Hey!
Well it really was great getting to talk to all of you on Christmas this past week! I can't believe that Christmas it already over and we are getting ready for the new year! I know I have said it before, but it is crazy how fast the time is flying by. It really seems like it was just a couple days ago that I hit my year mark. I'm glad that I still have some time left cause I am defiantly not ready to come home yet. Sorry Mom, but I like being a missionary.
With last week being Christmas and everything that was happening, we weren't left with as much time as we would have liked to do missionary work. And It has been even harder to get out and do stuff because we have been out of miles for the past week, so we have had to do quite a bit of biking. I really enjoy going out and riding my bike, but as soon as you have to go and bike with a shirt, tie, slacks, and dress shoes ALL of the fun that comes with biking is gone. It is not fun to bike in missionary attire at all. I finally managed to meet one of our investigators. Yep you read that right, I've only met one investigator. Her name is Halie and she has been taught by missionaries for quite a while now. when we went over to see her she told us that she wasn't going to get baptized into the church, but Elder Davis and I both feel like she is going to get baptized. We are defiantly going to keep teaching her.
We were able to visit a couple of other people this past week. We aren't really teaching any of them though. On Saturday evening we went and visited a part member family that Elder Davis was working with before I got here. While we are talking with them we found out that Brother Thiemann actually grew up in Preston and went to Preston High. He said that Woodward sounded really familiar to him, but he wasn't sure. So once again I have met someone who might know our family. It is a really small world. Just before we left we asked Sister Thiemann if she would like to start taking the lessons. She didn't actually answer the question for herself, which was really disappointing. Brother Thiemann answered and told us that she had taken them before and that she was fine with where she was now. Elder Davis and I both thought that the only reason he said that was because he didn't want to come back to church because he was afraid he would get a calling. Elder Davis and I both thought that if she had answered the question for herself that we would have gotten a completely different answer. So that was little bit of a bummer. We will keep trying though, because nothing will stop the work of the Lord!
The only other person I have met so far is a potential investigator named Jeff. And guess what else... He is Black. He is not from Haiti though. It is kinda funny that I have now met another black man named Jeff that we could potentially start to teach.
We don't have anything exciting happening for New Years. I think that we are probably going to need to be in our apartment by 5 tomorrow. So there isn't anything exciting that is going to happen. It is pretty boring. I will probably end up sleeping through the new year.
Well I think that about does it for me. I told you about most of what has happened when I called. If I forgot anything I will be sure to let you know. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Good luck with taking Gislene in to get the rest of her shots. She will probably be mad at whoever takes her to get the shot. I'm glad that it isn't me.
Love, Elder Cameron Woodward
Cam
Monday, December 30, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Mustang, Oklahoma -December 23, 2013
Hey everyone!
Well it has been quite the week for me out here in Oklahoma. There was a lot that happened leading up to transfers so that I could get ready to leave. Monday and Tuesday were mostly filled up by me packing up all of my stuff. I never realized how much stuff I had gathered while I was in Woodward until I had to start packing it all up. That is my least favorite part about transfers is packing everything up. I sent a package home with a bunch of extra stuff I didn't need with me, so you should have gotten it by now. If you haven't, it should be there soon. Monday evening I decided to take a little break from packing. Elder Birch and I went to the birthday party for Alexa. She is the daughter of Mindl, who is a less active we had been working with. It was really funny when we first showed up because Mindl's other two daughters, Emma and Aubri, saw us walk in, so they yelled hi to us then ran over to drag us into the room where everything was happening because Elder Birch and I didn't come in as quickly as they wanted us to. We spent about an hour there before we went out to say bye to some other people. We spent the rest of Monday evening saying bye to people before it was time to go back to the apartment. Then it was back to packing.
Tuesday was filled with a lot of the same stuff as Monday, packing and saying bye to people. We went over to see Mindl and her family again so I could actually say bye since I didn't get to on Monday. After that we went to say bye to the Windholz family. We talked for a little bit and then they asked me to share one last message with their family before we left, so I did. The reason I was glad that we went over so I could say bye was because later that night when we stopped by the Egnew's to say bye, Sister Egnew told me that they had gone over to the Windholz earlier that day as well. Sister Egnew told me that when they had gone over Sister Windholz was "singing my praises." Sister Egnew said that it was because of something I had said or done that had a impact on the Windholz's daughter who was a less active, but then decided she needed to come back to church. So it was really cool to hear about how I had actually help someone out and help them come back to church. I know that that happens every day, but I thought it was really cool to actually hear about the effect I had one someone, because I had no idea that I had helped Sister Windholz's daughter that much.
