Woodward, Oklahoma -August 26, 2013

Dear Family,

This has been an interesting week for me.  There has been quite a bit of stuff that has happened, but it has all blended together so I don't remember most of it.  I will do my best to let you know everything that has happened. But before all of that, good job Darcy and Emmie for beating Laroca.  That was obviously the big news of the week since we got two email that only talked about the game.  So now we know who the #1 team in the state is, and so does everyone else. 

Well I guess it is time to share my big news for the week.  I'm still alive!!!  Yeah that is about all though.  So other things that have happened this week.  Wednesday was transfers, so I got my new companion.  His name is Elder Birch.  He is a super young guy.  He turned 18 in April and just barely graduated from high school.  He is practically a baby still.  He is SUPER young.  It is fun being a trainer.  I have really enjoyed it so far.  It is kinda funny to hear all of the things Elder Birch says.  There have been a lot of times where he has asked me if he could go to the bathroom or go get a drink and so on.  One of these times I think I am going to tell him he can't go to the bathroom or something like that to see how he reacts.  So other things about Elder Birch,  he is from Farminton, Utah.  Big surprise that he is a Utah boy.  He comes from a very SMALL family of four, three boys one girl.  I don't know what is up with it and all of these new missionaries coming out and having a girlfriend at home.  I don't think that they realise that by the time they get home, some other RM is going to have come home and stolen their girlfiend.  That is just how life works as a missionary. I am so glad that I didn't have a girlfriend when I came out.

So here is a picture of Jeff at his baptism.  He is still doing really well.  He is having a good time and is loving the church.  The other picture is of me and Elder Birch.  No explanations really needed. 

Elder Woodward, Jeff, Elder Egnew, and Elder Park at Jeff's baptism

Elder Birch and Elder Woodward

Well that is all for this week.  Have a good week at school and all you kids in school be good for Mom AND Dad.  They take such good care of you.  I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 19, 2013

Hello!

Well to start out CONGRADULATIONS TO DARCY AND EMMIE FOR TAKING 1ST PLACE!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOO, that is so cool!

Ok so now onto stuff that all of you want to hear about.  My crazy life as a missionary.  Well for starters it was a busy week leading up to Jeffs baptism!  On Wednesday I had to go down to OKC to a meeting that was being held for everyone who is going to be training.  There are 33 new missionaries coming out this transfer.  That is sch a big number.  A lot more then the 5 that came out with me.  Most of what was talked about was what was expected of us as trainers and how to be a good trainer.  I think that this next transfer there are going to be a lot of 18 year old missionaries that have just graduated coming out to the field.  It was very enlightening.  There was a part where the AP's called up the parents of the missionaries coming out and asked them questions such as "What do you expect of your son/daughters trainer?" and "Why is it important for the trainer to be obedient?"  It made me realize that there is a lot more to being a trainer then what I thought.  It was a much needed meeting.  Elder Park and I made it back up to Woodward in time for our appointment with two of our investigators, Herman and Carolyn.  We had a super good lesson with them.  We found out that one of the things holding Herman back was that he just wanted to know more of the history of the church.  So to resolve that concern we gave him a copy of "Our Heritage" and told him to read it.  Hopefully that will help him.  I really think that if we work with them we can get them to be baptized on the 31st.  It is a little bit of a stretch, but it is worth a shot. 

Ok so now onto Jeff.  He got baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday.  The only bad parts about all of it was that he showed up to his own baptism late and he was late to church on Sunday.  We really need to get him a watch or something.  Elder Park and I were so worried that he wasn't going to make it to church.  At the baptism I was starting to think that Jeff didn't want to get out of the baptismal font.  He had to be baptized three times.  The first time his right wrist didn't go under the the second time his left wrist didn't go under.  The third time Elder Egnew made sure he went all the way under.  I may have just been imagining it, but I think Elder Egnew held Jeff under a little bit longer to make sure that he was all the way under. 

