Lakewood, Ohio - January 25, 2017

We had one of the biggest miracles ever this week! It started a couple of weeks ago when Elder Rivera and I found a big stack of former investigators papers and started looking through them. There was one that the daughter had been to church a couple of times and wanted to go to the temple and go on a mission, but for some reason the sisters that had been meeting with them stopped meeting with them and they didn't write down a reason why. So we figured we would go and see them and see what happened a couple years ago. We texted the mom and she said she was out of town but that she would be back of couple of weeks later. So then last week we texted her again to see if she was home and she said she was and that we could come by the next day. We were pumped, and the next day we rode up to her house and went and knocked on her door. And there was no answer. So we knocked again and there still was no answer. We texted her and let her know that we had stopped by and we continued on with our day. A couple of hours later she texted us back apologizing for not being there and said that she was at the hospital because her husband had passed away (I'd say it's a pretty good reason to not be home). She said to come back the next day so we did and she was asleep when we got there. We had tried back a couple more times to go see her but she was never home when we got there. Then on Sunday night when we were planning, there was an hour and a half in the middle of the day that we had no clue what we were going to do. I couldn't think of anything, Elder Rivera couldn't think of anything, so we just planned to go finding and called it good. And finding at noon on a Monday isn't very effective. Then Monday morning during studies she texted and asked us if we could come over and it was right during the time that we weren't able to plan anything for! She said she was really sad and we were planning on teaching her the Plan of Salvation and see how it was in the past with missionaries. Right when we were about to start teaching her, she asked who Joseph Smith was because that's all that she could remember from before, so then we switched to teaching the Restoration instead. We hadn't planned for it at all and we weren't planning on inviting her to be baptized, but then at the end of the lesson, she said, "I think God keeps telling me that I need to join your church." Say what? So then we invited her to be baptized on February 25th and she accepted that date and is planning on coming to church this week. She has had so many awesome experiences in the past and told us that every time that her life is getting rough, our church comes to her or gets back in contact with her or knocks on her door. It was a crazy day!

 

And all of that happened after a really rough week. It was good with Elder Gay coming to talk to us and that was amazing! So much good stuff that was taught to us to help us. But the rest of the week consisted of lots of cancelled appointments and more and more finding. Nobody wants to talk to us and we just get lots of doors shut in our face. 

 

Elder Rivera got an ear infection. The weather was really nice. It was up near 60 degrees over the weekend which has made biking really nice. We get fed a lot by the members. Everything is going good here. 

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

Lakewood, Ohio - January 18, 2017

This last week was really slow. It hasn't been cold though, so that's been good. Yesterday it was up to 56 degrees!​ And we thought it was going to be colder so we were bundled up with thermals and all and then we get outside and start biking and we ended up sweating to death because it was so warm! It was completely unexpected but better than the -12 degrees at home. I'd rather be here on a bike than at home. There were a couple of days that it was raining super hard and we got soaked, and then we were freezing the rest of the day. No big deal. Not getting sick though. All is good. We are still just doing a ton of finding and trying to meet with investigators. The investigators that they have here keep cancelling or they have just stopped talking to us, so we just do a ton of knocking on doors, but nobody will let us in. President Brown wants us to start a ESL class for the ward because there are a ton of Spanish speakers and then they can bring friends as well that we can meet, and since Elder Rivera speaks Spanish, it could be super great. We haven't been able to get any referrals lately and with as many people that are here, you would think we would! It's been crazy. We haven't been able to meet with the lady we met last week that was Jewish and she talked to her boyfriend and he thinks she is crazy, so it might be coming to a stop with her. We are still in contact with her though. There's also another investigator that wants to go to Kirtland, so we will see about getting that done in the near future. 

We have a mission conference tomorrow actually that Elder Gay of the seventy is coming to meet with us. I'll let you know how it goes next week. Most likely will be really good. And the mission conference is going to be like a zone conference as well.

