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.