the real trial of their faith and that they are both dealing with it super well.  Elder Birch and I both feel like everything is going to be ok though.

We had a couple of other lessons with two of our investigators last week.  We was Mary and Brenda.  When we went and saw Brenda we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She was really involved with the lesson and I felt like she understood everything she was being taught.  At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized, but she said no this time because she has her own church.  It was a good thing that she told us that though because it showed us that she was really thinking about the things we had been teaching her.  We also followed up with her to see if she had been able to pray and ask Heavenly father if the Book of Mormon was true.  She told us that she has received and answer that the Book of Mormon was true.  So we are making slow progress with her, but we are making progress.  Our lesson with Mary wasn't my favorite in the world. Mary likes to talk a whole lot, so most of the time we are there she was talking.  Which is good except for when she doesn't stay on topic and the things she talks about have nothing to do with the Plan of Salvation.  But that is ok. 

Other then that there hasn't been very much that has happened this past week.  We are doing our best to keep the work moving along, so things are going well.  Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 16, 2013

Hey Family,

Well I am sorry to hear about the game with the "team who must not be named."  It is a real bummer to hear that they are such bad sports.  It does go to show one thing though, the only way the "team who must not be named" can beat Thunder is by being a bunch of POOR sports and insulting our team.  It also shows that those parents are not teaching their kids to have charity, which is the pure love of Christ.  The important thing to take away from this is that Thunder is by far the better team for keeping their heads held high and not lowering themselves to the poor standards that the "team who must not be named" has lowered themselves to.  The time will soon come that they will get what the deserve, because as we all know, Karma is a real. . . ankle biter.  You know like those little annoying yappy dogs that bit your ankles, then you turn around to get it off of you, then you see the little dogs great big pit bull friend who looks like he is going to eat you.  That is what it is going to be like except "they who must not be named" are going to be the ones getting chased by the pit bull. 

On a different note,  I am 98% sure that Herman and Carolyn are going to be getting baptized in a couple of weeks.  It isn't set in stone yet, but I fell like it will happen.  This past week Elder Birch and I went over to their house and had a great lesson with them this past week.  It was a GREAT lesson.  We went over planning to reteach the Word of Wisdom and a couple of the other commandments.  We didn't get anywhere near those though.  We started out by asking them if they had any questions about anything pretty much, and Herman brought up his concern about why there are three degrees of glory and why those people who choose to make the wrong choices aren't just cast down to "heck."  We had been trying to avoid this topic because it has been one of the big holdups for Herman in the past.  Not anymore though!  =D (That is me being happy).  Luckily the Spirit came to our aid, because I had no idea how to respond to that.  We related his question back to the pre-earth life where we made the choice to follow Christ's plan for us instead of following Satan.  We then explained to them how the three degrees of glory was how God was rewarding us for making the choice to follow Christ and how Heavenly Father didn't want to punish us by sending us to heck when we made the choice to follow Christ before this life.  We then explained how not everyone is going to do everything that they need to to return to Heavenly Father and that is why there are the three kingdoms.  After we finished the only other thing he said about that topic was that how we explained to three kingdoms made a lot more sense to him and he was starting to see why there are three kingdoms.  It was super cool!  Then after that we followed up and asked Herman and Carolyn if they had been able to talk about whether or not they wanted to be baptized.  They hadn't talked about it yet, but Herman sat forward in his chair and told us that after our Sunday School lesson at church (it was about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith) that he knew that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.  So we committed them to talk about baptism before we came back and they said they would.  So Elder Birch and I are excited to see what they have to say when we see them tomorrow evening.

Friday we got to go on exchanges with the other set of Elders in our district, so I was up in Alva for the evening.  I had a pretty good time up there.  Alva was just barely opened up this transfer, so there weren't a whole bunch of people for us to go see like there are here in Woodward.  We managed to stay busy the entire day and got lots of work done.  We went to see two of their investigators, Mike and Kendra, that evening.  We had a good lesson with them.  We taught the Restoration and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  One of the funny things that happened while we were there was one of their sons really likes to do buckles up, so most of the lesson he was sitting next to my camelbak doing the buckles up, then I would undo them so he could do them back up.  When we got up to leave I was holding my camelbak by the strap on top[ and the little boy camed up and grabbed my bag and tried to take it from me.  It was to bad that it was as big as he is and probably weighed as much as he did too. 

