Tiffin, Ohio - July 25, 2016

Such a big stray from tradition. I can't believe you managed to get yourself to write on a different night then Sunday. I'm shocked. Sounds like you had a lot of fun driving out to Wisconsin. Did Zander insist on bringing all the extended editions of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit to watch? I'm sure the thought crossed his mind and Darcy said absolutely not. That's normally what happens. You should have just had work pay for everyone to fly out and say it was a business trip and then take one day to visit a farm somewhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin. There has to be at least one chicken farm you could have gone to and then you save all the time. Too bad I wasn't at home to give you that idea, am I right? 

 

Yes, there has been a heat advisory here. From Thursday to Sunday evening. And guess when we biked all around Tiffin to save miles? Thursday to Saturday. Right in the middle of the heat advisory. It was crazy. On Friday, with the humidity, it was up to 106 degrees and we were out biking all day. I have never sweat more in my life than I did on Friday. And then on Saturday there was a branch picnic for Pioneer Day that took place at a park at 1:30 in the afternoon. Everyone was trying to stay cool and drinking a ton of water sitting under a pavilion in the shade. Even doing that, we sweat so much. Like sweat dripping down the legs and running off the face. I'm sure you all wanted  to know that. Needless to say, we didn't smell the best for the rest of the day, but we got free food out of it so it was slightly worth it. It's definitely hotter than Utah out here and I like the dry heat a lot better. It's 80 degrees at 7 in the morning and the most it cools down to at night is 70 at the lowest. 

There's not really a lot to report on. We have like six investigators, three of which keep avoiding us and come up with reasons not to meet with us, and the other three just aren't progressing or are in jail. There's a lot of less actives that we try to work with but they refuse to come to church for one reason or another. The branch is slowly dying because people are moving out or going less active because they get offended way too easily, and there are no new investigators to be baptized and nobody moves to Tiffin because there's nothing out here. One investigator is kind of progressing and we invited him to come to church and he said he would if he was in town but he was already planning on going out of town for the weekend before we asked him to come. So he went out of town and wasn't at church. He might come next week so hopefully there will be more news on that next week. We also get to talk in sacrament meeting next week. No surprise there. Elder Nageli has been here for three months and this is the third time he has had to speak, so that's something I get to look forward to. Speaking at least once a month and we get asked every week to help with the sacrament even though there's plenty of other people to do it. That one family is still not coming to church because they didn't get the calling they wanted but the rest of the branch is doing good because they cause a lot of drama and make everyone hate each other. We helped pack a member's stuff into a uhaul so she could move to Rexburg. That was a lot of work. I'm never moving when I get older. 

 

Love you all,

Elder Woodward

 

PS A really creepy bug just flew over to the computer and I've never seen anything as ugly as it before in my life and I have no clue what it is. If I had my camera I'd take a picture of it and send it to you, but I don't so you just have to take my word that it's real ugly

Tiffin, Ohio - July 18, 2016

Well it sounds like you already know everything about where I am and who I'm with. I'm guessing the mission sent you an email with all that or you got some revelation to know all of that. It only kind of freaked me out. Yes I got a new bike and helmet and lock and lights. It's a super nice bike. All of the older missionaries are jealous of the new bikes because theirs are all pretty bad. The only problem with the new bikes is that they don't really fit on the bike racks on the back of the cars so you have to do some major adjusting to get them on. Yes my companion is Elder Nageli from Bluffdale, and yes he was born in Logan and lived in Hyde Park for a while. He's moved around a bunch. He has three younger sisters, so a pretty small family. He's been out ten and a half months, so not quite a year. His last companion was going home on Wednesday, so he went from one leaving to one just coming. I'm sure that it was a ton of fun having such a big change. The branch is tiny. Like there were only twenty people there yesterday. I didn't have to play the organ at all yesterday because they have someone play a piano instead and I actually don't know that many hymns on the organ. But I didn't have to play the piano yesterday either. I probably will next week because nobody played it in Priesthood. There's also a bunch of drama within the branch and people are going inactive because they didn't get the calling that they wanted. No joke. I'm in the thriving metropolis of Tiffin, Ohio. It's a pretty big area and some of the towns are quite a ways away. Biking around all of Tiffin is a ton of fun on my butt. The first day I was just a little bit sore. 

 

I got here on Tuesday and we stayed at the mission home Tuesday night. Those beds were so much more comfortable than the beds at the MTC. I was exhausted after waking up at 130 to fly out here. Then we woke up at 530 on Wednesday morning to get ready so we could eat and leave early enough to get to Kirtland by 8. So there really wasn't a lot of time to catch up on sleep. We went to the Kirtland temple and the Newell K Whitney Store when we were in Kirtland. I was just trying to stay awake the entire time. It was cool but it was a little bit weird because it's not like a normal temple today. Then after the Whitney store all the new missionaries met their trainers and we got loaded up and left. Then we drove for 7 hours to get to our area because the GPS had us taking all the back roads instead of the freeway and we had to make a whole bunch of stops. We drove from Kirtland to Cleveland to Sandusky to Perrysburg to Findlay and finally to Tiffin. I'm sure mom will look all those places up to see where they all are. It was a long day. And then we went straight to a members house to do service because she is moving to Idaho and she has so much work to be done. We got fed dinner that night and then went back to the apartment and finally had time to unpack. 

