Tiffin, Ohio - December 19, 2016

Well it is currently sunny and a freezing 10 degrees outside. We had a crazy freezing rain storm that came Saturday night and destroyed all the roads. Sunday morning when we woke up, all the roads were covered in a sheet of ice and we had our own personal ice rink in front of our house where the road is supposed to be (that's what the picture is). We didn't even have our car because as we were driving home with our branch mission leader the roads were so bad that our little Chevy Cruze wouldn't have survived on the ice so members with four wheel drive ended up driving us all the way home and our car was fifteen minutes away from our house. There's still ice all over the place, just not as bad as it used to be. The importance of that paragraph is that it is so cold outside now. One day last week it was -2 with the wind chill. Just a little bit chilly. But also church was cancelled yesterday because of the ice all over the place, so now my entire week is already messed up before it even began. 

Anyways, last week was a little bit of a slower week. I was sick on Friday so we had to stay in and not really do anything but try to stay warm, which is really easy when you have an electric blanket keeping you warm. Best invention ever right there. Pretty much all our investigators had to cancel our appointments last week because they were out of town or just forgot or were sick, so that added to the slowness of last week. The lady that watched the Light the World video and talked with the lady in England has been sick all this last week so we haven't been able to meet with her lately. But the investigator of ours that moved in with her mom that I talked about last week is probably the most solid investigator we have right now. Her name is Amy and we were able to meet with her again last week. She had read the Book of Mormon and between Sunday and Wednesday got to the end of 2 Nephi and had good questions about the stuff she had been reading that we were able to answer. She was able to pray and knows the Book of Mormon is true and really wants to be baptized. She's had some rough years in her life and she knows that this is what she needs now. She calls us every day that we are supposed to go over to double check on the time before we even have a chance to call her and make sure we can still come over. She would have been at church yesterday if it wasn't for the devilish ice that came to cancel church.

This week we have exchanges tomorrow with the district leader and then again on Thursday with the zone leaders, and then it's Christmas Eve and Christmas and then transfers next week and I'm most likely moving out from Tiffin. Still planning on playing the organ next week unless church is cancelled again because of ice or snow (Pray that it gets cancelled so I don't have to play or speak!!!!). Everything is still going good here in Tiffin. Hopefully people aren't sick so we can meet with them again!

That's all for this week!

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - December 12, 2016

We had another really good week this week! As of yesterday night, we have 5 investigators that have a baptismal date, 2 in January and 3 in February! Over the last two weeks we have found 9 new investigators which is A TON for this area. Normally two a week is considered a good week, so we've had some really good couple of weeks! The only sad thing is that I'll be gone for all of those baptisms because transfers are coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm most likely getting transferred. There's also another 13 year old boy who's family is all members but he has Down Syndrome and is afraid to go under the water that we are working with to get him ready for baptism too! He wants to be baptized so he can help pass the sacrament, he's just a little scared. He's my favorite person ever. He started calling me "New Guy" when I first got here and he stills calls me that to this day, even though I've been here for five months now and Elder K is newer than I am. 

 

It snowed over the weekend and we got a couple of inches and it is still here! We woke up on Sunday morning to snow on the ground for the first time. It was wonderful. But because of the snow it made it so lots of people couldn't make it to church, so there were only around 30 people there. It was all good though cuz our only recent convert Ed Smith got the Melchizedek Priesthood and that's all that mattered! Okay, not really, the Sacrament mattered as well, but he got the Priesthood! He was so happy and it was the biggest smile I've seen from him since his wife passed away a month and a half ago. 

 

The only problem we have here in Tiffin is getting people to come to church! We commit them to come and they say they will, but then they don't show up! It's a little bit frustrating. One of our new investigators is just nervous about coming to a new church and we've only met with her once before and she seems really promising. We just knocked on her door one day but she was getting ready to leave to go pick her son up but we gave her one of the Light the World (Christmas Initiative) cards and she said she would check it out and that we could come back the next night. When we went back the next day, she did watch the video and said it was heart warming and brought tears to her eyes. And then she chatted with a lady from England on mormon.org and they are staying in touch to see how everything goes with meeting with us. We are going over again tomorrow to see her.

 

We are still meeting with Melissa and Leah and have started to teach them the commandments. They are the two on date for January, but that might have to move a little bit back if they don't start coming to church soon! Still working on getting them there. One of our investigators dropped us yesterday because they just aren't interested at this time and the Book of Mormon wasn't coming together for her. But when you lose one you gain one, and we got to meet with the daughter of another member who just moved in with her and committed her to baptism in February! Good things are happening. and Zone Conference was last week which is always good.

 

Hopefully it snows more this week!

Love Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - December 5, 2016

This last week was so good! Obviously the highlight was our Christmas Conference on Tuesday over in Kirtland! We only had to wake up at 5:30 am and left by 6:45 to pick up some other elders on the way and make it there by 9:30. The church sets up a whole bunch of nativities inside the visitors center that we got to look at for a while. And when I say a whole bunch, I mean close to 1,000 different nativities from all over the world. It was pretty cool, but mostly everyone was talking with other missionaries. I forgot my camera so I didn't actually get any pictures when I was there, or else I would send them. But I got to see Elder Walker (my MTC companion) again and the other missionaries that came out with me and then I got to see Elder Nageli again too. He's the best. Then we got fed lunch and watched a slideshow of pictures from all the missionaries, and then went up to the temple to have a meeting. It was so good. Lots of testimonies and musical numbers by missionaries, and President and Sister Brown, and the Youngstown Stake President, and Mr. Kirtland (Carl Anderson, who knows everything about Kirtland). It was the first time that I've seen all the missionaries all together at the same time, and we filled the bottom assembly room in the temple. It was pretty cool to see so many missionaries all there together, and then we have a mission song that we all sang to end the meeting and it was just so good. The Spirit was amazing there, something that everyone should experience. Then we got to drive back across the state of Ohio back to Tiffin and didn't get back until 7:45 at night. It was a long day, but well worth it.

 

It snowed a little bit last night as well, but this morning it was all melted, so that's a little bit of a bummer. I thought I would wake up today and there would be some snow on the ground, but no :( But the good news is that it is supposed to snow more later this week. Some big storm that went through Colorado maybe is coming this way and it's supposed to snow quite a bit. 

