Howdy! 

How's it going? Things here are going super well! This is transfer week and I found out this morning that I will be staying here in Rennes with my awesome companion Elder Turley. No relation to Adam Turley, but awesome nontheless. I'm super excited because tons of awesome things are happening in our work now! And I really love new transfers because it's such a fresh start. We're gonna get some work done here in the next 6 weeks! But as for this week, some pretty cool things happened. First, we taught a lesson to our ami Pedro with our recent convert Bob, and it was so so cool. Comparable to sitting on an oven because the spirit was so strong! As we taught, Bob testified about his baptism and how esential it is for everyone, and even shared scriptures all on his own that helped him make this change in his life and Pedro was really touched. Also, yesterday at church Bob received the Aaronic Preisthood! It was really an honor to be able to participate in ordaining him. Me and Elder Turley bought him a sweet tie as a gift too. Also last night we found a bunch of people! We had planned to go to somewhere specific to find people, but we felt as though we needed to go back to the place we had already been earlier. So, we went back and found an appartment building and felt like we should knock the doors inside, but it was locked. Just as we approached the doors however, someone came down and let us in! So we started at the top and knocked our way down. We ended up getting to pray with 3 people in the building in about an hour! It was so evident that we needed to be there. All the people said to us that they don't usually let people in, but when they saw us they decided to let us in and listen to what we had to say. It was a great night and a huge learning opportunity for me because when the spirit tells us to go somewhere or do something, it is always the same feeling, and it always brings great results. Where else could I have learned this had I not been here on a mission? I love serving! 

Also we totally met a Portuguese guy this week that we're going to teach. Woop! 

We are running a little late so I've got to get out of here! But, I love you guys a ton. For real. Be safe! 

Love,

Elder Wood

*MOM NOTE - Josh sent home his journal from the first 9 months of his mission.  It is absolute GOLD, and I think if the house burned down, it is probably the only material thing I would save.  Here is a little nugget of wisdom from Elder Wood.  9/10/13 "Today was really great! Most days I just say they were good just because I ENJOY LIVING, but today was especially good"  How cool to have the attitude that life is good and enjoyable just because?  He inspires me every day!


Howdy Family! 

I'll tell you what, this week was great. I will tell you why!  

We went to Versailles to have a mission conference with Elder Patrick Kearon on the Seventy and it was really awesome! Before the conference started he asked all the mission leaders to go up into a different room to tell us something. I was half way expecting some sort of stern rebuking, the other half I just wasn't sure, but when he walked into the room we were all standing waiting for him, and he just started to thank us for all the work and sacrifices we make and that he loved us and our mission. I have not seen another person ever be so naturally happy and full of the light of the gospel as he was! During the conference we talked about finding, and the power of the Spirit in conversion and it was very cool to be taught by him. That was on Wednesday, then Thursday we worked in Rennes, then Friday we headed back to Paris to have a mission council lead by Elder Kearon again. The Wednesday meeting was with half of our mission, so about 140 missionaries, then the Friday meeting was with just the zone leaders and sister training leaders, so about 35 of us! It was really personal and interactive and we all got to report on how our zones were doing and then talk a lot with him about what we leaned on Wednesday and how we were going to apply it in our zones. Totally got to shake his hand after as well. Awesome. I was going to take a picture but my camera was dead. Rats. What I really took away from it though was how much he sincerely cared and about each of us individually and how he really wanted to help us and see us improve. Thats what I'm going to try to apply more in my missionary work. I honestly love the people the people that I get to work with here, but it's taking that care to the next level and making it a more natural thing that's the trick. That's the goal for this week! Love everybody more! 

Then last night we had an awesome miracle! We had had a lot of people to go see, but none of them were home. This has not happened for a while, and we didnt have a plan. We went to finish out the night with some porting, and we both had the thought to go to a specific neighborhood where we have been working for a while. We got there and started walking up the road, and I felt a very familiar prompting to turn around and knock on some doors that we had already passed. The first two doors did not let us in but the third door was a young couple that wanted to know more! They let us in, and we got to teach them about the Restoration. The Spirit was really strong and they asked us if we could come back to teach them more. I'm super grateful for the guidance of the Spirit! He always tells us where to go and it's cool to see how familiar the feeling is every time. It's easy to know when he is talking to us and we get to know him really quick as we follow what he asks us. 