So I guess the other bit of big news is that I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday without any help from Mom or Dad.  =)  I talked about our purpose of life on Earth. And I even managed to ramble on for 10 minutes.  I didn't think it was a very good talk but there were a couple of people who told me I gave a good talk.  So who knows if it was actually good or if they were just being nice.  I think they were just being nice.

So by now Mom is probably dying to know if I am staying in Woodward.  Well I will be here for at least one more transfer, hopefully longer.  I still don't know who my new companion will be.  I won't find out until Wednesday since he is straight from the MTC.  It should be interesting to find out. 

Well that is all from me.  Love you all.  Have a great week.  Bye

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 12, 2013

Dear Family, 

This has been a pretty exciting week for me here in Woodward.  There is lots of exciting news to tell you about, but I don't know if I will be able to tell you all about my week in a minute, so I will take a little more time. 

So to start off, Don and Francis got baptized on Saturday!!!  Yay!!!  It was a long day leading up to this, but it was all worth it in the end.  On Friday I stayed down in Clinton, Oklahoma because we needed to do an exchange so that the District Leader could come up and do Don and Francis's baptismal interview.  On Saturday up until I left to come back to Woodward I spent the entire day in the Clinton Elder's apartment because the Elder I was with got sick.  So I spent all day fixing their bikes because they were in pretty bad condition.  Elder Park and Elder Powley got back to Clinton a little after 3:30 and Elder Park and I were on our way back to Woodward by 4.  We got back, had dinner with Don, Francis and their Family, then went to the church to make sure everything was ready for the baptism.  The baptism itself went really well.  Don and Francis only had to be dunked once, so I guess they went completely under.  After the baptism we were invited to go back over to Don and Francis's house to have some pie.  After the pie on the drive home Elder Park noticed that we had missed a call from Elder Fee.  So we called him back when we got to the apartment and I talked to him.  He asked us how the baptism went and a couple other things.  He then broke the news and told me that I would be training a new missionary next transfer.  I was defiantly not expecting that to happen.  I thought that Elder Park and I would be together for another transfer, but I was wrong.  So this Wednesday I will be going down to OKC to a meeting for all of the missionaries that will be training.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

So this Saturday Jeff is going to get baptized.  He has been meeting with the missionaries since March and is ready to be baptized.  I think it is really cool that I have been able to work with Jeff while I've been here.  I don't think that it is a coincidence that I have been able to come teach him.  He can hardly wait for Saturday to come.  Last week when we asked him who he wanted to baptize him, he asked me, Elder Park, and Elder Egnew if we could all baptize him together.  Unfortunately it doesn't quite work out like that, so he asked Elder Egnew to baptize him. We are all super excited for him.

Well that is about all for this week.  I will let you know how things go with the trainers meeting and Jeff's baptism.  I hope you all have a great week. Love you guys.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -August 5, 2013

Hello Woodward Family,

Well another week has flown by along with another month and almost a year since I got my mission call to Oklahoma Oklahoma City.  It is kinda hard to believe how fast it is all flying by.  But I am sure that none of you really care about any of that.  I'm sure that you are all a lot more interested in how I am doing and how everything is going here in Woodward.

So to start out I'll tell you about my most boring day of the past week.  It was defiantly Friday due to the fact that something I ate somewhere made me super sick and caused me to throw up and be miserable almost all day long.  Well now that that is out of the way I can tell you about some of the exciting things that happened this week. 

So last Wednesday we got to go down to Oklahoma City for Temple Conference.  It was a super cool day!  Right at the beginning  President Walkenhorst talked to us and told us a little bit of the vision he has gained for our mission since he got here.  He had been thinking a lot about it since he got here, and he felt confident that as a mission, we could have 100 convert baptisms in the month of August.  It is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication.  I am super excited for this though.  It is going to push everyone to their limits.  After that we got to go through and do a temple session.  Mom, Dad, Adam, Camille, and anyone else who can go through the temple, if you haven't gone through within the past week, I would suggest that you take the time to go do a session.  They have a new video for the endowment and it is amazing.  Super cool.  That is all I will say about that though.  After the temple we had a training by the AP's and then another training from President Walkenhorst.  Both of those trainings were focused on aligning our will with the Lord's and making those changes necessary so that we can get 100 baptisms this month.  After Temple Conference was done we started our two hour drive back to Woodward.  So that was our day.

