Anadarko, Oklahoma -October 13, 2014

Hey!  

It is hard to believe that my time as a missionary is coming to a close.  I know I have said this before, but I still can't believe how fast these two years have gone by.  

There has been a whole lot that has been going on this past week, so I will do my best to fill you guys in on some of it.  If you have any questions after I'm done you can wait until Thursday to ask them.  So where do I even start today? There have been so many different thoughts and feelings that I have had this past week on top of all of the normal day to day missionary stuff.  

Last Wednesday was by far the highlight of my week in every way possible.  Last Wednesday Elder Tanner and I got to go back up to my old area of Woodward, Oklahoma for a baptism of a couple of people that I started teaching.  It was by far one of the best days that I have had in a long time and it was a great way to be able to finish my mission!  So right before we were leaving to go up to Woodward Elder Birch called us up to let us know that he had talked with Herman and Carolyn the night before and that they wanted to take us out to dinner when we made it up to Woodward Wednesday night.  We made it into Woodward at just the right time to meet everyone at the restaurant before they went in to sit down.  It was really nice to get to go and have dinner with Herman and Carolyn because I have really felt like I needed to contact them in some way and see how they were doing.  So between all 12 of the missionaries that were at dinner I was able to get to sit by Herman and Carolyn and actually be able to talk with them without having to yell over people.  It was great to be able to see them again and see how they have been since the last time I saw them.  Herman and Carolyn are still doing really well!

After dinner was over we all went over to the church up in Woodward.  Everything was exactly how I remembered it.  I was so excited when we got inside the church and I started to see a lot of people that I got to know when I was up in Woodward.  And what made it even better was that they remembered who I was!  I don't think there are going to be very many people that forget that Elder Woodward served up in Woodward.  Either way it was great to see so many people that I knew.  I got to go say hi to Alexa and Lilli before the baptismal service started.  The baptisms went great!  After the baptism we stayed there at the church for about an hour and I talked to the families of Lilli and Alexa.  I don't remember if I told you this before, but Lilli and Alexa's families have become some of my all time favorite people that I met while I have been out here, so I was really excited to see all of them again!  I don't even think that I can begin to describe how excited I was to be able to go back up too Woodward one more time before I came home.  Woodward is by far my favorite area that I was able to serve in!  The entire time that I was up in Woodward I felt like I was back home right where I belonged.  It was weird that I felt so at home in Woodward and I wasn't sure why I felt that way, I just knew that it felt good to be there with so many of they people that I got to know and love in the time I served in Woodward.  The next morning I realized why it was I felt like that while I was in Woodward.  I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants section 18 for part of my studies and I read verses 15-16 where it talks about the joy that we will have with those people that we help bring unto Christ, and it was like I got hit with a ton of bricks.  The Spirit told me that the reason I felt the way I did when I was back in Woodward was because I was with some of those people that I had helped bring to Christ and I was able to feel a little bit of that joy that we will have after this life with those people that we have helped.  The Lord had definitely planned for me to read those scriptures the day after the baptism so that I could recognize what had happened while I was in Woodward.  I have probably read or heard those scriptures in section 18 hundreds of times throughout my life, but it wasn't until Thursday that I finally understood what they really meant.  Since Thursday those scriptures have taken on a new light and they have become some of my favorite scriptures and the most meaningful scriptures to me!  I am so grateful for everything that happened for me last week!  

Well that is all of what I really wanted to share with you this week.  I am excited to see all of you guys this week!  Thanks again for all that you guys have done for me!  I love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -October 6, 2014

Hey everyone!

Well there isn't a whole lot to report on for last week.  There were a couple of cool things that we got to do last week.  

Being a missionary right now does have a couple of perks.  So on the 10th there is going to be a movie coming out in theaters called Meet the Mormons.  So the perk of being a missionary this time is that we got to go and see the movie last week before it came out in theaters.  Our mission president got an early screening copy to show the missionaries here so that we could tell people about the movie and use it as a way to find new investigators.  So last Tuesday we drove down to the Lawton stake center to watch Meet the Mormons.  It was a really good movie!  I don't know if you have heard anything about it, but it is a documentary about 6 different members of the church and their families.  I gives a good view of Latter-day Saint families and the things that they have to do in life.  Anyways if you want to find out more about it you will have to go see it when it comes out in theaters.  After we finished the movie we went out to eat down in Lawton at Olive Garden.  I guess you could call that my birthday dinner.  Not much to tell about that, I just thought you would be interested to know that I did do something for my birthday.  

Watching General Conference this past week was great!  I loved being able to hear from the all of the speakers.  There was so much that I learned from conference this past weekend.  General Conference on the mission is the best.  There are so many different ways that you can apply what you learn.  I really liked Elder Bednars talk and how it was directed toward people who aren't members of the church.  I loved how he talked about exactly why we want to share to gospel with other people.  Heavenly Father really is preparing the hearts and the minds of His children to receive the restored gospel.  What a blessing it is to be a missionary.  

Things have been going really well for me these past couple of weeks.  Elder tanner and I have been able to get a lot of really good work done.  As I have mentioned in the past everything just blends together at this point so I can't really tell you much about the details of what happened.  maybe it will all come back to me before I get home.  Thanks for everything that you guys do for me!  i love all of you and will see you guys soon!  Make it a great week.

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -September 29, 2014

Hey!

It sounds like things have been just as crazy as ever in the Woodward home.  Like always there has been soccer, soccer, and more soccer.  I sounds like Zander is having fun with soccer this year.  I'm not really surprised that all he wants to do is dribble to ball and score.  He is pretty independent.  Hopefully the girls don't start to get an attitude like that.  

I am so excited to be able to listen to conference this weekend.  I have always been to excited to watch General Conference as a missionary.  It is one of my favorite times of the year!  Last April Lois (she is the lady who got baptized in Mustang) watched a session of conference and the only question that she had about conference was about how many pipes there were in the organ at the conference center.  It was pretty cool.  There are always a lot of miracles that happen around conference time, so I am excited to see what will happen this time.  Elder Tanner and I have been inviting a lot of people to watch conference this weekend.  It is going to be a really fun weekend.  

