Mustang, Oklahoma -May 27, 2014

Hey there everyone!

Things sound like they are going great and everyone is doing well with the anticipation of everything that is going to happen over the next couple of weeks.  It is always exciting to hear about everything that is going on for the family.  It will defiantly be interesting to hear what will be happening with soccer for Darcy and Emmie, so I am sure that you will keep us updated.  Everything sounds like it is going well and you are all enjoying the begining of your summer break.  Be sure to keep working hard though and help Mom and Dad around the house.  

Not very much has changed for me this past week here in Mustang.  We have been making very little progress in our area and are still having as hard a time as ever finding new people to teach.  we are also having as hard a time as ever finding ways to keep ourselves busy.  I think we will probably just need to do more tracting outside in the pouring rain and pray that someone will take compassion on us and let us in.  That shouldn't be too hard to do tracting in the rain since it has been raining for the past 4 days.  Now we just need to start doing the tracting.  We are still going out and are doing everything that we can to meet with the people that we have been working with and help them progress, but there isn't much we can do when we can't even get in contact with them.  It is almost to the point where I am ready to just erase everything off of our white board and start over again.  It wouldn't be too much erasing cause there isn't very much there right now.  We will see what happens this next week though.  

So we have know this for a while now, but the Mustang 1st ward is going to be getting a set of Sister missionaries this next transfer.  The part that we didn't know about was which area they were going to be put in or any of the logistics actually, but after interviews with President this morning we are pretty sure they are going to get put in the East area which is where I am.  So this will now mark the second time that I will be getting replaced by sisters if everything happens the way we think it will.  So I guess there will be more news on what is going to happen with that in a future email.  It won't surprise me at all if sister do end up getting moved into my area.

So that is really about all that happened last week.  We just been hoping and praying to see a miracle happen here.  Actually I am just really hoping that we will see anything good happen here at this point.  Last week was really discouraging for me because it was such a slow week with numbers, and we spent most of it having no success.  But we are looking forward to this upcoming week and looking forward for a miracle to happen.  

Life is good!  Getting to be a missionary and serve the Lord is great!  Thank you all for everything that you do.  Someone find a way to sabotage Kelsey's wedding so that it can be moved back to November!   In fact I might be willing to bribe someone to do that and I am sure Shannon would go in on this bribe as well.  Ok maybe not sabotage it, but get it moved back to November.  Thanks again!  I love you guys!

Love Elder Woodward

Mustang, Oklahoma -May 19, 2014

Hey!

Well things are going good with the missionary work.  There hasn't been a whole lot that has happened for Elder Faulkner and I this past week.  Probably the most exciting event was our trip to the ER on Friday for Elder Faulkner.  Thursday morning Elder Faulkner woke up not feeling very well, so we didn't get to go out and work at all on Thursday, then by Friday morning he wasn't feeling any better, so we got to make a trip to the ER to get him all taken care of.  He is doing a lot better now so we should be able to get out and do some more work this week.  So because of Elder Faulkner getting sick we weren't able to do any work on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.  That put a real damper on our week, but oh well that is life sometimes.  

We were able to get out and have short visits with a couple of our investigators at the beginning of last week.  We weren't able to have any lessons though and we didn't get any new investigators either.  So overall last week was a rough one.  It has been really hard over the past couple of weeks because we haven't been having a whole lot of success with finding new investigators or really even teaching anyone.  There just isn't a whole lot that is happening for us right now.  I don't know what it is, but is seems like no matter what we try or what we do things are just steadily going downhill for us.  Hopefully we will start to see some changes happen this next week or it will be another tough one.  

Lois is still doing really well.  She has still been coming to church every week since she got baptized and she is fitting into the ward very well.  She is getting a lot of good support from everyone in the ward.  She is defiantly enjoying everything that she has been getting to do.  

Well I think that is about all for this week.  There isn't too much of an update on things that have happened.  We are looking forward to another week and for goo things to start happening.  Thank you for everything!

Love Elder Woodward

Mustang, Oklahoma -May 12, 2014

Well it was great to get to talk to all of you yesterday!  There has been quite a bit change over the past 19 months.  One thing has remained constant though.  Zander still wants to do nothing but play my PSP.  

So there isn't much of an update this week since I told you pretty much everything that has been happening recently.  I am still alive, which is a good thing.  Life has stayed pretty much the same for me out here.  The work is going great though!  We are defiantly keeping busy.  

Well I think that is about all.  I love all of you! Even if you are a pain.  

Love Elder Woodward

Mustang, Oklahoma -May 5, 2014

Hey everyone!

It is good to hear that things are going well at home.  There is always something to keep the Woodward family busy and occupied.  I can't believe that you let Gislene have that much Wasabi on her food.  I bet that her reaction to tasting the wasabi was priceless.  I really would have liked to see that.  Back when I was in Wichita Falls with Elder Kahawaii, the bishop's family has some sushi at their house with wasabi and he thought it would be a good idea to put an entire spoonful of wasabi on top of a piece of sushi.  Oh boy that was a really funny day!  I am sure Gislene's reaction was really funny though.  You should get a bunch of wasabi sauce and tell all of the kids that it is ice cream then give them all a bunch.  That would be fun.  

Things this past week have been pretty good.  They weren't always the best, but we made it through and are looking forward to another great week!  There hasn't been a whole lot of change from last week.  Our investigator, Jeff, hasn't made a whole lot of progress.  He is still having a big holdup with how the priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith.  His concern is mostly with Peter, James, and John being resurrected beings, and he wants to know why Christ didn't just come to restore the priesthood himself.  So I have just been lost on how to help him overcome these concerns.  At least he hasn't brought up anything about women not being able to hold the priesthood.  That would make things a lot of fun.  

Other then Jeff we were able to go see one other investigator this past week.  Her name is Tammy.  Elder Faulkner and I are really excited to get to start working with her.  Elder Faulkner and Elder Gunderson found her one day when I was on an exchange, so all that I had to go off of was what Elder Faulkner had told me.  We went over on Thursday evening and sat outside with her.  She had read through the Restoration pamphlet that we had left with her a couple of days before so she had some questions for us about what she read.  She had gotten a couple of misconceptions about what she had read, so we cleared those up for her.  One of the things that she thought after she read through the pamphlet was that the Book of Mormon replaced the Bible, so we explained that it didn't replace the bible or anything like that.  She told us that the Book of Mormon wasn't meant to replace the Bible made so much more sense to her and that she would really like to read the Book of Mormon, so we left her with a copy.  We will defiantly be going over to see her later on this week.

I am doing really well.  I am still trying to get a long with Elder Garner, but that is just how things go I guess.  I am still alive and well though.  Missionary work is great!  I love every minute of it!  

I will just send a separate email to try and figure everything out with Skype for Mothers Day.  You can defiantly tell that I have been on my mission for a while since I have no idea how to use any of that stuff.  I never had any interest in Skype when I was home, so I am even more lost now.  Go a head and laugh at me if you feel the need to.  

So thank you for everything that you guys do for me!  I love all of you and can't wait to talk to you all this Sunday!  It should be a really good day!  Thank you again!

Love Elder Woodward