Woodward, Oklahoma -November 25, 2013

Hey everyone,

This past week was a very interesting one.  We didn't get to work up here in Woodward as much as we would have liked to, but I thought that the trade off was pretty good.  The reason that we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked to was because we had mission tour this past week.  Elder Craig A. Cardon came out to my mission this past week.  It was really good, but I will talk more about that later.  Because of the mission tour and bad weather, we had to leave Woodward a lot earlier then we had anticipated on Thursday so we could make it down to OKC before the storm got bad.  So after weekly planning, we met the Elders in Alva and then left to drive to the city at about 3.  So that left no time on Thursday, then Friday we had our conference with Elder Cardon, which lasted most of the day.  Then when that was over we went out to our car and it was covered in half an inch of ice, so we had to wait for the ONE ice scraper that was there to clean our car off.  I'm not sure why half of my mission was there and we only had one ice scraper.  Then after we left we stopped for dinner and by the time we had just got on the freeway the storm got really bad and the rain would hit out car then freeze on the windshield.  So needless to say we turned around and went back to the city.  The weather was a lot better Saturday morning so we left and came back up to Woodward and had about half of the day left.  Elder Birch and I were both pretty upset we lost so much of the time we had to work.  We are both safe and doing well which is a little bit better then having lost time to work in our area.

Ashley is still doing really well despite all of the setbacks due to weather, we were still able to see her twice last week.  We had two really  good lessons with her.  The first one we taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  She really enjoyed it and loved the different idea that it presented on God's plan for us.  We saw her again on Wednesday and that was one of the best lessons I have been in.  We started out by asking her if she had had any thoughts or feelings come to her as she had been reading the Book of Mormon.  She definitely had felt the Spirit as she had been reading.  She told us how she had felt really overwhelmed the first time that she picked the Book of Mormon up to read it.  She felt the Spirit testifying to her that the Book of Mormon was true before she had even read it.  She told us when she first sat down to read and that happened that she thought that Heavenly Father couldn't (as in he wasn't supposed to) have been telling her it was true yet because she hadn't read any of it yet, and she hadn't asked Him if it was true either.  It has been really cool to work with her because she is so open to the gospel and open to the promptings of the Spirit.  We started to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ after that and when we started to talk about baptism, I felt like I needed to invite her to be baptized.  As I was thinking about a date to set with her I thought about asking her to be baptized on Dec. 14, but then as I opened my mouth to ask the question I invited her to be baptized on Dec. 21.  It is really amazing to see how the Spirit really will put the words that you need to speak into your mouth when you need them because I wasn't planning on saying Dec. 21.  

Now to tell you about Mission Tour.  Like I said Elder Cardon came out to speak to us.  It was such a good meeting!  One of the things he talked a lot about was prayer and the role it has in an investigators conversion, and why it is so important to have an investigator pray at the end of the first lesson.  I would tell you some of the other things he talked about but I can't remember anything else right now.  

Thanks for everything that you do for me!  I love you all and hope you have a great week!  

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 18, 2013

Hey!

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Love Elder Woodward

 

 

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 11, 2013

Hey!

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 4, 2013

Hello!

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

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

1.  The Savior needs you to be happy.

2.  The Savior needs you to be an example.

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

4.  The Savior needs you to be ready.

5.  The Savior needs you to serve a mission.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Woodward