One of the things that I am really excited for next week is that I get to go back up to Woodward for a baptism next week.  There is an investigator that I worked with while I was up there that is getting baptized and they invited me to come back for the baptism.  It is really exciting to know that this investigator is getting baptized after all this time.  I will be sure to take pictures so that you can all see.  

Last week we got to go see our investigators, Jose and Angelica.  Jose is in the process of recovering from an open heart surgery that he had last week.  Jose is doing really well for just having had surgery.  I am always amazed with that man.  Jose is such a great example of a faithful person.  Even with everything that he has gone through recently he is still laughing and joking with us when we go over.  I was hoping that he could get baptized before I go home, but since he just had heart surgery, it probably isn't very likely to happen.  We had a couple of really good lessons with Jose and Angelica last week.  One of the things we taught them was about the 10 commandments.  Normally when we teach the 10 commandments we teach them using hand signs.  For the sixth commandment which is thou shalt not kill, the hand sign we use is finger guns.  Jose decided to crack a joke when we reviewed all the commandments and instead of saying thou shalt not kill he said "no boom boom."  The way Jose said it was really funny and so we all started laughing.

Another really cool thing that happened was when we were out in Hinton this past week.  There is a part member family that we are teaching up there.  The are the Finney family.  When we were talking with Sister Finney she told us that she had been talking to her husband and asked him if he was ever going to join the church and Brother Finney had told her that he was going to join the church he just wasn't sure when.  That was super cool to hear about.  We have been working with the Finney's for a long time now so it was cool to hear that he has been making some progress and his heart is starting to be softened.  That was a really cool day for us.  

We had the primary program here in the branch yesterday.  Like always the Primary program was great!  We heard that when they were practicing for their program it was super crazy and the teachers had no idea how it was all going to come together.  Actuall the way it was described to us was that is was like trying to heard a flock of cats.  It all came together though.  What the leaders did in order to motivate the kids to learn the songs was that the kids were promised an eight layer cake if they learned all the songs.  It was a pretty impressive cake.   

Well thank you all for everything that you do!  I love and appreciate all that you guys do for me everyday.  I will see you guys in a couple of weeks!  

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -September 23, 2014

Hey!

Things have been going really well for me and Elder Tanner this past week.  We ended up having a really good week and we saw lots of miracles happen!  Last week was also a pretty crazy week for us.  We were super busy last Monday and Tuesday with everything that was going on here in our mission for these days.  Last Monday we were down in Lawton most of the day because we had a Zone P-day.  Our entire zone met down in Lawton to do some activities and spend some time with each other.  We ended up playing football for part of the time.  You could probably expect this, but I would have much rather played Frisbee instead.  Oh well it was still a fun day.  We stayed down in Lawton for the rest of the day cause we had our specialized training for this transfer.  It was a good training and I was able to receive some good inspiration from it.  We spent the night down in Lawton as well so that we wouldn't have to drive back down on Tuesday morning for our Zone Conference.  Zone Conference was really good, just like it always is.  The end of this Zone Conference was a little bit different for me this time.  At the end of our Zone Conferences we have a testimony meeting where all of the missionaries that are going to leave the mission before the next Zone Conference are invited up to give there "departing" testimony.  So since this is my last transfer I obviously was invited to go up and bear my testimony.  Everything went well.  When I went back to my seat and sat down is when everything hit me.  I hadn't thought about it a lot before, but after I sat down it dawned on me that I really am about to go home and that I really don't have a lot of time left as a full time missionary.  It was a sad moment for me as I sat there and listened to others get up to bear their testimonies.  I'm sure Mom and Dad remember what it felt like to be in that situation realizing how close to the end of the mission they were.  I don't really know what words to use to describe it.  

The rest of the week kinda went by in a blur.  Everything happened so fast.  We were able to contact a lot of our investigators last week and have some really good lessons with them.  I got to go on exchanges with the Elders down in Elgin last Friday as well.  We have been getting a lot of good work done in the past couple of weeks and are seeing some cool miracles come from it.  

I am doing well out here and loving the work.  Thanks for all that you guys have done for me!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -September 15, 2014

Hey!

There is definitely a whole lot of stuff that has been happening this month, and like you guys said it is already half over.  Things have been going really well for us out here.  Last week we had some pretty cool weather that came through town.  Most of last week the temperature was down in the 60's or 70's which was a really nice change for us as missionaries.  I guess most of the people who live here thought it was too cold, but I really enjoyed driving with the windows down and not sweating all the time.  Enough about the weather though.

Last week we had a Mission Tour with Elder Foster from the Second Quorum of the Seventy.  We had a really great day up in Norman getting to hear from Elder Foster.  It was a very uplifting conference for me.  One of the things that he talked about was in the Pearl of Great Price where the Lord it talking to Moses and showing him world without number and where we find out more about the creation of the Earth.   On of the scriptures that he shared was Abraham 3:24 which says "And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell."  The things that I loved the most about that scripture is that the Earth and everything around us was created for us so that we could come here and get a body and be tested.  All of this, the earth, the Creation, the Plan of Salvation, everything that Heavenly Father has done is for us.  This is all about us.  How cool of a thought is that?  That was a really comforting thing to hear last week and it has really helped me since then.  

We were also able to have a really good lesson with a family last week after the Mission Tour.  The family we went to see was Ryan and Cindy.  Elder Tanner and Elder Duffin found him while they were on exchanges ago, well it was more like he found them.  They went to try another investigator and when they got out of the car Ryan started talking to them and he ended up inviting us to come back and visit with them.  We saw them on Tuesday evening and had a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation with them.  One of the reasons that I thought it went so well was because there was a whole lot of interaction with Ryan and Cindy.  They were asking a bunch of questions and asking where the scriptures talked about the Plan of Salvation.  All of the interaction is what I thought made it so great cause there are a lot of times when we teach that our investigators give one or two word responses and say ok whenevery we teach something new.  It was great to have that interaction while we were teaching cause it helped us to build a relationship with them while we were teaching.  

