Hello Family!

 

As my old haitian/bostonian companion Kerby Louis would have said, this week was bumpin. Especially yesterday! Elder Eriscon and I have had a hard time filling our sunday afternoons with things to do in the past, but we've recently found the perfect sunday afternoon miracle-producing activity: Porting with the Young men. There are 4 Young men in our branch and 3 of them will be leaving on missions within the next year and a half, so we thought we'd give them some help preparing! We've been doing it for a couple weeks now and we are just seeing some awesome miracles. Yesterday we went with Manutea, he's half tahitian, and found a new family to start teaching! Its been a huge blessing to work with these Young men.

 

In other news we are going to have Elder Quentin L. Cook coming to visit our mission next week! This will be the 2nd apostle ive seen on my mission and im super excited. Im also super stoked because the whole entire mission will be assisting in one meeting! We havent done it at all in my mission but im excited to see some of my old companions and mission friends. Also, you were right mom, this week is transfer week! I am actually going to be staying here in ST. Nazaire for a 4th transfer! This will be the second ville ive done 4 transfers in. Im really happy i get to stay though, i love this place. At first it was a big change and pretty dificult at times, but i have grown to love the members and amis and we've been finding some people lately with a lot of potential that i really want to see progress! This transfer will also only be 4 weeks long, then the next transfer will be 8 weeks. Kind of weird but it'll be cool. Who knows, i could even finish my mission in St. Nazaire! We'll see what happens in 4 weeks i guess! Elder Ericson will be going to Valenciennes, a city in the north of France, and i will be getting a reletively new missionary named Elder Pumford. I dont know anything about him! But im sure he is going to be super cool.

 

P-day is rapidly coming to an end and we still have things to do and people to save so ive got to go! i love you guys and hope you have a great week! Bisous!

 

Elder Wood

Scary Night

Hola hola! 

Haha, I love pretending to speak Spanish. How was everyones Halloween?! Hope it was nice and festive! People don't really celebrate Halloween here, so instead of a scary party Elder Ericson and I had a Missionary Night at the chapel centered on the spirit! We a little activity about following the spirit in missionary work and turned the whole chapel into a maze and had people to through it blindfolded, and when they needed help they had to kneel down and raise their hand to get help. The "Holy Ghost" slash Me was the one in the maze helping people find their way! it was super interesting to see how some people reacted. Some people were reluctant to kneel down, and others kneeled down like 10 times, even when things weren't very hard. The coolest part of it though was just how stoked our branch was afterwards to do missionary work. Goal: accomplished! Now we've just got to keep them motivated! There really are some great missionaries in our branch though, St. Nazaire just has so much potential. I have this dream that I'm going to come back in ten years with my family and the chapel will just be full of people! It'll happen someday soon I'm sure of it. 

Other cool story of the week, remember how a few weeks ago i told you how we were porting with a young man from our branch and a really nice lady let us in? Well yesterday we went back and taught her and she officially became a new ami! She just had tons of really sincere questions and we were able to promise her answers and she was really open to learning more. This week was a huge blessing because we found the most new ami's since I've been here, which is really what (sorry i accidentally sent the first message before it was done haha) we needed. Heavenly Father really blessed us this week!

About Marie, she actually will no longer be getting baptised. It was a bit of a sad day actually because she got a bit mad at us. She just told us she refuses to stop drinking coffee.. its crazy to me that something to small can stop someone from making such an important step in their life? Im a little bummed about it just because she is not willing to continue with us really, but its okay because we really did try out best to help her and teach her.  I think that she will come back one day though just when she is ready. 

Well family that was the week! im super grateful for it and for my opportunity to be a missionary. #missionsrule 

I love you guys and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Wood

Hola hola! 

Hey guys, hope all is well! I cant believe all the stuff thats happening back home! Anna is engaged, friends are coming back, Grandma and Grandpa Wood are going to Sweden on a mission? Crazy! But i wish all those people the best of luck! 

This week we had a couple really cool things happen. Thursday, we were in a lesson with an investigator who was supposed to get baptised this saturday. She said some things that made Elder Ericson and I really feel like she wasn't ready for baptism this week, so we prayed about what to do and felt like we needed to teach a very specific lesson about forgiveness and change the baptismal date. We fasted this weekend for everything to go well and that this persons heart would be softened, and it was! The lesson went really well and she changed a lot, and Sunday morning we were able to change her baptismal date without a problem, she was really happy about it and the members really supported her. I feel like when i describe it like this it doesnt seem like a super big deal, but it was exactly what we needed and what we fasted for, and the Lord responded really quickly and perfectly with the needs of our ami. This experience definitely strengthened my testimony of fasting! 