 

The 40 day fast that the Branch did is bringing so many miracles! Families have moved into the branch that had no intention of coming back to church but found us as we were walking by their house one day and are now working towards a temple sealing and having their kid that was diagnosed with a bad syndrome sealed to them as well! And then we were out tracting in a richer neighborhood last week and the first couple of houses that we knocked on, nothing came from them and Elder K said that these houses are the hardest to get into because they are the most comfortable where they are at in life. Then the next house we knocked on, the lady opened the door and let us in, mainly because it was cold outside, but that's all we needed. We talked with her for a little bit, and then she said that we could meet with her three kids as well, so we did and taught them all the Restoration and committed them all to read the Book of Mormon. The dad was upstairs in the shower, so he wasn't there, but all three of the kids were over 8 years old so we got 4 new investigators from that lesson. And we've been receiving referrals up the wazoo and have been able to meet with them as well and committed them to read the Book of Mormon as well! This week was just super good.

 

Of course when there's high points, there are also low points. The super duper awesome family from a couple of weeks ago that we met with, we met with them again on Saturday and they told us that at this point in their life, they aren't ready for it and can't accept the Book of Mormon because of the darn scripture in Revelations. They said they would pray about the Book of Mormon, but most likely wouldn't read it unless they had an experience like Joseph Smith had. So now we have that road block to try to get around.

 

This next week is gonna be a good one too! We have zone conference on Friday and then the Branch Christmas Party Saturday that I got forced to play the piano at because the lady that normally plays isn't going to be there. Good thing I already know a couple Christmas hymns!

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

 

 

Tiffin, Ohio - November 28, 2016

Well there are some changes that are coming to the good old Ohio Cleveland Mission. Don't ask me why this is happening because I don't know, but it is. First off, we are going to be having zone conferences and interviews both once a transfer and we won't have zone training meetings anymore. But the zone conferences are going to be more like stake conferences for all the missionaries instead of just one zone. We used to switch off between interviews and zone conferences every other transfer, so now they will both be in one transfer every transfer. I think it's just so President Brown can interact more with all the missionaries. Also, the real humdinger (I think that's a word. I just don't know what it means) is that preparation days are going to be moved to Wednesday instead of Monday. That's the part I really don't understand. I don't know if transfer week will be the same with preparation day on Tuesday still or if the day of transfers will be preparation day. We will find out soon enough. But these changes don't take place until the new year, so we only have a couple of Monday preparation days left. That's all the big news with different things coming up. So no more staying up until midnight on Sunday nights to get an email written, unless you still want to. I can't tell you how to live your life. Agency. 

 

Also, in the middle of January we are having a mission conference and Elder Gay of the Seventy is going to be coming. I don't know who he is, all I know is his name and his picture from the trusted old Ensign. 

 

Well Christmas Conference is tomorrow, once again IN THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE. We luckily get to wake up at 5 tomorrow morning to have time to get ready and drive there and pick up some other elders to be there by 9:30. We probably won't wake up at 5 though because mornings are hard. That's just the goal so when we sleep in anyway we can still make it on time. Gotta plan ahead for what you know will happen anyways :)

 

So I keep forgetting to tell you this, but (sadly) the branch found out that I can play the piano so now they have started to have me play in Priesthood. I accidentally slipped one week and asked if there was an opening song, and then they figured it out and asked if I could, and at that point I couldn't lie, right? So now they like to torture me because I didn't tell them so they pick the hymn and I just have to sight read it. Just think if I did that all the time at piano with Carol and Mary... But the best part of them knowing is that I can use it to my advantage. In the branch you normally have to speak about every three months and I knew it was coming up to me speaking again, mainly because Elder Knickerbocker had to speak, so I knew I had to act quick. I made a deal with the Branch President that as long as I didn't have to speak for the rest of the time I'm here in the branch that on Christmas Day I will play the organ. Can you believe I volunteered to play the organ? But hey, it got me out of speaking. Gotta use what you have to get out of what you don't want to do, right? I love the branch here. It's so much fun to bug certain people because they all like to bug me back. The second counselor in the branch presidency is a HUGE Michigan fan and they played Ohio State on Saturday so leading up to the game I made it a big deal and then when Ohio State won in double over time we went over to his house and took a dead weed to use as a flower and told him we were sorry for his loss and asked if there was anything we could do for him. He wasn't the happiest of people with me, but it's all done in joking. I love it. And every time I saw him at church I just looked at him and smiled and he glared back at me. But then they invited us over for dinner on Christmas Eve so he must not hate me that much. I'm sure that on Christmas Day since it'll be my last Sunday in the branch that they will make me get up and say something anyways because that's what they do. It's great here. 

 

Thanksgiving was good here. It was preparation day so we got to go shopping at WalMart and Black Friday is crazy! They had everything already set up and shrink wrapped so people wouldn't get into the stuff. They should just wait until Friday to do Black Friday. And then we went to a family in the Branch's house for dinner and had a super good smoked turkey with all the normal Thanksgiving food. They tried to call you mom to see about getting a recipe for the Yam and Apple Casserole because that's strangely what I wanted. Don't know why because I don't like yams that much, but that's what I wanted. We played Settlers of Catan and some Book of Mormon games there and then played a nice game of mom's favorite, Monopoly. We still made it home on time, we didn't stay there all night. Don't worry. But smoked turkeys are super good. 

 

It wasn't a good week for meeting with our investigators last week. With the holidays and the changing weather people are getting sick and had stuff going on with family so it was hard to meet with them. We did pick up that new investigator last week that seemed sincerely interested that we will meet with again soon and also the super duper awesome family. We're meeting with them on Saturday and they are going to feed us lunch and we will move forward with preaching the gospel and all that cool stuff. We tore out some plaster from the less active's house that we do service at and got super dusty, but it's all good because demolition is the best, just not for the lungs. 

 

The new Christmas Initiative is out on mormon.org and you should all check it out. It's all about service and lighting the world. Hopefully some people see the video and refer themselves so we can meet new people! 

Love, 

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - November 22, 2016

Well first off, IT SNOWED! Last Saturday it was the perfect weather and it finally started to snow! I don't actually know how good the pictures are but you might be able to see the snow coming down. That also means that it's getting pretty cold outside, which is has been. Like 33 degrees some days. Gotta love it, right? 

