Lakewood, Ohio - February 22, 2017

Well this week was a whole lot more uneventful than last week. No car crashes, no broken heaters, no crazy experiences. I honestly don't even know what to tell you about. We knocked on a bunch of doors and nobody let us in. We went to Bible study last Wednesday and that was an interesting experience. Never been before and there wasn't much to it. Just reading from the Bible and then the pastor talking about it. After it was over, he walked up to us and was trying to bash with us and arguing about the Book of Mormon, so we just listened to what he had to say and then we had to leave to get home, so we did. And then since we went to bible study, our investigator Michael came to church on Sunday. He really wasn't there to learn or feel the Spirit, he even told us after that he was there to cause other people to doubt. We were teaching in gospel principles and it was quite an interesting experience to say the least. He's arguing with people and people are arguing back. Luckily, he left after that but there were some unhappy members there. It's okay though because at least he kept his word and came to church. Every time we meet with him it's the same way. It's rough. 

 

Teaching Mirta is hitting a wall. We were over there yesterday and she has already been baptized before and so we were explaining about the Priesthood and the authority to baptize and she believes that her pastor has the Priesthood. And to make things worse, the pastor of the church she used to be going to is started to visit her again. Satan is working hard on her! And she said she won't come to church. I really thought that something good was going to happen with her. There's still time and lots to do with her, but it's getting tough. 

 

We got to do more service last Saturday to help some non-members move. The husband recently had a stroke and he works with a member in our ward, so we jumped on over there to help. Really random, but one of the other guys that was there helping us works for movies to literally move trees and bushes around in the scenes, and he got to work on Captain America and the Avengers and the new Fast and Furious movie that's coming out this summer that were all apparently filmed in Cleveland. Who knew that getting a degree in horticulture would get you into movies to just chill with the avengers? Anyways, not that that really has anything to do with missionary work, just a cool bit of information. 

 

Going to my favorite members house for dinner tonight, Don and Bessie Thompson. Coolest members ever and they came to church on Sunday because it was 60 degrees and good weather! It's also supposed to be 73 later this week, so who knows what's happening in February anymore. It sure makes biking nice now. 

 

Still just knocking on doors and trying to find more people :)

 

Everything is going good here. Still alive and still biking. Sometimes really sore, but still alive. 

 

Love you all, 

Elder Woodward

Lakewood, Ohio - February 15, 2017

So much has happened this week that this is gonna be a long email, so be prepared! It all started last week on preparation day after I finished emailing. There was a missionary, Elder Sutton, who was temporarily reassigned to our mission while he was waiting for his visa to go to Jamaica where he was supposed to go. He was leaving really early Tuesday morning, so Monday night him and his companion, Elder Foster, drove up from the Lisbon ward and Elder Foster stayed with Elder Rivera and I at our apartment and the assistants took Elder Sutton so he could make it to the airport the next morning. So for all of last Tuesday, we had a car to use which was a nice break from biking. We did our normal preparation day things and played basketball at the church for most of the day. We weren't the smartest of people and didn't eat breakfast because we were out of milk and then we were emailing for a long time and playing basketball so we didn't eat lunch either, all we had was water for most of the day. Elder Foster really loves basketball, so he was playing really hard and then after, because we hadn't eaten anything all day, he got super sick and lightheaded and was about to throw up. There was a member that bought us some pizza for dinner since Elder Rivera was getting transferred and Elder Foster couldn't even sit at the table, so after we ate we took him to the Leavitts to stay and lay down while we went out for the rest of the night. And then we had a car. We could actually get places in a reasonable time. 

 

See why it was a good week? The story isn't done yet though. We had a couple of people that Elder Rivera wanted to go say bye to, so we were driving and tried to visit a member that was supposed to be home. We went and knocked on his door, but he wasn't home so then we started to go to see another person to say bye. This is where it starts to get good. It was around 7:10 at night, and we were stopped at a red light in the left lane heading east. The light turned green so we started to drive again. We hadn't even got up to the speed limit when all of the sudden the car jerks to one side and just stops moving. I had no clue what happened and Elder Rivera had no clue what happened, and then we saw another car pulling away and turning into a parking lot. It was then that we realized that we had just been t boned. We had a car to ourselves for a total of fifteen minutes and managed to get in a wreck in that time. The car wasn't moving out of the middle of the road, and we got hit hard enough to make Elder Rivera's name tag and my glasses fly off and fold and land in my lap. The other people around us said that it wasn't my fault at all, and my biggest concern after getting hit was that my driving privileges might get taken away for the rest of my mission. Probably not the thing that I should be concerned about after getting hit, but that's what I was thinking about. After the car that hit us pulled into the parking lot, they just kept driving and was nowhere to be found, so we didn't get a license plate number or any information from that person. Stupid hit and run. What I think happened is that they were going to turn left out of a parking lot and the light was red for us so they weren't looking our way and then it was clear the other way and by that time we had started to go and they didn't check again so then as we were passing they just pulled straight out and hit us. So we got to spend the rest of the night dealing with all that crap and gave the vehicle coordinator one last accident to handle before he went home. I couldn't let him get off the hook that easy :) Luckily all the witnesses said that I did nothing wrong and that it was their fault, and we didn't get injured, so all is good. I brought my camera to send pictures today, but forgot the cord at home so you will have to wait to see them until next week if I remember. 