We've got a big week planned! I'm stoked to get to work! Thanks a lot for all your letters and know that I will respond as soon as I can! I love you guys! 

Elder Wood

New comp, New Ami

Hello everyone! 

So I realized that I forgot to tell you, last week was transfer week! My great companion Elder S headed out to train in Namur, a little city in the south of Belgium, and I received Elder T as my new companion! He is a super cool guy from Tremonton, Utah. He likes soccer, wood working and serving the Lord. He's just one transfer younger that I am so, we've got a lot of learning to do, but we are gonna rock it here. This week went really well!  One of the coolest things that happened was that we were able to fix a baptismal date with one of our amis! He is an old investigator from 2012, but he came to church on his own last week and we got to talking. We taught him with a family from our ward this week, then yesterday he accepted the invitation to be baptised on the 15th. The really cool thing that I noticed was the visible change in him. He was more and more prepared by the Lord each time to accept this invitaion so when it came, he was ready. It's so cool to be able to help people make these eternity changing steps in their lives and I'm super grateful to be a missionary! Sometimes it surprises me that the Lord would entrust a bunch of young kids with such a sacred responsibility, but He really knows what He's doing, because it works! Lately we've been getting back in contact with lots of old investigators too and it's been going really well. We've been focusing a lot on really working for the right reasons and inviting people to come unto Christ and it's cool to see the difference. Often, it's easy to get caught up in the "numbers" aspect of things but when you really work out of love for others and leave the numbers aside, the work goes so much better. Not only do you feel better about all your efforts but you also do see your numbers get better! We've been teaching a lot lately and it's a huge blessing to work here at this time right now. Our ward is so awesome that they chose to use basically the whole month of January to teach about missionary work in church, and yesterday at Ward Conference, they talked about missionary work as well. Europe is so ready for the gospel! 

I am pretty short on time for this week so I've got to go, but thank you for all that you do and keep praying for the missionary work to progress! I love ya a lot, and I love being a missionary. Talk to you soon! 

Elder Wood

Bonjour ma famille! 

I am going to explain the events that happened this week, let you try to formulate some idea of how nuts it was then I will attempt to articulate how I am feeling. I will reassure you that I am happy as a clam, but your just gonna have to read! 

Liz. She was doing so good. We had several lessons planned for this week to teach her the remaining commandment lessons and answer all questions before her baptism on Saturday. The first lesson was scheduled for Wednesday, 4 days before her baptism. We headed over super excited to teach! When we got there, her mom answered the door, not in a very happy way. She told us right away ther we were no longer allowed to see or talk to Liz, that she could not come to church anymore or get baptised. We tried to reason with her and let her know that this is something that would bless Liz's life, but she doesnt understand the message so she is very scared to have her daughter change, and won't listen so that we can explain either. It was one of the saddest moments of my mission. She talked at us for a while and then we went out and sat in the car to regroup a little. After a little cool down and regaining a logical thought process I realized that everything was okay. Liz knows the church is true and has a great desire to be baptised, so it will happen one day! All we could do was accept that, and keep going with faith to find others. So, that's what we did! 

The other days of the week were so good. We taught more lessons this week than I ever have before on my mission. We found the most prepared people I have ever found before, 2 old investigators came to church and one of them said he was ready to be baptised, and we saw the baptism of one of the sister's investigators that we have also taught named Sophie! She is 23 and from north eastern China, here doing studies. The sister missionaries found her on the bus a little while ago and she felt that the message was true instantly! Me and my comp were witnesses for the baptism and basically the whole ward was there. I'm sure that she will one of the pioneers of the church in China one day. We got in contact with someone's old amis too, who were really great. The one that came to church and said he wanted to be baptised is Bob, then we recontacted and taught a man named Gaston and the Mari family. There are lots of other really great things that happened this week and I'm super super happy with how all the work is going right now! 