Next cool miracle, we were in a family home afternoon yesterday with an awesome family named the Hoareau's, and their son Amoz, who is preparing for a mission, asked if he could come porting with us! We said yes and we went to a rather nice neighborhood that we've been working in for a while. The last door we knocked let us in right away! It was a single mom with 3 little girls, so it was perfect that we had a member with us, and she said she had had a lot of trouble praying lately, which happens to be what we wanted to do with her. So we said a prayer with her and the spirit was really strong. She thanked us and accepted our invitation to come back and teach her more about the restoration! It was so cool for us but even cooler I think for Amos to see that there are people out there that need the gospel and to be lead by the spirit. Miracles are happening in St. Nazaire! 

Amos and I after porting #superhappy

His umbrella broke so he fixed it with toothpick and he said "I am McGyver" and it was really funny.
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As for the rest of the week, we worked hard! Haha, St. Nazaire is really growing on me, and things are just going well right now and I'm super grateful for it. That's basically all! Thanks so much for all your prayers, they work! Love you guys :) Talk to you soon, have an awesome week! 

Conference

Whats happnin Family! 

Hope all in well back on the home front! 

Wasn't conference great?? Its such a blessing to have prophets and apostles to lead us today! Some of the main themes i notices were taking care of the poor and needy, the importance of each individual in the church and receiving our own testimonies, and the biggest one for me was following inspired leaders. I loved President Eyrings talk when he talked about his mom's advice and the council and example of his ward leaders as a kid. He is so humble and relatable. I definitely feel like he does about some of the leaders that taught me as a young man and about my parents and mission leaders as well! Its really a blessing to be able to be a part of such a big and progressing mission, they leaders that we have right now are really inspired! Im grateful that Pres Babin has left Elder Ericson and I here for one more transfer together because things are going really well right now, and we are going to be able to have a baptism in a couple weeks! The Lord really does love the investigators here. We saw a couple super cool miracles this week! Marie, an ami who is getting baptised, was able to quit drinking coffee! She only drank coffee because it helped prevent migraines, but she decided to stop and we prayed for here and since she stopped she hasn't had any migraines or headaches! And also on our way to conference a man stopped us on the road and told us he was looking for a the true church, so we were able to talk to him a bit and we'll be seeing him this week! Just little things happened like that all week, and i really felt the love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for this little branch and our investigators! We're getting super close with the members and its been really fun actually to see the fruits of our mission presidents inspired change to our mission. 

Im really grateful for the Atonement this week. I think we sometimes get too stressed about our imperfections and faults, but what we need to remember is that Christ over comes those things for us as long as we do our best. I definitly have a lot of imperfections and faults haha, but I'm just really grateful for Christ and the progression we can make with Him and for the opportunity that i have to represent Him here in France. I really love our Savior a lot and am grateful to be able to follow His example. 

I love you guys! Thank you so much for your prayers and your support and everything. Keep up the good work at home, spread the gospel! Hoorah for Israel!  Have a great week :) 

Elder Wood 

Middle Aged Single Women

Bonjour everybody! 

So, this week we got transfer news! The big news is that I will be staying in St. Nazaire!! Elder Ericson and I will be doing a 3rd transfer together, which will be the longest i have ever stayed with a companion! I am happy about it though because things have really started to go well in the last few days! 

Our ami Marie is progressing really well and she said something really cool during a lesson this week. We asked her how her testimony of Joseph Smith was coming along and she said it was coming slowly. But she tole us that she is really excited to get baptised because after she is baptised she will have the Holy Ghost and things will make more sense to her spiritually. Cool, right? To hear that from someone who has been to church less than 10 times was really cool for me, and i really think it shows a lot of faith on her part. She is progressing well and our other amis are doing well too! There is this interesting thing happening recently though, which is that we've only been finding middle aged single women to teach. Elder Ericson and I have nothing against middle aged single women, but they make things complicated when you have so many of them to teach but so few preisthood holders to come and teach them with you! But its alright, its a really good problem to have haha, because all the middle aged single women in the world need the gospel too. And they are really nice. 

All joking aside though, it really is a life changing experience to be a missionary. No matter how old or young or what height or race or age, every person needs this Gospel, and I feel incredibly blessed to be able to share that every day. Tough times have come in St. Nazaire but no matter how hard, the demand for the Gospel in peoples lives never diminishes, and the Lord needs worthy and willing messengers to get it to them.  I just know that the Lord loves us all equally, and that we all are important to Him, and that all our efforts count in His eyes. 