 

We've been fed dinner every night or some members have given us money to eat somewhere. And then we just eat stuff in the fridge for lunch and cereal for breakfast, so we really haven't had to do much cooking, but I'm not complaining. Dinner last night was a little bit interesting. I think the family is vegan so we had vegetable sandwiches with guacamole and hummus instead of mayonnaise. I'm sure mom loves the sound of that. 

 

Everyone in Ohio smokes and beats other people up so everyone is either in jail or going to jail. And they aren't always the nicest of people. We had five investigators when I got here, two of which are now in jail. The work is really slow here. The last baptisms were in the beginning of December. Both of the people baptized are still going to church, so that's good. There's a lot of less-actives that we're trying to get back to church, but they just don't want to go. We've knocked on a bunch of doors and nobody will answer the door. There's been times when they are sitting right next to the door and make eye contact with us and just refuse to get up. It's a little bit frustrating. But yesterday, right before we went back to the car to go to dinner, we decided to knock on one more door. An older man answered the door and talked to us for 45 minutes. He said he would come to church on Sunday but we didn't even ask him if he would. He just volunteered to come. He was a real interesting fellow. We left him with a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet for him to read and he said he would. So hopefully he comes to church and then we can find a time to go back and talk to him again. He said he was a Baptist and I don't even know what they believe, so it could be interesting. He's the real first halfway potential investigator we've talked to since Wednesday.

 

There's this new pokemon game that's an app that came out recently and it is taking over the world. I don't know if you've heard about it, but people spend all day just walking around outside trying to catch pokemon. And it's not just younger kids. We've seen people in their 50's out walking around playing it. People have been getting arrested because of this game because they will break into other peoples houses to catch a pokemon. It is insane. There's been so many people walking around lately because of it. 

 

It sounds like maybe Zander's soccer team is better than whatever division it is in. Maybe they should have known that it would happen when Zander was there and just put his team into premier. At least they are actually good unlike the infinity team. And they have a real coach. Tell him if he goes to England that he will have to buy me something from all the times I took him to costa vida. I'm sure mom is more jealous of him than the girls are. Actually they are probably equally jealous. Too bad RSL is sucking now. They started relatively well. Maybe they need a new coach. Did Jason Kreis ever get a new job? Is he still with the US? What are you going to do with all the kittens besides the one that Megan wants? Sell them for money and then send the money to me. 

 

If you want to send me anything my address is 178 Gibson Court, Tiffin OH 44883. So ya. Now mom can stalk the apartment which is super nice because it used to be for the sisters, so of course it's nice.

 

Love you all

Elder Woodward

 

MTC - July 5, 2016

We taught some investigators last week and that was good. They had a special devotional on the second because BYU was doing the Stadium of Fire fireworks. After the devotional they let us stay up until 11:30 to watch the fireworks. But for the devotional tonight the rumor is that Jeffrey R. Holland is coming to speak so that'll be exciting.

 

We got a new district leader and new zone leaders on sunday. The zone leaders are seriously the coolest elders in the district. They are super awesome and way smart. It'll be good to have them around.

I don't know what else to say.  Sometimes we play Bocce Ball for exercise even though it really isn't exercise.  Why didn't dad update me on RSL? or the US from Copa America? Come on peeps.  Gotta keep up with the game.

 

Thanks for the package. Swedish Fish have never tasted better. You should try to figure out a way to send a sweet pork burrito to me haha. It would be awesome if you could send me my gray hoodie that Darcy stole from me for her soccer games. It's freezing in the morning and I didn't bring any warm clothes. Pretty please. And anything else you want to send me. Not candy though. I have a lot of that. In case mom is wondering, we fly out at like 7 in the am next Tuesday. We have to be at the travel office at 330 in the am.

 

I'll maybe send pictures eventually.

Thanks for the support.

Love,

Elder Woodward

 

P.S. In case you aren't that smart, me and my companion were made the zone leaders. That's why we are so awesome

MTC - July 5, 2016

We taught some investigators last week and that was good. They had a special devotional on the second because BYU was doing the Stadium of Fire fireworks. After the devotional they let us stay up until 11:30 to watch the fireworks. But for the devotional tonight the rumor is the Jeffrey R. Holland is coming to speak so that'll be exciting.

 

We got a new district leader and new zone leaders on sunday. The zone leaders are seriously the coolest elders in the district. They are super awesome and way smart. It'll be good to have them around.

 

I don't know what else to say.  Sometimes we play Bocce Ball for exercise even though it really isn't exercise. Why didn't dad update me on RSL? or the US from Copa America? Come on peeps. Gotta keep up with the game.

 

Thanks for the package. Swedish Fish have never tasted better. You should try to figure out a way to send a sweet pork burrito to me haha. It would be awesome if you could send me my gray hoodie that Darcy stole from me for her soccer games. It's freezing in the morning and I didn't bring any warm clothes. Pretty please. And anything else you want to send me. Not candy though. I have a lot of that. In case mom is wondering, we fly out at like 7 in the am next Tuesday. We have to be at the travel office at 330 in the am.

 

I'll maybe send pictures eventually.

Thanks for the support.

Love,

Elder Woodward

 

P.S. In case you aren't that smart, me and my companion were made the zone leaders. That's why we are so awesome