So I have some super exciting news to tell you.  I have one (hopefully two) investigators who are going to be baptized this weekend!  But I guess for now I can tell you the story about the miracle that might have lead to both of the investigators getting baptized.  So,  I have told you about our investigator Francis.  This story is going to involve her husband Don though. So Don and Francis were both being taught before I got to the area.  The past couple of weeks we have really been focusing on working with Francis and helping her progress towards baptism because one time when the missionaries were teaching her she told them she wanted to be baptized and that she had already asked her son (he is a member) to baptize her.  So at that point we jumped right on the bandwagon and started to work with her, but we ended up leaving Don behind.  Don continued to sit in on the lessons and he kept learning, but he never really said much about anything while we were there.  Then a couple of nights ago (Thursday August 1) we were there teaching Francis a lesson and Don was there again.  After the lesson Elder Park and I left in a hurry because we were late for our next appointment, so we weren't able to talk to Don.  But Elder and Sister Egnew stayed a little bit longer and spent some time talking with Don.  I don't know what they said to him, but whatever they said it was good.  So then next day (Friday August 2) we got a text from Don and Francis's daughter in law that told us the next time we went to see Don and Francis we needed to ask Don about whether he wanted to get baptized.  So we went back the next day (Saturday August 3) so we could talk to them.  We were able to get in and sit down with them.  We started talking to Don about baptism and whether or not he would want to get baptized with his wife on August 10th.  He said a couple of things, but the one that I remember was "we have been going to church together for 44 years now and I don't want you to start going to church without me."  So we told him that if he wanted to get baptized with his wife in one week he would have to start living the Word of Wisdom today (Saturday August 3).  Just before we left that night we offered to give Don a Priesthood blessing to help him be able to give up chewing tobacco.  After the blessing you could see a huge change in his countenance.  I could defiantly see that the blessing was helping immediately after the blessing.  Unfortunately we couldn't tell him for sure that he would for sure be able to be baptized in a week with his wife due to the fact that he hadn't been to church three times.  So we called up our Mission President on Sunday, explained the situation to him and how he works on Sunday and he has been to church twice already and that he wants to get baptized with his wife.  Then President Walkenhorst told us that we could go ahead and baptize Don with his wife, Francis, because he didn't see that the fact that Don hadn't been to church three times yet was a good enough reason to keep him from being able to be baptized with his wife.  So we saw them again last night and told him that if he was ready to be baptized by Saturday he could get baptized.  It was super duper cool.  So I will tell you how things go with their baptisms next week.

Other good news!  Jeff, the man from Haiti, is probably going to be baptized on the 17th of August.  As you know we have been working with him a lot and we have taught him everything he needs to know to be baptized.  So we had originally scheduled his baptismal date for August 24th due to the fact that Stake Conference was on the 17th.  I was a little worried about whether or not I would still be here in Woodward because transfers is on the 21st of the month.  No, I don't know what is happening yet, but the reason I was worried is because if my past trends with how long I've been in an area continue, I would be leaving on the 21st.  But luckily for me I don't have to worry anymore.  Stake conference was moved to the 24th of the month, so we are moving Jeff's baptism forward a week, so I will be here for sure.  It was great news!

I hope you have a good week and that this letter was long enough for you Mom.  Love you all.

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 29, 2013

Elder Woodward, Elder Park, and Elder Egnew in Woodward, Oklahoma

Woodward, Oklahoma

Dear Woodward Clan,

Is the weather staring to cooperate yet?  Probably not.  Maybe you should take it as a sign that you aren't supposed to go out and do anything fun without me.  So you should all just sit around the house like a bunch of bums and do absolutely nothing for the next 15 months.  I think that would work out pretty well.