We saw Jose and Angelica again a couple of times last week.  Most of the time when we go visit them we have read from the Book of Mormon to help them want to read it when we aren't there.  So last week we read 1 Nephi 4 with them and when we went back last night to follow up, Jose told us that he had finished chaper 4 and that he was reading on his own.  That was really cool to have happen!  It is gonna be a while before we get to visit them again cause Jose is going to have a heart surgery today and he will be in the hospital for most of the week.

Another cool thing that happened last week was that we were able to go and visit a bunch of people that we have had a really hard time contacting for the last couple of weeks.  There were a bunch of people who dropped off the face of the earth for a while, but they are all getting back!  It was good to be able to contact those people and find out that they have been doing ok since we last saw them.  

Well thank you guys for everything that you are doing for me!  I am having a great time out here with Elder Tanner and I love this work!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -September 8, 2014

Hey there!

I would agree with you that it seems like it was yesterday that it was P-day and we were emailing home.  It is crazy how time flies.  There isn't a whole lot that I can do to slow things down, so I figure that it is best to make the best of the time I have left.  It is crazy that it has almost been two years since I left.  I wouldn't mind staying out here a little longer, but I am sure that all of you guys are ready for me to come home.  Well too bad the Lord still has me for another 6 weeks!  

Last week contained a little bit of everything for me and Elder Tanner.  I guess that is what I should have come to expect by now.  I am starting to get really bad at remembering all of what we did the week before, but I will do my best to remember.  

Recently the Anadarko branch has been doing a 40 day fast.  If you have never heard of that before here is what it is.  So each day a member here signs up to fast for one day and fasts specifically for missionary work here in the Anadarko branch.  The goal of this is to have a different member fasting every day for 40 days straight.  It has been a really good way to get the members involved in missionary work and to help get them excited to help us with missionary work.  There have been a lot of really cool things happen because of this 40 day fast and we are only halfway through.  There have been a whole lot of miracles happen so far.  

Yesterday we had a really cool miracle happen.  Church had just gotten over for the day and Elder tanner and I were talking to some of the members, when our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Bateman, came up to us with a couple who had just walked into the church a couple of minutes earlier.  He introduced us to the couple and told us what they had told him.  This couple was Cheyenne and Cody.  We had met Cheyenne a couple of weeks earlier at the Indian Expo that was going on here.  She was working at the gate and so we saw her and talked to her every time that we went over there.  We found out that she lived in Arizona, so I really didn't think about talking to her about the church or asking if we could have missionaries come visit her.  Who would have ever thought though that Cheyenne and her husband, Cody, would have moved here to Anadarko recently.  They had just moved here and were looking for a church to go to and of all of the churches here in Anadarko, they chose to walk into our building.  It was a definitely a miracle that they walked into church at the exact time so that we could talk to them.  There are so many other ways that meeting Cheyenne and Cody at church was a miracle, but my favorite part about it was that out of everyone that Elder Philbrick gave a Book of Mormon to, (334 of them if you remember)  the only thing that we have seen come out of those 4 days at the expo was a lady that we didn't "force" the church or the Book of Mormon on.   

Like I said earlier by the time P-day come I have a whole lot of trouble remembering what happened at the beginning of last week.  So that is really all for my email this week.  I will probably write you a letter later today with some of the other things that we did last week.  I really am sorry that my memory is turning into mush and I can't remember anything.  

I hope that you all have a great week!  I love you guys!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -September 1, 2014

Hey!

Well things have been going pretty well for Elder Tanner and I out here in Anadarko.  Last week was a slower week for us and we weren't able to get as much done as we would have liked to.  Elder Tanner and I both got sick last week which caused us to be stuck inside way more then we would have liked to.  There was a lot more that we would have like to do, but there is only so much you can do when your sick.

So since we were sick most of last week there isn't a whole lot to tell you about, but I will do my best to let you know what has been happening.  Last week I told you a little about our lesson with Dayton and Veeda.  So we weren't able to set up another appointment with them until September 12, but we stopped by last week to follow up and see how there reading from the Book of Mormon was going and if they had been praying.  Dayton was at work so we didn't see him, but we Talked with Veeda for a couple of minutes and she had read all of 1 Nephi and she said she had been praying about the Book of Mormon.  It was really cool to hear that she had been doing that.  

You guys are getting pretty good at keeping track of when transfers happen.  It probably makes it really easy that transfers here are a week after Shannon's transfers.  Either way transfers are gonna happen here this week.  We found out last night what will happen next transfer and my entire District is going to be staying together.  So I am going to finish my mission here in Anadarko, and Elder Tanner is going to be my last mission companion.  It is kinda hard to think that this is going to be my last transfer as a missionary.  It seems like it was a week ago that I was sitting in the mission van thinking that two years seemed like forever.  I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life as a missionary, but it has all gone by too quickly.

Well I think that is everything for this week.  Thanks for all that you guys are doing for me.  I love all of you!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -August 25, 2014

Hey!

Well things sound like they are finally starting to go better now that school has started again.  Well for mom and dad they are probably going better.  It is crazy to think how old everyone is getting.  The day might actually come that there won't be anyone living at home with mom and dad.  What would you guys do with all those bedrooms then?  Notice that I did use the word might.  

It is good to hear that Zander and Ian have been getting along so well.  I think that Ian is going to be a really good missionary.  He will probably end up learning another language.  I decided last night that when I get home Ian and Rolando are going to become my new companions and I am going to study with them every morning and help them prepared to serve missions.  I will make sure that they know what the 8 Fundementals of Preach My Gospel are, and all of the other fun stuff you learn as a missionary!  They will be pros before they even leave.  I wonder what they are going to think about that.  

Well I guess since mom is dying to know about what I have been doing this entire past week I can tell you guys.  Last week was a really diferent week for us.  We had a lot harder week then we have had in the past.  It wasn't harder as in Elder Tanner and I got in an argument, or we weren't able to get out and work due to sickness.  Satan was just working really hard this past week to stop the work.  Although Satan was working hard to get the work to stop we still had a good week.  We saw a lot of miracles.  

