This last week has been flying by for us here in Alliance! Yesterday was honestly the busiest day I have ever had on my mission and the most successful day ever! I'll get to it later though. So my new address is
1026 Mill Circle #76
Alliance, OH 44601
(I think this is the zip code, but you can double check with Google)
Now no one has an excuse to not write me letters... ;)
There weren't any crashed cars on the day before transfers last week, so there's always improvement! Got everything all packed up and made the long drive from the mission office down to Alliance. The only sad thing about the day is that as I was putting my suitcases in the car, somehow my magnetic name tag fell off and I lost it, but I ordered a new one today so all is well. And I think I was supposed to be driving from the mission office down to my new area, but it was the exact same car I crashed, just silver instead of red, so I opted out of it and let another missionary drive so I didn't crash it. I am the assigned driver now though because Elder Amparan doesn't have a Tiwi card to log in to the church's driving system, and no, we have not got in a car wreck. Not planning on it with our little Corolla, but it is a much welcome change to the Specialized Hardrock I've been on. But going from Lakewood to Alliance is something different! It was like going from Tiffin to Lakewood, just the other way around this time. It is so much different than Lakewood was, and it reminds me a lot of my first area in Tiffin, just instead of corn fields there are A TON of trees and it is more hill-y out here. The further east in the mission you go, the more up and down it gets, but nothing like real mountains from Utah. But this area is so good and I love it here! We have so much work to do and there are so many people here to work with, which is crazy because it's a small town!
The beginning of my time here was a little bit rough because we had a lot of cancelled appointments or people flaming us even though they were inside and looked through the window at us, but it was good because it meant we had some time to do some finding and knock on doors. And it decided to randomly get cold as well. I thought the sweaters were packed away for good, but it was down in the 40's and raining all day so we had to crack them out again. And then after a long day of knocking on doors, at dinner with a family, they gave us a referral for their neighbors that they are going to keep working on.
I didn't actually get to meet most of the ward because on Sunday there was a regional broadcast and a lot of the ward is closer to the Youngstown chapel, so since it wasn't Sacrament meeting they could go where they wanted so a lot just went to Youngstown. It's a 10 minute drive for them to go there instead the 45 minute drive to Alliance. What I have heard about the ward is that there are a lot of older members, and there used to be a lot of younger doctors doing their residency but they are all finishing and moving out and nobody new is coming in. So the ward is decreasing in active members. The members that I have met so far are all AMAZING though. Some super crazy and energetic people, but really enthused by the Gospel and missionary work. The ward has two sets of missionaries, us and a set of sisters and we cover the south-western part of the ward. One of those sisters is brand new, and they were also at the Youngstown building on Sunday so I didn't meet them until Monday at district meeting, which was also interviews with President Brown. Always a good time when that happens.
My new companion is Elder Amparan from the second best land to Smithfield of Syracuse Utah. He just finished training but is a killer missionary and loves to work hard. It has been one of the most fun weeks of my mission since last Wednesday being here with him, and there is SO MUCH happening here in our area now. If I got started about all of our investigators, we would be here all day typing away which is a welcome change from the days of knocking on doors in Lakewood. Don't get me wrong, we still knock on doors, but there are a ton of other people that we are teaching as well. We have five investigators with a baptismal date, Silas and Juanita Dawson, Monique, Quanisha, and Rachel Butcher in case you wanted to know their names, and we have about ten other investigators that are all awesome!
Yesterday we had a perfect day that every missionary hopes every day is like. We had some appointments that we weren't too sure if they would work out and if the people would be home, but we didn't get flamed a single time! Every single appointment that we had worked out, and all of them kept the commitment that we had left with them the last time. We even had time to go tracting for an hour and managed to find two more solid new investigators. It was the craziest day and the best time tracting. In that hour, we probably were only able to knock on 15 doors, but two of them let us teach them, Dena Middleton and Kaitlin Ford, and they were both super super excited to learn. As we were finishing the Restoration with Dena, she said that she used to look into the Latter Day Saint church and was ready to join it, but then someone told her that Joseph Smith went to the Sacred Grove and prayed to a tree and thought it was Jesus Christ, so she thought we all worship trees and that we don't have churches which turned her away from the church. It was the first time I've heard anything like that, and we just all started laughing when she was talking about it. We cleared all of that up and taught her what really happened and how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to Joseph Smith and how we do have churches that we go to, and she committed to read the Book of Mormon and was really excited about it. The craziest thing of it all was that she was babysitting at that house and had only been there for about 20 minutes when we knocked on the door, and the night before she had been praying for direction and guidance and help, and then we knocked on her door. And she still lives in our area so we don't have to turn her over to anyone else to teach.
A couple of houses down, we found Kaitlin, and it was the last door we were going to knock on because we had an appointment in 10 minutes. She said that we could share the message of the Restoration with her and after everything we taught she just kept saying, "That is so cool!" and after the First Vision she said, "No way. Did that really happen?" and we said, "Yes. Yes it did." She was so excited about everything and when we talked about the Book of Mormon she was crazy excited to read it and when we found her, it just happened to be her one day off work when we knocked on her door, and then she gave us a referral which is HUGE for this area! We ended up being a little bit late to our next appointment but it was alright!
We've taught all the investigators on date since I've been here, and Monique is one of my favorites. She is so sincere about everything and has noticed the difference the Book of Mormon has made in her life and the difference the missionaries have made in her life teaching the Gospel to her. We just dropped in last night unannounced and she was so happy to see us! We taught her really quickly about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and committed her to come to church these next two weeks to prepare for her baptism on June 3rd, and she was all for it! She really has a desire to be baptized and when she realized the importance of the Sacrament and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it really helped her to make that commitment to come, and she wants to change. Every time we are there, she always thanks us for changing her life, and it just makes me feel good when they can see the change that the Gospel brings to their life.
We have found a couple other investigators these last couple days, one whose name is Jean. She is an older lady who LOVES to talk, but she has some of the most sincere desire to learn more and to read the Book of Mormon. The first time we knocked on her door, she took a Book of Mormon and Restoration pamphlet and said that she would start reading before we went back on Sunday, and she did! She read through the entire pamphlet and the introduction and testimonies in the Book of Mormon and was ready when we came back. We committed her to be baptized when we met with her yesterday, and she said when she knows it is true, she will be baptized. It took her a couple seconds to think about it and say yes, but it's all because of her true desire to know. It takes a lot of patience going over there to meet with her, but she really wants to continue to learn, so we are still teaching her.
It has just been amazing going from Lakewood with not a lot of people to teach and coming here where tracting brings people for us to teach and there are already people progressing! I love Alliance right now and I love Elder Amparan and the members of the ward that I have met! This might be the longest letter I have ever sent, but there was so much good that happened this last week! Praying that it continues throughout the week!
Love,
Elder Woodward
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