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
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