Elder Rivera is doing really well. He is from San Salvador, El Salvador, which the entire country is smaller than Lake Erie, and they have about 18 deaths a day. He says it's a pretty dangerous country. Then in November of 2015 his family moved to Guatemala and that is where they live now. He loves soccer and we get along so well. It's fantastic. The weather down in El Salvador is about 80 degrees as a low right now. He wasn't used to the cold when he got here. Now he is though!

We don't use social media at all, so we don't get to do that. I don't know what's happening in Tiffin, hopefully still doing well. It sucked getting transferred right before a bunch of baptisms were coming up, but now we just have more work to do here. And we don't even have a piano where we meet for Priesthood so I'm off the hook in this ward! And nobody has asked me yet either so it will stay a secret until someone asks. 

Love you all!

Elder Woodward

Lakewood, Ohio - January 11, 2017

This Wednesday preparation day is really throwing me off! It makes the week seem like it goes by so much faster though. I kind of like it. Still getting used to it though. I don't think it will change back to Monday anytime soon. The Lakewood ward could be really big. There are like 600 people on the ward roster but there's only like 25% activity, so it's not a Utah ward. Bigger than Tiffin, but still only over 100 people each week. There are two sets of elders in the ward and we have the bigger part of the area. There used to be three sets with one set of sisters, but they took them out a while ago and the ward just wants sisters back because everyone loves sisters. 

 

The weather actually hasn't been too bad. A little bit bipolar. We finally got some snow last week because it was cold enough to snow, and then it got down to -3 and my toes felt like they were going to fall off because I wasn't wearing toe warmers or my boots because it wasn't supposed to be as cold that day. They were wrong though. And the wind. It can just stop anytime and I would be happy. The wind is always blowing and it is always blowing against us as we are biking. Doesn't matter what direction we bike, it's always blowing against us at like 30 mph. It either almost knocks you over or it stops you right where you are. We bike probably 20 miles every day unless it's snowing, then we just don't take the bikes out. Biking in the snow isn't a ton of fun because you have to do three times the work to get through it and it's not the nicest on the bikes. The last transfer Elder Rivera and his companion biked more than 450 miles and there were five days that they just walked. So my bike will definitely be used when I come home. 

 

Lakewood is a suburb of Cleveland, but it's a super nice area. Not ghetto like parts of Cleveland, but not super rich. Bay Village is apparently where all the rich people live. There are still nicer parts of Lakewood than others, but it's mostly middle class. Right along the lake there are bigger homes and they are nice, but that's to be expected for right on the lake. There's like 48,000 people that live in Lakewood and there probably weren't even 30,000 in the entire area of Tiffin. So there are a lot more people here. 

 

We've got two new investigators since last week. One named Samuel who is a really laid back guy, agreed to be baptized on February 4th, and then another lady named Sarah who is living with her boyfriend who is Greek Orthodox. He wasn't there when we knocked on her door, but she had a ton of questions about missionary work and what we do and how we come out and all the normal questions people have for us. We set up a time to go back to meet with her and her boyfriend. And she has extended family living in SLC that are members so she's heard a little bit about the church. She grew up Jewish but doesn't go to church except on holidays, just like almost everyone out here. We do a lot of tracting to find people and biking from one appointment to the next. It's good though. Getting in some exercise. 

 

There's a lot of work to be done here and it's a ton of fun with Elder Rivera. We get along super well and just have a good time. We tease each other all the time. It's great. 

 

LoveElder Woodward

Lakewood, Ohio - January 4, 2017

Hopefully you didn't send anything to the address I gave you last week because it was wrong. The missionaries have moved to a different apartment in the same area since the address was updated so if you did then someone random might have some mail for me. But my real address is 22453 Lake Road C-105 Rocky River, OH 44116. And yes, we live about a rocks throw from the lake. It always smells like the sewer. I think because the lake isn't the cleanest. It could also be because there is a waste water treatment plant right next to us. I'm not really sure though. You can be the judge on that one. Our area is really nice and really big. From one side straight to the other, it is 11 miles long and then it goes down from the lake to the top of Strongsville's area on the map. We cover about 75% of the ward and the other elders have the rest.  We have Bay Village, Rocky River, Fairview Park, and all of Lakewood to cover. The first couple of days here last week were long just from biking everywhere, but now I'm used to it so it's just about staying warm now. There are definitely a lot more people here in Lakewood then there are in Tiffin since it's as close to Cleveland as it is, and we get to ride the bus a lot. One thing I've already learned is to not rely on public transportation or you can be standing out in the cold for an hour longer than you are supposed to. Not always the funnest. There are some other missionaries that say that this is one of the best areas of the mission because there are so many people, and they recently had two baptisms here. There are also some pretty promising part member families here that we are going to work with that the husband comes to church every week and knows it's true, he just hasn't been baptized yet. Don't ask me why but we are seeking them out. 