 

Then Wednesday was transfers and we were still trying to figure everything out about the car, and then I had to get to Kirtland to meet my new companion who just came into the mission. I feel like it was just last month that I was there for the first time, but it was a lot longer than that. Time flies out here! There was a little meeting and then we got to meet our new companions as President called us up. My new companion is Elder Weekes from Burlington, Vermont. There are 7 kids in his family and he is the 6th. He was born in Utah, then moved to Vermont, then moved back to Utah for his last year of high school and then went to a semester of school at Southern Virginia University on scholarship to play soccer. So he loves soccer, and loves Manchester City. He's a super stellar guy and everything is going good. 

 

We were able to find a couple of new investigators since Wednesday as we have been out working. One of them was the cutest little old lady named Sabrina. We were just walking down the road and she was sitting in a wheelchair and it was snowing and 30 degrees so we started talking with her. She was trying to light a cigarette and before we walked away, we asked if there was anything that she needed help with and she asked if we could help block the wind so she could light her cigarette so we did. She then told us about how her mom had passed away three years ago and how the one thing her mom told her to do was to keep going to church, and she had stopped going. She told us that we could come over and talk with her, so on Sunday we did and everything went well and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she would definitely read it.  The only sad thing is that she lives barely out of our area so we will probably give her to the other elders to keep teaching. There was another guy that let us in to bash with us and that's what he did, but he said if we went to his Bible study then he will come to our church, so we are going to do that tonight. We are still doing lots of finding and lots of biking, but it seems that winter is coming to a close here. It's been one of the mildest winters in Ohio and there isn't a flake on the ground anywhere. Some days it will be fifty degrees and the next day will be 30 and snowing a little bit. It's weird but it's what is happening. And today is one of the lucky 30 degree days, but the weekend it's supposed to be high 50's, so it'll be good. 

 

The heaters in our apartment broke, but instead of it being freezing cold, they wouldn't turn off so instead it was 80 degrees one night. That was a good night of not sleeping much. We ended up just opening the windows to try to cool it down but it would only get down to about 75. Now it's all better though and at a normal 70 degrees. We helped some people move out of their house and helped move the senior missionaries next door out as well and got a ton of food and cleaning supplies so we will be stocked for a while.

 

I will try to remember the cord to send pictures of the crashed car next week. 

 

Love,

Elder Woodward

Lakewood, Ohio - February 7, 2017

Well transfer calls came last night when our district leader called with transfer information. Elder Rivera already knew that he was going to be leaving, he just didn't know where he was going to go, so that's all we were waiting for. I will be staying here in Lakewood for probably two more transfers and he is getting transferred down to the New Philadelphia ward. He's getting lucky with a nice warm car and getting just about as far from the lake as he possibly could. He's pretty happy about that. But I'll find out who my new companion is tomorrow when we meet up for transfers. I don't know much about him yet, but it'll all be good. 

 

We had another interesting experience with Mirta last week. We met on Saturday and she said she needed to talk to us about something. She said that she wants to worship God by jumping and shouting and dancing and doing a lot of weird stuff. She didn't like how we were quiet and reverent during sacrament meeting, but she loved just about everything else about church. Then she told us that she would come and visit the church but she wouldn't be coming every week. And then she didn't come to stake conference on Sunday. It was just a sad weekend. She said we could keep meeting with her and that she would start to read the Book of Mormon, so that's a bonus. We even got her a Book of Mormon in Spanish for her to read and understand better, so after she reads a little bit she will start coming back to church. We also think that she might have a bad memory because we have to teach her the same thing about the Book of Mormon every time we go over. She doesn't remember that the Book of Mormon takes place in the Americas and the Bible takes place in Jerusalem. And then she also told us that God hasn't told us to join our church yet, but the first time we were there she said that God was telling her to join our church. I've never had a problem with teaching people with short term memory problems like her. We are still going to be teaching her and going over tomorrow again to meet with her. It was kind of a bummer to everything else that has happened with her. 

 

It was pretty cold over the weekend, and then yesterday it was in the high 40's and today it's supposed to be 60's and raining all day. So all the snow we just recently got is all melted now, but it's supposed to start snowing again tomorrow and it'll snow pretty much the rest of the week. It's a wonderful experience for a new companion to come into a biking area and have it be snowing the whole first week they are here. Hopefully they like biking all day every day! 

 

We've still just been doing a lot of finding and having doors shut in our face, but it's all good! We just keep going and having a good time out here in the freezing cold every day! We've been going around and letting Elder Rivera say bye to a lot of people here because he loves this area and all the people here and doesn't want to leave. He's been really sad the last couple of days since finding out he was leaving. Hopefully I don't get lost too often after he leaves, but I'll figure it out now. Kind of have to since he won't be here. 