Our week was good and we're looking forward to a great week #1 in this new transfer! Give Jordan Higgins a big bisou for me! i love you guys, have a great week! 

Elder Wood 

Miracles people!

Hello everyone! 

FUN FACT: 

This is P-day lunch every week. Baguet, appel and cheese. We usually pick a different cheese to try every week, but i took a picture this week because this is my favorite cheese! Ive been trying to figure out how i can bring it home in mass quantities, so we'll see how much I end up stuffing in my suit cases. Its crazy good stuff. 

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This week went really well! We had a couple miracles that really helped us out, the Lords hand was definately present in the work this week! First off we had an exchange with our district leader in Nantes. During the exchange we were able to talk to a bunch of people and teach some really cool lessons on the street! One of my favorite things to do if we dont have an appointment is to prepare a lesson and then go out finding with the intention of teaching it. It really ups our chances of teaching people on the road and it just gives a lot of motivation and direction for what to say to people. So that helped us out a lot and we had a killer exchange. Then, back in good old St. Nazaire, we were able to fix a baptismal date with one of our amis named Marie! It was really cool because she had a date 2ish years ago, but she dropped the missionaries because she didnt like the idea of tithing. We refound her and started teaching again and she said that the first time she walked back into the church she knew she was going to get baptised! I'm so grateful for all that the Lord does for us and these little miracles that happen! We just have to remember that its on the Lords time table always. Things havent gotten any easier, but just like He did for the people of Alma, Heavenly Father sure did make Elder Ericson and I a little stronger this week by helping us fix a date! 

Also, another small miracle, the old Book of Mormon DVD presentations. Have you seen those things? Pure genius. My favorite one is the first one when Susan invites Linda to the laurel activity. Man, you gotta watch them. I wish everyone still dressed like they did back in the day. 

The Lords work is hastening! Transfers are in two weeks and its 50-50 if i stay or go, but a hunch and some common sense leads me to think that it will be me leaving. But luckily we've got at least a solid 17 days left of St. Nazaire lovin! Wish us luck and pray that we will find new amis. I love you guys and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Wood 

Suns Out Guns Out

Salutaions! 

We had a few spiritual funtivities this week, allow me explain them! 

Zone conference! Always a blast. It was cool to see some of the younger missionaries I knew who are now leaders in the mission! We got some really great trainings from our leaders and our Mission President. One of the main things I learned from this conference is just that it's super important to stick to the basics, always! It's easy to think that we have got the gospel basics down, or the missionary work basics down, but there will always be areas that we can improve in! 

Right after the conference we had an exchange in a city called Nantes (said like nahnt) and I was with Elder Cutshall. We had great time and were able to teach some really cool lessons on the street. We met a woman sitting on some steps by herself and when we asked her her name she said "it's like I don't have a name" because she was just feeling so unimportant, but we were able to testify to her that God loved her and that she was important to him. It was cool to see the change in her eyes as we talked and she said she would try and come to church! Then the next day we prepared a lesson during studies about finding out if God is there with the plan of finding someone to teach it to, and after a bit of contacting we were able to teach an English guy  the lesson we had prepared! It was cool just to see that God really blesses us as we are prepared to do His will. 

We also got some strange news this week in our branch. Our branch mission leader told us on Thursday that he was moving to a city called Lille, and on sunday, poof! He was gone! so nuts! So we were left with no branch mission leader. Then, a family gets up on Sunday to bear their testimony, and they told everyone they found work and were starting monday, but it was in Paris! So poof, they up and left today! So in total, 7 people left from our branch in one weekend. 7 is not a huge number, but when you only have 35 to 40 people every sunday, 7 missing is a lot! We are expecting some very interesting developments in our branch in the next few weeks, and hoping to find 7 people to get our attendance back up!! 

Have you ever thought about what is means to say "I know the church is true"? Joseph Smith said that the truth in things are they are, were and always will be. Saying that the church is true is actually a really deep statement! For me that phrase resumes a lot of history and sacrifice, when we think of all the saints that have come before us and have worked and in many cases died in order to progress the work of the Lord, and to bring the Truth forth. Im just proud to be able to say every day that I Know that the church is True. 

Nevertheless, things in St. Nazaire are going well. We're seeing some little miracles and the Lord really is helping us. Its getting pretty hot down here! I, being the 20 year old boy that i am, found myself one short sleeve shirt short the other day, and had to ask my companion if i could borrow one of his. Little did i know that his sleeves were super short, and so i just had my little white arms blazing in the sun all day! Thus the title, suns out guns out. And voila, le week! I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! Until next time!

Elder Wood