Well as for me, I had a pretty good week here in Woodward.  I am still alive and breathing.  Other then that, there isn't to much more to say.  Ok I guess I will say more then that or else Mom would probably drive all the way out here and strangle me or something like that.

Well for starters, things are going really well with Jeff, our Haitian investigator.  We met with him twice last week and he is progressing really well.  We talked to him about setting a baptismal date for August 24th.  After we set the date he started telling us about how ready he is to be baptized.  He made the decision that he doesn't want to wait any longer for his wife.  He told us he didn't want to wait because his wife is "flippy floppy."  He is super excited to be baptized and doesn't want to wait any longer.

We had a huge miracle happen with another one of our investigators.  Her name is Francis.  We had a baptismal date set with her for August 10th, but in order for her to be able to be baptized then she would have had to come to church three times.  She has only been able to come twice due to the fact that she works every Sunday until 12:00.  So she needed to come to church either yesterday or next Sunday so that she could get baptized.  So the past couple of weeks we have been trying to come up with a solution so that she could be able to come to church.  Things got to the point where the only thing that she could do was ask her boss if she could have a schedule change and get Sundays off.  We promised her that if she asked her boss things would work out and she would be able to get Sundays off.  Well she talked to her boss and asked to have Sundays off so that she could come to church, but her boss said that the only thing she could do was ask another worker to switch with her, but chances were that the other worker would quit before she switched hours.  So Francis wasn't even going to ask the other worker to switch.  Then a couple of days later the other worker talked to her boss and told him that she needed to get her schedule switched around.  So everything worked out to where Francis is going to be able to come to church next Sunday and then be baptized on August 10th.  It was defiantly an answer to her prayers and all of ours and it shows that the Lord will prepare a way for us to live the commandments. 

I think that the Bishop that Cecil met was Bishop Grey from when I was in the Edmond 2nd ward.  Woodward is defiantly a western town.  It is the smallest town I have been in but covers the largest area of land.  If I remember right we cover 4000 square miles in the Woodward branch.  It is a pretty big area.  I really don't have a favorite thing that I have eaten.  All of the food is pretty good.  Some of it is a lot better then some of the other stuff, but its all ok. 

Ok so a little bit about Elder Park.  He is from Shelley, Idaho.  I still have no idea where that is.  He is 19 years old and come from a small family of 5 or 6.  I don't remember.  He is shorter then I am, but taller then Kelsey.  He is in the middle in case you couldn't guess. 

Well That is about all.  Oklahoma is really flat.  Love you guys.  Have a good week.

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 22, 2013

Dear Woodward Clan,

Another week has flown by for me as well, and as usual I am still trying to think of what I want to write as well.  This was a pretty good week for us.  There were a couple of days where almost everything we had planned for fell through, but we managed to pull through and make the most of it. 

Tuesday was a crazy scary day for us.  We had another lesson with Jeff, during which he decided he wanted to talk and talk and talk.  It was kinda frustrating because we couldn't really get the lesson we had planned for in because he talked so much, but that actually turned out for the better.  We had the Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Egnew, at the lesson with us and they managed to save it all.  From all of the stories Jeff told us Sister Egnew remembered about a concern that Jeff had brought up before I got here.  You will never guess what that concern was.  You all know how Haiti is and the crazy voodoo and other "dark" stuff that happens there.  So because Jeff grew up in Haiti with all that "stuff" his mom had always told him to never let anyone put their hands on his head to bless him.  We kinda went into panic mode at this point because there are so many things done in the church by the laying on of hands.  So when we left after the lesson we had no idea what to do.  All we were able to do was ask Jeff to pray and ask Heavenly Father if it was ok to be blessed by the laying on of hands in the church.  His prayer and ours were defiantly  answered by the time we saw him again on Thursday because when we asked him if he still had any concerns about it he told us he didn't and he understood that it was ok in the church by Priesthood authority.  So that was a HUGE miracle for us this past week.

We were able to set a baptismal date with an investigator, Brenda, last Thursday.  This was the first lesson we had with her, so we were teaching the Restoration.  At the part where we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon we committed her to read it then I gave her some promised blessings that would come as she read each day.  After I finished she got the biggest smile on her face and I could tell that she felt the Spirit.  The entire lesson went super well then at the end I felt like we needed to invite her to be baptized.  So I turned to the picture in the front of the Book of Mormon where Alma is baptizing at the Waters of Mormon and I showed it to Elder Park and threw him under the bus to invite her.  I just told him that he could do it and then I stopped talking until he invited her to be baptized.  She accepted and committed to August 31.  After we left Elder Park told me he was surprised when I showed him the picture and had him invite her to baptism, but he did it.  We are going to see her again tomorrow so news on that next week.

Friday our day got all messed up due to the fact that our dishwasher broke and decided to leak water everywhere.  Well everywhere under the tile flooring in the kitchen.  So we had to get a hold of the apartment complex manager and get someone to come over and look at it.  The good news is that we get a new dishwasher now.  Bad news is that we have to worry about what happens underneath the tile now.  The maintenance worker said it will just dry right up and we shouldn't have to worry about anything.  So we will see what happens this week.

Finishing up Elder Park's training is going pretty good.  There are sometimes that I feel like he is training me.  He is a super good missionary.  His trainer did a really good job with the first half of his training and I am still struggling to figure out what I am doing.  It is all going really well though.  We are getting along really well.  We haven't had any problems so far.  So things are going great!  On the 31st we get to go down to the City to go to Temple Conference.  I am so excited for that since I haven't been to the temple since December.

Well that is about all.  I will be sure to brag to everyone I meet about how awesome my family is and how good they are at everything.  I will be sure to show Jeff a picture of the family tomorrow night.  Yes I did get the package you sent.  Thank you for it.  Well now that is all.  I love you guys!  Have a good week!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -July 15, 2013

Dear Woodward Family,

Greetings from Woodward, Oklahoma.  I guess that it wasn't a ZL prank because here I am in Woodward.  I haven't had time to take a picture yet because we have been so busy here.  There is a lot of work happening here.  We have quite a few super solid investigators that Elder Park and I both feel could get baptized this transfer.  The first two are Jeff and Shaquinta.  They are both super awesome!  The first lesson I taught here was with them.  The missionaries had been meeting with Jeff for a little while now, but this was the first lesson Shaquinta had been there for.  So we ended up teaching them the Restoration.  The lesson went really well.  After the lesson was done I found out some pretty exciting news about Jeff.  Jeff is from Haiti.  I was really excited when I found this out for obvious reasons.  You are probably all pretty excited about that as well.  Then yesterday both Jeff and Shaquinta were at church. 

So Wednesday was transfers.  It was a really long day full of driving.  2 hours from Wichita Fall to Moore, then another 2 1/2 hours from Moore to Woodward.  Then we got right to work.  Normally after you get to your area after transfers you take a little bit of time to go to Walmart to get some stuff to last you until Monday.  We had so much happening on Wednesday that we didn't have time to go to Walmart.  It was a very crazy day but we made it through.

Friday was District Meeting so we drove all the way down to Clinton for that.  We were able to ride down with the Senior couple who is here in Woodward.  So that saved us a lot of miles.  We got back from District Meeting about 3:30 and got straight to work.  Both of the appointments we wad set up that day fell through so we went to visit a less active member named Jed.  Jed it a super cool guy.  Most of the time we were there we just sat and listened to him talk.  It was a really spiritual experience though.  He has been through some rough patches in life, but he is pushing through that and turning his life around.  He even came to church yesterday.  From what I have heard he has made a lot of progress over the last couple of months.

Sorry this is kinda a scatter brained letter.  There is just so much that has happened that since I got here that I am just writing it down as it comes to my mind.  I think that is just about all for this week though.  Next week will be a little more organized.  Well I love you all.

Love Elder Woodward