On Wednesday we were having a not so great day, but we kept working hard and it paid off at the end of the day.  To finish off the day we decided to go visit Alfredo, an investigator that we hadn't been able to see in a couple of weeks.  We got out to Alfredo's house and he was actually there this time!  I was pretty excited about that because we were able to teach him a lesson.  Alfredo is such an awesome kid and all of the lessons that we have had have been very spiritual.  So on Wednesday evening we read through 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Like always we had a great lesson and Alfredo committed to keep reading the Book of Mormon and we set a baptismal date with him for September 21st.  

Friday was a significantly better day for us as well.  We had exchanges with the other Elders here in the branch.  There always seems to be a lot of miracles when we go on exchanges and Friday was no different.  We had an appointment with a potential investigator, Dayton.  So going back a week earlier to August 15th we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders which is when we found Dayton.  So we got to Dayton's home and he invited us inside.  Just before we started the lesson I felt prompted to ask Dayton to invite his wife to come in and be there for the lesson and he did.  We taught Dayton and Veeda about the Restoration of the Gospel.  Both Dayton and Veeda were very open and were really interested in the lesson because they had both wondered why there were so many churches on the earth, along with a whole lot of other questions that the church has answers to.  Dayton and Veeda both committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and they committed to be baptized on October 19th.  I always love getting to go teach someone about the Restoration and invite them to be baptized, so this visit was no different!  =D  That was another miracle that we were able to be a part of last week.  

Well I think that is about all for this week!  Tell the kids to be good and do their homework.  Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.  It really does help.  I love you guys!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -August 18, 2014

Hey!

So where to even start?  So I guess just like every other week there was a whole lot of stuff that happened, but also like every other week by the time Monday comes around I can hardly remember what we did yesterday.  I will try my best to fill you in on the entire last week, but it might not be very good.  

Last week one of the miracles that Elder Tanner and I saw were with two different people.  One of them was an investigator, Ray, and the other was with a potential investigator, Elaura.  We had been trying to have a lesson with both of them for a couple of weeks now, but we were having no success in contacting either of these people so we were about ready to drop both of them if we didn't get in contact with them that day.  We went over and tried to see Ray first, and he was there sitting on his front porch just like he was the first day we met him!  He said he was busy that day and that we couldn't talk to his right then, but as we were walking away he yelled at us and told us that he really liked the "native" aspect to the gospel, and that he wanted us to come back over with a member of the church that he had met.  Then right after Ray we walked down the street to Elaura's home and knocked on her door.  She opened the door!  The other times that she had talked to us she would just tell us it wasn't a good time and to come back later, but that day she talked to us more and told us that she was sorry that we kept missing her at home, but that she really did want to come up to church with us and meet with us to find out more about the church.  So all of that turned out really well! 

One of the other cool things that we saw last week was with a less active member.  So I don't know if I told you about this last week, but we ran into a less active member of the church here in Anadarko a couple weeks ago while we were in pizza hut one evening.  This less active, Andrea, moved down here to Anadarko from Woodward last December time.  Well at first thought, I didn't think that I knew who Andrea was because I had never met her before and I didn't recognize her name, but after talking with her and getting to know her better, I figured out the she is the same Andrea that Elder Birch and I spent so many hours trying to find (on top of all the time the Egnews spent trying to find her).  Who would have ever thought that we would have finally found her 8 month after I left Woodward in a small town in the middle of no where.  It is really crazy how it all worked out and I can say that I know it was the Lord that provided a way for us to finally find her.  

Well thanks for everything that you guys do for me!  Have a great week everyone!

Love Elder Woodward

Andarko, Oklahoma -August 11, 2014

Hey!

We were able to spend a lot more time out working last week since both of the rashes that we had are gone.  Last week we had the American Indian Expo here in Anadarko.  I called it an expo because that is technically what it is, but it was very similar to the Cache Valley Fair, it was focused more towards the American Indians though.  The Senior couple here talked to whoever was in charge of it and were able to arrange for us to have a booth at the expo, so we got to spend a couple of hours each day working at the booth.  We had a lot of success come from it and we were able to contact a couple of people who seemed really interested in learning more about the church.  We had a lot more success with people who were visiting and live somewhere else, but there were still a lot of people from Anadarko.  So we should be able to get a couple of new investigators from the booth.  Over the four days that the expo was going we (mostly Elder Philbrick) gave out somewhere around 300 copies of the Book of Mormon.  So it did turn out to be very successful.

We did spend a lot of our time away from the booth and got to go visit a couple of our investigators as well.  We still haven't been able to go and see Sarah since she came to church several weeks ago.  We are still going out to try and visit her since she still has a baptismal date for the 31st, but we haven't been able to make contact with her.  She has been really busy the past couple of weeks, but we are determined to visit with her again!  We were able to have a lesson with Trevor and his Sister last week.  I probably haven't told you much about Trevor yet.  So Trevor has been meeting with the missionaries for 4 or 5 months now and taking the discussions.  Right about the time that I got here to Anadarko Trevor's sister, Tillie, came up from Florida to visit.  Just before Tillie came up here she was meeting with missionaries there and got baptized.  Trevor and Tillie didn't know that the other were meeting with the missionaries until after Tillie was baptized.  Anyways, so when Tillie came to visit, which was right when I got here, Trevor decided that he was going to go back to Florida with his sister to get away from the negative influences he had here.  That is probably why I haven't told you about Trevor yet. So after a short time, Tillie decided that she was going to move back here to Oklahoma, and so Trevor came back with her so we started to teach Trevor again.  Last week we had a really good lesson with Trevor and Tillie about the Priesthood and why we need the Priesthood on the earth.  We taught this lesson using the Gospel Principles manual, which actually turned out to be very good for both Trevor and Tillie.

One of the other cool miracle that we saw this past week was with a less active member that we met when we went to eat at Pizza Hut a couple weeks ago.  So as it turns out this less active, Andrea, is actually a less active that lived up in the Woodward Branch while I was serving up there.  I don't remember ever actually meeting her while I was up there.  Andrea ended up moving down here to Anadarko last December which nobody knew about because her records weren't moved here.  We went over and visited with her and she was very open and she told us that she really wanted to start going back to church.  It was really cool to run into her and have some common things to talk about.