After we left the Windholz we went to say bye to Herman and Carolyn. It was really hard to have to say bye to them because the entire time I was up in Woodward I worked really closely with them. That is one reason I don't like staying in an area for so long is because it gets a lot harder to say bye to people. But that is life.
Wednesday was transfers, so we got up bright and early so we could make the long drive down to the city. We made it safe and sound and got everything switched around, then we started the 20 minute drive to Mustang. That was pretty much the highlight of Wednesday. There wasn't much that happened other then getting unpacked and starting to finding my way around the area. That has pretty much been everything sine I got here. Saturday morning we woke up to half an inch of ice on our car that we had to get off before we could drive to our zone conference. It was a good thing I though ahead and decided it would be good to go start the car before we had to leave because the other three Elders I live with didn't think of that. Oh that is the other big news. I am in another 4 man apartment. So that was fun. Friday was a super cool day. We got to go and do service for the Salvation Army by helping them deliver Christmas presents to the families in need. It was really cool to see the gratitude that those people had for what we were doing. It was really cool and the Spirit was so strong while we were helping them!
So that is pretty much it for my week. I'll answer all of your questions when I cann on Christmas. I'm not exactly sure when I will be calling because we have had three families invite us over to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner. I promise I will call at some point though. You will know when I call because I will be on the other end of the phone. I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Love Elder Cameron Woodward
Well it has been quite the week for me out here in Oklahoma. There was a lot that happened leading up to transfers so that I could get ready to leave. Monday and Tuesday were mostly filled up by me packing up all of my stuff. I never realized how much stuff I had gathered while I was in Woodward until I had to start packing it all up. That is my least favorite part about transfers is packing everything up. I sent a package home with a bunch of extra stuff I didn't need with me, so you should have gotten it by now. If you haven't, it should be there soon. Monday evening I decided to take a little break from packing. Elder Birch and I went to the birthday party for Alexa. She is the daughter of Mindl, who is a less active we had been working with. It was really funny when we first showed up because Mindl's other two daughters, Emma and Aubri, saw us walk in, so they yelled hi to us then ran over to drag us into the room where everything was happening because Elder Birch and I didn't come in as quickly as they wanted us to. We spent about an hour there before we went out to say bye to some other people. We spent the rest of Monday evening saying bye to people before it was time to go back to the apartment. Then it was back to packing.
Tuesday was filled with a lot of the same stuff as Monday, packing and saying bye to people. We went over to see Mindl and her family again so I could actually say bye since I didn't get to on Monday. After that we went to say bye to the Windholz family. We talked for a little bit and then they asked me to share one last message with their family before we left, so I did. The reason I was glad that we went over so I could say bye was because later that night when we stopped by the Egnew's to say bye, Sister Egnew told me that they had gone over to the Windholz earlier that day as well. Sister Egnew told me that when they had gone over Sister Windholz was "singing my praises." Sister Egnew said that it was because of something I had said or done that had a impact on the Windholz's daughter who was a less active, but then decided she needed to come back to church. So it was really cool to hear about how I had actually help someone out and help them come back to church. I know that that happens every day, but I thought it was really cool to actually hear about the effect I had one someone, because I had no idea that I had helped Sister Windholz's daughter that much.
After we left the Windholz we went to say bye to Herman and Carolyn. It was really hard to have to say bye to them because the entire time I was up in Woodward I worked really closely with them. That is one reason I don't like staying in an area for so long is because it gets a lot harder to say bye to people. But that is life.
Wednesday was transfers, so we got up bright and early so we could make the long drive down to the city. We made it safe and sound and got everything switched around, then we started the 20 minute drive to Mustang. That was pretty much the highlight of Wednesday. There wasn't much that happened other then getting unpacked and starting to finding my way around the area. That has pretty much been everything sine I got here. Saturday morning we woke up to half an inch of ice on our car that we had to get off before we could drive to our zone conference. It was a good thing I though ahead and decided it would be good to go start the car before we had to leave because the other three Elders I live with didn't think of that. Oh that is the other big news. I am in another 4 man apartment. So that was fun. Friday was a super cool day. We got to go and do service for the Salvation Army by helping them deliver Christmas presents to the families in need. It was really cool to see the gratitude that those people had for what we were doing. It was really cool and the Spirit was so strong while we were helping them!
So that is pretty much it for my week. I'll answer all of your questions when I cann on Christmas. I'm not exactly sure when I will be calling because we have had three families invite us over to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner. I promise I will call at some point though. You will know when I call because I will be on the other end of the phone. I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Love Elder Cameron Woodward
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Woodward, Oklahoma -December 16, 2013
Hey!