Well there wasn't much else that happened this week.  It was a slower week for us and a lot of stuff fell through.  That is the life of a missionary though.  So at this point we are just focusing on this week and doing the best we can and not focusing on last week.  So there is lots of exciting things to come.  Thanks for the package you sent.  The day that I got the package I actually went to staples and bought more pens because I was about out,  then we got back from our meeting in the city, I got the package and there were more pens.  So I am set with pens for a long time.  Thanks for everything.  I love you all tons!  I hope you have a great week and have fun!

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 9, 2013

Dear Family,

Life continues to go well for us here in Woodward.  Last week was a little slower but it was one of the best weeks we have had so far!  We had a lot of good things happen and other not so good things happen.

So to start out this week.  Last Tuesday Jeff came out teaching with us!  He was really excited when we asked him to come and he didn't even hesitate to say yes.  We took him out to see our investigators Jamie and Heidi.  They weren't there so we were about to leave when Jamie pulled up.  She was just getting back from a football game so she didn't have time for a lesson.  She told us that we could come back on Thursday or Friday so that was ok.  After we left there we went and tried a couple of other potential investigators, but we were only able to see one of them.  His name is Alberto and is a referral from a member.  We sat down and talked to him about the Christ and the things He did on earth.  We then started to go into the apostasy when Jeff started to say something that threw us way off track and Jeff kept going with it until it got to the point where there was no was we could tie it back into the lesson, so we finished up there for the night.  After we took Jeff back home Elder Birch and I decided that we needed to introduce Jeff to Preach My Gospel.  Overall we had a pretty good night with Jeff though.

When we went back to Jamie and Heidi's on Friday to try and have another lesson with them we got some good and bad news.  The good news is that Heidi has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and her nephew thinks she might join the church.  The bad news is that Jamie and her family moved up to Dodge Kansas on Saturday and so Heidi would be going back home to OKC after they got moved.  So we lost two of our most promising investigators last week.  Elder Birch and I were so sad when we found out they were moving, but that is life so we just picked up and moved on.

The only other big news this week is that this upcoming transfer our area is going to be split.  So we are going to be getting two more missionaries up here.  I was not very excited to hear that news,  mostly because I don't want to give up any of the people I have been working with up here. So it is going to be interesting to see what is going to happen next transfer.

Well that is all for this week.  I hope that you all have a good week and I am excited to hear about the Laroca game.  Good luck Emmie and Darcy!  You will do great!  I love you all!

Love, Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 2, 2013

Dear Woodward's

It is great to hear from you again!  This past week has been a really good one for Elder Birch and I here in Oklahoma.  We had a lot of stuff happen and we saw a lot of miracles!  I can't believe how fast this week flew by though.  It literally seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting here writing to you.  There is so much that is happening, but there isn't nearly enough time to get it all done.  So I guess I will just start off by answering your questions then move onto what has happened this week.

Woodward, Oklahoma is a pretty small.  It is a little bit bigger then Smithfield is, but it doesn't have any other cities nearby.  The next closest town is Mooreland and that is 10 miles away.  There is one small movie theatre here and an old grain elevator.  The majority of the people here are really nice, most of them just aren't interested in the church.  A lot of people in Oklahoma think that a church is a church and why would I drive 10 miles to go to the LDS church when I can walk across the street to my baptist church.  So it can be frustrating at times, but when you find those people who have been prepared to heard the gospel, it is that much more rewarding.  I'm sure that there are a lot of people who will Bible bash with us, we have just been lucky enough to be able to avoid those people.  I really don't like to bash with people because it is completely useless!  So I try not to bash.  Most of the preachers won't even talk to us because they don't like us or the church, then they go around telling all the members of their congregations a bunch of false doctrine about what we believe.  They do this to give their members a false perspective on the church so that they won't want to listen to us, because if the members from other churches start coming to ours that is less money that goes into the preachers pocket.  I'm not sure if you know this, but a part of the money other churches collect from tithing and other donations goes to the preacher for their "service."  There are so many churches out here that are run like a business would be.  The more people at their church the more money in their pocket.  Its dumb.  There aren't enough active members here in the Woodward area to have a ward, so we have a branch.  Most of the branch comes from two main families, the Alley's and the Smith's.  Without those two families that branch would be about half as big as it is.  On average we have about 65 members come each week.  There are a whole lot of less actives though.  Most of the members will help the missionaries if they have time to.  Most of them stay pretty busy so it is hard to get them out with us.  On a typical P-day here we wake up, study, came email, go shopping for food, wash the car, and then we do whatever we have time for.  Last week Elder Birch and I both took naps. Who knows what we will do today.  No football though.  Football is a very big thing here in Woodward.  That is most of what we hear about from day to day.  Football this, football that. 