I hope that you all have a great week!  Talk to you guys soon!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -August 4, 2014

Hey!

It sounds like things have been going good for everyone back home!  It is good to hear that Darcy's ankle is doing better and that she will be able to help kick some Sparta butt this week!  

Things here in Anadarko have been going pretty well for us.  The work continues to roll forward, and we are seeing a lot of miracles every day.  Missionary work is a whole lot of fun!  I love being able to be out here in Oklahoma to do the Lord's work.

This past past week brought with it a whole bunch of different things.  Durning the week it felt like things were going super slow, but now as I look back at our week I can see it went by really fast.  Our week was filled with a whole bunch of different things, but the were all good and all a lot of fun!

So one of the most exciting things from last week was when we got to go up to the Oklahoma City Temple with the rest of our Zone.  It is always a lot of fun going up to the temple.  We went up to the Temple last Wednesday.  Not a whole lot more that I can say about that.  I can say that it was great to get to go to the House of the Lord and spend time inside the Temple and have questions that I have had answered.  It was great!  After we got finished in the Temple we went right across the street to the church building there to have our Specialized Training for our Zone.  The Zone Leaders had another awesome training prepared for us.  Last month out STM was about ABC, or Attitude, Believe, and Courage.  That training was all about changing ourselves and our areas into what the Lord wants us to be and what our areas should be.  This month the STM was about Anchoring ourselves in Christ and trusting in Him.  For this training the Zone Leaders made it 1 2 3.  Get it?  ABC easy as 1 2 3.  Thank you Jackson 5 for providing our trainings for us........  We have been really focusing on changing ourselves so that we can become the person the Lord wants us to be.  

So I guess so you already brought up homecoming talks I'm ok with whatever day they want me to speak.  I figure whichever day it is I speak I will probably wait until the day before to prepare.  That part of me still hasn't changed.  Just let me know what the plan is.  

Well thanks for everything!  You are all great!

Love, Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -July 28, 2014

Hey!  

Well it is now official.  The Sisters are gone and the Elders are here.  That is really all I have to say about that.  The change isn't as different as I thought it would be, but it is different.  As get further into this transfer I should be able to tell you about some of the other stuff that will change.  

So this past week was fun.  You remember me telling you about Elder Tanners rash.  Well his is just about taken care of and gone, just in time for a rash of my own to show up.  I don't know if I got it from him or from something else, but it is driving me crazy!  It itches so bad all of the time.  Luckily it hasn't spread to my entire body like Elder Tanner's rash did.  It is mostly confined to my right leg, which is probably the worst place it could be cause I have slacks rubbing up against it all day long.  Oh well enought about the rash.  I'm sure none of you want to know about that anyways.

So recently (by recently I mean yesterday)  I have had a huge desire to know more about Native American culture and how it ties into the gospel.  The reason that this came up is because yesterday there was a member visiting from out of town who served his mission here in Oklahoma and served here in Anadarko for 14 month.  (I will call him Brandon, because that is what his name is.)  See look I can have Dad's weird sense of humor as well.  I must be related to him in some way.  Anyways back to what I was saying.  So Brandon served here in Anadarko for 14 months and got to know a lot about Native American culture and he said that because he did that it really helped him while he was serving in this area because he was better able to relate to the people who live here.  So as you probably remember there are seven distinct Native American tribes living here in the Anadarko area, all of which are literal descendants of the Lamanites.  Remember it says that in the introduction to the Book of Mormon?  If you don't remember that you need to read the introduction again.  It was really cool to get to hear from him about all of the relations between the church and Native American Culture.  Maybe if I am able to learn more about it I will share some of what I learned when I get home.  I guess the main thing that I wanted to get at from this is that from the things I learned yesterday from Brandon is that a lot of what I he said "screams" at me that Christ DID come here to America and teach the people that lived here.  There are so many relationships between the church and the Native American culture.  The only way that they could have known these things is because Jesus Christ was here.  There is no way on this earth that I could ever deny the truthfulness of the gospel.  Although a lot of missionaries here look at Anadarko as the "dark hole" of the mission I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve here and the things that I have learned.

Things have been going well for Elder Tanner and I here in Anadarko.  Last week was a little slower then some of the other week that we have had in the past.  We still saw a lot of miracle happen though.  Last Wednesday we talked to a guy named Chris and it was a planning miracle that we saw.  On Tuesday evening as we were planning for the next day Elder Tanner and I felt like we needed to go try and visit the recent convert that the Sisters wanted us to start working with once they left the area since the recent convert actually lives in our area.  (I will call her Lisa, because that is what her name is.)  So Elder Tanner and I went to try Lisa, and she wasn't home so we walked back behind her house and got distracted by an old abandoned extra large covered garage behind Lisa's house.  That wasn't where the miracle happened though.  So as we were leaving the covered garage thing we found to go back to our car, an old lady across the street yelled at us and asked us where we were going.  We didn't have anything happening right away so we went over an talked to her.  Over at her house was her grandson Chris who recently became a Christian.  So while Elder Tanner took on the old lady and the moving worker guy there at the house, I talked to Chris.  Elder Tanner said it was a good thing that I was talking to Chris because the worker was saying a bunch a weird and not true stuff that he had heard about the church.  While I was talking with Chris we talked a little about the church and what makes it different from other churches and so naturally I brought up the Book of Mormon.  Chris was really interested in the Book of Mormon and how is was about "Gods dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas."  When we told him about when Christ came here to America he got a "what did you just say" look on his face.  So we told him a little more about what Christ did when he was here.  Chris was super excited and he wanted to read about Christ coming here, so we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and marked 3 Nephi 11 for him.  It was cool to see how our planning the night before lead us to be able to find Chris.

Thank you all for everything that you do for me!  Have a great week everyone!

Love,  Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -July 21, 2014

Hey!