But do you see the conflict?! It was just a super up and down week! The highest highs and the lowest lows,  that's how the mission goes. That was a completely unintentional rhyme, good job Elder Wood. And the other weird thing is that at the end of every day no matter what has happened I'm still so so so happy. It's this unexplainable happiness that overcomes fatigue and sadness and stress and whatever else you can think of. That's the basic feeling of being a missionary. Haha, so ya! That was the week! 

I hope this all made sense, but I've gotta go! I love you guys and I'm really grateful for you! Keep up all the good work you do, and I'll talk to you next week. 

Bisous! 

Elder Wood

Crazy Week

Hello! 

This week was nuts you guys! Also I'm sorry this email is so late. I will explain why right now! I"ll start with a general run down of the week: 

Monday- preparation day; 

Tuesday- Mission leadership council. This was to announce the new mission moto for this year. It's Doctrine and Covenants 64: 33-34 (read it..) It's really good right? I'm really excited about it! We are focusing as a mission on being willing  and obedient. The whole time I was listening to President Poznanski present the theme, I thought of the new film Ephraims Rescue. (I had no idea Savanna was in that one too?!) But Ephraim was willing to follow the Lord and did what he was prompted and told to do, and when the time came for him to go and rescue the Saints, he was prepared and able to do what was necessary and ended up being an incredible instrument in the hands of the Lord. I feel like this is something that we all need to strive to do. What an inspired mission president that I have! Also mission/leadership council is in Paris, so that means gathering the missionaries from all sides of Bretagne and having them sleep in our apartment then buying lots of train tickets and it's nuts, but I like it. 

Wednesday- Exchange! I went with Elder Puirau, my new Tahitian friend. If you don't know how to pronounce his name you can just call him Elder Pollyhooha, because that's what we said before we knew how to pronounce it. For lack of time I will say, it was very good. 

Thursday-Friday- Zone Conference! We taught our zone about the new mission moto and ate lunch and it rocked, then we went and hopped onto another train to Paris to do an exchange with our AP's who are super cool. I was with Elder Dussere, a Frenchman from Marseilles. Then we headed back and taught Liz! She is going super good and her baptism is still going strong for this saturday. 

Speaking of Saturday- We finally had a normal day of work! I think it was one of the most teaching-filled days of my mission, so it was super good! 

Sunday- was so cool! Liz cancelled plans with another lady so she could get to church and announce her baptism to everyone. Then later that night she built up the courage to tell her mom she was getting baptized (because her mom is super catholic and was very against her coming to church for a while) but her mom accepted and was fine with it and is coming to the service! 

Then we have today! A very nice member named Sister Fellon took us over to Le Mont Saint Michel and it was a load of fun. I got you a postcard  so you can see it. That is actually the reason why I am emailing so late. We didn't get home until later, so we had to shop later, and then we had a far away lesson, but we couldn't wait until tomorrow to do emails. Not because we didn't have the will power but because we needed to email our president, so voila. 

I appologize for the lack of spirituality in this letter, but because we are super late I need to cut it short! I love you guys and am grateful for you! Have a really good week, I hope you enjoy all the Belgian things I sent you, and I'll talk to you later! Au revoir! 

Love Elder Wood

Light of Christ

Why Hello! 

I actually saw you guys and talked with you this week! That was so wild. And, just as I predicted, after the skype session I left the member's house, walked out the door into France. It really is so strange to just go back and forth like that, but what a blessing it was to talk to you all! I send my gratitude to whomever invented Skype. 

After Christmas we just jumped right back into the work like normal! The only difference being that all of our amis were still out of town and wouldn't be home until after New Years, so we filled our time with finding. And find we did! We met a really cool guy in an elevator that lived in Vannes, which is a city south east of Rennes, but he is now being taught by the sisters there with his family! I had a rather exciting exchange with Elder Evans, who knows the Arnels and the Jessees somehow. During that exchange a Chilean woman blessed us on the road, and a very drunk man tried to fight me on the bus. That was exciting.  Sunday was super good too because our ami Liz came to church for the third time and she really loved it. It still is strange to me how everything just seems to work out here! It actually seems like our whole mission is really progressing and seeing some huge miracles happening right how. It's such a cool thing to be a part this work! Our mission had over 300 baptisms this year which is so awesome! President told us this morning that we averaged about 26 per month which is really awesome. But, for the month of January 2014, we already have 49 baptismal dates in place! What progression! Missionary lyfe guys. It rules. 