So know onto my week.

Since Don, Francie, and Jeff were all baptized we don't have very many progressing investigators anymore.  The two that we still have are Herman and Carolyn.  They took us out to dinner on Friday night before our lesson with them.  After dinner we came back to the church to have a lesson.  In my opinion that was one of the best lessons that we have had with them.  We talked to them about obedience to the commandments, why should we follow the commandments, blessings that come from keeping them, so on.  When we had planned for what we were going to teach them we decided that we were going to invite them to be baptized again to see if they would commit to be baptized.  When we were about to finish up Elder Birch took the lead and invited them to be baptized.  Right after we asked them they pause and looked at each other to see who would talk first.  Herman talked first and said that he would know it is coming when it is coming.  So to translate to English from Okie,  he said when I feel like it is time to be baptized I will let you know.  Carolyn didn't say anything right away so Herman started talking again.  He told us that he wanted to know for sure that this church is true like we know it is before he wants to be baptized.  When he said that I told them about when I was eight and I was baptized I didn't know for myself that the church is true, all I knew was that I needed to be baptized so that is what I wanted to do.  I told them how since I was baptized that I have come to know for myself that the church is true.  I think that that hit Herman pretty hard.  After that he said something but I don't remember what it was.  Carolyn jumped in at this point and said something, but I don't remember that either.  I do know that everything that they said made me think of Ether 12:6 that says "wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."  I had Herman read that scripture and I could tell he read a little bit ahead because he started shaking his head like he had read it wrong, but he kept reading and after he finished he looked up at me gave me a "I can't believe that you just pulled that scripture on me" look.  After he looked at me I told Herman and Carolyn that we didn't want to force anything on them and that we would let them decide if they wanted to be baptized.  Then before either of them could respond to the scripture we told them we would let them think about that and we finished the lesson, said a prayer and went on our way.  So we left them with quite a bit to think about. 

The other really cool experience we had this week started on Tuesday.  There was a potential investigator that Elder Park and I tracted into about 4 or 5 weeks ago.  We offered to pray with her and she invited us in.  We couldn't go in because it was just us so she invited us to come back later that evening when her husband would be home.  I don't remember why, but Elder Park and I didn't go back that evening and every time we planned to go back after that something happened so we didn't get the chance to go back.  So we planned to go stop by and see them on Tuesday and things worked out to where we were able to stop and see them.  Elder Birch and I went up, knocked on the door and a different lady answered the door.  So we offered to say a prayer and she let us.  After the prayer we asked if we could stop by and share a message about Jesus Christ with her.  She said we could stop by tomorrow when her sister and brother in law would be there.  So the next day we made sure to stop by and see them.  We were able to get in and have a lesson.  We found out the second lady, Heidi, was visiting her sister, Jamie, for about a week and a half.  So we taught them about the Restoration.  At the beginning Heidi just sat back and listened and was skeptical about what we were saying and Jamie kinda just sat there.  Jamie asked us a lot of questions throughout the lesson mostly about how do we know this church is true and about prophets.  We got to the point of the lesson where we talked about the Book of Mormon and how Joseph Smith translated it.  After we introduced that Book of Mormon and read part of the introduction and Moroni 10: 3-5, Jamie and Heidi both asked if the could have a copy of the Book of Mormon.  We gladly gave them both a copy and committed them to read and pray to know if it was true.  They both committed to do that.  After we promised them that as they read and prayed that they could receive an answer, Jamie told us about how her entire life she has been waiting for an Ah-ha moment where she knows for herself that something is true.  We told her if she read and prayed like she said she would that she would have that Ah-ha moment.  We then invited them both to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.  Jamie started to nod her head saying she would, but Heidi jumped in and asked if she would have to be re baptized, so we weren't able to set a baptismal dat with them.  Afterwards Elder Birch and I decided that the reason Elder Park and I never went back was because we were supposed to go over again when Heidi was visiting Jamie.  That was a miracle that we were able to stop by and catch both of them.

So other then that we had a normal week.  I hope you all have a good week.  I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward