Woodward, Oklahoma -October 28, 2013

Hey Family!

 

Well It is about time that I can tell you that we had a MUCH better week then we have had in the past!  We were able to see a lot more people then we had in weeks past.  It was a pretty fun week for us though.  

 

So to start off with today, we finally got word back from President Walkenhorst about if Herman could or couldn't get baptized!  We were at the branch's trunk or treat when we got a call from President.  I didn't talk to him, but from Elder Birch's reactions to what President said I could tell it was really good news!  President told us that we had heard back and that we could go ahead with Herman and Carolyn's baptism.  Herman and Carolyn were just about to leave to go home when we got the phone call, so we stopped them and told them the good news.  Herman was so excited!  At first his reaction and all he said was "Are you kidding me?"  So they are both really excited and ready for this!  We still haven't officially set a baptismal date with them yet, but we are going over tomorrow night and will talk to them about setting a date.  Elder Birch and I were really excited about all of that happening!

 

We were able to go and see Brenda again twice last week.  Once on Tuesday and again yesterday.  On Tuesday we decided that we were going to watch the Restoration DVD with her because it had been a long time since we had taught her the Restoration.  After the video was done we asked her what she thought about it and how she felt.  She told us that she really liked it and felt really good about it.  Elder Birch pointed out that when she felt good about it, that that had been the Spirit testifying to her that it was true and that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We invited her to come to church again, but she wasn't able to make it.  She is still helping her friend out by taking her friend to church.  So we are really hoping and praying for some snow here one of these Sundays, because if there is snow, Brenda's friend won't go to church for health reasons so then Brenda can come to church with us.  Then she will keep coming with us because she likes it so much, and then she will get baptized!  Elder Birch and I have already planned everything out.  Now things just have to happen the way we planned for them to. 

 

Then we almost got a new investigator without him really even realizing he is investigating the church.  Just so you know his name is Bob.  So in the past when we have seen Bob, it has been more of a "Hi, how are you doing? Is there anything that we can help you with?  Ok bye."  This last time we went to see him, it started out the way in normally does, and then he asked us about what the church had to say about food storage, and then Bob asked us about the dates of when the church was organized and when Joseph Smith had the First vision, and so on.  So Bob pretty much asked us to give him the fist lesson without realizing that he did so.  It was really cool to see the Spirit work with him.  We ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon and some scriptures to read that connect the Bible and the Book of Mormon to each other.  Like John 10:16 and 3 Nephi 15:16-21.  It was really good.

 

So overall we have had a pretty good week!  There is always more happening, so there will be more to come next week!  Love you all!  Have a great week

 

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 21, 2013

Hey Family!

Well things are still going well for me here in Woodward!  We are still working with Herman and Carolyn, and they are still doing really well.  They invited us out to their house last Thursday to have dinner with them before our lesson with them.  We still haven't heard anything new from President Walkenhorst, so we are still going over and encouraging them from time to time.  After dinner with them we taught Herman about the Stop Smoking Workshop.  Other then waiting to hear from our mission president the only other holdup is that Herman is still smoking.  I kinda think that as soon as Herman quits smoking we will hear back from President.  But that is just me.  So we taught him the workshop and he told us that he just wasn't sure if he was ready to quit yet.  He told us that he would pray that night and then let us know what he decided he was going to do.  We went back the next night and followed up with him and he told us that he felt like he really needed to.  So he is going to give the stop smoking workshop a try.  So as always there is more news to come.

We are still working with Brenda.  She is still progressing slowly.  Normally when we go over to see her we ready from the Book of Mormon with her and then go through and talk about what happened.  This past time we ready 1 Nephi 5-6 and as we were going through and explaining it, we got to the part where it talks about Lehi's genealogy and how he is related to Joseph.  When we were explaining that I felt like I needed to introduce her to family history work.  So we explained a little bit about it then invited her to go to the family history center here in Woodward.  So the next day the Egnews went and picked her up and brought her to the Family History Center.  From what I heard Brenda really liked it.  So now she knows where the church is and knows a couple of people from the branch!  It was a 2 for 1 deal.

Mary cancelled the third appointment we had in a row with her.  It is starting to get really frustrating having this happen every time.  Elder Birch and I are convinced that she is preparing herself for the zombie apocalypse.  Every time she cancels it is so she can go work on a building she owns, but she won't tell us anything about it.  The other theory that we came up with is that she is really a secret millionaire and this building is where she keeps all of her money hidden.  So who wants to take a guess as to which of those theories is right?  I am going with the zombie apocalypse.  

Oh and by the way, my vision is getting kinda bad so I am going to talk to Sister Walkenhorst about it and then have her call you to she what you have to think about it.  I just thought you would like a little forewarning.  Haha just kidding that already happened.  I am sorry for the surprise though.  I hope I didn't scare you too bad.  As you said earlier, it is Halloween soon so I thought that I would get my scary pranks out of the way.   I would have let you know, but I didn't really even think about it till Saturday night when I called her.  As of right now though, there is nothing else that is wrong.  I am doing really well and can't really complain.  

Well there isn't to much more to say.  So I am sure Mom is already counting down the days, but for those of you who don't know, I will see you all in 360 days.  It will be here before you know it.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Cameron Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 14, 2013

Dear Woodward's,

 

Well I would just like to let you know that Oklahoma is perfect and everyone goes to church every week.  It my not be the LDS church but they go to church.  Well most of them do.  Actually not really.  Even though it is the Bible belt there are still a lot of people who don't go to church.  Surprise!  The only problem left is that we need to  find those people who are ready to accept the gospel and get them interested in learning about the church.  It is all a lot harder to do then you would think.  Hopefully with all of the conference talks given on member missionary work the members up here will start to be more willing to help us and introduce us to their non-member friends.  That is something that you could all do back home!  If there is someone you know that isn't a member, talk to the missionaries and have a family home evening with the missionaries and your friends!  I can promise you that the missionaries there would really love you if you did that.  And then if you don't know who you can invite to meet with the missionaries, pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you find someone!

 

So this was another really slow week for us.  This entire past week we have hardly been able to get a hold of anyone.  Everything that we tried to do fell through, so we were left with nothing to do.  By the end of the week things started to get a little bit better.  Friday night was the most interesting night from last week.  We went to try a investigator named Alberto.  We got there and he was outside with a couple of his friends, one of which was drunk as a skunk.  We stayed there and talked to them for about an hour most of the time the drunk one kept asking us a bunch of random questions then would move on before we had the chance to answer.  It was really funny to have happen.  Nothing ended up coming out of it since Alberto's friend was so drunk and he never let anyone else say anything.  At one point he tried to tell us that we couldn't be out on our missions trying to spread the word of God unless we knew about the things that were happening in the world.  He then invited us over to his house to watch the news with him one evening.  Needless to say I don't think we will be going over any time soon. 

 

Well like I said it was a slow week so there isn't a whole lot to mention.  One of these days I will have some really exciting news to tell you.  You will just have to sit and wait until that day comes.  I love you all!  Have a fantastic week!

 

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -October 7, 2013

Hello!

Well Conference is now over.  It goes by way to fast as a missionary.  Other then conference last week there wasn't a whole lot that has happened here in Woodward.

We were able to go and see Herman and Carolyn last Friday night.  We didn't teach them anything new, we just went over to encourage them and to update them on what is happening.  They are both progressing really well still and are coming to church regularly.  We haven't been able to set a baptismal date with them yet, because we have to wait to hear back from President Walkenhorst before we can move forward.  It is a long complicated process.

The area didn't end up getting split like we were told it was going to, so it is still just Elder Birch and I down here.  We are getting along really well right now.  The most contention we have had between us was last Friday night during the Utah State BYU football game.  It would have been nice to see Utah State win but oh well. 

Well this is going to be a short letter.  There wasn't to much exciting news!  I hope that you all have a great week!  Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 30, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all of the Birthday wishes.  I got the package that you sent this morning.Well it was here on Saturday, but I had to go to the post office to pick it up, so I got it this morning.  Thanks for everything that you got me!  It was awesome!  I wasn't really expecting another tie, but I won't complain.  

Well as for this week I am sure that you are all dying to know what has happened.  I guess I will just start off by telling you what is going to be happening this next transfer.  So I am going to be staying here in Woodward with Elder Birch.  Nothing changes.  Although last night I was about ready to hurt someone!  Either our Zone Leaders or our District Leader though it would be funny to play a prank on me and tell me I was getting transfered last night.  Our District Leader called back a couple of minutes later and told us that the Zone Leaders had called them back and told us it was a joke, but when we called the Zone Leaders to find out the didn't know what we were talking about.  To say they least I was really mad.  So Woodward will now be the longest I have stayed in an area and I will be with a companion for more then a transfer!  This is going to be kinda weird.

On Wednesday evening President Walkenhorst drove up here to Woodward to meet with Herman and Carolyn.  I don't really know what happened during their meeting, but I guess it was good.  After they were all finished and they came back out President Told us that he felt like everything was ok, so he was going to push for their baptism to happen.  So now we just have to wait to hear from President about what the plan for them is. 

Last week was a really slow week for us so there isn't much to tell about.  Everything is going really well!  I am having a great time here.  I love you all and hope your week goes well! 

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 23, 2013

Hello!

Well if nothing else, this past week has been a trial of our faith.  We have had a lot of great things happen, but just as many not so great things.  So it has been a pretty fun week for Elder Birch and I.  We will get to all of that later though.

Well Monday was a long day for us.  Since there is absolutely nothing to do here in Woodward other then sit and watch the grass grow,  we mostly just sat around and did nothing.  I think I might have taken a nap at one point.  It was a pretty boring P-day.  Then in the evening all of the plans we had made fell through.  So nothing much for Monday. 

Last Tuesday we are able to have another really good lesson with Herman and Carolyn.  To say it went really good is an understatement, it went FANTASTIC!  Herman and Carolyn took us out to dinner before our lesson with them.  While we were at dinner Herman turned to Elder Birch and I and asked when we were going to talk about baptism with them again since it had been a while.  We laughed at that and told him we would talk about it during the lesson.  So we finished eating and came over to the church for our lesson.  We started out with a prayer like always and then dove right into the lesson.  We started out by asking Herman and Carolyn if they had been able to talk about if they wanted to be baptized.  They sat there for a couple of seconds before Herman told us that he felt like he was ready to be baptized.  I was so excited I almost did a happy dance!  So we talked with them and set a date for them to be baptized on.  We then had our lesson and finished teaching them the rest of the commandments and everything they needed to be taught before baptism.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom again and committed them to live it.  They both said they would.  They both committed to live the Law of Chastity as well. Everything was going super well and we weren't having any problems.  They were ok with everything that we taught them.  The biggest concern that Herman had was that he would have to stop working on Sundays.  Carolyn was fine with everything.  Right at the very end of the lesson we encountered some problems with the date we set, so for now their baptismal date is being put on hold until further notice.    We saw them again last night because we had to take them some stuff that we had for them.  They still seemed to be doing well even with everything that had happened.  After we left Elder Birch and I both felt like this was the real trial of their faith and that they are both dealing with it super well.  Elder Birch and I both feel like everything is going to be ok though.

We had a couple of other lessons with two of our investigators last week.  We was Mary and Brenda.  When we went and saw Brenda we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She was really involved with the lesson and I felt like she understood everything she was being taught.  At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized, but she said no this time because she has her own church.  It was a good thing that she told us that though because it showed us that she was really thinking about the things we had been teaching her.  We also followed up with her to see if she had been able to pray and ask Heavenly father if the Book of Mormon was true.  She told us that she has received and answer that the Book of Mormon was true.  So we are making slow progress with her, but we are making progress.  Our lesson with Mary wasn't my favorite in the world. Mary likes to talk a whole lot, so most of the time we are there she was talking.  Which is good except for when she doesn't stay on topic and the things she talks about have nothing to do with the Plan of Salvation.  But that is ok. 

Other then that there hasn't been very much that has happened this past week.  We are doing our best to keep the work moving along, so things are going well.  Love you all!

Love Elder Woodward

Woodward, Oklahoma -September 16, 2013

Hey Family,

Well I am sorry to hear about the game with the "team who must not be named."  It is a real bummer to hear that they are such bad sports.  It does go to show one thing though, the only way the "team who must not be named" can beat Thunder is by being a bunch of POOR sports and insulting our team.  It also shows that those parents are not teaching their kids to have charity, which is the pure love of Christ.  The important thing to take away from this is that Thunder is by far the better team for keeping their heads held high and not lowering themselves to the poor standards that the "team who must not be named" has lowered themselves to.  The time will soon come that they will get what the deserve, because as we all know, Karma is a real. . . ankle biter.  You know like those little annoying yappy dogs that bit your ankles, then you turn around to get it off of you, then you see the little dogs great big pit bull friend who looks like he is going to eat you.  That is what it is going to be like except "they who must not be named" are going to be the ones getting chased by the pit bull. 

On a different note,  I am 98% sure that Herman and Carolyn are going to be getting baptized in a couple of weeks.  It isn't set in stone yet, but I fell like it will happen.  This past week Elder Birch and I went over to their house and had a great lesson with them this past week.  It was a GREAT lesson.  We went over planning to reteach the Word of Wisdom and a couple of the other commandments.  We didn't get anywhere near those though.  We started out by asking them if they had any questions about anything pretty much, and Herman brought up his concern about why there are three degrees of glory and why those people who choose to make the wrong choices aren't just cast down to "heck."  We had been trying to avoid this topic because it has been one of the big holdups for Herman in the past.  Not anymore though!  =D (That is me being happy).  Luckily the Spirit came to our aid, because I had no idea how to respond to that.  We related his question back to the pre-earth life where we made the choice to follow Christ's plan for us instead of following Satan.  We then explained to them how the three degrees of glory was how God was rewarding us for making the choice to follow Christ and how Heavenly Father didn't want to punish us by sending us to heck when we made the choice to follow Christ before this life.  We then explained how not everyone is going to do everything that they need to to return to Heavenly Father and that is why there are the three kingdoms.  After we finished the only other thing he said about that topic was that how we explained to three kingdoms made a lot more sense to him and he was starting to see why there are three kingdoms.  It was super cool!  Then after that we followed up and asked Herman and Carolyn if they had been able to talk about whether or not they wanted to be baptized.  They hadn't talked about it yet, but Herman sat forward in his chair and told us that after our Sunday School lesson at church (it was about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith) that he knew that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.  So we committed them to talk about baptism before we came back and they said they would.  So Elder Birch and I are excited to see what they have to say when we see them tomorrow evening.

Friday we got to go on exchanges with the other set of Elders in our district, so I was up in Alva for the evening.  I had a pretty good time up there.  Alva was just barely opened up this transfer, so there weren't a whole bunch of people for us to go see like there are here in Woodward.  We managed to stay busy the entire day and got lots of work done.  We went to see two of their investigators, Mike and Kendra, that evening.  We had a good lesson with them.  We taught the Restoration and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  One of the funny things that happened while we were there was one of their sons really likes to do buckles up, so most of the lesson he was sitting next to my camelbak doing the buckles up, then I would undo them so he could do them back up.  When we got up to leave I was holding my camelbak by the strap on top[ and the little boy camed up and grabbed my bag and tried to take it from me.  It was to bad that it was as big as he is and probably weighed as much as he did too. 

Well there wasn't much else that happened this week.  It was a slower week for us and a lot of stuff fell through.  That is the life of a missionary though.  So at this point we are just focusing on this week and doing the best we can and not focusing on last week.  So there is lots of exciting things to come.  Thanks for the package you sent.  The day that I got the package I actually went to staples and bought more pens because I was about out,  then we got back from our meeting in the city, I got the package and there were more pens.  So I am set with pens for a long time.  Thanks for everything.  I love you all tons!  I hope you have a great week and have fun!

Love Elder Woodward