Things out here in Oklahoma sure have been really crazy over the past week.  We have had a lot of good stuff happen and a lot of not so good things as well.  As you know transfers have come around again and we had a lot of surprising changes here in our District.  Nothing is going to change for Elder Tanner and I.  We will be here in Anadarko for at least another transfer.  The surprise came Sunday morning when the Sisters told us what was happening with them.  President Walkenhorst called them at 10:40pm  on Saturday and told both Sister Hirschi and Sister Safley that they were going to get transfered.  If it wasn't bad enough to hear that we were losing both of our Sisters it was definitely bad to hear they were being replaced by Elders.  Not that having Elders is going to be an entirely bad thing, but our branch president here has had some REALLY bad experiences with Elders in the past and now we are going to have two sets of Elders. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen with the branch when we get another set of Elders.  Anyways so that is the news with transfers.  It is going to be a really big change not having the Sisters around anymore.  Oh well this is what President felt like would be good.  We had better be getting some dang good Elders here or I will be so ticked!

Besides all of the crazy dumb things happening with transfers, Elder Tanner and I had a pretty good week.  We were able to have a couple more lessons with Sarah last week which both went really well.  The first lesson we had with her was on Tuesday.  We were able to get a Sister in the branch, Sister Blanchard, to come to that lesson with us.  Sister Blanchard turned out to be a great fellowshipper for Sarah.  They started talking right away and got along really well.  So at our lesson with Sarah on Tuesday we read through 2 Nephi 31 and talked a lot about baptism and why it is important.  I don't know exactly at which point Sarah said this, but one of her comments during the lesson was that she would probably need to be re-baptized.  You could definitely tell the Spirit was there working on her in order for her to feel like she needed to be baptized again.  We invited Sarah to be baptized on August 31st and she said that she would prepare for that day.  So then when we set up a return appointment we planned to have it at the church building so we could have a church tour so she could be familiar with the church before she came.  Then on Thursday we were able to have the Church tour with her.  It was an almost perfect time to have the church tour with her.  It was great to get her to the church and show her around.  The Spirit was there and it was really strong!  Then yesterday Sarah and some of her family came out to church.  It was great to get to see them there because it shows that they are truely committed and the really are interested in learning more about the church.  There were a lot of miracles with Sarah this week.

We weren't able to have another lesson with Shannon because she got sick and still isn't feeling better.  She can't be sick forever though so we will be able to get to see her soon.

One of the other really good lessons that we had last week was last night.  We had gone to a small town about 10 miles North of Anadarko to do some work up there.  We went to try two potential investigators, Brooke and Krissy, who ended up becoming investigators.  We had a lesson with them about the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  It ended up being a really good lesson.  They both committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  We shoule be making a trip back up there on Tuesday to visit with them again.  

So that is about all from me.  It was a fun week!  Thanks for all that you guys do for me.  Be safe and don't do anything dumb.  

Love, Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -July 14, 2014

Hey there everyone!

It sounds like everything at home is going just as it should be.  It didn't sound like there has been anything that has really changed.  It is probably a good thing that Dad hasn't had Gislene and Zander doing any work out at the farm.  Who knows though, they could do a really good job at gathering the eggs.  It is probably just a better idea to let them play DS and watch movies instead of finding out what would happen in Dad let them try to do something.  

It is good to hear that everything is going well up in Canada as well.  Like always there is something happening with soccer.  I don't know what would happen if the family tried to go an entire week without having to do anything with soccer.  That would probably be a sign that the end of the world is coming.  Good luck to Darcy and Emmie at their next soccer camp later on this week.

This past week was very different from other weeks for Elder Tanner and I.  I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but when we were doing some service for a member a couple weeks ago Elder Tanner ended up getting some sort of spider bite on his arm.  At first it didn't start out to bad but a couple days later his wrist around the bite got swollen and the bite area started turning black.  Needless to say there was something wrong.  So this week we went to the doctors they gave him some stuff for the spider bite and we left.  To go along with the bite, he started to develop a rash from something.  So the reason that I am telling you all of this is because of everything that happened it prevented us from being able to go out and work as much.  When we were out working Elder Tanner's rash would get really itchy and start to ooze stuff so on the doctors orders we spent a whole lot of time in the house we live at out of the heat so things would get better.  Things have started to get better with his rash.  So the only things that we were really able to do this week was go to set appointments where we wouldn't be outside in the heat.  Other then set appointments we didn't get out much.  The Lord definitely blessed us yesterday though.  

So like I said we only went to set appointments and so we had a couple of appointments yesterday that we went to and saw a lot of miracle with them.  The first one was with our investigator Sarah.  We ended up finding Sarah and her family while we were out visiting a different potential and Elder Tanner and I saw her and the family sitting on the porch looking at us, so we decided to go over and talk to them.  They told us that when they saw us on the other man's porch they thought we were the FBI.  We have been going back to visit them pretty regularly, but we have mostly only been able to talk with Sarah.  Anyways, so yesterday when we went over to see Sarah she invited us inside and she had all of her family there the sit in on the lesson.  Then she had also sent her significant other to get one of their elderly friends who asked if she could come over for the lesson as well.  So I think total we had 9 or 10 people at the lesson not including us.  It was really cool.  Elder Tanner and I taught them about the Plan of Salvation.  Almost all of Sarah's family was involved and paying attention.  Out of however many people were there we counted three of them as new investigators mainly because they were the ones we had seen the most often.  We are definitely planning on working with the entire family because the Branch out here could really use a new family in the branch.  Elder Tanner and I both feel like they are so prepared to hear the gospel.

The other miracle that we saw yesterday was with another investigator named Shannon.  Shannon is someone that we met on the 4th of July because of the booth that we had set up.  Shannon is another person that we feel is really prepared to hear the gospel.  Yesterday was the second time that we had gone to see Shannon.  She wasn't a new investigator yet because the first time we went over we spent some time getting to know her.  Anyways, so we saw her yesterday and taught her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  The reason we feel she is really prepared is because shortly after she came and talked to us at the booth her sister started to share a whole bunch of anti Mormon literature and normally when something like that happens is when people tell us they don't want us to come over.  With Shannon though pretty much the exact oppostie of that happened.  Shannon told us that after her sister read her all of the anti mormon stuff she told her sister that she didn't want to hear that stuff because she wanted to go straight to the source (us) to find out what we believe.  So that was a miracle in and of itself but ontop of that she has  a really sincere desire to know if this is true.  She kept reiterating how much she wanted to know if this was true throughout the lesson.  We have another appointment with Shannon on Thursday and I definitely feel like if she reads and prays between now and then she can have an answer about if this is Christ's restored church.

