Mustang, Oklahoma -January 6, 2014

Hello!

Well Oklahoma weather continues to be stupid.  I am really starting to dislike how often the weather changes.  One day it will be in the high 40's or the 50's and by the next day the temperature will have dropped to 15 degrees.  When we woke up this morning it was 7 degrees outside and the wind chill made it feel like it was -10.  That is by far the worst thing about Oklahoma.  The next worst thing would definantly be there are no mountains here.  I really miss the mountains.

Things are still going really well for Elder Davis and I.  We are getting along really well.  We haven't gotten into and fist fights yet, so I guess that is a really good thing.  This past week was another interesting one for us though.  Holidays really mess with missionary work because everyone is either gone or they are to busy for us to come over and see them.  And what makes that funny is that in the missionary handbook it says that the holidays are some of the best times to do missionary work.  That defiantly is not true here in Oklahoma.  Holidays make missionary work a lot more hard.

Anyways... So as for me and the things that have happened this week.  Like I kinda said, the New Year threw things off a little bit, but we still had a pretty good week.  I was finally able to meet more of the people we are working with.  I finally know more then one of our investgators.  It is great!

So last Monday night turned out to be a really good one.  It was filled with some disappointment, but hidden within the disappointment there was a miracle.  So last Monday night we had an appointment set up with a potential investigator named Kristen.  She is a referral from mormon.org so Elder Davis and I were really excited to go meet with her.  We had a member coming out with us so that we could save some miles, but our member showed up a little late, so we ended up getting to the appointment late.  When we went up to the door Kristen's mom answered the door and told us that Kristen was busy and to try again in about a half and hour.  So we left and tried a couple other people nearby.  When we went back to Kristen's house her mom answered again and told us that Kristen had waited around for a little while then she went out on a date with her boyfirend.  So that was the disappointment.  We stayed there for a couple more minutes and talked to Kristen's mom and by the time that we left we found out that Kristen's mom was also interested in learning more about the church.  So that was our miracle for the day because if our appoinment hadn't fallen through we wouldn't have been able to talk to Kristen's mom and find out she wanted to know more as well.  So that was really cool for us to see that things happen just the way they need to and that the Lord always knows what needs to happen.

Tuesday and Wednesday were our slow days due to New Years.  We weren't supposed to go out and visit with people unless we had a set appointment with them and since we didn't have any set appointments we stayed at the apartment most of the day.  Wednesday we were a little bit more fortunate and we had the Seagraves family invite us over to their house.  Since all of the missionaries I live with work in the same ward we all went over to the Seagraves house.  It was so much better then spending the day in the apartment.  We were there almost all day long.  Most of the time I helped them finish a puzzle that they had been working on while the other three Elders played Risk.  Six hours later we finally finished the puzzle.  That was pretty much all we did on New Years.

The Primary president asked us if we could come help with the primary activity that they had on Saturday morning.  We all got to dress up as one of the Book of Mormon heros and tell them a story about us.  I got to be Ammon, so I told the Story about when he protected the kings sheep.  It was surprizing to see how much some of the kids already knew about these stories.It was really fun to get to go and help with that.

So a couple weeks ago one of my first dinner appointments that I had here was with the Cardon family.  While we were eating dinner with them one of their sons told us that he wanted to get a suit for his eighth birthday, but his dad told him that if he wanted to get a suit when he turned eight he needed to finish the Book of Mormon by the time he turned eight.  He is about two months away from his eighth birthday, so to give him some extra encouragement to read through the Book of Mormon, I told him that I would race him through it and we would see who could finish first.  As of yesterday when I asked him where he was he had read to 2 Nephi 12.  That is only 2 weeks after we started reading through.  He is reading through it really fast for a 7 year old boy.  I think it would have been really fun if one of the missionaries had done that with me when I was seven.  It is really fun to get to read through the Book of Mormon while having a race with the Cardon's son.  So maybe that is something that Zander can do with one of the missionaries there.  I think that would be really good for him.

So one of the other miracles we have had this week happened last night.  We were about to go back to the apartment for the night, but I felt like there was someone else that we needed to go see.  So I asked Elder Davis if there was anyone he could think we could go visit.  There were a couple of investigators close to where we were so we went over to try and visit them.  While we were driving down the street our investigators lived on Elder Davis told me to pull over so we could try to see a less active before we tried our investigator.  So we stopped and got out of the car and went up to Sister Bakers house.  We knocked on the door and she answered.  She was about to run out the door with her kids to visit her sister, but she told us that she would really like for us to stop by again sometime soon.  So we left and tried our investigator, and we only talked to them for a minitue or two.  The thing I thought was really cool was that the Spirit prompted me to try one more person, and even though we didn't have very much success with our investigator, we were able to see our less active and find out that she really wanted us to come over and visit her again.  It was really cool to see how the Spirit can prompt us to know what to do.

Well that is all for our week.  I would say it was a really good week for us.  Thank you for all that you do for me!  I love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Mustang, Oklahoma -December 30, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

3311 22nd St. Apt. # 153

Woodward, OK 73801

 

Thanks a ton!

Woodward, Oklahoma -November 25, 2013

Hey everyone,

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Woodward