I read Luke 11: 31-35 today. It talked about light, and how our eyes are the light of our body. If the light in our eyes is good, the rest of our body will follow. I felt like this related super well to missionary work, because as a missionary or a member of the church, everyone is watching us, no matter what we are doing at the given moment. Our role is to project this light that we have so that when people look in our eyes or see our action, it can spark in them too. I've seen this on my mission a lot, when people say "there is just something about you.." but they can place it, it's the light of Christ that they are seeing.This is something we talk about all the time and we've known sense we were small, but it's one of those things that is so important to put into action. Light doesn't just sit around, it goes forth and is bright and it warms and helps! So, people notice! Go out and show that gospel light! 

I hope you have a super good New Years! Don't get too crazy, but have fun! I love you guys, and I'll talk to you next year! 

Love Elder Wood

So Cool!

Rennes, France

Hello tout le monde! 

That basically means everybody. 

Rennes is so so cool! It's in western France in a department (county) called Bretagne. I'd say it's probably about the size of St. George, and it's got two universities, so there are lots of students. Some cool things that I'll get to do and see here are Le Mont Saint Michelle, which is a castle on a tiny island that you can only get to by land when the tide is down, a little city called St.Malo, which you can look up on the internet and see how cool it is, eat Gallettes, which are basically really delicious dinner crepes that are a specialty of Bretagne, and also there are lots of other castles and stuff to go and see. I'm so excited!!  The ward though is SO COOL!! Everyone used to be Catholic, so they all have such huge testimonies of the restoration, and they are really engaged in missionary work as well. It's only been 5 days, only 3 of which I have actually spent working in Rennes because of mission conference, but for now everything seems really perfect! Knock on wood, but I really think that great things are going to happen in this new ville! Elder Smith is in my new comp and is a total boss. He's in his 13th transfer, which is non-mission language means he has about 6 months left of his mission, and is just full of missionary wisdom to teach me about. I live in a cozy 4 man appartment again with Elder Evans from Midvale, and Elder Harris from Kentucky, who are opening up a new companionship here. They are some cool guys.  Also, get this, on Saturday we had  a ward Christmas party, which upon arriving to (does that phrase make sense?) we were asked to perform 2 suprise musical numbers! What? So, being that talented singer that I am, the other elders and I graced the ward with some beautiful Christmas songs that probably would have brought the spirit really powerfully, had we all been born with better voices. It was hilarious but also a great ice breaker and the next day at church everyone told us "good job" and we fixed lots of family home evenings with them and our investigators, who are also super cool here. Being a zone leader is super fun and I like it a lot! Friday we got to go to mission council and talk about cool missionary things. It was cool to be a part of and be able to participate and have that extra opportunity to serve. 

Also, I would like some more info on this, the Thompsons moved out? Are the people who replaced them members? Probably not if you got asked to fellowship them. But, that's so so cool! You guys gotta seize that opportunity! Let me know how it goes! 

Also some Christmas info: on the 25 I'll be able to skype you guys! Invite whoever you'd like, but I've gotta keep it to an hour, and it'll be anywhere from like 2 to 6 in the afternoon, France time, which I think means pretty early in the morning for you guys. I'll go for the latest possible so you can like open presents and not be zombies. Further info will come next monday. 

I'm not sure what else to write, which is pretty lame, but also we're runnin late today! I'll be more spiritual next week. Oh also my address here is:

Les Missionnaires

Elder Joshua Wood

29 rue Tanguy Prigent

35000 Rennes

France

C'est tous! Have a super good week, I love you guys! Be safe and share the gospel and everything, and I'll see you soon! 

Love,

Elder Wood