 

So if you remember how when I first got to Tiffin there was an investigator who went to jail for doing nothing pretty much, right? Well it's been a while since anyone else has been to jail and we were trying to stay in contact with that investigator's brother to find out when he would get out of jail, but now his brother has joined him in jail. Tiffin is the area where people just get sent to jail apparently. So now we can't figure anything out with him or his brother now. Tough luck. They should just open up the jail to us so we can meet with everyone that has ever talked with missionaries before cuz chances are that's where they are! Just kidding. Not everyone is there. Speaking of going to jail, there was an investigator in Findlay that I met when I was on exchanges there that had just got out of jail after being there a couple of days. They're in the Tiffin district, so it still counts as Tiffin, right? And I met with them so I'm gonna count it. I can't even remember how many people have been to jail anymore. Probably like 8 by now. Just got to rack that number up. 

 

Melissa and Leah are still doing well (they are the friend of Khaliah and her mom if I haven't given them a name yet). She's been reading the Book of Mormon but hasn't prayed yet because she wants to know what she is reading before she prays about it. They had to cancel last night because Leah had cheer practice and couldn't be there, so instead we met with a less active family.

 

We met with some super duper awesome former investigators on Saturday that are super duper awesome and we had a super duper awesome time over there and they made hot chocolate and cookies because it was snowing which was super duper awesome! And the snow was super duper awesome too. Saturday was just a super duper awesome day in case you can't tell. We taught them the Restoration and they said that they would be baptized, they just didn't want to set a date until they know for sure. He likes to look at the science and logic behind things, but neither of them believe in the Trinity and they don't smoke and they most likely aren't going to jail anytime soon! Good people in the world. And they literally just walked behind us in the library. What are the chances?

 

We were out tracting this morning and the very last door we knocked on there was a lady who opened the door and let us teach her and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it! Good things happen even when it's 30 degrees and you are outside teaching a lesson because you can't go in. So now we're teaching her and hopefully will keep teaching her!

 

I also had to whip out the electric blanket cuz it's been getting pretty cold the last couple of nights. It still keeps me nice and warm.

 

And I decided to try to set up the Christmas tree in our apartment even though it's before Thanksgiving. The only problem with it is that there aren't any lights and the ornaments don't have any hooks. And there isn't a tree stand so I had to improvise. Don't look too closely at the knives holding the tree up...

 

Thanksgiving is this week so expect some food talk in my email next week! Love you all,

Elder Woodward

 

 

Tiffin, Ohio - November 15, 2016

Well this week is transfer week, also why I'm emailing on Tuesday instead of Monday. The moment everyone has been waiting for? I will be staying here in Tiffin for at least one more transfer with Elder Knickerbocker. By the time I'm peacing out from here it'll be after Christmas and there might be snow here on the ground. And the first fourth of my mission will be here in this area. Time has been flying by here so far and it will probably continue to do so! Good things are going to be happening in this upcoming transfer as well that I'm looking forward to. 1. Thanksgiving because food obviously, 2. Christmas because Christmas, 3. Christmas Conference on the 29th IN THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE (be jealous everyone else), and 4. We will be having a recent convert and a re-baptized member hopefully going to the temple in the middle of December! The recent convert is the man in the picture I think I sent last week and his wife passed away about a month ago and he is the best man in the world! He is looking forward to going and being sealed to his wife for all eternity. The Gospel is so good. 

 

This last week has been really good. Now that it is getting colder and leaves are falling we get to do a lot of raking leaves for the older single sisters that live in our area. Always a ton of fun. Election day last week was a little bit weird. (I think) Everyone was out voting, so not  a lot of people were home when we were out tracting, and it was cold so nobody was out walking around on the streets either. And it gets dark so early now because of the time change a couple of weeks ago. It'll only be 7:30 and I'm ready to crawl into bed and go to sleep but still got an hour and a half to go before going home. The 40 day fast is drawing to a close. It ends this Thursday sadly. Now we will have to start cooking some meals every once in a while. But last week was super good on meals. In fact, we had two double dinners. Not one, but two. Thursday and Saturday. It was my first double dinner so far and it wasn't as good as I thought. Way too much food to be eaten in such a short time and you just gotta stuff it in so nobody gets offended and then you feel way sick after. Especially when you get taken to a pizza buffet and an Oriental restaurant. Soo much food. I love my food in case you can't tell by my wonderful emails :)

 

Well Latonya moved down to Columbus yesterday. I don't think I will be able to get transferred to her area because it's out of the mission, but she wants us to stay in contact with her down there. If only she had stayed one more week then everything would have been amazing with her. We helped her move her stuff out on Saturday when we were going to go to Kirtland with her and Khaliah, but that didn't happen and she needed help moving stuff. We almost finished teaching her everything and was close to getting her baptized, but she had to go and move. Sad day. There's a picture of them in the email so now you can finally see them. She is so funny. If only you all knew her and understood her humor. It'll be weird not going over there anymore. But miracle: one of Khaliah's friends who I may have mentioned before who came over when we would be over teaching told her mom about meeting with us so we went over to meet her mom to make sure it was okay and she is the coolest hippy lady ever! And she got interested because of her daughter and now we are teaching them both and have committed them both to baptism for January 14th! I'll most likely be gone by then, but they are still planning on getting baptized. She is super open to learning and has been reading the Book of Mormon since we met with her last Monday and the last night as well. Even though Latonya and Khaliah are moving, we were able to meet Melissa and Leah through the referral for Latonya. God works in mysterious ways sometimes. 

 

I think that's all for this week!

Elder Woodward

 

Got a nice district picture for you before transfers.​​ And got stuck by a stopped train, once again in Fostoria.

 

 

 

 

Tiffin, Ohio - November 7, 2016

Yes, Cleveland lost in the World Series, but at least they made it to the World Series. All I know is that the last game was pretty intense. But anyways, this last week was pretty good! We are still meeting with Latonya and Khaliah, but I have some bad news. They were on date for the 19th of November and they found out on Tuesday that they are going to be moving on the 14th of November. We were trying to see if everything would work for them to be baptized a week early, but it would have been really crazy and they would have needed to come to church yesterday which they didn't. They went to Columbus for the weekend and Latonya's phone died so we weren't even able to contact her when they were down there. Now we're going to have to hope the missionaries down there are good and keep meeting with her! Last Wednesday when we met with her, we got her to let us take her last two packs of cigarettes and her ash trays with us when we left because she really does want to quit. As long as she hasn't bought any more, then things will be going good with her. Khaliah really wants her mom to quit smoking, but she just hasn't been able to kick it quite yet. Maybe us taking her cigarettes will be good for her. We were also planning on taking them to Kirtland this Saturday but that's the day she has to get the UHaul truck so we don't know if that's going to work either. We are still planning on going with her so hopefully it will all work out. 

We've been trying to find a bunch of new people to teach and we found a couple last week. We've only met with them once, but we will keep meeting with them and see where everything goes from there! Not a ton of stuff happened, still trucking along. It's all good though because good things are starting to happen here. 

This is a really short email I just realized. There will be more next week because transfers are next week so there could be some news from that to take up some space!

Love,

Elder Woodward

 

Pictures: Fostoria is the train captial of Ohio, and we were trying to go meet with someone and got stuck by two trains going opposite directions at the same time. We had to wait there for about ten minutes before we could start going again. 

 

There's a bridge that a train goes over in Tiffin that is only 11 feet high and at least once a month, semis that are taller than 11 feet try to go under it and get "Tuna canned". This week, one semi got stuck so another semi decided to try to go around it and also got stuck, blocking both lanes of traffic. Geniuses of the world...

 

Us with our only recent convert at church who's wife passed away a couple of weeks ago. He's such a good man. We are going to be trying to get him to the temple in December because that's a year after he was baptized! 

Tiffin, Ohio - October 31, 2016

There wasn't a ton that happened this last week, but it still seemed to go by really fast! We are in the middle of teaching the commandments to Latonya and her daughter, and they are still doing really well! She's been praying to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and says that she hasn't received her answer yet, but also says she hasn't received an answer that he wasn't a prophet. We've got a trip to Kirtland planned for her and her daughter with some members in the branch on the 12th of November to hopefully help her feel the Spirit and know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and to also help with the Word of Wisdom issues. She had one cigarette left all week last week that she was saving, up until Friday when she bought another pack. She felt soooo bad when we asked because she said she would stop and her daughter does a fantastic job at guilt tripping her into stuff. When we taught about not taking the Lord's name in vain, Khaliah just turned at stared into the soul of Latonya and was a little sassy about it. And then when we were talking about honoring your parents, the roles were reversed and Latonya stared into Khaliah's soul. It's was hilarious to watch. I need to start recording our visits over there because they are literally the greatest thing ever. So much fun to be over there. Khaliah reminds me a lot of Emmie, just younger. I'll have to try and get a picture with them before I get transferred out if I do. Won't know for two more weeks. 

Ohio does this crazy thing with Halloween where a city/town will do Trick or Treating someday before Halloween and only do it for a couple of hours so kids aren't out all night causing trouble. It's a smart idea, but in Findlay it was last Thursday and I was there on exchanges and then in Tiffin it was last night. And when people are out trick or treating, we aren't supposed to be out knocking on doors or trying to talk to people on the streets so we aren't confused with trick or treaters. So there's really not a lot that we can do when they are out unless we have appointments. And then tonight since it is Halloween, our mission president wants us home no later than 8:30 but still wants us to do missionary work. It's gonna be fun. So I got the Halloween in Findlay, the one in Tiffin, and then actually Halloween today. Three Halloweens in one year. How many people does that happen too?

There was one day that Elder Knickerbocker wasn't feeling well, so we had to stay home and he slept and I cleaned a little bit. It's always fun on those days because you can't really do much. We were over at my favorite less active's house doing service again and it's a good thing that we painted our rooms so many times when we were younger because now I have so much practice with it that I'm basically pro! Last week I painted his entire porch and then this week I painted around his windows on his front porch. I didn't finish all of it because we had to run to the Branch Trunk or Treat, but got most of it done! there's a before and after picture for ya! We also got free BWW again after the trunk or treat solely for being awesome and having the branch love us.

Yesterday was the Branch's primary program. They had ten kids there and then made the eight young men and young women help out with the singing. Because it was the primary program, we had more than 70 people there today! If only there was normally that many people at church every week. Sadly Latonya and Khaliah didn't come to church this week, but they are planning on it next week! It's a little sad that they will be moving pretty much right after they get baptized if they stick with their date, but it will all be good.

Have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Woodward

 

 

Tiffin, Ohio - October 24, 2016

Hey Family,

 

Greetings from Tiffin. Everything is good in the hood out here. Last week was pretty good! A couple of highlights: 1. We had exchanges with the zone leaders and almost died, 2. We also had President at our district meeting and had interviews with him, and 3. WE HAD THREE INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH YESTERDAY!! 

 

So, obviously the big thing is that we had a bunch of investigators at church. Latonya, Khaliah (her daughter), and Leah (Khaliah's friend) all came to church. We had to find them a ride because they don't have a car, but we were still able to get them to church. We've been meeting with Latonya now for a couple of weeks and she loves everything we teach her and loves our "Bible Studies". She is super pumped for November 19th because that's her and her daughter's baptismal date. Her friend has been at all but one of the lessons we've had, but she loves to come to them too. They've started reading the Book of Mormon and praying as a family and Latonya says that she has noticed a difference in her life and doesn't have to yell at Khaliah to get her to do the things she asks her to do. Latonya absolutely loved church and wants to come back next week again and participated in every class because nobody else would haha. She already knows so much more than she thinks she does and ends up teaching us when we go over there! It's always the highlight of the week to visit her and teach her. We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Saturday because she smokes and she said that when she finishes her last pack of cigarettes she won't buy anymore and she wants us to call her everynight to see if she smoked so she will feel bad if she did. Those were her exact words. She wants us to guilt trip her into not smoking anymore. We're really working with her and getting her and her daughter to get them ready for baptism!

 

President Brown came to our district meeting on Tuesday for interviews and to give some of his own Words of Wisdom to the mission. He really wants us to focus on the part member families in our areas with reactivating the less active members and teach the non members. As of the end of July, there were over 2,100 part member families in the entire mission. 2,100! That's so many that are out there and now it's a goal to go and find them and teach them. And then of course President has a way of rebuking everyone but he is so good at it that you don't realize you just got rebuked until after the interview. He's such a good guy. A little intimidating though.

 

Thursday night, we got to drive over to Lima to meet up with the zone leaders for exchanges all of Friday. The drive out was super scary because it was raining really hard and we were driving on the freeway and passing a crazy amount of semis. The windshield wipers were on full speed and at times we still couldn't see out the windshield. There was one semi we went to pass that was spraying a ton of water on us plus all the rain that if the road wasn't straight at that time we probably would have run off the road or into the side of the semi. It was pretty scary. We had to stop in Findlay and as we were running in to get some stuff from their apartment, I went to turn a corner and the grass was way too wet to be running on and my feet slid out from under me and I tore up some grass and got mud from my hip down to my knee and on my shirt and my shoes. And we had already left Tiffin and I didn't have another shirt or pants packed for the exchange. Good thing the ZL's had a washing machine in their apartment so I could wash them there. On the exchanges, we met with a few less actives that live in Van Wert, Ohio. Like ten miles from the state and mission border. We did a lot of tracting and found a few potentials for the zone leaders to work with. The zone leaders here are so much fun to be with and just know how to have a good time. And they're really laid back. It's always good with them. 

 

A couple of other random things: we helped a member make doors for their bedroom that look like barn doors and then we helped to hang them up. It actually looks really cool. We also keep getting fed a lot which is always a super good thing. Less cooking for me to have to do to try to feed myself. Our apartment almost caught on fire on Wednesday. Elder Knickerbocker was heating up some water on the stove and there must have been something on it that got super hot and burst into flames. It was a little bit scary because I don't think there is a fire extinguisher in the apartment, but we got the fire put out and all is good. The fire alarms went off and man those things are annoying. There's been a couple of days out here that it has been in the upper 40's. It seems like it went straight from summer to winter. One day it was 80 and the next it literally dropped to about 45 and the wind was blowing. All the leaves are changing and it's super pretty. Maybe I'll send a picture next week of it. Some sad news, we had a member pass away early on Saturday morning. She was my favorite person ever, but she's been struggling pretty bad for 3 months now. Pretty much the entire time I've been in Ohio, she hasn't been able to eat anything without throwing up and has been laying in a hospital bed all day. It was really sad to hear about, but her husband is one amazing guy. They've been married for 66 years and he was baptized last December. A month and a half and they could have been sealed in the temple. Kind of sad, but she was in a ton of pain and it was hard for the husband to see. 

 

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - October 17, 2016

The latest week in Tiffin was pretty good! We've been doing a lot of finding to meet new people and try to pick up new investigators, but every day isn't always super effective. The important part is that we are out doing what we're supposed to be doing and the investigators will come! 

 

Apparently Columbus Day is a big thing out here so last Monday the library was closed so we had to drive out to Findlay to email over at the church out there. We hung out with the elders over there for the day and ended up playing basketball all day which I am still terrible at, but so is everyone else so it's all good! Tuesday was pretty much all finding all day long, and we met a guy on his porch who was out smoking and taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and committed him to baptism! Besides smoking, he works every Sunday all day so we're going to have to work with that, but then we went to meet with him again last night and he flamed us. He's not in jail, so there is still hope! Wednesday was still more finding and meeting with some less actives that we are trying to get to come to church. We had an appointment with Latonya but she had to cancel because she was sick and couldn't meet with us. So instead we did more and more finding! We did meet with her on Thursday and taught her and her 12 year old daughter the Plan of Salvation. She LOVES to talk, but as she talks, she convinces herself to believe what we say. And she loves that everything we teach comes from the Bible or the Book of Mormon and there is scripture to go with it. Her daughter was there at the lesson so we were able to commit her to baptism the same day as her mom as well! So that is coming up in about a month! Good things are happening. Friday, we met with a TON of less actives that live out in Fostoria. There are some people that we take the sacrament to out there that can't make it to church because of health. We tried to meet with our investigators out there, but one of them was leaving right when we were getting there and she set up a "date" with us for this week. Good times in Fostoria. On Saturday we got to go and do more service at a returning less active members house that wants to meet with the Branch President to see what the "next step" is in his life. He's such a cool guy. We cleaned off his entire porch and repainted it because it was collapsing a couple of weeks ago and we redid the wood that he walks on so he doesn't fall through. We're trying to get him to be able to come to the Branch Temple Trip that's coming up in a couple of weeks because he has never been to the temple before, not even the temple grounds. He seemed excited and did meet with the Branch President on yesterday. Hopefully he will be able to come! 

 

That's all for this week, sorry it was a shorter email! Maybe next week's will be longer!

Elder Woodward

 

PS The picture is from transfers when Elder Nageli left

Tiffin, Ohio - October 10, 2016

Lots of stuff happened this week! First off, Wednesday was transfers so Elder Nageli left in the morning to drive over to Cleveland to meet his new companion. I stayed in Tiffin to work for the day with another elder until the Zone Leaders brought my new companion and some more elders going to different areas back. I didn't realize how good of friends you can become with someone and how fast you can become friends until Elder Nageli left. Everyone was saying that he was the best trainer and he definitely was. It's going to be weird without him here, but it's all part of the work and bound to happen. The new elders got here in the middle of the day so we had some good time to go tracting and found a potential investigator that is Christian instead of Catholic. Most of Tiffin is old farts who are all Catholic so it's rough sometimes going tracting. Elder Knickerbocker is from the tiny town of Levan, Utah, ten miles south of Nephi, geographically the center of Utah. He has been out a year this coming Friday, so both my companions thus far have been with me around their year mark. He's served in New Philadelphia, Toledo, Warren, and now here in Tiffin. I don't know who his parents are and his dad didn't work at the McDonald's in Smithfield. And actually he talks about the Knicks because they are really the New York Knickerbockers which not a lot of people know about, they are just the Knicks for short.

 

The rest of the week was pretty slow, but still good! We found a couple of new investigators, one who was just sitting on his porch with a typical Ohio item in his hand, a cigarette! Just from talking to him it seemed like he's had quite the life, but he's changed it around the last year. We were able to teach him there on his porch and commit him to read and he said he would. He seemed like a really cool guy, but he might have just been being nice to let us talk to him. I don't know though.

 

On Saturday we were able to find another new investigator from a referral we received from church headquarters. She's got the wonderful name of Latonya (yes, she is black. Just add "La" in front of any name and you have a black name.) and she originally requested a bible because something popped up on her phone asking if she wanted a free copy of the bible and she said "Well I can't deny the word of God, can I?" So then we took one over to her and she was soooo excited. It turns out she is living with a less active that was baptized two years ago in a different area and then moved here. Great way to find a less active and a new investigator all at the same time. We also gave Latonya a Book of Mormon and she also said that she couldn't refuse more of God's word haha. Just gotta love those old black ladies with an attitude. We taught her when we were there and committed her to baptism for November 19 and she said yes! She said that she wants to be baptized because she hasn't been, but she's got a little bit of a problem with the Godhead and them all being separate beings and (of course) she smokes. She told us we could come back to have more "bible study" with her and was very enthusiastic about reading the Book of Mormon. It's all going to go well and things will happen with her. The only bad thing is that she is moving down to Columbus at the end of November so she would pretty much get baptized and then move down there. But it's still bring someone the truth!

 

The next 40 days are going to be fantastic! Not just because of the missionary work, but because the branch is doing a 40 day fast where one family or member of a family is going to fast for the day specifically for  people or friends of these people that are ready to hear the gospel. And then they will have us over for dinner and feed us every night to end the fast and tell us if there's anyone that has come to mind that we could stop by. So we don't have to cook at all really for the next 39 days because it started yesterday and we get home cooked meals every day. 

 

That's all for this week!

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - October 4, 2016

So much has happened this week! First off some sad news (and to scare mom a little bit), there were some missionaries up in Cleveland that got jumped on Sunday. There were six guys that attacked them and they had to go to the hospital. One of them used to be in my district and he was already out as of yesterday, but his companion is still in the hospital with a fractured skull. I don't know if it was in the news or not, but that's what's happening out here. Hopefully I never go up to Cleveland.

 

The next bit of news is that transfers are tomorrow. Elder Nageli is being transferred to Lorain in the Cleveland West Zone and is going to be a Zone Leader over there. I am staying here in Tiffin and all I know about my next companion is that his name is Elder Knickerbocker. Dead serious. I couldn't make that up if I wanted to. It's a really long last name and I don't know how many times I will end up typing it out. Elder Nageli doesn't want to leave now because the last two weeks have been the most productive weeks he's had in 6 months here in Tiffin and this has been his favorite area. He's sad to go but everything will be good for him. We've just had so much fun the last couple of weeks together with new people to teach and just messing around all day.

 

Nobody went to jail this week, but we were finally able to contact the referral that went to jail's wife/girlfriend. We gave her a Book of Mormon the first time we met with her about a month ago and we went back over last Tuesday. She is such a cool lady! Her name is Jessica and she has three kids. She is so much fun just to talk to and hear about her life and man has she had a crazy one! We taught her the Restoration and committed her to read the Book of Mormon. Then last night we went back over to her house to see how everything was going. She hadn't read the Book of Mormon yet but she read through the Restoration pamphlet that we left with her the last time. She knows she needs to read and wants to bring her family to church and is planning on coming this week, so that's super great! We talked more about the Book of Mormon with her last night and recommitted her to read. The only problem we know with her is that she smokes like everyone in Ohio, but last night she said that she wants to quit smoking because she knows that it is bad for her. And she's been looking for a church. We also picked up a new investigator out in Fostoria after we taught Jessica who lives in Fostoria. 

 

Conference was so good! I think it was the first time I stayed awake during every talk and even took notes! You should be so proud mom. We watched all the sessions at different member's houses and they mostly fed us. There was a lot of really good things said. President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood session was super good and there were a lot of really good talks. Everything President Uchtdorf says is always good though, so I don't know why I didn't expect it. I don't think I can pick a favorite. I loved it all! I don't have my notes with me or I'd tell you some of my more favorites because there were like fifteen that I really liked. I did really like Elder Ballard's talk as well. He just roasted everyone that is either less active, thinking of going less active, or inactive. It was so great and all the things that he talked about are what make our church so great! I love it when the Apostles roast people because they are so good at it but they don't have to say, "All you inactives/less actives are stupid and need to come back to church." That's why I'll never be an Apostle. We watched the Sunday afternoon session at our branch mission leaders house and his wife is an ASL interpreter so we watched it on the ASL channel. Guess who the first interpreter on the screen for the first talk was? Brother Radford! It was cool to see someone that was recognizable on the tv besides the general authorities. I thought mom would like to know that. 

 

You know, I never thought that I would be sick of pizza, but after last week I never want to see or smell pizza again. We bought some frozen pizzas from Walmart last week to eat for lunches so we had one last Monday for lunch and then we had pizza again for dinner at a really good restaurant. Think that's it? Nope. Then on Wednesday we had another frozen pizza for lunch. Doing good right? Then we had more frozen pizza on Thursday that a family that's kind of investigating gave us. Then on Friday we had pizza at a buffet for lunch with some members and that pizza actually wasn't bad for being a buffet. Then we picked up another pizza that another member bought to take to his house and eat before we did service there. SO MUCH PIZZA it was ridiculous. I'm all pizza'd out for a while. Most of it was good but there was some questionable toppings, like nasty mushrooms on one. But good week with lots of food being fed to us. 

 

There is this MASSIVE honey bees nest at our church. I don't know how it's never been seen before but it is huge. Our landlord has bees so we told him about it and went over to the church with him so he could look at it and he said that it has been there for the entire summer and there is probably TEN THOUSAND bees in it/living there/I don't know what they do! Like holy crap! I'd send a picture if my camera worked and I had it there, but it doesn't work. It was probably as big as Kayson just hanging from the tree like it was nobody's business. Our landlord is going to take it with all his other bees eventually, hopefully before someone does something stupid to it. 

 

It's starting to get cold here! We had to break out the sweaters yesterday because it was a little bit chilly outside. There are rumors saying that this winter is supposed to be a bad one and so I hope I can stay warm! I'm gonna need some thermals to stay warm out here all winter. Yes, the sister from France is here, she is in Kirtland and came out one transfer before I did. And the only time I play the piano is in District Meetings less than half the time because there's a sister who can play every hymn so she plays most of the time. But I have played it. In fact I played it yesterday, so you can tell Carol that.

 

Have a good week! Love you!

Elder Woodward

 

PS Here's a picture of my district yesterday before two leave and three come in. It's the only picture I can send because it's the only one that I have.

Tiffin, Ohio - September 26, 2016

We were able to go to the temple on Saturday, but not in Columbus. We got to go to Detroit because the Columbus temple is closed for cleaning and it won't open until after Elder Nageli (most likely) leaves, so we moved it to Detroit instead! Just a little note to Mom and Emmie and Darcy: Yes, Detroit is still a dump and is still as sketchy as it was when we were there a couple of years ago. So many roads going all over the place and the only place I didn't feel like I could get shot at any second was at the temple! The temple is in a super nice neighborhood. Guess what road it was on? Yep, that's right. Woodward Avenue. There were multiple temple workers who joked about that. The temple was actually in Bloomfield Hills (I think) and it was probably the nicest neighborhood in all of Michigan. There were Lamborghinis and Ferraris driving around like it was nobody's business. All the houses were super nice and huge. Way too big for anyone normal though. 

 

We woke up at 4:45 in the morning to get ready to go to the temple because we had to be there at 8:30 for a 9:00 endowment session and it was a two and a half hour drive. We left at 5:45 and drove up with the couple that was getting sealed. Definitely tried to sleep on the way up but cars just aren't the most comfortable thing to sleep in. The temple is really nice! It looks a lot bigger on the outside than it was on the inside, but it's still a temple and they all do the same thing. I think there are more stalls to change in in the Logan Temple Baptistry than there are in the main dressing room in Detroit. It was so small. It was kind of surprising walking in and it being so small. There were so many people there for the endowment session that every seat was full for both men and women and they even had to pull out six extra folding chairs for the men because there were so many people! It was crazy to see that many people. After the endowment, we got changed and went to the sealing for the couple. It was the couple, the Branch President and his wife, and Elder Nageli and I there for the sealing. Elder Nageli and I were able to be the two witnesses for it so that was really neat. We got to sign the certificate the couple gets so they will always be able to remember us. On our way home, we stopped to eat at Denny's and got some good food. We didn't get back home until 4:00 and then went and did service and had dinner at a members home and then went to a less actives house to teach him. He is the one that I think I talked about last week how he got a suit to come to church and is paying his tithing. He said that this week he started reading the Book of Mormon during his lunch breaks and it seemed like everything this week went better for him. I wonder why... The only bad thing is his truck broke down on Saturday so he wasn't able to come to church yesterday.

 

Trainer calls were last night and guess what? Nope. I'm not training. I couldn't be more happy. Elder Nageli kept telling me all day that I was going to get a call just because he wanted me to train. But I'm not. So I'm guessing I'll be in Tiffin until the middle of November. Unless I get moved at the end of this transfer which is next week. That means that I won't be emailing until Tuesday next week, so don't freak out mom when I don't email on Monday. I'm still alive and everything will be alright. We won't find out until next week where Elder Nageli is going if he does leave, but I keep telling he is going to Warren, Ohio which he hates because he doesn't want to go there. He harassed me about training, so I can harass him about going to Warren. It's all done in love though. 

 

We almost died yesterday on our way to church. But I'm still here and we didn't die so all is good. Don't worry about it mom. We were driving to church and the sun was in the perfect position to blind Elder Nageli from seeing a car so he went to pull out and I saw my life flash before my eyes. It wasn't that dramatic, but it was a little scary. Elder Nageli gunned it and was driving on the wrong side of the road for a little bit so we didn't get smashed into. It was great! Got the adrenaline pumping right before church which is always needed so I don't fall asleep. Just kidding. I don't fall asleep. 

 

Last Monday after preparation day, we went over to the less active's house that we got a referral from to teach her neighbor. The dad came down with his 6 year old daughter because the daughter wants to go to church. She is probably the smartest six year old I have ever met. She knew so much and paid super good attention to the lesson and answered questions that we had. We even gave her a Book of Mormon for her family and she said she would read it! We told her we would get her a Book of Mormon Stories book for her because it's a lot simpler and has pictures in it. It was definitely a good idea because she read the first chapter but didn't really understand it. I guess she is only six. Her dad wasn't quite as interested and said he wouldn't read the Book of Mormon, but we are going to work on him through his daughter. On Friday we were able to meet the wife/mom and she is so cool! She actually wants to learn and had an LDS friend when she was in high school that she went to church with a couple of times. We couldn't teach her when we met with her because she had to run home because family friends were coming from somewhere to visit. But yesterday, the mom and the daughter both came to church! The daughter (Autumn) was a little bit nervous to leave her mom and go with a bunch of strangers but the Primary President grabbed her and made Autumn her "Special Helper" for primary so her mom could come to our class. She was the only one there so we taught her and picked her up as a new investigator! We invited her to be baptized and she said she would, we just didn't leave a date. She smokes a little, but that's typical out here, so that's something we will have to work on. The primary LOVED having Autumn there. They said she answered all the questions and was reading for them and talked about how reading the Book of Mormon made her feel. They gave her a CD for the primary program because there are like five other kids in primary, so they really want her there to participate. As long as they get rides to church, it seems like they will keep coming. They both really enjoyed church.

 

The rest of the week was pretty good! We had Zone Conference in Lima on Wednesday which is always good and then exchanges out there for the rest of the day. The Zone Leaders are so great. It's so much fun to work with them. They also have probably the nicest apartment in the mission with hardwood floors and granite counters. It's just a nice place. The only problem is they live in the village of Delphous, Ohio. Massive town. Then on Thursday we did exchanges with the Findlay elders and I took over the area for the first time. Elder Nageli stayed in Findlay and I came back here. It was pretty good, a couple of the members here were a little bit dramatic with stuff that happened, but all in all, it was a good day. We picked up a couple of potentials when we were out tracting, so that's always good. Moving the work forward.

 

Gonna watch conference this weekend, most likely at different member's homes. Pretty excited for it. For the Priesthood session we are going to end up going to Findlay because they are doing a dinner there at 7 and then Conference at 8. So we won't even get home until after 10:30. Pretty rebellious out here in Tiffin. It's weird having Conference at a time other than 10, 2, and 6. I didn't think about the time change until a couple of days ago. 

 

What else made this week great? NOBODY WENT TO JAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry family, it must be boring that nobody was there this week. Maybe next week. 😉

 

This was a really long email. Don't get bored reading it. It was a good week.

Love,

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - September 19, 2016

It's been a dry summer here. It didn't rain as much as it normally does and it was the hottest August in 100 years or ever, I'm not really sure. One of those two. It had the most days over 90 degrees ever, so it was probably the hottest August ever too. It was crazy hot. But now it's finally cooling down. 

 

Exciting/typical news from Tiffin for the week: We had a less active go to jail!! So now that makes 2 investigators, one referral, one investigator that should have been, and now a less active. We're just racking in those jail sentences out here! But I'm being dead serious. This guy was behind on his child support payments from his first marriage and called the cops because a neighbor's friend tried breaking into his house so when the cops showed up and checked his ID he was arrested and put in PRISON for three months with serial killers and other bad people. He said it was the worst 3 months of his life. I can imagine. He fits right in with the rest of the area: he is CRAZY! He will just pick up a rock and think it's revelation and he's convinced that he's found the stones from the Jaredites and has them in his house and wrote a letter to President Uchtdorf that is sitting in our apartment. It's hard not to laugh when he's going over all of this stuff. I kind of feel bad for the guy. But he got a truck so he can come to church now so hopefully we can get him to come. He said he would be coming once a month now, so that's improvement over prison. 

 

We started teaching seminary last week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because the seminary teacher in the branch is in Utah visiting family and the substitute had to make an emergency trip to Texas because her granddaughter was in the ICU, so we get to teach. The only problem is that it starts at 6:25 in the morning so we have to wake up at 5:30. It's surprising what one extra hour of sleep can do for you. We have been so exhausted this week because of it, but it's been good. I'm glad I never had to do early morning seminary because I would die. There are only four kids so it's kind of rough but they love us teaching because we are young and fun. Not saying that old people are boring... 

 

Our neighbors are INSANE! They are outside smoking everynight so we can't open our window or else our room fills with smoke, the kids run up and down the stairs at midnight and wake us up. Saturday night the kids were outside screaming at 1:30 in the morning playing football, and the parent and boyfriend were out partying. When they got back (drunk) at 3:30, the mom started screaming at the kids to get inside. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much. 

 

Anyways, last week was really good. We had exchanges again and it was the best day ever. One of the new elders is so funny and we just had a blast. I never thought tracting would be fun, but we spent just about the entire day tracting and it never got boring. There were some people that yelled "Hail Satan" from across the road at us, so that was interesting. I don't think we knocked on their door when we went up the other side of the street. They have a triple up over there and one elder is in training and the other has been out for 20 months, so it was really good for me and the other new elder to have someone that has been out for so long with us. It was different have three people walking around, but it was so much fun.

 

There is a less active member that we have been going over to his house to do service every week and the changes he has made are crazy! When Elder Nageli first got here, they went over but the member wasn't coming to church or even wanting to come to church, but over the last six months, he has started coming more on than off and got a suit from his brother and bought a white shirt to start coming every Sunday that he can! He doesn't have a ton of money but the first thing he did when he got his paycheck was set money aside for tithing. He hasn't paid his tithing for a long time. A couple of weeks ago he said he wants to meet with the Branch President to see what he needs to do to make the next steps in the church. It's been cool to see how much he has changed since I've been here. 

 

On Saturday there was a big heritage festival here that is supposed to be the biggest thing of the year and everyone goes to it. Perfect for finding new people, right? Wrong. The weather wasn't that great (it was raining just about all day) and nobody was there because of the rain. There was a Baptist Pastor who just wanted to bash with us and there were a bunch of people around so we couldn't really just walk away. Some people just suck. We're still trying to find more investigators. There has been a big push for member referrals and members to come teaching with us and we've got more member referrals over the last week than we have the rest of the time I've been out. We got one last night and the member is less active but she said she would come with us to the person's house and teach with us! Everything is starting to fall into place. It's going to be a good week this week too. We're have Zone Conference on Wednesday and then we are going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders after in Lima. And then we're doing exchanges again on Thursday with the Findlay elders, so two days of exchanges. Sometimes they are good and other times they aren't, but the Zone Leaders are awesome so it's going to be a ton of fun. I'll tell you about it next week!

 

Love, 

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - September 12, 2016

So here I am again on a Monday morning trying to think of what happened all week. ​(Just thought I would copy what dad wrote) But in all honesty I am trying to remember what happened. It was a really long week because we didn't have much to do so everyday was just spent with trying to talk to people. 

 

Last Monday we went paintballing for preparation day and then we drove out to Findlay to use their church to email home because the library was closed for Labor Day. They have a family history center there and the church in Tiffin doesn't have a computer except for in the clerks office but we can't get in there. When we got back we biked around to visit some people but nobody was home for us to visit so we went to the park where we know people always are and there are some people that are slowly getting more interested in the gospel. When I first got here they weren't super interested but now that we've been at the park with them a couple of times they are starting to ask more doctrinal questions. They're coming around, now we just need them to let us come over. 

 

I think Tiffin has a record for investigators that are in jail, should be in jail, or referrals that are in jail. We received a referral from church headquarters last Monday and they live in Fostoria so on Tuesday we went over to visit him and deliver a bible to him. By the time we got there he was in jail so we couldn't actually talk to him, but he had been in jail since at least Sunday so we're not quite sure how he referred himself. 

 

Wednesday was so hot again. It had finally been cooling off (like 80's) and then all of the sudden it jumped back up to upper 90's and even 100. Only on the days that we bike is it super stinking hot. Every other day it's a lot cooler. We were out biking for so long that it was the first day that I have actually got sun burned. It wasn't too bad though, just a little red skin. At about 6:00 we gave up with the bikes and got the car because we were sweating so much. Like too much. It was actually really gross and I definitely wouldn't advise biking in 100 degree weather with humidity for 15 miles any day of the week. Or at all. And to make things worse, our air conditioning unit is having problems so we haven't even been able to use it lately because every time that it's on it leaks. So we have just been dying at night lately. 

 

On Saturday we got a text from a less active saying that a charity group had come to her house to install a bathroom but not enough people showed up to help and she needed our help. I don't know if I told you already about this less active, but she and her husband have a bunch of Amish kids living with them and some are in wheelchairs from having surgery to fix their bowleggedness. I don't know if that's a word or not but ya. We were down in the basement and they trusted Elder Nageli and I to run water lines through the basement from the water heater through a wall and into another room so they could take them up through the house. Then we had to do the same thing with some electical lines. I hope it all works for them.

 

We dropped all of our investigators last week. Marissa (the girl with the baptismal date) dropped off of the face of the earth and won't reply to any of our texts and doesn't want to give up drugs. She said she stopped smoking a while ago but she was high when she said that, so that was a lie. Another investigator is basically impossible to get a hold of because he is never home. So now we are just going to have to spend a lot of time finding new investigators all this week and probably next week and the next week as well. It'll all work out though. They'll come to us eventually.

 

Hopefully this is long enough for mom since last week's email sucked. Have a good week. Love you!

Elder Woodward

 

Oh P.S. We went to jail yesterday. One of the investigators that Elder Nageli was working with before I got here was arrested and in jail for a long time. He got transferred to the jail in Tiffin a couple of weeks ago and so we were able to go and visit him there. He seems like a really cool dude and didn't even do what he got arrested for but he might have 18 months in prison so that kind of sucks. But we were in the jail with him on those weird phone things that you see in the movies all the time.