 

We might be going to the temple in Columbus this Saturday with a returning less active to do baptisms, so that will be fun if it all works out. He's one of my favorite members here and really wants us to go with him, so we have been trying to get permission since it will be his first time going to do baptisms. And I also know that this next week we will be helping a couple of people move, so that will be fun as well.

 

Love you,

Elder Woodward

PS Kyrie Irving who plays for the Cavs lives pretty much in the backyard of the church. Not to brag or anything...

 

Pictures:

Me and Elder and Sister Leavitt my favorite senior missionaries ever that live next door and feed us good food all the time.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Cleveland sign

Me and the Cleveland sign

Me and my homeboy Lebron

 

 

 

Lakewood, Ohio - February 1, 2017

It finally snowed a bunch here! On Monday when we woke up, there was a fresh foot of snow on the ground, all from one night. It went almost up to my knee when I stepped down in it, so it's not even an exaggeration saying it was a foot of snow. It might have been a little bit more than a foot actually. But anyways, now that it's stopped snowing, it has warmed up and all that snow is melting now. It's been back up in the 40's so there's not much snow left anymore. It's supposed to get a little bit nippy this weekend though with less than 20 degree weather though so that'll be fun. Where we live on the lake, we actually don't get a lot of lake effect snow, just the wind. If I were just about any farther east or west, then the lake effect makes it snow a whole lot more. We're just stuck right in the middle so we avoid a lot of it. 

 

So Mirta (the miracle lady we found last week) is still doing really well. We met with her again last Thursday and she ​told us that since Monday, all she could think about was our church and coming on Sunday. She couldn't stop thinking about it all week and about her baptism. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that she would read it again and pray about it and she was still planning on coming to church on Sunday. Sunday rolled around and we had a ride set up for her and everything because she wanted to get a ride for the first week. The ride showed up at 8:30 when she was supposed to and there was no answer. She called Mirta at 8:35 and ended up waking her up, and then Mirta jumped up and got ready for church in just a couple of minutes and still made it on time. It was fast and testimony meeting which is always a little scary to have people there for their first Sunday because you never know what crazy could get up and ruin everything, but it was all super good and she loved it. There were some sisters here that served in this ward a year ago that both got up and one of them was the "angel" that knocked on her door when she prayed asking for an angel, so Mirta was really excited to see her and remembered her. I don't know if the missionary remembered her a whole ton, but that was another little miracle that happened with her this last week. The one week she starts coming to church was the same week that another missionary that knew her came back to visit and was at the ward. Mirta loved the ward because she is from Cuba and was able to talk to a lot of people in Spanish and all the Spanish speakers loved to see her there, and she said that she would definitely be back the next week, which is stake conference. She loved how there were classes to learn and not just go to church to sing and how people can ask questions in class. She also whispered to me that she read the entire book we left her, and I don't know if she meant the entire Book of Mormon because we also left her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, so it might have been that. If she read the entire Book of Mormon than I might just pass out and have a heart attack. We're going back tomorrow to meet with her again so I will keep you updated on that.

 

We also met another lady from Cuba last Thursday that we were able to teach. She lives in the same apartment building as a less active that we read the Book of Mormon with and she has always been saying that she wants to be there when we are then, so this last week it happened! She came right before we were about to leave, so then we got to talk with her and get to know her a little bit more and we gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish because her English isn't amazing. She has also met with missionaries before, but it was a long time ago and she loves us. She even said that one time she will have to cook us some good Cuban food, so that's always a bonus when you get offered food! Especially from investigators. There was a ward activity on Saturday night that would have been perfect for the two of them to come to because it was Latin Dancing with lots of good food, but then they both couldn't make it at the last second and we were there waiting for them to come. It was another little miracle that it was planned for this weekend right when we found both of those investigators and that is exactly the type of thing that Mirta wants in a church. Too bad they couldn't make it though. 

 

There is a lot of reactivation to do, but it's hard because most of the inactives on the records have either moved and didn't have any contact with the church so their records are just stuck here or they don't want to be contacted at all by the church. There used to be a Spanish branch here a couple of years ago and when they merged it in with the regular ward there were a lot of the Spanish speakers that got offended and stopped coming to church because "they can't worship in their own language". Some people are nice and we are working with them, but a lot just don't want any contact.

 

Transfers are next week. Elder Rivera could be leaving, he could be staying, or I could for some reason be leaving. Next week there could be transfer news. We will have to see. 

 

OH I almost forgot, there were some changes to the daily schedule for us. Instead of the mornings being strict with the schedule on what we have to do, they have relaxed it a lot so you can decide when between 6:30 and 10 to workout and do personal study, and then planning is being moved from the night to the morning. Then we are supposed to be out working in the morning and then have time to do companion study and language study in the afternoon when it is slower. So now when we get home we can pretty much just get ready for bed and go right to bed so we can get more sleep than before which is always needed. The other change (which will explain why I was on earlier this morning) is that preparation day starts at 8 in the morning and we only do 30 minutes of personal study instead of doing an hour of personal and an hour of companion study and then starting preparation day at 10. So we get two extra hours of preparation day now which is great as well. That was all really random, but I don't care :)

 

Love,

Elder Woodward