So just yesterday we were able to get four new investigators and two member present lessons.  That was a miracle for sure because of the slow week we had had due to what happened with Elder Tanner.  Heavenly Father was blessing us for having done everything we could throughout the week to do missionary work despite having had to stay inside for most of it.  

Things have been going really well for us!  We are enjoying our time here in Anadarko.  Thanks for everything that you guys do for me!  I will let you know what happens next week with transfers.  Thanks again.

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -July 7, 2014

Hey!

Things sure sound like they have been a lot of fun for everyone over the past week.  Darcy and Emmie get to go play soccer all week.  Ian and Mom get to go watch the girls play soccer and not worry about anything else.  Rolando, Gislene, and Zander will want to sit and watch TV for a week straight.  Braeden will sit and play xbox.  So I guess that leaves Dad to do everything else at home.  I think that Dad got the short end of the stick this time around.  You might want to at least flip a coin to see who takes the girls to the soccer camp next time Dad.

So now to give you an update on my week.  We had a really good week out here in Anadarko.  We had a lot of fun things happen.  Friday July 4th was probably the most exciting day of the week.  Obviously the 4th of July is always a fun day, but I thought this year was a really fun day.  We were able to talk to the lady who was in charge of everything for the 4th of July here in Anadarko and got a booth set up at the park where everything was going to be taking place.  We spent most of our day down there and got to talk to a lot of people.  We had a really good day doing that.  We got a couple of potential investigators from it, but more important then that was that we got to talk with a lot of people.  At one point during the day Elder Tanner and I even got to help sign people in for the annual turtle race.  Then to end the day we got to stay out until 11 that night so that we could watch some fireworks.  It was nice to be able to get to do that.  

One of the other things that we were able to do last week was go see an investigator named Alfredo.  He is a really good kid that we have been able to work with over the last couple of weeks.  We were able to teach him a lesson about the restoration of the gospel.  We had a really good lesson with him and he seemed to be able to understand all of what we taught him.  I feel like he does have a sincere desire to do what is right.  At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is true, and when he prayed with us there he actually asked right there if it was true.  That was really cool to have happen, because as far as I can remember, that is the first time I have had an investigator pray and ask if something was true while we were there with them.  That was nice to have happen.  So we are really excited to get to keep working with him. 

So this past week we were able to get out to a couple of the outlying towns in our area and do some work out there.  We didn't get to spend too much time out and away from Anadarko, but the time we did get out was good.  We saw a lot of good things happen.

Well I think that that is about all for us this week.  Thank you for everything that you guys do for me!  Have a great week everyone and be safe!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -June 30, 2014

Hey there everyone!

Today I am going to be emailing you from Lawton instead of Anadarko since it is Zone P-day.  It just ended up being easier for us to come down here and email since we were going to have to be here in a couple of hours anyways.  

Anyways... So like I said today is our Zone P-day and then this evening we have a Specialized Training Meeting (STM) for the Zone.  Pretty much what an STM is is a meeting for the Zone that the Zone Leaders organize on what they feel like we can work on as a Zone.  I'm pretty sure that they just call it an STM to give it a special name to make it sound fancy.  They are usually really good and I have actually learned a lot from most of them.  

So I guess you are all a lot more interested in what happened last week then what is going to happen later today.  Last week was another pretty good one for Elder Tanner and I in Anadarko.  We were able to contact quite a few of our investigators, but for as many as we were able to contact, we had just as many as we weren't able to get a hold of.  Some of our investigators are doing really well and making a lot of progress.  

So as you may recall last Sunday Zoey got baptized, so yesterday in sacrament meeting she got confirmed.  It was a really exciting day.  Her brother Gerald, who got baptized about a month ago, got back and was able to be there when Zoey was confirmed.  I am sure that Zoey was really excited that Gerald was back when she got confirmed because I know that she really wanted him there when she got baptized.  So it was exciting to get to be here to see Zoey get baptized.  The other exciting thing that happened yesterday was that the Sisters who are also serving in the Anadarko Branch had one of their investigators, Lisa, get baptized after church.  Satan must have been working really hard to try and stop Lisa from getting baptized, because as Lisa was standing in the church parking lot waiting for her family to get to the church someone pulled up in their car and gave her a bunch of anti-Mormon stuff and tried to convince her not to get baptized.  She didn't listen to them though.  

So one of the other cool things that happened this past week was that we had another lesson with Cody and Debbie.  Debbie is part of a part member family, and Cody is Debbie's friend.  Debbie was born into the church, but hasn't been in a really long time.  So this past week we were able to have a lesson with both of them about the restoration.  Most of the lesson we were just with Cody cause Debbie was busy, but it still went really well.  Cody and Debbie have both committed to be baptized on July 20th, so we are working with them to help them prepare for that day.  So after the lesson we invited them to come to church and told them that we would find a ride for them.  Cody ended up going out to Chickasha Saturday evening so he wasn't able to make it to church, but Debbie did get up and come to church yesterday which says a lot about her because the rest of her family has no desire to do anything.  So I have been pretty excited to get to work with both of them.  Another cool thing is that we are finding out a lot of things that we didn't know before we starting teaching Cody.  Probably the coolest thing though would be that Cody is the nephew of Thomas, and Thomas is Gerald and Zoey's step dad.  So that has helped us to be able to keep in contact with Cody and I would say it has also really helped Debbie.  

So that is part of what we did last week.  We did a whole lot more, but it is hard to remember everything that we did, and even if I did remember everything it would take me forever to type it all because I am super slow at typing.  Thank you all for everything that you do for me!  I appreciate all of it! 

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -June 23, 2014

Hey!