Last week was a pretty good one for us. We actually managed to see quite a few people, and we saw some people multiple times last week. Well we just saw Ashley multiple times last week. We saw everyone else once. Ashley is still doing really well! Last week we taught her about keeping the sabbath day holy and the law of tithing. Both of the lessons went super well. She didn't have any concerns or problems with either of those commandment and she committed to live them both. It was really cool. Unfortunately we didn't see her at church yesterday which was a real bummer. Hopefully she will start coming soon so that she can get baptized.
We saw Jeff a couple of times as well. He is still doing really well and is still loving the gospel! We have been reviewing all of the lessons with him since he was baptized, so that is what we did last week. He still remembers everything from the first time he heard it, so our lessons with him turn into him teaching us. It is really fun! Herman and Carolyn are doing great as well. We had dinner with them last week, and we tried to get them out to a lesson with us as well, but Herman got sick so they couldn't make it.
So now the only thing left to really talk about it what is going to happen with transfers. We got transfer call last night, and we found out that I am going to be leaving Woodward and going to Mustang, Oklahoma. Leave it to the Okies to name a city after wild horses. It is weird to think that after 5 months I am going to be leaving Woodward. Oh well it was fun up here. There is more work to do.
Well that is all from me. I love you all! Have a great day at Disneyland, and have a great week!
Love Elder Woodward
Monday, December 9, 2013
Woodward, Oklahoma -December 9, 2013
Hey!
Well yet again, another week has come and gone. And in another week I will hit my 14 month mark. I still can't believe how fast it is going by! I do know that it is going by way to fast though! There's nothing I can do to slow it down, so I am just taking each and every day as it comes at me.
Elder Birch and I had an interesting week here in Woodward. As always there were lots of good and bad things that happened. As for the bad things, it has been so miserably cold here. Last Tuesday was the last time we had any relatively good weather. It was about 70 degrees then on Wednesday it dropped below 20 degrees, and has been at or below 20 since then. But that isn't that bad having grown up in Utah. The thing that made it so miserable was the wind chill. Whenever the wind blows here, it is so cold and blows so hard that it blows right through everything that you are wearing and freezes you to the bone. Then the wind keeps blowing and so you get even more cold. It is just fantastic. The wind is really the only thing that makes the weather bad here.
Other then the weather being so cold there isn't much else that happened. We weren't able to see any of our investigators this past week. The highlight of our week came from a mormon.org referral that we got. About halfway through the week we got a referral for a man named Jose. It turns out he saw an ad online to receive a free copy of the Bible. We didn't know that when we first went over because we didn't get the whole message. When we went over to see him we told him we were missionaries and he let us right in his home. That is when he told us that he had asked for a Bible. We didn't have one with us so we sat down and talked to him for a little while. He asked us where we got the nickname "mormon" from, so we told him it came from the Book of Mormon. We then went on to give him a brief introduction to the Book of Mormon and he really took interest when we told him the Christ came to the Americas to teach the people here. I felt like he really liked that. We then told him about Christ's Ministry and the Great Apostasy, then the Restoration through Joseph Smith. We ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he told us we could stop by again. Needless to say Elder Birch and I were both really excited about that.
Well that is all from me this week. Love you all! Merry Christmas!
Love Elder Woodward
Monday, December 2, 2013
Woodward, Oklahoma -December 2, 2013
Hey everyone!
Life is
going pretty well for me out here! Not much has changed. We found out
that this transfer is going to be a week shorter then we originally
expected. This transfer was supposed to end on Christmas day, but they
moved it forward a week to the 18th. I'm not really excited for it
because Ashley's baptismal date is set for the 21st. So I might not
even get to be here for her baptism.
Thanksgiving was a pretty boring day. Most of the day we
sat around our apartment and did nothing since we weren't supposed to
go out proselyting, and we could only go somewhere if we were invited.
We got to go over to a members home for dinner, and that ended up being
the highlight of our day. Dinner itself was pretty good, but it wasn't
like Thanksgiving dinner at home. It may still be a year away, but I am
excited for Thanksgiving at home next year!
We saw Ashley twice last week and everything seems to be
going really well with her. We were a little worried going over to see
her the first time last week cause we were going to teach the law of
chastity. It turns out we didn't have much to be worried about. She
committed to live the law of chastity, and didn't have any really big
concerns about it. So Elder Birch and I were both really excited that
it went so well and there weren't any hurdles in our way.
That was about it for my week. Nothing too exciting happened to me. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Love Elder Woodward
P.S.
We just found out that USPS will not be forwarding letters and packages
from the mission office anymore. So from now on we have been asked to
have all letters and packages sent directly to us at our apartments. I
am sure this is going to be posted on the blog, so until this transfer
is over please send mail to me at:
Elder Cameron Woodward
Thanks a ton!
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