 

We also see President and Sister Brown a lot more. Up until last week, I had only seen them 4 times and I've already seen them twice since last Wednesday. Partly because our church building is the mission office and they decided to come to our ward on Sunday. They are in the North Olmstead Ward but we both meet in the same building, and then Monday we had district meeting and he was at the church building. We also have the assistants and the sister training leaders in our district, so that's always a ton of fun to be with them all the time. 

 

We still don't have any snow here, but it is supposed to snow today and tomorrow and Friday and Sunday and it's also supposed to be super cold too. Negatives with the wind chill. Kind of sad

 

We're doing a lot of finding here now since the two recent baptisms. The investigators that are here were busy last week so I haven't met all of them, but we have appointments with them this week as well as some other potential investigators that we met yesterday. Just lots of finding

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

Tiffin, Ohio - December 27, 2016

This last week was really good! We were super busy last week and were able to meet with a lot more investigators than we did the week before and even found some new ones! When we were on exchanges with the zone leaders, we knocked on a door and a younger lady named Rachel answered and told us to come back when her husband was there, so we went back and showed them the Christmas Initiative video and they were super interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon! We had an appointment to go back yesterday but then they had family come over that they weren't expecting, but they are super solid and really cool people, and they were recently married in June!

 

Amy is still doing well! Continuing to read and we're continuing to meet with her and work with her. She's slowed down on her reading and is jumping around a little bit from the pamphlets that we give her, but she is still reading and she came to church on Sunday! And she enjoyed it! Probably because it was Christmas and that's when everyone comes to church, but she still came to church! Sadly, I had to play the organ, but that went alright. Only messed up a little bit once or twice. But all was good. Melissa and Leah are still doing good but their baptismal date will have to be pushed back a little bit because they still aren't coming to church. And then we had a member that took someone a long ways away to get all of her teeth pulled and talked about the church a little bit with her and found out that her mom is a member that  nobody has been able to find or know where she is for a long time now! But we've been able to meet with her a couple of times and she has met with missionaries before in the past and says she will be baptized if we can answer her questions, and she has a lot of them. 

 

And now for the transfer news. Nobody in the family even guessed it right, and with as many of you as there are, someone should have got it. But I am going from Tiffin to the Lakewood Ward. Right on the lake. So if the lake freezes then I will get the full blown lake effect and freeze to death. Good thing I got a lot of warm clothes sent out to me. And the real kicker is that it is a full biking area, so when it's 10 degrees with wind chill coming right off the lake I won't even have a car to warm up in! It'll be fun though. My new companion's name is Elder Rivera and we picked him up on our way to Kirtland for the Christmas conference, so I know a little bit about him. He has been out as long as I have, but he went to the Guatemala MTC because he is from El Salvador and had to learn English, and then he had to wait for a visa so he was temporarily assigned to a mission down there and then came up here. He's been in Ohio for only 3 months now, so we get to do language study every morning together now. Lakewood is going to be fantastic though because my favorite and everyone's two favorite senior missionaries are in that ward, Elder Leavitt and Sister Allred. They are the best and so I get to see them all the time now. I'm pumped, but also sad to be leaving Tiffin. It's been good here. But I knew it was coming. And yes, next week it'll be Wednesday when I email because preparation day is on Wednesday from here on out!

 

Talk to you next week!

Elder Woodward

 

Pictures: Last District picture here in Tiffin

My favorite 3 year old in the branch that loves missionaries!