Things have been going pretty well for me out here in Anadarko.  We have had a pretty good week and seen a lot of good things come from hard work.  I think that I probably forgot to tell you about this last week mostly because it slipped my mind, but we ended up having an investigator get baptized after church on Sunday.  Her name is Zavondra, but we will call her Zoey for short.  The Sister missionaries were supposed to have an investigator get baptized yesterday as well, but they moved it back to next week so that their investigators family could be there to see her get baptized.  So it just ended up being Zoey that got baptized yesterday.  Since I have only been here a little over a week I can't really tell you a whole lot about Zoey, cause I didn't get to do a lot of the teaching or really anything.  I did get to have to worry about making sure everything was ready for her baptism after church though.  That was really stressful.  I have already decided that I am not a big fan of preparing for a baptism during church on Sunday, but that is what the Branch Presidency likes so that is what we get to do.  

Last Friday was a pretty cool day as well.  We were out on exchanges with the Zone leaders for the day and saw a couple of miracles happen.  The one that I thought was probably the coolest was with a man named Ross.  Elder Holman and I went out to try a couple of investigators and potential investigators on the south side of town.  The first person that we went to try out there was a couple named Mike and Carol.  Well as it turns out some missionary in the past wrote down the wrong house address for Mike and Carol, and I had never met them before, so Elder Holman and I ended up going to the wrong house.  It turned out to be a good thing though.  There was a guy standing in the driveway of the house we had gone to and we asked if he was Mike.  Elder Holman and I both thought that he said he was Mike so we went up to talk to him.  It turns out that this was actually Ross not Mike.  Before we knew that this wasn't Mike we asked him about having talked with some other missionaries and asked how he liked it and so on.  I can't remember at which point we found out who he really was, but as it turns out Ross actually had talked with missionaries up in Edmond about a year ago. So it was really cool that even though we ended up going and talking to the wrong person it turned out to be a good experience and we were able to get a new potential investigator from it.  

So overall we had a good week.  We had a lot of fun and got a lot of work done.  

Thank you for everything that you do for me!  Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Anadarko, Oklahoma -June 16, 2014

Hey there everyone!

So lots of exciting things have been happening here in Oklahoma!  Transfers, new area, new companion, new district, new missionaries.  How many new things are there going to be each transfer?  It is ok though because I really needed to have some things change. 

It really sounds like things have been going well since the wedding got over.  I am still waiting for that tie that Kelsey said she was going to send to me to wear so I could at least somewhat feel like she thought about me during all the wedding excitement.  I did get the pictures that you sent through email. They all looked very nice.  Braeden could have used a haircut before the wedding though.  It is really exciting to have another sister married.  Luckily at this point I won't have to worry about missing and nephews or neices being born without me.

Things sound like they are going well with soccer.  I didn't know that Darcy and Emmie were going to be playing on two teams.  That is really exciting though.  They are definitely good enough to be playing at that level though.  I will just let you know right now that you won't have to update me on the France Honduras match that happened yesterday.  We went to visit a family we have been working with and we got there just before the end of the game.  TV can be such a big distraction as a missionary.  I don't know if I have ever said that before, but it really can be a distraction.

Ok now to answer all of your questions about everything.  So my new companion's name is Elder David Tanner.  He came out to the mission the same time that Elder Birch did so he has been out for a little over 10 months now.  He lives in Centerville and went to Viewmont with Elder Birch.  I was just showing him pictures of Kelsey's wedding and he knows Uncle Gary.  So that was pretty cool.  He has only been here in Anadarko for one transfer so he is still pretty new to the area.  Elder Tanner is a great missionary!  I have really enjoyed getting to work with him so far.  We are going to have a really good transfer. 

Anadarko  is a really great area!  It is definitely different then the other areas I have served in.  There are a lot of Native Americans that live in this area.  One of the members here said that there are seven different distinct Native American tribes living here in the Anadarko area.  It has been really cool.  There are a lot of other reasons that this is a special area to be in.  Satan is really working hard in Anadarko to stop the work from progressing and a good amount of it comes from the perspective that is spread around the mission about Anadarko.  At transfers I heard so many negative things about Anadarko from other missionaries, but I have yet to see any of those things.  Anadarko is a great area though!  There are so many good things that are going on here.  There are so many things I want to tell you about the area, but they are all so special that it would be hard to do over and email.  I can tell you though that the Lord has an amazing plan for this area and that is why Satan is working so hard here to stop that work from progressing.  I really can tell that there are great things that are going to happen.  

So last night I had a pretty cool experience at the end of the evening that I thought you might like to hear about.  So since I am District Leader every Sunday evening I call the other companionships in the District and get their numbers for the key indicators from the past week.  In our case here there is only one other companionship that is in our district so I called the Sisters and got their numbers.  So after I had all of the district's numbers I called to Zone Leaders to report numbers to them.  I started out by telling them the goals that our district had set for the upcoming transfer and when I gave them the Sister's transfer goals they asked me what I thought about their goal for how many members presents the Sisters had thought the could get.  I told them I thought the Sisters goal could have been higher so on and so forth with the conversation until the Zone Leaders suggested that I should think about calling the Sisters and tell them that as their District Leader I thought that they could do better then the goal they had set and to maybe rethink their goal and possibly set a new one, or I could do what I had thought of doing and just encourage them throughout the transfer and try to help them exceed their goal.  It seemed kinda like the Zone Leaders wanted me to go with the first option to try and get them to reset their goal, but I didn't really feel good about that and it wasn't what I wanted to do, so I told the ZL's that I was just going to engourage the Sister to exceed that.  I really felt like that was the best solution and that is what would get the best results.  After I told the Zone Leaders this Elder White spoke up and told me that they both had felt the Spirit testify to them that that was the right desision to make.  I thought it was quite amazing how it all worked out and to have been able to see that the Spirit was there to help me decide what to do.  I am so grateful that I had the Spirit to help guide me to make the right choice.  

Things went well for Elder Tanner and I this week.  We were able to see quite a few of our invesitgators and some of the other people we have been working with.  We had several experiences where we saw that being in the right place at the right time was an answer to prayer.  We had a lot of good lessons and good visits.  I am really enjoying this area! Like I have already said there are a lot of good things happening!

Thank you for all that you guys do for me!  I hope you all have a great week with soccer, work and everything else you are going to do!  Be safe.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward